Comments on: KSK Book Klub: Where Men Win Glory

By: Calabashe

Calabashe — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:57:08 +0000

Pat was/is a friend. Krakauer does start off with a number of verbal knob-jobs that out do Ann Coulter’s manly man stuff. It was so think that it invoked the laugh – a head thrown back deep-throated roar gift from Pat. The biography of it all is from the widow’s point of view, incomplete and therefore inaccurate. IMHO, a portrait no better that the yarn DoD tried to spin.

The “friends” quoted were more hers than his. For example, there’s nothing from Jake Plummer except the eulogy. Pat was pretty tight with his former teammate. Too much like that is missing. I was interviewed but admit I had nothing super significant to offer. Pat was always more a Dude’s Dude than a former bad-boy “whipped” by the only girl he ever dated, as reported thru Krakauer. After reading an early draft of the book, the family decided not to participate, preferring to endorse Mom Mary’s “Boots on the Ground Before Dusk” instead. Krakauer’s skills do provide a better visual of the “event” than does Mary’s account.

What I love most about Pat is his honesty and integrity followed closely by his sense of adventure complete with a streak of mischief, non-malicious of course. There is no doubt that Pat was a patriot, feeling obligated to give back what our country, our system allowed him to achieve, aka rising NFL stardom, although fame and fortune were never a part of Pat’s motivation. He was an extraordinary ordinary guy who kept us smiling and wanting to know more about the world around us. I miss the late night esoteric conversations on existential matters like history, religion and politics. I feel blessed when allowed a dream in which we have a run together or some other sorted adventure.

BTW – Kevin is now married and intending to live privately ever after somewhere in Bay Area, California. After his military obligation, Kevin kicked in Europe, away from the glare, for about a year and then wrote a brilliant piece for “Truthdig” honoring Pat’s Birthday in 2006. It was reprinted, with permission, on my tribute page to Pat.

http://www.myspace.com/calabashe

By: Daves

Daves — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:39:53 +0000

I couldn’t get past the first 50 pages. I guess I cannot stand the hero hype and adoration Krakauer and many many others bestow upon manly men, you know, the square jaw Adonis with, can you believe it, humility,too? Hoorah for our side and I thank you for your service. I personally don’t need another gas station, strip mall, 12 mpg Navigator, decaying paved street, called American progress, that is best served and protected by Heros with balls, thank you. I can’t even get to work 10 miles away safely on anything weighing less than 4000 lbs. Oh, and at work I get to help patch up the day’s 15th traffic accident victim (without insurance) in a small US city, at only one of the several trauma centers. Buy GASOLINE America and don’t worry we’ll let MEN WITH BALLS go duke it out with them in the Middle and not so middle East.
Awwww, the military you signed up with won’t play fair? And war, a firefight ain’t like the movies and the football field. And folks over there are Fucking TOUGH in a way our 35% obese USA citizen is never going to be? And why are we there? Oh, yeah, I know why. Excuse me I need jump into my SUV to get a gallon of cheap beer and some cheese doodles (six blocks from my house) for the guys coming over to watch a football game on my big screen in my air conditioned house with overstuffed sofas for our fat asses.
Where exactly is this war and why is it being fought in Afghanistan?

By: John

John — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:31:37 +0000

Thanks for the great review. I was watching a terrific special the other day on the final combat deaths of WW1. It was unique since almost the entire front knew that at 11:00 AM on 11/NOV the fighting would be over. They chronicled the poor bastards that were killed just minutes before the armistice. What amazed me was that there were 10,000+ causalties and almost 3,000 KIA that morning alone and that General John Pershing was solely responsible for sending American’s to their deaths by ordering his commanders to continue attacking until 11:00. The Army has been led by over zealous career minded assholes for a long time and apparently nothing has changed.

By: soldier

soldier — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:43:07 +0000

FF happens, it’s war. Tillman’s death was covered up because he was famous, not because it was FF. The only thing worth dying for is what you believe. Tillman believed.

By: JerBear50

JerBear50 — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:18:01 +0000

New visitor, and I don’t usually like to post until I’ve been around awhile. However, I wanted to say how amazed I am that an anonymous comment board has managed to stay civil and intelligent despite conflicting viewpoints. That is absolutely commendable, especially compared to most of the mindless bullshit that gets tossed around the internet.
As far as the debate over spreading democracy, I’d like to make one point. While it is a noble cause, we need to also look at the actions we’ve historically taken against legitimate democracies when they elect someone not to our liking. If we’re going to champion the cause of freedom, then we have to be willing to truly grant it whether we like the results or not.

By: PeteJ

PeteJ — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:47:49 +0000

@Mike D,

Where were most of the 9/11 hijackers from? What’s the unemployment rate amongst under-30 males in Saudi Arabia?

The answers to the two questions are most definitely related. “Proud and happy” might be a bit of a stretch.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:41:31 +0000

@ryan26, I just read desean’s post and was about to explode in a string of profanity toward an idiot who clearly has no clue about the Army or any other military, when I saw you said it better.

Yes, there’s petty bureaucracy, and yes, we could improve, but we’re head and shoulders above any other Army in the world.

By: Clayton Bigsby

Clayton Bigsby — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:06:57 +0000

@Rocco: I would be inclined to agree with you if such a use of our intelligence community ever had a snowball’s chance in Hell of being authorized for something like that. Unfortunately, it was decided long ago that “good guys don’t need spies” & that we must abide by certain rules even when enemy combatants do not even consider doing so. Once upon a time, our government was able to protect it’s citizenry with impunity, but now we have an overbearing media- with 24-hour news coverage- that is constantly craving the next scandal. I’m not saying that the old way was right or wrong (there should be a happy medium in there somewhere)… just that the type of operation that you mention would never be allowed to occur in the current climate.

By: Rocco

Rocco — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:28:26 +0000

@Tim: Ideally, I’d prefer that we were able to prevent or defend any attacks. That not being the case, or very practical, I think our “punch” back was misguided and poorly executed. Where have we gotten in 8 years? I’d rather see an effective use of the intelligence community and assasinations of terrorist leaders.

By: MaxMadden

MaxMadden — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:49:41 +0000

I’m usually too bust laughing at Drew’s stuff to realize how good of a writer he actually is. Dude can write. Excellent post.