NBC Pounces on the Jessica Lynch Story

By SKillBot April 10, 2003 8:09 PM

"NBC is attempting to get official rights to her story but is willing to proceed with a script based on news reports and other public information", Daily Variety said yesterday.

CBS reportedly is considering pitches for a Lynch TV movie but has yet to decide whether to proceed.

| comments: 27

Reader Discussions:

Post YOUR opinion too!

rtre   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on June 2, 2003 5:17 AM

teert

Jessica Lynch   reply

Posted by Warlance (warlance_vn@yahoo.com) on June 3, 2003 10:24 PM

She was a POW, and she was rescued - and so were others of her unit.  She is now alive and getting better.  If you do a story you should do it as a team - "Rescue of the 507th"  So she went through something bad, and so did the survivors of her unit.The KIA's died fighting, the POWs went down fighting.  Do a story on all of them - and not just Jessica and the pilots.  Or are you going to continue starring Jessica as Rambo or John Wayne.  She was rescued first, and the others days later.  Let's honor ALL of those lost and captured in "GULF WAR II, the SEQUEL" Let's hear what really happened from all of the survivors of the 507th.  WELCOME HOME 507th

Jessica rescue staged   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on June 7, 2003 9:56 PM

If NBC wants to accept the Jessica Lynch rescue story at face value, the corporation is stupid.  There is a lot of credible information out there now that the "rescue" did not happen as reported by the military and imbedded reporters, that it was a staged event needed for positive press at a time when the war was stalled.  NBC, don't perpetuate the lie.

RE: Jessica Lynch   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on June 8, 2003 8:26 AM

Great title for a movie.

NBC Pounces on the Jessica Lynch Story   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on June 8, 2003 8:28 AM

NBC should forget this story. Find another. It is clear she does not want to be involved in any publicity.

RE: Jessica rescue staged   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on June 16, 2003 12:08 PM

Are you insane?  What "credible" information are you talking about?  Have you ever been in the military?  Were you in Iraq escorting media?  People like you annoy me.  And what's worse, I used to be one.  Not anymore however, think before you write something this stupid.

RE: Jessica rescue staged   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on June 16, 2003 11:58 PM

l

RE: Jessica rescue staged   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on June 16, 2003 11:59 PM

Truth be told, the war on Iraq was goiin no where so why not just further a no nonsense story and take a girl who probably wants nothign to do with this and make her star, serioulsy if bush is really bored dont make up a war then creat fictitous stories about ti, thank you

RE: Jessica rescue staged   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on June 18, 2003 10:53 AM

She was apparently kept in the military hospital and debriefed  i.e.,  threatened, with dire consequences if she told the truth that explains the convienient case of amnesia. The story cooked up by some mid level staff officer is starting to fall apart and they, "the public affairs staffers" are running to cover their tracks and asses. I just hope they don't try to pin this on some Lt.Col or Major or worse yet the Private. The real burden of guile falls upon the system who allowed tiny unqualified and undertrained females on the front lines in the first place. Why were they allowed to fall 12 hours behind the main move in the first place? How come no one had a lensatic or if they did , did they know how to use it ? To comply with political correctness the "ARMY OF ONE" has compromised it's capability.

RE: Jessica rescue staged   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on June 18, 2003 4:40 PM

Right. You probably think
the 1969 moon landing was
satged also.

RE: Jessica rescue staged   reply

Posted by hagan25 (none) on June 18, 2003 11:10 PM

Embellished until it took on a life of it's own. It's not uncommon for the military to use people. Especially low ranking uneducated troops with little or no power. As I said don't fault the system or the junior officers and enlisted, 90% of the time it's created by some desk bound faceless public relations staffer who, quietly backs out of the picture if it begins to fall apart.

RE: Jessica rescue staged   reply

Posted by hagan25 (none) on June 18, 2003 11:15 PM

They should absorb their losses, cut and run before there is are real cans of worms opened. It ain't the done deal, it's the lying to cover up the deal that rattles the cage of the press, and that's from a lifer.

RE: NBC Pounces on the Jessica Lynch Story   reply

Posted by hagan25 (none) on June 19, 2003 9:27 AM

It's a difficult concept for a civilian to grasp but it's not what she wants, or even what's best for her, she's in the ARMY. If those in charge don't drop this charade there is going to recriminations, and those who will have to pay and straighten this whole embarrassment out probably had NOTHING to do with it in the first place. It will effect their military careers if they step on toes of staff officers who got where they are through guile and political maneuvering. All in all its' now a no win situation. I hope the networks don't turn around and pounce on the  prevarication and dig deeper than need be. ust drop the whole thing. Let become a footnote in the action then punish those Officers and NCO's who failed in their duty to plan and lead.Let the ARMY take care of the problem.

RE: Jessica rescue staged   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on June 20, 2003 11:49 AM

I have worked in government agencies and if you think the public is informed accuratly you are the public that makes untruths worth speaking.

the rescue   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on June 22, 2003 8:22 AM

she was behind enemy lines. We were at war. how would you do the rescue? Just waltz in?

RE: the rescue   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on June 23, 2003 9:58 PM

The point these people are making is that she was not behind enemy lines and didn't need rescuing. There were no Iraqi troops in that hospital or anywhere nearby, and the US soldiers just rushed into the place with blanks in their guns and cameras rolling, according to the hospital staff.

The question "how would you do the rescue" is not valid if there was no rescue to do.

the handcart boys   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on July 3, 2003 7:32 AM

Subj: (no subject)  
Date: 6/26/03 4:11:42 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Vanharl
To: Vanharl




IN MEMORY OF:  WOMEN OF VALOR

Share your thoughts on military women who are no longer here,
but left behind a legacy.

Posted:  25 JUN 03
"The Handcart Boys"



Yesterday was a sad day.   I attended the funeral of 1LT. Tamara Long-Archuleta USAF.  She was the copilot of an Air Force HH-60G rescue helicopter that went down in Afhganistan during a rescue mission.  There were six aircrew members killed.  In this message is a poem "the handcart boys."  It was written a few days before 1Lt. Long-Archuleta was killed, but a lot of what happened on that mission is directly related in the body of the poem.  

I sent the poem to the minister that conducted the service for 1Lt. Long-Archuleta and asked him, if he felt the poem was appropreate, to please pass it on to the Long family.  Yesterday to my surprise the poem was used in the eulogy.  

It is becoming very apparent that we can no longer engage in conflict without special ops and helicopters.  The helicopter used in rescue, is the modern-day "handcart."  The handcart is how, down throught history the dead and wounded were removed from the battle field.  Look at the case of PFC. Jessica Lynch and her rescue. It was the "handcart boys" who went in and got her out safely.  

In the Army, artillery is known as the king of the battlefield, infantry is the queen of the battlefield but I would say that helicopter special ops and rescue are the Prince and in case of 1LT. Long-Archuleta the Princess of the battlefield.

We just cannot do it without helicopters.  Think about it, when Marine One lands on the White House lawn.

It was a sad day yesterday with the loss of 1Lt. Long-Archuleta but it was also a wonderful day because the very mission she believed in and gave her life for, "the handcart boys/girls" safely rescued a fellow military member.  There will be one less funeral this week because of the "handcart boys."

Major Van E. Harl USAF Ret.
vanharl@aol.com  


"The Handcart boys"

He's lying in the tree line, blood running down his arm.
Listening for the sound of the Handcart boys, to remove him from this harm.
He flew in on a modern jet that got shot down in this affray.
But he is no different than the wounded at Shiloh, trying to survive, till they safely take him away.


In the dark of the night she waits with so much pain to bear.
Injured in the crash of her aircraft and now this seemly endless nightmare.
Where is the chopper that will lift her from the smoke, the fire and the pain?
Where are the Handcart boys, hurry, her life is beginning to drain?


He was wounded when a round slammed onto the "cruiser's" deck.
Shards of metal are protruding from his arm, shoulder and the right side his neck.
The corpsman has stopped the bleeding; he's been prepared, to be extracted in the night.
The Handcart boys are racing his way, and will be there before first light.


Get in, get them out, and hurry back, inside the safety of our lines.
It has been this way since ancient wars, to the battles of modern times.
The two-wheel Handcart is the way the wounded were removed from battles in past wars.
Our modern Handcart has a rotor-blade and sliding doors.


Look at history, look at artwork, recent photos or at movies if you will.
When it came to removing the wounded and injured off of some war torn desolate hill.
It was a Handcart carrying the broken and the dying with their screams of pain.
It was a Handcart transporting at Normandy in the cold June rain.


Every branch of the service has its modern version of the Handcart boys who respond to the call.
They go out for the wounded and dead, bring them back, get them all.
Some times the Handcart boys are brought back in a Handcart not of their own.
Some times they become the wounded & the dying, and for their efforts, they never come home.


There are also women who work these, latter-day Handcarts and their lives too, are on the line.
It is a dangerous mission, but just as their predecessors they to make that recovery in time.
They move out over the desert, into the night as the sand blows and swirls.
These Handcart operators are our Handcart girls.


I have a two-wheeled wooden handcart with an old worn flag sitting out on my front lawn.
It is not a protest, it's a reminder of our dead, who returned by Handcart, lying there upon.
In order to defend this Nation, we will continue to send the brave & young, our freedom they earn.
And we will always have a need for the Handcarts, for our wounded and dead, they must return.


Major Van E. Harl, USAF Ret.   15 March 2003  
Vanharl@aol.com

RE: the rescue   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on July 3, 2003 5:34 PM

the fact is that we had an American soldier as a POW. We weren't going to let her die. She is one of us and her life and the people that rescue her had to be safe so they wouldn't fall into enemy hands

Awards   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on July 20, 2003 4:06 PM

Did Jessica Lynch qualify for a Purple Heart, POW Medal or Bronze Star OR any special awards.

Is she now a compensible veteral; if so, what per centage??

JEH
WA State
hathaway5522@earthlink.net

"We buried another Veteran today"   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on July 20, 2003 8:23 PM

?We buried another veteran today?

We buried another veteran today.
He went to his God, but from us, he went away.
This one was young, in the prime of his life.
He left twin children and a very courageous wife.

It wasn?t a bullet, a plane crash or a bomb.
It was cancer, and he just finally, could not hold on.
He fought ?it? like a strategic military campaign.
But the time came to surrender, to end his earthly pain.

He knew he would be fine in the presents of his Lord.
But what about his twins, those children he adored?
In their small world, will they grow strong and at ?life? win.
Please God, they are so young, let them always remember him.

We buried another veteran today.
It seems, all my life, it has happened this way.
From my uncles of  the WW II-time frame.
To the military neighbors and friends that Vietnam would claim.

I am not that old, but for me the number of dead, is always on the rise.
When I get a call that another veteran is gone, it is never really a surprise.
From lost sub-mariners, of the Thresher & Scorpion in early days of my life.
To the forever gone, military-medical friends of my veteran wife.

I lost a Korean War veteran friend this year, to a crashed airplane.
I lost a Gulf War friend to cancer, a difference in their age, but still that pain.
I lost an Uncle to cancer who did Korea with the Navy, steaming off shores.
I lost my father-in-law who fought in Korea, from a ?fox-hole? in the frozen outdoors.

We buried another Veteran today.
It seems in all my family?s generations, it happens this way.
From my Revolutionary War Grandfathers who started this sad, but needed trend.
To the family members on both sides in 1861, who just would not bend.

Some of my family veterans lived a long and happy life, after ?their? war.
They died of old age in their bed, safe-behind a locked door.
They died in battle, buried where they fell.
They died years later, carrying emotional scars, in their own personal hell.

My family is no different than thousands who met our Nation?s call.
They rose to the demands of this country and some gave their ?all?.
We have to keep doing this, to make our homeland free.
But, it is that Veteran?s twin-little children that keeps worrying me.

We buried another Veteran today.
It seems all my life it continues to happen this way.
Now my only child is nine and we reside on a military installation.
I truly want her to live in a safe and free nation.

But what happens to her, when it is her-generation?s turn to make a stand.
Do I lose my only child in some forsaken-foreign land?
Does she play it safe, stay home and say ?that?s boy?s stuff?.
Or does she join like her mother and go right into the ruff.

She has to be that one Veteran I don?t see, make that final ?call?.
Let me go before her, let me first give this country my fighting ?all?.
Maybe if I go ?out-there? and make my final stand.
She can stay safe, at home, in this wonderful free land.

?We buried another Veteran today?


Major Van E. Harl, USAF  Ret.
Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi
28 November 2001
vanharl@aol.com

"My daughter has gone to Girl Scout camp"   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on July 20, 2003 8:25 PM

I attended Capt(s) Tamara Long-Archuleta?s funeral, in Belen, New Mexico. She was killed when her HH60G rescue helicopter crashed in Afghanistan.  I live on Kirtland AFB and the HH60Gs fly over my house everyday on training flights. At the funeral her brother had put together a video of her life. There were many pictures of her involved in Girl Scouts in her youth. I took my daughter to Girl Scout summer camp yesterday (24 June 2003). The same camp Tammy went to as a girl scout. C-130s and HH60G helicopters (the one she flew) fly over the girl scout camp all the time on training missions. While we were there an HH-60G flew over and I could not help think of the young girl scout who became and Air Force pilot. Girl Scouting had a major impact on her life. The following poem is about young girls who grow up to be strong young woman. They have to take their productive place in society. No matter how short that time is.

Our daughter has gone to Girl Scout Camp

Our daughter has gone to Girl Scout camp again this year.
She will be out of the house, not very near.
She will be sleeping in a cabin, swatting the bugs
She won?t be at home giving her parents hugs.

This is nothing new for her, she has done it, since the age of six.
It?s her parents who have the problem, their emotions are mixed
They are glad she is out there, learning to stand on her own.
But even with the dogs in the house, it is awful quiet at home.

The daughter will be swimming, singing and running amuck.
Dad will be emotionally lost and for the eighth time this week, washing his truck.
This washing the truck stuff, is something dad and daughter share.
Now he is out in the driveway, with hose in hand, perfecting his ?long lost stare?.

The first year at Scout Camp, was her first time away from home.
We would be without contact for a week, not even a phone.
When we took her to her cabin, we figured, take our time, make the afternoon go slow.
After we had been there 30 minutes she looked up and told us ?you could go.?

This was our baby and she was sending use away.
We walked back to that dirty truck, trying to hold tears at bay.
I guess she is not a baby anymore.
At the end of camp, we are going to have a more mature daughter walk through our door.

We have been hearing of her return to camp for a calendar year.
We would look at her, smile and say ?that?s nice dear.?
At two months out, she had a 60-day countdown.
Arriving at camp, I had barely turned the engine off before she had her bags sitting on the ground.



She was back at camp and ready to get started.
But her first mission of the day, was to make sure her parents had parted.
She did not want them hanging around, crowding her space.
Our daughter was at Girl Scout Camp, this was her place.

So back in the truck, moving on down the ?Trace?.
No need to worry, our daughter is a camping ?Ace.?
She would be at summer camp, two weeks this year.
Two weeks with out her, brings a little tear.

Our daughter has gone to Girl Scout Camp to work on being a better citizen.
If more girls were Scouts, they would be better prepared at life to ?win.?
Make them strong and caring women so they can lead the way.
Make them prepared to work hard, do what is right and seize the day.

Our daughter has gone to Scout camp again for the third time.
We will miss her and talk about her, but we really won?t mind.
She benefits, we benefit and so does our great land.
So with a little parental effort, School and Scouting our daughter will be ready to make her life?s stand.

Our daughter has gone to Girl Scout camp again this year.

Major Van E. Harl USAF Ret. 2 June 2002 vanharl@aol.com

RE:phony and inflated awards   reply

Posted by crtom (crtom@erols.com) on July 22, 2003 7:34 AM

If Lynch deserves a Bronze Star, every other grunt who actually engaged the enemy should get at least a silver star.  She did nothing extraordinary, was in fact so banged up in the initial collision that she was unconscious and helpless, never fired a weapon-the last "brave" thing Jessica did was to enlist to get out of the dead-end backwater of her home town existence. This is all crap, illusion to pump up women and service people in general, pandering to an ignorant, wide-eyed mass who want somebody to worship regardless of whether somebody made them up.
Lynch will rightly deserve the purple heart as she was injured by direct enemy action compensation and, if disabled by her injuries, will probably receive disabled veteran status and be entitled to tax-free pay and life-long free medical care from the VA.  No way she earned the Bronze Star unless they are now being awarded for just eing there while bad things were happening.The citation should read"for providing the US Army a special photo video subject and an opportunity to create a self-serving fantasy." The average, witless American needs to gush at "real" events like they do at contrivances like soap operas and adolescent fantasy movies and "stars", so the lies perpetrated about Lynch are welcomed with frenzy.

THE LADY MACHINE GUNNER GOES TO WAR   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on August 11, 2003 1:00 PM

The Lady Machine Gunner goes to War.


I only met the Lady Gunner once, when she was in grade school.
Her father had come to visit me at Chanute Air Force Base, in the little town of Rantoul.
She was quiet and did not say all that much, in fact I hardly heard her speak.
One might have gotten the wrong impression she was timid or a little meek.

I had known her father?s family since I was in high school.
I would go over to her grandparents house and try to be my ?70s? cool.
Her father was younger than I, and he would hang on my every word.
When I suggested he not join the military, unfortunately these words he heard.

Vietnam had just ended and staying out of the Army was on every ones mind.
I was not going to go into the services either, I admit in those days I was a little blind.
Who was I, giving advice on such an important subject ? I knew so little about.
But the military in those days was something you worked hard, at keeping your children out.

The Gunner?s grandfather was a Cavalry Officer back in 1943.
His old military memorabilia kept in his den, held a strong interest for me.
He started out on Army horses with a scabbard rifle at his side.
He finished that war going through Germany on a long tank ride.

The Gunner wanted to go to college and then on to Medical School.
The Illinois National Guard, with its tuition assistance was just the tool.
Go to basic training and get a technical skill.
Then go back home to college, and just do your weekend drill.

In the Guard she started out as a Medic and then became an Army M.P.
I was a cop in the Air Force, so her being an M.P. was just fine with me.
She attends Eastern Illinois University, out in the prairie, in the land of very few trees.
Again this was fine, that is where I got my masters degree.

I have a tradition of phoning ?old? veterans on Memorial and Veteran?s Day.
The list gets ever longer, but some years my condolences to the family is what I have to say.
The Lady Gunner?s grandfather is at the top of the list, I use to make the call.
Last year on Veteran?s Day I added the Gunner and we talked on the phone in her dormitory hall.

The Lady Gunner?s unit got called up for the second Iraq war and send to Fort McCoy.
I did not get to talk to her this Memorial Day because she was preparing to deploy.
We did a few e-mails and a letter now and then.
Then she went ?in-country? and the communication has gotten rather thin.

The Lady Gunner is now in Iraq trying to sleep at night in that miserable desert heat.
As an MP she works a checkpoint on a dangerous Baghdad street.
In the turret of her Humvee she scans the area for terrorist activity in that town.
Every mindful she is a ready-made target for an RPG round.


I watch the news about the Middle East on TV every night.
I am always looking for the Gunner, in hopes to see, she is all right.
We keep loosing fine young troops to attacks every week.
I keep watching the TV screen, looking for the Gunner on a bloody Baghdad street.

It looks like the Gunner is going to be there for at least a year.
That is a long time to live with a tent, the damned heat and the constant fear.
They don?t really want us there, they allege they want their country back.
But that is politics and for the Gunner, she only needs to worry about the next attack.

My daughter and I send the Gunner a ?care-package? and I heard it finally got there.
We sent a couple of Air Force T-shirts for this Army Gunner to wear.
I hope she uses them and her limited ties to the Air Force not sever.
Because they have American Flags on them and the words ?Freedom-Forever.

We as a nation just need to get this over with and get our troops back-that?s all.
I want her back by next Veteran?s day so I can make my regular ?old veteran?s?call.
This time she will be a combat veteran who has matured beyond her years.
We just want her home, to see she?s well and relieve her family?s fears.

The Lady Gunner has seized the moment and met her Nations Call.
She is not like a lot of young people her age, who have in life, no-clue at all.
She cares; she knows what she needs to do and what is profoundly right.
Please God, keep Lauren safe in that dangerous Baghdad night.

The Lady Gunner goes to War.

Major Van Harl USAF Ret.  4 August 2003 Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, NM vanharl@aol.com











 .

"Korea -- Two generations in country"   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on August 11, 2003 1:02 PM

?Korea--Two generations in country?

I did my time in Korea, in 1983.
It wasn?t really a hardship; I had my wife Dawn with me.
We were both in the Air Force doing a one-year remote on the ROK.
You spend a lot of time checking the calendar and watching the clock.

?I want to go state-side?; I just want to go home.
But it wasn?t really so bad and if we were lonely, we got on the phone.
We could call the family in the ?states? any time day or night.
The mail came twice every day, and you could always write.

We got there in January and could not believe it was so cold.
Come summer it was so hot, the weather was very hard on the sick and old.
But there was no war and no one was getting shot in the middle of the night.
Now what about my father-in-law in 1952 and his combat plight.

John Rausch was an Infantry soldier positioned on what became the DMZ.
There, with his recoilless rifle, watching the north, what would he see?
The enemy trying to kill him, coming south every night,
Serve his country, stay alive and get home, this was his personal fight.

John was unhappy when my wife told him we were headed to Osan Air Base.
He could only remember the cold and the fighting, what a miserable place.
Friends he had shipped over to Korea with were never to come back.
Now his daughter was going to Korea, all he could remember was that bloody nightly attack.

Our tour in Korea involved a lot of training exercises and shopping down in the vil.
John?s tour was living in a sandbag bunker, on a treeless windswept hill.
We ate our meals in the Officer?s club almost every night.
He ate his combat rations, in the cold rain, under a poncho by a single candlelight.

We drove my pick-up truck on a four-lane highway called a Military Supply Route.
John walked on muddy or frozen trails, everyday until he was finally shipped out.
We came home to an airport full of excited family, waiting with bated breath.
John came home to the knowledge, of his sister?s recent illness and death.






We would drive up to Seoul, to the Embassy Club for a dinner of steak.
He would fight the elements of the night, to stay alive; he had to stay awake.
We had a house girl to look after us and clean up our mess.
John had a Korean soldier assigned to him, who suffered like the rest.

Our war was the Gulf War, fought on TV every night.
John?s war, Korea, was fought away from the public?s sight.
America thought we were wonderful freeing those poor people in the sand.
John got home in the middle of the night, minus the Army Brass Band.

As a nation, we just wanted to forget about Korea, that ?Crazy Asian War.?
We just wanted to get on with the good life, sugar and gas rationing--no more.
This nation had already done its best in World War II.
Now they were fighting in a forsaken country, out of sight, out of view.

John hardly had any contact with his family while engaged in those cold & bloody fights.
We on the other hand, brought over a large part of our family to Korea, to shop and see the sights.
They road the luxury trains of Korea from Seoul in the north to Pusan in the south.
John was in his sandbag bunker, living hand to mouth.

For my wife and I, our time in Korea was not unpleasant to say the least.
We worked hard, ate & slept well and went head to head with that ?shopping Beast.?
John earned a Combat Infantry Badge and got out of Korea with his life.
He got back home to Minnesota and married his future wife.

For, two family generations in the military, Korea means different things.
One, it means fighting for your country and the horrors that war brings.
For the other and her husband is was a short stop in a promising military career.
But for both, the thoughts, good and bad of Korea were always near.

Korea has had a major impact on our family?s life.
But I am glad I did my time there, in relative peace with my military wife.
Our daughter is young and I don?t like what I see happening on that Asian shore.
She wants to join the Air Force, but I would like to see her generation stay out of another Korean War.

Major Van Harl USAF Ret., 2 August 2003 Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, NM  vanharl@aol.com

RE: the rescue   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on August 23, 2003 9:57 AM

I quess you were there too.I quess you also believe everything you hear from the media and the alleged witnesses. I also find it humerous for you to say they had blanks !!! Its a war, did you forget that. The Iraqis are going to leave an American soldier unguarded... I can see you have not served a day in the military, let alone take part in any type of covert operation...WAKE UP

RE: RE:phony and inflated awards   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on August 23, 2003 10:02 AM

I could'nt agree more...The real heroes in this are the operators that were involved in the rescue mission (if that ever actually happened)  Of course they feel they did their job, and I agree but lets not make a heroe out of a victim.  She served her country and was injured in her efforts to complete an assignment. Thats all she did, no more, no less.

USS Liberty   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on November 29, 2003 4:05 PM

?Take the ?Liberty? not to forget?


The USS Liberty did not deserve the assault she received.
The Israeli?s were waiting to destroy her, their right, they believed.
They knew she was a US ship that could not fight a combat war.
Their Mirage fighters showed the aggression for our sailors they bore.

Why they did it, why they killed so many American sailors that day
They would never really explain and were never made to pay.
They deliberately fired on our ship, with our flag flying as she sailed.
No one was held accountable; no one ever went to jail.

Where were our forces, that could have come to the Liberty?s aid that day?
Why did they wait for over 90 minutes in their carrier, hangar bay?
Even after they had launched the fighters, they were called back.
How does McNamara stand today without the spine he allegedly lacked?

It?s been said the Israeli?s meant to put the Liberty on the ocean floor.
Blame it on the Egyptians, maybe the US would join their desert war.
Maybe we?d attack Cairo for its alleged dastardly crime.
Had it worked, the Israeli?s would have changed history?s time line.

If the Liberty had sunk, we would have joined Israel?s fight.
It was not enough, we gave them money and our best technical might.
They wanted us killing ?their? enemies with the ferocity they espoused
By putting our sailors in coffins, forever to be housed.

Don?t send hate mail about some misguided anti-Semite.
U.S. citizens, of any religion, have their constitutional rights.
Rise to strike any and all of whom might threaten an American.
Israel cannot be allowed the killing of our sailors, just because they can.

Israel is not alone in accountability for this floating slaughter-yard.
Some of our own ran and hid, when the politics got too hard.
No way were we going to war over the deaths of some U.S. sailor-boys.
Once again, we were the puppets of an Israeli sanctioned ploy.

The State of Israel has the justifiable right to survive.
It?s a tiny nation, forever under their enemy?s watchful eye.
We are not their enemy; we are the best friend they will every get.
But what about those 34 sailors, whose lives were so cruelly, forfeit?

Hah, Hah LBJ, how many sailors did you let die that day?
How many sailors would never return to their children to play?
How many careers were threatened, that to talk would be destroyed?
We would not wage war on our alleged ?friend?, over 34 dead sailor-boys.

The ship?s Captain received the Medal of Honor, in a back-office gloom.
It would not be done in the White House, with the press, in the East Room.
We did not want to offend our ?ally? or send the wrong message out.
Neither, LBJ nor McNamara were seen that day skulking about.

There has to be a reckoning for what was done to our American ship.
Despite the Israeli?s best efforts, the Liberty remained a radar blip.
When the last rounds were fired at her, the Liberty still rode the wave.
We must account for our wounded, of our dead, and for our brave.

It is not over by a long shot; we can?t let this travesty rest.
We demand a reckoning of our lost comrades, for our military?s future best.
Some day the full story of the Liberty will be revealed.
For its survivors, the truth will finally be forever unsealed.

We buried another veteran today.
It seems, all my life, it has happened this way.
This time it was our sailors, to their God they were released.
I pray there comes the day, that brings Liberty families final peace.


Major Van Harl USAF Ret.
16 November 2003
Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico