ARLINGTON, Va., July 29 /Standard Newswire/—Today, Command Sergeant Major Craig Layton, USA (Ret.)—who served as the Command Sergeant Major at Landstuhl—issued the following statement on Barack Obama’s canceled visit to Ramstein and Landstuhl:
“Having spent two years as the Command Sergeant Major at Landstuhl Hospital, I am always grateful for the attention that facility receives from members of Congress. There is no more important work done by the United States Army than to care for those who have been wounded in the service of our country. While Americans troops remain engaged in two hot wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is a steady stream of casualties to the hospital, and a steady stream of visitors who wish to meet with those troops and thank them for their service.
“Senator Obama has explained his decision to cancel a scheduled visit there by blaming the military, which would not allow one of his political advisers to join him in a tour of the facility. Why Senator Obama felt he needed an adviser with him to visit U.S. troops is unclear, but if Senator Obama isn’t comfortable meeting wounded American troops without his entourage, perhaps he does not have the experience necessary to serve as commander in chief.”
Command Sergeant Major Craig Layton, USA (Ret.) was the Command Sergeant Major (senior enlisted soldier) at Landstuhl from 2003-2005 and has 31 years of active duty service. He was also the Task Force CSM twice in Kosovo while assigned in Germany from 1999-2005. He also served at the Brooke Army Medical Center and the Great Plains Regional Medical Command from 2005-2007.
As I send this email we are shelling the crap out of the enemy, thought you might like to know that. By the time you read this there will be a significantly less amount of Taliban left on the face of the Earth.
The guys that are calling in the fires are the ones who received the last batch of packages that you sent, they're eating ramen noodles and nature valley bars with one hand and dropping mortar rounds with the other.
He sent us all into a panic when he was barely two, leaving the house on his own and walking over to the tennis courts at the local high school.
He could disappear in a store in a flash, leaving me at first angry, then frantic when I could not find him, and no amount of reasoning or threats could dissuade him from this practice. He felt safe and completely at ease and could not understand my anxiety.
I never cured him of this habit; the only thing that changed was that it was not as bad to lose a 10-year-old as a two-year-old.
He was smart, very smart, and I often felt he knew more than the rest of us, and along with his strong will, he was also brave.
Just a few months after he entered West Point, the future of the United States was violently changed by the events of September 11, 2001. Matt was not intimidated by the thought of what this meant.
He graduated from West Point in May 2005, near the top of his class, with a major in Chinese and economics. He joined the infantry, and after graduation became a ranger, and was assigned to the 173rd Airborne in Vicenza, Italy, a choice post.
A Tough Encounter With Policy Survivors
By Patrick J. Sloyan
For President Bill Clinton, the results of his policy decisions in Somalia came into sharp focus during a Sunday-morning visit to soldiers wounded in Mogadishu.
Reporters were barred from Walter Reed Army Medical Center during the Oct. 24 session when an uneasy Clinton met with some of the 77 Americans wounded during an Oct. 3 battle that marked the end of a covert operation to seize Gen. Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
Hospital officials who accompanied Clinton said the young commander-in-chief was shocked by the encounter.
One soldier had lost his left hand, right leg, sight and hearing. Another had had his hand grafted to his stomach so a shattered arm could heal. Bullets, shrapnel and fire had maimed a young private. A sergeant had his leg in a steel birdcage after the first of a series of bone grafts.
"Clinton was visibly moved," said one hospital official. "He didn't know what to say. The men could see that."
Some were pleasant and respectful. "Clinton is a nice guy," said PFC Alberto Rodriguez, 20, of Naranjito, P.R. He had been riddled with bullets and shrapnel.
Others were cool, even hostile. Sgt. John Burns, 26, of Philadelphia, whose leg was shattered, balked at an offer to have his picture taken with the president. "I don't want to end up in some political propaganda picture - you know, 'President Visits Wounded Soldier,' " Burns said while Clinton was in his room.
The White House refused to make public photographs or television footage of that meeting or a later Oval Office meeting with the wounded. Clinton and top administration officials responsible for Somalia have yet to be publicly shown with the survivors of the fiercest firefight in terms of American casualties since Vietnam.
Some administration officials say withholding the pictures is part of a damage-limitation strategy devised by David Gergen, Clinton's adviser.
"They [White House officials] hope people will forget about Somalia," said a Pentagon official who objected to a plan. He favored giving the wounded the sort of White House South Lawn ceremony held in June when Clinton praised and personally decorated Marines who were first sent to Somalia by President George Bush last Dec. 6.
While Gergen refused to comment, another White House official said Clinton wanted to avoid the appearance of exploiting the Somalia veterans.
But the president's visit to the hospital was prompted by a call from an angry Walter Reed physician. According to hospital sources, the doctor called the White House. "He said these men have been here for three weeks, and no one had paid any attention to them," said a source informed of the exchange. "The White House called back and said, 'The president will be there tomorrow morning.' "
Dear Hero,
The year of Paula and Jerry Lee's 70th birthdays was recently celebrated in Oakland, MD, at the log cabin home of their daughter, Jennifer, and her husband, Bob.
Each family unit was asked to bring fleece fabric to make Blankets of Hope for our recovering heroes. Together, we worked through the final steps of their assembly.
We are sending you a blanket to show our support as you recover.
Thank you for all you do to protect our freedom.
