A Time for War and a Time for Peace
Peace reigned during my years in the U.S. Air Force, however, I did witness the kind of carnage that can be caused by combat aircraft. While stationed at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, our family attended Europe’s biggest air show at our base. On August 28, 1988 the Italian Air Force demonstration team (similar to our Thunderbirds) performed in front of a crowd of 300,000. A solo pilot attempted to cross merging aircraft, finishing a loop of five teammates on his right and four teammates on his left. The solo aircraft hit two of the other planes causing three of the jets to crash, killing the pilots. Within seven seconds, the solo aircraft careened into the crowd center killing 67 spectators, the three pilots and injuring over 500 souls. For the next eight hours I helped place the wounded onto stretchers then helicopters which transported them to local hospitals. Then came the gruesome task of loading body parts into body bags and taking them to a gymnasium on base for identification. People who only moments before were enjoying a beautiful afternoon with their families, in a moment were dead! It was sobering seeing unclaimed cars in parking lots for the next week!
My reason for writing this is to remind myself and those who choose to read these columns, that war is an awful thing. Although the tragedy mentioned above was an accident in peacetime, the experience brought home to me in a graphic way the kind of destruction the weapons I might be called upon to carry into combat would inflict on my targets. Military combat is deadly serious business and it is the mission of our armed forces to be vigilant, armed and at the ready to use those weapons at a moment’s notice.
Today we are seeing the carnage of war in the surprise attack by Hamas on Israel. The evil being unleashed on unarmed civilians with beheadings, rape, torture and murder is unthinkable to us as Americans. The enemy combatants (rightly called terrorists) seek to terrorize the civilian populace and their stated intent is to kill the Jewish people… all Jewish people.
In Genesis 16:12 the Bible speaks of Ishmael, son of Abraham and the servant Hagar, who is considered to be the father of the Arab peoples. It says, “He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” We are seeing this 4,000 year old prophecy lived out in our world today.
Since we live 65-hundred miles from these events, we may think we are safe here in our rural state, but we need to remember that our southern border is wide open! We are rapidly approaching a situation in which 10 percent of our national population will be illegals! The videos of the hordes of people storming across the border into Texas and Arizona are stark
evidence that little effort is being made to turn back this literal invasion. While this has been going on for a long time, the record clearly shows this mayhem ratcheted up greatly after January 21, 2021 with the new presidential administration. Far from taking action to close the border, the party in power actually encourages the invasion since government statistics show over 2/3 of immigrants register as Democrats.
At the same time, and even more alarming, is the woke brainwashing being inflicted upon our military personnel. Proselytizing leftist propaganda onto those taught to follow orders without question is reprehensible! Especially for those of us who have served in uniform, it is like seeing a loved one being abused right before your eyes. I hate seeing what is happening to the Air Force I love!
As Rush Limbaugh used to say, the purpose of the military is to kill people and break things. It should never be a laboratory for social engineering but that’s just exactly what it has become under its current leadership. It is most certainly not the duty of the military to divide the ranks by race baiting or fostering gender confusion! The goal of the military should be to fight and win wars to protect the American people and our way of life. When taking the military oath of office, we swore to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Today, some of our gravest threats are coming from within our leadership structure. The result is a demoralized military and dwindling enlistment rates that put us in a dangerous situation. To think our beloved country is bulletproof is pollyannish!
We must vigilantly pray for competent and godly leadership for our nation. We must work to see that all those we have influence with are registered to vote and do vote. However, I fear that ultimately we cannot vote our way out of this situation. We must get involved at the grassroots level to make sure the ideals of our founding fathers and the concepts of truth, justice and liberty are kept alive. I fear we are heading for perilous times ahead. With weak American leadership we have seen the invasion of Ukraine, now Israel and the threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. A weak America is a danger to the world.
As George Washington said, “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” And Ronald Reagan boiled that statement down to just three words which became the hallmark of his presidency, “Peace through strength.”
