Gunfighter: A Modern Warrior's Life

Book Review: Pursuit of Honor

I recently finished reading Vince Flynn's latest novel, Pursuit of Honor, and I would like to tell you a little bit about it. 

Flynn's main character, Mitchell Rapp, is a CIA counter-terrorist operative who spends his time covertly doing violent and bloody things that most people can't imagine themselves doing.  What I mean by that is the Rapp finds out where terrorists are and he kills them.  Sometimes he kills them after using "enhanced techniques" to interrogate them... which is to say he sometimes tortures them.  If you are waiting for me to get weepy about that, keep waiting. 

 

Anyway, in this novel, which picks up immediately after the end of the last, is about finding the terrorists that got away in the last book, so that Rapp can do what he normally does, but there is a fly in the ointment (isn't there always?).

 

In this story, Rapp's fellow operative, Mike Nash, is starting to burn out, and his family life is suffering along with him as he wrestles, morally, with the things that his job requires him to do, and living the secret life that he does.  These feelings are not only affecting NAsh's marriage, but also his ability to think clearly in the field.

 

I won't give any spoilers as to how Rapp and Nash go about dealing with the terrorists who are still at large America, other than to say that you'll like that part of the story if suspense, action, skulduggery, and cloak & dagger adventure are your thing.  Nor will I give anything away as to how Rapp is able to help Mike NAsh find a solution to his personal woes, but he does both with great effect.

 

Vince Flynn writes a good story most of the time, and he has done a fair job here, but as a reader, I would warn him that he should probably leave off with his political tirades masked as soliloquies by Mitch Rapp.  Truthfully, Mr Flynn, it gets tiresome... so give it a rest, because you are beginning to sound like something of a crackpot. 

The Va. Governor's Race: I Knew We Would Lose.

Much is being said in the press over the clean sweep made by GOP candidates for Virginia's top three elective offices.  Talking heads from many sides of the political spectrum are making noises about the portentous nature of this election, as if it were some weather gague for the 2010 mid-term congressional election.

I have to say that although I was unsurprised about the outcome of the races in Virginia, I don't think that the GOP sweep here means as much to the Democratic Party on a national basis as much is it should spell disaster for the party here in the Commonwealth.  Sure, Bob McDonnell is something of a tool, but compared to a dope like Creigh Deeds, he seems downright rational and acceptable.  Never mind McDonnell's theories on working women... Creigh Deeds lost the election.  He lost it fair and square.  He lost it because the Democratic Party in Virginia can't see past the end of it's nose.

Creigh Deeds shouldn't have been our nominee.  No way.  No how.  He was the wrong man for the job.  Worse yet, he tried to win without convincing the folks in Prince William, Arlington, Fairfax, & Loudon counties, and the Cities of Fairfax, and Alexandria that we should have voted for him.

It's bad enough that Deeds was the nominee, its worse that Brian Moran the man who SHOULD have been our nominee was neutralized by Terry McAuliffe, the Clintonite carpetbagger, who thought that he could waltz in and win because Virginia had gone "blue" in the last Presidential race.  This is the same Terry McAuliffe who, with Clinton complicity, torpedoed the Presidential campaign of Howard Dean, who SHOULD have been the Democratic nominee for President in 2004... leaving us with that sad sack, John Kerry.

Despite all of this, I still wanted Deeds to win, and I voted for the entire Democratic ticket... which did have one bright spot on it, Luke Torian, who is the pastor of a local Baptist church, won the 52nd District seat in the Virginia house of Delegates. 

Deeds could have won if he had run a better campaign here in northern Virginia.  Deeds could have one if he had stuck to at least one theme.  Deeds could have one if he could present one simple idea of what he wanted to do.  Deeds could have won if any of his positions were more coherent.

Deeds was unprepared, and was totally fighting out of his weight.

Damn.

NOTE TO THE VIRGINA DEMOCRATIC PARTY:  Pull your heads out of your asses and do better next time.

The New York Yankees - World Champions

I don't suppose there is anything else to say.

Well, I could say:  "Welcome back to Yankee nation!", but that might seem like gloating.

I suppose I could also say, with all respects to "The Scooter":  Holy Cow! 

What would really be rude would be if I said "suckit" Sox fans!   So I won't, but I'd like to! 

Congratulations, Yankees!  You have made this boy from northern New Jersey who grew up on Yankee baseball, very happy.

Inspiration from Facebook

A friend of mine who is also a fellow parishioner at our church, posted something on Facebook today that was so fitting and so right, I decided that I wanted to post it myself.  I won't credit her by name, because I am not sure she would appreciate it.  Anyway, this lady said that she...

"thinks that people that throw cigarette butts out the window are tools.  That's right.  Tools."

Man, talk about brevity!  Talk about getting right to the heart of the matter!  She hit the ball completely out of the park with this short statement.  I am in complete agreement with her, of course... people who throw cigarette butts out of their car windows are some of the biggest polluters around.

Go ahead, fill your lungs with that crap... I'm not going to lecture you about it.  Go on, knock yourself out, but do you have to pollute the streets while you are polluting your lungs?

What a bunch of tools.

 

Thanks, M!

Camouflage Barbie

It is hard toimpossible to live where I live and not see and extraordinary number of military personnel.  Living in such close proximity to the Pentagon, Marine Corps Base Quantico, and Fort Belvoir (among many others), you can't help but see folks of all of the armed forces, all of the time.

Seeing as many military people as I do, and being a veteran myself,  it is easy to spot the differences in military dress uniforms or service uniforms at a glance.  The military branches being so different one from the other, you didn't have to think twice about the guy in the white uniform,... he was clearly in the Navy.  The woman in blue was either Air Force or Coast Guard (and you only needed an extra half-second to figure out which it was).  The Marines and the army, despite the fact that they both wear green, are as different as night and day (the army uses a different shade of green than The Corps), the army wearing light green shirts, The Corps' shirts being khaki.  Simple, right?  Well, maybe not so much.

In the early 1980's, most of our armed forces began to adopt camouflage uniforms for use in the field, or in combat.  The army started the ball rolling, with the Marine Corps right alongside... then followed the Navy, and God help us, the Air Force.

In an effort to keep costs down, the services were all using the same "woodland" pattern material... indeed, all of the services we wearing the same camouflage  uniform, the only distinction being the insignia.  Well, times have changed a bit.

In the early part of the Iraq war (I refuse to call it Operation Iraqi Freedom, because Iraq isn't free, it just has new masters), the Marine Corps adopted a new camouflage pattern.  It is a sort of digital print that is very similar to the then-new Canadian armed forces pattern (called Cadpat), the Marine Corps, not to be outdone, calls their pattern (Marpat).  The United States Army, trying to keep up with the Marine Corps, got rid of the old woodland pattern, and the "chocolate chip" pattern desert uniform, as well as the more recent desert pattern, and came up with their own pattern called "ACU" (Army combat uniform).

OK, you know something?  I get the whole "let's have a uniform distinctive to our own service" thing.  I do.  Having different uniforms certainly goes a long way to establishing military identity... being a veteran with the best looking uniforms AND best combat record has taught me that, but I digress.

Where was I?

Oh, right.  Distinctive uniforms.  Anyway, the US Air Force, not wanting to be left behind(not a reference to that Tim LaHaye crap), decided the it, too, needed a distinctive camouflage pattern. So, what they did was....  What?  What did you say?  Did you say "Why in the world does that Air Force need a camouflage uniform?"  Is that what you said?  Well, fair enough... you know that I like to answer questions when my readers have them.  I'll take a whack at it, ok?

Some (albeit very few) members of the Air Force have very good reasons to wear camouflage.  For instance, Combat Air Control teams, and Tactical Air Controllers have every reason in the world to wear such uniforms, as they usually operate with army units and spend their time directing forward air strikes and managing air traffic around the battlefield.  These men operate wherever the fighting is.  They need whatever protection camouflage can provide.  Make sense?, good, here are two more great examples:  Air Force Para-rescue operators (also known as PJ's):  These men are combat rescue operators.  They are inserted by helicopter, sometimes by parachute, often in enemy territory to recuse downed aircrew.  it is a hard but honorable job.  Camouflage is also needed by Air Force Security Forces:  These men and women protect air bases.  Most importantly, they protect forward-deployed airbases that are still subject to ground attack, they too need the extra protection (not as much, maybe, but there you are).

OK, so the Air Force has some reasons that some of it's personnel should wear camouflage, but this is where it gets sticky and brings me to the point of this post:  Most people in the Air Force have no bloody reason to wear camouflage uniforms.  I mean, really, I have a neighbor, a lovely young woman, who is a budget analyst for the air national guard, and every time I see her in her freshly starched camouflage uniform (with desert-tan boots) I want to scream.  Not that she isn't impeccably turned out (she is), but this is a person who, through her whole career hasn't held a gun, much less gone anywhere near anyone who has fired a shot in anger.

I'm not writing this to rag on my neighbor, but do you have any idea how much it costs you and me to pay for this knee-jerk reaction to what appears to be a shift in military fashion?

There are even MATERNITY camouflage uniforms for the army and air force.  Now, I ask you:  What kind of sense does that make?, because try as I might, I can't come up with a good answer.

Suburban Haiku

Parents shout "Great try!"

Refs make many crappy calls

I'm a soccer dad

My Vacation: "Official Music"

You know how it goes, right?  A song gets in your head, and the next thing you know, it represents a place or a time that will always be identified with just that tune.  What do you mean that doesn't happen to you?  You people are strange... it happens to me all the time.

I'll give you an example:  Every summer, before we go on vacation, some particular song winds up becoming our official" vacation song.  In years past it has been "I'm Gonna Be" by The Proclaimers, in 2008, it was the song "What Time Is It?" from the soundtrack of High School Musical 2 (go ahead, make a wiseass remark), and this year it was "Waking Up In Vegas", by Katy Perry... you know who she is, right?  I think that she is the chick who kissed a girl and liked it.

Well, all of these songs are still on my iPod, and they immediately remind me of driving around certain places in either Orlando, Florida, or St. Simons Island, Georgia (or places in-between).

I wonder what it will be next year?

A Blast From The Advertising Past

So... there I was, strolling along with Mrs Gunfighter, at the local WalMart, while we killed time during soccer girl's Girl Scout meeting.  We were talking about something that had to do with  the outreach ministry at the church, or something like that, when I said that we needed an interesting pitch, like the jingle for the "Charlie" perfume commercial from the early 1970's.  You remember it don't you?... well some of you more *ahem* mature folks will remember it, anyway... right? 

Well, being someone who was practically raised by a television set, commercial jingles are sort of my thing, and I immediately started singing... and I even remembered the words correctly.  Hmm.  I really don't think that I gave Bobby Short a run for his now-deceased money, but I gave it a go.  I decided, right there, on-the-spot, that I needed to blog about this.  So here it is... all the way back from around 1975 or something like that:  Charlie!

A Charmed Life

I'm going to tell you a secret:  Up to this point, I have led a charmed life.  I mean, seriously charmed

Despite my rather dodgy upbringing, hovering on the edges of poverty, I landed on my feet, in a pretty good place in life.  You see, I was supposed to be one of those disadvantaged kids that the news always talks about.  I was supposed to wind up in the prison system or dead at an early age.

I left home in 1981, at age 17, and despite the volatility of the times (always wondering about war with Iran or in El Salvador... the disatstrous mission in Beirut, Grenada, the invasion of Panama, the raiding of Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf), I left the Marine Corps after eight years of service through the 1980's without a scratch.  During my military service, I excelled.  I learned things, got strong, and had great times.

When I came out of the service, I had a job waiting for me.  It was a job that I enjoyed, and still sometimes miss.  I was exposed to many things while I had that job.  I got to travel to some cool places, I saw and met Kings, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Cabinet Members, Senators, news personalites, Astronauts, and the odd Hollywood celebrity, and many other people who are quite famous.  I wouldn't trade that experience for the world.  The best part about that first post-military job, was that it was where I met Mrs. Gunfighter.

I have worked for a few different government agencies, now, and I can tell you that all of them heve been rewarding on many levels, and I feel very strongly, that I have made a real, tangible, lasting contribution to my country because of what I have done and continue to do.

In my lifetime, I have married disastrously, recovered, and married spectacularly well.  Despite my promise to myslef that I would never marry a second time, I found someone that loves me for who and what I am (which is to say, someone who doesn't mind my manifold quirks and oddities). 

I am the father of two wonderful children who are healthy, smart, athletic, accomplished, and gifted with good judgement.  Both of my girls will have better educations than me (one is already in college), and will have opportunities that I didn't have.

Despite my lack of formal education (I am well-read.  I consider myself self-educated), my skills have led me to a career in which I am well-compensated...  compensated well-enough that we are able to take nice vacations, and buy (almost) as many books as we want.

So here I am, living the dream...  I don't know what I have done to deserve my rather happy life.  Maybe I haven't done it yet.  I don't know what's in the plan for me.  I do know that I have been blessed beyond measure with all of the things that I have, and I am heartily grateful for all of it.

Book Review - True Blue

Several weeks ago, the fine folks at Hachette Books were kind enough to ask me if I wanted to review an advanced copy of David Baldacci's new police mystery, entitled "True Blue".  Despite the fact that I almost never read police stories (never mind what I do for a living), I decided to give it a go.  Since today is the official release date for the book, there is no better time than now for a review.

OK, let's get to it, shall we?  I enjoyed this book.  I did... and that surprised me.  I fully expected a lot of crappy and archaic terms that someone got of a badly-made police movie from the 1950's... but that isn't what happened.  Baldacci seems to have really done his homework especially as it regards the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department.  This simple fact helped me enjoy the book more that I would have thought, because I have so many pals on the Department (special shout out to my protege M, in 1D). 

In this story, Baldacci tells the tale of Mason "Mace" Perry, a hot shot former police officer who was set-up, convicted of a crime that she did not commit, and imprisoned.  Her sister, Elizabeth, is Washington DC's Chief of Police (hello Cathy Lanier!), a true leader in this ever politicized town.  When Mace is finally released from prison, she figures that the only way she can get back on the force is to bring to justice, all of the people who set her up, thereby restoring her honor (and her eligibility to wear the blue again).  She'll have a long way to go, because as soon as she get's out people start getting murdered.

Despite her sister's repeated warnings, Mace sets out to investigate one of the murders on her own, and then she meets Ace Georgetwon lawyer Roy Kingman.  Combining forces, Mace and Roy begin to... well, I think that I will let you find out the rest on your own, but believe me when I twell you, this is where the wild ride begins! 

In this book you will find murders, police procedure, lawyers (good and bad), spies, government deception, crime in the name of  "National Security" (and haven't we had enough of that?!), corruption, and all sorts of action.

If you live in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, I think that you will enjoy the book, even though Baldacci could have been a little more descriptive of the specific locations he used to tell his story, but truthfully, I don't think that any of this impinges on the story itself.

If you like police mysteries, you'll like this book.  Give it a read, I don't think that you'll be unhappy.  As I said, today is the official relase date for the book, so it is available at local bookstores and online.

GF

Please Note:  While Hachette Books provided a copy of the book, I have not been compensated in any other way.