Veteran's Day

[John Bennett]

I wish to express my appreciation for all you Veterans out there.

----------------------------

Sentinal's Creed

My dedication to this sacred duty
is total and wholehearted.

In the responsibility bestowed on me,
never will I falter.

And with dignity and perserverance,
my standard will remain perfection.

Through the years of diligence and praise,
and the discomfort of the elements,
I will walk my tour in humble reverence
to the best of my ability.

It is he who commands the respect I protect,
his bravery that made us so proud.

Surrounded by well-meaning crowds by day,
alone in the thoughful peace of night,
this soldier will Honor Glory rest
under my eternal vigilance.

--------------------

Click here for info about the origins of Veteran's Day...

http://www.vfw.org/amesm/origins.shtml

[irondawg]

Here's one...and to all the Veterans out there. Thanks.

An Elite Athlete.

By Tom Demerly.

It is dark and Mike Smith's clothing is wet. Mike Smith is an athlete,

an elite athlete in fact. He is a triathlete, has done Ironman several

times, a couple adventure races and even run the Marathon Des Sables in

Morocco- a 152 mile running race through the Sahara done in stages.

Mike has some college, is gifted in foreign languages, reads a lot and

has an amazing memory for details. He enjoys travel. He is a quiet guy

but a very good athlete. Mike's friends say he has a natural toughness.

He can't spend as much time training for triathlons as he'd like to

because his job keeps him busy. Especially now. This is Mike's busy

season. But he still seems very fit. Even without much training Mike

has managed some impressive performances in endurance events.

It's a big night for Mike. He's at work tonight. As I mentioned his

clothing is wet, partially from dew, partially from perspiration. He

and his four co-workers, Dan, Larry, Pete and Maurice are working on a

rooftop at the corner of Jamia St. and Khulafa St. across from Omar Bin

Yasir.

Mike is looking through the viewfinder of a British made Pilkington

LF25 laser designator. The crosshairs are centered on a ventilation

shaft. The shaft is on the roof of The Republican Guard Palace in

downtown Baghdad across the Tigris River. Saddam Hussein is inside,

seven floors below, three floors below ground level, attending a crisis

meeting. Mike's co-worker Pete (also an Ironman finisher, Lake

Placid, 2000) keys some information into a small laptop computer and

hits "burst transmit". The DMDG (Digital Message Device Group)

uplinks data to another of Mike's co-workers (this time a man he's

never met, but they both work for their Uncle, "Sam") and a fellow

athlete, at 21'500 feet above Iraq 15 miles from downtown Baghdad. This

man's office is the cockpit of an F-117 stealth fighter. When Mike and

Pete's signal is received the man in the airplane leaves his orbit

outside Baghdad, turns left, and heads downtown. Mike has 40 seconds

to complete his work for tonight, then he can go for a run. Mike

squeezes the trigger of his LF25 and a dot appears on the ventilator

shaft five city blocks and across the river away from him and his co-

workers. Mike speaks softly into his microphone; "Target illuminated.

Danger close. Danger Close. Danger close. Over."

Seconds later two GBU-24B two thousand pound laser guided, hardened

case, delayed fuse "bunker buster" bombs fall free from the F-117. The

bombs enter "the funnel" and begin finding their way to the tiny dot

projected by Mike's LF25. They glide proximately three miles across the

ground and fall four miles on the way to the spot marked by Mike and

his friends.

When they reach the ventilator shaft marked by Mike and his friends the

two bunker busters enter the roof in a puff of dust and debris. They

plow through the first four floors of the building like a two-ton steel

telephone pole traveling over 400 m.p.h., tossing desks, ceiling tiles,

computers and chairs out the shattering windows. Then they hit the six-

foot thick reinforced concrete roof of the bunker. They burrow four

more feet and detonate.

The shock wave is transparent but reverberates through the ground to

the river where a Doppler wave appears on the surface of the Tigris.

When the seismic shock reaches the building Mike is on he levitates an

inch off the roof from the concussion. Then the sound hits. The two

explosions are like a simultaneous crack of thunder as the building's

walls seem to swell momentarily, then burst apart on an expanding

fireball that slowly, eerily, boils above Baghdad casting rotating

shadows as the fire climbs into the night. Debris begins to rain;

structural steel, chunks of concrete, shards of glass, flaming fabrics

and

papers. On the tail of the two laser guided bombs a procession of

BGM-109G/TLAM

Block IV Enhanced Tomahawks begin their terminal plunge. The laser-

guided bombs performed the incision, the GPS and computer guided TLAM

Tomahawks complete the operation. In rapid-fire succession the missiles

find their mark and riddle the Palace with massive explosions,

finishing the job. The earth heaves in a final death convulsion.

Mike's job is done for tonight. Now all he has to do is get home.

Mike and his friends drive an old Mercedes through the streets of

Baghdad as the sirens start. They take Jamia to Al Kut, cross Al Kut

and go right (South) on the Expressway out of town. An unsuspecting

remote CNN camera mounted on the balcony of the Al Rashid Hotel picks

up their vehicle headed out of town. Viewers at home wonder what a car

is doing on the street during the beginning of a war. They don't know

it is packed with five members of the U.S. Army's Special Forces.

Six miles out of town they park their Mercedes on the shoulder, pull

their gear out of the trunk and begin to run into the desert night. The

moon is nearly full. Instinctively they fan out, on line, in

a "lazy 'W' ". They run five miles at a brisk pace, good training for

this evening, especially with 27 lb. packs on their back. Behind them

there is fire on the horizon. Mike and his fellow athletes have a

meeting to catch, and they can't be late.

Twenty seven miles out a huge gray 92 foot long insect hurtles 40 feet

above the desert at 140 m.p.h. The MH-53J Pave Low III is piloted by

another athlete, also a triathlete, named Jim, from Fort Campbell,

Kentucky. He is flying to meet Mike.

After running five miles into the desert Mike uses his GPS to confirm

his position. He is in the right place at the right time. He removes an

infra-red strobe light from his pack and pushes the red button on the

bottom of it. It blinks invisibly in the dark. He and his friends form

a wide 360 degree circle while waiting for their ride home. Two miles

out Jim in the Pave Low sees Mike's strobe through his night vision

goggles. He gently moves the control stick and pulls back on the

collective to line up on Mike's infra-red strobe. Mike's ride home is

here.

The big Pave Low helicopter flares for landing over the desert and

quickly touches down in a swirling tempest of dust. Mike and his

friends run up the ramp after their identity is confirmed. Mike counts

them up the ramp of the helicopter over the scream of the engines. When

he shows the crew chief five fingers the helicopter lifts off and the

ramp comes up. The dark gray Pave Low spins in its own length and picks

up speed going back the way it came, changing course slightly to avoid

detection.

The men and women in our armed forces, especially Special Operations,

are often well trained, gifted athletes. All of them, including Mike,

would rather be sleeping the night away in anticipation of a long

training ride rather than laying on a damp roof in an unfriendly

neighborhood guiding bombs to their mark or doing other things we'll

never hear about.

Regardless of your opinions about the war, the sacrifices these people

are making and the risks they are taking are extraordinary. They

believe they are making them on our behalf. Their skills, daring and

accomplishments almost always go unspoken. They are truly Elite

Athletes.

John - USAF 1983-1987

[scratch]

Both excellent posts.

Thanks for your service, irondawg! :chug:

[Thermalser]

Just out of curiosity, how many TWT's are also veterans. Count me as one. :chug:

[STCPO]

Count me as one. 10.5 years active duty Navy. Got out in 1998 but I'm still in the reserves. Spent the first half of this year in the Gulf region.

Pete

[Thermalser]

USN , 8 1/2 years active Navy Nuc riding Trident Subs. Out in 93.