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On being un-American
Take a look at this photo. Let me tell you what it is. That is an M1A1 Main Battle Tank. It weighs over 60 tons, is armed with a 120mm main gun, two M240 7.62mm machine guns, and one Browning M2 .50 machine gun. It can move at over 30 miles an hour. It can fire on targets 2 miles away, and hit them, while moving. It is as American as American gets. And I spent 4 years of my life learning to defend all of you from your enemies using one just like it.
Now, I bring this up for one simple reason: I didn’t get shot at by communists so that you people could cast the term “un-American” at each other because you can’t agree on which of the two wonderfully horrible candidates President is the worst. You need to shut up with that crap. Because un-American is someone who looks through the sights of his 12.5mm machine gun, points it at some poor GIs hanging out in the woods, and pulls the trigger.
Also, I’m always looking for an opportunity to post a photo of a tank.
Published in General
I don’t see a ton of difference between those, but no matter.
I wrote this post because it seems that increasingly, the argument is “I don’t agree with you and you are an idiot and don’t care about America.”
I was going fishing with my now deceased friend Bert. Bert was at Pearl Harbor, Tarawa, and Saipan. The radio was on when the patriot act came up. He slammed his hand down on the dash of my car and said,”I didn’t kill all those Japs so the government could spy on me!”.
Needless to say he earned the right to whatever opinions he had.
Yeah, I don’t see a lot of difference between them either, but it is leading to a lot of rancor. I completely agree with you that we ought to avoid the rancor and insults.
love that M1A1!!
My wife’s dad, also now dead, was at Tarawa. He had plenty of opinions too. And there is no arguing with a WWII vet. You just nod your head. Because dey is bad ass, and you ain’t.
“Yes, sir.”
Well, I don’t think I called any members “anti-American” but I have used that term in describing Obama and Hillary. I have tried really hard to refrain from calling out Ricochet members. Ricochet Contributors and Podcasters, however, seem deserving of ire. I thought about flagging myself when I used the word “Quislings” but I left it alone. That was soon far exceeded by the language that ensued. So, I am just doing my part to keep the “conversation on the center-right” civil.
My dad served on a different kind of tank. During WWII he enlisted in the Navy at age 17. He volunteered for the Submarine Service. He completed Submarine School shortly before he turned 18. His first two war patrols were in the books before his 19th birthday. His Asia-Pacific campaign ribbon contains 4 battle stars. He has a Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon with one battle star, and a Submarine Combat Pin with 3 stars that indicate 3 or more combat engagements.
He was asked to come back to the boats after he earned his college degree and offered a regular commission, and he did. When my brothers and I were in high school it was at the height of the hippie movement. He told me that it was all well and good to march to the beat of a different drummer, but it sure screws up the parade. He used a stronger word than “screws”.
I was going to go in to the Navy and be on submarines, but they didn’t offer enough college money. So I joined the Army and chose land submarines instead.
You guys are awesome.
So, did one actually have to say “God damn America” or does sitting quietly and not objecting when someone else said it count?
Hmmm, as a former squid once told me, what goes up must come down, but what goes down does not necessarily have to come back up. not sure that applies to tanks.
As Stephen Vincent Benét reminded us in The Devil and Daniel Webster, Wampanoag chief Metacomet aka King Philip (who led a war against the colonists,) Loyalist Walter Butler (the Loyalist officer whose troops and associated Indians perpetrated the massacre at Cherry Valley in 1778,) Simon Girty (who defected from the Patriot camp to fight for the King in the American Revolution,) the pirate Edward Teach aka Blackbeard, Benedict Arnold, and John Hathorne, a fanatical judge at the Salem witch trials, were all Americans and all played a role in making America what it was.
And so was William M. “Boss” Tweed, whose true heir the Clintons are. Let no one say she is not American.
God I love tanks.
Thats was not right. However I spent 4 years in one of these…
To be told repeatedly, by contributors and commentators to this site, that I’m essentially a Fascist. If the rhetoric is overheated the #NeverTrumpers have certainly done their share to stoke the fire.
Maybe things can settle down around here after the election is over.
Spin, just a hypothetical question here. Say for some reason — the usual tank driver goes into cardiac arrest, that tank’s the only thing standing between our enemies and us, and no one else knows how to drive it, either — I need to hop into that thing and do the needful. What basic, easy-to-remember pointers can you give me about how to do it? I’m looking for sort of an M1A1 version of this guide.
My son is in the IDF Armored Corps. It’s actually the way a lot of guys who are in generally good health except for a touch of asthma manage to get into a combat unit. The main training base in the Negev is probably one of the worst places for an asthmatic, but never mind.
Do you Americans learn to make coffee and grilled cheese sandwiches on the tank too?
As a former fast attack submariner I do enjoy the display of the might of our arms.
Also could not agree more that I have seen no evidence of Anti-American sentiment regardless the level of passion surrounding the upcoming choices for president.
I am here for the spectrum of opinions, and thoughts that exist n the center right community.
Who at Ricochet are you referring to?
We had a platoon of tanks attached to our battalion in Iraq in 2005. The platoon commander was 1stLt Slater. I loved those guys.
Lt Slater, Tank Platoon Cmdr, Hadithat Iraq 2005
I’ll never forget when one of our mobile assault platoons was ambushed by a massive truck borne SVBIED (suicide vehicle improvised explosive device) in Haditha as they patrolled near the hospital. The enemy attacked from prepared positions inside the hospital using pintel mounted machine guns, and eventually set fire to the hospital. What a horrific night. One of our guys was awarded the navy cross, another the silver star. The wounded and dead were piled into a 7-ton truck and the mobile assault platoon high tailed them back to the dam. The tank platoon arrived on station to take charge while they did that. Lt Slate didn’t hesitate to lose his infantry support, he told them he would hold the area. And he did.
Later, the enemy managed to melt one of our tanks. That was a very terrible story.
I didn’t think Lt Slate was very religious, but he got some international controversy by naming his tank “The New Testament.” I always took the name to be a boast, that his tank and its power was the new boss in town, but the press claimed that it “proved” that we were in a new crusade. He was forced to rename the tank. So he named it “Pimp Juice.” No one seemed to object to that name, though if you think about it for half a second it could be considered extremely vulgar.
Too funny — that happened on my morning commute. Then, to make it more interesting, someone attached a bomb to it that would explode if the tank went below 30 mph.
I would post my resume like many others, but I was in Air Force intel, which is as far from the front line as you can get and still be in uniform. :)
My first respect for tanks came in 1985 when I was a second lieutenant at The Basic School. My squad was assigned to be “aggressors,” which meant we were to pretend we were the bad guys. We were assigned to defend David’s Cross Roads against a tank assault. What a magnificent sight to see these huge, loud, extremely menacing hulks racing towards us. Even in peacetime where you know that they don’t intend to hurt you, they get your attention in a visceral way.
The ultimate sport utility vehicle.
Nice try, Claire. Come back when you know the secret handshake.
Ah, the air force. It’s so nice to almost be in the military. ?
Seriously, though, there isn’t much chance of this scenario. If the drive is out of commission, another of the four member crew will take over. If there are none of them to take over driving, there’s no point in anyone else doing it.
However, you may be called upon to hump rounds, and you can learn to do that here.
Did you know a guy named Mike Dukakis? Maybe he was in a different armored unit.
I once cooked a pheasant using the heat from the engine. Does that count?