They pointed to maps, then pointed out the window then back to the map, or a photo.  I followed the narrative that began in 1826 when it was established as an infantry school to compliment training at West Point.  As America expanded westward the Army provided law to the new territories, “…not only to protect the settlers from the Indians, but also to protect the Indians from the settlers and from each other.”  In time Jefferson Barracks became the staging area from which the Army would project troops to the west.  In a few years, it was the largest post in America.

Joe Frank, a wounded Vietnam veteran shared with me stories of the “citizen soldiers” who passed through Jefferson Barracks.  Great Generals – Grant, Lee, Eisenhower and others have served and trained  in Missouri.  Tens of thousands more flowed through Jefferson Barracks, officers and enlisted noted less by history but known to their families as brothers, sisters, sons and daughters to serve as champions of our nation.

The American military is unique in its composition.  There is no more refined meritocracy than among America’s armed forces.  The British raised regiments and fleets as nobles invested in the men, material and training, receiving payment from the crown or by confiscating property from conquered lands or ships.  Other societies populated the ranks of their commissioned officers – such as they are – based on loyalty to party or by selecting closely related kin.  In these militaries enlisted members are typically poorly trained, poorly outfitted and poorly cared-for conscripts upon whom the burden of being a soldier falls like a boot on the neck.  Pressed into service, these men will oppress as they are oppressed.

In contrast, American officers and enlisted come from all walks of life, all economic strata.  Dirt farmers and accountants flooded the beaches of Anzio and Okinawa.  Bankers and ranch hands stood in ranks at Appomattox. Physicists and roofers work together on the  tarmacs of Diego Garcia and the decks of frigates, destroyers and carriers all over the globe.  Their motives vary – being a serviceman is a better gig now than it was in Valley Forge, but every uniformed man and woman knows that it may come upon them to fight. American servicemen are well regarded by their fellow citizens.  We see them as our friends and families.  We idealize them as protectors of liberty.

My brother is a Marine, and I am very proud of him.  I have a Kevlar “pot” of his, and it reeks of the sweat from those hot theaters where he and his comrades close with the enemy.  He is smart and driven.   He would be a success in anything he chose to do, but he chose the life of low pay and grinding sacrifice in his beloved Corps for his beloved Country.  To him and the vets I have had the privilege to meet, service is a privilege and an honor.

Jefferson Barracks is home to a unit of the Missouri National Guard.  It is also the final resting place Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, Coast Guardsmen and Merchant Mariners.  Many of them came home after America’s wars and the flag that draped their casket honored an old man or elderly woman whose end came long after their particular conflict ended.  Other flags envelop a hero lost in battle, a life cut short when they were the protective wall made flesh when harm threatened their people.

Others still are like Joe, and left part of their life in a distant mud hole.  Where his place in Jefferson Barracks will be is not yet known – and may it be unknown for many years –  but still he has already given much for his home, and he continues to give.

The gravestones of Jefferson Barracks are so white that on a day with any sun the sheen will hurt your eyes.  This is fitting in a sense, that this orderly stone garden where our protectors are laid would by its nature induce an American look for a moment, then look away in honor and reverence.

The Savior taught us that greater love has no man than that he lay down his life for his friends.  Memorial day is the day where we ought to commemorate not just the sacrifice, but the greater love of these men and women who carried arms and tended wounds  in our service . I find inspiration in the love they had for their comrades and their liberty.  My brother loves his men, Joe loved his fellow soldiers and continues to look out for their well-being to this day.  Both love their country in a way not many of us experience.  I am grateful for them because they have studied war so that my children can live in peace and freedom.  My Memorial Day prayer is that I can match their devotion to our country.

God bless you, Veterans. God rest the fallen.

Ed

Arizona’s law authorizes the police, after having probable cause to detain a suspect for a violation may if he or she has reason to suspect a person may not be in the country legally, inquire about immigration status.   This is in essence what Federal laws are, only Arizona is tired of waiting for the Federal government to enforce the law.  Our fellow citizens in Arizona are weary of the lawlessness, and their legislators and governor have given their own law enforcement the tools to deal with the problem the Feds are unable or unwilling to deal with.

When Calderon insulted Arizona’s law that is effectively the unenforced Federal law, he not only insulted Arizona, he insulted America.  Every critique he leveled at Arizona can be applied equally to the Feds, only the Feds effectively stand idly by while Calderon’s countrymen flood to our side of the border.

Given how poorly Mexico handles its internal challenges, I honestly do not blame Mexicans for wanting to come to America.  Drug wars have claimed as many as 24,000 lives in the nation Calderon leads.  Poverty, lawlessness and corruption are hallmarks of Mexico’s economic and political situation.  Nevertheless, America cannot be a nation unless it is in control of its borders and admits immigrants in an orderly fashion.

When Calderon – in a display of amazing hypocrisy – condemned Arizona’s law, the chamber erupted with applause.  Many American politicians leapt to their feet, including the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.  Janet Napolitano, our Homeland Security chief, and our leading law enforcement officer Attorney General Eric Holder followed suit.  All that was missing was a bow and formal apology from President Obama.

As the cameras swept the chamber, we saw our representatives standing and applauding, giving an ovation to this incredibly rude, hypocritical and ill-informed insult to America.  Some of the faces were easy to discern, some not so much.  The image below was sent to me. I ask – is this Russ Carnahan?

I sincerely hope Russ Carnahan has more pride in his country than to stand and clap while his countrymen are insulted.  Missouri law is not all that dissimilar to Arizona’s law, we simply have not drawn the ire of Calderon.  Here are some questions to which I think 3rd district Missourians deserve an answer.

Congressman Carnahan:

• “Were you there?”
• “If so, did you participate in insulting Americans in Arizona, and by extension Missourians and the United States?”
• “If not, what do you think about President Calderon coming to America and insulting Arizona while tens of thousands of Mexicans are killed in a drug war his corrupt government can’t get under control”
• “What do you think about your Democrat colleagues like Speaker Pelosi, who did stand and applaud?”

Every day I wake up knowing I was blessed to be born in the best nation on earth for freedom and opportunity.  All over the world there are men and women who yearn to come to America and become Americans.  These people who lawfully enter deserve our respect, and frankly become among the best of Americans having become one at great cost and sacrifice.  While we need tall fences we also need wide gates.

Congressman Carnahan has consistently voted against measures to secure our nation’s borders, and by so doing has helped dilute the value of being an American. Where it mattered, as he cast votes in the House, he sided with those who stood and applauded thunderously as a foreign leader spit America in her face.  I’d like to know if he was there on his feet cheering along.

First, let me thank Mijnheer Schuringa, a Dutch traveler who apparently jumped on the would-be terrorist, subduing him, putting out the fiery device with his bare hands and dragged the murderous coward forward where air crew handcuffed him until landing at their destination. The quick reaction of this man and others lead to a safe arrival, and averted a horrible tragedy.

My comment is on the incandescent stupidity expressed by Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano. On CNN, she declared that “the system worked.” “The System” is on fact the giant bureaucracy of grandma-searching, culturally sensitive screening procedures and databases, along with an army of agents and marshals. I can assure Secretary Napolitano that if this fast-thinking Dutchman on holiday was part of the “system” he was not aware of it until well after he had the terrorist in a life or death struggle to disable the burning device.

The only way “The System” could be said to have worked is if the terrorist had been caught before smuggling his lethal cargo aboard the airplane and successfully igniting it. “The System” utterly failed in that task. If by “The System” working, Napolitano meant that the man who attempted to murder hundreds of innocents was handcuffed, lead away to a hospital and introduced to his lawyer, that is then a different problem.

If the latter is her meaning, then what she is signaling to us is that she and her post-9/11 department are back to a pre-9/11 mindset in which we cope with acts of terror as criminal issues after the fact. By this logic, dozens of crash investigators pouring over tons of charred wreckage strewn among hundreds of bodies could also be seen as “The System” working.

Millions of voters who placed the Obama administration in office did not sign on to have their nation imperiled by bureaucrats who are more concerned with appearing insensitive to the implacable than in protecting the citizens of this nation.

Congress has a responsibility in all this, one in which they have been horribly negligent. Congress has the authority to dictate how such acts of terror are viewed and how they are to be prosecuted. Attorney General Holder may be delighted by the opportunity to offer our bitter enemies a show trial, but Congress does not have to stand idly by and let it happen.

Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab should be on his way to a military installation to be interrogated as an illegal combatant and held until a military tribunal can weigh the magnitude of his crimes and its legally proscribed punishment.  Janet Napolitano needs to be on her way to the private sector to make room for someone who is serious about security.