U.S. Soldiers Stage Mutiny

Democracy Now
December 21, 2007

We speak with a reporter from the Army Times who gives an inside account of how an army unit committed mutiny and refused to carry out orders in Iraq. After an IED attack killed five more members of Charlie 1-26, members of 2nd Platoon gathered for a meeting and determined they could no longer function professionally. Several platoon members were afraid their anger could set loose a massacre.

JUAN GONZALEZ: In what has been described as one of the most remarkable stories of the entire Iraq war, a reporter from the Army Times has given perhaps the first inside account of how an Army unit committed mutiny and refused to carry out orders in Iraq.

The incident occurred in Adhamiya, a district in northeastern Baghdad, where soldiers in the 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, were stationed. The 2nd Platoon had lost many men since deploying to Iraq eleven months before. After an IED attack killed five more members of Charlie 1-26, members of 2nd Platoon gathered for a meeting and determined they could no longer function professionally. Several platoon members were afraid their anger could set loose a massacre. They decided to stage a revolt against their commanders that they viewed as a life-or-death act of defiance.

AMY GOODMAN: The story appears in a major four-part series called “Blood Brothers,” published in the Army Times by the paper’s medical reporter, Kelly Kennedy. She was embedded with Charlie Company in Iraq in the spring and summer of this year. Kelly Kennedy joins us now from Washington, D.C.

Welcome, Kelly, to Democracy Now! Just lay out the story for us. How did it begin?

KELLY KENNEDY: Well, it began—I went to Adhamiya. I was working on a story about medics, and I had heard that Charlie Company had been hit particularly hard, and so I wanted to ride along with their medics and see what they were doing. They were doing some amazing things: tracheotomies on the battlefield and restarting hearts and just really great things.

Our second day there, my photographer, Rick Kozak, and I had gone out on patrol with them in the morning, and then they went out on a second patrol that we didn’t go on, and that was the day that the Bradley was hit, and they lost five men. So we watched them react to that. I guess what amazed me about that day was how strong these guys were for each other, but also how they were willing to look out for us, as reporters that they had just met. They flew us out of there that night.

And then, about a month later, I got a couple of emails from the guys saying, “We just lost four more men, and they want us to go out on patrol, and we’re not going to do it.” And then, I couldn’t get back to them when I was in Iraq, but when they returned home to Germany, I went to see them.

And essentially, they’re the hardest hit unit in Iraq so far. I hope that the story would show people exactly what soldiers in Iraq are dealing with. I’m not sure Americans understand exactly what this war looks like to our soldiers. And we just went through the whole fifteen-month deployment in a four-part series, just showing exactly what had happened to them, from the youngest man in their unit throwing himself on a grenade to save four other men to battles that they went through. They were catching insurgents, and they were battling every day, but then they were exhausted, too, mentally and physically.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And in terms of the casualties, you have some startling numbers, in terms of the percentage of the men who were killed. Could you talk about that?

KELLY KENNEDY: Yeah. The company itself, there were 110 men who went out on patrol—there were probably 138 men in Charlie Company itself—and they lost fourteen men in twelve months. And the battalion, which is about a thousand people, lost thirty-one people altogether. So it’s pretty extreme.

AMY GOODMAN: You talk about right when you got there, the five men being killed by an IED. Tell us about Master Sergeant Jeffrey McKinney.

KELLY KENNEDY: OK, that was about a month later. First Sergeant McKinney was well loved by his men. He was Bravo Company. He was considered intelligent. When they had a question, he was the one they went to, because he could explain things. Everyone thought he was a great family man. One of the soldiers, Ian Nealon [phon.], told me that he used to ride to work with him every day and that he just loved him.

And one day, he went out on patrol with his guys, and they had just been called back into Apache, which was the name of the combat outpost where they were in Adhamiya, and he apparently looked—said that he had had it. He looked at a wall, he fired a round, and then he took his M4, and he put it under his chin, and he killed himself in front of his men. It left a lot of people just saddened and horrified. And then, the next week, Bravo Company was hit by an IED, and they lost four guys, too.

AMY GOODMAN: The military first ruled it an accident, then admitted that it was a suicide.

KELLY KENNEDY: Well, I’m not sure they—they did an investigation. I don’t think they admit anything until they’re done with an investigation in the military. But, yeah, I think that they were worried about morale at first, and so when they called the guys back in, it wasn’t—they didn’t announce that their first sergeant had just killed himself; they said, “There’s been an accident.” So—

JUAN GONZALEZ: Your series presents a really fascinating picture of how the medical folks who dealt with some of these soldiers, the psychologists who dealt with them, reacted to their situation, and also how the commander dealt with being faced with an actual mutiny by his troops. Could you enlighten us about that some more?

KELLY KENNEDY: Yeah, I think there’s—that’s one of the key differences of this war. I’m a veteran myself, and I served in Mogadishu, and I served in Desert Storm. We didn’t know what PTSD was—post-traumatic stress disorder. We didn’t have mental health people we could go to while we were out in the field or while we were out in battle. We didn’t talk about ethics. We didn’t talk about how we were feeling or how we would react professionally to certain situations. And these guys are. They’re going to mental health, and they’re saying, “Hey, I’m upset about this.” And the mental health people are talking with the unit commanders and saying, “Hey, maybe you need to pull your guys out Adhamiya,” or “Hey, maybe your guys need some more rest.” And they’re certainly saying, “Listen, if you think you’re going to act unprofessionally, you need to do something else. You need to take care of that.” And I think that’s huge. I don’t think a lot of people understand that that’s a big difference in this war, between the last war and this war.

And the reason they do that is because early on in this war we did have situations where troops did not behave properly. In Vietnam, we certainly saw it. For these guys to stand up and say, “Listen, we’re not sure we can handle it right now,” could be considered very courageous, in my mind. The commander, I think, also realized that, and he said as much, that he sees the two sides of the situation.

After Bravo Company’s IED went off, Charlie Company was supposed to go back out and patrol the same area. When some of the members who had been patrolling with Charlie Company before the scout platoon went as the quick reaction force to the IED attack for Bravo Company, they were struck by how much it looked like the first IED attack that—the roadside bomb attack, and they reacted as if it were their own men, and they went right to mental health and they got sleeping medications, and they basically couldn’t sleep and reacted poorly.

And then, they were supposed to go out on patrol again that day. And they, as a platoon, the whole platoon—it was about forty people—said, “We’re not going to do it. We can’t. We’re not mentally there right now.” And for whatever reason, that information didn’t make it up to the company commander. All he heard was, “2nd Platoon refuses to go.” So he insisted that they come. They still refused. So volunteers went out to talk with them, and then he got the whole situation. In the meantime, it was called a mutiny, which is probably a bigger word than should be used for it, but that’s what the battalion called it.

And eventually, what they did was they separated the platoon. They said, you know, “You guys aren’t acting well together anymore, so we’re going to split you up, and we’re going to have you work with other platoon sergeants, other squad leaders, and see if we can turn things around this way.” But they also punished them, in a sense, by flagging them and saying that they couldn’t get promotions and they couldn’t get their awards for two months. So there was a feeling that there had to be punishment for these soldiers refusing to go on a mission, but there was also understanding that the guys may have acted properly in this case.

AMY GOODMAN: Kelly Kennedy, I think what is so profound about this story is the refusal of the men to go out. Were there women, by the way, in this unit?

KELLY KENNEDY: No, it was all infantry.

AMY GOODMAN: The refusal of these men to go out, because they were afraid they would commit a massacre. Explain that.

KELLY KENNEDY: Yeah. They’re—I need to say this: they are good guys. I mean, I saw them take care of each other. I saw them take care of Iraqis.

When the IED, the roadside bomb, went off, it was so close to one of the Iraqi police stations that they should have been able to see somebody burying that. It was right in front of somebody’s house, and nobody said anything. Nobody said to these guys, “Listen, there’s a bomb here. We’re worried about you,” even though they had been going out and patrolling and doing what they were supposed to be doing, in their minds. So when that IED went off and killed their five friends, they’re in—you have to understand, they’ve been living together for a year like brothers in the basement of this old palace. And it’s—they’re right on top of each other and going out and taking care of each other on the battlefield, daily firefights. And so, they’re closer probably than anyone could be. And when they lost their five men, they—I think they gave up on the Iraqi people.

If the Iraqi people weren’t willing to fight for them, then what was the point? And they were so angry. They just wanted to go out and take out the whole city. They didn’t understand why they couldn’t finish up what they call the war, and the whole idea of counterinsurgency is that you’re supposed to be building relationships, but they’re trying to build relationships with people who obviously aren’t that concerned about them. So this idea of a massacre was just—they were just so angry, they could barely contain it anymore.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And that sense that you capture so well in the article, the soldiers finding that they’re on a mission to help a people, but they have so much hostility from the very people that they are there to help, the impact of that on their fighting ability or on the morale.

KELLY KENNEDY: It was huge. And I think they can see it from both perspectives. We went out on patrol one morning. It was 6:00 in the morning, and they had to go in and search houses. And they were waking people up, and the Iraqis didn’t look happy to see them, and the guys weren’t happy to have to wake people up. And so, they’re sort of weary of each other anyway.

They were still doing the things that you see, handing out the teddy bears and playing with the kids and playing soccer and that sort of thing, but at the same time, they never felt safe. I mean, it was daily that they were catching grenades and live fire, and these IEDs were all over the place. They just never felt like they were getting anywhere.

When they thought that they had built a relationship with a Sunni colonel, the colonel was fired because the Baghdad government is Shiite, and they didn’t trust him as a colonel in the Iraqi army. So, as soon as he was gone, they had to start all over again. It just seemed like every time they made progress, it was slammed back down again. They just weren’t getting anywhere

AMY GOODMAN: Kelly Kennedy, I want to thank you for joining us and for doing this series of pieces, the medical reporter for Army Times. She’s the author of a four-part series, “Blood Brothers.” We’ll link to it at our website, democracynow.org.

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  1. S. Wolf Britain on December 23rd, 2007

    May there be more and more “mutinies”, and may countless numbers of U.S. soldiers lay down their arms, and support personnel put aside whatever they do to support it, and absolutely refuse to any longer be complicit at all, to any degree, in this completely illegal and unconscionable, absolutely disgusting, shocking and awful war-crime of a war!

  2. C. Davis on December 23rd, 2007

    I wonder if the persons placing these devices are able to be seen doing so by our myriad of multi- million dollar spy satellites which are currently focused on Iraq.

  3. Anna Nimus on December 24th, 2007

    I am surprised that there haven’t been many more mutinees like this, because this illegal “war of choice” and occupation in the middle east, which has been going on now since 2001 (yes, almost 7.5 years so far), seems to have NO END IN SIGHT. It was a huge mistake to start it in the first place, and it is an even bigger mistake to remain stubborn and in total denial of the USA’s failure and inability to bring permanent peace to the region. The very presence of the US “invasion forces” and “occupying” troops is what angers the native Afghanis and Iraqis. They see themselves as a conquered people, oppressed and constantly tortured by people from foreign lands who seem only interested in stealing their oil.

    How would Americans like it, if the mainland USA was invaded and occupied by a foreign country, say, like China? I’m sure they would all feel even angrier if they were also falsely labelled and stereotyped as suicidal terrorists with no respect for life, by the worldwide media. Put yourself in the shoes of the other person, and understand that they are attacking US troops, who should not be there in the first place, because they have outstayed their welcome. Sure, great job in removing Sadam, but to give control of all the Iraqi oil fields to western oil tycoons and to build 14 permanent military bases, is really asking for trouble, and they got it…

    This war seems like it will never end, and it is being deliberately run just to bankrupt the USA and weaken the US Military forces even further so that the US is no longer able to defend itself. Most Americans who support this endless war are either blinded by too much patriotic pride or they are pretending to be spreaders of freedom and democracy, knowing full well that Iraq and Afghanistan will never be rebuilt and redeveloped, and that their shares in war profiteering corporations and oil companies will keep on paying them big profits and dividends. Most Americans do not realise that the Bush family, Cheney and Kissinger, are all taking their orders from the world’s richest bankers and “paper-rich” financiers (also members of the “Illuminati”), who take their orders in turn from Satan / Lucifer. The entire planet is controlled by crazy selfish Satan worshipping witches and occult practicers who want to reduce the world’s population down to 500 million, by killing over 80% of the world’s population, either through starvation, unemployment, wars and bloody revolutions. They want 100% total control over the entire planet, and they plan to destroy or shut-down everything of value (including all the food supply companies, water supplies, electricity companies, oil/fuel suppliers, EVERYTHING!) They practically control or own over 99% of all the businesses we rely on today, including most of the supermarkets and shopping malls we rely on for food and supplies. They will shut this all down very soon, and try to pre-empt, or force, the “Great Tribulation” as prophesied in the Holy Bible… and then the “end” will come… also known as “Armaggedon”, or God’s great war against Satan and his demons (fallen angels).

    The fact that Bush & Cheney and the western powers have not yet caught the real organizers of 9/11, the London 7/7 bombings and the Bali bombings, is a hint-and-a-half that these terror attacks were deliberately planned as “false flag” inside jobs, designed to enrich oil corporations and war profiteers (arms & weapon manufacturers, munitions suppliers, security corporations, etc). Unfortunately, to a few cold-blooded vampires, war, mass-murder and fabricated terror is really good for increasing profits! War seems very good for business!

    http://www.truth911.net

    http://www.911weknow.com

    http://www.seeloosechange.com

    http://www.belowgroundsurface.org

    Everything you see and learn on TV is all lies, all fakery, all designed to deceive you into thinking that all is ok. When in reality, the Bible is 100% correct is saying: “The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.”

    Google “John Todd” and listen to his speeches about the “Illuminati” and their plans for this planet in the few years ahead. Everything they have planned has come true, including skyrocketing oil prices, plans for martial law, prison or concentration camps for dissenters and rebels, home invasions, and soon, shutting down of all food and water supplies. They are now even putting poison (sodium flouride) in our water supplies, to dumb us all down, to make us all passive and docile, like cattle. And in children’s vaccines, they are including mercury (which causes braindamage). In our tetanus vaccines, they have included “HCG” hormones which promote infertility and cause miscarriages in people, and they have been administering these “population control” drugs to blacks and asians over the past 30 years, because they are a bunch of racists who believe in Eugenics, just like the Nazis. Sickos!!! Their lies about manmade global warming are also designed to fool you into believing that technology and development are bad for nature, so they can use this as an excuse to stop and prevent all infrastructure and economic development in non-white countries, like those in Africa, India and many asian 3rd world countries.

    Lies upon lies upon lies!!! Even the official government elections are all rigged, because the winners of elections had already been hand picked long before by secret societies of the “elites” like the “Bilderberg Group” and the “Illuminati” members who perform human sacrifices at “Bohemian Grove” gatherings each year.

    Educate yourself. Prepare yourself for the “Great Tribulation”. Stock up on supplies, food, water and live in a secure retreat or fortress which you can defend. Really bad things are going to happen to all those who live near cities, and to all those who are not self-sufficient with their own food supplies for at least 6 months to a year. Helter-skelter is about to break loose and the “Illuminati” elites are going to shut down society and close down most businesses to starve everybody to death, very soon. This is not a time to be taking is easy… Be prepared!!!!

  4. Lewis on December 24th, 2007

    It’s good to see the British withdraw from Basra. I have 2 frineds in the Royal Marine Commando’s and a cousin that’s Captain serving out there. They all say the same thing. The War is an unjust & pointless war. The same in Afghanistan. The corrpution and all the bullshit is coming to the surface… it’s time we moved on to the 21st century. One of peace and properity, it’s time MANKIND had a ‘Golden Age’.

  5. janice on December 24th, 2007

    It’s not about winning the war, it’s about sustaining it and killing as many people as possible while it continues.
    There’s more money in sustaining a war than in winning it and it gives them the time and distraction they need to construct their bases and refineries.
    IED’s are used by the insurgents but the majority, i believe, are used strategically by the american government (CIA) against their own soldiers.
    They get the results they need on a more concentrated level.
    Just as they got the results they were after by imploding the twin towers.
    The same applies to the pharmecutical companies and profits.
    There’s more money in “creating” (aids) and “treating” a disease than there is in preventing it or curing it.
    We’ve all been hoodwinked.
    My only hope is that more and more soldiers will refuse to fight.
    That’s what ended viet nam, although you won’t here the government admit to that.
    The majority of americans would support them and the ones that wouldn’t are either still in the dark or having their pockets lined at the expence of the american troops and the people of iraq.
    My prayers are with them all. God bless you

  6. janice on December 24th, 2007

    http://www.prisonplanet.com/ar.....murder.htm

    “The violence precipitated — and indeed engineered — by the neocons in Iraq has not declined: it will continue unabated until the United States gets out of there. Earlier this year, the Pentagon itself admitted that violence in Iraq “jumped to another record high,” largely due to a “sectarian struggle for power,” according to Reuters. Reading the corporate media, one gets the idea that the Iraqis are responsible for all this unfortunate violence, it has nothing to do with the neocons or their “surge” to kill “al-Qaeda,” the cardboard boogieman that shows up conveniently when needed.

    It is probably too much to expect these idiots — and people who passively get their “news” from a tube owned by the same corporations that make ba-zillions of dollars off attack helicopters and fighter jets are indeed idiots — to recall the Pentagon telling us they were “considering” (translation: they had already implemented) the “Salvador Option,” that is to say they organized and unleashed death squads against the Iraqi people. It was admitted that the Pentagon had deferred to the CIA on this because the agency has oodles of experience in this sort of psychopathic behavior — from orchestrating the murder of some 100,000 Guatemalans to enabling fascists and thugs in Indonesia to slaughter around a million people — and that’s only the tip of the serial murder iceberg.”

  7. Jeff on December 24th, 2007

    I’ll betcha Charlie Company wasn’t sitting at John McCains’ table on T-Giving.

  8. Jane on December 24th, 2007

    I want them to come home!!!

  9. Pete on December 24th, 2007

    C Davis…those multi-million dollar spy satellites, most unfortunately, are currently scrutinizing what is happening in America, not Iraq–SILLY!

  10. Pres on December 24th, 2007

    You folks are reading propaganda that is for the individual reporter to enrich his her ego. This type of writing has been a wonderful read. However I disagree with all and realize that time and history changes our knowledge of reality. I stand for your individual rights and will die to support them. Just don’t break our laws in so doing please! Now as for war industry and your pocket book. My advice is for you to respect older cultures than ours. Save 20% of your earnings.
    We find mammals from the past in a vast difference in structure and formation of communication. Our progress is limited if we stay in the mode history repeats itself. Our species has surpassed all of our history. We are moving in serious progress in all forms of social development. Most of the 80% is not aware just nervous because of the stories made up by people that dream up this emotional stuff. All it is folks are men and woman figuring on a way to live by making people weary. Come on now forget these silly things that are not of the now. I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

  11. janice on December 24th, 2007

    i want them to come home too…
    and i’m not even american

  12. S. Wolf Britain on December 26th, 2007

    Say, “Pres”, take that very tired old “Richard Alpert, aka Baba Ram Das, ‘Be Here Now’” crud that I grew out of thirty years ago and throw it, for your own best good and those you are deceiving with it, as far away from yourself and others as you can! It is evil! It is lies! And, see what it makes you do, it makes you avoid and deny truth that is staring you right in the face?! Come on, Man, it’s time to put away lies and wake up to truth!

  13. Pres on December 26th, 2007

    Wolf, maybe you are right. OK you are. I still can’t see a reason for me to own a gun. In my life so far yet the environment does not require one. However I can adapt. When required I am a good medic from thirty years ago. Sorta was a free radical then now free radicals are real bad for me. Yeah truth Wolf it is and it hurts. I just don’t want to it is like diving from the high dive for the first time accepting what some believe are the facts. Yeah heck I know them too and I just hope that I have not hurt anyone with my knowing the lie. But Wolf sometimes in this world young men and women need some of the lie to keep them motivated to stay in the armed forces or out of trouble with society. Shucks Wolf you are compassionate in your wording. I know you as I see the writing you are a fine person. In my life I have had to balance the ball. If I drop the ball the fact that times change and perceptions make for the real word staring me right back. Hey man yeah that is what my Harley is for I am only 57 but that is one truth I can stand by and ride since 16. I know you will agree with that sense of freedom. I have always felt if you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything that is why I ride. Wolf for me to be able to enable mankind to advance I have to approach my brothers and sisters gingerly. Wolf, I have a mission that is left over from the 60’s. I have worked on the inside far to long and you can see it. However it is time I approach my young brother Alex Jones with a high 5. Oh yeah I did the Vietnam era thing military style. But get this straight I was right out in front of every peace demo I could skip school for. Now you got a piece of my heart bro and those reading this some understand some will not. One thing I try very hard to do is stay away from violence and control myself. Yeah man I am damaged but I still believe in our core principles adopted way back with the SDS ect.. However I was branded in the military 6 yrs. as a rebel rouser. I guess I still am in every way. Wolf, thanks man for setting the thing right so people can understand. And as for me continued help from a therapist might keep me out of prison. Hell I had to give up pot years ago. It was way to much for me but let me tell you if it were not for that I probably would be rotting away in jail. Now don’t pick on me and say I should go back on grass. Montel Williams is a hero of mine I just can’t break the law on that subject. I do like the Buddha way tends to calm and so does J.C.. I am sure they could lead us out of this morass. I assume with no doubt the good Dr. Ron Paul is the only true viable president we could have. So I have to switch party’s then back to my own Democratic one at the last moment. Now you see I am a oxymoron but if that is what it takes to awake America so be it. Now for me being a moron well a little crazy now and then but would say Forest Gump is a hero movie star. Especially running off those braces and stupid is as stupid does. Wolf may you live with your wisdom and continue gently waking up these Giants here in America. We need you and your writing skills. Thanks for being honest with me and understanding. We will continue to win and fight the good fight. I promise. Now that is the American you truly know proud of you Wolf. Sincerely Pres (real name)

  14. S. Wolf Britain on December 27th, 2007

    Hey, Bro, I’m with you. It’s just like those bumper stickers from the eighties that say, “Think World Peace”, as if only do that is all we need to do and will bring it about. No way, I’ve got old “friends”, or used to have, or used to hold on to those who weren’t really friends at all when push came to show, that think that way and they do NOTHING, or almost nothing, to truly try to bring about world peace, and don’t do anything either to try to save this country and world. One of them lives only forty miles from San Francisco and NEVER goes to any of the peace demonstrations; yet, he’s supposedly an old rebel from the seventies gone yuppie (although he’d of course deny it—call him a new “Toyota pickup truck yuppie”).

    He’s got “everything”; money, travels all over the world, has NEVER helped me, even when I was completely homeless living out of my car for two years, at first in his neck of the woods (Sonoma, California), puts everybody down from the past including me, falsely thinks he’s superior to virtually everyone except other ambitious, so-called “successful” people like him, and he isn’t happy most of the time. It’s disgusting. I can’t even talk to him, and never really could. He lives in a T.M., demon-possessed “reality” that leaves no room for the true reality, or having any true compassion or benevolence for most people… like most people are. He’s so selfish and self-centered that I almost don’t recognize him at all from the guy I first met at junior college in 1973 or 4.

    Anywho, my point in all of this is that we’ve got to completely wake up and come out of ALL of our self-centeredness. This republic is going down in flames, and we are rapidly descending into hard-fasicm so badly that it puts ALL of us in grave danger from “our own” government, including those who “go along to get along”. There’s no room or time for that bullshit! We’ve ALL got to get off of and out of our indoctrination, conditioning and dumbing-down high, or low, horses and pitch in to try and save this country and world! There’s absolutely no excuse(s) for doing anything less; and, if we don’t do so, we are cowards and traitors of the worst kind(s)!

    I know you don’t want to be that!

  15. S. Wolf Britain on December 27th, 2007

    P.S.—I meant to say too that I’m unusual and disliked around “here” because, like you, I’m also anti-violence, non-violent(ce) and not big on guns either (don’t own a single one and never want to–so that supposedly makes me a so-called “coward” and/or “traitor” around these parts). I’m a “Martin Luther King peacemaker”, Gandhi -esque kind of person. I know that the gun-toters believe that their kind(s) of dissent worked “then” but (supposedly) doesn’t, or won’t, work anymore, but I don’t believe that. Some people with the fortitude of the non-/anti- violence persuasion have to stick around to try and help keep things from descending into absolute, much too violent madness, and to hopefully help broker the True Peace after the mayhem; and I believe that non-violent civil disobedience still does a GREAT DEAL of good, at least it would if we’d do it on the much larger scale that we need to do it for it to be Truly, Fully and Completely effective!

  16. Pres on December 27th, 2007

    Yes Wolf, I am as you are in ways of just being a human different as a individual is. We know one thing in common of all we do and that is universal speak. Our ELF is unnerving and can’t be stopped.
    Wolf, the news today about the killing in Pakistan is another shot across our ship. Our friendship now is tested to be as we knew it to be. We are more than fair weather. I have property in the mountains of CA. where we have life after. Hey I am here in FLA relaxing in the retirement yrs. However if you know of any humans that are stronger younger than we are and know the way.(tao) I can give them directions to the area’s and permission for the stay on the land. Your man of peace Pres. Thanks Wolf.

  17. Denny on December 27th, 2007

    Aloha,

    I have been reading some of this information and the comments. I was in the Navy, as a 4th Generation Military Veteran, born on the 4th of July. I have seen how our Navy intimidates other countries, and it made me sick. I saw how Vietnam destroyed my father. I saw how WWII destroyed my Grandfather,(full bird colonel, U.S.A.F.), and my great grand father offed himself after WWI, with a shotgun to the head. Four Generations of Veterans, and broken families in it’s wake. The military industrial complex destroys the basic unit of society, the family, and then profits off of the “spoils of war” with the rest of the corporate arrogance.

    I am like many , I am a peaceful warrior, only when one is put into a corner, the light shall conquer these dark works, and there are enough patriots out there to make it a reality. Evil tends to consume itself, and the night is always darkest, before the dawn. May 2008 bring a new dawn.
    Blessings of Aloha (love) to all……

  18. Pres on December 27th, 2007

    Denny! Yo I know Navy quite well. Never.Again.Volunteer.Yourself! As a sand-crab we put a union together. We won. Yeah and I had N.L.R.B. all over them when it was time for repercussions. Still wondering as the hair leaves my long locks where that long scar came from. Time has change my perspective of Navy. Now and probably forever I will be loyal to her. Something happened to me as I escaped for solitude in the caves and woods of Oregon. There she was tree top level screaming by US Navy. I said fuck it thru a fly Navy bumper sticker on the pick up. And never looked back again cuz I know the walls have ears. Funny is it not as we right yeah write it is being filtered. You are right on about the family unit thing. Being single now and a widower got to say it is one of the truths buried so deep we will never live long enough to see the fruits of our labor. My neighbor in CA raced pigeons he is retired Navy ss. I don’t know it if he knew it but his kids ran bindles of meth to some of the pigeons. So darn it have to break away from this addictive computer jump on the scoot and ride. Thank you Navy! You created me ain’t going back to the center. Denny your islands are a refuge in the last of the times. You see Art Bell and I were on Okinawa at the same time. So go figure what I know fantasy with and travel to. Little to win nothing to loose.
    Love you and God bless you Denny.