After fourteen years of fighting, over 58,000 dead and 500,000 more wounded, our
nation was finally able to extract itself from the quagmire of Viet Nam. America had "Lost" it's first war. Lost the war not because of
lack of military might or courage among our forces , but because of micromanagement by politicians and the effective tieing of our
military leaders hands in favor of political ends. H. Norman Schwarzkopf fought along side us there, he bled and suffered with the
rest of us, and in the end suffered the same humiliating sense of loss and defeat that all VietNam veterans suffered when Saigon
finally fell. The greatest majority of us hung up our uniforms and decided that the system was irreperably broken and we bowed our
heads dreading another incurrsion by our forces anywhere in the world. Lest the nightmare be repeated again.
Not so "Stormin Norman" as the press and some comrades have refered to him as. He decided that the system had to change.
He and other senior Viet Nam Veteran officers pledged "Never again on our Watch" and they proceeded to do the impossible.
Foster Change.
The winds of war blew again, this time out of the Middle East. This cadre of battle tried senior officers and
Vietnam veterans were at the helm of a fighting force much the same and yet entirely different than the one from those steaming jungles
so many years ago. What had changed the most was the attitude of our leaders. The war was to be planned, borne out and executed
by professional soldiers, not medling politicians. When the button was pushed it would be an all out war. To WIN.
General Schwarzkopfs
tactical and professional skills not only won the war, but won the hearts of every Vietnam Veteran. We collectivly sighed a breath of relief.
He had taught them well, there would be: "No More Viet Nam's, thanks to the "BEAR".
"Our friends could now 'Rest in Peace'".
Colin L. Powell
"The Architect of Victory"
"Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff". This is undoubtedly, the most difficult job in
our country in time of war or not. A job that was shouldered and performed with precision, compassion and a steady hand by this
Viet Nam Veteran during the build up and execution of the Gulf War. Colin Powell was at the head of that Cadre of senior Viet Nam
Veteran officers that pledged to "Do it right, or not at all". Playing the muscle for the professional soldiers in our military ranks that
brought the message to, and through to, our countrys political leaders that freedom is not free. That only the complete and utterly
unrestrained military engagement has any chance of suceeding. He also emphasized that there must be a goal in sight to reach,
and that goal was simply victory over ones foe.
The tightrope between responsibility to the Commander in Chief and the responsibility
to his men was a precarious walk, to which he rose to the ocassion and delivered us the most dramatic military victory in our nations
history.
