So we had escorts guarding the Orient Queen. Normally we keep these escorts at a distance and they're unseen by the civil master of these vessels. They're not generally used to having large American steel that close abeam them. So we keep them out of sight just over the horizon, but still close enough to provide adequate coverage in case the vessel were to be attacked. At any rate, evening was setting, a light fog had rolled in; visibility was not that great. And in the setting rays of the sun that was going down, the USS Gonzalez steamed out of the mist, close abeam the Orient Queen. And the last rays of the sun flashed upon the stars and bars flying proudly in the breeze. Every American onboard that Orient Queen broke into
spontaneous sustained applause and cheering. And I had a Marine abroad who was part of the security detachment, and he got on his phone and he called and he said that that moment when that happened was the most patriotic moment of his life. This is a major in the Marine Corps who's been around the block a couple of times. He said he never felt prouder of being an American at that moment. And I can tell you that I think the American citizens on the Orient Queen never felt prouder themselves to be citizens of the United States.
"Stars and bars"? So exactly what navy is this admiral in? I may be mistaken since Navy lingo is so often different from the proper ground-based universe, but I think that even in the United States Navy our flag is more appropriately called the "stars and stripes."
OK, this isn't as bad as the American general in the Spanish-American War who cried out "We've got the damn Yankees on the run!" as his troops routed Spanish defenders on Cuba, but me thinks the admiral is a bit confused. Heh.
Oh, and good job Navy. Be very proud.
CORRECTION: Ok, I was laughing so hard I didn't notice that the task force commander is a Marine brigadier general and not an admiral. They have odd habits from hanging around the Navy too much. So if you were thinking of writing to correct my error, consider it done.
Still funny. But the post would have been better if I'd gotten the speaker correct from the start ...
UPDATE: And so why didn't I just rewrite this post to correct it? Well, while I will correct spelling and sometimes minor wording if I realize that something isn't as clear as I'd like, I don't do substantive rewrites. If I screw up, I'll keep the post as is and just take my lumps. This was a sloppy error. It's still funny though. You have to give me that.
