A Problem With Priorities

On Thursday, CNN reported that the U.S. Army had rebuked President Trump over a  recent incident at Arlington National Cemetery. They might have done well to be quiet considering what they have stirred up. The Army never rebuked anyone for the disastrous planning of the exit from Afghanistan where the thirteen service members were killed. No one was fired or relieved of command. And now they are rebuking a former President because he chose to honor the thirteen. Wow.

The article explains how horrible the families were and how horrible President Trump was. There is nothing in the article paying honor to the thirteen servicemen who were killed.

The families asked President Trump to attend and gave permission for his crew to attend. It was not a campaign event–it is rather routine to record a President visiting Arlington–there are many videos of President Biden visiting the cemetery. This is simply another attack by the left on President Trump. In the mind of many politically left-leaning Americans, President Trump is guilty of breathing while being Trump.

Can you imagine the reporting if the families had asked President Trump to come and he had refused? It doesn’t really matter what the press is outraged about–they just want to be outraged about anything involving President Trump.

You Probably Won’t Hear This In The Mainstream Media

There evidently was a dust-up between a photographer with President Trump and some cemetery workers at Arlington National Cemetery this week. The press (of course) is blaming President Trump. Evidently that is not entirely accurate.

On Wednesday, Breitbart posted an article about the incident.

The article reports:

Families of American servicemembers who were killed during the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan revealed that they had given “approval” for photos and videos to be taken at Arlington Cemetery on Monday.

In a joint statement, Darrin Hoover and Kelly Barnett, the parents of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover; Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee; Misty Rose Fuoco, Gee’s sister; and Cheryl Juels, Gee’s aunt, explained that they had given the approval for Trump’s “official videographer and photographer” to attend the ceremony.

The statement from the family members of the fallen servicemembers comes after NPR released an article claiming that Trump campaign staff had gotten into a “verbal and physical altercation” with a cemetery official who had attempted to prevent them from taking videos and photos.

A source informed the outlet that cemetery officials had supposedly “made clear that only cemetery staff members are authorized to take photographs or film” in Section 60.

“We had given our approval for President Trump’s official videographer and photographer to attend the event, ensuring these sacred moments of remembrance were respectfully captured and so we can cherish these memories forever,” the families said in the joint statement.

The article notes:

The families added that they were “deeply grateful” that Trump had taken “the time to honor” their children and “for standing alongside” the families as they dealt with their grief.

“We are deeply grateful to the president for taking the time to honor our children and for standing alongside us in our grief, offering his unwavering support during such a difficult time,” the families added in their statement. “His compassion and respect meant more than words can express.”

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung issued a statement in response to the allegations, and noted that “there was no physical altercation.”

“There was no physical altercation as described and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” Cheung said in his statement. “The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony.”

In a post on X, Cheung shared a photo that stated “only” Trump could “have an official photographer and/or videographer outside of the main media pool.”

Our taxes support NPR. I think it is long past time for that to end. They are not honest reporters of the news.

 

Remembering August 26

August 26th was the day of the disastrous withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. Thirteen American servicemen were killed on that day. Somehow most of the media chose to ignore that anniversary. August 26, 2024, was the day that President Trump went to Arlington National Cemetery and laid a wreath in memory of the servicemen who died that day. The families invited him to come, but because of the pettiness in Washington these days, it took the Speaker of the House to intervene in order for the President to go there.

On Wednesday, The Daily Caller reported:

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had to intervene to get former President Donald Trump into Arlington National Cemetery for the third anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal with Gold Star families, a family told the Daily Caller.

The Gold Star families, who lost their children during the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, invited Trump to Arlington National Cemetery. He laid a wreath there for the 13 servicemembers who were killed serving their country in Afghanistan. However, a Gold Star family told the Caller that Arlington National Cemetery was trying to make it difficult for the former President to appear for the ceremony to honor their children, something the families requested.

Arlington National Cemetery told gold star families that they could only be there for a specific time that did not work for everyone’s schedule and were also told the president could not join them at their children’s gravesites, the family told the Caller.

Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Michael McCaul explained to the Caller that he was contacted by Gold Star parents Darin Hoover and Kelly Barnett, the parents of SSGT Taylor Hoover. Hoover and Barnett told him that Arlington Cemetery was giving the Gold Star parents of the U.S. servicemembers killed at Abbey Gate a hard time about coordinating a ceremony with Trump on the anniversary of their deaths.

McCaul immediately reached out to Johnson to ask for his assistance with the matter and the Caller is told he continued to track it until it was fixed.

The article concludes:

The Caller reached out to the Biden White House for details on why these families were having trouble with Arlington National Cemetery on agreeing to terms for a Trump visit. The White House referred the Caller to Arlington National Cemetery, saying: “This is a matter between the Arlington National Cemetery and the Trump campaign, not a White House matter.”

The Caller also contacted Arlington National Cemetery about these claims. The cemetery did not immediately respond.

The pettiness of the Biden administration is unbelievable.

Another Reason Americans Love President Trump

Yesterday Just the News reported that on Monday Arlington National Cemetery had issued a press release stating that because of Covid-19, they were cancelling the laying of wreaths at the cemetery on National Wreaths Across America Day.

The article reports:

The decision to abandon the holiday tradition of laying wreaths on graves at Arlington National Cemetery was reversed on Tuesday, first by Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, and then more emphatically by President Trump.

“I have reversed the ridiculous decision to cancel Wreaths Across America at Arlington National Cemetery. It will now go on!” tweeted President Trump.

…“This afternoon, Wreaths Across America was made aware of the decision by Arlington National Cemetery to no longer allow the placement of veterans’ wreaths on National Wreaths Across America Day this year,” they posted on Facebook.

“As an organization, we are shocked by this unexpected turn of events. To say we are devastated, would be an understatement.”

It was scheduled to take place at more than 2,400 other participating cemeteries on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020.

It is an outdoor event. It is also an event that patriotic Americans love. This is just one more example of an attack on things that unite us and remind us of our heritage. Thank you, President Trump, for again standing up for the American people.

Some Memorial Day Weekend Thoughts

The April/May issue of Imprimis (the publication of Hillsdale College) featured an article called “Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington National Cemetery.” The article was written by Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, an Army war veteran. Please follow the link above to read the entire article, but here are some highlights:

The Thursday before Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery is known as “Flags In.” The soldiers who place the flags belong to the 3rd United States Infantry Regiment, better known as The Old Guard. My turn at Flags In came in 2007, when I served with The Old Guard between my tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Old Guard is literally the old guard, the oldest active-duty infantry regiment in the Army, dating back to 1784, three years older even than our Constitution. The regiment got its nickname in 1847 from Winfield Scott, the longest-serving general in American history. Scott gave the regiment the honor of leading the victory march into Mexico City, where he directed his staff to “take your hats off to The Old Guard of the Army.” Perhaps Scott felt an old kinship with the 3rd Infantry, because he had fought the British alongside them outside Niagara Falls during the War of 1812.

Among the few regiments to participate in both of the major campaigns of the Mexican War—Monterrey in 1846 and Mexico City in 1847—The Old Guard made history alongside American military legends. A young lieutenant later wrote that “the loss of the 3rd Infantry in commissioned officers was especially severe” in the brutal street-to-street fighting in Monterrey. That lieutenant’s name was Ulysses S. Grant.

The 3rd Infantry was part of the main effort again the next year at the Battle of Cerro Gordo, the last stand on the road to Mexico City by Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. The Mexicans had a numerically superior force on the high ground on both sides of the only passable road to the capital. But Santa Anna underestimated the Americans’ ingenuity and audacity. With a young captain of engineers blazing the path, the 3rd Infantry hacked through the jungle and crossed ravines to attack the Mexicans from their rear, finishing them off with a bayonet charge. That captain’s name was Robert E. Lee. And to this day, The Old Guard remains the only unit in the Army authorized to march with bayonets fixed to their rifles in honor of their forerunners’ bravery at Cerro Gordo.

The article goes on to explain how the land at Arlington became our National Cemetery:

George Washington’s adopted son—his wife Martha’s only surviving son—bought the land that became Arlington in 1778 to be closer to his mother and his stepfather at their beloved Mount Vernon. General Washington advised him on the purchase in correspondence from his winter camp at Valley Forge. But our national triumph three years later at Yorktown shattered the family’s dreams. Their son died of a fever contracted there, leaving behind a six-month-old son of his own. George and Martha raised the boy, who was named George Washington Parke Custis but was known as Wash. When Wash came of age and inherited the land, he initially christened it Mount Washington, in honor of his revered adoptive father. Though he later renamed it Arlington, Wash used the land as a kind of public memorial in his lifelong mission to honor the great man. From hosting celebrations on Washington’s Birthday to displaying artifacts and memorabilia to building the grand mansion still visible from the Lincoln Memorial today, Arlington got its start as a shrine to the father of our country.

A new resident arrived in 1831, when then-Lieutenant Robert E. Lee—himself the son of Washington’s trusted cavalry commander during the Revolutionary War—married Wash’s only surviving child, Mary. For 30 years, the Lees made Arlington their home and raised a family there between his military assignments. Because of his ties to Washington and his own military genius, Lee was offered command of a Union army as the Civil War started. But he declined on the spot. His long-time mentor—none other than the 3rd Infantry’s old commander, Winfield Scott, now the General-in-Chief of the Army—scolded him: “Lee, you have made the greatest mistake of your life, but I feared it would be so.” Resigning his commission, Lee left Arlington for Richmond, never to return. The United States Army occupied Arlington on May 24, 1861—and it has held the ground ever since.

The article explains how the government eventually obtained the land through a legal process:

Lee’s son inherited the family’s claim to their old farm. Himself a Confederate officer, his name nevertheless reflected the nation’s deep roots at Arlington: George Washington Custis Lee. Known as Custis, he petitioned Congress to no avail, then sued in federal court to evict the Army as trespassers. United States v. Lee worked its way over the years to the Supreme Court, which upheld the Lee family’s claim. Fortunately for the government, the nation, and the souls at rest in Arlington, Custis was magnanimous in victory, asking only for just compensation. In 1883, he deeded the land back to the government in return for $150,000. The Secretary of War who accepted the deed was Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of Abraham Lincoln. After that final act of reconciliation between the firstborn sons of the great president and his famed rebel antagonist, Arlington’s dead could rest in peace for eternity.

The article concludes:

No one summed up better what The Old Guard of Arlington means for our nation than Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey. He shared a story with me about taking a foreign military leader through Arlington to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Sergeant Major Dailey said, “I was explaining what The Old Guard does and he was looking out the window at all those headstones. After a long pause, still looking at the headstones, he said, ‘Now I know why your soldiers fight so hard. You take better care of your dead than we do our living.’”

It’s Memorial Day Weekend. Remember those who paid a high price for our freedom.

Welcome Home

Yesterday the Navy Times posted a number of pictures taken at Arlington National Cemetery taken during the burial of Michael Judd. Michael was a Navy Corpsman who was killed in Vietnam.

The article reports:

The 21-year-old Cleveland man was aboard a helicopter that crashed June 30, 1967. He had gone to Vietnam in 1966 and was killed less than two months before he was scheduled to return home.

Judd was with a Marine reconnaissance team when the aircraft was shot down.

Please follow the link above to the article to see the pictures. Welcome Home, Michael.

Enhanced by Zemanta