One of the most intriguing sets of photos was a slide carousel taken by my dad, Gerald Sisco, when he was stationed in Vietnam in 1969 as an army signal corps officer. I know he was stationed at Cam Ranh Bay; I also know he spent time at one or more forward locations. Beyond that, I don’t know much about these images that are a part of my family (and military) history.

Click on the image below to go to the complete Flickr photoset – the image quality is a little uneven as some of the slides were faded, color-distorted and scratched.

I find it intriguing that these aerial images could potentially be the type of materials that the military would not want made available to opposing forces. In 1969, there was no Internet and with reasonable precautions these photos would not fall into the wrong hands. Today, such amateur photography is the type of data that triggered the 2005 DOD crackdown on military blogging & online social networking.

This photo, taken in the late 1950s, is of Women’s Army Corps (WAC) soldiers presenting the colors. The US flag bearer is my mother, Sgt Marilynn Barham.

Today, I’d like to express to her, to my dad, my military family and friends, as well as the countless men and women across the nation who have served in our armed forces…

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Maggie feels especially MINI next to the aircraft carriers.

We pulled up next to the CV-62, the USS Independence, decommissioned in 1998, and got out and wandered around in the rain. This place is a photographer’s dream, or at least it would be in the sun. The huge bins of parts, the giant ships, and the juxtaposition of Puget Sound blue, rainforest green and battleship gray is pretty striking.

The USS Independence, slowly being stripped down.

It makes me think – if a mountain of metal could tell stories, what tales she could spin! The thousands of men who have lived aboard her, the journeys she’s seen, the battles, the heartache, the victories… the ghosts who walk her halls must be restless and agitated to see her dismantled around them.

It makes me once again thankful for the men and women who’ve dedicated their lives to serving, living aboard this giant floating city for months at a time while she charts her way from port to port.

The fishes that swim — the rocks — the motion of the waves –
The ships, with men in them
What stranger miracles are there?
     ~ Walt Whitman, “Miracles”

This particular national guardsman won the lottery in February – a million dollar scratch ticket. He works full time as a banker in his home town, and while he’s not retiring and living off his interest any time soon, he could certainly be living more luxuriously than in a tent in Iraq.

Apparently, he has a heck of a lot more character than that. Thank you, Sgt Lede, and to all the men and women in your unit who are leaving family and the comforts of home behind to serve our country.

If you happen to be in California and anywhere near a branch of the aforementioned savings and loan, you might want to drop by and mention this story to them. I’m sure they’re proud of themselves. [/sarcasm]

While you’re on Jim’s blog, stay and read some other stuff too – Jim’s a good writer AND has great photoshop skills, too.

This is the 5th anniversary of the war in Iraq. To commemorate the occasion Tuesday night, a group of vandals defaced a WWII veterans’ memorial statue in downtown Anchorage by dumping red paint on it.

While the citizens of the US have every right to free expression of their opinion about war – and in fact our soldiers fight to protect such freedoms – that liberty doesn’t extend to the damage or destruction of property.

Ironically, the inscription on this memorial reads “To those Alaska veterans whose eyes have seen what the protected will never know.”

Maybe the paint-happy hooligans need to go spend some time on the front lines defending their ‘freedom of speech’.

The Battle of Attu in May of 1943, was by all accounts bloody and gruesome. The Anchorage Daily News reports:

On May 29, 1943, Col. Yasuyo Yamasaki led a desperate middle-of-the-night attack on the Americans at Engineer Hill. [Survivor Bill] Jones lay with multiple wounds in a medical tent while Japanese soldiers shot, bayonetted and even burned alive nearly everyone around him. The only reason he survived, he says, is that a body at the door of his tent gave the impression all were dead inside.

When the banzai attack failed, and Yamasaki lay dead, some 500 men, what was left of nearly 3,000 Japanese invaders, bowed to the bushido code of “death before dishonor:” They held hand grenades to their chests and pulled the pins.

In in 1987, with the approval of the US Department of the Interior, the Japanese government placed a World War II memorial there to fallen troops. It’s one of many the Japanese placed at major battle sites around the Pacific theater. (Photo by Kurt Fredrickson of the USCG)

The memorial’s inscription reads:

In memory of all those who sacrificed their lives in the islands and seas of the North Pacific during World War II and in dedication to world peace.

While the memorial is ostensibly there to honor the dead from both sides of the conflict, many American soldiers feel the Japanese monument on American soil is a betrayal of what they fought for and want it removed.

The controversy over this war memorial remains low-key, as the island of Attu is so remote that the monument is very rarely seen. Attu is uninhabited except for a tiny Coast Guard Loran station.

The debate over the memorial received some national exposure when Los Angeles filmmaker Tom Putnam released his 2006 documentary, “Red White Black & Blue,” documenting this little-known battle. The monument is pictured at in the film, as well as details on Jones’ efforts to have it removed, generating some publicity and support for his cause.

Survivors of the battle are also upset by the lack of any substantial American monument on the island. Jones and a few other veterans personally commissioned a bronze plaque, which was mounted on a granite block near the Coast Guard airstrip. The inscription, written by him, reads:

This plaque is inscribed and placed here by those who fought by our side or served in the defense of this island during World War II to honor the boys — men who prematurely gave their lives during the Battle of Attu and in remembrance of the mothers, fathers, wives, children, and sweethearts whose lives were forever changed due to their loss.

Should the US permit this monument on American soil, site of Japanese occupation and a gruesome and brutal battle? I’m not a military veteran, so my perspective isn’t as keenly focused as that of a soldier.

For what my opinion is worth, I think a monument to peace – and solely to peace – might be appropriate, no matter which government commissioned it. A monument to the war dead placed by our attackers is a mockery and a travesty. It should not have been permitted, and should be removed.