Some years ago, I stood with shipmates, reflecting as we drifted slowly across the glassy surface of Ironbottom Sound, close to the brooding Savo Island, the padre spreading the ashes of three old warriors who had survived the sinking of HMAS Canberra that dreadful night 60 some years before.. We thought also of USS Astoria, Quincy and Vincennes, and the lads lost as they went down.. I thought of my father, in the engine room of HMAS Australia at Coral Sea. I was born in February 1942, early in the grimmest 6 months of the war when defeat was a constant companion, victory a dream for the bold or mad.Hear, hear!
I believe Western civilisation, mankind's greatest achievement, is in as parlous a state now as it was then. More so,as the USA was not troubled then by the enemy within.
Tuesday will be a decisive day in history. I say this because I think the fate of the Great Republic hangs in the balance,and with it the fate of freedom and democracy,and hence civilisation, in the US and elsewhere.
I hope this is a day of triumph for decent conservative folk. You and all other people of goodwill have my deepest and strongest wishes for the success so necessary for the survival of reason, decency and right.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Friends across the water
On the eve of our critically important mid-term elections, Old Sailor Man from Australia sends his best wishes:
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Thank you, Old Sailor Man.
ReplyDeleteThis 22year Navy Wife (now "retired") hopes to hear your words ring true, Old Sailor Man. Will do MY part. Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteOld Sailor you expressed my thoughts in way that lack of eloquence prevents me from doing. Pacoites, hope sanity starts to make a return and your wonderful country gets the leaders it deserves.
ReplyDeleteBTW OSM My Uncle was in the engine room on the Australia when it got kamikazed in Leyte. They probably knew one another.
Mick
Ditto from the western half of this wide, brown land.
ReplyDeleteOn matters political, Paco, as a Virginian I beleive you have one Jim Webb as a democrat senator. It's always seemed to me to be an odd political journey from Reagan's secretary of the navy to democrat senator but I've always assumed because of that background he may be somewhat better than the title (D) implies. But I hear very little of him. What's the official view from the Command Bunker?
cac: He's not by any means one of the worst Democrats, but I'd characterize him as basically lackluster. He's been somewhat critical of Obama from time to time. There's been some speculation that he might not run for re-election (he's not up this year).
ReplyDeleteI agree with Old Sailor Man, and hope so much that all goes well.
ReplyDeleteWatching what a mess Australia is becoming is sad and hope this does not happen in America.
The present Government is really trying very hard to steal our right to choose how we live our lives.
"The Enemy Within" has a lot of say in what messages are sent to the people on a daily basis. We are seeing more "houses divided", and the quality of government is deteriorating. Perhaps what was derided as parochialism and jingoism in the 60s/70s critiques of the old days was in fact no worse than this new tribalism that today spreads its pall across once proud western nations and has destroyed their cohesiveness.
ReplyDeletePC is a disease. It has to be stamped out.
I've visited Oz many times in the past three decades, and always was made welcome. Never more than in Perth, though, where they seriously believe it was the US that stood by them in the dark days of WWII. There's a strong perception even now that the Mother Country abandoned them to Japanese predation.
ReplyDeleteOne visit to Fremantle I was aboard USNS Pecos, a Navy oiler. An old gentleman came down to the pier and struck up a conversation with me, and remarked that my ship was not the first of the name.
"Why no," I replied, thinking I was about to pass on a nice tidbit of information. "The first Pecos was sunk in early 1942 after departing here with USS Langley, trying to deliver fighters and aviation fuel to the Dutch East Indies."
"I know," said the man. "I was a lad, and my father brought me down to the pier to see the American ships. A week later we came down to see the Yank destroyer return with the survivors."
It is not widely known how much blood US and Australian service members have shed together. I think I'd rather have Australia on my side than any other nation on this planet, including the UK.
I too look across the Pacific to the looming Mid Terms with hope in my heart.
ReplyDeletePenguinator of Sydney