Let Us Always Remember, But Also Let Us Never Forget

Let us always remember, but also let us never forget.

Today is the 13th anniversary of the attacks on 9/11/2001. I certainly remember where I was and what I was doing that day. I am sure that you do to if you were old enough to remember it. But remember, we now have a generation of young people who have no living memory of those events, yet, they have lived their entire lives under the cloud of the global war on terror.

They will never know the former relative ease of walking onto an airplane. Today, they get to have a personal inspection by a TSA agent. They will not experience those heady years after the fall of Communism, where anything seemed possible. Sure, there were hiccups along the way (Ruby Ridge, Waco, Khobar Towers, Oklahoma City, USS Cole, etc. You get the picture). They have lived their lives learning about Al Qaeda and Terror Threat levels. But do they really understand why all of this happening? It seems that they do not. What does that say about us?

Thirteen years ago we as a society looked at our Police Officers, Firefighters, EMS, and Military Service men and women with a great admiration. How do we look at them today? I am sure many of you still hold them in great regard. But, how does your neighbor look at them? Too many people see them now as a threat. Again, ask yourself why they see them as a threat. What does that say about us?

Americans seem to suffer from constant selective amnesia. We remember only what we want to, excluding all else. The problem is magnified by the impression that it is the whole society doing this, leaving us with a dazed, confused, and forgetful community.

Remember the events on this day. I know I will. Teach them to your children. Remind your neighbor of them. But, also teach your children about the way we were before. Remind your neighbor of how they lived before that day. Yes, we as a people made mistakes and did wrong. We also did things right. 

Remember those things.

"You Don't Choose A Life, You Live One."

"You Don't Choose A Life, You Live One."

This quote comes from a line the movie "The Way" that I watched this summer while at Fort Knox. In a nutshell, the story follows a widower whose only child dies on the Camino De Santiago (CDS) in Europe. As a last minute change of mind and heart, the father chooses to finish his son's pilgrimage, challenging and changing his own life. The CDS is a pilgrimage of about seven hundred miles. Many have died on the trail. Parts of the story are told through flashback discussions between the father and his son. The above quote is from one of those discussions.

In many ways our life's journey is much like a pilgrimage. Much like the father in The Way, we may think that we have our lives down pat. A career, a house, some adversity (but not too much) on the way, a family, yet, many people yearn for a more meaningful life. Some attempt to find this through faith, volunteerism, or diving more deeply into their career. Others chose drugs to "open" their mind. Sometimes we have to allow our lives to be altered in other ways. But what if there was a more profound way to change our lives and find meaning in it. One that accepts the journey, not just the destination.

I think that our life's journeys are made up of the people and relationships that we make along the way. Some are for only a minute, an hour, or a day. Others are longer. A year, several years, decades, or for the rest of our lives.

But, to be honest with ourselves, I think that it even goes deeper than that. Why are we skeptical of the powerful emotions and feelings in our lives? Why do we avoid the mystical experiences that can be had every day? People and experiences change us. They become orbits in our lives, affecting us much like the planets and stars affect each other in their orbits. We become so involved in planning our lives, we forget to live our lives. I am just as guilty as the next person about this. Desiring a modicum of control over the events in my own life drives me batty at times. Other times I can accept the changes both big and small. This is still a challenge in my own life.

Sometimes our dreams and desires change as we journey through our life. I am not talking about mid-life crisis or the permission to leave spouses and go chase the ever elusive happiness somewhere else. Stay with the orbits picture. Think about how a comet can be traveling in the orbit of a much larger star, yet, its own orbit takes it close to a planet that this also orbiting around the same star. Both the comet and the planet can be affected by their close passage to each other. Again, they may pass each other after a brief encounter, yet both are marked by thier passage. Think about somebody from your own life. Somebody who you only briefly knew, yet, you still can recall their name and the circumstances of your meeting.

Why do we avoid the mystical in our lives? Even people of faith are wary of mystics. Is it due to the perceived "all in" nature of mystics? I think that most mystics are just as awed by thier own experiences as would be the rest of us. The biggest difference that I can see on the face of the it, is that mystics are willing to allow themselves, or surrender themselves, to experience such things and are able to recognize it. Much of the hesitantcy that many people feel I think is due to the "noise" that is encountered in our everyday life, much of it intentional. I am not saying to go be a hermit somewhere, but being able to find the quiet in each day, to reflect on the choices made, paths taken, or avoided. Some of our lives are more stories of avoidance than stories of choices. Yet, choosing to avoid something is still a choice, having potentially far reaching effects.

Powerful feelings and emotions we hold close to ourselves have an influence here. We may choose a particular path due strongly held feelings, emotions, and beliefs. I am not asking to change your mind, what I am asking you to do to find out why you feel or believe something. When I was in college I had a particular professor for a Biblical Survey and Thought class. From day one, he was constantly throwing out ideas that ran counter to what I had been raised on in the church. I spent a lot of time in his office arguing against the points that he had brought in class. Then I realized that what he was actually doing was challenging us to find out what we believed and find the proof of it or the faith to believe it. Regardless, I soon found my own faith strengthened due to the study that I had to put into it.

Letting go of our life's plans and dreams can be frightening. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that we have to do this, this letting go of the dream job, the dream home, the dream mate. What I am saying is that we have to be willing to let go of it all.

"We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us."
-Joseph Campbell.

In the military, there is a saying attributed to the unofficial code of war known as "Murphy's Law":
"No plan survives first contact intact."

There is nothing wrong with planning your life. Just be open the possible change that life will bring to your plan.

I Wonder What The Results Would Be, Part Duex

Go here for the original post.

Being on leave for the first time in nine months, I thought would be fun to follow up on some of the questions and ideas that I have been having the last several months. One of them was Rit dying the excellent British Desert DPM Combat Shirt.

Here is how it looks before I dyed it:

I was wearing a pair of old BDU pants for color contrast. So following the instructions I used the bucket or sink method of dying. I took a bucket and filled it with hot water and required amount of salt to assist the dying process. Then for the next thirty minutes I stirred the shirt in the tan dye/water mix. After that I rinsed it in the sink until all the water ran clear. Right away I knew that the results were not what I was intending, which was the entire shirt to be a solid tan color. However, I was determined to see the project through. After hand washing the shirt, I hung it outside to dry. After it was dry, I photographed the results.

In these two photos I chose to wear a pair of khaki shorts that had the same original lighter color in the shirt. As you can notice the lighter color was darkened down. The whole shirt toned down in fact. The interesting thing to me is that the Union Jack did not take any of the color at all. Actually, I began to like the results the more that I looked at it.

I still wonder what the results would be if I were to dye one of these shirts gray or light green. Future projects I guess.

Evil on the March (Reblogged from The American Catholic)

Again, more great reading from The American Catholic Blog.

http://the-american-catholic.com/2014/09/08/evil-on-the-march/ for the whole post and relevant videos.

Some quotes below:

"My favorite living historian Victor Davis Hanson wonders if we are living in a world today where the orcs are winning.

Tolkien’s literary purpose with orcs was not to explore the many shades of evil or the struggle within oneself to avoid the dark side; he did that well enough in dozens of once good but weak characters who went bad such as the turncoat Saruman the wizard, his sidekick Wormtongue, a few of the hobbits who had ruined the Shire, and, best of all, the multifaceted Gollum. Orcs, on the other hand, are unredeemable. Orcs, goblins, and trolls exist as the tools of the even more sinister in proud towers to destroy civilization, and know nothing other than killing and destruction. Their reward is to feed on the crumbs of what they have ruined."

"So we wait behind our suburban Maginot Lines, arguing over our quarter- and half-measure responses, refighting Iraq and Afghanistan as if they were the Somme and Verdun, assured that we can distract ourselves from the horrors abroad with psychodramas about Ferguson, the president’s golfing, his lectures on fairness, and which naked celebrity photo was hacked on the Internet.

Meanwhile the orcs are busy and growing and nearing the ramparts…"

And my favorite: "We are about to have a costly lesson in what foolishness that truly is."

Battle Belt Evolution (Edited on 9 September to include more pictures)

Almost a year ago I was intrigued by a post on Max Velocity's excellent blog. He detailed his start on the concept of a battle belt. I had long been contemplated something similar. Then with the purchase of one item, the Condor Padded Belt, I put together the following.

I used a SPEC OPs belt as the inner belt, a multi-cam Condor 2 magazine pouch which has been cut down, a Gerber multi-tool, a Condor Rifle Bag pouch being used as a first aid and survival pouch, and SOG SEAL Pup knife completed the belt. I have had that particular knife for nearly seventeen years. I carried it as a armed security guard and it went with me and was carried on a daily basis while I was in Iraq.

Things that I really liked about this set up was the fact that was light and could easily fit under a light jacket with minimal printing.

As time went on, I followed more of MV's posts on the gear evolution that he was going through. I was also scouring the internet and seeing what other people were doing. So late last month I finished version 2.0 of my personal battle belt.

Obviously there are changes to the set up. With changes come trade offs. It is no longer as light as the original version. I took a cue from several people and used netting and Krylon to change some of the oneness of color. Below is what is carried in the belt.

Starting from the viewers left: 4 PMAGs in two stacked Condor Gear mag pouches. Next to that is my medical pouch with an IFAK inside and extra dressings. The middle pouch is my survival and sustainment pouch. I have a length of 550 cord, two chem lights, my Gerber multi-tool, a whistle, a 5x monocular, a compass, and a baggie with a two space blankets, firemaking equipment and rubber bands. Next is the SOG SEAL Pup, then a pouch for my 1 qt canteen. I need to dig out my canteen cup for that as well. Then finally is two GI magazines duplexed in their own pouch. I like the idea of having 60 rounds on the gun. I have run some tests doing fast reloads with the duplex system and liked how fast I could get the gun back into battery and firing.

I have left room for a pistol holster and mag pouches for reloads for a pistol whenever I am able to purchase one. The evolution continues. I have put the belt on and found that it is still quite comfortable even with the weight more than doubled. I need more testing on the range.

I have planned more gear articles for some of the other gear that I have and have set up for my use.

EDITED:

I was able to have some pictures taken showing how the battle belt is worn:

The British Combat shirt project is here, and the boonie hat is the brilliant Slangvel Recce Boonie in Kryptek Highlander pattern. 

Interesting Articles As Of Late (Edited to add more articles)(Edited again to add part two to the first link)

It has been very busy around the household. Posting has slowed down. However, the reading never stops. Below are some links to articles of late that I have found interesting:

http://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/a-view-from-a-professional-war-and-then-some-part-i/#comments

Edited 8 Sep: http://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/a-view-from-a-professional-war-and-then-some-part-ii-plus-some-qa/

http://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/witness-to-history-marxist-feminisms-ruined-lives/

The reason why I chose these two first is because they are both extremely important to read.

Edited:

Just ran across the next two.

http://www.paratusfamiliablog.com/2014/09/are-we-honest-men.html asks the question. What is your answer,

http://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-possible-forewarning.html brings up the interesting question as well. Have you been feeling like we are walking into an ambush? You are not the only one. This post relates an interesting story. Acts 2:17 states:

And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy.

Frank Herbert also wrote in Dune: "Knowing where the trap is - that's the first step in evading it." 

Too many people are writing and sharing that this summer they have been impressed upon that something big is just around the corner. I for one count myself a member of that group. I cannot shake it. It is a constant thought always turning in some portion of my mind.

Totalitarianism is in many forms roaming the earth right. We must resist it however we can. The odds never mattered anyway.

Happening Just Down The Road.

Hat Tip to http://defensivetraininggroup.wordpress.com/

http://www.judicialwatch.org/bulletins/imminent-terrorist-attack-warning-feds-us-border/


Full text of the article below. My comments are afterwards.

Imminent Terrorist Attack Warning By Feds on US Border

AUGUST 29, 2014

Islamic terrorist groups are operating in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle born improvised explosive devices (VBIED). High-level federal law enforcement, intelligence and other sources have confirmed to Judicial Watch that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued.  Agents across a number of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense agencies have all been placed on alert and instructed to aggressively work all possible leads and sources concerning this imminent terrorist threat.

Specifically, Judicial Watch sources reveal that the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is confirmed to now be operating in Juarez, a famously crime-infested narcotics hotbed situated across from El Paso, Texas. Violent crimes are so rampant in Juarez that the U.S. State Department has issued a number of travel warnings for anyone planning to go there. The last one was issued just a few days ago.
Intelligence officials have picked up radio talk and chatter indicating that the terrorist groups are going to “carry out an attack on the border,” according to one JW source.  “It’s coming very soon,” according to this high-level source, who clearly identified the groups planning the plots as “ISIS and Al Qaeda.” An attack is so imminent that the commanding general at Ft. Bliss, the U.S. Army post in El Paso, is being briefed, another source confirms. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to multiple inquiries from Judicial Watch, both telephonic and in writing, about this information.

The disturbing inside intelligence comes on the heels of news reports revealing that U.S. intelligence has picked up increased chatter among Islamist terror networks approaching the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. While these terrorists reportedly plan their attack just outside the U.S., President Obama admits that “we don’t have a strategy yet” to combat ISIS. “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse,” the commander-in-chief said this week during a White House press briefing. “I think what I’ve seen in some of the news reports suggest that folks are getting a little further ahead of what we’re at than what we currently are.”
The administration has also covered up, or at the very least downplayed, a serious epidemic of crime along the Mexican border even as heavily armed drug cartels have taken over portions of the region. Judicial Watch has reported that the U.S. Border Patrol actually ordered officers to avoid the most crime-infested stretches because they’re “too dangerous” and patrolling them could result in an “international incident” of cross border shooting. In the meantime, who could forget the famous words of Obama’s first Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano; the southern border is “as secure as it has ever been.”

These new revelations are bound to impact the current debate about the border crisis and immigration policy.

Yes. Just next door. It is a known fact that groups like Hamas and ISIS have been in negotiations with drug cartels for access through the smuggling routes the cartels use. This farcical, pathetic "discussion" on border security and immigration has to stop. SECURE OUR FREAKING BORDERS! We as a nation are not presenting a coherent response to these jackals of death. I have read comments on other forums that ISIS is nothing more than a back water group of morons that could never stand up to us in a straight on fight. I think that is underestimating this group and other like them. 

Many of ISIS are survivors of combat against us in Iraq and Afghanistan. Survivors, by luck or skill, bring their own experiences to the the shared table. ISIS has shown an adaptability to the battlefield and an outside of the box mentality. This is not about religious belief for me. This is an acknowledgement that ISIS believes in a potential worldwide Islamic State. This is the battle of our time.