Comments on: There is no such thing as an “Army of One”

By: Shadow

Shadow — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:21:20 +0000

Maj Henry John Salice (Hank) is no longer amongst the living. He died in a hospice about 3 years ago.

By: mumsyp/tricia

mumsyp/tricia — Sun, 31 May 2009 00:56:51 +0000

You are and ALWAYS have been my HERO….I COMMEND YOU FOR THE MAN YOU ARE AND THIS AMAZING ARTICLE….LUV YA

By: McLaren

McLaren — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:03:07 +0000

…and thanks for your service, Cold Warrior.

By: joe buzz

joe buzz — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:58:12 +0000

Finally a dating site taylor made for Brad…enjoy bro…you can thank me later:
http://www.conjugalharmony.com/

By: Cold Warrior

Cold Warrior — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:24:11 +0000

Brad & R.D.,
Thank you for all you did in Grenada. And Brad, thanks for the thought-provoking post. I was doing some “plain clothes” ops in the early 1980s and gathered together quite a bit of info on the island that I hope helped save some American lives when you all jumped in. I left active duty in August of 1983 and was in my first year of law school in the fall of 1983; most of my old unit went to the island to interrogate the Cubans and the NJM folks and PRA soldiers — alas, I missed it all. I volunteered to come back to active duty for it but was told they had plenty of bodies.
Thanks again to both of you for your service.

By: R.D. Walker

R.D. Walker — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:14:24 +0000

Have you ever wondered about the mottled background behind the blog title in the header? It is a detail from a photo I took of a wall in Grenada. It is the wall against which one group of communists was executed by another group of communists in a perfect recreation of the Napoleon vs. Snowball drama in Orwell’s Animal Farm.

As is always the case, a leftist Revolution resulted in murder; this time by machine gun fire to the backs of their comrades. It was the event that led to the Grenada Invasion.

I put it in the header for the same reason we chose “The Real Revo” as the name of the blog. Leftist revolutionaries in Grenada thought they had a Revo, but it was just one more rocket ride to hell. I thought that wall was a metaphor for all that the Real Revo overcomes.

If you look at the image in the root URL here, you can see the faint outlines of the letters PRA. They were still visible when I took the photo in 2002. The PRA was the “People’s Revolutionary Army.” It was PRA soldiers who slaughtered their comrades against that wall in 1983. At that time the letters were still bright and easy to read. The letters were part of this ironic sentence: “Towards a Greater Discipline in the PRA.” It was the last thing the revolutionaries saw as they were shredded by fire from machine guns manned by their fellow revolutionaries.

By: joe buzz

joe buzz — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:57:05 +0000

Very nice piece MB. It is obvious that you have thought long and hard about these issues. I appreciate your service to and continued concern for our Country.

By: R.D. Walker

R.D. Walker — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:46:49 +0000

Cold Warrior: MadBrad was the author of this post but, like Brad I was a Grenada Raider. I don’t recall the name you mention but in those days I was a lowly E-3. The only officers I knew were in my chain of command and I was in the 82nd Airborne.

By: MadBrad

MadBrad — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:41:59 +0000

Incendium X, you know the deal. Pass it on. We need to let each other know that we are not alone.

I’m the skinny little kid with glasses sitting on the left side of the photo, just left to the leftmost flag.

By: R.D. Walker

R.D. Walker — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:41:14 +0000

Brad is below the left flag at about the 7:00 position. His is the face looking at the camera closest to the left edge of the photo.

By: MadBrad

MadBrad — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:39:49 +0000

Cold Warrior, thank you for your comments. I do not remember a “Salice”, but my last name sounds a lot like it. Thank you for your service. We need each other today just as badly as when we wore the uniform.

By: MadBrad

MadBrad — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:37:46 +0000

McLaren, you’re correct. That VC was one of several who murdered innocent women and children. He got what he had coming, but that Police Chief lost his country primarily because of the industry that Eddie Adams was a part of.

Not much has changed since 1968, just the faces and names.

By: McLaren

McLaren — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:11:28 +0000

Brad, I saw an interview with Eddie Adams about that photo. He said he always felt bad because the officer who shot that VC slime was ruined after that. He said what the photo doesn’t show is what led to that point. The VC slime was captured after he had slaughtered several families who were unarmed and posed no threat to their combat forces.

By: Cold Warrior

Cold Warrior — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:10:19 +0000

R.D.,
Did you happen to run into a CPT or MAJ Hank Salice with the Ranger BN during the operations there? He was my boss for a year at Ft. Sill.
Thanks, and a great post.

By: IncendiumX

IncendiumX — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:16:38 +0000

Which one is Mad?

By: IncendiumX

IncendiumX — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:15:19 +0000

Amen. Just like McLaren i needed that too. I hope that which we fear is nothing more than a shadow – but reason tells me otherwise. I fear for the future that is being crafted for my children, and I would gladly die to make that future a better one if thats what it takes… Band together brothers, we’ll need each other in the days to come.

By: MadBrad

MadBrad — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:58:29 +0000

Thanks RD. That photo was taken on the afternoon of November 3rd 1983 by Eddie Adams, a famous combat photographer. He came to national recognition in 1968 when he photographed Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner during the Tet Offensive.

By: R.D. Walker

R.D. Walker — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:51:18 +0000

That is a “common sense” declaration worthy of Thomas Paine. Nicely done.

For those of you wondering about the photo at the top of this post… The photo is of a group of infantry paratroopers in an assembly area after completing combat operations against a murderous Marxist/Leninist junta and their Cuban supporters. At the time the photo was taken, combat operations were ongoing but the leaders of the junta were on the run and American citizens had been moved to safety. These men had seen combat and were taking a well deserved rest.

The photo was published in Time Magazine. It was taken on the Point Salines peninsula in Grenada in 1983. MadBrad can be clearly seen in the photo.