Natural Born Citizen Issue –
Between Lieutenant Colonel Terry Lakin’s likely Court Martial, Commander Kerchner’s struggle for truth, Lt. Commander Walter Fitzpatrick’s recent arrest, and the prosecution of three Navy Seals just doing their jobs – I’m finding it hard to understand why anyone would voluntarily serve in today’s military. Our military is doing great work overseas but it is certainly not defending ‘our’ freedoms at home under Obama. Obama bows to every two-bit dictator in the world and at the same time alienates our friends – shaking his finger at the Canadian Prime Minister and disrespecting Prime Minister Netanyahu at every opportunity.
I served as an In-Flight Electronics Technician on P-3’s in Jimmy Carter’s military and I thought I was serving during the time of the lowest military morale in history. However, before all is said and done, those serving Obama’s military are going to find themselves waking in the middle of the night in a sweat wondering if they did or didn’t do the right thing.
Early this year, I wrote an article that I hope every military man and woman will seriously consider – and then reconsider if you will stand with Lt. Col. Terry Lakin.
The article ‘American Soldiers – Tortured Duty & Tortured Mission’ is at the end of this post.
You guys and gals continue to be in my prayers every day!!
From The American Thinker:
April 13, 2010
Lt. Col. Lakin to face court martial
Thomas Lifson
Lt. Col. Terry Lakin, MD is to face a court martial for his refusal to obey deployment orders, pending proof that it is a lawful order, issued by a commander in chief who meets the constitutional requirements of office. Dr. Lakin explained his refusal in an article published April 8th on American Thinker. The American Patriot Foundation writes:
Army doctor Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin yesterday met with his brigade commander, Col. Gordon R. Roberts, who proceeded to read LTC Lakin his Miranda rights , and who informed LTC Lakin he had the “right to remain silent” because LTC Lakin is about to be charged with serious crimes. Col. Roberts was at age 19 awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the only recipient of the nation’s highest honor currently on active duty in the Army.
LTC Lakin had previously been ordered in writing to report yesterday to Ft. Campbell, KY and then on to deploy for his second tour of duty in Afghanistan. Lakin refused to obey these orders and instead came to work yesterday morning at the Pentagon. Late yesterday afternoon he was confronted by his brigade commander.
Before the meeting was over, LTC Lakin’s Pentagon Access Pass had been revoked, and his laptop computer was set to be confiscated.
The message to LTC Lakin is clear; through official channels, he was informed yesterday that he will shortly be court-martialled for crimes (specifically, missing movement and conduct unbecoming an officer) that for others has led to lengthy imprisonment at hard labor.
Refusing to deploy without eligibility answers, misses due date at Fort Campbell
Posted: April 13, 2010
1:00 am EasternBy Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDailyA decorated Army surgeon who is refusing to follow orders because of the president’s decision to conceal documents that could show his eligibility to be commander in chief is telling the military to bring it on – by missing a deployment due date yesterday at Fort Campbell, Ky.
Lt. Col. Terry Lakin is facing imminent court-martial charges in the wake of the Army’s demand he report for a Middle East deployment, and his decision to refuse orders until there are answers to questions about President Obama’s eligibility.
“He has been informed through official challenges that he will be charged soon with missing movement and conduct unbecoming an officer,” according to a statement released last night to WND.
The information was from Margaret Calhoun Hemenway, who is acting as a spokeswoman in the case involving Lakin….Continue Reading
From The Colorado Independent:
‘Colonel Birther’ spokesperson: Lakin accepts consequences of search for truth
By Joseph Boven 4/12/10 6:05 PM
For the first time since declaring his intention to disobey orders to deploy to Afghanistan because he is not convinced Pres. Obama is a natural-born citizen of the United States, Greeley native Lt Col Terry Lakin returned to his “duty station” today, the position he holds at a Pentagon medical clinic. Spokesperson Margaret Hemenway said Lakin reported to the clinic and that he has been refusing to obey not just orders to deploy but all military orders.
“I think we will just have to wait and see; it’s only speculative as to what they are going to do with him. Obviously if you have questions whether the president and commander in chief legally has the job, then all orders become unlawful– if there is no assurance whatsoever that [Obama] is actually a natural-born citizen according to the Constitution, and of course no one has seen an original birth certificate,” she said.
Talking to Denver talk-radio host Peter Boyles, a fellow skeptic on the matter of the president’s citizenship, Hemenway said Lakin is steadfast in his position.
“He walked [into the Pentagon] this morning. He is resolute. He is ready for whatever consequences may befall him and he is in search of the truth. His spirits are good. He feels very strongly about what he’s doing. His conscience is strong. He believes we need to know whether our president is lawfully in the job or not,” said Hemenway….Continue Reading
Navy Seals Prosecution –
Rep. Burton condemns decision not to fully exonerate Navy SEALs
Posted: Saturday, April 10, 2010 1:00 am
INDIANAPOLIS – Rep. Burton issued the following statement after the Navy dropped several charges against two Navy SEALs who are accused of mistreating terrorist mastermind Ahmed Hashim Abed, the man believed to be responsible for the infamous mutilations of four American contractors in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004.
“I am extremely disappointed by the decision announced yesterday. While dropping some of the charges against Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe and Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas is a small step in the right direction, it is only a small step.
“I have said repeatedly that what is happening to SEALs McCabe, Keefe and Huertas is completely wrong. They signed up, not only to serve their country, but to do so in the most dangerous capacity provided by our government. The commanders gave these men a mission, and they executed it. They risked their lives to capture a brutal terrorist, and in their success, likely saved the lives of countless others.
“Not unexpectedly, the captured terrorist, a top al-Qaeda leader, followed his own training manual and complained of poor treatment by his captors in the form of a punch to the stomach and a cut lip. I find it infuriating and unconscionable that the three SEALs are now undergoing court martial as a result of those allegations. Instead of medals and commendations, our heroes are being met with twisted jurisprudence. This sends a backwards message to our men and women in the military who are charged with carrying out dangerous missions and must often use aggressive force in dealing with al-Qaeda and the Taliban….Continue Reading
American Soldiers – Tortured Duty & Tortured Mission
Saturday, 02 January 2010 16:12
Written by Zach Jones
The Whys and Whats Becoming Harder to Answer?
Families that honor military service are spread all across this nation. I grew up in one. Even as a teenager in the sixties, I remember knowing that freedom wasn’t free. My father had served in Patton’s 3rd Army, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and served as a guard at the Nuremberg War Trials. How could I not know the price of freedom? WWII, now that was a just war. Everyone knew it. Everyone knew the war had to be won at all costs because failure clearly meant tyranny and death for an entire people, the Jewish people. Everyone knew, even the media knew the Whys and Whats. Why they were fighting? What they were fighting for? They knew the cost of winning and losing! And, victory wasn’t a dirty word.
However, my brother and I served in the United States Navy during a time in America’s history dominated by numbing callousness, selfishness, and indifference. The loss of the Vietnam War brought about by the media and endless protests of duplicitous, naïve dreamers and schemers; the festering pain of Watergate continuously exploited by politicians in D.C., the good but lacklustre caretaker President Ford portrayed as a bumbling stumbling fool on Saturday Night Live, the My Lai massacre and Lt. Calley’s conviction not quite distant enough to avoid its stench, and a war/corruption weary people’s vote for change promised by Jimmy Carter all marked this period. Amazingly, like today, Carter’s change didn’t live up to expectations. Instead it brought gas lines, high inflation, 20+ percent interest rates and high unemployment – despair.
And the military was not spared in the mid 70’s. My awareness was that Carter was always attacking their budgets, minimizing the Soviet/communist threat, and interfering with matters that should have been left with the military, like his pardon of draft dodgers. Like closing GITMO, that action was certainly more of an appeasement to the far left than anything else. Democrats have been courting them for a long time.
Not unlike today’s media, the 70’s media reported much of their “news” in ways that portrayed the military, its leadership and contracting in the worst possible light. At the time, having credibility, it did appear as though reporters were merely following “the story” where it led. You know, paying homage to the type of Journalism that revealed the dirt in Watergate. But, considering the corruption of today’s media, I’m probably being too kind. The price of every screw, hammer and ladder was held up as symbols of systemic corruption. And just like today, the broad-brush criticism and vilification drifted through the ranks to land on the individual soldier.
The cloud of post Vietnam warmonger shame continued staining the uniform in the minds of many Americans. The 70’s media and Jane Fonda had done a good job of mixing up the good and bad guys, buying time for the Vietcong. I suppose they weren’t comfortable with the concept of winning either. Thankfully though, Carter’s dreadful economy and gas lines were overwhelming and required most of the media’s attention. The vast majority of those who did love the military were tired and let down by Nixon; and those who had been in the streets had their guy in Oval Office. So almost everyone seemed to be trying to turn the page. And with that turn of the page, the American soldier seemed to be all but forgotten. The soldier’s duty to protect and defend remained but the camera’s glare was gone. That’s my memory anyway.
Carter’s negative effect on military morale and cohesion was palpable. The lack of any real resolve or credibility was clearly visible. His handling of the Iranian Revolution and the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini were abysmal. It was weird, we were training Iranian pilots at Naval Air Memphis in 75 – a couple of wrong moves by a weak President and poof, 52 Americans were being held hostage for over a year.
The loss in Vietnam, Watergate, protests in the streets, President Ford, President Carter, hard ball politics and a deepening economic crisis were conspiring against the military. We were not immune to the tumult. It was like a powerful magnet kept our compass spinning. Drugs seemed to be everywhere in the military and military discipline a nearly foreign concept. To be fair, after Vietnam, many military officers were not that gun ho. (I suppose some had begun to believe that Vietnam was an un-winnable shameful mistake – maybe some felt that everyone should be forgiven their part- including draft dodgers – some were just tired of it and decompression, down time was what the American soldier needed. Who knows?)
To illustrate how bad it was – in my squadron (I was an In-Flight Electronics Tech), when one of our P-3’s was scheduled to be washed, it was not unheard of for the wash crew leader to provide a few lines of cocaine to speed up both the process and the morale. Officers seemed willing to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. We were lucky no one ever got hurt. (Remind anyone of the PC military leadership today?)
Come to think of it, the “cold war” with the USSR (which was fairly hot then) was probably one of the main forces that held together our sense of “duty” and “responsibility” during the Carter years. The soldier’s duty to protect and defend always remains. But at any given time, the military is more – or less capable and the junior soldier accepts it as he or she finds it. What choice do they have? (I joined when I came of age and was expecting to find the military my older brothers served in. But – it was very different.)
It was a perfect storm that had brought us Carter Presidency. And with it’s battered and bruised image, the United States military seemed to have a hell of time riding out that storm until President Reagan could put his hands to the reigns. Reagan’s zero-tolerance drug testing came along after I got out and things started turning around rather quickly according to my brother. I believe the foundation that President Reagan built (or rebuilt) continues to serve soldiers today and will not be easily surrendered by the military leadership.
Well, hopefully it won’t.
It’s one of my regrets concerning my military service that Ronald Reagan was not yet President. If evil were there, Reagan would have seen, heard, spoke about & done something about it. He didn’t close his eyes and hope evil would go away. I checked a dozen or so years ago with another In-Flight tech I served with about some of the guys (friends) in our electronic shop and learned that 3 had done some jail/prison time and 1 had gone through rehab. Problems usually don’t just go away.
As a young enlisted man at that time, I went with the flow because…because I was a kid, had never been out of the country, military was not my career and I didn’t know shit from shinola. The military and the flow of the military felt much bigger than I was. But, I loved the mission and flying was where I wanted to be. Who knows, if Reagan had been there, I might have retired from the Navy.
See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil is not a command structure that serves the military or the individual soldier well. Neither is going with the flow.
But it’s the military leadership, the career guys and gals, who have a shot at controlling or changing the flow. Yes, sometimes they fail, but it’s their job to address the issues. It’s especially egregious when they, like politicians, just won’t see or acknowledge that something is becoming a problem – when they don’t want to get ‘their’ hands dirty or risk jeopardizing ‘their’ career paths. Two words – Ft. Hood.
And so I come to write this conflicted accolade to today’s American Soldier.
Tracking submarines, keeping tabs on ships, flying cover missions, no matter the whether, joint exercises, injuries and casualties, doing the mission, doing my duty were what kept me most grounded in the military. It answered the Whys and Whats for me. It was when politics, drugs, alcohol and all the BS disappeared and one knew Why they were serving, What they were protecting and how much it could cost. I knew, understood and believed down deep that I was protecting freedom, the Constitution and my family. As corny as that may sound, it made it worth doing – no matter how flawed.
Soldiers serving in the first few years after 9/11 must have had an incredible sense of the Whys and Whats that carried them through each and every day.
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.
Albert Einstein
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