A SOLDIER'S PERSPECTIVE
THE WEB'S LEADING MILITARY BLOG SINCE 2004
Update - Please also read this Vietnam Memorial writeup from Ranger Up.
A few Freepers saw damage along almost the entire length of the Vietnam Memorial Wall. They found this damage this morning, when they walked through the area before participating in the Freedom Walk yesterday, September 9..
One of the Freepers, Concretebob, was told by a National Park Service employee that the damage was done on Friday night. There was no police report taken or written about the vandalism apparently. The damage was still very much there today.
It looks like the person who did this walked along The Wall with some type of container, perhaps hidden at their side so that they could squirt the oily substance without being caught in the act.
Here are a few of the photos that Mrs. Trooprally took yesterday…
This is the problem with the anti-war crowd. They don’t understand how to respect anything they don’t agree with. These are the same people who like to chant “bring the Soldiers home”. They only want them home so they can further embarrass and tear them down.
Read the rest and see all the other pictures at the Free Republic website.
(12) Readers Comments
Leave a Reply
![[UPDATE] The “Face” of Military Dating Scams – The Wall of Shame](http://militarygear.com/asp/wp-content/themes/LondonLive/thumb.php?src=http://militarygear.com/asp/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/2.jpg&w=53&h=41&zc=1&q=100)
l_67adf48d1a7f4cfb5ad16cbc7155d263
So don't you think you can find the real man on the dating site at all
Anatomy of a Military Dating Scam
Ok, I've been contacted one named Capt. Kennedy James of Dallas Tx, st
CriticalFacts
There is no excuse for this type of vandalism (or any vandalism for that matter). But I think it is a knee-jerk stretch to blame this on the anti-war crowd. Indeed, it could have been a common teenage prank perpetrated by children of current soldiers for all we know.
Lauren
No matter who did I think it is disgusting whether it be a disrespectful teenager or a anti-war person.
No matter what is done to deface war memorials it will not change anything for any of who respect them.
brat
Have posted Devildog’s original email to me on MySpace – along with the email addies for the White House – and linked to your post Patriot. Thank you. I agree that no matter WHO did this, we cannot sit quietly and allow such degradation of sacred memorials such as this.
Donna
OMG what a shame! This is just deplorable! They need some kind of surveilence to catch these people!
GailAlison
Sorry CJ I’m about to say a LOT of very naughty words. Destruction of Sacred ground should be a felony. Punishable by multiple years in jail. I am angry & sad over this.
sue
This is so horrible. This is as Gail said, sacred ground. It is to me, more precious than any of the other monuments to the fallen. The reason being that it was so long in coming, and it was, in a way, the ONLY way that this nation said thank you and paid respect to those who so richly deserved it, for fighting in Viet Nam. Those men and women got no heroes welcome home.
For this reason, this act becomes even more despicable.
kAT IN gA
*speechless*
how. dare. they.
Jim Baxter
Every September, I recall that is more than half a century (62 years) since I landed at Nagasaki with the 2nd Marine Division in the original occupation of Japan following World War II. This time every year, I have watched and listened to the light-hearted “peaceniks” and their light-headed symbolism-without-substance of ringing bells, flying pigeons, floating candles, and sonorous chanting and I recall again that “Peace is not a cause – it is an effect.”
In July, 1945, my fellow 8th RCT Marines [I was a BARman] and I returned to Saipan following the successful conclusion of the Battle of Okinawa. We were issued new equipment and replacements joined each outfit in preparation for our coming amphibious assault on the home islands of Japan.
B-29 bombing had leveled the major cities of Japan, including Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, Yokosuka, and Tokyo.
We were informed we would land three Marine divisions and six Army divisions, perhaps abreast, with large reserves following us in. It was estimated that it would cost half a million casualties to subdue the Japanese homeland.
In August, the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima but the Japanese government refused to surrender. Three days later a second A-bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. The Imperial Japanese government finally surrendered.
Following the 1941 sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese admiral said, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant…” Indeed, they had. Not surprisingly, the atomic bomb was produced by a free people functioning in a free environment. Not surprisingly because the creative process is a natural human choice-making process and inventiveness occurs most readily where choice-making opportunities abound. America!
Tamper with a giant, indeed! Tyrants, beware: Free men are nature’s pit bulls of Liberty! The Japanese learned the hard way what tyrants of any generation should know: Never start a war with a free people – you never know what they may invent!
As a newly assigned member of a U.S. Marine intelligence section, I had a unique opportunity to visit many major cities of Japan, including Tokyo and Hiroshima, within weeks of their destruction. For a full year I observed the beaches, weapons, and troops we would have assaulted had the A-bombs not been dropped. Yes, it would have been very destructive for all, but especially for the people of Japan.
When we landed in Japan, for what came to be the finest and most humane occupation of a defeated enemy in recorded history, it was with great appreciation, thanksgiving, and praise for the atomic bomb team, including the aircrew of the Enola Gay. A half million American homes had been spared the Gold Star flag, including, I’m sure, my own.
Whenever I hear the apologists expressing guilt and shame for A-bombing and ending the war Japan had started (they ignore the cause-effect relation between Pearl Harbor and Nagasaki), I have noted that neither the effete critics nor the puff-adder politicians are among us in the assault landing-craft or the stinking rice paddies of their suggested alternative, “conventional” warfare. Stammering reluctance is obvious and continuous, but they do love to pontificate about the Rights that others, and the Bomb, have bought and preserved for them.
The vanities of ignorance and camouflaged cowardice abound as license for the assertion of virtuous “rights” purchased by the blood of others – those others who have borne the burden and physical expense of Rights whining apologists so casually and self-righteously claim.
At best, these fakers manifest a profound and cryptic ignorance of causal relations, myopic perception, and dull I.Q. At worst, there is a word and description in The Constitution defining those who love the enemy more than they love their own countrymen and their own posterity. Every Yankee Doodle Dandy knows what that word is.
In 1945, America was the only nation in the world with the Bomb and it behaved responsibly and respectfully. It remained so until two among us betrayed it to the Kremlin. Still, this American weapon system has been the prime deterrent to earth’s latest model world- tyranny: Seventy years of Soviet collectivist definition, coercion, and domination of individual human beings.
The message is this: Trust Freedom. Remember, tyrants never learn. The restriction of Freedom is the limitation of human choice, and choice is the fulcrum-point of the creative process in human affairs. As earth’s choicemaker, it is our human identity on nature’s beautiful blue planet and the natural premise of man’s free institutions, environments, and respectful relations with one another. Made in the image of our Creator, free men choose, create, and progress – or die.
Free men should not fear the moon-god-crowd oppressor nor choose any of his ways. Recall with a confident Job and a victorious David, “Know ye not you are in league with the stones of the field?”
Semper Fidelis
Jim Baxter
Sgt. USMC
WW II and Korean War
Job 5:23 Proverbs 3:31 I Samuel 17:40
http://www.choicemaker.net/
GailAlison
I got this in an email….
Patriots and Comrades All:
After several attempts, I was able to contact SGT Booker
of the National Park Service (NPS), to check on the facts
about the defacement of the Vietnam Wall last weekend. He
explained it was a cleaning accident by a Park Ranger and
NOT a defacement as was originally reported by the Vietnam
Veterans of American (VVA). The NPS is regarding this as
an accident instead of an act of vandalism or terrorism.
Our National Commander Patriot Henry Cook III has the
direct phone numbers for SGT Booker of the NPS, and can
verify these facts with him directly. A copy of this
correction is also being sent the VVA for their follow up
and verification. My apology for the error, as sometimes
it is not always possible to reach the NPS immediately.
Any future report of attempted or actual vandalism will
be verified with the NPS in advance, even if that means a
significant delay in reporting the incident.
Yours in Patriotism,
Steve Cobb
Commander
Region I, MOPH
NE/Mid-Atlantic USA
Military Order of the Purple Heart
Doug Grissom
It was vandalism. I saw the damage on Sept. 15th. Check link for news in the washington post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091800788.html?tid=informbox
Taylor
How HORRIBLE!!!
This kind of behavior makes be want to cry.
The person responsible for this is not only vandalized a precious memorial, but also disrespected the soldiers on that wall that gave their lives for all Americans. That most likely includes the vandalist.
A mark on a wall.
It may not seem
Like a big deal,
But I agree
That this mark on the wall
Of our Vietnam saviors
Is tearing me apart.
Who has such behavior?
This kind of disrespect
Makes me want to cry.
Who would do such a thing,
And, more importantly, why?
The person responsible
Must certainly be found.
We can’t have such people
Just running around.
It maybe an accident,
But is that really the truth?
It is hard to say.
It’s hard to believe that’s the truth.
Pingback: ASP's 2007 Year In Review « A Soldier's Perspective