for all the lurking freepers, shove the "liberals hate the military" canard where the sun dont shine

freepers love to say us liberals are anti-military. hate soldiers, etc. i'm sick of it.

who here on the DU is either serving in the military, served in the military or has close family in the military.

I'll start...

Me -
BIL in the SEALS
Nephew in the Navy
BIL Navy Veteran - Seabees
Step Dad WW II Navy Vet.
Little Cuz in the Navy
At least 3 family who served in Viet Nam.
FIL - Merchant Marines - Korea.

Anyone else?

Pissed me off with the 'teabaggers' and their little snit over taxes which did not go up. How many of those tax evading cretins have yellow 'support the troops' magnets on the cars they drove to protest paying the taxes that actually do support the troops?

you're going to spend a lot of time chasing your tail. Just as they do.

My best buddy is a Lt. Colonel in the Marines - reserves now. A Desert Storm veteran. He joined at 18, and at 45, he's also the guy who hates Chimpy Fucknuts even more than I do, and who decided he'd resign his commission if they were to call him up for active duty. His Marine officer pals share his very liberal political views and all contributed to and voted for Barack Obama.

Freepers just blather. Nothing they say has any basis in reality. But, hell, at least it gives them something to do ....

Father: Air Force, WWII POW

Brother: Army KIA Vietman

Brother: Marines

Nephew: Army serving in Iraq

served in the navy, brother served in the army and his son is now in the air force. father served in the Army,navy and navy reserve. while in the navy he received a personal citation signed by Admiral Nimitz.... while stationed at pearl harbor.

And I'm damn proud of each and every last one of them for their service.

:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:

nt

Hubby: father career army special forces, 3 trips to Vietnam, brother - Navy.

me... in somebody else's military (Doncha love the reserves)

Hubby, USN Retired
BIL USN Retired

Sis works directly for troops at a military hospital

back in the day. I hear they've been turned into a Stryker brigade, based at Ft.Lewis.

Spanish-American War

Father
B-17 Pilot, WWII

Me
USAF Linguist, Vietnam Era

Father-in-Law (deceased)
Supply Sgt., WWII

USN here.

Not in a war, or at least a hot war. Saw some Russian & E. German soldiers often over the fence. They seemed like normal humans when your up that close to them.

I don't wear it on my sleeve much, but I never regretted my short 3 year tour serving.

My dad 25 years USAF (Korea & Vietnam), me Navy-Vietnam, cuz was in the Navy-Vietnam, Uncle in the Army-Korea.

And on my English mother's side...

Grandfather: WII (Army)

Uncle: WWII (Army Air Forces) - gave me his wings, which I proudly display on my desk

Aunt: WWII (Factory Girl)

Grandfather: Korea (Navy)

Father: Freeper (I still haven't figured out his screen name) who signed up to fight in Vietnam, then decided it was too hard and used "asthma" as a medical excuse.

Brother, 7 years Army
Both nephews, Army
Great nephew, AF (mechanic assigned to AF One)
A mess of uncles and cousins, all branches at least two wars
Grandfather, Army, Spanish American War
Great Grandfather, Imperial German Army
Great Great Grandfather, Union Army
FIL, Army
BIL AF

My father didn't dodge; he made tank engines for Georgie Patton.

Oops. Wrong side.

Grandfather - WWI in France.

Father - WWII Army Air Corps in England.

Me - no military, but saw a great deal of action in the streets, demonstrating against our illegal war in Vietnam. Alongside many Vietnam vets, I might add, a number of them my personal friends! (And only a few of them AWOL at the time.) My father the WWII veteran was supportive and said he was proud of me.

Wat

USN Nurse Corps.
Father and brother-NG, Coast Artillery
Brother-NG, USA
BIL-USN
Maternal and Paternal Great Grandfathers'-Civil War, both sides.

(I think I have those numbers right) it seems like most of that 6% is concentrated on DU.

He quite powerfully pointed out that only 1% of the population has actually served in the military and another 5% are related to someone who's served.

I'm sure the video is up somewhere.

My brother served in the Korean War
Four uncles and a brother-in-law in WWII
Another brother-in-law in the US Army in the 1950's
Two great-grandfathers and numerous great-great and great-great-great uncles in the Civil War
And at least two ancestors in the Revolutionary War

:toast:

My father served in Vietnam, but forbade me on pain of death to join during Desert Storm. After much discussion about the topic, I lost my fervor for serving in the military. I have two cousins in the Army.


Now, the difficulty with making a Freeper understand the typical liberal view about the military is that things need to be very simple and very rigid for them. You either support your republican president and any war they choose to start, or you are an enemy sympathizer. We are America and we reserve the right to kick anyone's ass for any reason. If you don't believe that then you aren't a true patriot. I think that about sums up their view.

We tend to be more nuanced than that. War is not the first nor the best solution to problems with other nations. Our military deserves our gratitude and support, but we recognize that the Defense budget is extreme and takes away from other programs that would improve the quality of life for a great many people. We also tend to only want to fight if there really is an imminent threat to the security of the nation. We tend to question the motives of our leaders for choosing military action. We also tend to think that our veterans deserve more than just a parade and our thanks before telling them to "suck it up" and get back into the rat race upon returning from war.

All that to a Freeper is tantamount to surrender to the enemy regardless of the facts. Freepers embrace naked aggression and bullying, as long as they do not have to do the actual killing and dying.

:patriot:

:applause:

I think that since the all-volunteer military has been in place for a couple of generations, the uniformed culture is one of rather simple-minded "hoo-ah!" gung-ho jingoism and mawkish sentimentality. The line between soldier and mercenary is seriously blurred.

:rofl:

were willing to expose the lie of "keeping America safe" that we keep hearing about (and through) the military.

Father - WWII
Uncle - WWII - POW
Vietnam - me, my brother, 4 cousins

In fact I actually have a younger cousin - who is probably approaching 50, in Iraq right now.

My whole damn family....

Both parents US Army....served in Vietnam
Grandfather - WWII
Cousin - Career Army Officer
Me - 6 years 101st Airborne US Army

They can all kiss my government issued ass!

My younger brother was a Tanker in Germany, later Italy in the 1970's, and my BIL was Merchie. I was a Democrat the whole time.
We have been here since the 1600's, and have had family in every war from the Revolution to Vietnam, including both sides of the Civil War.
Both my parents worked in defense plants in WWII - my mom built dive bombers and later bomb sights.

mark 44-6

brother Navy Vietnam and father and uncle WWII. Just ignore Freepers - they are the ones who never served.

me - 9 yrs US Army, Desert Storm
brother - 20 yrs US Navy
step-dad - US Marine Corp, WWI
dad - US Army, Korea
uncle - 25 yrs, US Army, Viet-Nam

Been a Democrat for most of 45 years

on edit:
Dang - forgot my grandfathers
Grandpa B - WWI, USN
Grandpa H - WWII, Army, served with Patton

For generations back we have raised our hand and sworn the oath. My grandfathers served. My father and his brother were both awarded Purple Hearts. My brother enlisted in the Army. His son followed him. I enlisted in the Air Force in '73. My sister's ex was an Army Ranger. She went with him while he was stationed at the Korean border, among other places. (As a civilian he now guards a nuclear power plant- I won't say which one.)

program ... but not the military ...

other co-workers, who shared my political beliefs, more or less, had actual sons/offspring/military-age-relatives actually serving in the military ...

so much for the "apple not falling far from the tree" ...

Grandfathers; Paternal, Doughboy in France. Maternal, Nearly died of the Spanish Flu, stayed stateside
Four Great-uncles on both sides; Doughboys in France and stateside
Great Aunt; Enlisted as a nurse in the Army Medical Corps during the Depression, served in the South Pacific (MASH unit) during WW2, retired during the '70s as a Colonel.
Uncle; My father's oldest brother, served in Belgium and Germany at the very end of WW2 (After the battle of the Bulge)
Father; Served stateside as an artillery trainer during the Korean War.
Uncle; My father's youngest brother, served in Germany as a tank crewman when the Berlin Wall went up. (He said he was shiting bricks when that happened, he expected the Russians to come pouring across the border at any time)
Uncle; Mother's Younger brother, USN, Korean War.
Uncle; Mother's other younger brother US army, late 50's - early 60's.

My wife's family, (The non-insane type republicans) Grandfather; Lieutenant US Army, Europe just days after D-Day, Capitan US Army at surrender of Germany, Colonel US Army Reserve at retirement.
Father; Door gunner on a Huey, Viet Nam late '60s
Uncle; Huey Pilot, US Army Reserves.


I also have a GGG-something uncle who served as pony solider during the Indian Wars.

Me; Big pussy who didn't serve.

Still working with active duty and retired families.
Tend to roll my eyes if that cliche is used in my hearing.

My dad enlisted in the Army way back when, but was kindly asked to leave due to asthma. The picture of his training company from 1957 made me chuckle though. Everybody kinda looked like Gomer Pyle :)

is a veteran.

My family fought in every war since before the revolution and there have been prisoners and wounded in each of those wars. Funny how repugs don't get it but when you have the World Of Warcraft on your game boy it gets confusing.

NMCB 133, Gulfport MS
Construction Electrician 2nd Class