… AND A MORE IMPORTANT NOD
This website does not participate in the hero worship of American soldiers. As we’ve noted on numerous previous occasions, the American military no longer “fights for freedom” – at home or abroad.
Instead it props up a regime that stifles liberty here at home – while pursuing an ill-fated interventionist policy overseas. And while both of those flaws are clearly the fault of the federal government’s civilian “leaders” (not the soldiers), the fact remains that at this stage of the game anyone enlisting to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces does so with the full knowledge they are aiding and abetting tyranny, not freedom.
Having said all of that – and having repeatedly criticized America’s failed occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan – we cannot help but pause for a moment to tip our cap to South Carolina’s own William Kyle Carpenter.
On November 21, 2010, Carpenter – then 21 years old – dove on top of a grenade during an attack against American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. Usually such actions result in posthumous honors, but Carpenter somehow managed to survive the blast – although he and his friend, Lance Cpl. Nicholas Eufrazio, were both severely wounded.
Still, he put his life on the line to save his friend …
For this act of bravery and self-sacrifice, Carpenter is in line to receive the Medal of Honor – America’s highest military award.
Good for him …
Whatever we think of the war Carpenter was fighting – or the broader interventionist failure with which it is associated – it’s impossible not to admire someone who deliberately resigns themselves to death in order to save their friends.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” the Gospel of John notes.
That’s a universal truth, people … and whether you’re an American in Afghanistan, a Russian invader of Crimea or an al-Qaeda fighter in a Pakistani fox hole, it applies.
Props to Carpenter for his heroism. Let’s just hope that one day soon such universally commendable valor is reapplied in service of the constitutional liberties members of the military are sworn to uphold.
73 comments
This sounds like something that a professor at Berkeley would write.
Hero is a word that is too often tossed around today.
This man, however, is the embodiment of the word.
Good article, Will and TGG agrees with every word.
One minor critique ;
ITBGHO, you should have dwelt more on William Kyle Carpenter’s heroism and less on your (correct) anti-interventionism. You’ll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
Agree with your agreement, but as my Granny used to say, “Who wants to catch flies?”
Perhaps the statement “anyone enlisting to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces does so with the full knowledge they are aiding and abetting tyranny, not freedom” is a little harsh? It reads like an anti-imperialist screed by Angela Davis or some other anti-Vietnam War lefty Democrat. Funny how times change.
He just can’t stop himself.
How about giving him the next SC lottery jackpot, or a house and a car, medical care for life, a card indemnifying him from misdemeanors like parking tickets, speeding tickets, walking his dog without a leash – etc?
Lifetime of football, baseball, and hockey games? Throw in some beer and hot women and I’d call it heaven.
After hell, they deserve heaven.
I seriously doubt that he’s interested in becoming part of the FSA (Free Shit Army), if he was he wouldn’t have enlisted and instead joined the welfare ranks.
You don’t join the free shit Army (he’s a Marine), when you sacrifice your life for your country, your country *gives* you free shit.
BTW, I won’t charge you for the free education.
Pols sending boys to die in another “for their country”:
Not Sociopaths
People trying to avoid taxes out of their “shared responsibility”/disgust for being forced to fund the boys overseas trip so he can be maimed:
Sociopaths
Sociopaths have no conscience. They should be aborted.
Free Shit Army (FSA)has nothing to do with the military. You know as in welfare, Obamaphones, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and the list goes on and on… those who get these free items are the Free Shit Army.
Please try to keep up.
I keep forgetting you’re a Mark Levin clone. My bad.
Oddly, Euwe, he and his children will get some of those things. He already has medical coverage for life, in SC his children will go to college for free (any children of purple heart winners get this). They also get into the Military Academies automatically if they meet the requirements. He gets about $1,200 from the VA for life in addition to his retirement pay from the Marine Corps. He gets free tags for his car and there are many other benefits. Those of who recognize MOH recipients (I have had the privilege of meeting several) salute them regardless of their rank and you can rest assured he’d go at least ahead of me in the line.
Will, I’m impressed that you did your research – you do not win the Medal of Honor, you receive it. Men set out to win contests, not one sets out to “win” the Medal of Honor – there’ve been about 3,400 recipients to date and more than 20% of them were killed in the endeavor. 19 men have received it twice and two pairs of father and son have earned it, the Arthur and Douglas MacArthur and Teddy and Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
As it should be.
Now, why did we have to fight for Agent Orange and PTSD? Why not free unlimited lifetime medical coverage for the non-lifer gyrenes, too?
Most of the “non-lifers” will get 5 years of free coverage through the VA.
PTSD and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury/Traumatic Brain Injury are going to be the “Agent Orange” of these wars. The reality of Agent Orange claims is that about 20-25% of the people claiming Agent Orange related issues were anywhere near it during the Vietnam war.
We’ve done a much better job documenting TBI/MTBI this time around. One of the responsibilities of my unit is that very thing. The problem with PTSD is that often the symptoms won’t show up for lengthy periods of time after the event(s). Generally a service related injury will be covered for life.
PTSD???
That’s what liquor and dope is for!!!!!
That is my excuse and I’m sticking to it!!!!!
“Sillysibin” & legal “reefer” here I come when I hit 65 and don’t have to worry about drug tests!!!!! A “Boomer’s” dream come true!!!!!!!
Seriously, “PTSD” has been around since two groups of people started killing themselves over some fucking water hole or acre of crops (let alone some worthless patch of land) and started having nightmares about it…………..
“Shell Shock”, “Battle Fatigue”, “PTSD”….
Call it what you want…..It’s all the same brand of hell……………
The reality of Agent Orange claims is that about 20-25% of the people claiming Agent Orange related issues were anywhere near it during the Vietnam war.
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If they are sick – they’re sick.
That makes about four South Carolinians I know of that are awarded a Congressional Medal on Honor for jumping onto a grenade. Burke High Grad, Marine Lance Corporal Ralph H. Johnson was the last one, during Vietnam.
29 South Carolinians have received the Medal of Honor. The SC Military Museum has an excellent display of all of them.
Once again the voice of reason and fact on military matters. Carry on Col.
I am disappointed that you would use the occasion of Marine Carpenter’s Medal of Honor ceremony as an opportunity for your “adding and abetting tyranny” complaint. There is a time and place for most things. Have you no shame?
In the case of Sic Willie, I presume that is a rhetorical question.
Someone we can actually be proud to call a Palmetto State resident, as opposed to T-Rav.
Semper Fi!
‘Aye, Sir!
The Men’s Department of the Navy.
Nice to give Carpenter the recognition he truly deserves for a selfless and heroic act performed in the context of noble service to his country. You didn’t even put quotes around military service, which was nice, too. You just couldn’t help yourself, though. Too bad you chose to ruin the moment with your weird (and getting worse by the month) obsession with the Ron Paul lifestyle. Tyranny this, tyranny that. You’ve obviously never seen real tyranny. If I ever get back into the business, maybe I could take you somewhere and show it to you up close. It still exists in plenty of places, but not here. What we have are political disputes.
Why don’t we rename the state’s Ravenel Bridge in honor of this selfless hero?
He’s a role model for all citizens whose courage should be memorialized and remembered.
Arthur Ravenel served in the Coast Guard for seven months in 1945, and spent the rest of his life serving himself and then working on memorializing his name on a bridge.
I was in Columbia when this occurred — the pressure to name the bridge for Ravenel was curiously intense. It was orchestrated by Ravenel.
Let us honor William Kyle Carpenter not with the name of an intersection, a stretch of highway, or a new road in his hometown — but with the name of the state’s largest bridge.
There is only two people willing to die for you. Jesus Christ for your soul and the American Soldier for your freedom. Get your head out of Ron Paul’s a$$ , come to attention and salute the flag. God bless America . This is a true American hero and should be respected as such.. RESTORE HONOR VOTE CONNOR.
He isn’t a soldier, he’s a Marine!
The term “American Soldier” generally refers to all servicemen and women. “Army Soldier” is specifically a Soldier in the Army. However, Marines would take offense to being referred to as “soldiers”.
I didn’t know there was a way to refer to a marine as a soldier.
That is the way it was presented to me. another better way , on second thought, would be The American fighting man. But then the women would be after me . Can’t win.
However, Marines would take offense to being referred to as “soldiers”
True in many cases, but that’s their hangup, not mine. I was a soldier once (and young…), but I didn’t give much of a shit what people called me. Soldier, paratrooper, Army dude, service member, jackass, whatever. There are badasses in each branch, but there’s no branch of the US Armed Forces (USMC included) wherein service in that branch guarantees badassness. I apologize in advance to all of my uptight jarhead amigos, but that’s just a fact of life. I even know a few badasses in the USCG, and they generally get no cred in the military world.
Lighten up Francis.
There’s a difference, you know.
Everybody knows, it’s like walking around screaming that the sky is blue… it just makes you look like an idiot.
I know, right?
I hate it when that happens.
‘you call me Francis – I’ll kill ya’
*Drags the horse’s corpse out for another beating*
Ron Paul honorably served in the USAF.
Interestingly enough, arguably the other most well known *anti-interventionist* American Soldiers (Butler, Shoup and Murtha) were all ex Marines.
TBG, I didn’t say anything about Ron Paul’s service. The anti -interventionist stand on every thing is where he and I part ways. There has to be a better way. Think before sending troops but never leave that option off the table. Please not Murtha, he turned on US like Kerry.
Please not Murtha, he turned on US like Kerry.
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Honesty is never rewarded.
Nothing like getting your hands bloody to make you understand the meaning of war.
“…the fact remains that at this stage of the game anyone enlisting to
serve in the U.S. Armed Forces does so with the full knowledge they are aiding
and abetting tyranny, not freedom.”
It was Smedly Butler’s “opinion” also.
He wrote a book “War is a Racket” and he warned about a fascist take over of the USA but I don’t know that he would agree that enlisting was aiding and abetting tyranny.
I believe that’s exactly what his opinion was. He preferred our brand of tyranny.
Well it’s obvious we have differing opinions of what his opinion was.
Did I mention I’m a medium?
This is FITSNEWS, DAMMIT.
We want demand specificity!!!
Is euwe a small medium, a medium medium, or a large medium?
*Poundz fist!*
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A diminutive fortune teller escaped prison.
The headlines read:
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wait for it…
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Small Medium at Large!
I’m medium rare.
I’m extra-medium.
Moderation in moderation, I always say.
I don’t know, you seem to me a bit of a moderate extremist, which is nothing like being extremely moderate.
If you are truly moderate, you have to be extreme sometimes and sub-moderate sometimes.
“…the fact remains that at this stage of the game anyone enlisting to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces does so with the full knowledge they are aiding and abetting tyranny, not freedom.”
General Butler figured it out.
You have.
TBG has.
The vast majority of enlistees have not.
Many enlist with the purist of motivations.
Some, like General Butler become disillusioned during their careers. Some do not.
Soldiers are needed.
Some soldiers are heroes.
Soldiers serve at the behest of politicians.
Politicians are the problem.
We should give everything to these men that our system of government can afford, who serve, whether they are inspired by Norman Rockwell or psychoses, except their opinions.
If they fight for corporations unknown, for the chance at a better life, or for the flag – they are our harbor of last resort, should we actually be attacked and need their shield… our lives may not have been saved by them in Iraq or Vietnam, but we should behave as though they were.
There should be little limit of our gratitude towards those who showed up on the battlefield – no matter whose purposes were ultimately served.
I’m of the opinion that no veteran should ever have to sleep on a park bench, or lose a tooth from lack of care – insane or not.
As my WWII veteran father was told by the VA staff person receiving his application for enrollment in the VA pharmacy program, “unless you are indigent or a retired flag officer, your application will not be approved”. And it wasn’t.
Politicians are the gate to power – they are corrupt. Evil spills through the gates, and uses the power to gain meaningless “points” in a game of “high score.”
The men and women of the United States Military protect even filthy lowlife douches like you, FITS, so you can continue to enjoy the freedom to spew your venomous lies. But they don’t give a damn what you think about them or anything else for that matter. And if you’re going to talk bad about the military, have the balls to be consistent, and not sanctimoniously and hypocritically throw a bible-versed laden sop to this brave hero. You aren’t fit to clean his toilet brush, you little weasel. I suspect you are secretly jealous of those who have served, because you were a nasty little rock band wannabe who would never have the courage to actually sign up yourself. What a loser.
Every post below this is nothing but garbage, with the exception of Mike at the Beach .
If I’m not mistaken, FITS has ranted on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for quite some time and has gone so far as to pronounce the men and women who saw action in these wars as being pawns in the game.
This Marine is a hero. A scarred hero who will get the honor he so justly deserves. I wish him and his family only the best and he will get my salute if I ever have the honor of meeting him face to face.
But is sure is strange just the other day FITS was railing on about the men and women in the armed services being patsies.
FITS’ rants remind me of the jerks (guys & girls my own age right here in South Carolina and other parts of the South) who said the same kind of shit when I was in the Army back in 1972 when Vietnam was still going on. But they did take it out on us.
Something tells me that FITS is suffering from the malady that afflicts a lot of men approaching middle age who never pulled a day in uniform.
That’s the “I would have joined but I had other things in my life at the time and now I wish i would have but now its too late and I’m disappointed in myself for not doing it when I had the chance” syndrome of dudes past the draft age in 1973.
Wish I had a dollar for every time I heard that one…………………
Again, A salute to W.K. Carpenter (rank not listed)
MSgt.”SparkleCity” – US Army/USAF (retired)
Master Sergeant? Ha! You fuckers never got me! I was a Specialist 5th class… you sumbitches! LOL!
I was stationed at Dahn Cave near Massweiler, Germany, and the Master Sergeant was like a fucking wild BOAR… he came through my van to inspect it, and I handed him a binder of things that needed attention that only money could buy… The Unit Supply Sergeant was right there by his side giving me the evil eye, I thought he was gonna grab me by the throat…
cost 70k to fix that communication van – and it all fell on the Supply Sergeant, not me! HAHAHA!
This man’s sacrifice will have true, ever lasting value if we can only learn the lesson that “was is not good for children and all other living things”. He has endured horrors and pain that no man should. My guess is that to a man, if asked, members of the military would tell us that they are fighting to carry their load and protect those fighting beside them more than fighting for or against some ideology. Yes, Kyle William Carpenter has honored that code. May we learn our lesson and stop putting our invaluable young people in harm’s way.
First time I have been here in over a year. This site seems to be a shell of what it once was. Seeing about only six hanger-oners — I really enjoyed their comments. Some of the categories are really stale. FitsNews now reminds me of a swinging night club when the lights come on at 4:00am. The mob has gone and the faithful are still clinging to the bar. Nancy Mace had more to do with this site than we all realized. She perhaps was the person behind the Green Curtain. And old Sic was merely the yapping dog in the basket on the back of the bicycle. Oh well. Thanks for the memories…
You are spot on. The work behind the scenes must be hectic without Nancy. However, Fits is raising a family and works hard to put food on the table. Give him credit. I am not going to complain. His site should be nominated for some awards. All in all, his work is well appreciated and very timely.
six hanger-oners
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Do I qualify as a hanger-oner? I’ve always wanted to *belong*… *snif*
Euwe max. With a French-Latin type name its hard to fit in here in SC. Maybe try Mad Max or sumpin’. Wanting to belong or fit in and always being a bridesmaid and never the bride is a terrible feeling. I’m glad I decided I took the Lone-wolf route. Just saying. Cheers!
Think I could get into the FBI or the NSA?
I heard they were hiring eavesdroppers in SC.
He suffers his injuries while W Bush paints his elementary paintings and lives the good life, while he should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.
Dear Will Folks,
Young men do not join the military to prop up regimes… they do it because they are young men, hankering to fight. They want to do something significant. They want to be men.
William Kyle Carpenter would not be impressed with your decision to praise him. Why? Because he’d never notice you’re alive… even if you were standing in front of him. To him you are nothing more than a milquetoast blob– a coward afraid to stand shoulder to shoulder with other men.
A hypothetical situation for you, Will Folkes: You find
yourself sitting next to an Iraq War veteran in a bar, and you hear him
talking to the bartender about the media’s coverage of the war, and how
demoralizing it was to hear the Democrats proclaiming the war to be
lost, unjust, illegal, and pointless. You hear him speak of the losses
his unit suffered, but also of the good he feels they achieved.
What do you do?
You
want to speak up, but—oops, you are no longer oh-so-bravely poised
behind your computer screen. And you’re not
surrounded by a crowd of fellow protestors, bolstered by mob bravery
and the thrill of being anti-establishment.
It’s just you, and him.
So what do you do? Do you speak up, and tell him you think his decision to join the military was a bad one? An evil one?
Of
course you don’t. He stands for something, and is willing to put pain,
mutilation, and his life on the line to defend his beliefs. You stand
for nothing but your own “feelings,” and are willing to put nothing on
the line. Perhaps you will go home and post on Fitsnews about what you
“felt like saying,” but you won’t actually say anything.
Want to know why?
Because physical violence is scary. And a weak man is always afraid of a hard man.
Sleep well tonight, Will. Actual men are keeping the wolf away from the door.