“Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem”
“With the sword, she seeks peace under liberty”
Massachusetts State Motto
Archives for October 2003
Blog This
I am a horrendously inconsistent blogger. I tend to move from day to day sometimes posting items of interest and then moving on to something else – rarely writing anything original.
In some ways, I blog in order to have a sort of internal search engine of my own – a place where I can post things that really interest me and then know that they are there for the next time that I want to look into this.
I think I’d really like to be the kind of blogger that posts originally – like the things I used to write and take such pride in.. but I haven’t quite felt the motivation to do so.. nor am I sure I want to lay things out quite that publically yet. Probably need to noodle that one over some more…
Erin does a fantastic job blogging over at Alma Libra – her works are filled with deep emotion and show a reflection far past her actual age… I only wish that I was willing to bare my soul quite like that once again…
An Army at Dawn: 200 Pages
I am currently around 200 pages into Rick Atkinson’s excellent book An Army at Dawn about the US and British Armies in the Second World War. It’s quite an insightful look into a nation learning to grow warriors, men trying to become combat leaders, and generals learning – sometimes at the cost of much blood – how to wage war on another nation.
The book has helped me with some perspective on recent events in my own life. As stressed and concerned as we get about things from time to time – personal events, family events, company events – I still get to go home at the end of the day, I still have a job, I’m still alive… these men could be dead at the end of their day – every day.. and they would have to live with that for more than three years from 1942 through the end of the war in 1945.
When I think about things in that context, what I have to deal with every day doesn’t seem like that big of a deal.
A Letter Home from North Africa: 1942
After leaving where we were before we left ofr here, not knowing we were coming here from there, we couldn’t tell whether we had arrived here or not. Nevertheless, we now are here and no there. The weather here is just as it always is at this season. The people here are just like they look.
An Army at Dawn, Page 197
SFC Paul Ray Smith
In today’s world, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that one man can make a difference. Paul Ray Smith is on the way to becoming the first serviceman to receive the Medal of Honor since MSG Gary Gordon and SFC Randall Shughart fought their last battle in Mogadishu on October 3, 1993.
During Operation Iraqi Freedom, SFC (Sergeant First Class) Smith was a platoon sergeant/acting platoon leader in the 1st Brigade’s B Company, 11th Engineer Battalion attached to the 2-7 Task Force. Bravo Company was in contact with Saddam’s forces nearly every day during the second phase of the campaign. After a pause below As Samawah and Karbala, the drive on Baghdad from the south carried the 2-7th into Saddam International Airport.
[…]
Smith promptly organized the engineers’ defense, since the only thing that stood between the Iraqis and the Task Force’s headquarters were about 15 to 20 engineers, mortarmen and medics. A second M113 was hit by an RPG, but was still operational. Dozens of Iraqi soldiers were charging from the gate or scaling a section of the wall, jumping into the courtyard.
Smith took over the second APC’s .50-caliber machine gun and got the vehicle into a position where he could stop the Iraqis. First Sergeant Tim Campbell realized that they had to knock out the Iraqi position in the tower and after consulting with Smith, led two soldiers to take the tower. Armed only with a light machine-gun, a rifle and a pistol with one magazine, the trio advanced behind the smoke of tall grass that had caught fire from exploding ammunition.
Smith yelled for more ammunition three times during the fight, going through 400 rounds before he was hit in the head. Shortly before taking the tower and gunning down the Iraqis inside, Campbell noticed that the sound of Smith’s .50-caliber had also stopped. Campbell figured Smith was just reloading again.
The medics worked on SFC Smith for 30 minutes, but he was dead.
According to the citation, his actions killed 20 to 50 Iraqis, allowing the American wounded to be evacuated, saving the aid station and headquarters (as well as possibly 100 American lives). Fellow soldiers credit Smith with thwarting the advance of well-trained, well-equipped soldiers from the Special Republican Guard, which was headed straight for the 2-7 Task Force’s headquarters (Tactical Operations Center), less than a half-mile away. [Strategy Page]
An Army at Dawn
September 1st, 1939 was the first day of a war that would last for 2,174 days, and it brought the first dead in a war that would claim an average of 27,600 lives every day, or 1,150 an hour, or 19 a minute, or one death every 3 seconds….
From An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson.
Television for the Fall
I seem to be watching alot more television this year than in years past.
Currently, my TV list includes:
- JAG
- Law & Order
- Survivor: Pearl Islands
- NCIS
- American Dreams
- 60 Minutes
Now that’s alot…. I need a TIVO!