Reflections

I know a lot of my most recent posts have centered on The Moving Wall, and I apologize, but for such a long time, it took up a great deal of my time and effort, and for the five days it was here, I all but lived at Constitution Park in Ossipee, drawn to the wall like a piece of steel to a magnet. I do have one last reflection on the time it was here. During that time I had a chance to talk to other Veterans who were in during the same era as I was, the early to mid 80's. I missed the horror that was Vietnam, but reflecting on my own time in Service, as a young Ensign assigned to a ship for the first time and sent over to our own foreign land Beirut, Lebanon. We did not realize it at the time, as there was no war on terrorism at the time. We sailors, soldiers, and Marines were at the forefront of the Global War on Terrorism. We were a multi national (read it 90% American, 10% other nations)thrust into a land to keep the peace between factions that had no interest in having the peace kept. They were and still are bent on killing each other because their beliefs in the same religion are so far apart they can never come to terms between them. This would be much akin to the Baptists declaring war on the Catholics.

When they realized that the Peace Keeping force was trying to keep them apart and maintain a very fragile peace in the area, they turned on us bombing the Marine Barracks killing some 250 Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers. This was the beginning and it has only escalated from there, the Achille Lauro, The USS Cole, The first World Trade Tower incident, The German Nightclubs, The British Subway, 9/11, The Shoe Bomber, and many more we forget or may have never known about. Beirut should go down in the history books as the start of the Global War on Terrorism, and unfortunately I do not see any end for it in sight. It will continue to affect the way we live and act for many years to come.