Last Paratrooper

IF I FIND YOU ARE POSTING COMMERCIAL BULLETINS OR COMMENTS OR PORNO PERSONALS THROUGH THIS BLOG I WILL DELETE YOUR ASS OFF MY FRIENDS LIST PERMANENTLY! THANKS TO ALL THE TROOPS!

DEDICATED TO THE
IN HONOR OF
AMERICA'S MEN & WOMEN
WHO STAND IN HARMS WAY
PROTECTING OUR WAY OF LIFE!A SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO OUR ASIAN AMERICAN MEN AND WOMEN IN UNIFORM SERVING THIS COUNTRY! WE THANK YOU! WE LOVE YOU AND ARE PROUD OF YOU ONE AND ALL!!! Especially those From the Philippines! Never has any nationality immigrated to the United States and been as qualified and educated as they, to assimilate into American society and become a productive and contributing part of our system and culture! For each Pinoy and Pinay to step on American soil we should all thank God for the new blessing to our country! (my wife said she would kick my ass if I didn't put in a plug for the Filipinos!) H-O-O-R-R-A-A-H PINOYS AND PINAYS!!! Actually you guys have the best tasting foods and the prettiest girls to eat it with!
Many people have asked me,what is war really like? What was your Nam really like? Well folks, I made this music video from my photos and those of friends who were there. Here it is, Oh, and there are 4 photos of me in this music video. See if you can figure out which ones are mine!When I attended jump school 41 years ago, there was a saying among non-paratroopers that ground week separated the men from the boys. Tower week separated the fools from the men. And during the third and final week, the fools jumped. Of course, it was all light-hearted jabbing and a bit of sincere professional jealousy. We knew then -- as every soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine knows today -- there is something special about a combat-trained parachutist or paratrooper, something uncommon that sets him apart from the ordinary foot-soldier.It's not simply the fact that a paratrooper jumps out of a perfectly good airplane -- though not everyone has the physical courage to do that -- but he does so ready to fight, knowing full-well that he will probably be outnumbered by the enemy on the ground; certainly surrounded; and that his survival depends on his ability to catch the enemy by surprise; kill him, perhaps in close quarters; and continue to fight with limited food, equipment, and ammunition until he is reinforced by heavier ground units. In fact, the initial perception of most anyone seeing a uniformed soldier or sailor wearing a badge, medal, or patch with a “parachute” might be that that soldier or sailor is “specially trained.” The second thought might be “he probably knows how to fight.”In his book, Airborne: A Guided Tour of an Airborne Task Force, best-selling author Tom Clancy writes, “Most special forces claim a unique ethos. Many other branches of military service have tried to claim their own code: One that is special to them. Trust me: In most cases, the people doing the claiming are full of crap. In the whole of the American military, only a handful of groups are truly worthy of such a distinction -- the Marine Corps, certain special forces units [Navy SEALS, Army Special Forces, Air Force Special Tactics, others] and of course, Airborne.”Clancy is right. The American paratrooper is in many ways the epitome of the modern conventional warrior (if we can call him conventional): In order to be an Airborne soldier, one has to be fit and able to endure physical hardship beyond that required of an ordinary soldier. He must be able to fight with a variety of personal weapons as well as his bare hands. He must be courageous. And he must have a reasonable capacity to think on his own, outside of the box, and during periods of extreme stress. In fact, in most cases, the very basic requirement of any “special operations” combatant is that he be first-and-foremost a sky soldier.“Of course, it [parachuting] is a means of delivery,” Lt. General John Bruce Blount (U.S. Army, ret.), former chief of staff of Allied Forces Southern Europe, tells NavySEALs.com. “Then you have to consider the types of people who make up Airborne units. They're young, fit, brave, willing to take a chance, and all of those things appeal to the special operations folks. Those characteristics are what special ops are looking for.” Which brings us to August 16 -- National Airborne Day -- currently a marginally observed day that was decreed by presidential mandate in 2002. For it was on the morning of August 16, 1940, that members of the brand new Parachute Test Platoon began leaping from C-33 transports at an altitude of 1,500 feet over a recently cleared drop zone near Lawson Field at Fort Benning, Georgia.First Lieutenant William T. Ryder jumped first, making him the first American soldier to jump from a plane. Second in the door was an anonymous enlisted soldier, so-paralyzed with fear, he was unable to jump. Next in line was Private William N. “Red” King, who would become the first enlisted soldier to jump.Parachutes began to blossom over the Georgia countryside as one-by-one Ryder's men stood in the door of the aircraft and waited for the leg slap and the “go” command from the Air Corps jump instructor. The platoon made a second jump the next day.Then, thanks to one of the test platoon members and a legendary Apache Indian chief, observers of the platoon's third jump witnessed the birth of one of the great traditions of the American paratrooper: The jump cry or battle cry: “Geronimo!”On the night prior to the jump, several members of the platoon were at the base theater watching a movie in which the warrior chief, Geronimo, and a band of his Apache braves were pursued by the U.S. Cavalry. Later, over a few beers, some of the men began teasing fellow trainee, Private Aubrey Eberhardt, saying that during the next day's jump he would be too frightened to speak. Eberhardt boasted that he would not only speak, but shout the name of the great Indian warrior.The following day, the six-foot-eight Eberhardt leapt from the plane yelling, “Geronimo!” He followed the shout with a war whoop so loud; soldiers on the ground could hear him. Other jumpers followed, also screaming the now-famous battle cry.By September 1940, the Parachute Test Platoon would form the core of the new 501st Parachute Infantry Battalion, the first operational Airborne unit in American military history. But it was not the first time there had been any substantive consideration for establishing U.S. Airborne forces.General Billy Mitchell actually proposed an Airborne assault operation during World War I. Mitchell's plan called for strapping parachutes onto 12,000 select men of the 1st Infantry Division, the famous “Big Red One.” They would be loaded onto 1,200 British-built Handley-Page bi-winged bombers -- ten men and two machineguns per plane -- and dropped on the French city of Metz, a German stronghold deep behind enemy lines.Enroute to the drop zone, the entire air fleet would be escorted by fighters, which would fly above, below, and on both flanks of the formation. Once safely on the ground, the paratroopers would assemble their weapons, reform into infantry units, and dig-in.Overhead, Mitchell's fighters would provide close air support until the paratroopers were sufficiently positioned behind their newly dug works and ready for action. With the paratroopers spreading panic and confusion in the German rear areas, the primary U.S. ground forces would climb out of their trenches and attack along a wide front. The plan proposed in October 1918, might have been carried out in the spring of 1919, but the war ended in November 1918.In April 1940, during the initial stages of World War II, large numbers of German fallschirmjäger (literally, parachuting hunters) jumped over Norway and Denmark, seizing key bridges and military installations.Surprisingly, the attacks received little attention. This has since been attributed to the fact that a series of more dramatic Naval clashes took place off the Norwegian coast around the same time.In May, the German Army crossed the borders of Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The Nazis spearheaded their attacks with surprise Airborne and gliderborne assaults which confused and overwhelmed their enemies and shocked the world.The effectiveness of the fallschirmjäger compelled the U.S. War Department to begin planning and crash-building their own Airborne forces. Thus, the Parachute Test Platoon.U.S. paratroopers proved their mettle during the war, with Airborne forces ultimately swelling to five Army Airborne divisions -- the 82nd, the 101st, the 11th, the 13th, and the 17th -- several gliderborne units, even the Marine Corps' short-lived Paramarines.Over the next 60-plus years, U.S. paratroopers, military parachutists, and Airborne units would go through a number of evolutionary phases, downsizing, changing, yet performing magnificently in all of America's war and military excursions.Today, the Army's Airborne strength has been reduced significantly to only a single division of paratroopers, the 82nd (the 101st is also designated “Airborne,” but it is in fact “air assault”), the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the 75th Ranger Regiment, and various smaller units. But combat trained parachutists also serve as the basic element of modern American special operations forces.All services -- Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, even the paramilitary elements within the Central Intelligence Agency -- maintain airborne-qualified units or parachute elements. And all paratroopers or combat parachutists, regardless of service branch, are initially trained at the U.S. Army's “jump” school at Fort Benning. There is also advanced parachute training -- HALO (high altitude low opening) and HAHO (high altitude high opening) -- conducted by the Army as well as other service-branches in-house.Airborne is a key component of all modern special operations and special warfare units. In fact, the very nature of a parachutist's mission is special: Dropping behind an enemy's lines is essentially an unconventional thus “special” operation. And the level of personal commitment and basic athleticism required of a paratrooper is a prerequisite for joining the ranks of special operations forces.Lastly, a paratrooper is not likely to be the kind of soldier who would fold under fire. The “airborne spirit” is a kind of ethos that when integrated with a soldier's psyche practically ensures that he will fight, and fight well. And that is not some hollow rah-rah statement.“The intangible but very real end product that stems from an individual's evaluation of himself is perhaps the most precious result of the process that produces parachute soldiers,” the late Lt. General William Pelham "Bill" Yarborough, one of the “founding fathers” of both American Airborne and special operations forces, wrote in the foreword to Airborne by Edward M. Flanagan Jr. “A warrior who will bail out at night onto a battlefield deep in enemy country while carrying fifty pounds of equipment, weapons, and ammunition is not likely to perform poorly in combat.”In his 2002 National Airborne Day proclamation, President George W. Bush said, “Airborne combat continues to be driven by the bravery and daring spirit of Sky Soldiers.” So perhaps the fools do jump during the final week of parachute training. But it is the threat of those same fools which keeps America's enemies wide awake at night, while the rest of us soundly sleep. "Men with HALOs" W. Thomas Smith Jr. August 16, 2006 ..I entered the Army June 1966. After 8 weeks of basic Training at Fort Jackson South Carolina I was sent to Fort Sam Houston Texas and took Advanced Individual Training and became an Army medic. While there we were told that most of us would be assigned a tour of duty in Vietnam right after AIT because there was a great need for medics because so many were getting killed over there. So when the recruiters for the paratroops came through and asked if we wanted to voulenteer for Airborne not many seemed interrested, then they said it will delay any "Vietnam assignemnt" and a few hands went up. then they said "Oh and you will get paid $55.00 extra every month and a bunch of us stuck our hands up!.I finished AIT around December 1st 1966 and went home on a leave during Christmas. I reported to Fort Benning, Georgia on New Years eve 1967, and completed training in about three weeks. I was then assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. I was assigned to the Medical Battalion and after one look around, I asked to be assigned to a line unit so they sent me over to the 1st Battalion 502nd PIRThe Division was deployed to Vietnam in December 1967 and I was assigned out to Recon Platoon, in E Company which was the only unit that got one medic per squad all the other line units got one medic per platoon! I survived the TET Offensive of 1968 and ventured into the Ashau Valley.In June 1968 there was a big infusion of the troops in which they transfered us all over the place so we would not all go home at the same time from the same unit. I was assigned to 3rd Battalion 506th PIR at LZ Betty Phan Thiet, Binh Thuan Province, RVN. I extended my tour of duty and returned to find myself on Hamburger Hill assigend TDY to another battalion of the 506th. Finishing that tour I went home and was discharged.I hated what I saw at home, the hippies and the liars like John Kerry and the cowards like Teddy Kennedy and Jane (the Traitor) Fonda and rather that become one of the vermin and filth that infected America I chose to return to Vietnam and a life style that made sense!I reenlisted and three days later boarded a plane at Travis Airbase, CA. Jan 1970 and began another tour and was assigend to MACV. This turned out to be a trip! I worked with MAGSOG for 30 days then was assigend as a E-3 in a E-7 slot as advisor for two months. Then I was assigned to fly courrier. Sometime around October 1970 we were flying day and night. Days courier missions and resupply, nights we flew sniffer missions. That is when the chopper I was on got hit and we went down. I don't remember a thing after that. I woke up in a hospital at Cam Rhan Bay, and was medevaced out within a month. My military career ended at that point.So now you know a little about me. I have known some people I thought were great individuals in there. There was Lt. Pershing the Grandson of the famous General "Black Jack" Pershing who chased Poncho Villa back into Mexico and led the Allies to Victory in WWI. His Grandson, Lt. Pershing was killed during the TET Offensive of 68! It hit many of us very hard, he was a very well liked and respected officer and man. HE WAS OUR BROTHER!After the war I ate breakfast with General Westmorland many times in a little cafe in Cashiers, North Carolina in 1979. he retired up there to a live his last years in peace and enjoy the beauty of nature. He died few years ago in a nursing home in South Carolina after he became too feeble to care for himself. I hope to see him again when I cross over the river and rest in the shade of the trees with him and many other great great men.I am an old trooper, not over the hill by any means and I sure as Hell ain't dead yet, only getting better like fine wine! However this growing old shit ain't what it's cracked up to being! First of all these "Golden Years" they are talking about, well I have been looking into them and all I see is Cast Iron! Enjoy your youth while you have it kids, because growing old is a pain in more than the ass. It is really demoralizing to watch your body degenerate no matter what you do. You still want to go out and play, climb mountains, sail the oceans and hang with the beautiful people, but it don't work out that way. Your body has grown old and don't work as well or at all and you can no longer do the things you once did and love to do. Believe me kids, it takes some getting used to. However you are what I once was, but I am now what you will some day become. Get to know me and see yourself! Become a time traveler so to speak!I am a hardcore citizen of the Confederate States of America which has been oppressed and under the military occupation of the United States of America for the past 140 years.This does not mean I am a racist, or hate anyone. That's the KKK your thinking of. The South was a multiracial, multinational, multiethnic nation that was the first nation in the western hemisphere to enact ant-slavery laws. It does mean that I am a supporter and defender of the Constitution as the founding fathers intended it and a Federal Government answerable and subservient to the States and to the People, not as it is now with the states and people subservient to the Federal Tyrants!The only thing that Lincoln and the North winning the civil war did, was to place in power a dictatorial and monolithic monster of a government under the control of businessmen and corporations, who's main goal was and still is to enslave ALL the people. What the Civil War did not do, was to free all of the slaves, instead it made slaves of ALL of us! In this new world order we are all SLAVES!Hey guys we are in a war! No matter whether you like George Bush or not, you need to support the troops in the field overseas. If you are a protester, protesting the war is not the way to do it. That will encourage the enemy to kill more of our boys and we will be bringing home their dead bodies in plastic bags.Write the troops and tell them how much you appreciate their defending you and our way of life. Send them cookies, a newspaper a comic book, a case of water. A can of beef stew, candy, a bottle of Tabasco sauce, anything to build up their moral and determination.Never listen to the left wing liberals who would have you become a protester and shame the fighting men, our nation and yourself. Always remember that those guys are your brothers, fathers, sons, daughters, mothers, sisters, neighbors, friends, relatives, fellow citizens from your town and mine. They are not strangers they are us! They come from every state and most every city town and village. You become a protestor and you become a traitor to them. They need you and your back up, your support. Stand by them and stand strong.Now speaking of Liberals and MEN with no balls, I need to take a moment to award to Senator Edward Kennedy

for 2005! Here you see Kennedy in a uncontrollable rage, as he demands that all U.S. Citizens pay to support Illegal Alien Criminals with Social Security Checks, welfare, social services, food stamps, free medical care and hospitalization with prescription drugs free of charge! He has shown himself to be a person totally devoid of any redeeming value as a man and a man of less character than a garden slug! Of all the men in the United States he is the one that should be castrated so as to prevent any more of his gutless, cowardly bastardly types from being born and being a constant embarrassment and threat to the nation and to the rest of us who are having to do his job for him since he lacks the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing him own self! Oh, and as far as Kennedys gun control pushes, hus damn car has killed more people than any gun I have ever owned! Gimme a break Chappaquidick Dick! I was in the boots of our troops not too many years ago and speak from experience. I saw how Jane Fonda murdered American soldiers by her sluttish behavior when she became a traitor and went to North Vietnam and encouraged the enemy to kill more American boys in South Vietnam! Don't become an attention whore like Cindy Sheehan! Be a real person stand for what is right! Do the right thing support our troops! Be an individual of class, character, and distinction! Be a patriot! EVERYDAY IS... "VETERANS DAY"! ..EVERYDAY IS... REMEMBER OUR TROOPS DAY"! ..Personally I think Bush is an asshole and sucks. I think he has violated his oath of office and is a traitor to every United States Citizen because he has abandoned us in favor of illegal aliens who are destroying the culture of this country, stealing the "American Dream", they are taking millions of jobs that U.S. Citizens want, will work, and are being denied by employers who employ "ILLEGALS ONLY".For any of you that may think George Bush's shit don't stink I invite you to view an official Government web site that hints at the Dictatorship that is looming in the face and future of every American Citizen! Go to:http://www.commerce.gov/WH_Liaison/PA_forms/Intro.htmBe sure to pay close attention to the statement by Mr. Bush in which he states:"I will look for people who are willing to work hard to do what is best for America, who examine the facts and do what is right whether or not it is popular".President George W. BushThose are the words of a would be Dictator! You can not trust George Bush any further than you can throw him!As a matter of fact you can go to this Government web sitehttp://www.spp.gov/index.aspand read for yourself how Mr. Bush and Cheney have entered secret negotiations with Mexico and Canada in which he is opening the borders to their military to respond to uprisings in the U.S.A. if the people try and throw off this illegitimate government that George Bush has created!Yes it is now possible for you to be arrested by Mexican soldiers in Denver Colorado and executed by Mexican soldiers firing Mexican Army rifles, firing Mexican bullets by a Mexican firing squad or hung by the neck till dead on a length of Mexican hemp rope from a tree in a public square! WAKE UP AMERICA! TIME IS SHORT! RISE UP AMERICA! TAKE ACTION WHILE YOU STILL CAN! ..QUOTES TO LIVE BY: Our Founding Fathers designed our system of government in the
form of a constitutionally limited republic with minimum government
control or interference into our personal lives and business affairs. They
didn't have in mind some gigantic federal bureaucracy with all this power
and control regulating our lives and our businesses. They had in mind a
federal government that would abide by the Tenth Amendment. It was small,
it had limited powers, it took care of national events, and it defended our
borders. It maintained the army and issued national currency.
And all the rest of the rights and responsibilities,
they said, belonged to the states and the people.~David Alan Black~ .."When you're having a bad day,
and it seems like people are trying to piss you off,
remember, it takes 42 muscles to frown and only 4
to pull the trigger of a decent sniper's rifle."~E. Michael Davis II~ .. The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me.
They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the
business of government; they have only a talent for getting
and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to
search out groups who pant and pine for something they
can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out
of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time
is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words,
government is a broker in pillage, and every election
is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.~H. L. Mencken~ ..

"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity."~Sigmund Freud~ .."To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon,
directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled,
indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated,
valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have
neither the right nor the wisdom or the virtue to do so.
To be governed is to be at every operation, at every
transaction, noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped,
measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized,
admonished, prevented, forbidden,
reformed, corrected, punished.""General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century"~Pierre Proudhon~ ..He who will not reason is a bigot;
he who cannot is a fool;
and he who dares not is a slave.~Sir William Drummond~ ..Army: A body of men assembled to
rectify the mistakes of the diplomats.~Josephus Daniels~ .. "Enlisted men are stupid,
but extremely cunning and sly,
and bear considerable watching."~Army Officer's Guide~ .."To be prepared for war is one of the most
effective means of preserving peace."~George Washington~ .."Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence the jealousy
of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history
and experience prove that foreign influence is one of
the most baneful foes of republican government."~George Washington~ 1793 .. It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate,
tireless minority keen to set brush-fires in people's minds."~Founding Father Samuel Adams~ .."Today the United States has become a single monstrous monolith.
If the signers of the Declaration could see it, they would
demand, We staked our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred
honor to bequeath you free and independent states.
What on earth have you done with them?
At least the South tried to preserve them. ~Joseph Sobran~ .."We are all born ignorant,
but one must work hard to remain stupid."~Benjamin Franklin~ .."Our two party system is a fraud, a sham, a delusion.
On foreign policy, trade, immigration, big government,
we have one party government, one party press;
and conservatives are being played for suckers."~Patrick J. Buchanan~ .."Tolerance is the virtue of men who no longer believe in anything."~G.K. Chesterton~ .."Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."~Benjamin Franklin~ .."To disarm the people is the best and
most effectual way to enslave them."~George Mason~ .."Tyrants are afraid to trust the people with arms."~James Madison~ .."The great objective is that every man be armed."~Patrick Henry~ .. "The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere
and everywhere restrains evil influence.
They deserve a place of honor with all that's good."~ George Washington ~ .."One man with courage is a majority."~ Thomas Jefferson ~ .."Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom
must undergo the fatigue of supporting it."~Patrick Henry~ ..The state governments,
by their original constitutions,
are invested with complete sovereignty."~Alexander Hamilton~ ..".....the state governments, with the people on their side,
would be able to repel the danger (of an oppressive federal government) ....
Besides the advantage of being armed,
which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation,
the existence of subordinate governments (sovereign states),
to which the people are attached,
and by which the militia officers are appointed,
forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition."~James Madison~