THIS is the kind of person you WANT to hear about. THIS is the kind of person you want your children and grandchildren to KNOW about. THIS is a HERO. First Lt. Walter Bryan Jackson.
I originally heard this story and got the link from Stop the ACLU! It’s well worth the read and brings to the forefront the question, “WHY? Why DON’T we hear more stories like this? Why AREN’T our heroes brought to the attention of the public?”
Make no mistake, the MSM doesn’t WANT the public to know of the brave men and women, those who go to extraordinary lengths to protect you, me and this country. It doesn’t fit into their agenda of complete Bush Derangement Syndrome and hammering home nothing but doom, gloom and depression. It doesn’t want children to know about men and women called to protect our freedoms and being willing to lay down their lives if necessary. It wants the public to think something as “quaint” as a hero is for the distant past, as our Founding Fathers, not something up-to-date for the hear and now, something the children can aspire to.
After all, soldiers aren’t stopping global warming, they’re not rescuing polar bears or buying carbon offsets. They aren’t rebuilding neighborhoods, playing with children, engaging in laughter with businessmen, are they? Soldiers are just mindless killers, to hear it from the MSM’s point of view. But wait–soldier’s ARE rebuilding neighborhoods. They ARE playing with children. They ARE laughing with businessmen.
They are educated, dedicated men and women, implacable in their desire to defend freedom. They are implacable in providing safety to the downtrodden and the terrorized. They give up the things “ordinary” men and women give up to give US–you and I–Constitutional ideals–they miss births of their own children, spend long periods of time away from their families, miss seeing their own children grow and mature. They miss holding hands with their husbands and wives, holidays, all the ordinary things we, the protected, take for granted.
They do what far too many of us can’t or won’t do. And what do they get in return? They get a country full of ingrates such as the 110th Congress, Code Pink, A.N.S.W.E.R. They get ignored for their valor and their courage. The good they do is glossed over. They’re called murderers. They get spit on and disrespected at airports on US soil. They get burned in effigy. They see the flag, our incredible symbol of freedom, desecrated and defecated upon.
And still, they volunteer to defend, to protect.
Isn’t it about time they–at the VERY LEAST–get a “thank you”? Is that really too much to ask?
Apparently, it is too much to ask–at least from the moonbat controlled fringe and MSM.
My own small thank you–from John at ARGGHHH and Stop the ACLU! to a hero, First Lt. Walter Bryan Jackson:
Nov. 2, 2007: First Lt. Walter B. Jackson [Oak Harbor, Washington] became the seventh Soldier since the Vietnam War ended in 1975 to receive the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in action.
Secretary of the Army Pete Geren presented the DSC, which is second in precedence to only the Medal of Honor for valor in battle, at a ceremony held in the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes this afternoon.
A second lieutenant at the time of his heroic action on Sept. 27, 2006, Lt. Jackson was cited for selfless courage under extreme enemy fire while serving as a company fire support officer with company A, Task Force 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.
Lt. Jackson was engaged in combat operations with his unit against insurgents and while he attempted to recover a disabled vehicle, his unit came under heavy machine gun fire, which resulted in several Soldiers being wounded. As he applied first aid to a severely wounded comrade, he too was shot in the thigh.
Lt. Jackson’s citation in part reads: “Upon regaining consciousness after being shot, second lieutenant alternated between returning fire and administering first aid to the Soldier. Second Lt. Jackson was hit again with machine gun fire as he helped carry his wounded comrade to safety, but he never faltered in his aid. Although his own severe wounds required immediate evacuation and surgical care, 2nd Lt. Jackson refused medical assistance until his wounded comrade could be treated. Second Lt. Jackson’s selfless courage under extreme enemy fire was essential to saving another Soldier’s life and is in keeping with the finest traditions of military service…”
Before the presentation, Lt. Col. Thomas C. Graves, former Task Force commander, recounted part of that September 2006 day when he arrived at the medical aid station to see his wounded Soldiers and the first words to come from 2nd Lt. Jackson were of concern for the wounded captain he’d rescued.
“All the leadership schools, classes and years of experience never really prepare you for that moment in time when you are standing among heroes who have given their all, where their first concerns still remain with their fellow Soldiers,” he said. “It reinforces duty and commitment unlike any other experience.”
After Secretary Geren made the award presentation, 1st Lt. Jackson spoke to the packed room, humbly thanking his family, his West Point classmates and the Soldiers he’s served with in his short two-year career and saying simply, “I believe I just had to do what I had to do in that situation… I think many Soldiers would have done the same thing.”
1st Lt. Jackson has been recovering from his wounds at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, having undergone more than a dozen surgeries. While recovering at WRAMC, he volunteered as an intern with the Judge Advocate General’s office. He is awaiting orders to take over a multiple launch rocket system platoon in Korea with the 2nd Infantry Division Fires Brigade.
Well done. And, humbly, thank you.
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