COMBATRADIONETWORKBLOG.COM

VIETNAM FACTS VS FICTION

2009-12-16T22:19:00Z

Interesting Facts about Vietnam Vets.
from Nick Bacon, USA 1SGT (RET.) Medal of Honor Recipient:

   After my retirement in 1984 from the U.S. Army, I worked for the VA Regional Office in Phoenix, AZ as a contract representative and as an adjudicator of claims. After a short period with VARO, I resigned and helped John Mc Cain in his race for the U.S. Senate. Of course, John won and I went on to become a City Manager in Surprise, AZ for 3 years.
   When I moved to Arkansas in 1990, I returned to assisting veterans with their claims. In 1993 I was appointed to the position of state Director of Veterans Affairs where I spent the next 12 years helping veterans and their families.
   I was always surprised at the number of people claiming to have been Military Veterans, especially Vietnam Veterans. After opening the Arkansas State Veteran Cemetary several years ago, I was shocked to see so many of my VN brothers being buried. Then I recievedthe following fact sheet from my good friend Major General ( ret ) David R Bockel, Director of Army Affairs, Reserve Officers Association.
   After the shock wears off, please send this information to everyone you know. After so many years of misleading reports and unpleasant media comments; let's disseminate to this country the real truth, as painful as it may be.
   My son, my younger brother, my nephews are still serving in harm's way in the war on terrorism. Let's not let them be treated like we were so many years ago - Fight Now, Fight Strong and Fight as we have to.
  God Blass America and God Bless Our Veterans.
  Nick Bacon
*************************************************************************************************************************************************SUBJECT: VIETNAM FACTS VS FICTION
For over 30 years i ....like many Vietnam veterans... seldom spoke of Vietnam, except with other veterans, when training soldiers, and in public speeches. These past five years I have joined the hundreds of thousands who believe it is high time the truth be told about the Vietnam War and the people learn that the United States military did not lose the War, and that a surprisingly high number of people who claim to have served there, in fact DID NOT.
   As Americans, support the men and women involved in the WAR on Terrorism, the mainstream media are once again working tirelessly to undermine their efforts and force a psychological loss or stalemate for the United States. We cannot stand by and let the media do to todays warriors what they did to us 35 years ago.
Below are some assembled facts most readers will find interesting. It isn't a long read, but it will... I quarantee.. teach you some things you did not know about the Vietnam War and those who served, fought, or died there. Please share it with those with whom you communicate.
Vietnam War facts: facts, statistics, fake Warrior Numbers, and Myth Dispelled
9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the official Vietnam era from August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975.
2,709.918 Americans served in uniform in Vietnam - Vietnam Veterans represented 9.7% of their generation.
240 men were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War.
The first man to die in Vietnam was james Davis, in 1958. He was with the 509th Radio research Station. Davis station in Saigon was named for him.
58,148 were killed in Vietnam
75,000 were severely disabled
23,214 were 100% disabled
5,283 lost limbs
1,081 sustained multiple amputations
Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21
11,465 of those killled were younger than 20 years old
Of those killed 17, 539 were married
Average age of men killed: 23.1 years
Five men killled in Vietnam were only 16 years old
As of january 15, 2004 there are 1,875 Americans still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War
97% of Vietnam Veterans were honorably discharged
91% of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they served
74% say they would serve again, even knowing the outcome.
Vietnam vetrans have a lower unemployment rate than the same non-vet age groups.
Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent.
87% of Americans hold Vietnam Veterans In high esteem.
There is no difference in drug usage between Vietnam Veterns and non - Vietnam Veterans of the same age group ( source : Veterans Administration study)
Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison - only one half of one percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes.
85% of Vietnam veterans made successful transitions to civilian life.
Interesting Census Stats and been there Wanabees:
1,713,823 of those who served in Vietnam were still alive as of August, 1995 ( census fiqures )
~During that same Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served in country was 9, 492,958.
~As of the current census taken during August 2000, the surviving U.S. Vietnam Veteran population estimate is: 1,002,511
This is hard to believe, losing nearly 711,000 between '95 an '00. Thats 390 per day.
During this Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served in country is 13,853,027. By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE WHO CLAIM TO BE Vietnam vets are not.
The Department of Defence Vietnam War Service Index officially provided by the War Library originally reported with errors that 2, 709,918 U.S. military personnel as having served in country.
Corrections and confirmations to this errored index resulted in the addition of 358 U.S. military personnel confirmed to have served in Vietnam but not originally listed by the Department of Defence. ( All names are currently on file and accessible 24/7/365
   Isolated atrocities committed by American Soldiers produced torrents of outrage from anti-war critics and the news media while Communist atrocities were so common that they recieved hardly any media mention at all. The United States sought to minimize and prevent attacks on civilians a centerpiece of its strategy. Americans who deliberately killed civilians recieved prison sentences while Communist who did so recieved commendations.
   From 1957 to 1973, the National Liberation front assassinated 36,725 Vietnamese and abducted another 58,499. The death squads focused on leaders at the village level and on anyone who improved the lives of the peasants such as medical personnel, social workers, and school teachers. - Nixon Presidential papers.
Common Myths dispelled:
Myth: Common belief is that most Vietnam veterans were drafted.
fact 2/3 of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers. 2/3 of the men who served in World War II were drafted. Approximately 70% of those killed in Vietnam were volunteers.
Myth: The media have reported that suicides among Vietnam veterans range from 50,000 to 100,000 ~ 6 to 11 times the non Vietnam veteration population.
Fact: Mortality studies show that 9,000 is a better estimate. "The CDC Vietnam Experience. Study Mortality Assessment showed that during the first 5 years after discharge, death from suicede were 1.7 times more likely among Vietnam veterans than non-vietnam veterans. were no more likely to die from suicide than non- vietnam veterans. In fact, after the 5 year post service period, the rate of suicide is less in the Vietnam veterans' group."
Myth: Common belief is that a disproportionate number of blacks were killed in the Vietnam War.
Fact: 86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black, 1.2% were other races. Sociologist Charles c. Moskos and John Sibley Butler, in their recently published book " All that we Can be" said they analyzed the claim that blacks were used as cannon fodder durinf the Vietnam "and can report definitely that this charge is untrue. Black fatalities amounted to 12 percent of all Americans killed in Southeast Asia, a figure proportional to the number of blacks in the U.S. population at the time and slightly lower than the proportion of blacks in the Army at the close of the war"
Myth: Common belief is that the war was fought largely by the poor and uneducated.
Fact: Serviceman who went to Vietanm from well to do areas had a slightly elevated risk of dying because they were more likely to be pilots or infantry officers. Vietnam veterans were the best educated forces our nation had ever sent into combat. 79% had a high school education or better.
Here are statistics from the Combat area casualtry file ( CACF) as of November 1993. The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial ( The Wall ) : AVERAGE AGE OF 58,148 KILLED IN vIETNAM WAS 23.11 YEARS. (ALTHOUGH 58,169 NAMES ARE IN THE NOV 93 DATABASE, Only 58,148 have both event date and birth date, Event date is used instead of declared dead date for some of those who were listed as missing in action)
Deaths Average Age:
Total 58,148 23.11 years
Enlisted: 50,274 22.37 years
Officers: 6,598 28.43 years
Warrants 1,276 24.73 years
E1 525 20.34 years
11B MOS 18,465 22.55 years
Myth: The common belief is the average age of an Infantryman fighting in Vietnam was 19.
Fact: assuming KIAs accurately represented age groups serving in Vietna, the average age of an infantryman (MOS 11B ) serving in Vietnam to be 19 years old is a myth, it is actually 22. None of the enlisted grades have an average of less than 20. The average man who fought in World War II was 26 years of age.
Myth: The Common belief is that the domino theory was proved false.
Fact: The domino theory was accurate. The ASEAN ( Association of Southeast Asia Nations) countries, phillipines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and thailand, stayed free of Communism because of the U.S. commitment to Vietnam. Without that commitment, Communism would have swept all the way to the Mallaca Staraights that is south Singapore and of great strategic importance to the free world. If you asl people who live in these countries that won the war in Vietnam, they have a different opinion from the American news media. The Vietnam War was the turning point for Communism.
Myth: The common belief is that the fighting in Vietnam was not as intense as in World war II.
Fact: The average infantryman in the South Pacific during World War II saw about 40 days of combat in four years. The average infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year thanks to the mobility of the helicopter. One out every 10 Americans
who served in Vietnam was a casualty. 58,148 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.7 million who served. Although the percent that died is similar to other wars, amputations or crippling wounds were 300 percent higher than in Worl War II
....75,000 Vietnam Veterans are severly disabled. MEDEVAC helicopters flew nearly 500,000 missions. Over 900,000 patients were airlifted ( nearly half were American ). The average time lapse between wounding to hospitalazation was less than one hour. as a result less than one percent of all Americans wounded, who survived the first 24 hours, died. The helicopter provided unprecedented mobility. Without the helicopter it would have taken three times as many troops to secure the 800 mile border with Cambodia and laos ( the politicians thought the Geneva Conventions of 1954 and the Geneva Accords of 1962 would secure the border).
Myth: Kim Phuc, the little nine year old Vietnamese girl running naked from the napalm strike near trang Bang.
Fact: No american had involement in this incident near trang Bang that burned Phan Thi Kim Phuc. The planes doing the bombing near the village were VNAF(Vietnam airforce)and were being flown by Vietnamese pilots in support of South Vietnamese troops on the ground. The Vietnamese Pilot who dropped the napalm in error is currently living in the United States. even the AP photographer, nick Ut, who took the picture, was Vietnamese. The incident in the photo took place on the second day of a three day battle between the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) who occupied the village. Recent reports in the news media that an American commmander ordered the air strike that burned Kim Phuc are incorrect. There were no Americans involved in any capacity. " We (Americans) had nothing to do with controlling VNAF," according to Lieutenant General (Ret) James F Hollingsworth, the Commanding General of TRAC at that time. Also, it has been incorrectly reported that two of Kim Phuc's brothers were killed in this incident. They were kim's cousins not her brothers.
Myth: The United States Lost the war in Vietnam.
Fact: The Americam military was not defeated in Vietnam. The American Military did not lose a battle of any consequence. From a military standpoint, it was almost an unprecedented performance. General Westmoreland quoting Douglas Pike, a professor at the University of California, Berkley a major military defeat for the VC and the NVA. THE UNITED STATES DID NOT LOSE THE WAR IN VIETNAM, THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE DID. READ ON .....
The fall of Saigon happened 30 April 1975, two years AFTER the American military left Vietnam. The last American troops departed in thier entirety 29 March 1973. How could we lose a war we had already stopped fighting? We fought to an agreed stalemate. The peace settlement was signed in Paris on 27 January 1973. It called for release of all U.S. prisoners, withdrawl of U.S. forces, Limitation of both sides'forces inside South Vietnam and a commitment to peaceful reunification. The 140,000 evacuees in April 1975 during the Fall of Saigon consisted almost entirely of civilians and Vietnamese military, NOT American military running for thier lives. there were almost twice as many casualties in Southeast Asia ( primarily Cambodia) the first two years after the fall of Saigon in 1975 then there were during the ten years the US was involved in Vietnam. Thanks for the percieved loss and the countless assasinations and torture visited upon Vietnamese, laotians, and Cambodians goes mainly to the American media and thier undying support-by-misrepresentation of the anti - war movement in the United States.
As with much of the Vietnam War, the news media misreported and misinterpeted the 1968 Tet Offensive. It was reported as an overwhelming success for the Communist forces and a decided defeat for the U.S. forces. Nothing could be further from the truth. Despite the initial victories by the communist forces, the Tet Offensive resulted in a major defaet of those forces. General Vo Nquyen Giap, the designer of the Tet offensive, is considered by some as a great commander, Still, militarily, the Tet offensive was a total defeat of the Communist forces on all fronts. It resulted in the death of the Viet Cong elements in south Vietnam. The organization of the Viet Cong units in the South never recovered. The tet Offensive succedeed on only one front and that was the news front and the political arena.This was another example in the Vietnam War of an inaccuracy becoming the percieved truth. However, inaccurately reported, the news Media made the tet offensive Famous.
Please give all credit
and research to:
Capt. Marshal Hanson,
U.S.N.R(ret)
Capt. scott beaton, statistical source

Health Care - Policy

2009-11-02T18:39:00Z

The current administration would like to change our Health Care from private to government run. Thats a statement or is it a question.
and heres why...
The best argument for Government run Health Care is : The Care we get in the Military. Every base has a facility, and every Infantry company has a real Doctor and many Corpsman. All, I would say are excellent. The next best argument is a VA Hospital, also an excellently run facility. I'm right Here in Canandaigua, New York, I hear lots of comments about The VA Health care, And I gotta tell you its been all good.
So... Why am I not hearing this as a plan for the new Health care policy? Its an easy sale to every Veteran thats ever used either side.
I can only quess thats its really about CONTROL and not about health care reform.
I for one would be very interested in Health care reform, I'm not like most of the people that have really good coverage because they work or use to work for a large Company and now have this coverage through retirement. I also have my own Business, But the coverage that I can afford has a 20/80 % percent split. which means we pay for 20% of the gross for everything first. And I know others that have the same deal, Hey its better than nothing!!! I quess, Thank god for WEB MD.

Military Talk Radio

2009-10-07T21:03:00Z

Live Military Talk Radio Show - or at least it was when we recorded it.

Military Sons

2009-10-06T17:02:00Z

Friday, November 21, 2008

Military Sons
Category: Blogging

Yesterday a Woman comes into the store(Army-Navy) with her two grandsons.

As the Kids check out every crevice of the store, The youngest boy wants to buy two patches, but Grandma says He can only have one. Probably a good lesson in allowence- money management. So I said were having a "two for one"sale. So the little guy is so happy he can have both patches, he runs up and gives my knees a big hug and says thankyou. I said to the Grandmother this seemed important to Him? She said it is, His Uncle was overseas in Iraq.He was in that unit,and He was in a Helicopter Unit. He was a very good son. He's gone now. .. He bought me a new car before he left! He was such a good son, I miss Him very Much.

They paid for the patch,, I gave them some candy out of the Mortor tube candy dispencer. And We all said Good bye.

I can't really describe How that made me feel. Happy to make a Kids day. Sad to see the Mom have to speak of her son in the past tence. Honored to have met Eric Smiths family.

We have all lost friends and family in this war, and Past wars. And, How often do we see the effects it has on our children.

I would love some day to see what a great young man this kid grows up to be.

God Bless The Smith Family. Rochester, NY

Below is a News article I found on the Internet.

Army Chief Warrant Officer Eric A. Smith

41, of Rochester, N.Y.; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield, Ga.; killed in a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crash in central Iraq.

Eric A. Smith had wanted to fly since he was a little boy, but by the time he graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology he figured his grades would keep him grounded.

In the mid-1980s, some Air Force pilots he met at a bar in San Diego gave him new hope, said his mother, Lillian Lake, 70, of Lake Placid. They invited him to take a flight.

"They told him he would be better off going into the Army and being a helicopter pilot, even though it's more difficult to fly a helicopter than a plane," she said.

Smith, 41, a 16-year Army veteran, was killed April 2 when the helicopter he was in went down.

In December, he visited his mother and spoke of the possibility of not coming home.

"He said, 'Remember it was my choice, I was not drafted. I was not in the reserves. I love what I'm doing and I want to die that way — flying a helicopter — if that's the way it has to be,' " she recalled.

The youngest of three brothers, Smith played soccer at Brighton High School in the Rochester area and was, his mother said, "picky about his friends."

He never married.

"He was always hoping to find a girl to marry," his mother said. "But because he moved around so much, if he met somebody he felt it wouldn't be fair to pick her up from her roots unless it was the right type of girl that could adjust."

— USA Today, Associated Press

On Sheep, Sheepdogs, and Wolves

2009-10-01T22:41:00Z

COMBATRADIONETWORKBLOG.COM

On Sheep, Sheepdogs, and Wolves

Welcome to my blog.

On Sheep, Sheepdogs, and Wolves
By Dave Grossman
One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me: "Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident." This is true. Remember, the murder rate is six per 100,000 per year, and the aggravated assault rate is four per 1,000 per year. What this means is that the vast majority of Americans are not inclined to hurt one another.
Some estimates say that two million Americans are victims of violent crimes every year, a tragic, staggering number, perhaps an all-time record rate of violent crime. But there are almost 300 million Americans, which means that the odds of being a victim of violent crime is considerably less than one in a hundred on any given year. Furthermore, since many violent crimes are committed by repeat offenders, the actual number of violent citizens is considerably less than two million.
Thus there is a paradox, and we must grasp both ends of the situation: We may well be in the most violent times in history, but violence is still remarkably rare. This is because most citizens are kind, decent people who are not capable of hurting each other, except by accident or under extreme provocation. They are sheep.
I mean nothing negative by calling them sheep. To me it is like the pretty, blue robin's egg. Inside it is soft and gooey but someday it will grow into something wonderful. But the egg cannot survive without its hard blue shell. Police officers, soldiers, and other warriors are like that shell, and someday the civilization they protect will grow into something wonderful. For now, though, they need warriors to protect them from the predators.
"Then there are the wolves," the old war veteran said, "and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy." Do you believe there are wolves out there that will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in denial.
"Then there are sheepdogs," he went on, "and I'm a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf."...
If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen, a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath, a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero's path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.
Let me expand on this old soldier's excellent model of the sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. We know that the sheep live in denial, which is what makes them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world. They can accept the fact that fires can happen, which is why they want fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits throughout their kids' schools.
But many of them are outraged at the idea of putting an armed police officer in their kid's school. Our children are thousands of times more likely to be killed or seriously injured by school violence than fire, but the sheep's only response to the possibility of violence is denial. The idea of someone coming to kill or harm their child is just too hard, and so they chose the path of denial.
The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, cannot and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheepdog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours.
Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn't tell them where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our airports in camouflage fatigues holding an M-16. The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, "Baa."
Until the wolf shows up! Then the entire flock tries desperately to hide behind one lonely sheepdog.
The students, the victims, at Columbine High School were big, tough high school students, and under ordinary circumstances they would not have had the time of day for a police officer. They were not bad kids; they just had nothing to say to a cop. When the school was under attack, however, and SWAT teams were clearing the rooms and hallways, the officers had to physically peel those clinging, sobbing kids off of them. This is how the little lambs feel about their sheepdog when the wolf is at the door.
Look at what happened after September 11, 2001 when the wolf pounded hard on the door. Remember how America, more than ever before, felt differently about their law enforcement officers and military personnel? Remember how many times you heard the word hero?
Understand that there is nothing morally superior about being a sheepdog; it is just what you choose to be. Also understand that a sheepdog is a funny critter: He is always sniffing around out on the perimeter, checking the breeze, barking at things that go bump in the night, and yearning for a righteous battle. That is, the young sheepdogs yearn for a righteous battle. The old sheepdogs are a little older and wiser, but they move to the sound of the guns when needed right along with the young ones.
Here is how the sheep and the sheepdog think differently. The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, "Thank God I wasn't on one of those planes." The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, "Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference." When you are truly transformed into a warrior and have truly invested yourself into warriorhood, you want to be there. You want to be able to make a difference.
There is nothing morally superior about the sheepdog, the warrior, but he does have one real advantage. Only one. And that is that he is able to survive and thrive in an environment that destroys 98 percent of the population.
There was research conducted a few years ago with individuals convicted of violent crimes. These cons were in prison for serious, predatory crimes of violence: assaults, murders and killing law enforcement officers. The vast majority said that they specifically targeted victims by body language: slumped walk, passive behavior and lack of awareness. They chose their victims like big cats do in Africa, when they select one out of the herd that is least able to protect itself.
Some people may be destined to be sheep and others might be genetically primed to be wolves or sheepdogs. But I believe that most people can choose which one they want to be, and I'm proud to say that more and more Americans are choosing to become sheepdogs.
Seven months after the attack on September 11, 2001, Todd Beamer was honored in his hometown of Cranbury, New Jersey. Todd, as you recall, was the man on Flight 93 over Pennsylvania who called on his cell phone to alert an operator from United Airlines about the hijacking. When he learned of the other three passenger planes that had been used as weapons, Todd dropped his phone and uttered the words, "Let's roll," which authorities believe was a signal to the other passengers to confront the terrorist hijackers. In one hour, a transformation occurred among the passengers - athletes, business people and parents. -- From sheep to sheepdogs and together they fought the wolves, ultimately saving an unknown number of lives on the ground.
"Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself after that?"
"There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men." - Edmund Burke
Here is the point I like to emphasize; especially to the thousands of police officers and soldiers I speak to each year. In nature the sheep, real sheep, are born as sheep. Sheepdogs are born that way, and so are wolves. They didn't have a choice. But you are not a critter. As a human being, you can be whatever you want to be. It is a conscious, moral decision.
If you want to be a sheep, then you can be a sheep and that is okay, but you must understand the price you pay. When the wolf comes, you and your loved ones are going to die if there is not a sheepdog there to protect you. If you want to be a wolf, you can be one, but the sheepdogs are going to hunt you down and you will never have rest, safety, trust, or love. But if you want to be a sheepdog and walk the warrior's path, then you must make a conscious and moral decision every day to dedicate, equip and prepare yourself to thrive in that toxic, corrosive moment when the wolf comes knocking at the door.
For example, many officers carry their weapons in church. They are well concealed in ankle holsters, shoulder holsters or inside-the-belt holsters tucked into the small of their backs. Anytime you go to some form of religious service, there is a very good chance that a police officer in your congregation is carrying. You will never know if there is such an individual in your place of worship, until the wolf appears to massacre you and your loved ones.
I was training a group of police officers in Texas, and during the break, one officer asked his friend if he carried his weapon in church. The other cop replied, "I will never be caught without my gun in church." I asked why he felt so strongly about this, and he told me about a cop he knew who was at a church massacre in Ft. Worth, Texas in 1999. In that incident, a mentally deranged individual came into the church and opened fire, gunning down fourteen people. He said that officer believed he could have saved every life that day if he had been carrying his gun. His own son was shot, and all he could do was throw himself on the boy's body and wait to die. That cop looked me in the eye and said, "Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself after that?"
Some individuals would be horrified if they knew this police officer was carrying a weapon in church. They might call him paranoid and would probably scorn him. Yet these same individuals would be enraged and would call for "heads to roll" if they found out that the airbags in their cars were defective, or that the fire extinguisher and fire sprinklers in their kids' school did not work. They can accept the fact that fires and traffic accidents can happen and that there must be safeguards against them.
Their only response to the wolf, though, is denial, and all too often their response to the sheepdog is scorn and disdain. But the sheepdog quietly asks himself, "Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself if your loved ones were attacked and killed, and you had to stand there helplessly because you were unprepared for that day?"
It is denial that turns people into sheep. Sheep are psychologically destroyed by combat because their only defense is denial, which is counterproductive and destructive, resulting in fear, helplessness and horror when the wolf shows up.
Denial kills you twice. It kills you once, at your moment of truth when you are not physically prepared: you didn't bring your gun, you didn't train. Your only defense was wishful thinking. Hope is not a strategy. Denial kills you a second time because even if you do physically survive, you are psychologically shattered by your fear, helplessness, and horror at your moment of truth.
Gavin de Becker puts it like this in "Fear Less," his superb post-9/11 book, which should be required reading for anyone trying to come to terms with our current world situation: "...denial can be seductive, but it has an insidious side effect. For all the peace of mind deniers think they get by saying it isn't so, the fall they take when faced with new violence is all the more unsettling."
Denial is a save-now-pay-later scheme, a contract written entirely in small print, for in the long run, the denying person knows the truth on some level.
And so the warrior must strive to confront denial in all aspects of his life, and prepare himself for the day when evil comes.
If you are warrior who is legally authorized to carry a weapon and you step outside without that weapon, then you become a sheep, pretending that the bad man will not come today. No one can be "on" 24/7, for a lifetime. Everyone needs down time. But if you are authorized to carry a weapon, and you walk outside without it, just take a deep breath, and say this to yourself... "Baa."
This business of being a sheep or a sheep dog is not a yes-no dichotomy. It is not an all-or-nothing, either-or choice. It is a matter of degrees, a continuum. On one end is an abject, head-in-the-sand-sheep and on the other end is the ultimate warrior. Few people exist completely on one end or the other. Most of us live somewhere in between. Since 9-11 almost everyone in America took a step up that continuum, away from denial. The sheep took a few steps toward accepting and appreciating their warriors, and the warriors started taking their job more seriously. The degree to which you move up that continuum, away from sheephood and denial, is the degree to which you and your loved ones will survive, physically and psychologically, at your moment of truth.

Welcome

2009-09-28T20:54:33Z

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On Sheep, Sheepdogs, and Wolves

Welcome