October 3, 2001
Thank you for the opportunity to address this rally today.
It is not often that a fighter pilot is asked to be the
keynote speaker. There is a rumor that they are unable to
put two sentences together coherently. I'd like to dispel
that rumor today by saying that I can do that, and in fact
that I have written several books. I always wanted to be
an author, and I ARE one now.
I'm a pretty lucky person really. I'm like the little boy
who tells his father: "Daddy, when I grow up I want to be
a jet pilot." And his father replies, "Sorry son, you can't do
both". I made that choice a long time ago and flew the
jets. I was fortunate to live my dream, and then some. I
survived something I shouldn't have, and today, tell people
that I am 28 years old, as it has been that long since I
was released from the hospital. It was like I received a
second life, and in the past 28 years, I have gotten to see
and do much, so much that I would not have thought
possible. Returning to fly jets in the Air Force, flying
the SR-71 on spy missions, spending a year with the Blue
Angels, running my own photo studio.. and so much more.
And now, seeing our country attacked in such a heinous way.
Some of you here today have heard me speak before, and know
that I enjoy sharing my aviation slide show. I have
brought no slides to show you, as I feel compelled today,
to address different issues concerning this very difficult
time in our nation's history.
I stand before you today, not as some famous person, or war
hero. I am far from that. You know, they say a good
landing is one you can walk away from, and a really great
one is when you can use the airplane again. Well, I did
neither...and I speak to you to today as simply a fellow
American citizen.
Like you, I was horrified at the events of September 11th.
But I was not totally surprised that such a thing could
happen, or that there were people in the world who would
perpetrate such deeds, willingly, against us. Having sat
through many classified briefings while in the Air Force, I
was all too l aware of the threat, and I can assure you, it
has always been there in one form or another. And those of
you who have served in the defense of this nation, know all
too well the response that is needed. In every fighter
squadron I was in, there was a saying that we knew to be
true, that said, when there was a true enemy, you negotiate
with that enemy with your knee in his chest and your knife
at his throat.
Many people are unfamiliar with this way of thinking, and
shrink from its ramifications. War is such a messy
business, and there are many who want no part of it, but
rush to bask in the security blanket of its victory.
I spent an entire military career fighting Communism, and
was very proud to do so. We won that war, we beat one of
the worst scourges to humankind the world has known. But
it took a great effort, over many years of sustained
vigilance and much sacrifice by so many whose names you
will never know. And perhaps our nation, so weary from so
long a cold war, relaxed too much and felt the world was a
safer place with the demise of the Soviet Union. We
indulged ourselves in our own lives, and gave little
thought to the threats to our national security.
You know, normally my talks are laced with numerous jokes
as I share my stories, but I have very few jokes to tell
this afternoon. These murdering fanatics came into our
land, lived amongst our people, flew on our planes, crashed
them into our buildings, and killed thousands of our
citizens. And nowhere along their gruesome path were they
questioned or stopped. The joke is on us. We allowed this
country to become soft.
We shouldn't really be too surprised that this could
happen. Did we really think that we could keep electing
officials who put self above nation and this would make us
stronger? Did we really think that a strong economy
adequately replaced a strong intelligence community? Did
we imagine that a President who practically gave away the
store on his watch, was insuring national security? While
our country was mired in the wasted excess of a White House
sex scandal, the drums of war beat loudly in foreign lands,
and we were deaf. Our response was to give the man two
terms in office, and even then barely half the American
public exercised their right to vote. We have only
ourselves to blame. Our elected officials are merely a
reflection of our own values and what we deem important.
Did we not realize that America had become a laughing stock
around the world? We had lost credibility, even amongst
our allies. To our enemies we had no resolve. We made a
lot of money, watched a lot of TV, and understood little
about what was happening beyond our shores. We were,
simply, an easy target.
But we are a country awakened now. We have been attacked
in our homeland. We have now felt the reality of what an
unstable and dangerous world it truly is. And still, in
the face of this unprecedented carnage in our most
prominent city, there are those who choose to take this
opportunity to protest, and even burn the flag.
If I were the regents or alumni of certain large
universities in this county, I would be embarrassed to be
producing students of such ignorance and naive notions.
Like mindless sheep, they march with painted faces and
trite sayings on signs, blissfully ignorant of the world
they live in, and the system that protects them, hoping
maybe to make the evening news. Perhaps if they had spent
more time in class they would have learned that those who
forget the past are condemned to repeat it. They might
have learned that all it takes for evil to succeed in the
world, is for good people to stand by and do nothing. If
they had simply gone back in history as recently as the
Viet Nam War, they would have learned that an enemy that
knows it can never defeat us militarily, will persist as
long as there is dissension and disruption in our land.
Their ignorance can be understood, as their young empty
minds have been filled with the rewritten history tripe
that tenured leftist professors can spew out with no fear
of removal. But the unwitting aid they provide the enemy,
in disrupting the national resolve, is unforgivable.
I think this is wonderful country, though, that gives
everyone their voice of dissension. I am all for people
expressing their views publicly because it makes it much
easier for us to identify the truly foolish, and to know
who cannot be counted on in times of crisis. These are the
weak and cowardly who, when the enemy is crashing through
the front door, will cower in the back room, counting on
better men than themselves to make and keep them free.
Well, the enemy is at our front door, and isn't it
interesting that those who cry loudest and most often for
their rights, are usually those least willing to defend it.
I heard a student on TV the other day say that this war
just wasn't in his plans and he would simply head to Canada
if a draft occurred. Just wasn't in his plans. I wonder
what plans the young men at the beaches of Normandy had
that they never got to live. I wonder if it was in the
plans of 19-year-old boys in Viet Nam to lie dying in a
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