Army Birthday Photographs

Ceremony in our theatre

Scott Lounge

Sergeant Major Grimsley and myself

***** WARNING!!! ***** This dangerously illegal and immoral subversive underground resistance message is being surreptitiously monitored by the Beaming Internet Government Broadband Radio Oscillation Telecommunications Hearing Electronic Reconnaissance (i.e., B.I.G. B.R.O.T.H.E.R.) as part of a coordinated official clandestine domestic surveillance investigation, in cooperation with the National Administration of Zealous Interrogation (i.e., N.A.Z.I.) and the Commission On Message Monitoring Investigative Electronics (i.e., C.O.M.M.I.E.). Serious felony criminal charges are pending, with extreme penalties yet to be determined! ******************** Greetings and Salutations to All my Kith and Kin and All the Ships in Outer Space: Here are three (03) photographs taken at the Two Hundredth and Thirty-Fourth Birthday of the United States Army, which the Old Soldiers' Home celebrated this past Friday 12 June 2009. For a larger view, just click on the photographs. The Army's birthday was actually Sunday 14 June 2009, but we celebrated on Friday, because the staff doesn't work on weekends. The picture with the cake was taken at the ceremony in our theatre. I had no idea I was posing with my coat and tie all sloppily crooked! The necktie I'm wearing is the tartan of my Scottish clan. The other photograph, taken by Soldiers' Home resident, Bill Barber, is in our saloon, the Scott Lounge, which Soldiers' Home residents nicknamed "The Snake Pit", where we enjoyed sandwiches, punch, and cake, as "Oldies" Rock 'n' Roll music played in the background. I cropped that picture to focus in on Sergeant Major Grimsley shaking hands with me. Sergeant Major Grimsley, who works in the Pentagon, was our guest speaker. During his slide show presentation, which concentrated on the history and progress of Army Aviation, Sergeant Major Grimsley indicated how strained our resources presently are, that future armed reconnaissance may be done by unmanned aircraft, and that the Pentagon expects our present global conflict to continue for at least the next twenty-five years. We all stood and sang, "THE ARMY SONG", and in keeping with Army tradition, the birthday cake was sliced with an Army sword, held by the oldest soldier present, a ninety year old resident of the Soldiers' Home, and the youngest soldier present, a member of the Color Guard from the renowned "Old Guard" of the Third Infantry Regiment. However, I was disappointed that our celebration did not include a chaplain, with an invocation, as has been done in previous years. I'm of the "Old School" frame of mind, and to me, that omission is a significant indication of the decline of our nation and our civilization. Thank you. John Robert Mallernee Official Bard of Clan Henderson Armed Forces Retirement Home Washington, D.C. 20011-8400 NOTE: "My unpopular and controversial personal opinions are independent of my Scottish clan."