Tens of Thousands Waving Flags Turn Out in Cold for St. Louis Tribute to Iraq War Vets

Tens of Thousands Waving Flags Turn Out in Cold for St. Louis Tribute to Iraq War Vets St. Louis parade on Iraq War's end draws thousands By JIM SALTER, Associated Press January 29, 2012

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Looking around at the tens of thousands of people waving American flags and cheering, Army Maj. Rich Radford was moved that so many braved a cold January wind Saturday in St. Louis to honor people like him: Iraq War veterans.

The parade, borne out of a simple conversation between two St. Louis friends a month ago, was the nation's first big welcome-home for veterans of the war since the last troops were withdrawn from Iraq in December.

"It's not necessarily overdue, it's just the right thing," said Radford, a 23-year Army veteran who walked in the parade alongside his 8-year-old daughter, Aimee, and 12-year-old son, Warren.

Radford was among about 600 veterans, many dressed in camouflage, who walked along downtown streets lined with rows of people clapping and holding signs with messages including "Welcome Home" and "Thanks to our Service Men and Women." Some of the war-tested troops wiped away tears as they acknowledged the support from a crowd that organizers estimated reached 100,000 people.

Fire trucks with aerial ladders hoisted huge American flags in three different places along the route, with politicians, marching bands — even the Budweiser Clydesdales — joining in. But the large crowd was clearly there to salute men and women in the military, and people cheered wildly as groups of veterans walked by.

The story is by the AP. The same liberal-obama ass-kissing propaganda arm of the Dems that month after month after 2003 had stories about how hated America was, how many soldiers died, how many protesters there were mocking the military.

It’s an election year for their idol and they want to make him look good. The only time the liberal media cared about our military is when they cover deaths, of which they gleefully write about.

4 posted on Sunday, January 29, 2012 7:33:06 PM by max americana: “The story is by the AP. The same liberal-obama ass-kissing propaganda arm of the Dems that month after month after 2003 had stories about how hated America was, how many soldiers died, how many protesters there were mocking the military. It’s an election year for their idol and they want to make him look good. The only time the liberal media cared about our military is when they cover deaths, of which they gleefully write about.”

Jim Salter, the author of this Associated Press article, has been in my office and we've gone to a local restaurant together. Fort Leonard Wood is part of his coverage area and that means I deal with him directly from time to time. It's not often — at most, a couple of times per year — but it's often enough for me to detect an anti-military agenda.

I do not believe Salter has that agenda.

He is facing the reality of massive cutbacks in the Associated Press and can only cover the most important or urgent of news stories. If anything, he deserves compliments for considering this event to be in that category.

As for the drumbeat reporting of military deaths, I share the concern, but I don't see an easy solution. I've voiced my concern repeatedly to generals and colonels; their response is that even the on-post military newspapers are frustrated that they're not getting news about what the troops are doing that they can print. It got to the point that the wife of one of our former commanding generals publicly complained about the issue, and I don't blame her one bit.

I certainly do not want to ignore deaths of local soldiers, but since we rarely hear what soldiers are doing while deployed unless they're dead, what choice do we have? I'd love to be able to send a reporter to cover the 5th Engineers, 94th Engineers, various MP units, and other deployed military personnel from Fort Leonard Wood, but I can't possibly afford to do that, and the result is I have to rely on the Army's internal news service which is not generating lots of articles about deployed troops from our post.

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