Well, I have a few folks over to dinner and come in this morning to find a passel of mail in the box on this subject. Here's my take and my approach.

When speaking in general terms, i.e. "I heard gunfire all night, I know those boys are getting ready to whup somebody", I see nothing wrong with that. We've been getting ready to whup somebody for a long time. The US military has extensive live fire training, probably more extensive live fire training than any other military in the world. The sound of freedom is a comforting one to me and worthy of passing mention.

However, mention of specific units and troop movements isn't wise. While I doubt that the enemy is reading every post in this forum, modern search engines do allow them to maybe make a timely discovery or two. That could get friends of ours hurt. That is, people we know, children, fathers, mothers, nieces, nephews, cousins, god-children, former comrades-in-arms, etc.

Yesterday, one poster mentioned common, general firearms training noises on a well known training base without mentioning the base. All well and good. But, then a another poster mentioned a specific unit. Not so good. Then another topic was opened to discuss the issue. I'm not so sure that was good either as it brings attention to the topic.

So, in the interest of quickly and simply dealing with this, without stomping on anyone's toes or pointing fingers I've deleted the topics and will delete any further posts or topics on the subject where personal attacks are made or specific/identifiable units are mentioned. Patriotic comments, prayer requests, questions about military service, etc. will not be deleted. If somebody errs and slips in a word or two that somehow violates this "rule" I'll simply edit the post.

I'd like to thank every one of the many people who brought these posts to my attention. This IS the first thing I saw when I checked my mail this morning and IS the first thing I addressed.



Sincerely,

Hobie