Happy birthday United States Army! The Army is officially 235 years old today, having been founded on this day in 1775. Today is also Flag Day, which means that it is important to recognize the flag of our great nation and all that. MAJ Moulton mentioned in his speech that the flag initially meant nothing, or that it did not represent anything by itself, but it has come to represent freedom, liberty, justice and all of that. I would tend to agree. He also mentioned that our flag is flown over more than 230 different countries around the world today, which is pretty remarkable when you think about it. Granted, many of those flags simply fly over embassies and/or consulates in countries that many people couldn’t even find on a map, but there are also the flags that are with our troops all over the world, like the handful of flags that are flying over our compound, not to mention those at other bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have always thought that the flag was a bit special, but it ultimately is no more important than any other flag from any other country around the world. It means more to me than, say, the flag of Germany, but for no other reason than it is because I am from America. And for those that say I am sworn to defend the flag, I am not; I am sworn to “defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States from enemies, foreign and domestic.” While the flag is part of America, it is not what makes America the greatest country in the world.
As we reach Day 200 of this mobilization, I regret that I have not kept up better with this journal/blog/book, whatever it ultimately ends up becoming. I have a lot of themes and other ideas for things that could be written about during this deployment, but at the same time, the dynamics of this deployment have not been nearly as interesting as I thought they would be going into it, especially after COL Follansbee left. Things have really just been status quo for much of the past 45 days or so, doing the same thing day in, day out. There are small insignificant stories that could be mentioned, but they are small and insignificant for a reason. In a way, I guess it is ultimately a good thing that nothing serious enough has happened to write about while we have been here for the past five months or so. Hopefully it will stay that way for the next five months.
Robert Writes About... 