(MOGS) Disappointment

That's all I can really say on this one.  Forwarded to me by a fellow in arms we call Focker.  For those who need some background, let me just say, Blackhawk Down.  Links and commentary in italics are mine, the rest are the original article, and Brother Focker's words.

-----Original Message-----
From:

Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 4:06 PM
To:

Subject: SFC Shughart

Dudes,

I came across this the other day.  I can't tell you how disappointing this is to hear....makes me disappointed to be from PA.

You guys should all know who SFC Shughart is....i probably wouldn't be friends w/ you if you didn't....anyway, SFC Randy Shughart grew up on a dairy farm in Newville, PA (that's all there is in that part of PA) about 20 mins from H_____'s hometown of Chambersburg, PA.  I knew his brother (SFC Barry Shughart) who was an AROTC instructor at Penn State when I was an AFROTC cadet.  Barry (like his brother before he went SF) had been in one of the Ranger Battalions before he went to PSU to teach AROTC.  I think that he actually went to PSU on a hardship tour, after his brother, to help out with his family.    These high school punks need their asses kicked.

- Focker


AS IS SEE IT by Robert D. Ford
Monday, March 14, 2005

Did Sgt. First Class Randall Shughart sacrifice his life so the students at his former high school could have a new all-weather surface on thehigh school track? Apparently Big Spring Student Council thinks so. This was the most appalling remark made at the recent school board meeting that once again rejected efforts to name the new high school building in Shughart's honor.

Shughart gave his own life to save that of a fellow soldier on Oct. 3, 1993, in Mogadishu, Somalia. Along with Master Sgt. Gary Gordon, Shughart was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actionsabove and beyond the call of duty.

His story was featured in the book and movie by the same title, Black Hawk Down. It is a story that has a long and spiritual history: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13).

Shughart was a 1976 graduate of Big Spring High School in Newville. The Navy has named a ship and a class of ships in honor of Shughart, the Army War College in Carlisle has named a residence hall in his honor, and the mayor of Harrisburg has named a street in his honor.

Shughart is further honored in North Carolina at the Airborne & Special Operations Museum, in Louisiana in a military training town of 27 multistory buildings, in Colorado with a hall at Fort Carson, and in the best free enterprise tradition of America, by SOKO Toys, which has produced a G.I. Joe-like doll of Shughart.

There is one place however, where nothing is named in honor of Randall Shughart. That is his hometown of Newville, where he was raised, and in particular, Big Spring High School, his alma mater. Big Spring recently built a $30 million high school, and for several years Richard Chamberlain, a Korean War veteran, has been attempting to have the new building named in honor of Shughart.  However, the superintendent of schools and the school board members have resisted every attempt. In 2001, they stated they "could not support naming the new school building for one veteran when many graduates had served in the military."

Since the Civil War ended in 1865, only three other men from central Pennsylvania have been awarded the Medal of Honor -- one from World War II, one from Korea, and one from Vietnam. That is how rare this honor is. Four people in 140 years! THE ALUMNI OF MY college fraternity, Chi Gamma Iota, or XGI's, have been following this issue for the past year. We have met with our new student members, who are veterans of the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan, and we have decided to take action to honor
Randall Shughart regardless of what this school board does, or for that matter, thinks. There are hundreds of us in central Pennsylvania and most of us graduated from Harrisburg Area Community College or Penn State University on the G.I. Bill. We are all military veterans and now some have children of their own in Iraq and Afghanistan. We worry about our own, of course, but we also worry about everyone over there.

We know what it's like to sleep in a muddy foxhole on Christmas Eve, to eat cold C-Rations in a monsoon, to read the same letter for the 100th time, to wonder what all your classmates are doing tonight, to wonder if the ship is going to ride out the storm, to wonder if the next chopper ride will be the last, and to wonder if anyone really cares.  Our members are at a loss to explain Big Spring's callous attitude toward Randall Shughart, but we believe it is strongly influenced by the superintendent of schools, one of the many of our generation who earned a doctorate while also managing to avoid military service during the Vietnam War.

It appears someone has misled the students of Big Spring High School that naming the new building, a piece of concrete and glass, would do away with the name of the school district as well. Indeed, a petition with 498 student names was presented against honoring Shughart.  The board last week again unanimously rejected the request to name the building. Chamberlain and other veterans proposed to pay for a plaque that would be placed outside the school auditorium honoring all veterans who have served in the armed services. This was rejected by a 6-3 vote and led to the most telling aspect of this chilling attitude within the Big Spring High School.

Members of the high school's student council stated, "The veterans should focus their efforts on raising money for something the school needs, such as an all-weather surface for the high school track," And now this former Marine wished he could tell those little darlings what they really need, in addition to a history lesson. But I will instead refer them to West Perry High School.

The day after the shameful episode at Big Spring, it was announced that West Perry students have begun work on a Vietnam War monument at the school. They previously unveiled a Korean War monument in 2002, and a World War II monument in 1995. THE STUDENTS got permission from the school board and have already begun to raise the $8,000 themselves. The students also submitted their own designs, which will have a "welcome home" theme. I have never been so proud to be from Perry County. They will be hearing from Chi Gamma Iota. Sadly, Big Spring High School also has another rare distinction. It has already lost two graduates, Nicholas Morrison and Timothy Hayslett, to the war in Iraq. Within the Randall D. Shughart high school building there should be an auditorium and gym named in their honor. Perhaps they could be dedicated by another graduate, Matt Brown, who has spent the last year in Walter Reed Army Hospital.

As we used to wonder when we were overseas, does anyone really care?

- ROBERT D. FORD writes from Perry County.

Members of the high school's student council stated, "The veterans should focus their efforts on raising money for something the school needs, such as an all-weather surface for the high school track,"

A @$#%_*_ track?  A TRACK.  Apparently, these young pups, in all their infinite wisdom and wordly experience, have this whole life thing all meched out...

Heh.  I don't even know what to say.  On the one hand it just strikes me as the naive arrogance you almost have to expect from high school kids - it's almost a right of passage in and of itself, but this,  wow.  I probably shouldn't take this personally, but I wonder how SFC Shughart's family feels about being told their loved one means less to his alma mater than a resurfaced quarter mile circle of asphalt. 

Compared with the reverance at USAFA of grads 1Lt Karl Richter and Capt Lance Sijan, and for that matter MOST schools with veteran grads...

Oh hell give these little punks to me...a few hours out behind the woodshed ought to teach 'em a thing or three....if anything I'll feel better.

Comments

[Bug]

I try to "understand" kids, really I do, but this just irritates me. And don't get me started on the track...*sigh*

[canuckistani]

the school is a reflection of the superintendent's leadership. sadly there are too many idiots in positions of leadership in school districts nowadays. its why so many teachers leave the profession and nobody is interested in doing it as a career anymore.

i am glad to hear the other school is picking up the slack and I hope the vets and frat alumni throw their weight totally behind these kids.

shame on that superintendent, the board, and those students.

[Jill]

I can't help but feel amazed, and saddened by the attitude of the school superintendent, and the kids in the school themselves. And where, oh where are the parents in this whole episode? The other tax payers living in the school district? Where are the other voices that should be calling out about this?

When I was reading MOG's post, I kept thinking, "Big Spring? Near Middle Spring, and Carlisle?" So, I did the old Mapquest lookup, just to make sure, and yep, it's the same place. This is the same area where, just over 200 years ago, the talk was about Revolution, and Freedom, and war with the British. The same place where my relatives, along with so many others, put their lives on the line to enforce the freedoms that seem to be being taken for granted.

Maybe it's time for a high school field trip. Take the kids, and the superintendent, along with a history teacher familar with the local history to some of the local cemeteries, so they can see that freedom does have a price. Sometimes, a huge price. They need to see, all of them, that this fight, and this price didn't stop a couple of hundred years ago.

Heh...I'm on a real rant about this one. But I can tell you, if I found out one of my kids had signed a petition like that one, and made such selfish, disrespectful comments, we'd be having some serious extracurricular history lessons right here at home, along with an apology written and sent to Mr. Shughart's family.

"All weather surface for the high school track", my ass. Yeah, MOG's, some of us really DO care.

[MARY HAYSLETT]

MY YOUNGEST SON IS A SENIOR AT BIG SPRING HIGH SCHOOL. HE REFUSED TO SIGN THE PETITION THAT WAS SENT AROUND BY THE STUDENTS. THEIR QUESTION WAS HOW COULD HE NOT SIGN AFTER ALL SHUGART WASN'T THE ONLKY BIG SPRING STUDENT KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY. WHAT ABOUT NICK MORRISON AND YOUR OWN BROTHER TIM HAYSLETT. HIS RESPONSE WAS YOU SHOULD LEARN WHAT A MEDAL OF HONOR IS ALL ABOUT.

[Martin Fox]

I too was at Penn State when Sgt. Shugart was teaching Army ROTC. It was an honor and a previlage to be associated with he and Major J. B. Hughes.
Would it not make sense to celebrate the very freedom that his brother so very much understood, and gave his life for.
Have we lost sight of the real heros that give us the chance to live in freedom................

M. Fox

[C Dickson]

Maybe things should be the other way around? Maybe organisations, schools, colleges and institutions should have to apply to have the honour to be associated with the names of heros such as Shugart and Gordon!

These two soldiers laid down their lives for one of their own. Unfortunately, society sometimes doesn't understand what that sort of sacrifice is all about!

Selflessness in the face of certain death is a characteristic most never have to confront or do!

I'm sure many of those who voted will one day realise the imaturity of their actions.

'Let's hope one day their names may be associated with something as honourable as the name of Randall Shugart'

Chris D

[Andrew]

Thats pretty sad.. they wouldn't even name the High School after a veteran that went thre. It wouldn't even be much of a trouble. An all weather track??? your joking right. I'm sure if you asked Michael Durant he wouldn't want an all weather track.