I ate lunch with a real man today
 

I ate lunch with a WWII vet that stormed the beach at Normandy. Best lunch I ever had.

That's interesting. :)

On a side note, I had lunch at Subway with two strippers.

You ate lunch with a 90 year old dude?

What flavor mush was it?

So... are you going to call him back? :pimp

It's Vegas, you could prolly say that about 90% of the restaurants there.

We had Subway also.

You should have lunch with my Grandpa. I just spent a week with him. He would never talk about the WW2, the Korean Conflict, or even being a cop for 30 years when I would ask. But just shy of his 96th birthday, he unsolicited starting telling me about all of it. Let's just say it was amazing and inspiring.

I used to enjoy reading the obiuaries in the Sunday Times.

You might read the life stories of guys that lived through the trenches of WWI as young guys. Then maybe as older officers led tank battalians or flew bombers over Berlin.

Guys that witnessed the fall of Berlin, or the liberation of Belson. People that lived through genuine hardship and frequent loss of loved ones.

I would read these obituaries and be thankful for the peaceful times we live in. Thankful that they put themselves on the line so that we do not have to.

Then I read the bullshit politics on this board and absolutely fucking despair at the fucktards that do not realize how fortunate they are. Bitching about paying a bit more tax, or calling Obama a communist/socialist for seeking universal healthcare. Jesus - do you actually know what either of those terms mean ?

Its so sad, but in some ways Americans could use a war. A real war on their own turf. Something that hits home. Something that makes them stop and think before they open their fat whiney mouths.

You fuckers are so priveledged but you abuse that gift everyday. I am sorry to say it but your demise is more or less guaranteed given your sorry ass attitude to life.

Most of the generation that fought the wars in europe are dead now. Unfortunately their bravery and dignity seems to have died with them.

You lot are a bunch of self centered whinging cunts. :2 cents:

Can I have lunch with you Robbie when I come to Vegas? :pimp

God bless the vets

See, I love people like that. Years ago in Phoenix we bought a piece of furniture from this little store and this older man carried out to my truck for me. I'm like "dude, I can handle it myself" and this eighty year old is hoisting up this small couch over his head like he was Charles Fucking Atlas. I noticed the Marine tat... That started a long conversation. Turned out he was 16 when he joined the Marines in WWII. We ended up becoming good friends for a long time in Phoenix.

those were the real heroes.
i am a big fan of Louis Zamperini, he was a wwii fighterpilot and prisoner.
Torrance airport is named after him, he is still alive btw and doing inspiration speeches etc.

You silly prick. The brave people who died in WWII fought to enslave us ?

Of all the conflicts in the last 1000 years there is one conflict where not one single historian of any repute has ever made a single case to suggest that freedom and democracy did not triumph over tyranny and despotism.

Lets re cap. WWII was about defeating the National Socialists (Bergen-Belson, Auschwitz, Treblenka etc) and the Japanese Empire. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes)

You have talked a lot of shit in your time Johnboi, but really you need to have a rethink on this one.

Johnboi, you might find that your points are taken more seriously if you dont spout the same shit every time you open your mouth.

:2 cents:

My Granddad stormed the beach at normandy...

& then hid in a shed, until he was rescued !

Ask him which was more difficult... Storming Normandy beach, or sitting through his lunch with you? ;)

The wars were put there (by the Bankers) to create change in the world, it's very difficult to make significant changes in peacetime. I respect the people who gave/risked their lives for what they believed to be a good cause, and even if a man did know what was going on there's not much he could have done to get out of the trap. :2 cents:

My own gandfather spent 3 days on the beach at Dunkirk before he was rescued. Shelled by German artillery and bombed by the Luftwaffe whilst his pals died around him.

I loved him. He was my dearest friend.

He was virtually deaf and scared of crowds. Poor fucker. He was my hero and I miss him.

:2 cents:

What did he order?

http://www.gotbaddog.com/wp-content/...arade_1544.jpg


http://www.gotbaddog.com/wp-content/...arade_1546.jpg

That guy just looks like he is full of character!

Real Men
 

My step father helped liberate Dachau. Brought home a a piece of Hitler's fireplace from the Eagles's Nest.

I used to lunch with a former bomber pilot flying out of Iran to bomb Ploiești oil fields in Romania. His craft was shot down and he spent weeks with partisan fighters trying to get him back to safety. Flying didn't scare him, but one night they stopped at a German airfield to count planes. He was worried as he was in peasant clothes making him a spy.

My great uncle was at Normandy... When I went to bury my grandmother next to my grandfather at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, MN.. I got to meet him for the first time... I was in freaking awe of that dude...

good baddog.

Nice big German car with a tiny American flag he's being paraded around in :1orglaugh

Good post :thumbsup

Lol BMW.

That's just called irony.

Which beach did he storm? Contrary to popular belief, not all of them were hell on earth.

i raised an eyebrow :1orglaugh


when i did civil service in a retirement home, a 90 something year old former pastor told me about his time in WWI as a soldier in the trenches. pretty gruesome.

We'll never see anything like WWI and WWII again - thankfully. The numbers of lives lost in both is staggering, absolutely staggering. As bloody and horrific as they were they were also glorious and magnificent spectacles of the worst and best in men and why we still have so much interest and admiration for those who fought in them.

We aren't the same people anymore, soldiers are coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq more fucked up in the head than in far more bloody more recent wars in Vietnam and Korea.

I will watch Patton again tomorrow - he's one of my all time great heroes, flawed as he was. The greatest general the world has ever seen, took over the US Third Army in 1944 after almost being kicked out of the military for slapping and kicking a couple of soldiers he deemed cowards. Under his leadership the Third Army advanced farther, captured more enemy prisoners, and liberated more territory in less time than any other army in history.

If you've never watched the movie, download it, it's a masterpiece and a history lesson.

I think saving Europe three times in the span of one lifetime is enough for even the greatest nation. Next time the Germans or Russians come calling try going it alone.:thumbsup

you're save, i have no intention invading your country :upsidedow :1orglaugh

http://cdn1.sciencefiction.com/wp-co...8/Iron-sky.png

I was talking to a Canadian friend last night. He chuckled about what I said, but in the end he agreed.

The allies of the United States like to make fun of our military might. They think we are warmongers. They think we care only about violence. They think we don't care about our people. They think we would rather kill others then feed families. They make fun of our massive military budget.

It's true. Our military budget is insane. Our military is very large. Our military technology is quite good. Our military training is very good. We have military bases all around the world.

Our focus on military allows our allies to spend less on their military. They can spend their money on social programs, a variety of domestic programs, a variety of aid programs, so on and so forth? for their own countries. And that's all fine, no problem.

When shit hits the fan? Not if? When? There are going to be a lot of phone calls to one particular Defense Department. It's not going to be Canada. It's not going to be the United Kingdom. It's not going to be France. It's going to be the United States.

I'm not knocking the militaries of Canada, the United Kingdom, and France? We train with them, they are allies. We simply have a better set up. And sure, all of those guys will get called in to the battle as well, but there will be a ringleader. We can all laugh and giggle and deny it all we want? But deep down, we know who that ringleader is going to be.

So, allies of the United States? When you need our help, don't worry. We will forget that you chastise our military nonstop. We will forget that you spend less on your defense because we spend more. We will forget that you think we are evil warmongers. We will be there, don't worry. Sure, we might want oil, we might want infrastructure contracts, we might even want your damn trees... but hey, we will be there. And when that time comes, you won't care.

Yes. I am an arrogant American, but you know I'm right. ;-)

:thumbsup

A few years ago I took my two daughters to the re-opening of the HMCS Haida (WWII tribal-class destroyer) in Hamilton, Ontario after it'd been fully restored.

We were standing on the bow near one of the big guns when an old-timer standing by himself a few feet away made the comment that it "looks as good as the day she was new."

Turns out he was one of the original crew that served in the North Atlantic when it was launched. He'd heard about the re-opening and drove up from Michigan to see it again.

The four of us stood there on deck while he took the time to tell my daughters what it was like standing on the open bridge in the icy North Atlantic. I stood there in complete awe, with chills down my spine listening to this gracious vet share his story with us. It was a very special moment...and after he finished I gave him my thanks and appreciation not only for telling us his experiences...but for his service to our country.

I still remember that day like it was yesterday. I told my daughters afterwards they should feel lucky and truly honoured to have had the chance to stand there listening to a piece of history from someone who had lived to tell about it.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...aHamiltonA.JPG

while you surely have a point, i still think Obama is right - re: horses and bayonets

today no one needs massive fleets of warships and tanks and hundreds of thousands of soldiers - you need small, flexible, effective units.

which overall at the end will be a lot cheaper than the current setup

lets be honest - there will be no WW III against China or Russia in the future. and even if so, it will not be fought on a battleground - soldier against soldier

the military needs to be reformed to adapt to modern times and current and future threads - the only problem is that the US military is a massive economic factor and reducing it to what would actually be needed would cost a few hundred thousand jobs in the army and their suppliers

and no one wants to be the one to be responsible for that.

Not to disrespect the original poster, but can you tell us more about your Subway lunch please ?

:2 cents::2 cents::thumbsup

So you can whine about drones?

so how about a constructive reply instead of trollbaiting? :winkwink:

I'm not really all that convinced of this. I am not a China and Russia fearmonger. I don't think a war would happen easily. It would take a lot. But discounting the sheer size of the Chinese military (we can't forget India and North Korea, they are strong Chinese allies with massive militaries as well) doesn't make sense to me. And the willingness of Russians military cannot be discounted either.

Even so. We don't need a war with China or Russia to need a large military. The "war" in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven this. You split up your forces and you have serious, serious problems.

All it would take is a battle of some sort in South America, which is totally possible, and a battle of some sort in Africa/Asia, again totally possible. Now you have troops, supplies, equipment, commanders, and logistics 20,000 miles away from each other.

I'm all for technology. I want more of it. And I want it better. But shrinking our 1.4 million strong military does not make that much sense to me. Which of our allies has a similar military size? Any of them?

Now let's talk about our "non-allies." China, over 2 million. India, over 1 million. Iran, 500,000. North Korea, over 1 million. Russia, over 1 million.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...tary_personnel
Click the down arrow by active military.

Of the top 10, the only other Western ally is Korea, and their size is only a third of ours.

Those old school vets are hard asses on another level. Legendary tough.

The Ottoman, Persian, British, and Roman Empires come to mind when I read your post. Enjoy it while it lasts. :thumbsup

Unlike you, I actually like it here. So I will enjoy it. No problem. :winkwink:

Here's how it works. Your friend needs money. He's in trouble. He asks you for money. He borrows the money. Then it's time to pay it back. He can't. He starts dodging your phone calls, has excuses, avoids you and the final move is always the same... He convinces himself that you're a dick head and you don't deserve to be paid back and no debt exists. Then, anytime your name comes up, he tells everyone what a cocksucker you are.

It's usually ones own sense of shame causin him to act out in this respect.

France for example, has been shamed by most nations militarily, hence they're a bunch of twats. Even in their occupation of Vietnam and in what could be described as ome of the greatest displays pf military ineptitude, their final move was to position the bulk of their troops in a valley, fully exposed to and surrounded by 4000+ Vietnamese troops hiding in their massive tunnel complexes in the surrounding hills. They either have to believe everyone else is a fucktard, or that they themselves are. Much easier and certainly gentler on the ego, to point the finger outward, than inward.

Giving away food, money, medicine and military support more often than not, produces resentment, as it reminds all nations of exactly who and what they are, where they stand in the global pecking order and of their debt to and/or their reliance on others. That is why Iran makes a fake offer of assistance to the US which is refused each time when there is a disaster and why the US makes a fake offer of assistance to Iran which is refused each time they have a disaster.

Only if I can borrow your crystal ball that has you convinced there is no need for a massive military.

I never said I didn't like it there. I just found life can be a lot better (in every way) elsewhere.

But like it or not, my point still stands. The American Empire will eventually fall just like every empire before it. If history has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that. At just over 200 years old, it is incredible naive and arrogant to think the USA will remain the world's superpower and world police forever. And unless serious changes are made ASAP, it probably will not be much longer at the rate they are piling on debt. But even then, the empire still won't last forever.

Oh, I don't disagree with you. What goes up, must come down. While it's up, I agree with fighting to keep it there.

I doubt a "massive" military is really needed. A large one, one capable of defending the nation, is all that is needed. We don't need over 100 bases around the world. History has already shown us how that ends, but they do it anyway thinking this time it will be different as they run out of money and pile on debt to keep the war machine moving. It is pure insanity driven by white mans greed and lust for power. If the USA just focused on defending itself, as did everyone else, the world would be a much better place. But that's not going to happen anytime soon, so debating it is a waste of time. It will end when the money ends. Not a day sooner.

Grandpas rock... fitty dead corpses... bump

Great post :thumbsup

I know, you're dumb, yet you can, I suppose, see the difference between sitting at you moms basement at your computer and being slaughtered by Germans at a concentration camp along with ALL your family? Maybe after all there was a good reason for them to fight?