The Important Thing

I have several things on my mind this morning such as the trip back to Iraq and others but I was inspired yesterday to write by Clew. She has been having a tough time lately and I know those of you out there who are reading her blog know that and have been praying for her. I have just found out about her pain because I have been traveling and have had no access to a computer for several days. But now that I do know I will add my prayers.

God is Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent; all knowing, all powerful, and everywhere and He sees all of our pain and sorrow. He sees our sins and our accomplishments for Him and for ourselves. He knows how many hairs there are on our heads and how many atoms were used to create the universe. So to Clew, God knows and cares and He loves you and is watching over you. He is holding you in His loving arms and cradling you rocking you gently and running His loving hand, His Almighty hand, through your hair and calming you as you do for Incrediboy. He is whispering loving words to your troubled soul and giving you the peace that surpasses all understanding. He is wiping the tears from your eyes and telling you that He loves you no matter what. His love is so great that He has shed blood for you.

As a parent I have had the pleasure and pain to see what it is that children can do. They are not little grown ups they are CHILDREN. As such they are very unusual in God’s eyes. He says that you must have faith as a little child to be considered faithful. Children can be frustrating to parents because we have forgotten what it is like to be children. We don’t play enough, we work and worry too much. My daughter made the observation the other day that I was very understanding of her. When I asked her why she said, “Because you remember what it was like to be a teenager.” I do remember but I also have to make her a responsible citizen of the United States of America and some times that means pointing out to her the things that she does not want to hear about herself.

There have been times that I forgot what it meant to be a young person and that is not always a bad thing. There are too many evil people in the world to ignore my responsibilities as a father to raise my children in the way they should go. My son the Marine still calls me for advice about some choices that men must make and he does not always like the answer that he receives from me. He is old enough to know the answers to some of them but he still wants to make sure that what I taught him is still valid. I have no problem with that at all I love giving Godly advice to my children even today I only hope that he remembers the lessons taught at my hand and my word. Some of the things that he and I have spoken about lately can have life long consequences and I am grateful that he calls me to ask about them.

So to all Moms and Dads who are reading this thing I have to say this: Stick with it, keep reading the Word, Pray HARD, hug your children everyday, tell them of the love of God through Christ Jesus, and most of all remember that you are doing the most important job in the world when you are talking to your children and showing them that your words are true by your good works. I have said this many times; “Parenting is not for wimps!” It is a great adventure that never ends even when they leave home and go out into the world on their own.

God Bless All of You.

In His Service,

Craig

Rick Rescorla

In an earlier post I mentioned Sam Chappell to you. Sam finds jobs for retiring and retired military personnel in the civilian sector. He finds these stories and sends them out with his employment emails. This one is great and I hope that you all remember what it is that we are fighting. I will have more to say about this later for now enjoy this it will make you proud. Only a free society could produce men such as these.

IHS, Craig

From MG(R) Lust …

April 7, 2006
From Vietnam To 9/11, Remembering A True HeroBy Joe GallowayFORT BENNING, Ga.

The word ”hero” has been so debased and overused inour modern society that it is almost meaningless when applied to the realthing.This past week, here at the U.S. Army home of the infantry, several hundredpeople gathered for the dedication of a larger-than-life bronze statue of areal American hero named Rick Rescorla.The statue is iconic: the young infantry 2nd lieutenant platoon leaderleading the way in combat, his M-16 rifle with bayonet attached ready foruse. It is based largely on the photograph on the cover of the book We WereSoldiers Once . . . and Young, written by Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and me, which tells the story of the deadly battles in the Ia Drang Valley in the dawn ofthe Vietnam War.

Rescorla was a hero of the battles of Landing Zone X-Ray and Landing ZoneAlbany. He earned a Silver Star, the third-highest military medal forheroism, for his sterling leadership of a platoon of Bravo Company 2ndBattalion 7th U.S. Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in thosebattles in November of 1965. But that statue in the home and headquarters and training ground for themud-foot infantry was the result of unvarnished heroism long after theBritish-born Rescorla left the Army, became an American citizen and retired from the Army Reserve with the rank of colonel. The statue of the young Rescorla was born out of what he did as an older,heavier civilian vice president for security for Morgan Stanley in New YorkCity.

The brokerage firm occupied 22 floors of the south tower in the WorldTrade Center. Ever since the failed terrorist truck bombing in 1993 in the basement ofthat building, Rescorla was convinced that the terrorists would come backto finish the job. He urged Morgan Stanley to build its own low-rise,high-security headquarters across the river in New Jersey, where most of its employees lived. Not possible, he was told, because the firm had along-term lease on those 22 floors. Rescorla fought for the time and money needed for half a dozen surprisefull evacuation drills each year. And, yes, he knew how much it cost topull a couple thousand stockbrokers off their telephones. He knew and didn’t care.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Rescorla stood at the window of his office on the 66thfloor and watched the tower across the way burn. The Port Authority Policesquawk box on the wall urged everyone in the other buildings of the TradeCenter to remain at their desks and not panic. You are safe, the reassuring voice said. Rescorla responded with a curt word: ”Bull–!” He grabbed his bullhornand moved floor by floor, ordering Morgan Stanley’s 2,700 workers toevacuate immediately. They knew where to go and how to do that, thanks toRick. Two by two, the old buddy system, they began the long walk down thestairs to the street. Halfway down, the second hijacked airliner plowed into their building.

The building shook and swayed to the impact. Smoke began filling thestairwells. People were frightened. Rick Rescorla used his bullhorn again. This time he sang to the evacuees, just as he sang to his soldiers on along night in Vietnam. He sang ”God Bless America.” He sang the songs of the British Army in the Zulu Wars. He sang the old Welsh miner songs. He got them all out and headed for safety down the streets away from theWorld Trade Center. Four of his own security people were still up clearingthe Morgan Stanley floors, so Rick Rescorla turned and headed back up thestairs with New York City firemen. None of them made it out alive, and neither did Rick Rescorla.

His widow, Susan, spearheaded the drive to raise $100,000 to create thatbronze image of her hero and ours. Eventually it will occupy a spot on theWalk of Heroes in a new $76 million Infantry Museum being built at the gates of Fort Benning. More than 500 people turned out to see it unveiled outside the Infantry Museum on the old Army post. Among them were plenty of other real American heroes. There were three recipients of the Medal of Honor for heroism above and beyond the call of duty. Scores of veterans of America’s wars of the past half-century and more. Also, Gen. Moore and his sidekick, Sgt. Maj. Basil L. Plumley.

As I sat there looking at the statue of Rick, my mind carried me back 40years to that terrible November in Vietnam and the words of the young Rescorla as he and his battle-weary soldiers strode into the surrounded position at LZ Albany to rescue their decimated battalion: ”Good, Good, Good! I hope they hit us with everything they got tonight – we’ll wipe them up.”You want a definition of the word hero? In my dictionary it says simply: Rick Rescorla.

Joe Galloway is the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder.

My Son Wrote Me!!!!!!!!

My Marine son David wrote to me yesterday and I read it my time this morning early. He is stationed in the US and that is all I will say right now about his location. I do not want him hurt. He is definitely growing up but he still needs Dad’s approval, pride, and praise. I have a blind spot when it comes to him in some areas because of my pride in him. He is a United States Marine and has endured training and hardship that I never had to go through in the Army. So my pride in him is a little bit blinding. BUT I still know that he has to behave in a manner that is honorable and brings credit to his God, the Corps, and his Country.

He did not write me a long letter but the fact that he wrote and the content of the letter spoke volumes to me. He still loves me even though we had a disagreement when he was trying to get to his duty station from home. He also is showing me that he is taking the responsibility of making his car payment on himself. He is also letting me know that he wants me to email him even though he knows that I will sometimes not tell him the things that he wants to hear.

Is there any relationship like a father-son relationship? Unfortunately I did not take him out often enough to play catch or sports. I really wish that I had given him a baseball glove instead of a playstation for Christmas and played with him every day that there was light. I would love to see him become an officer but he needs a great deal of education before he can even try something like that. But for now he is on his own making his own way in this world and starting in a place that will give him opportunities that few will have at his age.

What are some of these opportunities? The military pays for most of the tuition for college courses which gives young people serving their country a good education at a less expensive price. He has no “living expenses.” He has no electric bill, gas bill, water or sewage bill, and the only phone bill he has is his own cell phone. He will have his car back soon and he will then have to put gas in it but that will only teach him that gas is expensive and to save his money he needs to drive as little as possible. He will be able to gain experience while earning a pretty good pay check every month. He is and will remain in very good physical condition as well. Any and all medical bills will be taken care of by his Uncle Sam.

So there are many advantages to serving your country in the United States Military and I have only scratched the surface. Now what does this mean for my son and I? I was a soldier and served now my son is serving and we have more in common now than we ever did before. We have things that we can talk about that the women in our family know almost nothing about. Now don’t get me wrong, family members of military personnel go through a lot of hardship and make many sacrifices as well as the service members. BUT they do not go through the training that give us the right to call ourselves Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coastguardsmen. There are things we do in training that we do not talk about out side of the circle of those with the same experience. Those who have not been through it would not understand what the big deal is.

I Love My Son.

Enough rambling for today.

In His Service,

Craig

Great Sorrow

Three days ago we had a very tragic incident here. It is on the news now so all of the next of kin have been notified. Ocassionally we get some rain here but when it rains there is no place for the rain to go. This causes flash floods and that is what happened a few days ago. There was a convoy of Marines that went to cross a low place that are called Wadi’s here. When they did the flash flood came down the rivlet and washed their vehicle away. One Marine was recovered alive immediately and they searched until they found the bodies of the others. Please pray for all of the families of these brave young people.

When there is a possiblity of a death of a Marine the area that we are apart of shuts down all non-secure communication. So I could not BLOG you all and tell you. I would not tell anyone anything to begin with until all of the next of kin have been notified to anything less would be treasonous. The United States Marine Corps is very good at notifying the families of those fallen Marines as soon as they can verify the status of their personnel. There are some web sites that show “After The Fall” about a young wife who was notifed about her husbands death and what the Corps did for her.

The Marines seem to take the death of one of their own as a personal affront and treat every family with the utmost care and respect. In the photo’s of this particular “notification” the Marines even watched over her during the night while she stayed by his casket in the funeral home the night before the burial. They set up a matress on the floor and a Non Commissioned officer stood watch over her by the casket all night long. That is the honor that the United States Marines show to their fallen comrades in arms.

I was a soldier for twenty years and my son is now a Marine and I could not be prouder of him. I have met many Marines over here and they are very good people.

I cannot go on right now. I will try to BLOG tomorrow or the next day.

GBY

In His Service,

Craig

Friends

There is a real example here of just what friends are. The truck drivers as soon as they arrive at a place of rest they get together and start cooking or brewing their tea. I have put this in a former BLOG but this is something that I have observed and it really reminds me of what it means to have someone to go through the hard times of life with.

The men will gather together in a circle and share their rice bowls with each other. They literally dip their spoons into the pot of rice and eat until it is gone. They will sit on the ground on a rug or a piece of carpet and share tea and other things like there pipes. They are smoking tobacco not “other” things. But they share the same pipe. The Arab men and culture truely know what it is to have and be a friend.

I do not have many friends like that. Here we are closer due to the living conditions and the environment and we share things with each other that we would not share in the U.S. simply because we do not have it here. Here the soldiers with whom we work also share things with us. We have right now more snacks and junk food than we can eat and still stay healthy. We also put up with more personality differences than we normally would for many of the same reasons. We are here and the enemy is out there and if we do not hang together we shall all surly hang separately. We do not necessarily “feel” any more friendly or more comradly towards one another but we are going through many of the hardships that draw men closer together.

Though I do not have many friends that I could just go to at any time and ask for anything I could ask for and receive many of the necessities of life without any arguements. I have cultivated those relationships in a way that makes my life easier in my neighborhood. But I have one friend who is better than any friend on this earth. His name is Jesus. Jesus is God and God in Love therefore He never fails.

Relationships among men are special. They can talk about things with each other that they cannot talk about or should not talk about around their wives or just among women in general. They can be men without worrying about what someone else will think. This is what I find special about the men here when they sit in their circles and drink their tea or eat or smoke. They are just being men and they make no excuses for being so. They are who they are and you can take them at face value and you will not be disappointed.

Well enough rambling today.

GBY!!!!!!

IHS, Craig