Ok folks, here it is, my moment in history. I'm packing my bag, checking it twice, going to DAPL to document who is naughty and nice. For those who don't know, in North Dakota the Native Tribal people's, and those supporting their PEACEFUL AND NON-VIOLENT PROTEST, known in the word of the day vernacular as "the Water Protectors", are being completely objectified, assaulted, conned, beaten, battered, bruised and STRONG AS EVER!!!
There has recently been a call to arms, so to speak, [however not actually bringing arms] (let's call it a CALLING) to United States Veterans to stand with protesters at the site of the Dakota Access Pipe-Line and the banks of the Missouri River. Mounting over months have been protests, first by the tribespeople themselves, followed by journalists and activists and now a call was sent out to all Americans who "Took the Oath". That Oath ladies and gentleman is the one where we raised our right(eous) hands, and said the words (and I am paraphrasing) "I swear to uphold the Constitiution of the United States of America...'and protect this country and its people' from all enemies foreign and domestic."
When I joined the US Marines in 2001 I was 19 years old. I didn't know what I wanted to become, I had no direction, no discipline, was walking the wrong path, had just broken up with the first love of my life and my parents were getting on my nerves. But it was the events of 9/11/2001 that made me go to the recruiter on 9/12/2001 and tell the recruiter SSgt. Scharff that I wanted to be one of the few, the proud, the Marines. It was after the previous day that I felt in my gut, in that indescribable place in your mind where emotions and actions collide, that this was a sign from God, that I was to defend my country like so many other veterans of World Wars before me.
I took the ASVAB, got a 99 and my recruiter threw the book of MOS's at me and said "God-damn ironman genius over here gets to pick whatever fucking job he wants." He called me iron man because duty my time before boot camp I was the most physically fit recruit capable of doing a sub 18 minute 3-mile run, >20 pull-ups and over 100 crunches in a minute. I had just flunked out of college, a full scholarship, where I ran Cross Country and as a freshman, set the school record, brought us to our first invitational win, took home the MVP and acquired some very nice running gear in the process. Going to class however was not something I did. Stupid 18 year old me.
But I enlisted, I chose to become an Aircrewman, a Flight Navigator for a fixed wing plane, the KC-130 "Hercules". So to boot camp I went and boot camp I graduated. Marine Combat Training, completed. Aircrew Candidates Course, only Marine in my class of 18 to pass and I was on hold waiting to class up for SERE. Skip more than a little while and I began to not feel right about the wars we had involved ourselves in and "due to the needs of the Marine Corps" my job as Flight Navigator turned into Crew Chief/Door Gunner for the CH-53E "Super Stallion" heavy helicopter, the largest in all the military. I saw videos and watched as the feeling in my gut got worse at how hellfire could rain down upon humans without being able to ID a single one. I decided at that point that I could not continue and made myself get kicked out, busted down rank, stripped of everything but my mentality.
Yeah I was a brainwashed 21 year old who got himself into more excrement than he could handle, and I use the third person because I am no longer brain washed, just, well, slightly brain-buffed. But I had no regrets nor did the other Marines who were also college dropouts... who didn't think the mission was right and decided to object, with our hearts and minds as well as our bodies, the fresh made killing machines that they were. "The pilots were Saudis right? Why are we going to Afghanistan and Iraq?" It did not add up.
But that is the preface. The point is I swore an oath to protect this country from ALL enemies both foreign and domestic. Over time I grew to believe the enemies were right here in our midst. They were KBR. The Bush family. Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice. Colt firearms. Shit, I thought New Balance stock was soaring with all these Marine factories running, at full throttle. The military industrial complex. I read and watched things that galvanized my anti-war mentality but it couldn't take away my title as United States Marine. The oath I took years before had new meaning then and it does so now.
The Water-Protectors plight is one of Americas unique situations where by force, coercion and lies, people were cheated out of their homes, their livelihoods, their heritage. I watched as TYT, The Young Turks, blasted mainstream media for not covering this after fooling the public that Hillary 2016 was a 98.6% success. The temperature of our blood. The blood that pumped faster and faster, harder and harder, day after day as I went from hearing journalist in the field, Jordan Chariton, speaking to an elder woman as I cried a few feet from my shiny new 4K TV. Following it daily through YouTube and TYT not understanding how a company can break a treaty the tribe made with the USA Corporation a long time ago, as if it was their land to bestow upon the Native American aboriginal tribespeople, then being faced with a wall of police in riot gear. RIOT GEAR for peaceful humans who sang and asked their almighty to help them to not win but to stay strong. Then it happened.
I began to witness through the television what everyone feared; a Police State in action. County and local lawmen who I thought must have taken the same oath I had assaulting the Tribespeople. The Water Protectors. It started out with a spark and before I knew it I watched horrified that MRAP's and sound cannons were there, water fund spraying the peaceful protestors, pepper spray that I could taste, kindling for those now ancient memories of my Marines training. I started out hopeful with Obama appearing to tell the corporation to stop building and ended up on GoFundMe asking how the hell can I help?
I am a former Marine, I took that oath, that blood oath that I would die to protect the people of America. I am in New York, what the hell can I do? My mind raced day after day with thoughts of how can I help. "My family needs me here to bring in money to support my two kids and Nurse wife who graduated Nursing School alongside me". "I can't do anything, I have no power." Then Wes Clark Jr. and Michael Wood Jr. asked any and all veterans to stand up and beside the Water Protectors and I knew I had to try my best to get there. I am trying to get there now. Preparing for the known unknowns. Hopeful yet pessimistic. Yeah you read that right. I am pessimistic because I genuinely believe the corporations own us and the USA is the slave traders. I have zero faith in my government. But as I have told my wife a hundred, no, must be way more than 100 times, that "we would never have a Police State because every Marine would get a weapon, organize or not, but certainly destroy the National Guard or even the Army or DHS.
I believe in every conspiracy because like the fifth amendment if you do it once you have to do it everytime. 9/11, inside job, controlled demolition. Boston Bombing, coincidentally when Snowden became a household name. Newtown, Why don't we know a single name of a single family member who lost someone by name because they thrust themselves into the media regularly? Obvious attempt to add 2nd amendment restrictions. Gun prices went up. I wonder how many millions people made from that just-before-Christmas mass shooting by a person whose family no news network can seem to interview. Complete fluke. Kennedy, gold standard. Lincoln...gold standard, World Banks. Illuminati. #pizzagate. Everything because I have not one ounce of trust in our government.
But the Anti-DAPL protest may be a moment in history that I know I would regret not attending, participating in, documenting as a member of the PRESS, giving strength to others who need it. If you go to their GoFundMe page and scroll down you will see my comments. You will know who I am. But as Edward Snowden told me the government already knows everything and will continue to do so. As Chelsea Manning taught me that I can quote from Edmund Burke "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Thank you Mr. Snowden (veteran). Thank you Miss Manning (veteran). Thank you Mr., Mrs., and Miss Veteran, whoever you are, doing good, I hope to meet you at the bank of the river holding humanity hand-in-hand for possibly the last time before we truly have no power. Stay tuned in.