The Hills are Alive....with sound of blisters!

MajorDad must issue a public apology to MajorMom about his conduct today at West Point, NY.

In preparation for the trek, while I did mention that comfortable shoes are a must when visiting...I mentioned nothing about elevation appreciation of the academy grounds. MajorMom went up to the football stadium (no, we didn't attend the game...) to grab some gifts for MajorTeen (Jamie), MajorBaby (Alisha), and even MajorGrammy.

For a place that's produced geniuses of the academic, tactical and strategic type...these folks don't know anything about marketing!!! Can you believe that you cannot purchase a single piece of memorabilia or even a drink without going inside the stadium?!?! Now granted, they're not necessarily in the business of making money...but jeez! Talk about missed opportunity.

The next step in the "death march" took us to the Cadet Cemetary that's like walking through a history book. We stopped to visit burial site of my Russian language professor, Michael Evgenevich Solo, a native Russian from the Ural region of the former Soviet Union. After paying our respects there we passed the graves of GEN Daniel Butterfield (composer of "Taps"), GEN Custer of Little Big Horn fame, as well as hundreds of other American heros from conflicts from Revolutionary War to Iraq/Afghanistan.

We "landed" at Eisenhower Hall where we enjoyed some much needed rest and nourishment.

MajorMom was an absolute trooper for making the forced march I took her on.

Resting from the the trip up and down the high ground...

MajorDad

Well, I'll Be Damned!!!!

If Army didn't whoop up on Cincinatti making hundreds of "old grads" happy at Homecoming at West Point this weekend!!!! 48 - 29. Not too shabby for 14 1/2 point underdogs, eh?

Congratulations to the Army team, Coach Bobby Ross, and the Corps of Cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York!


Also...want to tell a few guys that it was great seeing them again this weekend.

Jack, Stumper, Malc, Hector, Al, Tom, Dean, Pooh, Aidas, J.D., John F., Eric B., Pete D., Charlie S., Rueben D., Benny B. and all the rest of the guys that shared an undescribable experience with me from 1980-1984. And to your lovely ladies...best of luck and take care of my friends. I want to see them reunion after reunion for many years to come!

Go Army! Beat South Florida!

From the truly high ground...

MajorDad1984

The Pilgrimage Begins...

Tomorrow I begin my trek back to West Point to see some folks I haven't seen since wore those uniforms with all the brass buttons, we all had 27" waists, full heads of hair that May morning when we tossed those white nylon hats into the air.

More than 20 years have passed, I for one have put on 40 lbs (but I'd say it still looks pretty durned good for someone pushing 43)...I still have my hair, and the dry, dark sense of humor to go with it. Hope that I'll recognize of these people...this band of brothers (and about 80+ sisters I think).

We'll have dinner together...relive some memories...and then part ways again until the 25th reunion. My friends and I have done a pretty good job over the past few years of staying in touch. One of our number is a state government official in Maine...so he must have the most time of us all at work to screw off and write our "company" newsletter. West Point's really not a college...so we don't have fraternities. The closest thing you have are "companies" that are lettered/number identifications for groups of about 120 students from freshmen to seniors. We came from the "Flying Circus" of C2.

I'll try to post at least once a day...let you know we're safe and sound on the Right Coast...we're bunking with my Dad's Dad....MajorGramps tomorrow evening. Wish me luck there! The score by Friday morning could be

MATTRESSES - 21 MAJORDAD'S BACK - 0

Love ya, MajorGramps! (Actually, he retired as Lieutenant Colonel Gramps but work with me here...)

Go Army! Beat Cincinatti in Football!

MajorDad1984@gmail.com

MajorBaby Strikes Again...PinkEye Gone....Vomit Anyone?

Ah...the joys of parenthood. I took the brunt of the pinkeye outbreak...damn! Those drops sting...and the pediatrician said they were gentle...for the baby. Lying SOB! Next time I take MajorBaby to the doc...she's gonna be packing a full diaper!

In any case...morning wake up came a little earlier than usual (I hate knowing that there's a 5am out there). I woke up to a baby fussing (no great shakes here...she spends more time in our bed than hers...a habit I hope to break by the time kindergarten rolls around).

Well, I kind of rolled up on an elbow just in time to pretty much hear MajorMom take the full force of some projectile vomiting! Woo hoo! I dodged the bio-hazard pretty much untouched this time.

So what did your hero, MajorDad, do? He dutifully hopped out of bed and grabbed "his" towel from "his" bathroom to assist the drenched heroine (MajorMom) and sooth the upset infant. Eventually we wound up falling asleep together (Me and MajorBaby)...I think MajorMom had already hit the showers.

When we all woke up, MajorBaby, MajorMom and MajorDad were all none worse for the wear.

From the high ground and dodging those cookies!

MajorDad1984

"Unfit for Command" to the Back of the Bookstore

First, I'd like to thank Smash for recognizing me on his famous blogs, The Indepundit and From the Sand Box, as one of his youngest "Blog Children." Yes, you stirred me back to action, but I was doing my 'thang' way back when in the early 90's when we were dialing up and forced to learn HTML to make our point. It's so much more fun here...I can spend my time thinking about what to write rather than trying to figure out how to make it look good.

Back to my topic...I was down at the local mall, getting a battery for my "dress watch." MajorMom1984 had read me the riot act...you're not wearing your Seiko Divemaster (circa 1984) with the Walmart band to your 20th reunion at West Point. (Note...my computer could NOT have been responsible for the Bush memos.) While we there dropping off the dress Seiko for the new battery, we wandered over to the Waldenbooks there. While in my favorite spot, between the computer, business/financial and current events, I saw a young saleswoman stocking shelves...and much to my surprise, I saw her with about a half dozen copies of "Unfit for Command." If the section she was stocking was any further from the front of the store, she'd have been in the stockroom.

I walked back up to the front of the store to see what was out up front...the new...top sellers if you will. I saw several books about George Bush, mostly unflattering. I had to go back to the saleswoman stocking the shelves. I couldn't help myself...I had to ask.

"Excuse me. I hate to be a wiseass, but I have to ask you a question. Can you tell me why this book here is way back here in the back of the store and there are at least three or four books about George Bush are out front? This book came out at about the same time. Why are you stocking it back here?"

"Uh, uh."

"I'm just curious. It seems as if this book should be up front with all the other contemporary books."

"But this is where they tell us to put it. There might be more coming in to place up front. Uh, uh."

"Yeah, right."

I finished my copy of "Unfit for Command" several weeks ago and believe that there's a grain of truth in almost all of the stories mentioned. It sounds to me like Mr. Kerry was awarded, wore, tossed, and now is running on a record several medals that probably should not have been awarded. Not too awfully long ago, we had an admiral commit suicide when questioned about wearing unearned ribbons and medals. Am I advocating that John Kerry take his own life? Not at all. I would just like to have him release the records that support the claims to these medals and to his role as 'war hero.'

It's getting late...I'm getting tired...and it's time to publish for tonight!

See you all on the high ground!

MajorDad1984

What Is My Desired End State in Iraq?

I'm curious to know what you folks out there in America think about what the desired end state is for our current operations in Iraq. I'll try to list mine and explain a why I feel these are important. When you don't know where you're going...any road will get you there.

1. Continue to search for the remnants of Weapons of Mass Destruction, required infrastructure, and capabilities of reconstituting such programs at a later time.

Is there any doubt that the radical Islamist and Baathist Party members would share such technology to strike at Coalition Forces currently deployed throughout Iraq and the Middle East or transport it outside Iraq if they could? Honestly, we're not sure that there are no WMDs still within Iraq. You can't prove a negative.

2. Establish a constitution or "rules of the road" for basic governmental function and define the rights of citizens.

I don't kid myself about establishing democracies throughout the world. I don't feel that it's right trying to force this form of government on any free people. There are other forms of government that can allow for the basic freedoms we enjoy here in the US and other western democracies.

I would like to see an Iraq where the religious factions could simply live in harmony and not fight over past wrongs or perceived wrongs. Why we as Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus and all the other world religions cannot simply agree to disagree on which "invisible man, woman or deity" to worship. God, Jehovah, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, or whoever probably wouldn't want us to treat each other as badly as were seeing in the photos and videos coming out of Iraq on a daily basis.

3. Continue to train the Iraqis in the practice of 'internal security' to keep their nation from continuing to be the lawless nation since the overthrow of Saddam.

I think we're getting this right and should continue it wholeheartedly. Iraqis need to step forward and help free their fledgling free nation from the grip of outdated ideas and concepts...and these bastards that seem to be flooding into the country to make their last stand against the Great Satan, the United States.

For the Democratic nominee for president to make a statement that America is sustaining 90% of the casualties in ongoing operations in Iraq is simply disingenuous. Iraqis are dying to set other Iraqis free and Iraqis are being caught in the crossfire between the Multinational Corps Forces, their Iraqi allies, and the terrorist insurgents. If we were to leave right now, the insurgents would want to wrestle control away from the interim government to create a harsh, theocratic government that certainly wouldn't be interested in providing Iraqi citizens basic human rights.

UPDATE!!!!! From the VP Debates and I thank Smash for his VP Debate Coverage for catching this.....

CHENEY: 90% is wrong, what about Iraqis? Cost was $120 billion, you probably weren't there to vote for that. Allies are offering $95 billion. Your facts are wrong, Senator. Hard for you to establish credibility when you voted for war, but against $87 billion. You're not credible, nor consistent. (WOW) Kerry lacks conviction to follow through.

Mr. Cheney, you're more than welcome to visit MajorDad's blog anytime you need some material. You've got my vote!

Well, I think that's enough for tonight. It's getting late. Your turn. Tag, you're it. Tell us what you want the "end state" to be in Iraq.

From the high ground!

MajorDad1984

Eye Drops and The Baby

Ah, Pink Eye, the staple of having a baby in the house...

This moring, we continued Alisha's treatment with the the prescribed eyedrops. (Note: MajorDad got his own little bottle of drops on Thursday...prescription written by the pediatrician.) For those of you that have never raised a baby, don't feel bad for not realizing what an undertaking this course of treatment is. Let's just say that it's probably easier to get a cat stuffed into a toilet than it is to get eye drops into a baby's eyes.

Alisha is a small child...small for her 14 months, but still a very normal, happy baby, until you have to pin her to the bed in order to get 4 little drops of medicine into her eyes. You'd think we were on WWE wrestling with the way she struggles and fights.

This morning it seemed as if things got a little crazier. I weigh about 9 times what this little bundle of joy weighs, you'd think that I'd be able to do this by myself....but no, we started with me doing the holding and Karen doing the drop administration. Trying to hold arms and legs still.....holding open little eyelids (whose muscle strength must be approaching the jaw strength of a pit bull)....just wasn't cutting. If these drops kill the infection the causes pink eye, we can probably dispense with spraying the bed down with Lysol today, we got plenty of the stuff all over. To finally get the job done, we had to bring Jamie in on the act...where I gave up my job holding arms and legs just to concentrate on getting the little eyes open. Wow! And that scream???

You'd think we were trying to get battery acid into her eyes...

See you on the high ground....MajorDad

Treblinka Square???

In the debate on Thursday night...Senator Kerry was puffing up his chest about being one of the first Americans to arrive on the scene after the fall of the Soviet Union. He talked about going down into the bowels of the former KGB headquarters of Treblinka Square. I'd like to know if this is part of his re-writing history like the Vietnam awards or the secret missions in Laos and Cambodia.

There's no such place in Russia or in the former Soviet Union. Mr. Kerry was probably talking about Dzerzhinsky Square, named after the first leader of the feared pre-cursor to the KGB. The prison that he visited was known as The Lubyanka.

Now, are you going to hear about this gaffe from the MSM? Hell no! But I'm sure that you'll hear all about President Bush calling the Islamic leaders "mool-lahs" as opposed to "mullahs."

Trying to bring a little bit of fairness to this whole affair....from the high ground!

MajorDad1984