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Doc Farmer · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 12:24 pm Post subject: Two War Stories

Two War Stories
Written by Doc Farmer
Wednesday, February 23, 2005

In the last week, I came across two stories involving the War on Terror. One angered me beyond words; the other uplifted my belief in the honor and humanity of our troops. You probably won't hear about either one in the mainstream media, but I figured they were worth sharing.

The first story came out on Monday, via the New York Post. Apparently, one of our troops based in South Korea, only ten miles from the North Korean border, received a package from school children. Pfc. Rob Jacobs, whose home is in New Jersey, had received a bunch of letters from the William Alexander School (JHS 51) in Brooklyn, New York. As any soldier will tell you, letters from home, even those from strangers, are a blessing to receive. They break up the boredom of the lonely off-duty hours. They make you feel just a little less isolated when you're thousands of miles from home.

Or at least, they should have that effect. Sadly, however, this was not the case for some of the letters in this particular batch. The teacher of this particular social studies class, one Alex Kunhardt, apparently instructed his class to write the letters, but didn't seem to give much direction as to how those letters should be tailored. Out of 21 letters, nine of the students decided to go into an anti-war, anti-Iraq, anti-Bush diatribe. I am guessing that they may have been coached. They berated this lone soldier for his involvement in the destruction of mosques, the murder of civilians and the usual lib/dem/soc/commie diatribe we've come to expect from the MSM and the NEA.

Perhaps someone should have informed Mr. Kunhardt that American soldiers are not destroying mosques, nor are they murdering civilians. Further, he should buy a map. The war his students were decrying is going on in Iraq. Pfc. Jacobs is based in South Korea. Despite the same last name, there is a significant geographic difference between the Middle East and the Far East. Lastly, for middle school students, their spelling and grammar is atrocious. It's even worse than mine!

Now, think about this for a minute. You're a Private in the United States Army. You're farther away from home than you've ever dreamed you'd be in your entire life. You're less than a 20-minute drive from a country run by an incompetent whack-job despot with nukes, missiles, and not a whole hell of a lot to lose. If Kim Jong (mentally) Il decides to make a first strike, chances are you'll either be overrun by about a hundred thousand starving, well armed, and seriously honked off North Korean soldiers, or you'll end up as a shadow on the concrete wall behind you. Throw homespun hate mail into the mix, and chances are this is not going to do much for your morale.

Pfc. Jacobs, indeed all of our US military, deserve a major apology from this sorry excuse for an educator and those seriously deluded students who decided to attack a man whose job is to keep them safe. Jacobs deserves better, as does the rest of our military.

However, as angry as this situation makes me (and, I hope, you as well) another story gave me hope. It was in the form of a letter, but not from students to a soldier. It was, instead, a soldier's letter about students. Iraqi students.

A fair number of the posters on the ChronWatch Forum are fans of a certain talk radio personality. No, this time it's not El Rushbo. In Atlanta, there's a talk show host by the name of Neal Boortz. I've never heard his show, but from what many of our posters say, Mr. Boortz is the bee's knees. I've read his website (http://boortz.com) and it's very informative, funny, witty and infuriating in its accuracy of displaying the worst of lib/dem/soc/commie ''culture'' (and I use that term culture such a growth or colony of bacteria). I sincerely wish that his show were broadcast where I live. Well, maybe someday.

Anyway, Mr. Boortz does a daily update on his website called ''Nealz Newz'' - ah, another bad speller like myself - and he had a letter that he included from a soldier in Iraq:

Dear Mr. Boortz,

My name is Sgt. Lamar Price I am currently with the 278th. Regemental Combat Team at Camp Caldwell Iraq. I am writting to ask you for help with a project I am trying to start here. A few weeks ago the 278th. opened a school in the area near here. I became aware that a lot of the children did not have shoes and were going to school barefoot in 50 degree weather. I am asking people to mail one pair of children's shoes to my address in Iraq. They can be any size boys or girls. They do not have to be new just servicable. I will then collect them and give to our patrols and convoys to pass out. My address is Sgt. Lamar Price RHHT278RCT PLT7 Camp Caldwell Iraq APO AEO 09374 As you know the United States does more good for the people of Iraq than ever gets reported in the media. Mr. Boortz, any advice or help you can give to get the word out will be deeply appreciated.

Thank you

Sgt. Lamar Price

For those of you about to jump on Sgt. Price's spelling, I'd remind you that 1) he's in a war zone, 2) not all e-Mail systems include spell-checking software, and 3) he doesn't have a teacher from Brooklyn looking over his shoulder telling him how things should be spelled. Also, please note that when the sergeant talks about 50-degree weather, he's not talking Fahrenheit. He's referring to the Celsius scale. I know from personal experience that you don't want to be walking barefoot on anything when it's 122 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

Here's a soldier smack-dab in the middle of a war zone. He's just one of over 140,000 men and women dedicated to protecting America and ensuring the freedom of 25 million people. Is he asking for sympathy? Is he asking for support? Is he asking for armor for his Humm-V? Is he asking for Fig Newtons? No. He's asking for shoes. Shoes for Iraqi school children. Boys or girls, new or used, fancy or plain, doesn't matter. He puts his life on the line every single day, like every one of his compatriots over there, and his thoughts aren't for himself. They're for the kids he helped free, to make sure they don't burn their feet when they go to the schools that US soldiers have either rebuilt, or started from scratch.

I'm planning to write to both Mr. Kunhardt and Sgt. Price this week. For Mr. Kunhardt, I'll be filing a complaint to his principal and his district supervisor, asking how they could allow an educator to use a social studies project to spit vitriol at a brave American soldier. For Sgt. Price, I'll be heading over to Wal-Mart to pick up a couple of pairs of kids shoes, and a great big Thank You card.

Two men who represent the worst America has to offer, and the best.

~~~~~oo0oo~~~~~

If you'd like to complain to the school and the district about Mr. Kunhardt's heartless class project, here are the addresses -

JKlein@nycboe.net

http://www.nycenet.edu/webforms/chancellormessage.aspx

You can also send a complain to the independent InsideSchools organization at:
http://www.insideschools.org/so/complaints_form.php?id=434&name=M.S.%2051%20William%20Alexander%20School

~~~~~oo0oo~~~~~

That address again for sending children's school shoes (boys or girls, new or nearly new):

About the Writer: Doc Farmer is a writer and humorist who is also a moderator on ChronWatch's Forum. He formerly lived in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but now resides in the Midwest. Doc receives e-mail at docfarmer9999@yahoo.co.uk.

This Article Was First Published In ChronWatch At: http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=13231
_________________

Fat, Bald and Ugly - And PROUD Of It!

DLI78 · PO3 Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 273

Doc,

Thanks for the post. Very interesting stuff. Do you have an address for PFC Jacobs? Maybe we can send him some letters of support.

I was sent to Korea on a one-year "hardship" tour and after three months I asked to extend my tour for a year. After they tested to see if I had a fever or was drunk/drugged, they basically said, "uuuuuuuummmmm, OK. Nobody has ever asked that question before. Are you sure?"

Hey, Koreans are great people, very friendly, fairly good food (but Chinese is better), and you can live there on a PFC's paycheck. Well, I did in 1980. Two years in Korea was a lot more interesting than a couple of months in Ayer, Mass.
_________________
DLI 78
Army Linguist
1978-1986

ROCK71553 · Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 5:53 pm Post subject:

Shaun Hannity, on his Friday show, interviewed Pcf. Rob Jacobs and I was impressed with this young man's character. During the interview, this young man's email was given out and I wrote it down, it is GI_FATHER@YAHOO.COM . (There is a underscore between GI and FATHER). He had received about 600 complementary emails at that time.