pre-sent... arms!
Nov. 19th, 2008 11:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
boogieshoeswe had a pretty cool 'all hands meeting' today - we had a guest speaker, a Cpt Martinson of the US Army, who is infantry. he's a pretty good speaker, very funny, and when he gets out, he'd make a great comedian.
but anyway, he was around to drive one of our new ASVs, and told a little story about one of his missions where the Textron ASV probably save his and his driver's life - they hit an IED, which knocked him and his driver unconcious. the front two tires blew, and the vehicle rolled into a ditch. he woke up before the driver, managed to grab the wheel, push on the gas, and limp a couple miles down the road to safety, where they could get out (puke on themselves), change the tires, (stagger around a bit), and head on back home. he said they didn't get any penetration from the shrapnel - one piece broke the window a little bit, but didn't come into the cabin at all. this? way cool, and exactly what DoD contractors need to here from time to time: that we're doing a good thing, and we make a difference. that we save lives.
highlights of the speech included his answer to someone asking him to explain why getting out of the killzone was important (because not all of us are ex-mil, after all):
M: (laughing a bit at the question) how many of you have kids?
US: *about half raise hands*
M: how many of you have kids who have gotten their driver's license?
US: *few hands go down*
M: how many of you have kids, who have gotten their driver's license... who probably should *not* have a driver's license?
US: *everyone who has teens to 20s keeps their hands up*
M: these are the kids I get to drive the fleet cars. i mean, my driver, he's a great guy, but he'd just gotten in an accident with his ASV three weeks before, flipped the darn thing over 4 times... and he *wanted* to drive for me... and i was very humbled, but i was also... i wasn't sure this was a good thing...
it was *funny*. he also said something about his motivations, and the motivations of his fellow soldiers, something which i hear every military buddy i've ever met say, but seems to get lost in our national game of telephone:
M: you know the news media - they talk a lot about how the soldiers want to come home. and, well, *d'uh*, you know? i mean, we're leaving our wives and kids and girlfriends at home, and who wants to be in the desert when there's a pretty girl over here? so yeah, we want to come home.
M: but every infantryman i know, we went to iraq because we thought it was a worthy cause. and we fight wars on foreign soil because we don't want to fight them at home. we proved on September 11, 2001, why we don't want to do that: because when we let the fight come to us, the fight comes to people in high-rises, who hardly know what's going outside their own cubicles, who don't know how to fight well or even how to handle that kind of fight. and we don't want that. i mean, i don't know about you, but i like my mother's house where it is, and my Mom able to sleep at night in her own bed, not having to worry about random strangers (except for the thug down the street) breaking in and killing her because she has a different opinion or different religious beliefs. so we fight foreign wars because we don't want to fight them on our own soil.
M: and if i were called to go to iraq again tomorrow, i would go. i wouldn't be happy, because i'd be leaving my family, but i would go. and i wouldn't complain and i would still feel it's a worthy cause, and i'd *want* to go fight over there, because i don't want to fight here.
Cpt M - i salute you and wish you the best. thanks for coming out and reassuring a company full of engineers that we're valued.
-bs
but anyway, he was around to drive one of our new ASVs, and told a little story about one of his missions where the Textron ASV probably save his and his driver's life - they hit an IED, which knocked him and his driver unconcious. the front two tires blew, and the vehicle rolled into a ditch. he woke up before the driver, managed to grab the wheel, push on the gas, and limp a couple miles down the road to safety, where they could get out (puke on themselves), change the tires, (stagger around a bit), and head on back home. he said they didn't get any penetration from the shrapnel - one piece broke the window a little bit, but didn't come into the cabin at all. this? way cool, and exactly what DoD contractors need to here from time to time: that we're doing a good thing, and we make a difference. that we save lives.
highlights of the speech included his answer to someone asking him to explain why getting out of the killzone was important (because not all of us are ex-mil, after all):
M: (laughing a bit at the question) how many of you have kids?
US: *about half raise hands*
M: how many of you have kids who have gotten their driver's license?
US: *few hands go down*
M: how many of you have kids, who have gotten their driver's license... who probably should *not* have a driver's license?
US: *everyone who has teens to 20s keeps their hands up*
M: these are the kids I get to drive the fleet cars. i mean, my driver, he's a great guy, but he'd just gotten in an accident with his ASV three weeks before, flipped the darn thing over 4 times... and he *wanted* to drive for me... and i was very humbled, but i was also... i wasn't sure this was a good thing...
it was *funny*. he also said something about his motivations, and the motivations of his fellow soldiers, something which i hear every military buddy i've ever met say, but seems to get lost in our national game of telephone:
M: you know the news media - they talk a lot about how the soldiers want to come home. and, well, *d'uh*, you know? i mean, we're leaving our wives and kids and girlfriends at home, and who wants to be in the desert when there's a pretty girl over here? so yeah, we want to come home.
M: but every infantryman i know, we went to iraq because we thought it was a worthy cause. and we fight wars on foreign soil because we don't want to fight them at home. we proved on September 11, 2001, why we don't want to do that: because when we let the fight come to us, the fight comes to people in high-rises, who hardly know what's going outside their own cubicles, who don't know how to fight well or even how to handle that kind of fight. and we don't want that. i mean, i don't know about you, but i like my mother's house where it is, and my Mom able to sleep at night in her own bed, not having to worry about random strangers (except for the thug down the street) breaking in and killing her because she has a different opinion or different religious beliefs. so we fight foreign wars because we don't want to fight them on our own soil.
M: and if i were called to go to iraq again tomorrow, i would go. i wouldn't be happy, because i'd be leaving my family, but i would go. and i wouldn't complain and i would still feel it's a worthy cause, and i'd *want* to go fight over there, because i don't want to fight here.
Cpt M - i salute you and wish you the best. thanks for coming out and reassuring a company full of engineers that we're valued.
-bs
