Theodore's World

While with the 11th Cavalry in 1975 we did a exchange with the Aussies. They were great troops. They accompanied us on our patrols of the East German border. Most importantly though they introduced us to Rugby Football. Some of our officers had played while in college, we lost but gave them a good match. We sure drank a lot of beer after that. I ended up playing and coaching the rest of my life. Played my last match at age 50 a year and a half ago.
Go Wallabies !!!

Thank you for all your kind words guys.

This is the article for our latest casuality, Private Benjamin Ranaudo, aged 21. He is the 11th Australian soldier to be killed in Afghanistan. I know that our casualities are small compared to US numbers, but we still mourn the loss of our young men, as you do. The Brits just lost 8 in one day. They are being buried today. Article below:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/australian-soldier-benjamin-ranaudos-body-returns-from-afghanistan/story-e6freuzr-1225754925209

Thanks WT and Lynette.
During the Vietnam war the Aussies distinguished themselves as jungle fighters, working the Mekong Delta, they were legendary in their exploits. Unfortunately the United States doesn't do enough to recognize the losses of their own countrymen and for damned sure doesn't recognize the losses or contributions of their best allies, from Australia, Canada, the UK and New Zealand. Your loss is my loss Lynette, we are fighting a common enemy that the gutless and witless fail to recognize. You've lost 11 countrymen in Afghanistan, it may seem a small number to some but one is too many, especially for nations that do not respect their sacrifices. Some of us here lived with that many casualties every damned day we were in Vietnam, only to pull out so the weakened country was ripe for Communist plunder. The entire world is looking at the United States to lead us out of this mess, not the feckless UN. What does the American public do? It establishes a muslim Communist to halt muslim and communist aggression. Insane!!!! He aids the enemy any way possible.

Lynette - we grieve for your casualties as we grieve for ours and our other allies.

I worked with an Aussie exchange pilot in Vietnam. He flew one of our Cessna 01 Birddogs. Even though he was a colonel and I was an enlisted man, that made no difference. He was always telling me jokes and he was also an excellent pilot. He almost brought his Birddog to a hover over our camp one day by flying into a strong headwind and lowering his flaps and reducing power. Almost a stall, but he held it for about 20 seconds. He was normally a bomber pilot but loved the freedom of flying the little Cessna. He also loved his scotch.

I also have a buddy(mate) who lives in Buldah, Victoria. He is an Australian veteran of Vietnam. I met him when he and his wife were doing an extended trip of America. He thought Texas was just like Australia. He especially liked all the guns many of us had so I took him out on a shooting safari to a ranch I owned at the time. He especially like shooting the assortment of handguns we had. Now, 30 years later, he has become socialized and supports Australian anti-gun policy. Why? Anyway, he is still a good buddy.

We have the best of the best in the Military, now. But with obama, and his anti capitalist attitude what will become of thes wonderful kids, will they still volunteer ?

In the Military especially there is competition to be the best you can be. But with marxist system everybody is 'equal' regardless what you do, it styfles competiton, so why try to be the best there are no rewards.

He is destroying the best Military in the world.

Tom - your Victorian friend proabably turned anti-gun after two horrific killing sprees took place in Victoria & Port Authur in Tasmania. They were the Hoddle Street & Port Authur massacres. The Port Authur massacre was committed by one man....he slaughtered 35 people, including two little girls that where hiding behind a tree. Most were killed inside the Broad Arrow cafe. Both of these men had serious (long term)underlying mental problems, which were ignored or neglected by health authorites over many years. At the time, conservative PM John Howard was in power and it was his party that decided to disarm the populace. All this has achieved is in taking the whole gun industry underground, with a thriving black market, and the criminals having all the guns. Most of our murders today are committed by other means. Mainly knifings, blugeoning, and strangulations. The disarmament of the citizenry has not stopped the rise of vicious crime - in fact it has grown worse. Our criminal elements still use their favorite weapons of choice - namely guns. At present in Australia we are experiencing very nasty bikie gang wars. The members of these gangs don't mind waging their gun battles in the public domain. The last saw dozens dead, which included innocent bystanders. When the government set about taking guns off perfectly law abiding citizens, those of us with a brain saw what was coming down the track. Most stored their guns in polypipe tubing and capped the ends, then buried them. The only drawback is probably not enough people did this. But I know that many in the rural areas did. Australia would have to be one of the most exposed countries on this earth when it comes to defence.....we have none. I think we might have enough firepower to defend this country for a fortnight....and that is being generous. If it wasn't for the ANZUS alliance/treaty with the US our enemies would have done that decades ago. Our politicans are literally relying on you guys to save our arse's. Why? Because they have become complacent, lazy and take the US for granted. This is one of the reasons why I admire the Israeli's. A nation of 7 million that has a damned better defence force than Australia. Israel takes her security seriously and invests in it...and even though the US gives Israel aid, they still make their own tanks, and many of their own artillery and guns as well. Yes, I am proud of our soldiers and all those that serve in our defence forces....shame I cannot say the same for the pompous twits that infest our government!! Our military budget is a sick joke. When your American soldiers in Iraq said that our boys can run an army on the smell of an oily rag, they meant it! That's because our boys in defence have had to do that for decades. During WW2 they were training with broomsticks! 70 years down the track nuthin` much has changed!

Thank you everyone so much for your input
and links and information.
Lynette thank you, we are all in this battle
against the same enemy. Thank God for all these
brave men and women and I hate when any of them
are wounded or killed, it is terrible.