A Look You Never Forget…

Firearms Friday posts will resume next week!

Over the years I have met quite a few men who were prisoners of war. Obviously, these weren’t long discussions but there were moments when the topic somehow came up and there were a few brief glimpses into what they experienced. It is during these 30 second clips that seems to last for days when you can see all they want to tell you in the way they squint and stair right through you one second and seem like they are in another world far from the reality of the present the next instant. The exact details each time may vary but those looks remain constant.

These are the moment in life when you can’t say anything, you can’t relate, you can’t really help. All you can do is listen. That is all that is needed at that point. As I have been told many times over, ‘sometimes there just needs to be someone there to listen. Not to offer their opinion or sympathy. Just someone who takes the time, pays attention, doesn’t judge, and just listens.’ Thankfully I have never once forgotten that and I have applied this to many other situations when the trauma is evident in the face and eyes of the person with whom I am speaking.

I have seen this look in the eyes of family, friends, and one of the few people with whom I have a shared (albeit brief) military experience. It is a look that has become all too common and I sometimes wonder what ever happened to the men and women from my platoon. It has been over 13 years and I keep thinking about whether this day is honoring some of those with whom I spent a summer in Missouri. Actually, it really isn’t a question of ‘if’, it is a question of how many does this apply to.

There are countless people who fought to stay alive as prisoners and more that are still missing. These are good men and women who fought for what they believed to be right and they fought for the soldiers beside them. We honor them on this day, National POW / KIA Recognition Day, especially the ones who fought to rescue a soldier who many believe to be a traitor. It is rather ironic that the Bergdahl trail is going on as this day presents itself on the calendar. Many men were KIA trying to rescue a deserter who, while seen as many as a traitor, was also seen by others as a POW. However, for now, this day is NOT meant to honor you Bowe!

You Might Want To Consider Thinking Before You Act…

I know NOTHING!

It has been interesting, to say the least, watching and listening to all the commentary surrounding the recent prisoner exchange that President Obama sprung on everyone a couple of weeks ago. As soon as his father spoke and made the claim that his son had forgotten how to speak English I knew there was something a little off about this situation. After all, did Senator McCain forget how to speak English? Did Galid Shalit forget how to speak Hebrew? Anyway, that is another topic altogether, so let me steer this post back on track.

Given the nature of the questionable action and subsequent announcement it seems as though this was done solely to ease the pressure that had been mounting from the VA scandal. However, this just proves that it is best to think before you act as support is nowhere to be found even from some of his own party diehards like Senator Diane Frankenfeintein who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee (I know, hard to believe isn’t it). The following excerpt from Town Hall sums up this little cluster:

Two top lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that the Obama administration broke the law by not informing Congress before the prisoner exchange that resulted in Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s release.

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss said the administration violated the law by failing to address serious concerns they had about the deal to swap Bergdahl for five Taliban detainees. Chambliss said he had not had a conversation with the White House about a possible exchange for at least 18 months.

"It comes to us with some surprise and dismay that the transfers went ahead with no consultation, totally not following law," Feinstein told reporters following a closed door meeting. "And in an issue with this kind of concern to a committee that bears the oversight responsibility, I think you can see that we're very dismayed about it."  

Of course that only really speaks to the process not what actually took place. That is an entirely different story. Those who served with the supposed POW had particularly strong feelings regarding his release (watch the interviews here) and others from the military have commented on the circumstances around his “capture” and the impact that it had both on operations and moral. The Washington Post had an interesting article which included interviews with those involved in the search and rescue operations after his disappearance:

One Afghan special operations commander in eastern Afghanistan remembers being dispatched.

“Along with the American Special Forces, we set up checkpoints everywhere. For 14 days we were outside of our base trying to find him,” he told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is a member of a secretive military unit.

But U.S. troops said they were aware of the circumstances of Bergdahl’s disappearance — that he left the base of his own volition — and with that awareness, many grew angry.

“The unit completely changed its operational posture because of something that was selfish, not because a soldier was captured in combat,” said one U.S. soldier formerly based in eastern Afghanistan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the search. “There were military assets required . . . but the problem came of his own accord.”

In the end, the elation didn’t really spread beyond the soldier’s small town in Idaho as many of us, civilians and veteran’s alike, questioned the circumstances surrounding both his ‘capture’ and his release. Even my great uncle, a 27 year Air Force veteran who has been retired since 1974, made his voice heard via Facebook posting the following:

“FROM MY EXPERENCE OF 27 YEARS IN THE AIR FORCE, WHEN PERSON WAS BROUGH BACK UNDER MILITARY CONTROL AFTER BEING AWOL OR DESERTION HE OR SHE WAS PLACED UNDER ARM GUARD. I DON'T KNOW WERE GENERAL DEMPSEY OF THE JOINT CHIEFS GET THE NOTION THAT ARMY MUST TAKECARE OF HIM AND HIS FAMILY. HIM "YES" HIS FAMILY "NO". THE ARMY IS HIS "FAMILY" UNTIL HE DISCHARGE EITHER HONORABLE OR DISHONORABLE.”

And while we could all see that this political move was a huge error by the President, somehow he still seemed surprised that we rely on the facts at hand to determine what is right and what is wrong. Oblivious to the mind of the people and the opinions of those who are and have served in the military, the President’s act before you think cluster leaves us with one final question, as originally asked by Ralph Peters in the National Review, “As for President Obama, how about just one word of thanks to the families of those fallen soldiers you sent out to find Bowe Bergdahl?”