Monday November 11 is Veterans Day. Justin Smith is a
veteran. Justin takes a Patriotic look at foreign wars that have touched his
life. An interesting portion are Justin’s reminiscences of Sergeant First Class
Robert Grover Smith – Justin’s father - war recollections. I had the honor of briefly
knowing Robert Smith via Facebook.
JRH 11/10/19
Your generosity is always appreciated:
Blog Editor: Rather than
capitulate to Facebook censorship by abandoning the platform, I choose to post
and share until the Leftist censors ban me. Recently, the Facebook censorship
tactic I’ve experienced is a couple of Group shares then jailed under the false
accusation of posting too fast. So I ask those that read this, to combat censorship
by sharing blog and Facebook posts with your friends or Groups you belong to.
****************************
One Life to Give
Honor the Veterans of Foreign Wars
By Justin O. Smith
Sent 11/9/2019
7:54 PM
Men have fought and died in countless wars throughout the
ages, and nothing much changed in that respect with the modern world in the
20th century, that saw two world wars and countless conflicts waged by our men
and women, alongside America's allies. Towards the end of the 20th century and
on into the 21st century, the wars and conflicts remain just as hard fought,
murderous, terrible and bloody and deadly, as we were drawn into new wars in
the Middle East by the Islamic attack on America on September 11th 2001. As
time continues on without many of us, it is unlikely that the fact of war as
part of life will ever depart from our descendants or from this world, so long
as evil men exist and wish to impose tyranny on the righteous, autonomous,
self-determining free born men and women of the world.
On November 11th, many across the nation will be celebrating
Veterans Day to commemorate the men and women who fought and died and fought
and survived the many foreign wars our people have had visited upon them over
the past century, especially in the last few decades, with the chaos exploding
all across the Middle East. But whether it was fighting the Germans and their
allies during WWI and WWII or the Koreans and the Chinese near the Yalu River
during the Korean "Conflict", American men and women have served
honorably in the name of freedom and liberty for all and a variety of purposes
aimed at keeping the nation safe from the threats to freedom of their own
particular day and time, regardless of just how necessary or avoidable those conflicts
and wars were viewed and fought out on the political battlefields back home.
I remember my own Pop, Robert Grover Smith (SFC retired U.S.
Army), telling the story in his waning years of being with his platoon
and surrounded by rapidly advancing Nazi SS troops in the Ardennes Forest,
during the Battle of the Bulge. He had just turned nineteen and had already
been fighting this war for nearly two years, after getting my Grandmother to
sign a release that allowed him to join at seventeen, and so, at what seems all
too young an age, he and the other men of his platoon were facing what seemed
to be almost certain death, since the grapevine had already told that any U.S.
and Allied soldiers captured by the SS were being summarily executed on the
spot, just like at Malmedy on December 17th 1944.
[From The History Place: The bodies of 81
American soldiers from Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation
Battalion, killed by Waffen-SS troops on December 17, 1944, during the Battle
of the Bulge near the Belgian town of Malmedy.]
Upon realizing their predicament, many had begun dumping the
numerous "war souvenirs" they had picked off the bodies of dead
German soldiers, the likes of Iron Crosses, Nazi armbands and flags and other
unusual items not readily found back home, or anywhere else. As quickly as one
of Pop's friends suggested, "Smitty ... You better shed anything of the
Kraut crap", Pop said that he slowly and calmly turned and looked the
soldier in the eye and replied, "Do what you want. I don't intend to
get captured". And that one comment rallied his platoon enough that,
despite being worn out, frost-bitten by four below zero temperatures and low on
rations and medical supplies, they held on and managed to fight through to
rejoin their company.
Dad would go on from that day to receive a Bronze Star and
live to see combat in Korea on the Yalu that earned him his second Bronze Star,
along with other deadly combat near Kuna Re Pass, where he was recommended for
the Silver Star. He continued his career until the end of the Vietnam War,
accumulating numerous medals and awards. He was one of the lucky ones, who
unbelievably was able to survive all three wars, when so many others returned
home in body bags.
[Justin’s father earned (which means displays of valor)
medals from participating in three wars America fought. I can’t tell you why
but I became intrigued that SFC Robert Grover Smith was distinguished with Silver Star from military operations at
“Kuna Re Pass”. The problem I discovered with search engines I couldn’t
locate a Kuna Re Pass. BUT I did find Kunu-Ri Pass. I’m guessing
it the same place with an oral history spelling discrepancy. Apparently some
Turkish soldiers as part of the UN contingent were pretty beat up by the Commie
Chinese in Korea, but I’m more interested in U.S. Soldiers action. I couldn’t
find SFC R.G. Smith info in my scant search efforts, but here are some excerpts
from others experiencing Kunu-Ri Pass:
…
The Turkish Brigade was
decimated during a rearguard action near Kunu-ri in November, desperately
trying to buy time for American soldiers who were retreating. China had just
entered the war on the side of North Korea, and their overwhelming numbers had
thrown back the American forces.
The battle of Kunu-ri also
chewed up Pederson's own unit, the 38th Regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division.
Just like the Turks, they were assigned to screen the retreat of their fellow GIs.
The battle that cost 1,653 Americans their lives almost cost Pederson his, and
he remembers the night he fought in it as the worst he experienced during the
war.
…
Pederson served as a runner,
meaning he carried important messages by hand when radio communications weren't
feasible. During one night at Kunu-ri Pass, an entire platoon of soldiers lost
contact with the rest of the company. Not knowing the location of the missing
platoon, Pederson's commander assigned him to take one other man and try to
find them, somewhere on a ridge above the main group.
Pederson and the other man
made it about a quarter mile up the hill before they got so close to Chinese
soldiers that they could hear them talking. It was night, but the moonlight
reflected off newly fallen snow so a person could be seen up to 100 yards away.
… (Brainerd veteran works to remember the forgotten war;
By Zach Kayser; Brainerd Dispatch; 6/20/15 12pm.)
…
Roughly a quarter of all
Americans killed during the Korean War died between August and December 1950,
during the battles of the Pusan Perimeter, the Chosin Reservoir, and Kunu-ri
Pass. 178,426 UN troops died in Korea, compared to more than 700,000
Communists. The first American, Pvt. Kenneth Shadrick died near Osan.
… (14 amazing yet little-known facts about the Korean War;
By Blake Stilwell; We Are The Mighty; 6/25/16 04:04AM
EST)]
Seventy-five thousand U.S. soldiers were killed fighting in
the Battle of the Bulge. And, as unfortunate as it was for the victims of war,
in some ways it was probably a blessing that the death count wasn't higher than
the approximately 4,000 civilians killed in the fighting around the Ardennes
Forest, most likely due to its heavy wooded areas and being sparsely populated
at the time.
Almost 40,000 U.S. soldiers were killed in the Korean War,
and approximately fifteen percent of the 22 million Koreans at the time were
killed .
Millions of soldiers from all wars have very similar
stories, since the firepower might improve along with the technology, but the
situation of the Ground Pounders always seems to remain constant. The situation
can change on any day at any moment as ground captured one day must be
relinquished the next. And in it all, the body count never goes down.
This November 14th marks the 54th anniversary of the Battle of Ia Drang Valley [Vietnam
War] and the most fiercest, savage and intensely fought ground action fought in
American military history, since WWII.
A Staff Sergeant and a friend, Macon Blue was a survivor of
Vietnam. He had a steel plate in his head to replace part of his skull, and he
was minus one lung, that made him talk like a huffing bear just out of
hibernation, all courtesy of "friendly fire" during a battle with
North Vietnamese Regulars under Brigadier General Chu Huy Man near Plei Me. He
survived, recuperated and went on to fight other battles, believe it or not,
before he retired in Germany where he opened a "soul food"
restaurant.
Fifty-eight thousand two hundred-twenty U.S. soldiers lost
their lives in Vietnam.
By comparison, U.S. casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq seem
so very small as we see a combined total of approximately 6,960 to date, since
more are killed each day in a war that still has not ended, but this number is
deceptive. With these wars fought largely in urban areas and door to door,
along with the enemy's use of "Improvised Explosive Devices" and
suicide bombers, the psychological toll appears to have taken a far greater
number of casualties than from previous wars, for a litany of reasons; 300,000,
twenty percent of these Veterans now suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD].
And for the moment, there doesn't appear to be any end in sight.
[Blog Editor:
o PTSD in Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans;
By Matthew Tull, PhD; VeryWellMind.com;
Updated 10/14/19
o How PTSD headlines lead to mirage of the ‘broken veteran’;
By Martin Kuz; Christian
Science Monitor; 5/9/19]
As we all reflect on current U.S. policy this Veterans Day,
anyone questioning the cost and the toll taken from these brave men and women
-- whether or not placing their lives in the line of fire was worth the risk
during their service to America -- can certainly be forgiven, in light of
Congress's repeated betrayal of traditional American values. Congress has
consistently left our homeland's interior and its borders unprotected, while
good U.S. jobs have been given to foreign born employment based visa holders.
In February of 1981, six of us were regaled with wisdom from
an Old Colonel as we sat and drank at the old Aztec Club on Victory Drive in
Columbus, Georgia. With 34 years of service at the time, he had served in every
place imaginable and each conflict since 1947, bearing two battle stars on his
jump wings. His very intuitive predictions regarding America's all new
volunteer armed forces and his very word, the look in his eyes, his expression,
and most of all the gravel and grit sound of his voice are as vivid today as
they were on that night, as he looked in our direction but not at us, seeming
to contemplate horrors and a future that troubled him down to his soul, and, to
the best of my recollection, he growled:
"The all volunteer military
was concocted by cowardly and feckless men at the upper echelons of our
nation's government, men and women who demonstrated a remarkable level of
strategic and tactical incompetence over the course of every major war of this
century, and any young person unfortunate to serve in the military of tomorrow
will be sacrificed with increasing frequency on the toss of a dime, if only to
save the profit margins of the military industrial complex.
A day will come when Americans
have little, if any, real connection or association with the military and its
families, and the country's rulers will decide that legions of crippled and
wasted Veterans are too costly to maintain. A prevailing lack of national
character will see America cast aside Her damaged soldiers to save a few
dollars, never thinking twice and without so much concern as taking out a bag
of garbage."
In my lifetime, America has sent Her people into fire-zones
and the mouth of Death in places like Vietnam, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia,
Panama, Grenada, Serbia, Bosnia, Lebanon, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and
Syria and scores of other Third World hell-holes where for one reason or
another the "Powers That Be" seem to see our U.S. footprint there as
a "critical matter".
Before his death in 2015 at age 89, my Dad often angrily
stated that he and other boys had gone to fight against the forces of
socialism, communism, fascism and tyranny and totalitarianism only to see those
very same evils now growing right here in these United States of America. He
would shake his head and exclaim, "It's a Damn Shame that so much of our
blood has been shed for nothing" -- that from a man who gave 26 years of
his life to the U.S. Army.
All America should honor America's warriors every day,
because although war is always unwanted, it is too often foisted upon us, and
with that said, we cannot expect peace by sitting within our borders and never
engaging other hostile nations before the aggression proceeds too far. And that
isn't to suggest that America should be the world's policemen, but it is a
certainty that without America's involvement in the peace-keeping process and a
willingness to fight if necessary for a vital interest and purpose at hand, one
life for each to give, what stands if America doesn't stand for freedom for Her
people and around the globe?
So long as evil men seek to control others, coerce and
conquer them and rob them of their freedom and liberty, there will be wars and
rumors of war, and the demand will remain high for good and decent men and
women to once more charge into the valley of Death, to do and die, and defend
against merciless, inhumane tyrants, and whether through steel and fire and
stone we fight, we hold tight to the Ten Commandments, with strength and
courage in our hearts, minds and hands. Peace will never come without the
righteous people's will to fight and defend those things they hold most
precious, most dear, without any easy hope or lies.
America's Veterans and Veterans of all foreign wars have
time and again reached down deep during past wars, patient and ignoring perils
and obstacles, unslinging their weapons and unsheathing their blades, and they
have met, engaged, broken and eradicated and defeated crazed and driven foes,
winning some wars and losing others, if only for the lack of a leader's
backbone but never because they couldn't win. Many battles won, from San Juan
Hill to Berlin and Tokyo and on to Kabul, Ramadi, Mosul and Berisha, bear the
proof, along with the iron sacrifice of their bodies and the will and depth of
their souls required to focus on one mission at a time, for the cause of
freedom and liberty -- shrapnel and bullets filling the air -- never
losing sight of their task and never begrudging the one life they had to give.
By Justin O. Smith
+++++++++++++++++
Blog Editor: Rather than
capitulate to Facebook censorship by abandoning the platform, I choose to post
and share until the Leftist censors ban me. Recently, the Facebook censorship
tactic I’ve experienced is a couple of Group shares then jailed under the false
accusation of posting too fast. So I ask those that read this, to combat
censorship by sharing blog and Facebook posts with your friends or Groups you
belong to.
_________________________
Edited by John R. Houk
Text embraced by brackets and
source links are by the Editor.
© Justin O. Smith
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