Do you know what you are fighting for....sir?

While in Germany i saw signs with the slogan "Combat Pride" all around the flightline. They had odd sops too.... they wanted all the fire bottles lined up perfectly in front of the nose of every plane...for "Combat Pride"...at the commanders request. There were no airplanes there that have seen combat... there are no gunships or other special ops birds there.





This was during the battle of fallujha last november where we took heavy casualties. Those fallen soldiers and marines were brought back to freindly soil just a few hundred yards down the ramp from where we were parked. From where all the combat pride slogans were posted.

Thanksgiving came and went..... And there was no mention of our wounded brothers who lay wounded and alone at the hospital. Some of whom died there. All while we professed combat pride by lining up the fire bottles and lowering the gear doors....so all the airplanes looked the same and so the flightline would look aesthetically pleasing from the big picture window. Combat pride to me is not leaving my fallen brothers, it is about being thankful for their sacrafice on thankgiving.

At one base they actually flew in a motivational speaker from the U.S. to giva a mandatory breifing to talk to us and to tell us how important our job is and to try to drive home the point that there are soldiers with great hardships out there....soldiers fighting and dieing and that is what we are here for.

These soldiers are all around us... on the base...they are who we haul......

i found it an insult to make me sit thru that breifing. If you didnt learn it from the guys around you.......you wont learn it from some motivational speaker.

And just bringing in the motivational speaker contradicts the point they were trying to make.