Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny Dietz, a Navy Seal was killed two years ago in a fire fight in Afghanistan. Severely wounded, he continued to fight, allowing one of his comrades to escape certain death. Dietz himself died in the exchange. The city of Littleton, Colorado is erecting a bronze stature of Dietz using one of the last photos taken of him. He is kneeling, dressed in his battle gear, and holding an M4. Probably the one he was defending himself and his team mates with the day he died, a hero's death. The City of Littleton wants to put the memorial in a park between the grammar and grade schools Dietz attended.
Six "&*%&^%^#"!!!! don't want the memorial there because it depicts him holding his M4, and these six "&*%&^$%&*" feel that it is too close to Columbine School and might en-spire another school shooting.
I served in L.E. for 20 years. I worked drug eradication ops in the Red River Bottoms along the Tx-Ok border in the seventies and eighties, I ran a swat team, and tactical K-9 unit, and saw quite a bit of death along the way. Some fellow officers. Probably more than the average P.O. does in his career.
HOWEVER, NEVER on the scale that my son, a Sgt. in the 82nd Airborne with three combat tours, (one in Afghanistan, one in Iraq, and now a second on-going one in Iraq), AND other REAL MEN, REAL HEROES, like Dietz. These men see in one day, what I saw in perhaps 5 years.
Men like my 23 year old son, and Petty Officer Dietz are MY HEROES. These are the type of men I was glad to have around on dangerous ops in my own youth. Afghanistan needed to be done, and although I have reservations concerning Iraq, make no mistake, our troops are going where they are sent, and performing as they should, where ever they are.
I look at the 15 British soldiers seized by Iran, and wonder. Had that been an American boat I visualize an armed stand off at the very least until more US boats arrived. Worst case, a blood bath on both sides, but a fight none the less.
There is not an adjective strong enough, or one that can be used on this forum to describe how I feel about these six, in Littleton Colorado protesting this memorial. These are PRECISELY THE TYPE OF MEMORIALS THAT "SHOULD" BE PUT UP AT SCHOOLS", AND THESE MEN ARE "REAL" HEROES, instead of the screwed up sports figures and hollywood drug addicts that most kids look up to now days. Fighting men that will put it all on the line, because they stand for something, and will back up what they say they will do, with more than talk. Whew!!!!!!!!! I'm still mad! This rant did not help.
