I was on several mailing lists a lifetime ago when the call came out to help a veteran win in the Site Fights. Not knowing what the Site Fights were, I went to view them. For those that don't know, it is website competition. Sites that compete to be called the best. One of the entries, "The Meadow Years," really grabbed my attention and I voted for it daily.
When The Meadow Years reached the DMAN DOME, or the final stage, you could "cheer" the particular site on by leaving public messages and I did so. After The Meadow Years won that first championship, I entered the PoW/MIA Forum into the Site Fights. As I wound my way up toward the DMAN DOME one of the sites that I was competing against dropped out and asked that "The Meadow Years" be placed in his spot to continue.
That was when I received my first e-mail from Gunny. He had gone to my site to see what he was up against and he offered to withdraw The Meadow Years. I told him absolutely not. It was not about winning, it was about getting exposure for the issue.
Well, Gunny and I started voting for each others site. And our e-mails grew. I invited an old friend, Ted Guy, to vote and the three of us struck up an easy friendship.
Gunny was [is] passionate about the POW/MIA Issue. He started e-mailing Ted and I about starting an internet site for all to come to to "join." Then we traded phone numbers and started calling each other.
Gunny and I received many e-mails about our respective sites. Gunny put up a POW/MIA page linking to the Forum and Hawk's Hero's, which was Ted's first site.
There have been many times in my life in this issue where activists have tried starting a clearing house for all activists to come to and to trade information, but for one reason or another it did not work. So while Gunny, Ted and I were discussing starting an internet based organization, we kept coming back to "Keep it simple, stupid!"
And simple it was. Why no one thought of this before could belie the fact that Gunny may very well be a genius, but do not tell him I said that. I don't want him to get a big head or something! See, it was his idea that people "adopt" the POW/MIAs. We then took that idea to where it is now, headed by Adoption Teams no less!
The first pages went up off of Gunny's nji.com server. We had a POW bracelet which had the words, "The Cause," inscribed where the name would normally appear. I had done an intro page off of my prodigy.com server, linking to Gunny's Pages and linking to Ted's pages where I had called "The Cause" a just one. That's how I named this organization OPERATION: Just Cause.
Gunny, Ted and I were expecting maybe a thousand members within a year. Quite frankly, we were doubtful we would get a thousand. We had that in a few weeks. We were dumbfounded. It seemed like every day more and more people were joining. We were spending many, many hours at the computer answering questions.
It grew fast and we needed help, so we started asking people within Operation Just Cause what their outside expertise were. We started appointing various managers for their expertise.
Thanks to Chuck and Mary Schantag, of the POW Network, we had the means to get the biographies to those who asked for them and we negotiated with Chuck whereby he would give us the encrpyted password that would allow us to cut and paste these biographies rather than print them out and re-type them. The Schantag's also allowed our "Adoption Teams" the use of the password.
From Operation Just Cause came the Bumper Sticker campaign and the Yellow Ribbon campaign and we started being invited to talk at various functions. We appointed an executive board and it was here that I told Gunny that he would have to take the reigns of Operation: Just Cause because I, like Ted, am too caustic. My tone and my style tend to anger people; Ted is quick to tell you where to go, whereas Gunny is the diplomat. (Although there was at least one time where Ted and I kidded Gunny about his diplomacy when Gunny...well I'll save that story for another time!)
I would remain as Gunny's right hand, but more in the background to be pulled to the forefront only in time of need. Give me a specific task and I get it done. Anything, that is, but diplomacy. I am too quick on the trigger. Chalk it up to too many lies by my government.
We have met many wonderful people through Operation Just Cause and it has grown far beyond our expectations. Gunny was right, it isn't that people do not care (one of my earlier assessments); it is that people just did not know.
We have gone through growing pains; we had a disagreement on policy with some and parted ways. With others, they needed to go because of family or personal reasons and we wish them all the best. We have sustained the number of members, we continue in our quest and welcome all who share our goal. That goal is the honest resolution of thePOW/MIA issue.
I am versed on the issue; I should be. I have spent many years involved in it. I have a loved one who is missing in action, but in reality he is a prisoner until direct evidence shows me otherwise. I have spent years pouring over documents, following through on various cases--one, Commander Richard Rich which I have been involved with for about 4 years strong now--in which I have come to know his son, Chris and have watched him mature into a man and morph into a prolific POW/MIA activist. I have known Chris for approximately 7 years now. The government knew where Commander Rich's crash site was and they were not inclined to excavate it. Chris came to me for help and I went to the POW/MIA Community and to YOU. Within hours, the government received a few thosand e-mails and within days they received a larger number of requests for information. Chris has been assured that next year, 1999, they are going to excavate his dad's crash site. Take a bow folks.
Ted Guy came to all of us respective to restoring most of the provisions to the Missing Service Personnel Act and we responded--and that response is partially the reason why most of the provisions were restored!
I was investigated by the FBI for about 2 years over my receiving a document that I should not have received. It dealt with the issue and turned out to be a fake; but sometimes I wonder because of the reaction, or overreaction, by the government. I do not back down off this issue because it is our national shame. Nothing that they can throw at me will disuade me from my mission. That mission is our mission and that is the beauty of Operation: Just Cause.
Gunny has had me take more responsibility for Operation Just Cause lately because he needed time to gather up his strength. He's not ill, he just has to make sure that he delegates so that he does not get ill.
We are fortunate to have Dennis and Cheryl as our anchors; freeing both Gunny and I up so that Gunny could discuss Operation: Just Cause with the brass, and conducting PR for OJC, while I go on the offensive against people like Senior Ranking DPMO member Robert Destatte and the former Deputy Director of DIA's POW/MIA Office, Colonel Joseph Schlatter. I try my best to be a pebble in the shoe of Senator John McCain.
Gunny and I strongly disagree over McCain. Whereas Gunny feels that we should accord him respect as a member of the US Senate and a former Prisoner of War, I feel that he is a traitor who left his brothers on the field of combat after returning to the comfort of his home. I will give that respect to Ted Guy, Sam Johnson, Jed Denton and Red McDaniel to name a few, but I won't give it to McCain. McCain has done more than anyone to hurt the families and the POW/MIA Activists.
Gunny and I can disagree strongly on McCain without it getting in the way of our kinship. We are both focused individuals who go about getting things done in different ways; but we are of one mind with Operation Just Cause. I completely agree with Gunny that no Operation Just Cause member should attack McCain publicly unless they have done the research and can back up any allegation made with documentation.
We are fortunate to have Barb Malone to head up the Moonduster Chronicles. She has been an articulate spokesperson for Operation Just Cause.
There are just so many people that we are fortunate to have, but we are most fortunate to have you. Operation Just Cause is YOU. You make it, you comprise it and whether we continue to grow at the phenomenal rate that we have thus far, whatever becomes of Operation Just Cause is going to be because of you.
I see the day when we can call upon Washington as a political force to be reckoned with and then, perhaps, Washington will understand the simplicity of it all:
As parents, we all know what is expected of our children. We teach them, among other things, that when they take someone to a dance, they damn well see them home from that dance.
Our government abdicated its responsibility by not bringing them all home. It is now incumbent upon us, as the keepers of democracy, to nuture the child that is known as the United States to show that it has to reconcile this vile act.
