Grumpa Joe's Place

The last book I read titled “Walk in My Combat Boots” by James Patterson was a series of stories told by veterans. Each one begins with a short bio of the warrior and followed by his story. The thing that impressed me most were the bios. Many of these soldiers came from families where fathers, grand fathers, and great grandfathers were also soldiers. Many of them fought in WWI, WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, and more recently Afghanistan and Iraq.

The stories are chilling. The sacrifices made by these men and women are hard to understand. They do it and they love it. Many of them stay in much longer than a drafted recruit. They return home unable to assimilate into society. Even sadder is that we as a society expect them to fit right in. Even if they return with their physical body intact, they have difficulty fitting in.

When I hear a member of our administration bad mouth the military, I am incensed to the point of wanting to execute the speaker on the spot. Thank God they are too many miles away, and I am watching them speak on a TV. Most recently I watched a speech given by our first lady vice president in which she denounced veterans as being coddled by the VA and that they should learn to get back into society by getting a job.

I am totally aware that these controversial statements are fact checked and many times I am make a fool of myself by not checking them before I speak. What I was surprised to learn is that all the fact checking sources claim that she never made any such statement. Except, I watched the video clip where she did. Maybe I was dreaming or watching a Saturday Night Live skit, but it sure seemed real to me. The internet has been scrubbed clean of any such video, at least I couldn’t find it. That wouldn’t surprise me because there is a lot of stuff I can’t find these days.

Most things that I can’t find are names, dates, and places of people who I know, or at least I think I knew them. Forgetfulness seems to come more easy these days. Some days I am as sharp as a tack, on others I ask myself why did I come here and what am I looking for. One thing I am certain that I don’t watch Saturday Night Live anymore, and sometimes I fall asleep while standing.

Generally, I find that most people I know treat veterans with respect. We are all appreciative of the sacrifices they made for our benefit. What really dogs me is when a Congressman, Senator, Bureaucrat, President, Vice President, or any of their underlings make snide remarks about veterans getting too much of the pie. Too often the pie is offered on a platter to those wandering into the country unwanted. Today, I read a short piece about how kids coming across the border are being treated to face to face schooling while our kids are being forced into virtual schooling. I say to our administration that I would prefer that they be virtual, and not leading face to face in their pristine offices while collecting full pay at our expense. Robots with some Google, or Amazon artificial intelligence would make better decisions than the current band of thieving administrators.

Filed under: Book Review, family, Government | Tagged: Homeless Veterans, Kamala Harris Comments, Walk In MY Combat Boots | Leave a comment »