I need to apologize to SSG Fitts immediately. Oda Mae just received an email from a soldier downrange, someone who knows SSG Fitts (Oda Mae took out some names, but email left as-is, in all its soldierly glory, i.e. warning: swear words):

You are correct SSG Fitts is a great NCO and very positive guy. He was misquoted. We all hate some of our enbeds.. and the Brit times guys a real cock. VERY annoying wines alot and writes misquotes just to get his points across. However . . . that when these guys write fucked up shit, he won't kick them out.. even when we've asked him to boot them out. I didn't want [Mrs. Sims] to hear about that article, because sean was doing the right thing, and leading from the front, the fucking stupid brit got it all wrong.

My apologies for being down on SSG Fitts (and my apologies for this soldier's dirty mouth). I'm leaving up the post below this one because I don't believe in making the past disappear. But I have no beef with SSG Fitts. Keep that in mind when you scroll to the next post.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:24 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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1 because I don't believe in making the past disappear Right, except for comments.

Posted by: Sadly, No! at November 17, 2004 04:58 AM (Hr4e3)

2 Oh please, Seb. Like you should lecture me about integrity.

Posted by: Sarah at November 17, 2004 05:59 AM (gxLdT)

3 I do believe she is referencing her posts, not your comments on her space. Grow up. I've read the past few posts about SSG Fitts. After the first post, I wasn't quite sure what you were on about, so I re-read it a few times until I felt I understood your point of view. My initial reading was a of SSG trying to impart a battlefield lesson, a hard cold one to be sure, and I didn't see it as a degredation of the CO. The misquoted option had occured to me, that and not much context for the quote was given. As far as enlisted bitchin about officers.... that extends back in time as long as there have been officers and enlisted. They still jump when ordered to do so, and ask how high later.

Posted by: John at November 17, 2004 08:04 AM (crTpS)

4 My thoughts were the same as John's, although it was not the kind of thing you would want the man's widow to read. NCOs are known for their toughness. Sometimes that comes across wrong. But it certainly doesn't mean they don't love that LT or CPT.

Posted by: Mike at November 17, 2004 08:23 AM (MqNKC)

5 Sarah - I am so disenchanted with the press I just can't express it enough. Kevin Sites and his video of the Marine is another example. I go to Kevin's blog often and never would've thought he'd put out for pool video of this nature which he had to know would cause a firestorm and be misinterpreted by ALL of the MSM. I'm not saying to bury the issue but he could have given it to the Marine higher ups and let them deal with it instead of putting this soldier and his family thru hell. The MSM ignore the mutilation of the blonde women by the terrorists and focuses only on the "atrocities of the US Military" against the terrorists. They really do 'hate' the US Military.

Posted by: Toni at November 17, 2004 08:51 AM (SHqVu)

6 Oh please, Seb. Like you should lecture me about integrity. I'm not lecturing you about integrity -- I'm pointing out that your behavior is (or has been, given that my first comment is still there) inconsistent with the "principle" you claim to follow in this post about making the past disappear. Still, it's nice to know I lack integrity in your eyes.

Posted by: Sadly, No! at November 17, 2004 09:32 AM (Hr4e3)

7 Seb, I feel a sense of duty to leave my own words unaltered. I feel absolutely no responsibility to give you free reign here on my website. You post plenty of nasty comments about me on your own blog; isn't that enough?

Posted by: Sarah at November 17, 2004 09:55 AM (FyW95)

8 After reading SSGT Fitts' words myself, my mind immediately flew to Tom Hanks' CPT Miller in "Private Ryan", just after their raid on the machine gun nest by the radar station, and his squad's medic gets killed. Certainly he was hard. He was cold. Brutal, even. Until he removed himself from his men. Then do we see what he (and ALL Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, and Sailors) is really made of. It really is about love. Fitts loves those for whom he is responsible. I have no doubt that he also loved CPT Sims (I speculate, admittedly). But he merely applied the lesson 1LT Tommy Franks had to be taught so long ago: A leader cannot aford to show emotion until the battle is over. May the Lord be with Mrs. Sims and her (no, THEIR) son; may He continue to be with SSGT Fitts, and ALL those who are laying down their lives for us.

Posted by: Jim Shawley at November 17, 2004 01:44 PM (CnYsu)

9 What I read sounded remarkably like the Sergeant in Basic who kept drumming on the theme "You people spread out; one hand grenade will get you all." No meaning other than don't get careless.

Posted by: homebru at November 17, 2004 06:52 PM (d31un)

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Some people thought I was too hard on SSG Fitts. Here's what SSG Fitts said, right after CPT Sims was killed:

"The CO is dead," he rasped, "and I'll tell you why. They were just a gaggle walking into some house. They weren't clearing the building properly before going in. We were doing that, and that's why we're living. Do not let your guard down here, or you'll be the next one dead."

I can only speak as a military wife, since I've never been a soldier. My comments may not reflect the military take on things. But I don't think what SSG Fitts said was a reflection of respect or loyalty.

I know that statements like these are made about the out-group: one company might pump themselves up by saying they're better/smarter/more hooah than another company, or platoon to platoon or battalion to battalion. However, I think it comes across as extremely crass when it's done within the in-group, especially right after a death and in front of a reporter! I don't know what tone of voice SSG Fitts used, but it doesn't sound to me like he's trying to scare the men into be safe; it sounds like he's boasting that he was smarter than the CO and that's why he's still alive. It sounds awful, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, I hear awful statements quite frequently. In my job, I work with only enlisted soldiers, and after a year, the comments about officers have started to wear me down. According to many NCOs, officers are unnecessary and worthless. Once when some of my students found out that my husband is an officer, they said, "At least please tell us that he's prior enlisted!" The look of disgust on these NCO faces when they learned he was ROTC was obvious. "I hate lieutenants," one of them said. Gee, thanks. Right before 1ID deployed, the 1SG stood up in front of our FRG and said, "The CO cares about the mission; I care about the men." Nice statement, thanks. Officers are apparently promotion-hungry morons who should just sit in the rear and let the real men take care of the company. Statements like this get made all the time, so when SSG Fitts paints the CO as a lollygagger who got his dumb ass shot, it makes me mad.

But I read this article as a wife. Maybe soldiers don't pay as much attention to these remarks -- though I don't see how constant griping about how dumb the LTs are wouldn't have an effect on unit cohesion -- and maybe I'm just being over-sensitive. But wives read these articles. Mrs. Sims is printing and saving everything written about her husband to make a scrapbook so that someday her son can learn about his father. Do you think she wants that nasty comment by SSG Fitts in her memories? Look, son, this "combat-hardened NCO" says that your daddy was a screw-up. We family members don't want to read that; shame on SSG Fitts for saying it and shame on the reporter for printing it.

Imagine your spouse gets killed in a car accident. Then imagine that the newspaper writes an article about the accident and interviews a witness who says, "If the driver hadn't been swerving around like a madman and had been more responsible, he/she might still be alive today!" How would that make you feel, to read that about your own spouse? Now imagine the witness was a close friend, someone who should show respect and loyalty. That's how I as a spouse read that article. CPT Sims and SSG Fitts worked together. From everything I've heard, CPT Sims was one of the most respected COs on this post. I think SSG Fitts should've shown more tact and respect in the moments after CPT Sims was killed.

My two cents: take it for what it's worth.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:40 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Dear therapy-seekers in Florida,

I understand that some of you are upset that Kerry lost the election. I would've been pretty upset if President Bush had lost as well. I would've been down in the dumps. I would've been concerned for our nation's future. I would've wanted to gripe about it to my friends. I might've cried for a brief moment. I understand it's a big deal. But now we have a group of you seeking therapy for your depression, which they've given the catchy name of Post Election Selection Trauma.

You want to know what depression is? Spend the weekend mourning your friend's husband. Sit on her sofa trying to chitchat and ignore the lump that's rising in your throat. Watch her child playing with car keys, oblivious to the sorrow in the room. Take time off of work to go to a memorial service for four brave men who were killed over the weekend. And then come talk to me about depression.

One of my students wrote something this week about America being the "land of the too-free", that people in the US have it so good that they don't even know what real problems and suffering look like. He's dead on. I'd like some of you Post Election Selection Trauma patients to spend a day in Mrs. Sims' shoes and then tell me what real depression feels like.

Grow up, people.

P.S. And while we're on the topic of "things that burn me up", I hope I never meet the disrespectful and disgusting SSG Fitts. CPT Sims' wife read that article, you bastard.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:08 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Some links this morning:

Hell no, I am not sorry
Super Bush?
a short video clip on Arafat: Yasser Arafat's Dark Legacy (via David Kopel at Volokh)

Lots of grading to catch up on today, but I will post final thoughts on R&R soon.

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For two weeks, my house had a built-in comedian. Today I realized the house is too quiet and there's no one to talk to.

(Thank goodness for fad.)

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Over the past two weeks, the husband and I talked a lot about the future. We talked about where we'd like our next duty station to be. The husband started studying for the GMAT. We talked about making the final payment on our car, our cruise that's scheduled for May, and my job prospects for next year. On Saturday night, we cracked open a bottle of cheap champagne to celebrate our good fortune and bright future. And then the phone rang.

CPT Sean Sims was killed in Iraq.

We don't know CPT Sims personally, but I know his wife and infant son fairly well. I couldn't believe the news. As we sat there, the champagne soured and our future started to look a bit more precarious...making our last 24 hours bleak and somber. I couldn't stop thinking about the Sims family for the rest of our weekend. She's going through the worst possible thing that will ever happen to her, and all I could think of is what every military wife understands: it could just as easily be happening to me. All of our worst fears are materializing for someone I care about, and there's nothing I can do about it. In the end, all I could do was snuggle under my husband's arm and cry, cry for a baby who will never know his father and a wife who will go through hell. Our weekend took an ugly turn, but we faced it together, choked down the rest of the champagne, and went to sleep in our bed for the last night in a while.

I just dropped him off at the bus. Our future is uncertain, but at least we know we made the most out of the two weeks we just had.

MORE:

Let's avoid registration:

Company commander dies on Fallujah mission

By TOM LASSETER
Knight Ridder Newspapers

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Capt. Sean Sims was up early Saturday, looking at maps of Fallujah and thinking of the day's battle. His fingers, dirty and cracked, traced a route that snaked down the city's southern corridor.

"We've killed a lot of bad guys," he said. "But there's always going to be some guys left. They'll hide out and snipe at us for two months. I hope we've gotten the organized resistance."

Sims, a 32-year-old from Eddy, Texas, commanded his Alpha Company without raising his voice. His men liked and respected him. When faced with a broken down vehicle or rocket propelled grenades exploding outside, he'd shake his head a little and say, in his mellow drawl, "We'll be OK. This'll work out."

When he noticed that one of his soldiers, 22-year-old Arthur Wright, wasn't getting any care packages from home, Sims arranged for his wife, a school teacher, to have her students send cards and presents.

Sitting in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle that was pocked by shrapnel from five days of heavy fighting, Sims figured he and his men - of the 1st Infantry Division's Task Force 2-2 - had maybe three or four days left before returning to base.

They were in southwest Fallujah, where pockets of hardcore gunmen were still shooting from houses connected by labyrinths of covered trench lines and low rooftops.

A CNN crew came by, and Sims' men led them around the ruins, showing them the bombed-out buildings and bodies of insurgents that had been gnawed on by neighborhood dogs and cats.

The father of an infant son, Sims was still trying to get over the death of his company's executive officer, Lt. Edward Iwan, a 28-year-old from Albion, Neb., who'd been shot through the torso the night before with an RPG.

"It's tough. I don't know what to think about it yet," he said slowly, searching for words. "All of this will be forever tainted because we lost him."

Shaking off the thought, he threw on his gear and went looking for houses to clear.

A group of rebels was waiting. They'd been sleeping for days on dirty mats and blankets, eating green peppers and dates from plastic tubs. They spied on soldiers who occupied nearby houses without knowing the enemy was so close, watching and waiting.

When Sims and his men came through the front door, gunfire raged for a few minutes. Two soldiers were hit near the shoulder and rushed out by the man next to them.

Crouching by a wall outside, Sgt. Randy Laird screamed into his radio, "Negative, I cannot move, we're pinned down right now! We have friendlies down! Friendlies down!"

The 24-year-old from Lake Charles, La., crouched down on a knee, sweating and waiting for help.

A line of troops ran up, taking cover from the bullets. They shot their way into the house.

Sims lay on a kitchen floor, his blood pouring across dirty tile. An empty tea pot sat on nearby concrete stairs. A valentine heart, drawn in red with an arrow through it, perched on the cabinet.

His men gasped. There was no life in his eyes.

"He's down," Staff Sgt. Thorsten Lamm, 37, said in the heavy brogue of his native Germany.

"Shut the (expletive) up about him being dead," yelled back Sgt. Joseph Alvey, 23, of Emid, Oklahoma. "Just shut the (expletive) up."

The men sprinted to a rubble-strewn house to get a medic.

The company's Iraqi translator, who goes by Sami, was waiting. He asked, "Is he in there? Is he there?"

He tried running out of the door with his AK-47 ready. As men held him back, he fell down against a wall, crying into his hands.

When the troops rushed back, they lifted Sims' body into a pile of blankets and carried it into the closest Bradley.

Six soldiers and a reporter piled in after, trying not to step on the body.

In Baghdad, interim Minister of State for national security Qasim Daoud had announced that the city of Fallujah was now under control.

In the surrounding neighborhood, troops furious at the news of their fallen leader called in revenge, in the form of a 2,000 pound bomb airstrike and a storm of 155 millimeter artillery shells. A mosque lost half a minaret, its main building smoldering in fire and smoke.

In the back of the Bradley with Sims' body, no one spoke.

The only sound was Wright sobbing in the darkness.

Posted by: Sarah at 10:09 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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I mentioned I'd like to write something about Arafat, and the wife has been bugging me to keep my word. I don't think I could add very much new information on how vile the man is, but I thought I would offer a few observations. I'm only 24 years old. I paid pretty close attention to the news growing up. We weren't an overly political household but we stayed well informed. My only memories of Arafat and the PLO are the historic and now failed peace agreements done during the Clinton Administration. People my age have no political memory of Yasser Arafat or the PLO pre 1993. For me and all the other twenty-somethings who wave Palestinian flags and rant about the Likudniks who are responsible for the squalor the Palestinians live in, Yasser Arafat has only been a political leader. Sure, since 2000, he might be complicit in terror attacks. He could have done more to stop the EU aid-receiving Hizbollah jihadists, but with Bush and his proxy Sharon tearing everything up, can you blame those poor Palestinians? After all he is an elected leader. More elected than Bushitler no doubt, we 1980s born know-it-alls quip.

What most young people don't remember is that before 1993, Arafat was synonymous with terrorism. The PLO was a guerilla organization very much like Al Qaeda. Here are just a few highlights of President and Nobel Laureate Arafat and his PLO merry pranksters in the '70s and '80s.

8,000 individual acts of terrorism between 1969-1985 alone.

The massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics.

The attack on the Maalot grade school that killed 21 children.

The hijacking of four airplanes in the 1970Â’s and an Italian Cruise Ship in 1985.

The man who had been exiled from both Egypt and Jordan was invited to Oslo in 1993 from his exile in Tunis, to sit down with Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Here, the Osama Bin Laden of the '70s and '80s was given his own autonomous region to govern and a workable roadmap to getting a completely independent nation. I could go on about the numerous failed opportunities in the '90s, but they are so numerous I won't even name them. It is an almost undisputable fact that Arafat was offered 97% of the West Bank and all of the Gaza strip and on behalf of the Palestinian people replied, "NO. All or nothing."

I think we all know how that turned out. And what has Arafat, as the leader of the autonomous Palestinian territory, managed to amass besides failed opportunities in his ten years at the helm? Oh, about $7 billion! Estimates vary from $300 million to $7 billion, but he's no doubt worth a fortune. Since the 1970s, the PLO has been receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from Arab states and many other western nations. I don't know the exact numbers but it would make a nice shame graph for an ambitious blogger.

This man, who used the plight of the Palestinian people in Refugee camps as political capital, has wealth measured in billions. And yet, he was lauded by Western diplomats and journalists. An anchorwoman for the BBC reported his death with tears in her eyes. Nearly every Foreign Minister in Europe attended his funeral.

Yes, I'm well aware of his George Washington status with the Palestinians. He was powerful human symbol and forceful advocate; Palestinians united behind him in their pursuit of a homeland--or so says Jimmy Carter. I can think of another powerful advocate who rallied a humiliated people to a great pursuit. He felt the same way about Jews as Arafat.

Are we so afraid to call it like it is? Will Osama Bin Laden someday sit down with an American president to negotiate the withdrawal of troops from Saudi Arabia? Arafat has proven that you can move from terrorist to statesmen. He was able to do so because we allowed it. "Give peace a chance" is a really comfortable slogan. When facing a monster, it can me more comfortable to listen to him than to fight him.

I would just as soon homosexuals have every right that I do. I don't really care about abortion. I'm not crazy about the Patriot Act but I'm a one issue voter. And President Bush and I agree on one thing: this, while certainly tragic, is preferable to this.

-- the husband

MORE TO GROK:

Update from Sarah: If you seek his monument, look around you.

Posted by: Sarah at 12:40 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Though I haven't mentioned it, I'm well aware that Arafat will be pushing up the daisies soon. Except he'll be encased in concrete instead of in his family's plot sleeping under a pile of garbage and filth for eternity, which would be sweet justice. Regardless of where the old terrorist's bones reside, our household was thrilled. I haven't blogged about it because the husband is formulating an Arafat post that will be up sometime before he leaves this weekend. Stay tuned...

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When most of us think of Veterans, we think of the beginning scenes of Saving Private Ryan, the elderly man walking through the white crosses in France. But there's a new face for Veterans these days, a baby face, on soldiers much younger than even I.

Our vets come in all shapes and sizes these days, some of them born as recently as 1986. Yet they're just as distinguished as vets such as my grandfather. Take the time to visit some Milblogs today and pay tribute to the many vets we have out in the 'sphere.

As for me, I'm gonna go hug my favorite vet right now.

The Big Red One has put together a video tribute to our Veterans through the ages. It's also dedicated to CSM Faulkenburg, a Soldier from our post who was killed in Fallujah this week.

Posted by: Sarah at 06:05 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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So apparently a lot of hippies are taking photos of their signs, saying they're sorry that Bushitler was re-elected. I've made my own photo to show what I'm sorry for.

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I've been getting more and more fed up with all the "reasons" President Bush won the election. Everyone who voted for him was supposedly a knuckle-dragging mouthbreather who only put down his Bible and klan robe long enough to vote for a chimp. I've been getting really irritated this week.

And then I read Deskmerc. Exactly.

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We had a great weekend, and it dumped snow on us all day today.
That's a story for my husband to tell back in Iraq!

More later. Isn't Arafat dead yet?

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The husband and I are leaving today for a weekend at the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Garmisch. They have a great R&R package, and everyone who's already been has said it's beautiful there. We'll be away from the computer, but I can take a few days off now that the election is over.

Don't do anything fun without me!

Posted by: Sarah at 03:33 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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My icing skills have definitely improved since the last cake -- it helps when you read the instructions and you make frosting instead of drizzle -- so this one is actually legible.

I decided to make a pro-Bush instead of an anti-Kerry cake when I saw how quickly Kerry conceded. I respect him for not dragging it out, and I actually feel sorry for him. He was a man who geared his whole life towards running for president one day, and I feel sorry for him that his dream never materialized. I'm relieved he's not our President, but I feel and respect his disappointment.

Arafat's fair game though.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:05 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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Right now New Mexico has counted 94% of the votes, and Bush is sitting at 52%.
I'm preheating the oven...

Posted by: Sarah at 03:43 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 Hold off on the cake, Kerry/Edwards just announced that the are going to "count all the votes in Ohio".

Posted by: Pamela at November 03, 2004 03:48 AM (AOFgp)

2 Iowa, NM, and Nevada are all going for Bush. On top of Ohio, and all the rest that are called at this hour, bush looks to score 286 EV. 4 More Years. I want cake.

Posted by: John at November 03, 2004 04:30 AM (crTpS)

3 Go ahead and bake that cake. The Kerry Whiners are going to drag this out a while. No Tereaaaza in the White House! There is a GOD and he is awesome. Now go back to your husband. God bless you both. Williams Family

Posted by: williams family at November 03, 2004 04:49 AM (4MKps)

4 Update: I want cake. All of Kerry/Edwards histrionics are not going to change things. The provisional votes in Ohio will not be enough. Four more years. Hoorah. I hope you and your husband have a wonderful time together. God bless and keep you both.

Posted by: Pamela at November 03, 2004 10:22 AM (AOFgp)

5 The media is in Kerry's camp moreso than ever now. Make no mistake, the media would love an extended recount. It's all about the viewers for them, the more controversy, the more they are watched. This is advantageous to Kerry, and you must understand that Kerry's team knows this. They don't even have to collude to understand this about each other. How ugly can this become?

Posted by: John at November 03, 2004 11:06 AM (+Ysxp)

6 Kerry has conceeded, already called Bush.

Posted by: John at November 03, 2004 12:14 PM (+Ysxp)

7 You bake that cake, frost it and have yourselve a nice serving. It's over. Bush wins. Thank Goodness. Now - enjoy the rest of your time w/Hubby.

Posted by: Tammi at November 03, 2004 01:30 PM (UOdfZ)

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The cutest thing in the world happened today: my husband applied to join the VFW.

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1 I teased my brother (good naturedly) to no end when he received his VFW card after GWI.

Posted by: John at November 02, 2004 07:00 AM (crTpS)

2 I think that's really cool. It will be great to infuse new blood into the VFW's in the country. I've always wondered though, what's the difference between the VFW and the American Legion? Any clues?

Posted by: Toni at November 02, 2004 09:05 AM (SHqVu)

3 Toni, To be eligible for membership in the American Legion, one simply has to serve on active duty during wartime. VFW membership requires serving in a war zone outside the US. More complete membership criteria are listed at the websites for each organization. DonR - a proud member of both organizations

Posted by: DonR at November 02, 2004 12:06 PM (Zwsx5)

4 I recall my brother joined the one in Lompoc (Santa Maria or whatever) because they had the best bar in town. Kalroy

Posted by: Kalroy at November 02, 2004 03:12 PM (9RG5y)

5 I always thought it stood for Very Fuckin' White.

Posted by: Anagrams r us at November 02, 2004 04:21 PM (hHdwk)

6 Anagrams r us, Your sense of humor is disgusting.

Posted by: Nancy at November 03, 2004 01:00 AM (YuW6k)

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Yes, James, I did have the unbalanced electric can opener last week. But my husband has so wonderfully distracted me that I actually said, "What happens tomorrow?" when he asked me last night if I was nervous. It feels good to have more important things to think about, like squeezing the life out of Day Four.

Tonight will come and go, and there may or may not be cake afterward, but regardless of what happens, the husband and I will still have Day Five together. Right now, that's a big comfort.

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There's nothing like an Army post to bring out the trick-or-treaters. We're swarming with kids, not to mention that the Germans bring their kids on post to enjoy this weird American tradition of "giving away free stuff." Some of the German kids didn't even bother to wear costumes, and they gave me a danke schön when they left, which almost made me want to snatch the candy back. When I'm in your country, I speak German; when you're in my country, taking my free candy, please attempt a thank you. With or without the difficult -th- sound.

There were some good costumes. Lots of Sponge Bobs and Spidermans. Lots of princesses. A really cool Wolverine, complete with adamantium claws. A blue sweatsuit covered in rubber ducks: a duck pond. And unlike Lileks, I saw a couple of terrorists and Osamas. And lots of Soldiers. I guess it comes with the territory.

Oh yeah, and I'm the awful lady who gives away Tootsie Rolls and Blow Pops and cheapie candy. We got hundreds of kids, and I wasn't about to spend $50 on brand-name candy bars. I managed to make two large bowls of candy last for an hour and forty minutes, thank goodness. I was about to start giving away Pringles...

Posted by: Sarah at 05:45 AM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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My husband has also been a wonderful distraction from the last few days of the election season. I'm still reading through blogs, but now it's with more of a "keep me updated but let's not dwell" attitude so I can run back in the other room and hang out with my best friend.

I also have no interest whatsoever in grading papers, which is not good at all...

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