I LOVE THE SMELL OF NAPALM & OLD SPICE Part I

[RascalPuff]

Gotta letter saying how many ways its author was disappointed in me - that I had said I was in a shooting war in the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, May '61, and that I must have been in the missiles crisis of October '62, where there wasn't a shot fired, and that would explain why I had repeatedly said that I had neither received nor returned any enemy fire (with 'Molly', my Browning Automatic Rifle - named after my first dog, who was also my first security guard).

'Couldn't have been in the Bay of Pigs', because he (is not a vet) 'heard from many military sources and newspapers that "no Americans participated in the Bay of Pigs"... So, "that would explain why Molly (my 'impotent' Browning Automatic Rifle) hadn't seen any action".

Letter also said I got kicked out of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, for not having been in the Bay of Pigs, like I had said I was - that "You're not eliigible for the V.F.W. if you were only in the Missile Crisis of October '62."

I told 'em that the Navy lied when they left the Bay of Pigs invasion out of my service record, and that it was a cover up. That I was doing classified reconnaissance operations before and during the Bay of Pigs 'debacle' in May of '61. They said, "Who are we gonna believe - you or the Navy?"
This was back in '85, a quarter century after the Bay of Pigs.

Letter writer (30 years my junior and a third larger than I) went on to say that he'd been making inquiries of some of my old ship mates, and hearing that I was a poor Sailor, known for exaggerating, fictionalizing, malingering and otherwise making up false stories, and, that I had been trying to get post traumatic stress disorder compensation for my experiences in the Bay of Pigs (actually, documentation proves over a dozen other stressors - for which I have PTSD claim appeals pending), but I was written up for 'paranoid schizophrenia', and that's why I was drawing social security disability payments from the federal government since '71, while I told people I was getting payments for post traumatic stress disorder - 'to avoid the stigma of paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis' (actually, the federal PTSD program didn't exist until the early '80s; neither did I apply for it until '96, when I was diagnosed with PTSD, by Vets Admin. Dr. Katherine Yoon, of Fort Ord, CA.).

Letter writer also said that I (wrote a 'Novel-Journal' that said ) I 'murdered' a man when I was 14 years old - the specifically described 'novel journal' also clarifies that this novel-based incident occurs in a 'recurrent dream sequence'; in a clearly defined context of self defense.

Letter writer went on to say that when my typewriter (also 'Molly') said she 'cleaned his plough', it must mean she made whoopee with him, because he heard I 'had a homosexual experience' in the service, and that surely it mustn't mean that I could whip him, because I must know that he could 'bury me, straight up',

Anyway, long before this more recent contorted missive of the 21st century - back in the '80s when I got kicked out of the Veterans of Foreign Wars for 'ineligibility', I went to the congressman of the 17th federal district and asked him to ask the Navy Dept. what was up with them not saying anything about the Bay of Pigs on my DD 214 service record.

At that time, the congressman of the 17th federal district was Leon E. Panetta. He wrote the Navy a letter of inquiry and they wrote back saying they had never heard of me being in the Bay of Pigs. I said "They're covering it up". Congressman L. E. Panetta said, "Who am I going to believe, Mr. Robertson - you or the Navy Department?" His secretary at that time, Mary Beck, heard us arguing and made another inquiry of the Navy Department, which remarkably responded with the attached - finally declassified (rare) - documents...







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Mr. Panetta thereafter went on to become the Whitehouse Chief of Staff under the Clinton Administration, and is presently the C.I.A. Director under the Obama Administration...

Now, when someone says, "No Americans participated in the Bay of Pigs", I reply:
"Who you gonna believe, the mud-slinging, tale-spinning hecklers that write nasty letters (on and off the net), or the incumbent Director of the Central Intelligence Agency?" Ostensibly, 'malingerers', and other 'incredible' military personnel are not selected for (E-3) command authority responsibilities, which I carried out on boat duty - and as an artillery 1st loader - for three and a half years.

************************************************** ****************

A Classified letter (the response to which is in a qualfied pending status) follows:

Dear Navy Personnel Command Staff:

Enclosed, please find my DD 214 and three other documents including my 25 year belated form DD 215 , with two accompanying documents contingent to the DD 215.
In February March and April of 1961, months prior to the failed invasion of May '61, I drove boats and reconnaissance personnel to classified locations on the island of Cuba. We were told that these activities were training excersizes, though, in retrospect we learned otherwise; namely, that we were gathering pre invasionary information.

I was responsible for and obliged to stay with my boat at all times. Many of my passengers wore civilian clothes and carried non issue small arms and equipment. Reconnaissance patrols were usually deployed at night, while in daylight hours, my LCVP boat (carried 32 fully oufitted passengers) was secluded on small rivers and estuary inlets under the cover of heavy foliage.

On what proved to be our last mission, over a dozen men were deployed from my boat in daylight hours; shortly thereafter a heavy exchange of small arms and 60mm mortar fire was clearly audible for about ten minutes duration. Although I've never been personally targeted by or returned enemy fire, I have been surrounded by it on over a half dozen reconnaissance missions similar to that described here.

The assigned time for their return came and went. the incident was reported by radio; at which time we were ordered to leave the area, w'out determining whether or not there were any W.I.A. or K.I.A., although the fire-fight occurred at a close enough proximity to include stray rounds raking the heavy undergrowth at our position. We had no 'visuals' on the enemy, could therefore not determine friend from foe and consequently could not return fire. We were obliged to retire from our entrenchment.

One of the objectives of this communication is to inquire if you have access to any correlating records.

The Bay of Pigs theater began to be declassified in September of '85 that I know of, in accordance with the enclosed/attached documents.

RSVP,
I am respectfully,
Kent Robertson, BMSN E-3 Striker
522-33-40 U.S.N. Coxswain

[Graybeard]

Dear Rascal ..... why is this on the TOE forum. (again)


If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.


greg

[RascalPuff]

Dear Greg:
Due to non readership in blog category (no responses) I deleted 'How to acquire severe post traumatic stress disorder' from the blog category). I hope this is okay. As you may see, the introductory story line is considerably different from the one that was previously presented elsewhere.

The material will very likely be read a lot more in this category of posts.

I Just had a look at the other three entries, Greg. I see that they are closed.
On the other hand, I guess because this entry is indeed different from what I formerly had posted in blogs, and because I deleted the blogs, you have allowed it to remain open at this beginning of the seriatim.

As you are apparently aware, the documents that are posted here are uncommon - if not extraordinary - military history, for several reasons; not only that the documents were declassified to confirm that there was in fact (Classified) American presence in the Bay of Pigs (Bahia de Cochinas) in May of '61 (not to be confused with the 'missile crisis' of October '62), but that out of over 400 congress representatives, the one who recovered my (formerly 'cloaked'; withheld 'covered up') classified Expeditionary papers, proves later to occupy two more presitgious posts; namely as White House Chief of Staff, and, presently, the incumbent C.I.A. Director.

I had no idea of your description of the symbolism of military cavalry statues.

Best regards,
- RP

[Mikal]

RP...have you checked out all these??


Document 1: Propaganda Action Plan in Support of Military Forces, Undated

Document 2: Chart of Command Organization for Operations

Document 3: Memorandum for Record, Paramilitary Study Group Meeting at the Pentagon, Ninth Meeting, 3 May 1961 [Excerpt]

Document 4: After Action Report on OPERATION PLUTO, 4 May 1961 [Excerpt]

Document 5: Memorandum for Record, Paramilitary Study Group Meeting at the Pentagon, Twelfth Meeting, 8 May 1961 [Excerpt]

Document 6: Memorandum for Record, Paramilitary Study Group Meeting at the Pentagon, Fourteenth Meeting, 11 May 1961 [Excerpt]

Document 7: Memorandum for Record, Paramilitary Study Group Meeting at the Pentagon, Nineteenth Meeting, 22 May 1961 [Excerpt]

Document 8: Mr. Phillips [Interview of David Atlee Phillips] [Excerpt], Undated

[Mikal]

3 May 2000 ... These and other associated documents, including interviews with key CIA ... have been published in Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA ...
www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB29/index.html -

[RascalPuff]

3 May 2000 ... These and other associated documents, including interviews with key CIA ... have been published in Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA ...
www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB29/index.html -

Dear Mikal:
First of all, I very humbly thank you for the gratitude you extend to Truly Yours. I was unaware of the information you have accessed to me and I am more grateful than I can say...

Although my incumbent counselors have not quite gotten around to telling me it may be a constructive thing for me to air out some 'stuff' publicly - since that opportunity exists, it has been implied that it might be a cathartic gesture on my part, for myself, if no one else.

You may have no interest in war, but, war has an interest in you. - Tolstoy

I'm already repeating myself.

I use to collect all the one and two liners stencil penciled on all the helmet liners. Black humor and all that. I threw them all away.

*My service was pre Vietnam - moreover, *I was not obliged to take lives in the Bay of Pigs. It gets very fickle out there. You may dish it out or take it for zigging or zagging or for not zagging or zigging. Cuba as a 51st star on the American Colors... I'm just not resolute on that either, hither or thither. Can't we just annex them - or them us - with a friendly agreement of some kind?
*I was very lucky that way. Not having been perished by, or caused the perishment of anyone in war. You know, no red blooded American can be intact without having killed someone, for peace, naturally. Some bad guy that just had to die, ya know.

On the other hand, my mother lost three of her brothers in W W II - a war that had to be fought, short of the entire world falling to the Fascists. My uncle Henry won the next thing to the Medal of Honor and you could probly get his autograph if he was around to distribute it, and, yes, I was recommended for a Bronze Star (wanna be). Bus still costs a dollar, after they frisk you for bombs.

In the words of Dwight David Eisenhower: "I hate war. There's only one thing I hate more than war, and, that's Fascism".

They killed three of my uncles. What a small measure of the cataclysm they imposed on Europe and Russia. The Holocaust. The Russian Front. The Warsaw Ghetto... But then, there were three Gold Stars in my Grandmother's living room window. 'Only three'... I am an old man and this was in my life time and yes, it could - and may - happen again.
Iran finds Israel perilously expendable. Short of massive global warming or an uncontrollable global pandemic it looks like Iran will initiate it with Israel or conversely. Enter WW III and the nuclear winter and the end all the green stuff generated by photosynthesis, due to the absence of sunlight because of a dust cloud that stays up there long enough to bring everything down.

If this is 'politics' I'm the former governor of Alaska.

Incidentally, I was against the Vietnam War from its advent. I already had just done my time so they couldn't (quite) draft me. But, one way and another, as in the Bay of Pigs, I lost a lotta friends in Vietnam. Just kids. Their names are on (and off) The Wall. Whereas, there's no Wall for the Bay of Pigs... 'There were no Americans there'. I lived with that for twenty five years after I got home. I personally lost exactly a dozen men I knew personally, from my boat. Post incidentally, I use to sit next to men in coffee shops and such and listen to them call me a liar. I quit talking about it. Sooner or later someone was going to off me for telling the truth. 'Because I wasn't there'. That's what happened to the Bay of Pigs vets. They weren't there... Their comrades didn't suffer or die. As a survivor you were a blatent, arrogant, 'glory' seeking liar... I quickly learned not to talk about it. It was the only way I could survive. I lived in the Haight Ashbury for a while forgetting and denying I was a veteran. 'The Hippies' hadda lotta flaws but they sure were right about Vietnam. And any war like it.

I abhorred the Vietnam war but had ineffable sympathy for (most of) its veterans. Even that war was 'minimized' until half the families on the block had been somehow personally touched by it.

The average age of a Vietnam vet was 19.5 years - raised in a culture that taught them from birth to do their duty for their country when and if it called on them. Learning far too late that he or she is is the wrong war. When you learn you're in the wrong war you're just fighting for your survival and that of your comrades and meanwhile 'the enemy' is on his 'n her turf, fighting as you would, if the circumtances were reversed. Moreover, that's what we've got now in the Middle East.

If this is 'politics' I'm the governor of Mississippi.

No. I wasn't in Vietnam, but so very many of my comrades were, and even some of those that survived to return, have yet to get out of Vietnam. Living on 'polysubstances.' Half the federal prison population is Vietnam vets. Half the single male homeless are Vietnam vets. The highests suicide rate among ex soldiers is Vietnam vets. Broken families. Broken lives. That war transformed this entire nation. I watched it happen. It's still happening, only now it's Iraq, and Afghanistan. As long as there is one radical Muslim who deliberately annhilates his or herself, this culture will not maintain a military presence in that culture.

The most appalling feature of the present conflicts in the Middle East, is that quite apparently the leadership of this nation did not learn anything from the atrocity of our impositions in Southeast Asia. The only thing that's slightly changed is, the 'uninvolved' public is not (quite) persecuting veterans for executive policies - and methods, as they were before.

There is still a 'kill zone' in Guantanamo Bay', it's been there since Castro took over from Batista. I am passive audience to suit and tie wearing automatons talking about American torture policies. I begin to get confused about what my comrades - my uncles who perished and many people I personally know - fought for. Since 9/11 anyone's phone may be tapped without a judge's order and without due cause. Anyone may be reconnoittered on satellite TV w'out a judge's order and w'out due cause. ('We are winning the MiddleEastern Hearts and Minds').

One must be very careful not to hate, and if one must hate, then one must be very selective about what, and why one hates.
And, by the spirit of my Mother and her brothers, I hate war. But: there are just - and unjust - wars.

The Vietnamese were obliged to fight us, for example. Obliged. They fought a righteous war. We fought a wretched one.
I watched it rend and twist and burn the fabric of this nation, while it altogether understandably bonded the Vietnamese Nation - North And South.

I am told (by a very wise and well informed man) that Noam Chomsky is a radical leftist. 'Noam who?'


I apologize for this 'rant'. I don't really feel bad about it so much as I do feel 'embarassed'. Gee. 'Collateral' and 'intercine' and 'blue' casualties are 'embarassing'.

Best regards to you and yours,
- RP

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NOMADS, CIVILIZATION & WAR: The Hinges of History

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[Graybeard]

Oh, Franklin Roosevelt told the people how he felt
We damn near believed what he said
He said, “I hate war, and so does Eleanor
But we won’t be safe ’till everybody’s dead.”

[RascalPuff]

These are - so far - functional jpg images from Post #1, which discontinued enlarging the exhibited declassified Congressional and Navy Department documents.


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Best regards,
- RP