choice??? uuummmm he had to be recommended for and then apply for admission to the Academy before he was accepted. it WAS a choice.
Posted on 11/27/2008 2:15:57 AM PST by antiunion person
A man speaking broken English cried through the radio. Something about an attack. Shots fired. Grenades launched. Pirates.
Aboard the U.S.S. Peleliu, the officers in charge expected such distress calls. On that day, Aug. 8, the ship was stationed in the Gulf of Aden, a strip of water between Yemen and Somalia known among seafarers as Pirate Alley. The hijacking was 10 miles from the Peleliu, close enough for the ship to send out rescue teams.
Steering one vessel was Jonathan Johnston, a 24-year-old Navy lieutenant junior grade. He maneuvered toward the Gem of Kilakarai, the cargo ship from Singapore under attack by two boats full of Somali pirates. Within minutes, the pirates caved to threats from Johnston’s team and skulked off, toward the horizon. Johnston had commanded a mission that thwarted the attack, an achievement that would earn him the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal. As much as he wanted to rejoice, to remind himself that being an officer in the Navy is about protecting people and saving lives, Johnston couldn’t.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
Maybe this guy would like the same deal Pat Tillman got?
How long was your initial enlistment? Sometime about your retelling of events doesn’t sound correct.
Comparing Robinson and McCallum, who both whined about and attempted to get out of their commitments, with Staubach is Bravo Sierra.
“He didn’t have a choice, he was sent to a naval academy which demands a commitment to the navy for several years after you graduate...”
Well, sure, he had a choice! I know we’re in violent agreement about this, but humor me: he wasn’t sent to the Naval Academy, he chose to attend, and went through an exhausting and extremely competitive process to be selected to attend, the Naval Academy - he ASKED FOR IT! Bitching about serving later greatly increases the p*ssy factor here. I have great respect for the folks on the front line, but no sympathy for a whiner.
Colonel, USAFR
Give me a break, you freakin' wussy.
You think you're the only one that ever had to respond to the call?
You're an Officer, a leader of men?
Turn in your stinking papers, quisling, and go back to your silly little county-wide baseball league.
I got no sympathy for you.
“Officers. Ptooey!”
That’s an awfully f**kin’ big generalization there, sparky. I served. I continue to serve. As do 95% of my fellow officers in all services.
Colonel, USAFR
Thanks for lending us your son, and for his service. I pray for his safety and that of his shipmates.
Colonel, USAFR
choice??? uuummmm he had to be recommended for and then apply for admission to the Academy before he was accepted. it WAS a choice.
I was under the general impression that parents sent their kids to military academies to ‘straighten them out’. I suppose I was wrong...
In high school, maybe. In fact, with some regularity. The collegiate military academies are a completely different story. Happy Thanksgiving!
Two diffrent species.
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Insert as needed.
<})Bo)
A Ted Williams Jonathan isn’t!
“Anyrate, hunting pirates would be alot more fun than pro baseball.”
Well, not necessarily. I gave up my chance because I didn’t think I could feed my family on minor-league pay. There hasn’t been a summer since that I haven’t questioned that decision.
There are some who think baseball is just a fun game, just as they think chasing pirates is a fun game. Some of us would disagree with both views but for different reasons. As for me... if there were a time machine to take me back to my youth, the only pirates I’d be worried about play in Pittsburgh.
Let me revise & extend...McCallum & Robinson finally wised up to serve their commitment...albeit with a bit of whine...Staubach of course served with distinction during Vietnam. The Navy, in their infinite wisdom, thought McCallum and Robinson would be more useful to the Navy as reserve officers with more notoriety because of their athletic prowess. Is that unfair to the young midshipman who gets with the program and serves in the Fleet? Life, like the military, ain’t fair.
Neither McCallum & Robinson, IIRC, would have bumped ADM Halsey from the history books as a great naval tactician.
The point here is that Johnston needs to wise up and serve the rest of his commitment, whether he takes the examples of McCallum/Robinson or (as we’d all hope) Staubach as an example to emulate.
Young lieutenants do make mistakes—
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