The American People have a three-part guarantee with the men and women who enter U.S. Military. They deserve
1. The best training in the world.
2. The best equipment in the world.
3. And in case the worst happens, the best support the country and it's leaders can provide to military personnel and their families.
The one thing we can't guarantee is the best leadership in the world. And in the case of the Walter Reed scandal that is exactly what failed.
At. Every. Single. Level. Of. Command.
Both congressional and military leaders either ignored or because of bureaucratic inertia did not address basic needs of wounded and recovering military personnel.
This was the best this nation and its people could do for them?
But this really isn't an new story is it? Some version of this tragedy has unfolded time after time since private citizens were moved in 1863 to care for the wounded and bury the dead at Gettysburg.
So instead of giving in to my anger and grabbing the next media pundit by the collar I see either ignoring this issue or exploiting it for political gain then shout into his face " What the h*ll have you done to help!"
I'll tell this story.
Several years ago during a summer family tour, sandwiched between Hershey Park and Valley Forge, we visited Gettysburg. The wife, myself and the kids, after jumping off the stone wall at "The Angle", playing hide and seek at "Devil's Den", went on a National Park Service walk of the battlefield. The ranger explained the history and dedication of the famous cemetery. Then while standing in the middle of it told us about an error. You see in the weeks and months after the battle the bodies were in poor condition. Uniforms torn, blood soaked, the citizens took to identifying many of dead by their buttons. "VA" initials on a coat button would mean Virginia, same for TN, PA, NY and so on. They came a across one soldier whose button was damaged but when clean up a bit appeared to be MA. Therefore he was taken to the Union area of the grounds and buried.
Eventually someone noticed that similar uniforms with such buttons were actually MS, Mississippi. The man had been bury with Massachusetts men by mistake.
The soldier however was not disinterred and even when Confederate widows raised the funds to recovered, transport and return many of the soldiers' remains to loved ones in their home states the Mississippian remained.
So while I can't remember all the details surrounding Lincoln's speech, Lee's troop movements or 20th Maine's stand on Little Round Top. I still recall that story. And it makes me think today.
That should have been the first and only mistake made in the care and treatment of the men and women of the Armed Forces.
So when our leaders continue to fail over and over to managed even the most basic of issues.
The time's arrived for the citizens in this government "of the people" to educate and engaged themselves in the process of governance put forth in our founding documents.
Then at election time hold accountable our elected representatives for their actions.
Will we continue to ignore voting, get distracted by the sensationalized, and look only to our own comforts? If that's the case then we will have the government we deserved and ourselves to blame for it.
Let's hope we start making a difference, like those citizens of Pennsylvania over a century past, because there are thousands of families that have sacrificed. They deserve better from their fellow Americans and from America's leaders.