A Veteran’s Perspective

when stubbornness is not civil

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Whenever there is authority, there is a natural inclination to disobedience.  – Thomas Chandler Haliburton
https://www.brainyquote.com

What is it about human nature that wants to disobey authority and then complain that the “authorities” do not give a fig about what people want?!

lakejennings15With the hot, dry weather of summer in San Diego upon us,  and following a very wet Spring generating a lot of brush and grasses,  fires can start and grow like mad.  Today,  one such fire was apparently sparked by a vehicle  traveling on the highway where grasses were very close to the roadbed.  What became four hundred acres ablaze were tackled by firemen, trucks,  fire-retardant dropping aircraft and water-dispersing helicopters from afternoon into the evening.    Now it is bad enough that reporters and cameras were present to chronicle this fire,  but these reporters stated, in the same breath,  a MANDATORY EVACUATION for nearby residents AND  some  remaining behind to defend their homes with garden hoses.  “Mandatory” had some meaning once upon a time.  But today, there is an overall lack of trust in authority of any sort.

I get it.  My house.  Memories.  Possessions.  Stuff.    But WHOSE life gets put on the line when the “stuff” hits the fan – and the fire threatens to envelope the homeowner and home?   It’s the same response from those who live in the hurricane zone along the Eastern seaboard and Gulf of Mexico.    Are first responders required to go after people who refuse to leave their property?   I believe it is part of the oath they take to protect and serve.   In the meantime,  it looks like it is going to be a flaming Summer and Fall.  I might want to buy another garden hose,  or up my homeowner’s insurance.

 

navy chow is not served here

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506green

 

There is a feeling of relief today from both wife and husband regarding an evening of entertaining that has instead become a quiet evening at home.  A call yesterday reminded both the caller and me that I had made – and promptly forgot –  a two-week old invitation to dinner for young man and his date to our home Friday – tonight.

With both of us leaving our jobs late – the holiday Tuesday made a three-day workweek somewhat longer,  over breakfast we had a  improvised some strategic planning:   a grocery run, expedited house cleaning, and games and such to make a welcoming evening.      A call from our prospective guest asked us to reschedule.    Date night – even ones that were to be had at our home – would be less hurried when the date – and the hosts have some time to prepare.

But the menus that I have enjoyed since our youngest left home, and we became Empty Nesters,  is the thing that my wife has made quite encouraging – when she has time to prepare.   I have, unashamedly, taken a liking to my spouse’s insomnia which tends to express itself now in cooking.   Whether inspired by the Food Network or recipes shared on Facebook,  we tend to have tasty lunches and dinners all week long.   For the last six months, on weekends we make a “date” shopping for organic vegetables and fruit, and to COSTCO for meat or poultry.   In the evenings, – as long as I remember to buy propane – I will barbecue the meat that makes up that week’s menu.

Mango salsa, sweet potato, braised chicken, beef stew,  and so on were never part of my diet when I ate at military chow halls.  Even when I became a Chief Petty Officer, and the food improved from chow identified by the day of the week, rather than taste or aroma,  I never knew about mango salsa.   And as a parent, when you have teenagers living at home,  burritos and big pots of food that could be flavored to taste – were the norm.  And when kids hurry out the door at mealtime or promise to eat later, food  I might have secreted away in the fridge for myself – were usually gone before morning.

But when you aren’t cooking for an army,  we can experiment with some of the things that we otherwise might have gone to a restaurant.    Home cooking, when you can tip the chef with a smooch or a little convivial time — is better than anything.

Born in the USA

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On the 241st anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Americans are set to commemorate the day with barbecues, parades,  pool parties, and  family gatherings.  And fireworks.  (And hopefully, neither the Emergency Rooms nor the firefighters and paramedics across the nation will be overtaxed today by injured or sunstroke-suffering revelers.)

When I began writing, I wanted to comment on the state of America’s unique history to unite diverse people into an economic power that changed the world in the last half of the Twentieth Century.   Continue reading →

Politics is really Science Fiction

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A popular fiction theme repeated many times in film and on television is an apocalyptic vision of the future. And in the last decade or so,  a political view of a fascist state,  where the trains always run on time,  there are flying cars and aircraft,  militarized police and armored vehicles patrolling the territories.

Why an occupying force?  Because the people are enslaved.  (Think of the Hunger Games, Divergent,  Judge Dredd, The Maze Runner, Resident Evil franchises.)  Political movies of an intrusive State (Enemy of the State),  or a anti-nationalist, Obama-like Administration, (White House Down), contain various plots about internal rogues in spy agencies, computer hackers, and terrorists.  When it is not due to a plague or a nuclear war, the facilitator of the collapse of democracy is often an “inside man”.  Even the Jason Bourne series has this theme.   Once upon a time these themes were Soviet sleeper agents and North Korean/ Chinese intelligence agents bent on corrupting America, but now it seems Americans are the enemy.

From my perspective,  given that the worldview of  the filmmakers, writers, actors, and sponsors has been consistently dominated by those who make speeches and preen themselves as “inclusive”,  pro-islamist,  ” climate change”-rs, “borderless” and anti-nationalist,  the bleak future depicted of masters and an enslaved people – even the Planet of the Apes franchise comes to mind-  the apocalypse has come about by capitalist, nationalistic, bigoted, whites who use any means necessary to keep control.

Yet what I find troubling to this thinking are the rebels.   The rebels hunt game, illegally,  trade or barter goods and services with each other,  are fairly well-educated,  are open to new ideas,  demonstrate good interpersonal relationships, and have a good judge of character.  This seems to be the qualities that the current crop of  news media, “Never Trump”-ers,  environmentalists,  campus anarchists, and disgruntled billionaires despise in the population!   The oppressors, on the other hand, value forests, parks,  mass transit, extravagant homes,  prevent the  general ownership of weapons,  control weather,  make flowery speeches, and keep among their “own kind”.   This certainly seems to depict the “Liberal” or erstwhile “Democrat” world view of the 21st Century?

Fascinating?  Troubling?  Or  ambivalent?    My two cents for today.

Nose — Little Fears

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“Every time I do an Internet search for my symptoms, it says I have cancer,” moaned Spectre. “What symptoms?” asked Sprite. “Running nose,” sighed Spectre. “Is that it?” asked Sprite. “It’s been running for four days,” grumbled Spectre. “How do I stop my nose running?” “Have you tried tripping it up?” asked Yuffie. ~ Enjoy…

via Nose — Little Fears

Tools and their uses

Eric Saretsky1 Comment

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. -2 Peter 1: 5 -8 (NIV)

 

Academy to so educate train and develop midshipmen 1 That they may have a fine sense of honor,  a wholehearted love for the best traditions of the service,  an enduring love for country,  subordination based on proper initiative of the subordinate,  an appreciation of the humanities,  and a keen sense of responsibility in assuming authority over others

– Report of the Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Academy, p 10, 1910

“What tools are in your toolbox?”. the speaker asked last night at our men’s church devotional service.   tools_and_their_uses_tm_9-243-10He went on to offer several additional scriptures on faith and perseverance, as tools.   As a former Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer,  I understood that  any young Sailor – or young (spiritually) disciple of Jesus,  life is embracing that you do not know what you do not know but then learning the doctrine, spending time with a mentor and persevering through conflicting desires and priorities.  Perhaps it is safe to say that “duty” is the first concept I embraced.   As a Sailor matures,  the life that each voluntarily accepted  on the NAVY’s terms has certain obligations and responsibilities.  So to as a student of Jesus,  voluntarily but without a ‘contract.   Some skills are beneficial as they will potentially save you or a shipmate in times of peril.  Mastering your calling and seeking to help others grow stronger – for a greater good – will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your naval career.

So too, with a spiritual compass.  The Master Mariner, Jesus, sets my course though I voluntarily follow.   But a path voluntarily chosen can build character, endurance, positive outlook and joy that the world desperately needs. (Happiness is a shallow, easily damaged emotion where joy is not.)   Where the military prepares a service member to prepare for war,  it is no less true with even a glimpse of a spiritual life,  war continally rages around us.  For us to rise and help others to rise out of violence,  hatred,  greed, fear, selfishness, loneliness, and misery,  requires faith in a gracious God and the proper tools – faith, perseverance, knowledge, self-discipline, good character, and whole-hearted love.    God’s Word  and the Navy I served for a quarter-century are tools for life.   FB_IMG_1491759647178

Courage at sea

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“Until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore, you will not know the terror of being forever lost at sea.”  -Ovid

As most of the world knows by now,  a horrible collision at sea occurred between a merchant freighter and a U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS FITZGERALD (DDG-62),  a couple days ago off the coast of Japan.  Three Sailors, the Commanding Officer and two others were injured and are in the Naval hospital in Yokosuka.  The ship was obviously extensively damaged above and below the waterline.

With the ship now safely in port, the Navy has announced that the remains of several of the seven men, previously unaccounted for, have been recovered from the flooded compartments.   It is a credit to the training and resolve of the crew that the ship and crew were able to control the flooding and that not more lives were lost.  At sea,  compartments below the waterline are maintained at modified-Zebra, where the hatches are closed between compartments and between decks, with the scuttles opened for crew movement.

In an emergency, announced over the 1MC system, they would announce “General Quarters” with perhaps only seconds to respond in this case.   I remember one emergency response in our berthing compartment when a sensor in Engineering erroneously detected a poisonous gas (freon) leak in the space below ours (the compartment was above the refrigeration system compartment).  From a dead sleep, all my shipmates and I evacuated in less than 2 minutes.  But in a collision and the resultant flooding might allow for less that half of that time to get out and secure that hatch.

Regardless of the questions as to events leading to this catastrophe, the loss or injury of a single Sailor is a blow to the community of Sailors.   I pray God’s comforting embrace for my brothers and sisters who continue to serve every day.   For the lost and injured at sea.  And for the surviving crew and families of the USS FITZGERALD.  Serving with HONOR, COURAGE, and COMMITMENT.

Civilians say the darndest things

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Men do not make conversation of the sort that women tend toward.  Outside of the walls of a Chiefs Mess, or among men in my church small group,  men do not normally express emotion.  And in those settings, it mainly has to do with frustration or some mis-steps in leadership situations that an  older or more experienced Navy leader (or church leader, given the situation) can provide counsel.    But in the normal daily venues that men gather, in a workplace, at a football game, or in a social setting, I have never heard men discuss emotionally about relationships, weight gain or loss, or the onset of  ‘life changes’.     Continue reading →

heroes aren’t like in the movies, part 2

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File created with CoreGraphicsRest in Peace, Adam West

The heroes of my childhood were black and white.   Well, they were.  We did not get a color TV in my home until I was in 7th or 8th Grade.   As a child of the 1960s, I watched Batman and Robin, with Adam West and Burt Ward.  It was a campy good versus evil, solving the crisis that befell Gotham in thirty minutes or less Continue reading →

On the anniversary of D-Day

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bravery and sacrifice

Seventy three years ago on June 6th, 1944  several hundred thousand men dared to assault the beaches and countryside of Normandy, France.   Not very many are still living from those days to remind the world of the valor, honor, and determination of people to defeat an enemy that threatened the entire world.  And those born since the end of the Vietnam war are particularly ignorant of the history that determined the world they inherited.

family tradition

My paternal grandfather came to the United States through Poland in the 1920s.  Any Jewish family that remained behind in Europe were likely murdered by the Nazis;   only a few extended family who emigrated before the invasion of Poland in 1939 are known to my elderly relations.   My grandfather worked in the Brooklyn Shipyard during the war, and my father was an aerospace engineering student during Korea and worked on developing  submarine missiles during the 1950s and 1960s.   My maternal grandmother’s American cousin served in the Merchant Marine and was decorated for heroism during the Battle for Malta.   My maternal cousin served in the Marines in the Iraq War.  My son serves in the Army today.

if the meaning gets lost

The anniversary of D-Day, Operation Overlord, has meaning for that generation now averaging 90 years old as the beginning of the end for a bloodthirsty ideology that began, for Americans, with a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.    Without the resolve of these young men (and women who served in the factories and supporting industries to keep the military moving), very likely America and Europe would be a different place.  The Nazis would have eliminated diversity.  There would be no Jew, no black, no homosexual, no physically or mentally challenged people.  Death by starvation, street-corner execution, or work-camps would have been the norm.  College protests?  Executions would prevent those.  Black Lives Matter –  there would be none due to Nazi genocide.   The No boundaries/ no borders/no illegal-immigrant lobbyists?   The Nazi control of borders and transportation would stop that.   Question the government?  Surveillance, arrest, imprisonment, and torture.    And short of genocide, many of these same controls were in place in the Soviet bloc for decades.

history doesn’t have to be kind, only truthful

As with any culture in the historical past,  there are any number of evils perpetrated on one group by another.  No county is without failings, suppression of civil liberties and freedoms, and some reprehensible behavior in its past.  But in light of all the current death and suffering perpetrated almost daily in the Middle East and now occurring nearly as frequently in Europe,  many of my countrymen today ignore responsibility, integrity,  work ethic and the blessings that becoming “an American” represented in the years after WWII.  They only see a shameful past that must be rectified with ‘fairness” and “coexistence”.    As a student of history, as one who served his country with honor,  and as a disciple of Jesus,  I do not take freedom and the blessings that living in America has afforded me lightly.  Freedom of religion affords me practice of my faith; opponents still seek to diminish it in the American culture.  They have done so in many parts of Europe.   Perhaps these opponents do not see Islam as a religion?   How many failings of men are attributed to christianity as a whole in the culture compared with the barbarism that seems widespread in the Islamic world, yet constantly referenced by state agents as the violence of a few extremists?

Do not use freedom to deny it to others

We should strive to hold each individual accountable for their deeds or misdeeds.  We can have respect for people and cultures around the world.  But the freedoms that were gained by those who sacrificed and served in the Armed Forces in our nation’s conflicts  are now used by members of the latest generations to abuse others in the name of “freedom”.

Hurghada by the sea

Eric Saretsky1 Comment

When I last saw Hurghada, Egypt, it was at the end of a nineteen- hour series of flights from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.   My orders had me wait in this port city on the Red Sea until my ship arrived.   This was 1993 and our East Coast ships patrolled the Mediterranean,  Red Sea and the Gulf of Arabia 249-37-l(Persian Gulf).

While recent images online show a fancy beach resort (!) in Hurghada,  I recall then only sand, heat, scorpions, and prickly pear cactus.  Hotels were still in a state of construction – apparently as their proprietors were not taxed until construction had complete.  To this day I recall the port worker and a shopkeeper who both spoke english.   I got to learn a little about the culture and the European visitors.  I don’t think americans generally visited along the Red Sea as the ancient Egypt they come to see is along the Nile and in Cairo museums.    Back then Hurghada main clientele were German tourists vacationing on the beach.   Egypt is also where I presumed America’s contribution to the world must have been the car horn.  It certainly was not the turn signal.  Perhaps because one hand on the horn and the other gesturing angrily at a pedestrian leaves no hand free?

Egyptian cabbies have a penchant for three things – their vehicles travel at a high rate of speed,  they constantly are honk the horn, and at night, headlamps are strictly of optional use.  You have to realize how crazy riding in a cab at night is: camels, donkeys, street vendors, and folk fill the streets.   None seem ever involved in an accident with these mad drivers.   From visits to our New York City on several occasions,  I now know where these Egyptians learned to drive.   And Turks.  And Africans.

In memoriam

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Their feet rush into sin;
    they are swift to shed innocent blood.
They pursue evil schemes;
    acts of violence mark their ways. Isaiah 59:7

Prayers go out tonight to the victims of yet another terror attack in London.  Mayhem and murder committed by corrupt men.   In London, Manchester, Kabul or Manila the violent seem to strike randomly.

What these acts of terror have generated however is a resolve among the population to oppose evil.  While many, myself included want to take up arms to defend against these monsters,  those who prowl around looking to shed blood (1 Peter 5: 8) are ultimately opposed by love.  When children no longer are taught to hate from remote corners of the world, then terror will have no power here.

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  

-1 Corinthians 13: 4 -7