In Memory of....

Today's a day to remember the dead.

A shipmate of mine was was killed at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. His name was Jack Punches. Jack was one of us thousands of guys who were in (fought?) the long Cold War against the Soviets. It was a different type of conflict from what our young warriors face today. We were on the front lines, flying missions, face to face with an adversary... over the oceans from the North Pole to Africa... tracking each other... working out how we would destroy each other when the balloon went up....both of us on a hair trigger to nuclear devastation...

The balloon never went up though, and we won.

and after all those missions, we came home to peace... or so we thought.... Jack retired and was killed at a desk in Washington by a new enemy.

So let's remember his life, and remember that he was a warrior from the last generation. He won his war. It was a long and difficult struggle against an intelligent, motivated, well-resourced enemy with considerable support from people in the west. We won nonetheless.

The struggle we are in today, the one many Americans only became aware of on 9/11/2001, is no less challenging. Maybe no more so either. It falls to the warriors and leaders of today to win it.

God Speed.


Thanks to the Drunken Samurai at Peace through Strength for blogrolling Jack.

Also remembering are Blackfive and the 2,996 Project