Our Flag is Still There

SheepDog Howls for Fallen Brethren

This morning, four of Lakewood Police Department, WA, officers lost their lives when a gunman burst into a coffee shop where they were completing paperwork on laptop computers. The killing is described as a “targeted ambush.”

This time, the SheepDogs did not have a chance to run toward the gunshots. Others will hunt down the Wolf.

Link in this Blog: 4 police officers shot dead at Wash. coffeehouse

Thanks-Veterans Day 2009

In honor of our veterans on Veterans Day 2009, re-published below is my post, “Saying Thanks With Old Glory.”


Saying Thanks With Old Glory

Friday, February 15, 2008

We were five off-highway dual sport motorcycle riders recently enjoying a long weekend in Death Valley exploring dirt roads avoided for years when riding our Harley Davidson motorcycles. Death Valley is a marvelous place for re-cementing relationships spanning many years.

Russ announced that he was packing a 5 foot by 3 foot American flag for the express purpose of displaying the flag should an American military jet pass by in his proximity. That fired-up the group’s enthusiasm. Not only do we love riding motorcycles, but also we avidly support our military. Russ’ plan was a fine token of appreciation for all that our military personnel do for us. And, the plan was not far-fetched since military jets routinely fly low and fast along the Panamint Valley skirting the Western edge of Death Valley National Park.

Homeward bound, two pick-up trucks loaded, we headed southbound on Highway 178. There was mellowness, tiredness, from two days of negotiating dirt/gravel byways and snow. Roads which tried their best to topple us should we get too slow and allow the front wheel to plow. One second you’re upright, and the next you are down, or struggling to keep the motorcycle from pitching you head over heels.

Then it happened: on the horizon coming toward us; two F-16’s fast and low.

Russ slowed his truck to a stop, and I bailed out from the passenger side struggling to deploy Russ’ flag. The lead F-16 passed just to the West of us at about 500 feet of elevation, and I’m not sure that I got the flag out in time for the pilot to see it. But three seconds later, Ol’ Glory was fully displayed for the Wingman, who came straight up the road, northbound, and directly over our heads. If you have never had a close-up experience with a low flying military jet, let me tell you this: it is an incredible sight and sound to behold.

Russ and I were high-fiving when I observed that both jets were banking to a southbound heading. I shouted to Russ that they were going to come around for another pass. I can imagine the radio conversation between the pilots.

Wingman to Leader: “Did you see those guys holding up Ol’ Glory? Let’s go around.”

Leader to Wingman: “Roger. There are two stopped vehicles about a mile apart. I’ll take the first, and you take the second.”

Wingman to Leader: “Roger that.”

The leading jet buzzed our partners and climbed up and away to the Southwest. Seconds later, Wingman flew over our partners, descended to about 200 feet off the deck and thundered up the road directly at us. Russ and I, holding Ol’ Glory stretched out between us, were eye-ball to eye-ball with Wingman. Whooom, he passed over us and immediately pulled a high-g ascent: as straight up as an F-16 can do; propelled by the flaming jet engine; followed with a barrel roll. Wingman was gone as fast as he arrived leaving us with the smell of jet fuel and a memory of a lifetime. Russ and I went nuts, like a couple of kids.

That’s the way it happened when we said, “Thank You.” And, they said, “You are Welcome.”

Uu-Ah Sgt. Kimberly Munley!

She ran toward the gunfire!

She did what she is trained to do!

She did what is in her heart!

She did what we expect of her!

Link in this Blog: Friends hail police Sgt. Kimberly Munley for taking down Fort Hood gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan

Hugo Chaves Not as Crazy as I Thought

“CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's socialist leader Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama had done nothing beyond wishful thinking to earn the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Link in this Blog: Chavez says Obama did "nothing" to deserve Nobel

Badge Dangles From My Neck No More

It is still there; dangling from a chain slung around my neck. Badge has been there for the last twenty years of a thirty year career. Before it resided on a chain, it graced a dark blue uniform. For the last two decades, display on a uniform has usually been on account of the funeral for a fallen colleague.

Badge has the word “Detective” arched over its top and a number below. Badge’s finish is again worn off due to the natural corrosive action of living against my chest. It’s been refinished before, and it will be again, just before it is encapsulated in a block of clear Lucite. Soon it will reside among a plethora of mementos occupying its own space in my home office display case.

Unlike the mementos of memories, Badge epitomizes the essence and nobleness of the law enforcement career. Badge symbolizes the public’s acknowledgement that a minority of society must be empowered to walk in the dark protecting against the human predators who feast upon the majority.

Actually, I’ve carried two badges. The other one is a flat badge in my wallet. Truth be known, I’ve carried Flat Badge far more than Badge because Flat Badge was always with me, adjacent to my police ID, both on and off-duty. Nevertheless, I don’t have a visceral connection with Flat Badge, and it will be turned in with my other equipment.

Tomorrow I will be issued a new Flat Badge with the word, “Retired.”

Throwing It Away on the 65th Anniversary of D-Day

In 1984, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, President Ronald Reagan spoke of the sacrifices Americans made in the quest of freedom for the European continent. Now in 2009, we see that Europeans discarded much of the potential liberty won by the Allies. Europeans first compromised their personal liberties by instituting socialist policies. Today, they continue to relinquish their potential freedoms to the demands of a growing Euroarabia. Witness the judicial and bureaucratic persecution of Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders for his outspoken opposition to the violence associated with radical Islam. In the U.S., we call such speech “free speech,” a value of extreme importance.

Disgraceful as the European socialist path may be, the United States embarked on its own path of socialism with the establishment of the Social Security Administration and subsequent social programs. U.S. socialism is suddenly in fast forward with the election of a president in lock-step with the European cultural version of Russian Roulette.

The American people have no one to blame except themselves for electing governmental representatives and a president who willfully discards their personal freedoms in favor of a socialist form of government and a weak foreign policy that invites our enemies to do their will on our culture and society.

Pres. Barack Obama is bent on apologizing to the world for all sorts of things that the U.S. has or has not done. In the spirit of Obama, it would be appropriate on this historic anniversary to offer an apology to our European brethren for having killed European citizens in the quest to liberate them from Nazi fascism.

The liberation gave Europeans the opportunity to improve their level of personal liberties to match the American model. Europe did not choose to do so.

Disdainful as I am of the European model, I am reminded of the adage that “people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.” I am empathetic with freedom loving Europeans who watched impotently these many years as their governments pandered away the hard earned potential for personal liberty.

Sixty five years after the Allied troops waded ashore and bled on the beaches of Normandy for Europeans, the majority American electorate is eroding away its own hard earned liberties originally paid for with the blood of the American founders over two hundred years ago.

Our forefathers threw off the yoke of tyranny and struck out on a new adventure so well justified in the opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 1

In the long run, the insidious relinquishment of liberty is no less dangerous than the boot heel of conquering tyrants.

Thomas Jefferson stated, "The tree of life must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

What will it take to reverse the deterioration of the United States of America? Our liberties certainly need to be refreshed.

Link in this Blog:
1. Declaration of Independence