A Little Hill in Arlington

There’s a little hill in Arlington
Where no bodies are interred
Yet crosses dot the hillside
And Taps are sometimes heard

Unlike the Unknown Soldier
With “unknowns” in the ground
This little hill in Arlington
Is for soldiers never found

I grew up without a father
He was gone when I was four
Flying for the Air Force
Back in the Korean War

His plane was ore’ the Azores
When communications ceased
The search went on for days and days
They never found a piece

My mother raised four children
Each day she learned to cope
She said until a body’s found
We’d never give up hope
The years went by just waiting
And my mother, bless her soul
Held on until her very end
To a grieving widow’s role

For fifty years we children
Had no resting place for Dad
No gravesite and no marker
No closure ever had

Then on little hill in Arlington
Where no bodies are interred
We raised a simple white cross
Dad’s Taps were finally heard

My big sister got the folded flag
And we all shed the tears
That had been bottled up inside us
For all those fifty years

Now Dad, he has a resting place
With other fallen sons
On a quiet little hillside
Right here in Arlington

Mdailey
01/27/09
I know I posted this on another blog but with Memorial Day tomorrow, it deserves to be posted here on this military centric blog.

Skirting the Issue

From a weekly staff report

STAT # 16 is pursuing a request for information to lower crew compartment operating temperatures on vehicles equipped with gun turrets. Suggestions received to date include a gunner’s skirt, camouflage sun screen and application of insulating material. STAT #16 will also work with a team conducting temperature data study.
----------------------------
The above note came from the talking papers and I am not sure we have thought this all through. I can understand how putting the gunner in a skirt might make him feel a little cooler. And I suppose he will need to put sun screen on those exposed legs to keep from getting a sun burn so camouflage sun screen is probably a good way to go. And I suppose you will need to insulate the metal around his turret so that when he sits down or bends over he does not burn the back of his legs. But what I don't understand is how this is going to lower crew compartment temps - unless the laughter generated by the rest of the crew has some cooling benefit that I simply never noticed before.

Mike - - - - - - - - -
But then I was told to put it in rhyme to bring it up to my standards.

Skirting the Issue


I’m not sure we have thought this all through
This action to cool down the crew
But the team says we need it
So I say we heed it
Now here’s what we’re going to do

We can put that poor guy in a skirt
But the sunburn he’d get would sure hurt
So that’s why the sunscreen
We’ll use Camouflage Green
They think that these actions will work

So the gunner’s legs now are exposed
And the metal’s all hot I suppose
And so he can sit
We will insulate it
For that’s what the team has proposed

But how does this get the crew cool
Sitting below on a stool
Tell me how if you please
Is their laughter a breeze
That works like a new cooling tool

So now you know all that I know
About cooling the crew on the go
The Buck may stop here
But relief must appear
As a cooling breeze from down below

Mdailey
09/20/07

Donkey Launched Rockets

From the “Did you Know File “… “Donkeys are commonly used by the Iraqi Military to launch rockets.”
My reaction - - -

Comments on this I must pass
Even I must react with some class
What I don't understand
Why they don't use a man
I mean - who wants to be shot by an ass!

When a co-worker notified me of a spelling error in an Army press release, I sent him this repsonse - - -

So its spelling you're checking on now
And you think that I care some how
You can continue to bitch - sure
But take in the big picture
Let the details slip by - Holy Cow!

Mdailey
10/22/07

Women in Uniform

I have the highest regard and respect for women in the Service. But sometimes - - - -



Women & Grenades

Women in battle are something to fear
Statistics have shown you don't want to stand near
A gal with grenade with throwing in mind
Can't pull the old pin 2 times out of 9
And those that do pull it and throw it - well then
Can't clear safety zones 4 times out of 10
So if you're in battle and grenades must be thrown
Let the girl keep on shooting - throw one of your own

I don't mean to belittle our women in Service
But women with weapons just make me nervous

Mdailey
12/04/07
============

It may sound like a joke, but this is a serious matter – the German policewoman who came up with the idea said normal bras with underwire or plastic can be dangerous when worn in combination with a bullet-proof vest.

Bullet-Proof Bras


If your bra has underwire
Metal, plastic, you’d expire
When bullets hit your safety vest
And push those hard things in your chest
So German female cops sequester
Bras of cotton, polyester
To wear beneath protective clothing
Though the look is somewhat loathing
They’re changing all their attitudes
To holster and protect their boobs


Mdailey
08/05/08

Sixteen Months

Analysts debate feasibility of Obama's Iraq withdrawal plan
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., National Journal
In 2002, a little-known Illinois state senator named Barack Obama launched himself onto the national stage by opposing the invasion of Iraq. As a presidential candidate, Obama laid out a 16-month timeline, starting on Inauguration Day and ending in summer 2010, to withdraw major combat forces from Iraq. The Iraqi government, meanwhile, has insisted on a Status of Forces Agreement calling for a U.S. withdrawal by the end of 2011. With appologies to Tennesee Ernie Ford or whoever wrote the original song - 16 tons.

16 Months

Some people say a man is made out of mud
Well a soldier’s made outta muscle and blood...
Muscle and blood and skin and bone...
It’s been six years and they want to come home.

You wait 16 months and what do you get??
Out of Iraq or still in there yet.
Now people don’t you quote me cause you all know...
It’s just my goal but it’s the Congress’s show

It was born one morning in the back of his mind
He picked up a pencil and he wrote down the lines
He wrote 16 months in the country that’s all
Out of Iraq if I get the call

You wait 16 months and what do you get??
Out of Iraq or still in there yet.
Now people don’t you quote me cause you all know...
It’s just my goal but it’s the Congress’s show

So if you hear the man talking…better step in line
A lot of men didn’t but someday they’ll find
He’s got one way of talking and another of doing
If you ain’t applauding then you’re probably booing

You wait 16 months and what do you get??
Out of Iraq or still in there yet.
Now people don’t you quote me cause you all know...
it’s just my goal but it’s the Congress’s show


Mdailey
12/16/08
===============
This poem was written following a Congressional hearing on the war in Iraq.

Sixteen Months is “doable”

Congress Daily.com / 24 February 2009: Marine Commander Says Iraq Pullout in 16 Months is “doable”

After spending a year in western Iraq
Major General John Kelly said let’s give it back
Like Obama said back in the campaign
16 months and we’re out; there’s no more we can gain
Kelly, commander of multi-national forces
Said he thinks the people have finally changed courses
Out in Anbar province, the big Sunni leaders
Said we’ll listen to voters, not to the bleeders
And these were the guys that thought violence the best
If they’ve change their mind, why not the rest
If violence is out and good governing in
We can leave Iraq and just say that we win
So let’s start withdrawing – 16 months if we can
Move out of Iraq to Afghanistan
There, maybe our tactics will be more divergent
Kindness to most not just death to insurgents
And eventually we can leave these folks alone
And bring all our soldiers finally back home


Mdailey
02/25/09