To Our USN Veterans, We Have The Watch.

To All Veterans who have retired from the United States Navy, rest assured, as my husband, QM2 (SW) Felt has relieved you from your watch. He has taken YOUR guidance, YOUR wisdom, YOUR leadership, and YOUR honor, courage and commitment, to become a Sailor who proudly would give his life for what you preserved for all of us today. God Bless our Military, God Bless their families, God Bless our Military Veterans, and God Bless the United States of America.

To the Veterans who have served, I honor you.
To the Veterans who still serve, I honor you.
To the Veterans who we have lost, I honor you.
To the Veterans lost at Fort Hood, I honor you.

The Watch

For twenty years,
This sailor has stood the watch

While some of us were in our bunks at night,
This sailor stood the watch

While some of us were in school learning our trade,
This shipmate stood the watch

Yes…even before some of us were born into this world,
This shipmate stood the watch

In those years when the storm clouds of war were seen
brewing on the horizon of history,
This shipmate stood the watch

Many times he would cast an eye ashore and see his family standing there,
Needing his guidance and help,
Needing that hand to hold during those hard times,
But he still stood the watch

He stood the watch for twenty years,
He stood the watch so that we, our families,
And our fellow countrymen could sleep soundly in safety,
Each and every night,
Knowing that a sailor stood the watch

Today we are here to say:
“Shipmate…the watch stands relieved.
Relieved by those YOU have trained, guided, and lead
Shipmate you stand relieved…we have the watch!”

“Boatswain…Standby to pipe the side…Shipmate’s going Ashore!”

–William Whiting, 1860

My Letter to Malik Nadal Hasan, Murderer

Malik Nadal Hasan~Murderer and Terrorist,

Please note I did not start this letter by calling you Major Malik Nadal Hasan. That would imply you are a Soldier and a proud member of the United States Army, which you are not. You wore a uniform, you collected a tax-payer paycheck, but you were never and are not now a Soldier. You were a agent and arm of radical Islam. You may have fooled many and continue to fool some, but you do not fool me.

I am a Navy wife. My husband is not stationed at Fort Hood. I do not know any of the people you injured and murdered personally. He has never been on Iraq soil. But, you have change the course of my life, hours away in Corpus Christi.

In the weeks and days before a true Soldier, Sailor or any member of the Armed Forces deploy, there is a sense of panic looming in their house. Days are not named Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, yet they are named 10 days before he leaves, 9 days before he leaves, etc. On that Thursday morning, a wife somewhere in Fort Hood was living her day, not as a Thurday, not as the 5th of November, but as 2 days before her husband left. She had a sense of impending doom. But that doom was not scheduled that day, that doom was safely at bay until he deployed. Until you entered into her husbands path.

You were delusionally fighting a holy war that none of those Soldiers knew they were in the midst of. You woke up that morning, you carried those concealed handguns, you walked into that building, and you made these Soldiers a part of YOUR war that was in YOUR head. But it wasn’t a war was it Hasan? A war has rules. A war makes sure both sides are armed. A war does not attack innocent people. You were a butcher. You were a coward. Instead of standing beside these brothers who would have given their LIFE to protect YOURS in Iraq, you decided to smile, and pretend to be a Hero as you plotted their deaths. You have fooled many, but you do not fool me.

A terrorist does not wear a shirt identifying them as a terrorist. A terrorist does not announce his plans for murder before carrying them out. A terrorist does not remove himself from a situation that provides him a chance to take out as many Americans as possible. If you are not a terrorist, then I don’t know what is. Your costume was an Army uniform. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. You may have fooled many, but you do not fool me.

Now, that sense of peace that I have knowing my husband is safely home on American soil, has been destroyed. No longer may I say “Come Home Safe” because our home is not safe. I can no longer rest easy knowing his brothers in arms are around him, as one of them may be like you. I was fooled into thinking we were safe, but you showed me.

13 Heroes died at your hand. 13 people had wives, husbands, children, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, grandparents who were counting down to the day they would be in danger. 13 people were counting down to the wrong day. You fooled them, but no longer will you fool us.

I am glad you lived. I know for a period of time you were in a drug induced coma. Many medical professionals do this when the pain is too great for the mind to handle. Well, you should have been awake, I am awake, those wounded are awake, and the families of those Heroes fallen are awake. And like you, our pain is too great for our minds to handle. You do not get the pleasure of the death you say you treasure greater than life. Life for you is worse than death. And you deserve a fate worse than death.

You have fooled your family into believing you were a Soldier. You fooled Soldiers into thinking they could count on you. You fooled the mainstream media into thinking no Soldier could plan a terrorist attack like you did. You fooled people into believing you were not a threat. I wonder…how will your life be now? After living your lie for so long, after so many loved and embraced you simply for a commitment to Country, how will your life be now knowing you do not fool us anymore?

Living in the Comforting Arms of my God,

Jenifer

I’m Not A President, But I Do Play One On TV

“Character is defined by what you do when no one is looking”~JC Watts

Luckily, not every President’s term in office has the daunting task of speaking to the American people about a tragedy so great that people look to them for comfort. But, almost every President has made a speech about a tragic incident during their term. So far, in the 10 months Obama has been in office, we have heard two such speeches made by him. The first was regarding the botched and blatantly rigged election in Iran and the subsequent uprising. The next was in connection with the horrific massacre at Fort Hood Army Base in Texas. One was not as personal as the other but both were equally reprehensible, as were the remarks given to us by Obama on them.

In the beginning of Obama’s comments on the Fort Hood he said this, and I quote:

“I planned to make some broader remarks,” he told the crowd. “But as some of you might have heard there has been a tragic shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.”

Well, we are so sorry your Majesty. We know that when someone shoots up American Soldiers on their own soil days before they deploy to Iraq, that such said maniac should check with you first to make sure it doesn’t interrupt your speech! The only other time I can remember such an act of blatant disregard for the feelings of a President is in 2001 when Al Queda decided to fly some planes into buildings right when Bush was reading a book to some school children. How rude!

The next sentences Obama said surely mentioned the slayings right? I mean after that statement he must have said something to smooth things over. Let’s see shall we?

“I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It’s good to see you,”

There are a plethora of blameworthy undertones and outright ignorance in that statement. Dr. Joe Medicine Crow has won medals in his life, the Congressional Gold Medal and earlier this year Obama himself awarded him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Never has Dr. Crow won the Congressional Medal Of Honor.The Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom are the two highest awards given to civilians. You think that if you gave him one of the awards, you would know what award it was. You’d think, but you’d be wrong. To salt the wound a bit more, he said “give a shout out”. Was he on a call in talk radio show? A shout out? Really? Dr. Joe Medicine Crow is 96 years old! Do you think he has even a inkling of what a shout out actually is? Remarkable. The only way he could have made it worse would have been to say:

“I wanna give a shout out to my homeslice and nigga Dr. Joe Crow. You da man.”

If your mind is inquiring what it would be like if other Presidents had done what Obama did speaking on a tragedy…let me give you an idea.

George Bush on 9/11: “I was trying to finish reading Red Fish Blue Fish to some kids at a school, but I couldn’t. Most of you know by now that some planes crashed into buildings. I hear Harry Whittington is here today I wanna give him a shout out. Good to see my Vice President hasn’t shot you in the leg again.”

FDR on Pearl Harbor: “I was going to teach my wife how to become a ghost and chat with a First Lady in the year 2000, but unfortunately those pesky Japs bombed a harbor in Hawaii. I hear that Daddy Warbucks is here and I wanted to give a shout out to him and Little Orphan Annie. Let’s sing “Tomorrow” together in the Oval Office later.”

At the beginning of this blog post I quoted JC Watts. If character is in fact defined by what you do when no one is watching, what then does that say about what Obama does when he KNOWS people are watching?