Veterans Day, 2014

The Other Obamohammad Says:

Hanoi Jane Is My Role Model.

In an interview with People Magazine, Moosechelle said that Hanoi Jane was one of the people she would like to look and live like when she’s “70 or 80” years old.

“There’s Jane Fonda, a beautiful, engaged, politically savvy, sharp woman,” Moosechelle said.

If those quotes don't indicate mental health issues going on, I don't know what would. Yeah, Hanoi Jane's 76 and looks about 97 (there’s not that much Botox in the world.)

You want to look like her when you're 70 or 80 years old, Moosechelle? Here... let me help ya out with that... wig-hat and all.

(Whew... now I wish I hadn't done that.)

I still remember Hanoi Jane, going to North Viet Nam in the 70s and being photographed sitting on an anti-aircraft gun. I still remember Hanoi Jane calling U.S. military leaders “war criminals” and  American POWs “hypocrites and liars.” Now, Hanoi Jane is telling veterans (who are calling for a boycott of her movie,) The Butler, to “get a life.” 

To quote Hanoi Jane: “I figured it would tweak the right. Who cares?”

“Only a die-hard liberal thinks Jane Fonda is anything less than a traitorous scumbag,” said a post at Weasel Zippers.

“Oh gee, a communist being a ‘big fan’ of another communist, who’d have thunk it?” said one reader at Newsbusters. Another said, “These are the type of people who now rate tribute in our great Republic? This story is sad on so many levels.”*

*"This story is sad on so many levels.” -- I'd say the whole thing is pretty SICK on so many levels. What else would ya expect from the socialist / islamic-loving / communist / marxist douche bags though? 

Speaking of socialist / islamic-loving / communist / marxist douche bags...

Yes, Virginia, There Really Are Viet Nam Veterans for Kerry.

I was about as political as a fence post before 2004. My attitude: you leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone. Simple as that, Jack.

Then, John Commie Kerry decided he’d run for President of the United States. That was like getting poked with a cattle prod; it’s been that way ever since. Between John Commie Kerry and Hanoi Jane Fonda, the world couldn’t even use them as a poor excuse for fertilizer.

I’ve read the entire pages of garbage that the pantywaist whined about when he ‘testified’ before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 22 April 1971. John Commie’s views and mine don’t coincide AT ALL on the war in Viet Nam. 

Thanks to the hard work of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, he was exposed for what he was (and still is) -- a thief of stolen valor. I can’t even comprehend how this worthless piece of human excrement can live in the same country after he was exposed for what he is... much less still hold a public office. It would be an insult to every veteran and returning soldier, sailor and Marine to allow John Commie Kerry to serve as our next Secretary of State.

Not that it’ll do any good, but 25,000 signatures need to reach the White House before 27 January 2013 to call the dogs off. The White House will then HAVE TO issue an official response to the petition to withdraw the maggot’s name for consideration of Secretary of State. Hell, there could be 300,000,000 names and he’ll still get it. But it makes me feel like I tried. I’ve signed it (no joke, Jack?!) and I keep going back to sign it again and again. Of course, you only get to sign it once -- DAMMIT! 

Given his history of viciously slandering the military and conspiring with the enemy, you’d think that to even suggest John Commie Kerry as Secretary of Defense would be the most contemptuous insult the Democrats/Socialists/Communists/Marxists/Islamic sonsofbitches have offered the Armed Forces yet. 

But John Commie does have his supporters:

They’ll make him feel right at home.

The Rekindling Of The Cold War And The Demise Of America.

I could leave it right there. I think Putin has made it simple enough that ‘any fourth grade student’ should be able to grasp what’s happening. But, then, we’re not talking about what fourth grade students can comprehend. What we are talking about is a group that has the I.Q. level below that of a fourth grade student -- Liberals and Democrats. When the two groups morph into Liberal Democrats, the I.Q. level then becomes (as my good friend, JonBerg, likes to refer to it) lower than whale shit.

So, this is for you -- all you Liberals and Democrats/Liberal Democrats.

I’ve condensed what was originally written by Benjamin Smith.* 

Mr. Smith  'gets it.' Mr. Smith is also young enough to be my son -- hell, he's probably young enough to be my grandson. As long as we have men and women like him, America is -- and will remain -- Number 1!

I haven’t edited it for punctuation or grammatical errors. You can take that up with Mr. Smith; I’m sure he’d love to hear from you. Read the full article here. 

Of Mice & Men -- The Rekindling Of The Cold War And The Demise Of America.

Our enemies are flexing their muscles. Yet our Administration does nothing. 

Putin is proposing military bases in Cuba, Vietnam and Seychelles. He is openly challenging American sovereignty and world dominance. He seeks to reclaim our hard earned victories for his own. Recently there has been an uptick in Cold War style war games of brinksmanship between our militaries. And Vladimir Putin is playing for keeps. 

Russian Heavy Nuclear Bombers have been testing American airspace over Alaska in war games that prepare their air force to take out our missile defense sites. 

In addition, Russia had put almost 900 Billion dollars into the upfitting of its navy, established their only naval base outside the Mediterranean...in Syria. That base is now stocked with warships. And to complete the insult and thumb their noses at the US, Russia is supplying the Syrians with Attack helicopters and fighter jets. In addition, Russia’s collaboration with China during recent UN resolutions are a clear effort to instill onto the world scene the communist methodology of corruption, control, genocide and a authoritarian rule. So it should be no surprise that China’s Navy has also been putting new types of large aircraft carriers through sea trials in the Pacific. 

Our enemies are flexing their muscles. Yet our Administration does nothing.
When foreign enemy powers put military bases 90 miles off our coast, (in Cuba), as Russia intends; this should get every American’s attention. This is not good folks. Even if the base is to be small, it will grow as a cancer if it is not cut from the host in time. Yet the Obama Administration has remained quiet, as usual. It has become standard operating procedure for Obama to foster disrespect and discredit us to the world. 

The Hackles of anyone who actually understood what the cold war really was, was should be screaming. We now are at the precipice of becoming the old Soviet Russia whose economy crumbled causing them to loose the Cold War miserably. 

The Russian tactic of putting bases right on our door step is standard Cold War strategy that looks to get us up in arms and feel the need to activate our military. But this takes MONEY, money we do not have, thanks to the Obama Administration’s feckless free for all spending. 

Under cold war strategy Putin could financially dictate the US having to spend huge sums of money to field a “show of force” through military brinksmanship, (Cuban Missile Crisis). Russia is an oil rich country, while America operates on limited purchased reserves. Therefore, it will cost us more to supply our military with the fuel necessary to mobilize. We will be forced to spend gargantuan amounts of money to meet the threat or the challenge of having RUSSIAN WAR SHIPS IN OUR HEMISPHERE...and this is classic cold war. 

The Cold War wasn’t directly about bombs and guns (nobody really wants war, its horrible for all involved); it was about collapsing the opposing country by means other than war whether it be economic or the battle of ideology. And the time tested method of winning a Cold War, as Ronald Reagan proved, was to force the enemy to over reach, over spend, and eventually crumble. Barack Obama never learned this lesson. But apparently Vladimir Putin did. 

At present, we would not be able to handle funding for our defenses not to mention physical war. We are a consumer economy not a production economy and have little to nothing in reserve to support ourselves. As a result, we would have to concede that Russia get a base 90 miles off shore or actually deploy our military to engage the enemy when the world is already on the edge of world war. Either way, we cannot afford it. 

Putin said “Any fourth grade history student knows socialism has failed in every country, at every time in history. President Obama and his fellow Democrats are either idiots or deliberately trying to destroy their own economy.” Don’t be fooled into thinking Mr. Putin has America’s best interests in mind. The fact is that Putin is trying to re-stoke the Cold War. Putin sees America as ripe for the same fall as his Soviet Union took when the Berlin Wall came down; the Soviets were economically insolvent and had to give up the fight. 

GETTING OLDER, and arguably WISER, some of us understand more how the world works and how the people running it operate. Today’s citizens need to understand that just because we don’t go to militaristic warfare and physical confrontation; WARS CAN BE WON without firing a shot - just look at the end of the cold war. We only defeated Communist Russia because their Government, (which was totalitarian and tyrannical in nature), lost the ability to fund themselves, their armies, their navies and the ability to control their populace. 

As the Cold War Director of the KGB, President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin knows the tactics and strategies employed by the US and as well as the faults that brought his beloved USSR down. He was the head of the equivalent of our CIA and he was in charge of the enemies initiatives. We would be crazy to think that losing an ideological war does not stick with him. Putin has ultimate hate and animosity toward the United States simply because we are the United States. You know his roots as to Communism and control, how else do you think that he became the HEAD OF THE KGB during the COLD WAR? The man is a ruthless warrior and Politician who LEADS AS A MAN, as opposed to our own Obama who looks to BEG, BORROW and BOW away the sovereignty of the American people he abhors.

Putin didn’t get to be the head cheese of the KGB by helping little old ladies cross the street or teaching Sunday School classes. There are A LOT of people STILL serving out their time in Siberia... or under it, thanks to Mr. Putin. 

Seeing the blunders of his country’s past, Putin now looks to weaken and defeat our country in the very same the way that we weakened and defeated the USSR. Putin is attempting to rekindle the cold war and signal that the old Soviet Power is still within him. Getting into the ideologies and politics of this issue is, for now, moot. The fact is there are enemy countries quickly growing ARMIES AND NAVIES that are looking to do us in by any means necessary. For now they have decided to keep the violence at bay...but to prepare for violence none the less. America is still great in power but we are weak financially. Our enemies see this and look to exploit our vulnerability so that we fall to our own stupidity and failure or worse yet we become weak enough to be physically defeated as well. This is about vengeance. This is about domination. This is about power and who can control it. 

America and her citizens must wake to the fact that there is a threat to our country and our way of life. Just because war is not openly stated doesn’t mean that there are not countries that seek our demise. Right now our economy is extremely fragile and vulnerable to intrusion, sabotage, false flags and a massive show of force in the form of new enemy bases just 90 miles off our shore. What would that cost our ailing, overspent, corrupt government? Will our current Administration, which holds Marx, Alinsky and socialism in high regard, make the decisions based on American Exceptionalism as any good American would do? 

At the rate we’re going, America will look like this before long. 

Hope you’ve got enough food coupons. And be sure to wear your OFFICIAL “I Love Obama” tee shirt!

Putin may be antithetical to American ideals and evil, but to his credit PUTIN IS A MAN in every sense of the word and our current leader OBAMA IS A CHILD. Stripping the supposed elected positions from Putin and Obama I would ask you to envision the two of them in a room behind closed doors from a man to man perspective...... Nothing in Obama’s resume or life experiences would indicate that he would be able to communicate, contest or even make a substantive stand against Putin. 

Obama has only been an organizer, a communist and then a politician. Obama has never had to live hard or AS A MAN. PUTIN makes a joke of OBAMA in the man category. PUTIN WAS THE DIRECTOR OF THE KGB! Putin’s intellect and street smarts would not only dust Obama the child; but the tough old Soviet would make Obama look like an insolent cur who needs to be disciplined. I would say that Putin would even make OBAMA his Lap Dog begging for scraps from Putin’s “table of tyranny.” Even if Obama wasn’t diametrically opposed to American Exceptionalism, the Constitution and what has made the US great; would he still be the guy you would send to face someone like Putin? MAN to MAN?

We have to take a look at our present status on the world stage and then compare it to our status and strength during the Cold War. Given our situation, I think we would not fair well, should the Cold War start again. Regardless of ideology we have to understand that there are people and countries that want to be in control of the world as we were over the past 20 years. That is a threat. Nature abhors a vacuum and if we do not define ourselves as a nation of strength and principles; our enemies will do the job for us. They will trample and stand upon the ashes of the very strength and principles we failed to defend. This is survival of the fittest. Barack Obama is no match for Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. The real question here is WHO IS REPRESENTING AMERICA?

The real answer to the question, "WHO IS REPRESENTING AMERICA?" can be found in this great book that every American should read:

Father's Day -- 17 June 2012

Gunnery Sergeant BICKLEY, EDWARD E.

United States Marine Corps

I Got To Thinking This Morning...

And that got me to thinking about a note that I had seen...

And now I gotta go take about a month's supply of my "At Ease" meds.

Who You Gonna Believe... Me Or Your Lying Eyes?

Unemployment rate actually 11.04 percent. 

According to former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich, employment needs to grow by at least 90,000 a month just to keep up with the growth of the population. But, since the fall of 2008, the civilian labor force has actually shrunk from 154.7 million to 153.8 million, a contraction of about 900,000.
It’s not that fertility suddenly dropped or there was a massive plague. It should have grown by 3.24 million since then, but it didn’t. Which means working age adults are simply not being counted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS.

They are fudging the numbers.

Adding the 900,000 contraction to the expected growth, the total civilian labor force should be 4.14 million larger than is being counted, at about 157.94 million by now. And the unemployed should be about that much more larger, since if they could be counted as working, BLS would most certainly be counting them.

All of which puts the happy talk of the Administration into perspective. When the jobs numbers were released, Barack Obama lauded the result, saying, “We need to keep that growth going.”

What growth? Propaganda is not going to get those 28 million people into honest, paying jobs. It’s not going to help folks who are on the edge of foreclosure keep their homes. It’s not going to help new college graduates from getting started off in the workforce on the right foot.

The economy needs to be expanding in order to create jobs just at the natural rate of population growth. We’re nowhere near there right now, and we need to be.

All of which makes Obama’s job-killing policies all the more inexplicable, whether the regulatory burdens that will be imposed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) carbon endangerment finding or through Obamacare, or his insistence on raising taxes on job creators. He constantly slings mud in a class warfare gambit that is suited for perhaps the campaign trail, but is hardly the leadership the nation needs right now and won’t create jobs.

In short, it must become competitive to do business here in America again. And that will probably not happen so long as Obama is in office. It is clear the nation needs new leadership ... .

Full story and links to UNSKEWED facts and figures are here.

Navy Corpsman Pressed On To Save Many Marines.

I’m taking a break from dissing the current Chief Idiot of the United States (CIOTUS,) to pay homage to MY heroes -- the United States Navy Hospital Corpsmen. For those that don’t know, the battlefield corpsmen serve alongside the United States Marine Corps and, without a doubt, gain more respect from the unit that they serve with than anyone I know of... at least, in my book!

By the way, ‘corps’ is pronounced ‘core’ -- NOT ‘corpse’, as the current CIOTUS is so fond of reading off his/her/its teleprompter.

Even though the Navy managed to lose ALL my shot records and I had to take ALL my shots over again (three months worth, in two days), I still have the utmost respect for Navy doctors. The good part of that deal was -- I don’t remember those five mile runs and forced marches while I was in Staging Battalion before shipping out for Viet Nam.

While I was in Nam, whatever disease it was that I contracted, never made it to my Service Record Book. All I know is, that after two days of puking my guts up, crap coming out the other end CONTINUOUSLY, the chills and fever and while still trying to stay in the field -- Gunny ordered me to sick bay. Doc gave me a couple of shots and some pills to take for a week, dutifully chewed my ass out for not getting to him sooner 'cause I could have DIED (at the time, death was looking pretty good) and I was back in the field by the next day.

Then, there was the time when I was running for a fighting hole at night during the rainy season, slipped and fell on my M60 machine gun and then my a-gunner fell on top of me. I hobbled around for a couple of days until Gunny AGAIN ordered me to sick bay. Doc gave me some salve to put on my hip and I was back in the field.

Okay. So, none of this ever made it to my SRB. At the time, we were all a little too busy to be ‘note taking’.

I tell all of this to make a point. It was our battlefield Corpsmen (ALL affectionately known as ‘Doc’, who kept us going.

This is from another post that I read on a daily basis. Robert Laplander of humanevents.com has been writing about Medal of Honor recipients from the Vietnam War for the past month. 

The article in today’s post caught my eye because it was about a Navy Corpsman, the event happened three months before I would be there and Ingram was with Charlie, 1/7 in Quang Ngai Province -- a Marine unit and an area that I would become REALLY familiar with, more soon than later, in my tour of duty in Viet Nam.   

Medal of Honor Roll Call: Robert R. Ingram 

Ignoring his own safety, Navy Corpsman pressed on to save many Marines

It has been my honor to present these recipients from the Vietnam War this month. May we as Americans always remember that they went when asked, fought as instructed, and many are still among us today; living heroes, one and all. We wrap up the month with a Corpsman who not only was willing to give his last ounce for the Marines under his charge, but then -- incredibly -- was spared to see them live.

Though Ingram survived his ‘crowded hour’, his Medal wasn’t presented until July 10, 1998, when then-President Bill Clinton bestowed it during a ceremony in the White House, alongside twenty-four of the men Ingram served with. The delay of more than thirty years was attributed to ‘lost paperwork’.

Robert R. Ingram 
Rank and organization:
Hospital Corpsman Third Class
Place and date: Quang Ngai Province, Republic of Vietnam, 28 March 1966
Entered service at: Clearwater, FL
Born: 20 January, 1945 Clearwater, FL 

Citation:  

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Corpsman with Company C, First Battalion, Seventh Marines against elements of a North Vietnam Aggressor (NVA) battalion in Quang Ngai Province Republic of Vietnam on 28 March 1966.  Petty Officer Ingram accompanied the point platoon as it aggressively dispatched an outpost of an NVA battalion.  The momentum of the attack rolled off a ridge line down a tree covered slope to a small paddy and a village beyond.  Suddenly, the village tree line exploded with an intense hail of automatic rifle fire from approximately 100 North Vietnamese regulars.  In mere moments, the platoon ranks were decimated.  Oblivious to the danger, Petty Officer Ingram crawled across the bullet spattered terrain to reach a downed Marine.  As he administered aid, a bullet went through the palm of his hand.  Calls for “CORPSMAN” echoed across the ridge.  Bleeding, he edged across the fire swept landscape, collecting ammunition from the dead and administering aid to the wounded.   Receiving two more wounds before realizing the third wound was life-threatening, he looked for a way off the race of the ridge, but again he heard the call for corpsman and again, he resolutely answered.  Though severely wounded three times, he rendered aid to those incapable until he finally reached the right flank of the platoon.  While dressing the head wound of another corpsman, he sustained his fourth bullet wound.   From sixteen hundred hours until just prior to sunset, Petty Officer Ingram pushed, pulled, cajoled, and doctored his Marines.  Enduring the pain from his many wounds and disregarding the probability of his demise, Petty Officer Ingram’s intrepid actions saved many lives that day.  By his indomitable fighting spirit, daring initiative, and unfaltering dedications to duty, Petty Officer Ingram reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

I started to crop out the other former Chief Idiot of the United States that’s in the picture with Ingram. I decided to leave him in to remind ourselves that there HAVE BEEN other Chief Idiots of the United States... just not as bad as the CIOTUS that we have now. I mean, it could have been Jimmy Carter!

I’ve never been in any danger of receiving the Medal of Honor... but, under the present Chief Idiot of the United States (and some of the past,) I would ask if the gardener -- or someone on the cleaning staff -- be allowed to do me the honors... 

...or, just mail it to me.

Here’s to all the ‘Docs’ out there! God loves ya, Doc! -- and I DAMN SURE LOVE YA, DOC!

Semper Fi!

Goodbye, Viet Nam.

This morning, I had several topics that I was considering to use on this site (with Obimbo, you NEVER run out of topics.)

This morning changed a little bit for me, though.

I checked my e-mail and there was a message from my Chapter 937 of  Vietnam Veterans of America. I paid my dues to become a Lifetime Member, but I never go to the meetings. I guess I never go for the same reason that I didn’t want to go to the traveling Wall exhibit when it came to a nearby community. My wife wanted to go see it but I told her that I just couldn’t do it. I had viewed it on the Web site several years before, had seen the names of those that I lost and I had said my goodbyes. I just couldn’t do it again.

The chapter is always sending out notification of when and where the meetings will be; I usually never even open them. This one was different; the subject line was “Goodbye Vietnam.”

I’ve never said, “Goodbye, Viet Nam.” I had pictures like the ones shown in the video; somewhere, in the 40+ years along the way, they've been lost. Still, there’s not a day that goes by that a smell or a sound or sight or a memory doesn’t remind me of Viet Nam. Because of Viet Nam and the Marine Corps, I have such a deep love for America and I take such pride in our country's flag.

After I finished my tour of duty in Viet Nam, I was stationed at Camp Pendleton in California. I lived off base during this tour of duty. I wasn’t required to be aboard base until sometime after Morning Colors. I made sure that I was aboard base to be able to render a salute to those Morning Colors and I was usually there for Evening Colors, too.

By the way... We were winning when I left Viet Nam!

Passed on from Chapter 937 of  Vietnam Veterans of America:

---------- Forwarded message ---------- 

From: Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx <xxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com>Date: Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 8:36 PM 

Subject: Goodbye Vietnam 

This video, while certainly emotional, sums up how we heal. 

I learned a lot from the Vietnam experience. 

I lost dear friends, some blood but gained comrades, brothers, true friend. 

To the over 55,000 names on that black granite wall, we are brothers. 

To the over 100,000 who came home, we are brothers. 

We cannot forget our brothers. 

Thanks for your sacrifice and your service. 

Doc Powell  Hotel/Golf/  Company Corpsman 2/9, 3rd Mar Div Viet Nam 1967/1968
________________________________ 

This video might be interesting to you; rather emotional, tho.... 

I cannot even imagine what it must have been like. 

Served during this time, but never in country... 

We cannot forget the men and women who put their lives on the line (and sometimes sacrificed their lives) in the name of our protectionand freedom.

A Marine In Viet Nam.

When I started out this morning, I was boot deep into another rant that was going to be about our political system, the DemocRATS, Liberals, Obimbo and... whatever else! The things I started to write about will have to take a back seat because of a newspaper article that has nothing to do with any of the above ("back seat" -- I seem to remember some IDIOT using that remark.)


My wife handed me this morning's local paper and said, "You need to read this article." The headline didn't really interest me that much and my first reaction was, "Sure... right... whatever." The head indicated that it was about Texas A&M University. I come from a family of Aggie graduates. I never went to TAMU; I didn't graduate from ANY college (I like to tell people that I'm the only member of the family with a high school education!)  Even though I eventually retired from A&M and I owe my well-being to A&M, I never got that excited about the university. It was a job. However, the article was more than an article on Texas A&M. It was about something that I live and breathe. I'm glad I read the article; I owe my wife -- AGAIN!


What follows are excerpts from the article. For the full story:

Kimbrough will use military background to lead A&M System 

Jay Kimbrough, the newly named interim chancellor
of the Texas A&M System, stands Thursday next to
his Harley, a tribute to those who didn't make it
home from Vietnam

It's the second "birth" that infused Kimbrough -- who was named interim chancellor of the A&M System last week -- with the belief that his life, each day of it, must matter.  

The Marine machine-gunner, then 19, was badly wounded in the Que Son Valley in Vietnam as the helicopter he rode in was shot down. He bled severely and spent several hours waiting for help until his platoon sergeant, Jimmie West, led the charge to rescue him and others amid heavy gunfire. 

These days, to mark each anniversary of the day Kimbrough was injured, Perry and Kimbrough hop on their Harleys and take a ride. This year, they rode from Kimbrough's College Station home to his favorite hangout, biker bar Yankee's Tavern and Grill in Carlos, and then to Hearts Veterans Museum in Huntsville.  

"I didn't almost die that day," Kimbrough said of the May 10, 1967, incident. "I did die."  

Kimbrough hasn't returned to Vietnam since. But a part of him never left. 

"I just want to honor my platoon sergeant and the guys that didn't make it back," Kimbrough said. "That's part of what I've been doing all my life ... I'm not a hero. I'm just a kid that got shot."  

He keeps a stack of copies of citations that detail his platoon sergeant's efforts to save Kimbrough, for which West received a Silver Star. He keeps handing them out to new people he meets.  

In 2008, before he left his post as deputy chancellor and general counsel of the A&M system to be chief of staff to Perry, he set the system on the path to receiving a designation from a veterans group as being "military friendly," or making getting an education easier for veterans.  

Kimbrough now is heading up the Texas portion of the effort of digitizing all the names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington. That's 3,417 names, including 112 Aggie officers. 

Kimbrough moved to College Station partly to be closer to West, who was police chief in nearby Madisonville. He died just before Kimbrough came to work for A&M in 2006, the victim of a Copperhead snake in his backyard.  

"Am I a crony?" Kimbrough said. "I'm a crony to one man, and that's Jim West."  

West's words still echo in Kimbrough's head, he said.  

"I can still hear him years ago, saying, 'What did you do that was relevant today? What did you do that matters?'" Kimbrough said. "I have to keep on keeping on."  

He has had no trouble with that.  

Kimbrough's known for his loyalty to a conservative Republican, but it was a Democrat that instilled in him a duty to serve. 

Kimbrough's path to Vietnam began sitting in a classroom in South Oak Cliff High School in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, listening to a report of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade as it scooted through Dealey Plaza.  

Shots rang out, and Kimbrough's world changed. As American involvement in the Vietnam War ramped up, Kimbrough wanted to honor the slain president's call to duty.  

Following his parents' divorce the year before, he left midway through his senior year for boot camp. He had Kennedy's words -- "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country" -- printed on a medallion, and carried it into Vietnam. 

Late Thursday, the day Kimbrough was named interim chief of the A&M System, he roared his 800-pound Harley into the parking lot of Yankee's Tavern.  

His bike is a tribute to those who didn't make it back. Its shield has an image of a panel of the Vietnam Wall, engraved with names from the week he was injured, including some he went to school with.  

After a photographer leaves, Kimbrough unbuttons his dress shirt and reveals a Marine Corps shirt. It says, "The University of Vietnam."  

"That's where I got my degree," he said. 

And with that perspective comes what some, friends and critics alike, call a fearlessness. When asked if he was the least bit nervous about the new task ahead and all its potential pitfalls, he said absolutely not.  

"What are they going to do?" he said, smiling. "Shoot me?" 

The platoon sergeant, Jim West, was in a group of my fellow Viet Nam veterans and died just before I joined the group. The guys used to talk about him... a lot. From the stories that I heard about him, he was a "Marines' Marine." I wish I could have known him.


I've always said that I never came home. I was born at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California. There was just a WHOLE LOT of me that got left behind in Viet Nam.


It's people like West and Kimbrough, Marines that have walked the walk -- Marines that gave more than I could ever even come close to, that inspire me to try to live my life a little bit better than the day before. I mean...


"What are they going to do -- shoot me?"

Viet Nam Immigrant.

I had two or three RANTS and UP AGAINST THE WALL that I needed to get out of my system on (what other subject, than?!) Obimbo this morning. Then, I got something in my e-mail this morning that made me change my course of action. 


I’m a Life Member of Chapter 937 Vietnam Veterans of America. The members of my chapter found this in their e-mail this morning. 


I hope that you’ll notice that Mr. Nguyen (pronounced nuhWEN, for those that don’t speak Vietnamese) has said more about being an American, and what socialism and communism REALLY is, than I ever could. He’s walked the walk.

It looks like we did some good after all! On Saturday, July 24th, 2010 the town of Prescott Valley, AZ, hosted a Freedom Rally. Quang Nguyen was asked to speak on his experience of coming to America and what it means. He spoke the following in dedication to all Vietnam Veterans. Thought you might enjoy hearing what he had to say:

"...35 years ago, if you were to tell me that I am going to stand up here speaking to a couple thousand patriots, in English, I’d laugh at you. Man, every morning I wake up thanking God for putting me and my family in the greatest country on earth.

I just want you all to know that the American dream does exist and I am living the American dream. I was asked to speak to you about my experience as a first generation Vietnamese-American, but I’d rather speak to you as an American.

If you hadn’t noticed, I am not white and I feel pretty comfortable with my people.

I am a proud US citizen and here is my proof. It took me 8 years to get it, waiting in endless lines, but I got it and I am very proud of it.

I still remember the images of the Tet offensive in 1968, I was six years old. Now you might want to question how a 6-year-old boy could remember anything. Trust me, those images can never be erased. I can’teven imagine what it was like for young American soldiers, 10,000 miles away from home, fighting on my behalf.

35 years ago, I left South Vietnam for political asylum. The war had ended. At the age of 13, I left with the understanding that I may or may not ever get to see my siblings or parents again. I was one of the first lucky 100,000 Vietnamese allowed to come to the US . Somehow, my family and I were reunited 5 months later, amazingly, in California.

It was a miracle from God. 

If you haven’t heard lately that this is the greatest country on earth, I am telling you that right now. It was the freedom and the opportunities presented to me that put me here with all of you tonight. I also remember the barriers that I had to overcome every step of the way. My high school counselor told me that I cannot make it to college due to my poor communication skills. I proved him wrong. I finished college. You see, all you have to do is to give this little boy an opportunity and encourage him to take and run with it. Well, I took the opportunity and here I am.

This person standing tonight in front of you could not exist under a socialist/communist environment. By the way, if you think socialism is the way to go, I am sure many people here will chip in to get you a one-way ticket out of here. And if you didn’t know, the only difference between socialism and communism is an AK-47 aimed at your head. That was my experience.

In 1982, I stood with a thousand new immigrants, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and listening to the National Anthem for the first time as an American. To this day, I can’t remember anything sweeter and more patriotic than that moment in my life.

Fast forwarding, somehow I finished high school, finished college, and like any other goofball 21 year old kid, I was having a great time with my life. I had a nice job and a nice apartment in Southern California. In someway and somehow, I had forgotten how I got here and why I was here...

One day I was at a gas station, I saw a veteran pumping gas on the other side of the island. I don’t know what made me do it, but I walked over and asked if he had served in Vietnam. He smiled and said yes. I shook and held his hand. The grown man began to well up. I walked away as fast as I could and at that very moment, I was emotionally rocked. This was a profound moment in my life. I knew something had to change in my life. It was time for me to learn how to be a good citizen. It was time for me to give back.

You see, America is not a place on the map, it isn’t a physical location. It is an ideal, a concept. And if you are an American, you must understand the concept, you must buy into this concept, and most importantly, you have to fight and defend this concept. This is about Freedom and not free stuff. And that is why I am standing up here.

Brothers and sisters, to be a real American, the very least you must do is to learn English and understand it well. In my humble opinion, you cannot be a faithful patriotic citizen if you can’t speak the language of the country you live in. Take this document of 46 pages -- last I looked on the Internet, there wasn’t a Vietnamese translation of the US Constitution. It took me a long time to get to the point of being able to converse and until this day, I still struggle to come up with the right words. It’s not easy, but if it’s too easy, it’s not worth doing...

Before I knew this 46-page document, I learned of the 500,000 Americans who fought for this little boy. I learned of the 58,000 names scribed on the black wall at the Vietnam Memorial. You are my heroes. You are my founders...

At this time, I would like to ask all the Vietnam veterans to please stand. I thank you for my life. I thank you for your sacrifices, and I thank you for giving me the freedom and liberty I have today. I now ask all veterans, firefighters, and police officers, to please stand. On behalf of all first generation immigrants, I thank you for your services and may God bless you all."

Quang Nguyen
Creative Director/Founder
Caddis Advertising, LLC

Notice that he referred to himself as an American -- NOT Vietnamese -- AMERICAN. Wouldn’t it be great if all of the immigrants in America -- no, EVERYONE -- felt like Quang Nguyen?!


(By the way... we were winning when I left and, then, AFTERWARDS -- despite what the news media would have you believe.)