Jersey Guys

“JERSEY GUYS”

September 11, 2002

“Goddammit, Admiral,” Buracker said with obvious exasperation, “You can’t start a private war of your own! Who’s going to take responsibility?”

From beneath thick eyebrows, the admiral’s eyes burned brightly as he said,

“I’ll take it. If anything gets in the way we’ll shoot first and argue afterwards.”

Nine days later, bombs cascaded from the skies over Pearl Harbor, ending America’s last period of innocence and plunging the nation headlong into the greatest war mankind has ever seen. The United States Navy as a whole was not prepared for what happened that day. But Task Force 8, under the command of

Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, was.”

The above is taken verbatim from page 38 “The Battle of Leyte Gulf” by Thomas J. Cutler.

The North Tower. Boom!

The South Tower. Boom!

The Pentagon. Boom!

Two flights from Boston. Two buildings down. One flight from Washington. One building poleaxed. More than 3000 dead.

It’s as if you are on a bus. The center aisle is not as wide as a bus. The seats are not as wide as a bus. If you pull the cord the bus stops. The food that is supposed to be hot is hot; the cold food cold. Mom is not in the kitchen doing your favorite dish. You are on a plane. Spike shaped. Five hundred miles an hour. 7 miles up. “Fallible within the plane’s greater fallibility”, as Ian Fleming once said.

Who knows what the terror was like on the three planes that hit the three buildings? People are dead. Wives will never feel the life force of their husbands again. Children will never know how proud and happy a father can be. This was an unnatural act. It was an act born of 25 centuries - not 15 - of rage and frustration. This was an act for which there can be but one response; overwhelming, devastating, and, if possible, disproportionate. Since Jihad warriors look forward to infidel virgins to reward them for their deaths surely we can earn Allah’s blessing by speeding them on their way. After all, we were told by a President that, “....on earth, God’s work must surely be our own”. He also told us that we would “pay any price and bear any burden in the defense of liberty’.

What we do know about Flight 93 from Newark Airport is that it punched into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. It was upside down and it was traveling in excess of 500 miles per hour.

What we do know about Flight 93 from Newark Airport is that it did not crash into the White House or the Capital building. It wound up in a trillion pieces in a dirt field

in Pennsylvania because some JERSEY GUYS said, “If we’re going, we’ll pick the place where we go. Not you, you bastards.”

“They” couldn’t understand the Spartans at Thermopylae. King Leonidas was told that the Persian arrows would block out the sun. “Good’, he said. “We’ll have our battle in the shade.” There is a tablet there. It says, “Go stranger. Tell the Spartans that we lie here obedient to their laws.”

“They” couldn’t understand the Franks at Tours. The Islamic hordes were crushed by free men.

“They” couldn’t understand the Venetians at Lepanto. Outnumbered 10 to 1 the smaller vessels of the Doge simply sailed around the larger vessels of the Turkish Pasha and slaughtered them.

“They” couldn’t understand the bakers of Vienna. What were they throwing at the Muslim invaders from the walls of their besieged city? Small bits of bread shaped like crescents. Just like the crescents on their flags. Again they were repulsed.

“They “ couldn’t understand why the British came to avenge one man 13 years after his death. “They” couldn’t understand why the small man on the large horse put away his saber and took out his Mauser when he led a charge against them. “They” were the men of the Mahdi, the Chosen One. Omdurman. Once more “they” were slaughtered.

And if “they” could have gotten to a radio before Flight 93 from Newark augered in “they” would have said, “Who are these “JERSEY GUYS”? They fight back.”

Soon, very soon, this country will begin the payback for 9-11-01.

Soon, very soon, History will repeat itself.

Soon, very soon, it will be “Saviour of ‘is country “ when the guns begin to shoot.

Soon, very soon, the “dogs of war” will be let loose.

Soon, very soon, we will criticize ourselves if some innocent Abdul or Fatima is slain. “After the first death there are no others.” There were no guilty ones at the World Trade Center, either. “Kill them all”, said the cleric to the general. “God will know his own.”

3000 dead Americans. Gone. Charbroiled. Incinerated. It is time to put the “paid” stamp on this year old bill.

Who knows how much worse the carnage could have been? Who knows how many more aching wives and sad children there would have been if it weren’t for the Boys of September, the Heroes of September? The men on Flight 93 from Newark Airport. “JERSEY GUYS”

“One example occurred as Enterprise steamed slowly into Pearl Harbor just hours after the attack. Halsey had surveyed the incredible damage in silence for a while, then was heard to growl, “Before we’re through with’em,

the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell!”....

“Finally, by war’s end, the Japanese had become to Halsey

“lousy yellow fucking rat monkey bastards”.

This too is from “The Battle of Leyte Gulf”.

Verbatim.

Tough language? Not even a little bit. Not as tough as what is coming. These are people who stone women and who slice off the genitals of 10 year old girls. These are people who come to our country and open their mosques and claim freedoms and the protection of our laws, such freedoms and protections that would not be extended to Americans in their native lands. Their civilization peaked a thousand years ago. Unable to comprehend why their society and culture is a failure they lash out at one - ours - that is a success. The people who drove the planes into the buildings and killed the people, our people, were not from Norway or Patagonia. Most were from the same country. All were members of the same faith. What they did was a Logical conclusion to what they believed. Racial profiling? Ethnic profiling? Ideological profiling? Geographical profiling? I certainly hope so. If I left any “profile” out please feel free to include it.

Admiral William F. Halsey, who would regularly broadcast his latitude and longitude to the Japanese navy lest they think he did not want them to find him....

Admiral William F, Halsey, a man of whom Admiral Arleigh Burke - a man for whom the word “hero” was invented - said he “would follow him anywhere in this world, or beyond”....

Admiral William F. Halsey - “JERSEY GUY”

The men of Flight 93 - “JERSEY GUYS”

New Jersey named a Turnpike Exit after Halsey. The state, my state, while saddened by their loss, is honored by their lives. We are humbled, we are awed, by their presence.

“When can their glory fade....”