Naval Power is the cornerstone of the defense of the Nation.

UNITED STATES NAVY                                  VETERANS ASSOCIATION              A MEMBERSHIP ORGANIZATION Serving the recognized interests of the U.S. Navy Veteran since 1927 Nationally Recognized by the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs Website as a Partner in VA's Approved Veterans Service Organization Program Washington D.C. National Headquarters Telephone (202) 736-1725 On our Homeport Page, you will find: Our Quotations and Factoids Section (in the left margin); A Commentary on, and a History of, the Association; A News and Analysis Field containing the very first articles of our  War on Terror E-Newstand, our Veterans' Issues E-Newstand,    our National Security Affairs E-Newstand; Information about the News and Editorial Comment on the Site, Information on the Demographics of Our Viewers; and Hyperlinks to some of the best related Sites of Interest around (with even more hyperlinks on our Links Page); Just scroll to the area you're interested in.
CELEBRATING OUR 19TH YEAR ON THE WEB, WE SALUTE THE PEOPLE AND IDEAS THAT MAKE AMERICANS WHO WE ARE. THE PHOTOGRAPH AT THE TOP LEFT OF YOUR WEBSITE IS THAT OF THE DESTROYER U.S.S. COLE, ALMOST SUNK BY THE AL QUAIDA IN ADEN HARBOR IN YEMEN IN 2000, PULLING OUT TO SEA, FULLY READY FOR COMBAT, FROM NORFOLK, IN APRIL 2002. YOU CAN CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO GO DIRECTLY TO THE LATEST NEWS AND ANALYSIS FOR THE WAR ON TERROR. ON DECEMBER 7, 1941, A DATE THAT WILL FOREVER LIVE IN INFAMY, NAVAL AND AIR FORCES OF THE JAPANESE EMPIRE SUDDENLY AND DELIBERATELY  ATTACKED THE U.S. PACIFIC FLEET AT PEARL HARBOR. THE SHIPS BOMBED AT PEARL THAT MORNING, FROM THEIR POSITIONS WEST TO EAST, CLOCKWISE AROUND FORD ISLAND, WERE: the MEDUSA, the CURTISS, the TANGIER, the UTAH, the RALEIGH, the DETROIT, the DOBBIN, the WHITNEY, the NEVADA, the ARIZONA, the VESTAL, the TENNESSEE, the WEST VIRGINIA, the MARYLAND, (the Maryland and West Virginia were "Colorado" class battleships) the OKLAHOMA, the NEOSHO, the CALIFORNIA, the NEW ORLEANS, and the SAN FRANCISCO.    1,200 men went down on the U.S.S. ARIZONA (BB39) alone. The sunken ARIZONA is still discharging oil today, "tears" as we say in the Navy. The story goes that the tears will stop when the last survivor of the ARIZONA is laid to rest. MAY GOD HOLD IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND FOREVER THE SOULS OF THOSE AMERICAN SAILORS WHOSE BODIES STILL REST AT THE BOTTOM OF PEARL HARBOR TODAY, BECAUSE OF THAT MURDEROUS AND UNPROVOKED ATTACK, AND THE SOULS OF ALL OUR SERVICE PERSONNEL WHO DIED, OR FOUGHT, IN WORLD WAR II. OF THE SHIPS DAMAGED AT PEARL HARBOR ON DECEMBER 7, 1941, OVER 70% WERE FULLY REPAIRED AND PUT TO SEA AGAIN. THAT WAS SOMETHING THE JAPANESE EMPIRE LEARNED...THE HARD WAY...TO REGRET. 2500 AMERICAN MEN AND WOMEN LOST THEIR LIVES IN HAWAII ON THE MORNING OF DECEMBER 7, 1941, ALMOST 2,000 ON BOARD THE U.S.S. ARIZONA HERSELF, A NUMBER NOT MATCHED IN A SURPRISE ATTACK ON AMERICA UNTIL SEPTEMBER 11, 2001. DO NOT DOUBT THE WILL OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, IF YOU SHOULD BE SO FOOLISH AS TO PUT THEIR BACKS AGAINST THE WALL, AND MARK THESE WORDS WELL: "And... the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that our Flag was still there... O,say, does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave, Over the home of the free, And the land of the brave?" From "The Star Spangled Banner," by Francis Scott Key, 1812 (This Page features The Star Spangled Banner as background music.) Key wrote the words to the Star Spangled Banner after he had been held prisoner on a British ship during a nightime bombardment of Fort McHenry, which protected Baltimore, in the War of 1812. At dawn the next morning, Key still did not know whether the fort had fallen. Then he looked up and saw a huge American flag still flying over its walls. Key began writing verses immediately on an unfinished letter he had in his pocket. "America, America, God shine His Grace on Thee, And crown Thy Good with Brotherhood, from sea to shining sea." -Lyrics from "America the Beautiful," written by Katherine Lee Bates If, as a simple act, once a week at Saturday night at the supper table, you ask your young children or grandchildren to sing (or, if you can't sing, recite as poetry) these simple words, like a stone thrown into a lake with its ripples, it will make a difference, in your life, in theirs, and in America's life as well.   "Mine Eyes have Seen the Glory" WAC World War II Poster Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on. I have seen Him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps; They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps, I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; His day is marching on. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat. Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; As he died to make men holy, let us die to make them free, While God is marching on. Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! His truth is marching on! Lyrics to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," by Julia Ward Howe, 1861 Julia Ward Howe went on to become a leader in the Women's Suffrage Movement. She died in 1910.   I wish I was in the land of cotton, Old times there are not forgotten, Look Away! Look Away! Dixieland. In Dixie Land where I was born, Early on one frosty mornin,' Look Away! Look Away! Dixie Land. Then I wish I was in Dixie, Hooray! Hooray! In Dixie Land, I'll take my stand, To live and die in Dixie. Away, away, away down south in Dixie, Away, away, away down south in Dixie! "Dixie," words and music by Daniel Decatur Emmet. Emmet , an Ohioan, wrote this song in New York City in 1859, about northern blacks who wanted to go back home to the South. It subsequently became the War Anthem of the Confederacy. Upon the surrender of the South in 1865, President Lincoln ordered the White House Band to play 'Dixie.' "It is one of the best tunes I have ever heard," he said. Oh, the moonlight's fair tonight along the Wabash, From the fields there comes the breath of new-mown hay. Thro' the sycamores the candle lights are gleaming. On the banks of the Wabash far away. From "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away," by Paul Dresser, 1897. This song became a favorite of American soldiers during the Spanish-American War and, subsequently, the state song of Indiana. The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home, Young folks roll on the little cabin floor, All merry, all happy, and bright; By'n'by hard times comes a-knocking at the door, Then my old Kentucky home, goodnight! From "My Old Kentucky Home," by Stephen C. Foster, 1853. "My Old Kentucky Home" is the state song of Kentucky.   There's a yellow rose of Texas I'm going for to see, No other soldier knows her, nobody only me. She cried so when I left her, it like to broke my heart, and if I ever find her, we never more will part. Where the Rio Grande is flowing and starry skies are bright, She walks along the river in the quiet summer night. She thinks if I remember we parted long ago; I promised to come back again and never let her go. "The Yellow Rose of Texas" is not a flower, but a person, Emily D. West, who was indentured to Colonel James Morgan, who fought in Texas' war for independence against Mexico.     Many are the hearts that are weary tonight, wishing for the war to cease; many are the hearts that are looking for the right, To see the dawn of peace. Tenting tonight, tenting tonight, tenting on the old camp ground__ Tenting tonight, tenting tonight, tenting on the old camp ground. "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" was composed during the Civil War, and this poignant song remained popular long afterward, especially in wartime. It was a particular favorite of Buffalo Bill Cody.         ***************************** "America will not waver, we will not tire, America will not falter, and we will not fail" - President George W. Bush, October 7,2001 "The men and women of our Armed Forces have delivered a message now clear to every enemy of the United States: Even 7,000 miles away, across oceans and continents, on mountaintops and in caves, you will not escape the justice of this Nation." - President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002 It is morally compelling, in the opinion of the Association, for the United States to attack terrorism and the supporters of terror everywhere. No exceptions. No limitations. A loud voice cannot compete with a clear voice, even if it's a whisper. ****************************** "From our mountains to our prairies, to our oceans white with foam, May God Bless America, Our home, sweet home." ****************************** One frequently asked question we get is : "What is a USN Battle Group?" A USN Battle Group is group of ships, the heart of which is one or more carriers, used to project U.S. power militarily at sea, in the air, or on land. In 1991, the U.S.S. Independence Battle Group was the first USN battle group in the Mid-East region to support the Gulf War, an effort that was totally successful. Aircraft were sent out in strike packages - fighters, fighter-bombers, and bombers - to attack Saddam's forces. About 10 ships, including a  guided missile cruiser and a destroyer, are assigned to protect each carrier in a battle group. Each carrier group has 50 strike aircraft.       Another frequently asked question we get ,is: How many men and women normally serve today on board a USN aircraft carrier? About 8,000, slightly short of an average U.S. Army or U.S.M.C. infantry division.  ***************************** "What we have found in Afghanistan confirms that-far from ending there-our war against terror is only beginning." -President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 29,2002 **************************** "Any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile...can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction,' I served in the United States Navy.'" - President John F. Kennedy ,1917-1963 ***************************** There are 277 words in the Gettysburg Address on what it means to be an American, and 177 words, total, in the Ten Commandments. We don't understand why it takes 10,000 volumes of laws and regulations, and over 5 trillion words, in America, to say the same thing. ***************************** Greatest Modern Naval Battles: Trafalgar, where the one-eyed, one-armed, one-minded British Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated Napoleon's fleet off the coast of Portugal, destroying France's last chance to invade England; Jutland; the Battle of Midway; and the Battle of Leyte Gulf ***************************** " A Sailor's Prayer" " They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn; At the setting of the sun on America's oceans, and in the morning rush of America's new dawn, we will remember them." -USNVA Poet Laureate John Witherspoon ***************************** And for those who say that Liberty is a phantom, we have these words of advice: Renaissance means rebirth. We say that the 21st Century is the Renaissance of American Freedom. Freedom is like good art; it may be hard to define, but we know it when we see it.... And for those abroad who say any of our liberties are lost, or never existed, we say you are mistaken: Americans will remember our rightful Liberty, and if you take it from us, we will take it back, no matter how long it takes, and that day we do will be a day of our choosing, not yours, and it will be a day that you will rue. As the old Arabic proverb says: "From our lips, to God's ears." "This is my Right, Given by God, To live in Freedom." - From "Freedom," sung by Paul McCartney at the New Orleans Superbowl XXXVI, 2-3-02 "There'll be blue skies over the white cliffs of Dover, just you wait and see... One day, when the world is free." -From "The White Cliffs of Dover," as sung by the Glenn Miller Band, 1944 This country is patriotic to the core, and that, our friends, Democrat and Republican alike, will never change. As Jimmy Carter would say, our enemies can take that to the bank. ***************************** In Lyndon Johnson's time, we preached Guns and Butter. It cost us 20 years of national deficits to pay for that philosophy. We have to figure out how to pay for America's War on Terror without another 20 years of federal deficit spending. The USG deficit for FYE 2002 was approximately $165 billion. The real USG deficit for  FYE  9/30/2003 was approximately  $400 billion. President George W. Bush's proposed 2007 Budget is $354 billion. The National Debt hit $9 trillion in 2006. 40% of it is held by foreigners. $9 trillion consitutes 70% of the United States' Gross Domestic Product (GDP). ***************************** Even when faced with the murderous madness of criminals, and in the presence of the silent agony of their victims, it is incumbent upon us to choose between escape and courage, shame and honor. The terrorists have chosen shame. WE CHOOSE HONOR. ***************************** As you can see from our Breaking News and Analysis Section on this Homepage, the Association does believe the worst part of the sacrifice of Americans in the War on Terror is yet to come, but America is not in decline; we are not going downhill; the 21st Century will be America's greatest century to date, with many more to come. If you underestimate America, or its economy, or its people, or its stock markets, you are making a mistake. ***************************** One simple act by Congress, approved by the President, would end the 2002 U.S. stock market jitters; end talk of whom we need to jail and whom we don't; bring equity back to American capitalism; and send us on the road to a new stock market boom: No executive compensation, per person, including everything, over $1 million per year, shall be deductible as a business expense by a publicly listed corporation, including ADRs and foreign corporate parents with U.S. subsidiaries. That act would also raise billions in new dollars for the U.S. Treasury. ****************** The Association's Award for National Co-Comforters for the Year 2001 goes jointly to First Lady Laura Bush and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The Association's Award for "Most Honest" Political Figure of the Year 2001: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He tells the American people the straight truth on the War on Terror abroad. If he doesn't know, he says so. If he can't say because of the protection of sources and methods, he says so. Most unfairly underreported Armed Service branch in the War on Terror abroad: The United States Navy Best Quote ever from the TV Show "West Wing:' Posed to a White House Advisor as a question: "The Arab world will oppose us if we fight Islamic fundamentalism, so what are we going to do?" The Advisor responds: "Tell them this.... Freedom and democracy are coming soon to a theatre near you, so get prepared." -From "West Wing," 2-6-02   **************** Simply put, the American Nation, any nation, is built on land. But that same nation needs its seas to defend itself. **************** The Association's "Best Ever" Award for the Year 2001: We, the People of the United States of America. ******************************** On 9-11, the violent Islamic fundamentalits came to America. They thought they would make us afraid, that they would take us down. They failed, and they failed with a massive repercussion. America united in the face of this new threat, a threat that is not over. Al Quaida declared war on America, and we declared war on them, all of them. It is not the Islamic Street that we need to be afraid of, for they are nothing. It is only our lack of continuing united resolve we need to fear. "This is a struggle of good versus tyranny...and we're going to get them.... If we blink, the world's going to go to sleep...so we won't." -President George W. Bush, January 23,2002 ******************************** There are 22 distinct dialects of Arabic. Being fluent in one as an American learning Arabic as a second language may not even give you a clue as to how to understand the other 21. Query: How many Arabic speakers did Special Envoy to Iraq Paul Bremer have on his Staff? As of 7/03, twelve. ******************************** "Islam is the Dawn which burns the Zionist night." - A Saudi poet performing officially in front of the Saudi leadership, 2-15-02 "On earth, petroleum once turned petty thugs into world leaders."     - From the Star Trek movie "Insurrection"   Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia   "The United States will be finished very soon, sooner than they think." - Omar Sayeed Sheikh, one of the murderers of Danny Pearl, yelling to the anti-American crowd outside one of his court appearances ******************************** Heard on "West Wing", 2-6-02: "The Congolese government is a myth." Most governments in the Third World are a myth, or worse. 'Bout time somebody said so. Might as well be West Wing. [Ed. Note: The World bank, on July 15,2002, decreed that 80% of the real Congolese government's $12 billion foreign debt be wiped out. That's quite a "line your pockets" benefit for a dictatorially-run, corrupt, and mythical government, in our view.] Also heard on  "West Wing" 2-19-03, the President of the United States   "President Josiah Bartlet" speaking of the French President who was opposing U.S. unilateral military intervention in a third world country:" Tell that poncy poof   President Jacques Chirac if he doesn't get out of our way, I'll come over there and stick a loaf of bread up his ass!" It's bad enough, in the opinion of this Association, that we outsource some of our most valuable jobs . We shouldn't also outsource our national security to the likes of those same foreigners, or to the likes of Jacques Chirac. The Presidents of France have lived in the Elysee Palace in Paris since 1873. It's the same place that Madame de Pompadour entertained her lovers, that was turned into a dance hall during the Revolution of 1789; it was the place where Napoleon signed his abdication after Waterloo, and where Wellington's British troops quartered themselves, with their boots on the table, so it was said. All those humiliations bothered DeGaulle. They bother Chirac. It's said it bothers all of them. They should just move to the Sun King's palace at Versailles where, in our opinion, they'd all feel quite at home with their 'L'etat, c'est moi!' complexes. 20% of the population of France is now foreign-emigrated Muslims, most of them radical, vicious, terroristic anti-Semites and anti-Americans. These people were permitted to become part of the French nation by France's immigration laws. French politicians now have to reap this whirlwind. In the process of that reaping, the USG and Americans should not look for the Elysee Palace to have an epiphany anytime soon and become pro-American.   TV and movie star Lisa Kudrow says of France on the 'Tonight Show,' 9/23/03: "Half the people there are unemployed. Then they go on strike because they're not getting enough money! It's almost impossible to fire anyone. If you ask for service in a restaurant, they say, 'I'm trying to eat, what do you want?' Then they accuse you of being the ugly American." She should know. Kudrow is married to a Frenchman, for the time being at least. Why any American policymaker would propose seeking approval  for our foreign policy of these French, these self-proclaimed heads of the international house of pancakes known as the U.N., this Association has no idea, and will continue to have no idea. As with Korea in 1950, as with Iraq under Saddam, as with Afghanistan under the Taliban, as with the anti-American Muslim government of the Sudan in 2004, in its genocide against black Christian Sudanese in the south of the country, the U.N. has shown itself next to worthless without U.S. financing, and U.S. military force.   We will, however, to be evenhanded, say something nice about France, because the French are not our natural enemies. Quite the reverse, we are natural allies, and have been since the time of the Revolution and since then, two democracies united for the cause of Liberty in the world.  In July, 2004, the government and people of France sponsored and paid for the greatest and most dramatic bicycle race in the world since 1903, the Tour de France. That July, as an American, a recovered cancer patient from Texas, Lance Armstrong, was poised to win that race triumphantly for an unprecedented 6th time, Americans could be seen running beside him in the Pyrenees, waving huge American flags, unmolested by the crowds of Frenchmen. If this had been a dictatorship somewhere in the Islamic world, there would have been no such race, or the American team would have been kidnapped or shot, and the patriots running with the flags, well, they would have been murdered on the spot. That is the difference between us and them. That is the fundamental difference between a free society, and one based on intimidation and fear. Let Freedom Ring, and let those opposed to it tremble as mUch as they would like us to tremble. Let that be our foreign policy.     John Amos for CNO? Why not? We've seen worse. [John, who's a great and unassuming guy, and goes back a long way on TV, plays the CNO on "West Wing" (as of 5-02), the only CJCS featured at the fictional White House security council. In one episode he says of Islamic terrorists: " We're talking about animals who blow up pregnant women and children, and you're talking to me about international law...hell, the laws of nature don't even apply to these people." Can't say the producers don't like the Navy.]  [UPDATE 10-23-03: Unfortunately the producers of the West Wing read the above note and, listening to complaints from the Army, on the 10-8-03 show, introduced an Army Chief of Staff at the White House NSC for the first time. John Amos, we understand, has gone on to host his own, and separate, TV show.] President Bartlet of the West Wing (Broadcast 4-9-03), by the way, is wrong in one of his speeches: America's Destiny is of our choosing. No nation, no people, no group of nations on earth, dictate our destiny to us. Providence might, but none of the above will.   ***************************** "O-sa-ve" - "Freedom," in Afghan and yes, it is a word in Afghani ******************************** Ten Americans once set sail upon a great sea. Their common purpose was to reach a shining city on a hill they could see, far away, on the other side of the sea. But, as they were sailing a great storm, a great tempest, came up, and their ship began to circle itself and drift. The Americans became angry with themselves, and started to blame it on each other. They did silly things, like tweak each other's noses, and post bumperstickers on their foreheads denouncing each other. Then two of them, one black, one white, two big women, let's call them Marian and Kate, stood up in the boat and , in a loud and magnificent voice, a capella, began to sing the most beautiful rendition of "God Bless America" you ever have heard. The other eight suddenly stopped their feuding, stood up, placed their hands on their hearts, and listened to the words. When the song was over, all of them...all of them, began rowing as one toward the shore of their dreams.... They haven't got there yet, but they are still trying, and we'll keep you informed on their progress. To us here at the United States Navy Veterans Association, it does not matter whether your mother came here on the Mayflower, or on a slave ship from Africa. We're all in the same boat now.  "It's been a long road, Getting from there to here, It's been a long time, but my time is finally here. And I will see my dream come alive at last. They're not gonna change my mind, Cause I've got faith of the heart. I'm going where my heart will take me. I've got strength of the soul, No one's gonna bend or break me. I can reach any star. I've got faith. I've got faith into the heart. " - The theme from Star Trek "Enterprise,"    by Diane Warren   This Association also believes that no one is going to bend or break the United States, and that we, too, have faith into the heart as to our purposes.   Space, to a naval veteran, is simply another form of sea upon which America must sail. Subcommander T'Pol said on Star Trek "Enterprise" on 4-24-02, echoing the viewpoint of many modern day anti-Americans and One Worlders, "If you want to explore alien cultures, you need to respect their laws."  That's b.s. Most of the laws of most of the countries on this planet, as they're currently enforced, discriminate totally against the rights of the individual as contained in the American Bill of Rights, and also against American values. While American travelers to these countries may be forced by those wearing the guns to obey these laws, there's no need for any American to "respect" them. The TV show Star Trek Enterprise was cancelled on May 15, 2005 and it may be a long while before Americans see the lkes of it again on television as a new series. Live long and prosper, Star Trek. Live long and prosper, Enterprise. ****************** There is a tendency among certain policy thinkers to believe the world is united against the United States. This is not true. But many of those foreigners, it is true, are driven purely by their own unilateral, and jealous, hatreds of the United States, in formulating their own foreign policies. Our foreign policy, and America's future, cannot be placed in the hands of foreign unilateralists just because they outnumber us in some international house of pancakes. Our national security must mean more than just counting votes in the U.N. and then deciding what or what not to do accordingly. Great nations do not let others determine their future.  ******************************** "We've come to know truths that we will never question: Evil is real, and it must be opposed. Beyond all differences of race or creed we are one country, mourning together and facing danger together. Deep in the American character there is honor, and it is stronger than cynicism. And many have discovered again that even in tragedy-especially in tragedy - God is near." -President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002 There's an old New England church saying from the time of the Revolution: "The devil's greatest success is convincing people he doesn't exist." The United States is certainly at sail; at sea on a turbulent ocean. But we, not they, are in control. And the world will see that that turbulence will abate, because of our will, our values, our might and our strength, not theirs. ***************************** In order for America to succeed in the world in the cause of Liberty, Americans must first believe that we can. Americans may be disappointed if we fail, but we are doomed if we don't try. "The minute you start talking about what you're going to do if you lose on foreign policy, military policy, or national security issues, you have lost." -Reagan Administration Secretary of State George P. Schultz "Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." - Colin Powell ***************************** Some people think that this Site is too serious. To them, we say, we try to show both the somber and humorous side of important issues and affairs and , as America's greatest humorist, Mark Twain, once said, "The source of all humor is sorrow." Heard on the Tonight Show, featuring Jay Leno in his "Jaywalking" interviews with Americans in Burbank and Los Angeles, 1992-2006: Q: "In what country will you find the Panama Canal?" A: "I don't know." [Showing a picture of LBJ] Q: "What President is this a picture of?" A: "Jefferson." Q: "Where was the Vietnam War fought?" Simultaneous Answer from three UCLA coeds: "Korea." Jay: "The equestrian events at the Olympics involve what kind of animal?" One L.A. man: "Lions." One L.A. woman: "Dolphins."   Jay: (Asked two weeks before the games began) "Where will the 2004 Olympics be held?" One L.A. woman: "I know it begins with an 'A"...uh...(beams) Athens." Jay: "Athens, where?" The woman: "Athens, Georgia."    Jay: "Who invented the airplane?" One woman: "Uhh...Boeing." Another Melrose, California woman: "Uhh...the Cartwright brothers." Jay: "Who invented the lightbulb?" One lady: "Uhh...Albert Einstein." Jay: "When was television invented?" One woman: "Uhh...18...uh...59." Jay: "Who invented the telephone?" One Melrose, California woman: "Uh...AT&T." Jay (Showing a picture of Washington in uniform crossing the Delaware with his men) "What is this a picture of?" A second grade Oregon schoolteacher: "The Jews...uh...leaving in boats?"   And heard on WB-TV's Blue Collar TV on 9/16/2004: "The definition of 'European': Two rednecks talking in the woods, one to the other: 'Move a little away, yur a pee-in on my boots." ***************************** ****************************** Because of the quality of the Association's intelligence sources, our Breaking News and Analysis Sections on the War on Terror, Veterans' Issues and National Security Issues, including our three Newstands, are monitored daily for stories by the national news media and by government officials. If you doubt us, or you want to hear about what's really going on, or is about to happen, first, in any one of these areas, read our entries every day and then check out how often the same story is repeated, at a later date, by the established media. This Association is proud of its three Newstands and our label for them of "Breaking" News and Analysis. *************************** Our United States Navy Veterans Association Staff recognized the honor former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada paid to America in appearing at our National Memorial Day Ceremony in Washington for 2003. At that Ceremony we had the honor of waving the British flag in tribute to our British allies in Iraq. It's too bad we could not also have waved the other two flags of our own continent, Canada's and Mexico's, but so be it. The choice was theirs.... Que sera, sera.   ********************** The United States Navy Veterans Association does not copyright this Site, or the words printed on it, a practice, when it comes to non-profit associations, we frown on. Education of the public in America ought to be truly free, because it makes all of us better, and bigger, as citizens, and that is good for all of us. So use the information provided on this Site as you will, without restriction. **************************				UNITED STATES NAVY VETERANS ASSOCIATION A History and Commentary   The United States Navy Veterans Association traces its roots back to Mobile where, under Alabama's summer sun in 1927, a small group of decorated Spanish-American War and World War I naval veterans came together on Independence Day and associated themselves into an affiliated group of five veteran organizations, the Pensacola Navy Airmen, the Northern Florida Association of Navy Veterans of the Spanish-American War, the Northern Florida Naval Veterans of the Great War, the Alabama Naval History Association, and the Jacksonville League for Naval Preparedness.   This Association, which shortly began to informally call itself the Naval Air Veterans Group, because of the dominance of its primary member organization, the Pensacola Navy Airmen, first became active by controversially promoting the drive for naval air power and the construction of aircraft carriers as necessities for a country facing potential enemies on two oceans. Although the British Royal Navy   actually commissioned an aircraft carrier in World War I, the H.M.S. Argus, in the 1920's prototypical aircraft carriers and some seaplanes alike in the U.S. were still called "flying boats," and although a seaplane naval air station was established at Pensacola, Florida in 1916,    the Association still met stiff opposition to these proposals for true naval air power based on aircraft carriers from the Department of War, the Department of the Navy and from the isolationist feelings predominant in the country during the 1920's and early 1930's.   Between 1939 and 1942 the five original groups officially came together as one unified veterans' organization called the Naval Air Veterans Association.  Even though most of its members were Navy airmen, the membership retained their interest in U.S. Navy history and U.S. naval preparedness. And although  they were only a small organization during World War II and during the period of military downsizing in the immediate aftermath of the war, the membership of the Association became active again, while other veterans' and military organizations stood against us, or took no position, in support of America's purpose in being in South Vietnam    in the 1960's and 1970's, a position of which today's  Association is still proud. It is, in real time, absolutely outrageous to the membership of the Association that any President of the United States would voluntarily elect to publicly meet and greet any member of the Communist Politboro rubbish which currently dictates policy in Vietnam, or that the USG would share intelligence with them, or train their military or naval forces. This outrage is only reinforced by the hypocrisy on our side, at the same time, of lecturing our allies in the War on Terror on the need for more democracy in their own countries, and the hypocrisy on the Vietnamese side of providing  semi-slave labor there in order to sell cheap consumer goods to the U.S., the very practice Karl Marx condemned in Das Kapital, "surplus labor," i.e., slave labor at slave wages, saying that that practice was the one of the primary reasons for his promotion of  the communist state.    Following through on its initial commitment to strong naval power, the Association was also extremely effective in its support of President Ronald Reagan's national defense program which successfully culminated in the bankruptcy of the Soviet Union and, more importantly, its military infrastructure. The elimination of the Soviet threat to America, along with the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in World War II, rank as the greatest U.S. defense achievements of the 20th Century. But the destruction of Soviet-style communism, by policies so professionally and successfully crafted by both the Nixon and Reagan Administrations, still has some unfinished business in the world: in Castro's Cuba (and its spreading semi-allies, as of 2007, in Latin America), in Kim Jong Il's North Korea, in the Politboro's Vietnam, and, in a totally different socio-political-economic dimension of their own, with regard to the Communist regime in Beijing. The members of this Association also supported the unsuccessful insertion of U.S. Marines into Lebanon in 1983 as peacekeepers designed to minimize the anti-U.S. Syrian presence there, and the successful attempt, with U.S. troops and Marines in Operation Urgent Fury later that year, to overthrow the thug prime minister Maurice Bishop of Grenada, who sought, as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela does in 2007, to take his nation on a violently anti-American and pro-Fidel Castro course in the western hemisphere. When the going got tough in the struggle for Reagan Administration foreign and national security policy proposals and activities this Association had supported, unlike some other veterans' organizations, we did not blink, and we did not waver, in that support.   During the Bill Clinton Administration, the overwhelming majority of the individual membership of the Association opposed as policy, and also,  as a function of the Association's  public education on issues of interest to veterans, but not in the function of attempting to influence election politics, many of the foreign, national security and military policies of the Executive Branch. By and large, the Association did so becaues it saw those policies, in general, as promoting a vision for the United States where our Nation would have a weakened sovereignty, and a weakened ability to exercise its own right of  self defense . We opposed, and oppose now, that vision because of  the nearly unanimous belief  of our members that no great nation can retain its greatness if it lets others make its national security decisions for it. President Clinton, in an interview with Jim Lehrer of PBS-TV's Newshour with Jim Lehrer on July 7, 2004, said in fact that our outline of his positions in the preceding paragraph constituted exactly what his vision for American national security was, and is: "I think that in general I saw my job as the first President whose full term would be served after the Cold War in a global information society where we were interdependent....I saw my job as to try to move the world from an unstable condition of independence toward a more integrated cooperative world community. Therefore my approach was to cooperate wherever possible and to build institutions of cooperation...and to cooperate wherever possible but to act alone if we had to. [The Association notes, for the record, that its research shows that the Clinton Administration acted unilaterally in America's self defence only twice during eight years: once, when we bombed some caves in Afghanistan after the CIA had told the White House it was unlikely that Usama would still be there, and, second, when we bombed what later turned out to be a pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum.] I think what the [George W.] Bush Administration saw was a world they thought was full of dangers and problems, the worst of which in their mind was Saddam Hussein, and that they should act alone whenever they could, and then cooperate when they needed to, and there's a big difference. They got out of the Conference of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty [sic].... They were opposed to the International Criminal Courts, to strenthening the Biological Weapons Convention. They bagged the ABM treay to build a missile defense even though we don't know whether it works or not. [Cf.  U.S. Senator John Edwards (Dem. -NC), campaigning for Vice-President in Des Moines, 7/14/2004: It is "needless" [means 'without need'] for America to "go to war alone."] ...[S]ince we're moving into a completely interdependent global environment, we're better off building a world...when we're not the only military superpower." President Clinton also went on to suggest that his vision for American foreign policy was becoming a vision for all future Democratic candidates for President, and we think that there is a good chance that his analysis on that subject is accurate.   Former President Clinton's interview answers constituted quite a mouthful. Bill Clinton was certainly the greatest 'policy wonk' America has ever had as President, and his discourse, as is usual for him, refects a great amount of thoughtfully, detailed and artfully worded statements. We think there is one thing he got wrong, though, in addition to being wrong on both the logic behind the national security policies he promoted, as well as on the policies themselves, and that is his categorization of the national security policies of the Bush Administration. Our analysis is that, in general, the Bush Administration was  extremely supportive of international cooperation, advocating such measures as adherence to the dictates of the WTO whether we liked it or not, an expanded NATO, and a strengthened NAFTA.  Even after 9/11, the Bush Administration  asked for the support of the international community FIRST, and only when it was not forthcoming, in Iraq, did we act and, even then, coalitions, albeit small ones,  were built. The history of these events is reported accurately, day by day, on our National Security Affairs and War on Terror Newstands, in archive and chronological fashion so anybody, including former President Clinton, and others like him who criticize this highly substantive site, can review those events. During the George W. Bush Administration  the Association supported the policy of  fielding an effective ABM system because such a system is justified on the grounds of self-defense of the United States from rogue nuclear states acquiring nuclear weapons in a seemingly growing environment of proliferation and, also, because such a system poses the threat to our potential enemies that they would have to bankrupt their in many cases totalitarian systems in order to successfully compromise such a system, and at the same time undoubtedly fail in the process. There are those who argue, of course, that it is cheap to build an offensive ICBM system, making it sound almost as if everybody who owns a convenience store could build one for $100 or so. This is nonsense, and those with access to intelligence data should know better. It costs hundreds of billions of dollars to build an effective ICBM or IRBM system with MIRVs which could penetrate an effective U.S. or NATO shield, and that cost would bankrupt any third world country, including China, which dared to try. Russia's immediate reaction to the Bush initiative was in fact the only logical one: President Putin proposed lowering the number of Russia's nuclear warheads, jointly with the U.S., not increasing them. We also currently and wholeheartedly support President Bush's defense policy to continue biological weapons research. If rogue states like Saddam's not only researched anthrax and biochemical development, but actually also used biochemical warfare on their own people [Saddam staged over 280 separate biochem attacks on the Kurds in northern Iraq, the major one being at Halabja, where Saddam murdered 5,000 Kurds, and on the Shiites in southern Iraq], and when there is absolutely no reliable method ( e.g. satellites) to determine the existence or whereabouts of stockpiles of such weapons, then the United States is fully justified in continuing research on such weapons to ensure anybody with them who threatens us could be met with a similiar, and therefore credible, deterrent.   Even satellites and CIA SR-71s cannot see inside Kim Jong Il's nuclear reactors, nor could they see into Saddam's Palaces.   The Association supported the decision to go to war against Saddam in 2003, and would have even if the decision had been entirely unilateral. Saddam's time to go, as a State terrorist enemy of the United States, was long overdue, even at the end of the Gulf War. He needed to be made an example of in the aftermath of 9/11. But U.S. military planning as to what to do in the aftermath of his fall in Iraq lacked political-military precision, and still does today, literally as you are reading this commentary. So we opposed the decision of the Bush Administration to limit U.S. Force levels in cleaning up the terrorist mess in Iraq after Saddam's overthrowal. We felt that decision was caused by the fact U.S. combat arms forces are too few wordwide, and that in turn made us then,  and makes us today, vulnerable as a Nation to foreign terrorism operating abroad. Sources as diverse as U.S. Senators John Kerry (D.- Mass.), John McCain (R.- Ariz.), Joseph Biden (D.- Del.), Hillary Rodham-Clinton (D.- N.Y.) and Joseph Lieberman (D.- Conn.) took positions similiar or identical to our policy advocacy at the time. When the going got tough, very tough, in the struggle for the foreign and national security proposals and activities of the George W. Bush Administration this Association had supported, unlike some other veterans' organizations, we did not blink, and we did not waver, in that support. As you can see from our History of the Navy Page, the politics of what the Navy should be goes back in fact to the time of the Revolution, and there have been two overiding themes in that history: a weak Navy or a strong Navy. But more importantly, in recent American politics there have also been two opposing themes about our larger foreign and military policies: Do we want to be loved, or do we want to be respected? (Hint: "I'd rather be respected," President Ronald Reagan once said.)  Do we want to be able to act in our own self defense, the defense of America and our way of life and our value of freedom, or do we only want  to act as part of , as President Bill Clinton put it, the "integrated" values of a world community. Concomitantly, we can rephrase this debate from even a third angle: Is it the mission of the United States to promote freedom throughout the world and, if it is the mission, or even if it is only a mission, is that mission a "must" or a "want," as they would phrase it in business school? Unlike other American veterans' groups, this Association has never wavered as to how we come out on any of these  debates.  We are not interested in acquiring the love of anti-American Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, and their supporters, as a goal of American foreign policy. A not so famous World War II poster pictures a group of Americans united, standing in front of our Flag. At the bottom of the poster it says" Victory for the American Way."  We see no reason why that does not apply as the goal of the War on Terror as well.  So, unlike others, we have not, and do not, alter our tack depending on the policies of a particular Commander-in- Chief for a weaker America, for appeasement of our enemies, or for a weaker national defense. The expression with approval former President Clinton raised in his interview of not having America as the world's only military superpower, the very same spectre also raised by Governor Howard Dean of Vermont in his 2004 Presidential campaign, is unacceptable to our membership as  fundamentally out of sync with traditional views of patriotism , the idea that America cannot remain great if it allows others, with their own agendas former President Clinton may trust, but which we do not, to make our national security decisions for us. In maintaining this consistency as a matter of policy advocacy (and not as an attempt to influence any election), it is not just the Navy we fight for, for we do not view the other Service Branches as our enemies, but America's national security as a whole. We may be in favor of a stronger Navy, but we are also at the same time in favor of a stronger Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard. But first of all, before all that, we are Americans. And we are steadfast, and will not change, in support of our Number One mandate for  policies that make America certainly the best country on earth, but, at the same time, also the strongest, with a national defense vulnerable to none. The nat