INSPIRATIONAL... not ft hood related, but IMPORTANT
An ‘Older’ Man Joins the Military
American Thinker ^ | December 04, 2009 | Steven Podnos, MD
Posted on Friday, December 04, 2009 2:08:38 AM by neverdem
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400000/posts
I’m part of the first generation in a century that wasn’t bound to war. World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam were the calls to service for every young man (and many women) between the early 1900s and mid-1975. Born as a late boomer, I just missed the final conflict, finishing high school in 1974.
I remember spending a summer in Israel during college and admiring the fact that every eighteen-year-old went into Army service for up to three years. The sense of pride in the young adults serving their country was almost palpable — and much in contrast to the calumny heaped upon the soldiers returning from Vietnam back home. These thoughts were quickly pushed to the back of mind on my return to the U.S., when concerns of family and school took over. A twenty-year career in pulmonary medicine and in raising three children kept my plate full until the last few years.
Being the child of an immigrant from Hitler’s Europe, I had no illusions about just how wonderful a place America is. My wife and I drummed the theme of gratitude into our children over numerous dinners and talks. After 9/11, I followed the war on terror with great interest and a profound sense of thankfulness for those individuals and their families who were making the sacrifice of military service for me and mine.
Mid-life brings reflection on the past and the future. Have we accomplished what we wanted to? Were our goals the right ones? Did the kids turn out okay? What is next? How much time and health are left?
As my children began the process of leaving our home for college, the call to “pay back” for all that I’ve been given began to drum out the background noise of daily living.
The idea that I was “too old” rankled. I began the process of researching service as a volunteer, and then as an active reservist in each of the military branches. After a conversation with a colleague who was serving in the Army Reserve as a physician, I felt some envy over his experience and opportunity to deploy in Europe to help operate on returning injured soldiers. Another physician who had just completed twenty years of active Air Force service related a great sense of satisfaction with his time there. He told me about an intriguing role of Air Force Reserve physicians who provided critical medical support for airborne intensive care units transporting injured soldiers.
I scheduled a meeting with an Air Force recruiter and the medical commander of a local Florida Air Force Reserve medical unit. In talking with them and with other physician members of the reserve unit, I found a group of like-minded individuals. They were motivated by service and patriotism and finding much fulfillment in their part-time reserve duty. Being fifty, I was accepted into the Air Force Reserve by waiving the right to retirement benefits, but with a clear sense of welcome.
Training for the Critical Care Air Transport Team involved spending eighteen months away from home in the Reserve. Following this, I was able to deploy for a month to Europe in October 2009. There, I served as a Critical Care Physician in the Landstuhl Army Hospital ICU (receiving the worst injuries from Afghanistan), and I was on “backup” for transport flights in the European theatre. The medical care there was exceptional in every way. The entire staff worked together with a great deal of spirit and excellence to ensure that our soldiers received the very best care possible.
During my monthly drills at our local Air Force base, and in the three months I have spent on active duty since joining, my choice to join has been rewarding. The quality of military medicine is exceptional, and I find an enthusiasm for service and caring that far exceeds what I experience in the civilian world.
On reflection, I believe my generation missed something in not being called to serve. How many others of my time are out there, “missing something” as I once was? We all seek purpose in life. For most, a marriage and children are the bedrock of purpose, and a career might provide more. I have all this, and am most grateful. But I found I needed more...and I have found that “more” in the military.
Steven Podnos, M.D., is a physician in private practice in Merritt Island, Florida. He is a Lieutenant Colonel in the 920 ASTS, U.S. Air Force Reserve Medical Corps, Patrick Air Force Base, Florida.
Save the SEALs: A serious nation doesn't prosecute its heroesThe fact that this case has come this far shows an astonishing lack of perspective. While these three patriotic young men stand before a military judge to answer a terrorist complaint about an alleged thrown punch, CIA- and Air Force-operated drone aircraft rain hellfire missiles on terror suspects, killing them and anyone who happens to be nearby, whether or not they have the right target. Fighting a war is dirty business. As George Orwell is reputed to have said, "we sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
It's been brought to my attention by several reliable sources that the Defense Department has brought Louay Safi to Fort Hood as an instructor, and that he has been lecturing on Islam to our troops in Fort Hood who are about to deploy to Afghanistan. Safi is a top official of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and served as research director at the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT).
Worse, last evening, Safi was apparently permitted to present a check (evidently on behalf of ISNA) to the families of the victims of last month's Fort Hood massacre. A military source told the blogger Barbarossa at the Jawa Report: "This is nothing short of blood money. This is criminal and the Ft. Hood base commander should be fired right now."
ISNA was identified by the Justice Department at the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing conspiracy trial as an unindicted co-conspirator. The defendants at that trial were convicted of funding Hamas to the tune of millions of dollars. This should have come as no surprise. ISNA is the Muslim Brotherhood's umbrella entity for Islamist organizations in the United States. It was established in 1981 to enable Muslims in North America "to adopt Islam as a complete way of life" — i.e., to further the Brotherhood's strategy of establishing enclaves in the West that are governed by sharia. The Brotherhood's rally-cry remains, to this day, "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Koran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” The Brotherhood's spiritual guide, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who issued a fatwa in 2004 calling for attacks on American forces in Afghanistan, openly declares that Islam will "conquer America" and "conquer Europe."
Men, this stuff we hear about America wanting to stay out of the war, not wanting to fight, is a lot of bullshit. Americans love to fight - traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble player; the fastest runner; the big league ball players; the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win - all the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost, not ever will lose a war, for the very thought of losing is hateful to an American.
Under the Hood is a joint project of the terrorist support groups Code Pink and Iraq Veterans Against the War that is fronted by a disaffected military wife they took under their wing. Its purpose is to prey on vulnerable service members and their families and turn them against America.
Code Pink used the terrorist attack at Fort Hood to raise money for Under the Hood. In their fundraising missives Code Pink excused the mass murders by Nidal Malik Hasan as a legitimate expression of antiwar beliefs.
The news from Fort Hood shocked the nation: American soldiers shot on American soil. Thirteen dead and 38 injured. It was almost too terrible to believe. Almost.
Unfortunately, the Fort Hood rampage was not the first time that our military personnel have been murdered in the United States this year. In June, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad shot and killed an Army private and wounded another soldier at a military recruiting station in Little Rock.
In both cases, the loss of these young soldiers was compounded by a disturbing reality: The assailants had been under investigation by the FBI. In the more recent case, it would be easy enough to point fingers at the FBI. Its counterterrorism agents concluded that Maj. Nidal Hasan's communications with the radical cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi -- an al-Qaeda sympathizer who acted as a "spiritual adviser" to two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers -- were for professional reasons.