Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

The wordings of the current oath of enlistment and oath for commissioned officers are as follows:

“I,____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the order of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.” (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).

“I,____, (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of ____do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.” (DA Form 71, 1 August 1959, for officers.)

I as many, many others who took this lifelong commitment to enter a branch of our United States military still believe and honor this sacred oath. It means something, something that all Americans should be proud of-we accepted the duty to serve our great country and to follow the order from our Commander in Chief-the current President of the United States of America-no matter what. And we do so without question, we may not politically agree with the current, former or soon to be leader but we respect and follow the order we are given.

I am offended by the Lyndon LaRouche PAC and the depiction of our Commander in Chief as Adolf Hitler. This is the most disrespectful and vile thing I have ever seen and as an American I am disappointed in these people. But I also must question is why do we as citizens allow it?

They have the right to assembly; they have the right to express their views-but they do not have the right to depict the President of the United States as Hitler. When are we citizens going to say enough is enough?

The LaRouche PAC is staging these types of demonstrations throughout America. Google Obama depicted as Hitler and read the many disturbing stories-there are many outraged people concerning this issue-but you really don’t see great media coverage about it. Why? Have we grown immune to defamation of our leaders in such a derogatory way? I sure hope not for the sake of future generations.

In closing, read the oath all our military took-“against all enemies foreign and domestic.” How could this not apply-insinuating the President of the United States of America as Adolf Hitler? I would have written this very same thing if it would have happened to any past American President. It is wrong and the American people need to wake up and stop this kind of bullshit. We all have our differences and our beliefs but when we come together as Americans. Our President must have respect, we may not always agree but the position deserves respect at the very least and the LaRouche PAC should be ashamed of themselves-they could very easily make their point without the Obama-Hitler signs. I encourage everyone to contact them and insist they remove and destroy them. They are not helping restore and rebuild America-they are causing hatred and are destructive.

Why not offer new ways of gaining employment, reducing the national debt, healthcare, on and on…But wait that’s too much work and thought. It’s just easier to slam the guy who got the job from the followers of the guy who couldn’t get the job… kind of easy to see why he never did, if you open your eyes.



Ken Meadows
Sgt;  USAF 1977-1981
Manteca
July 18, 2013