My Fellow Americans,

Since this is an auspicious occasion for me, I thought I’d share a few of my thoughts with you, my fellow AR15 members.

I consider myself to be an extraordinarily fortunate person for being born in America.  I could have been born in any of many third world rat holes on our planet…or even worse, I could have been born [b]French[/b]!  As I get older, I am reflecting more on my life and the wonderful opportunities that my great nation has provided me.

[b]I AM so damn lucky to be an American.[/b]

To celebrate my feelings, I thought I’d jot down a few of my ideas about what makes us the greatest nation on this planet.  Shameless patriotism?  YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT!  Right now…all of you liberal one-world UN loving social and moral relativists hit the road!  You are NOT going to like what I have to say.  [b]Bye![/b]

What makes America so great that guys like me have to beat their chests and crow about it?  Well…let’s take a few minutes to consider the following:  (In no special order…just whatever popped into my head.)

All of the Gold Star Mothers in the history of our country.

The Marshall Plan

Lexington & Concord

Ernest Hemingway

American Patriots at Breed’s (Bunker) Hill

The authors of the Federalist Papers:  Hamilton, Madison, Jay

The Constitution & The Bill of Rights

The Manhattan Project and The Bomb…Yup…The Bomb.

The Declaration of Independence

The Greatest Generation

John Paul Jones

Our Founding Fathers

The Battle of The Cowpens

Clara Barton

America in WW II:  The Arsenal of Democracy & Savior of the Free World.

Abe Lincoln

Frederick Douglass

Robert E. Lee

Chateau Thierry & Belleau Wood

Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier

William Tecumseh Sherman (He made Georgia and South Carolina HOWL and HATED reporters.  (Gee…he can’t be all bad then!))

General/Professor/Governor of Maine Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, CMH

American Doctors who travel to third world rat holes to heal sick and hurt kids

Ulysses S. Grant

Bud Abbot and Lou Costello (Who’s On First?)

The Mighty Eighth Air Force and my father, Tech Sergeant Vincent Wilde, DFC.

The American Farmers who feed the entire damn world!

The Battle of the Bulge & Easy Co. 506th PIR, 101st AB Div.

The Battle of Little Big Horn

Biker Lance Armstrong

Guadalcanal Congressional Medal of Honor Awardees: Sergeant John Basilone USMC, Capt. John Smith USMC, LtCol Merritt (Red Mike) Edson USMC, Capt. Joe Foss USMC, General Archer A. Vandegrift USMC, et al.

Satchel Paige

The 52 American WW II subs that are still officially “on patrol”.

Dr. Jonas Salk and his cure for Polio.  For you young’uns, that was a REAL plague until the mid-50’s.

The officers and men of Navy Task Force 67 who gave their lives during the wild night battles of November 13-15, 1942 in Iron Bottom Sound in the Solomons.  Thousands of sailors died protecting the Marines ashore by preventing the Jap battleships from shelling Henderson Field.

Vietnam Vets & The Ia Drang, Hue, Khe Sahn & a thousand smaller skirmishes that put names on The Wall.

Casey Stengel & Yogi Berra.  Nobody ever beat up the language better.

The Battling Bastards of Bataan

All Americans who open their wallets and pocket books and donate heavily to whoever needs it most overseas.

American aircraft pioneers, designers and manufacturers like Jack Northrop (Flying Wing…and eventually the B-2), Donald Douglas (DC-3…et al), Ed Heinemann (Douglas chief engr.; SBD/A-4 Skyhawk/A-3 Skywarrior), Charles Lindberg, Alexander Kartvelli (P-47), “Dutch” Kindelberger and the North American Aviation team (P-51 & F-86), Grumman Team (Wildcat, Hellcat, Bearcat, Tomcat, Lunar Lander aka LEM), the Boeing Team (B-17/B-29/B-52)

[b]The Alamo[/b]

Korean War Vets, The Chosin & Chesty Puller

Van Cliburn

Tarawa

USS Constitution

Aaron Copeland & “Fanfare For The Common Man”

Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong:  “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”  Then, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”  .

Rosie The Riveter

The Beach Boys

All the soldiers on both sides in the Civil War.  America is a stronger nation for enduring the “War of Northern Aggression”…[;D]…and it’s proper outcome.

1980 Winter Games-Miracle on Ice: USA 4, USSR 3.

[b]FDNY & NYPD[/b]

Theodore Roosevelt, CMH.  The Big Ditch, San Juan Hill, The Great White Fleet
Tiger Woods

D-Day & the Citizen Soldiers of the 29th Infantry Division at Omaha Beach

Mark Twain

FLT 93:  [b] Let’s Roll![/b]

Tora Bora

Air Jordan

Haiti, Kosovo, Congo, Nicaragua, Dominica, Panama, Lebanon, Grenada, Somalia and a hundred other rat-holes where our troops have been sent to pacify, heal, feed, and die.

Elvis

Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and the rest of the 1927 Yankees.

First Lady Abigail Adams

Harry Truman and the Truman Doctrine

Mt Suribachi; “Uncommon valor was a common virtue”.

Ansel Adams

The Apollo Program

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Bill Gates and all the rest of the dot-com geniuses who drive us batty with their blue screens of death.

The Boys of Summer (MLB in the ‘40s and ‘50s…especially Dem Bums)

RADM David Glasgow Farragut & The Battle of Mobile Bay (“Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead!)

American Jazz

Black Hawk Down Delta Operators SGT Randy Shugart (CMH, Posthumously) & SGT Gary Gordon (CMH, Posthumously).

Military Chaplains

Sandy Koufax  (Sweetest curve ball I never saw!)

The Boston Pops playing “The Stars & Stripes Forever” on July 4th.

Mary Lou Retton

My great-great-grandfather, the Yankee major who married a southern belle from Virginia after the end of the “Recent Unpleasantness”.  (Gee…wonder how THEY met? [;D]

My great-grandfather the general who fought in Cuba in 1898, in the Philippine Insurrection in 1901-03, and WW I.  One tough-as-nails little dude.

Helen Keller

American Blues

Winning the Cold War, then welcoming the Russkies as our pals

John Phillip Sousa!

The Skunk Works (Aurora anyone?)

Ronald Reagan and the Reagan Doctrine

John Steinbeck

My grandchildren-those beautiful little ones whose future is our legacy.

Every one of the “special” operators, soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and support troops engaged in this war, wherever they may be right now, for taking the fight to the enemy and protecting our Constitution and our lives.  [B]THANK YOU![/B]

Friday nights on the HS football field.  The sweet ecstasy of victory and the wrenching agony of bitter defeat.  Lessons for a lifetime.

President George W. Bush

Faith Hill (I just HAD to!)

America is great because of its people.  WE THE PEOPLE are what makes America better than any other place on earth to call home.  From Seattle dot-com’rs to Florida hoteliers…from Hawaiian surfers to Maine lobstermen, all across the broad spectrum of folks that make up our great union, we ALL…TOGETHER…(E PLURIBUS UNUM) make up the greatest nation-state ever conceived by man.  You…[b]YOU[/b] are all are part of this great country.  YOU all share with me and mine the fantastic privilege of being able to call yourselves [B]AMERICANS[/B]

Thank you all.

Very well said [b]LWilde[/b]!

I particularly like the aircraft engineers and I'd throw Kelly Johnson in that list too.

I agree with nearly every item you listed...




except...



WTF!?!?

Two POS socialists??

FDR (along with LBJ) is wholly responsible for  creating the bloated and all oppressive Socialist Welfare-State we now have that is choking American society.

Steinbeck was an unabashed communist sympathizer .

WTF is so admirable about anything THOSE two communists did that we should feel proud of?

[b]A MOST fine list !![/b]


Those 52 subs from WWII that remain on eternal patrol; they and their brethren put about 55% of Jap shipping to the bottoms of several seas.  At no time did the U.S. Submarine Service comprise more than about 2% of the Navy.

[b]Proud to have even inadequately followed such men ??  You bet.[/b]

Three cheers!!!

[beer][beer][beer]

A most excellent post...let me add...
The crew of the Challenger
and another addition...beginning with "Houston, we have a problem" and then showing the world how we face adversity.




sorry...on the other side of the fence Mac you forgot to grease him for Abe Lincoln.

Agreed.  My goal was to show the entire fabric of America, regardless of my personal feelings.  Like them or not, each had a significant impact on our country, and I think that much of their effect was good...again..."For The Times".  I loathe Steinbeck's politics...but I love his prose.   [8D]

Agreed...except for the Lincoln thing...not sure about your meaning.

I neglected to include Challenger.  My first draft broke out Apollos 1/8/11/13 but I just shortened it to one item for all...but included those famous words.  I forgot to include the Apollo 13 words that were in my first try.

Sorry...

Lwilde...I started not to write the Lincoln thing at all and looking at your reasons for adding all of these things you are entirely correct Lincoln did change the country in a profound way......my personal beef with him is the states-rights issue and the restoration.I am constantly amazed-when I get my head out of a book about crossing the universe in days-that astronauts sit in explosive tin-cans and do their jobs--SALUTE

WE do!!!

Everyone here and everyone who loves this country makes it great.

Hmmm... Uhh, okay... I guess in an odd sort of way... I suppose... that's one way of looking at it... I guess...

Very fine list anyway! Bravo!

I think I might add:

[b]Rosie the Riveter[/b] - in recognition of all those women who worked so hard during WWII.  And went home after the war.  (I know this would be covered by the Greatest Generation but still.......)
[b]Capitalism[/b] that allows us to out produce most everyone.

Rosie The Riveter is there...between Apollo 11 and The Beach Boys.

"isms" are doctrines, economic or political systems,  or maybe a set of principles or dogma.  I certainly think capitalism is the way to go...but I didn't see it standing on its own merit.  Rather is is US that makes the system work.

Thanks!

What makes America so great? One word:

[b][blue][size=6]FREEDOM![/size=6][/blue][/b]

Bought and paid for by the blood, sweat, and tears of THOUSANDS of men who are far better than I.

[usa]

Let me summarize (in the words of Br.Ted Nugent)

GOD GUTS AND GUNS!

Lets not forget in WWII, the Redball Express, and the Tuscegee Airman (SP), as well as the leadership to do whats necessary.

And even though those dipshit liberals say the dumbest socialistic bullshit, many of here are willing to die to allow them to keep that right, as well as all the others granted by our maker.

TXLEWIS

What makes America great? We all do. Every American who works hard to provide a better life for his family makes this country great. From California, Alaska, and Hawaii to Florida, Virginia, and Maine. From the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to the janitors and fast-food servers. Thanks to our freedom, nearly every American who is willing to work can improve himself and his country. Where nearly all Americans are still brave enough to stand up and right wrongs (even if some don't have a very good idea of what's wrong).

How about the 54th Massachusetts?

Alvin York... and a 1903 Springfield.

Douglas MacArthur, he may have had flaws but he was one hell of an American.

[b]JOHN WAYNE.[/b]

General MacAuliffe of the 101st, "Nuts."

82nd All American, 101st Screaming Eagles.

USMC "Semper Fidelis"

All those men who fought honorably in Vietnam, and fought one hell of a war.

God bless America.

Every single one of these new inputs are great!  Thanks.

None of this would be possible if not for Old Blood and Guts himself...General George S. Patton Jr.

I like this thought too.

what makes america great is that i can browse  on this weboard and the goverment doesnt care.

in addtion to the other things already posted

They let me in!
"Give me your tired, your hungry, your slightly worn Canadians..."
Seriously, greatest country in the world.
The Bill of Rights.

Yes...it really [b]IS[/b] the greatest.  You don't realize it until you've traveled the world.  During my 28 years in the Navy, I saw one or two foreign countries...and with each, I realized more and more how lucky I was to live in America!  The ones that were pretty nice were trying to emulate us too!  Think for a sec...diseases, human rights, food, places to live, body pests, more diseases, civil rights, utilities.  We take these for granted...but just having electricity is a luxury in some third world rat-holes.  Infant mortality...education...fun and recreation.  Hell, I could go on all day.

America=#1.

How about-

Baseball

Ice Cream

MRE's (Yes I know some of you hate them, but where would we be without them?)

Hershy's Chocolate

Small-Pox Vaccine

Invention of Flight (The Airplane)

Industrial Revolution

[b]The Transistor[/b]

Internal Combustion

ARPANet

Supersonic Flight/Chuck Yeager

Those heroes of Apollo 1

Fat Man and Little Boy

and don't forget the invention of the first interstellar league of Golf! (Hey Sputnik, stick that in your bong and smoke it!)

Those were just a few I felt were important.