The Musings of Sergeant Shake-speare

September 11th, 2008. In other words, another anniversary of 9-11, 911, 9-1-1, or however you want to look at it. The numbers 9-1-1 have multiple meanings to me. And they fuel a flood of emotions when I hear them. I was a cop (please note the small "c") for many years. When the 911 phone rang, it usually sent me into something that was fucked up. My wife is a 911 dispatcher (note the small "d"). When I was a cop, I learned to hate dispatchers, I still do, and always will. I hate my wifes (note the small "w") employer (note the small "e") and I hate hearing about her job. This is because its fucked up, and fucked up people pick up the phone and dial 911 when they have run out of intelligence (note the small "i"). They calll 911 when they hate their neighbor, they call 911 when they are beating on each other (wifes also beat on husbands SURPRIZE!), they call 911 when they get objects stuck up their ass (I'll let you figure that ...

When Pearl Harbor was attacked, my Dad wasted little time and tred to enlist in the Marines. He had some bad dental problems, so they turned him down, so he opted for the Navy and enlisted. Like me, he also went to boot camp at Great Lakes Recruit Training Center, like me, he was also stationed in Alameda California, we walked quite a long way in each others shoes. In early 2000, my own daughter went into the Navy and as stationed on board the USS The Sullivans a guided missle destroyer (DDG). I was very proud ofher service on the Sullivans, as the ship is named after the famous Sullivans brothers who had perisd on the same ship during world war two. It also changed the rules where having members of the same familiy in the same command. The Sullivans also participated in "Operation Enduring Freedom". After her enlistment was up, she decided to join the army. She attended WT (Warrior Transition Training) at Fort Knox Kentucky. I attended her graduation from WT, and watching he...

The ghosts of a hundred years of the Illinois Guard hung heavy in the old Waukegan Armory. At midnight, It was the latest that I had ever been there, as we prepared to for an early morning departure to Fort Chaffee Arkansas. Our mission to provide support to troops preparing for deployment to Afghanistan. This particular deployment was the biggest in Illinois history since world war two. NEWS INFO ref CBS 2 news Oct 19, 2007 2,700 State National Guardsmen To Deploy Deployment Marks Largest Since World War IICHICAGO (CBS) ― The Illinois National Guard just got word that the largest mobilization since World War II is setting up. More than 2,700 of the guard members are getting ready and may be deployed. As CBS 2's Katie McCall reports, these men and women from all over the State of Illinois are already familiar with their mission, which will take them to Afghanistan. Members of the 33rd Infantry Brigade combat team are going to Afghanistan for one year to help train members of the Af...

Looking at the United States in a historic context. Teachers, media and historians alike, tend mark different periods of American history by "wars fought". And it is very hard to ignor these periods (which they should not). Overlooking a serious period in history such as the American Civil War or World War Two, would be not only remis, but very short sighted. History is the hinge upon which this nation rests. The hinge also lays within the zone of calamity and fortune when politics and warfare become entangled. In the late 20th century, warfare began to change drastically, as larger nations grew very strong and world powers arose in such a way that the world had never witnessed before. The industrial age, followed by computer technology ushered in a new era of warfare. But despite overwhelming technological superiority. Modern nations still found themselves combating a new enemy in "asymetrical warfare", which proved that the individual soldier armed with a rifle wa...

I was born in Chicago in 1959 and grew up on the northwest side. My mom died when I was six, so I was raised by my Dad. In many ways, some people might say that he was'nt the best dad in the world. He drank, we moved over 20 times. He rarely held a job, and he fought depression his whole life. Though he never hit me, he never used bad language towards me, he taught me to respect America, as his folks had come here from Poland around the trun of the 19th century, and he had it tough. I did'nt know it until after he died, but he was born at home with a midwife, and his brother, my uncle Raymond told me, that he did not want a brother when my Dad was born. Times were tough and they knew it. My dad loved baseball and was a die hard Cubs fan. His best years were when he was in the Navy as a Ships Cook and when he worked for the railroad. So I grew up with him telling me stories about the Navy and the railroad. He also encouraged me to always think out of the box and to not be afraid...

I initially went into the Navy because of my interest in communications. I wanted to be a Radioman. But the rate was closed and my choices were limited, so I ended up becoming a Signalman. I was'nt exactly sure what that meant when I agreed to the job. When I got to SanDiego for training, about a week into the school, I thought these guys are crazy! The Signalman rating is and was, an ancient art that used visual communications, such as semaphore, flashing light and flaghoist to convey messages. They are also well trained lookouts, and great at recognition and identification of various military vessels and aircraft. But, it was not radioman school. About three weeks into the course, I was bombing academically. I was called into the office by the head of the Signalman school, Chief Warshawski. The Chief was a tough bird and he asked why I was doing so poorly? I explained that I wanted to be a Radioman, and if I could not do that, I would rather be sent to the deck force. Chief War...

USS Wichita AOR 1 We departed for the western pacific (WESTPAC) in the summer of 1980. Though inevitably our destination would be the mouth of the Persian Gulf. In 1979, the political situation in Iran began to unravel, resulting in the Iran hostage crisis which was a was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 U.S. diplomats were held hostage for 444 days from November 4 , 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of students took over the American embassy in support of Iran's revolution. In Iran, the incident was seen by many as a blow against U.S. influence in Iran and its support of the recently fallen Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had been restored to power by a CIA-funded coup in 1953 and who had recently been allowed into the United States for cancer treatment. In the United States, the hostage-taking was widely seen as an outrage violating a centuries-old principle of international law granting diplomats immunity from arrest and diplomatic c...

The Gulf War or Persian Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991 was a conflict between Iraq and a coalition force from 34 nations authorized by the United Nations (UN) and led primarily by the United States and the United Kingdom in order to return Kuwait to the control of the Emir of Kuwait. The conflict developed as a later result of the Iran-Iraq War and in 1990 , as Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing Iraq's oil through slant drilling. The invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi troops was met with immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by some members of the UN Security Council, and with immediate preparation for war by the United States of America and the United Kingdom. The Gulf War began in earnest as removal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait began in January 1991 and was a decisive victory for the coalition forces, which took over Kuwait and entered Iraqi territory. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, and bordering areas of Saudi Arabia. Iraq also launched missiles agai...

On September 11th, 2001, in the early morning. Like most Americans, I was at work. I had taken a job with Monsanto Corporation in 1998 as a corporate security Supervisor. I was in my office, when my boss Kevin walked in and told my partner and I that something big was going on in New York. We walked over to one of the new lab buildings where they had a big screen TV there were already over a hundred people there watching what was going on. When the second plane crashed into the towers in New York, we knew that this was no accident. I had thought that the attack was probably related to the some middle eastern terrorist organization. Due to the fact that the World Trade Center had been attacked before by radicals from that area. As the hours passed we found out that the attacks were more widespread, and that the Pentagon had also been attacked, and that another plane had been downed somewhere in Pennsylvania. In retrospect, I don't think anyone knew what to think of what happened. Th...