{"article":{"id":135894,"heading":"A branch of the U.S. Military saved my life","author":"grateful","created":"2005-09-26 02:32:34","modified":"2005-10-04 15:47:19","last_modified":"Tue, 04 Oct 2005 22:47:19","article":"

I am anti-war, anti-military. I think that we may not succeed in abolishing war until we abolish the institution of the military. And yet...my life was saved once by a branch of the United States MIlitary: the U.S. Coast Guard.

I nearly drowned in the Santa Barbara Channel, and it was the Coast Guard that fished me out, braving killer waves. Not only that, but they were thoroughly professional, solicitous of my every need and comfort, and, dare I say it, caring (in a no-nonsense professional way). They immediately saved me from hypothermia by giving me a hot shower, dry clothes and hot tea and hot soup. They let me stay in the galley and chatted with me, sometimes calling me \"sir\" even though I didn't deserve it, and generally treated me like a king even though it had been my own stupid foolhardiness that had led to the emergency.

Of course, it is true that every branch of the military, including the more warlike ones, has saved some civilian's life somewhere, sometime. If it were me, I wonder if i would feel as warmly toward those other branches as I do toward the Coast Guard. Or perhaps I would honor their life-saving activities while still condemning their life-taking activities.

It is true that military culture can sometimes lead to undesirable qualities, such as conformity, blind obedience to authority and even habitual brutality. However, we should be honest with ourselves and admit that other military qualities are positive: duty, loyalty, service, sacrifice, courtesy and professionalism. If there were no military, would it be possible to foster such qualities in so many young people by other means? If you removed weapons and war from the equation, you might well find some of the finest men and women in the world.

P.S. My two companions on that ill-fated day (who are both fine) are both military veterans, and both left-wing critics of Bush and the Iraq War.<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"What if the military only did positive things? Would it still be a military? ","numcomment":21,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2005\/09\/135894.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":136173,"heading":"military qualities","article":"Presumably, the German Navy and Coast Guard rescued some civilians at sea between 1933 and 1945. I guess, according to your line of thinking, this means we have to revise our negative perception of Hitler's armed forces. After all, the armed forces taught leadership, responsibility, and all that - or at least claimed that they did. Not to mention the Hitler youth. \r\n Of course, these German and US vessels may have gone on to blast innocent people apart with explosive shells, but we must all take a balanced view of things.","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-28 16:24:22","modified":"2005-09-28 16:24:22","fileurl":""},{"id":136178,"heading":"Good for them.","article":"They were doing their job.\nThe Coast Guard is not an offensive arm. It is a defensive organization.\nWe could keep the coaast guard while turning the other branches to repair our bridges, roads, cannals and ports.\nThen remainder could be used to replant our forrests and build affordable housing and schools and hospitals.","author":"Sheepdog","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-28 19:44:44","modified":"2005-09-28 19:44:44","fileurl":""},{"id":136181,"heading":"Ha!","article":"To hear Meyer London suggest 'taking a balanced view of things'.... Hilarious!","author":"Tramp","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-28 21:38:09","modified":"2005-09-28 21:38:09","fileurl":""},{"id":136211,"heading":"Coast Guard","article":" My uncle was a career non-commissioned officer in the Coast Guard. It is true that its prime mission is relatively non-militaristic; however this is by no means always the case. Some Coast Guard vessels are heavily armed and have attacked enemy ships during every US war. During Vietnam Coast guard machine gunners played a deadly role on many river patrol boats. A good many were killed, including some who joined the Coast Guard thinking it would keep them out of Vietnam. The Coast Guard plays a major role in halting vessels carrying marijuana and other drugs and does so by the threat of deadly force; it also stops refugees from Haiti on the high seas.\r\n That being said, Reagan drastically cut the Coast Guard budget when he was in office in order to give the money to far more militaristic branches of the service, like the Marine Corps.","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-29 13:06:57","modified":"2005-09-29 13:06:57","fileurl":""},{"id":136212,"heading":"memo to Tramp (Fresca)","article":" I guess you can't recognize heavy-handed sarcasm. I'm not in favor of taking a more postive view of the Nazi armed forces or those of the US.","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-29 13:42:52","modified":"2005-09-29 13:42:52","fileurl":""},{"id":136239,"heading":"Memo to Meyer","article":"The fact that you enjoy equating the US military with Nazi's would suggest that the only reply you deserve from anyone more serious than yourself (which is almost everyone) is sarcasm and a quiet remark about your need for a mental health professional. Personally, I would add a routine ass whoopin' to that as well... but hey, that's just me.","author":"Tramp","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-29 20:58:21","modified":"2005-09-29 20:58:21","fileurl":""},{"id":136241,"heading":"advice to the tramp","article":"Cut down on the cheetos; they seem to be killing off the few remaining brain cells that you have. Besides, Mom shouldn't have to buy those jumbo bags for you when she is surviving on a social security check.","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-29 21:06:38","modified":"2005-09-29 21:06:38","fileurl":""},{"id":136298,"heading":"The USCG in New Orleans?","article":"Was it the Coast Guard that swooped down and picked people off of rooftops in the early days of the Katrina flood???\r\n\r\nMike Davis, the left-wing intellectual and author of Dead Cities, says that people in Louisiana, even while harshly criticizing the rest of the government, still acknowledge the Coast Guard as one of the few agencies that actually did something quickly.\r\n\r\nSorry, I wish I knew where that article was on the Web so I could link it. Does anybody have the link?","author":"still grateful","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-30 05:19:52","modified":"2005-09-30 05:19:52","fileurl":""},{"id":136299,"heading":""Does anybody have the link?"","article":"I bet you didn't see THIS ^\r\n\r\nstill grateful ?\r\n\r\n","author":"Hex","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2005-09-30 05:33:02","modified":"2005-09-30 05:33:02","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2005\/09\/nobussesflooded.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2005\/09\/nobussesflooded.jpg"}},{"id":136303,"heading":"So, I take it your answer would be no?","article":"Stay on topic, please.\r\n\r\nThe Coast Guard had nothing to do with the buses. They didn't have them, didn't control them, weren't responsible for their being misused (or not used). But, I believe they did rescue people from rooftops while Brownie was twiddling and Bushie was still on vacation. ","author":"yes, still","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-30 08:06:57","modified":"2005-09-30 08:06:57","fileurl":""},{"id":136304,"heading":"they wanted to bring in fuel","article":"It was FEMA that told them to stand down.\nHospital beds and water were denied. The actions of FEMA were criminal.","author":"IS","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-30 09:43:52","modified":"2005-09-30 09:43:52","fileurl":""},{"id":136314,"heading":""Stay on topic, please"","article":"Hundreds of National Guard troops hardened on the battlefield in Iraq have landed in New Orleans. \u201dThey have M-16s and they\u2019re locked and loaded,\u201d she said. \u201cThese troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they will.\u201d At the hot and stinking Superdome, where 30,000 were being evacuated by bus to Houston, fistfights and fires erupted amid a seething sea of tense, suffering people who waited in a line that stretched a half-mile to board yellow school buses. After a traffic jam kept buses from arriving for nearly four hours, a near-riot broke out in the scramble to get on to the buses that finally did show up, with a group of refugees breaking through a line of heavily armed National Guardsmen.\r\n\r\n\r\npresence in the convention center for three of the most chaotic days of at least 250 armed troops from the Louisiana National Guard. They were camped out in a huge exhibition hall separated from the crowd by a wall, and used their trucks as a barricade\r\n\r\nThe troops were never deployed to restore order and eventually withdrew, despite the pleas of the convention center's management.\r\n\r\n\r\nEarly Thursday, the Guard troops packed up and rolled out amid angry calls from the crowd inside. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPS - notice about the YELLOW SCHOOL BUSES - the picture I posted of YELLOW SCHOOL BUSES aren't "on topic" ? - I'm doing all the digging for you while you sit back not lifting a finger and DENY - that's a recurring pattern on here - denialists who simply state something who don't bother to post any evidence but expect you to..\r\n\r\n","author":"Hex","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-30 12:38:20","modified":"2013-11-11 00:35:35","fileurl":""},{"id":136315,"heading":"similar reports of FEMA blocking rescue","article":"Reports of turning away local and state agency assistance. They cut the emergency communication lines requiring the sheffif to post armed guards.\nIt looks like a dead zone practice exersize for future actions. Obviously they have to bring the news media under tighter control. \nThis didn't go as smoothly as they wanted it to. They should have just died out of sight so the bodies could be desposed of.\nThey say it's a buyer's market in NO now.","author":"IS","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-30 12:49:12","modified":"2005-09-30 12:49:12","fileurl":""},{"id":136330,"heading":"armed forces","article":" Without a doubt the Coast Guard, National Guard, even the Marine Corps have been used to rescue civilians during disasters. That does not change the fact that the main purpose of the US military is to advance the interests of imperialism through deadly force and the threat of deadly force. It also does not change the fact that the military forces of facist Latin American dicatatorships have been sent on so-called humanitarian missions during earthquakes and other disasters or that civilians were sometimes rescued at sea by the German Coast Guard and Navy under Nazi rule. So what? The main reason for the existence of armed forces is to kill people and break things - that is a fact.","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-30 14:56:40","modified":"2005-09-30 14:56:40","fileurl":""},{"id":136331,"heading":"who needs a military?","article":"No one in their right mind would invade a nation of gun owners.\nLike that bastard, Sheepdog.","author":"IS","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-30 15:05:44","modified":"2005-09-30 15:05:44","fileurl":""},{"id":136341,"heading":"Meyer London: No Moral Compass","article":"Good God Meyer, you actually have gone so far as to insult my mother (may she rest in peace). \r\n\r\nWhen you insult another man's mother, you're all out of ideas. But this is precisely the sort of base, low and unethical remark I expect from someone who has no moral compass whatsoever.\r\n\r\nKeep my mother out of it.","author":"Tramp","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-30 15:58:25","modified":"2005-09-30 15:58:25","fileurl":""},{"id":136345,"heading":"now now","article":"I don't mind getting those cheetoes for you.","author":"Mom","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-30 16:56:20","modified":"2005-09-30 16:56:20","fileurl":""},{"id":136348,"heading":"special","article":"Check out our monthly specials on Cheetos; all you need is a club card.","author":"Ralph Kroger","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-30 17:27:40","modified":"2005-09-30 17:27:40","fileurl":""},{"id":136582,"heading":"Hex: "I'm doing all the digging"","article":"You're digging in the wrong area. Your entire post is about the National Guard, NOT the Coast Guard. Once again: please at least stick to the topic of the OP.\r\n\r\nAs for the others: do you have something to contribute to the conversation, or do you just hijack every thread to insult each other?","author":"disappointed with immature threads","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-10-04 04:25:14","modified":"2005-10-04 04:25:14","fileurl":""},{"id":136592,"heading":"once again do your own digging","article":"gee - and it only took you 3 days to figure that out - that expecting other's to do your digging for you, may result in not getting the answers you want.\r\n\r\nBUT after those 3 days you STILL didn't manage to find any evidence to back up your "grateful" claims.\r\n\r\nAnd obviously I *can* dig too, so that's not it...\r\n\r\n\r\nMaybe I was more interested in seeing how much damning data you would IGNORE, rather than helping you sugar coat the aftermath, like those buses they claimed they didn't allow to sit to help *people too poor to drive out* insted of later BLAMING THE VICTIMS, and seeing what you really care about - said victims or the authority's image\r\n\r\nIf authorities responsible for the public safety allow a disaster to kill hundreds of people both by spending the levee money on killing people in Iraq and by failing to evacuate, that seems a more important point than whitewashing using a few they may have saved afterward\r\n\r\nBut not to you\r\n","author":"Hex","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-10-04 09:53:58","modified":"2005-10-04 09:53:58","fileurl":""},{"id":136617,"heading":"a branch of the military nearly killed me","article":"Like the US Army. Bastards. Next time I'll pay the fare and visit as a tourist. If I ever wanted to go back to Vietnam.\r\nI don't call the Coast Guard the military, they're more like an armed ocean border patrol. Nice people, generally. They don't train to kill people with overwhelming firepower as a method of doing business.\r\nI hope. They helped me out.","author":"Tell me about it.","parent_id":135894,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-10-04 15:47:19","modified":"2005-10-04 15:47:19","fileurl":""}]}