On my X (Twitter) account, @BuzzPatterson, I frequently post “war stories” from my years flying in the Air Force and carrying the nuclear football for Bill Clinton. I call them “Buzz’s Bedtime Stories,” initially intended for lighthearted storytelling, but the response has been tremendous. So, let’s continue!
In tonight’s bedtime story, I talk about my firsthand experiences with Russia and Ukraine and offer some insight and redirection to the Biden administration from a vet who is watching his country go to hell. Gather around.
I fought against the Soviet Union (Russia) for most of my 20 years as an Air Force pilot. I was commissioned during Ronald Reagan’s first year in office. Right from the start in pilot training, then during SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) school, and flying in the Air Force war games ‘Red Flag,’ our enemy was always the Soviet Union.
My very first combat mission four months into my career as a USAF pilot was, not ironically, the first day of the invasion into Grenada in October of 1983. We delivered the 82nd Airborne into the fray on the first night. The Soviet Union and Cuba were collaborating to build a runway on the southern end of the island to accommodate their fighter aircraft with range to hit the United States. Reagan had enough and Urgent Fury was underway. I still remember a crusty Army NCO pulling me aside before takeoff and showing me the silver bullet in his gun.
“Sir, this is for the first commie I see,” he said. I was fired up.
Subsequently, I was involved in combat operations and some special operations targeted specifically against the Soviets and their proxies over the years. Most significantly, later in my career, I was the squadron commander for an Air Force unit taking on the Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo during the Bosnian War.
Let there be no doubt, Russia is a vile, evil government intent on destroying capitalism, the US, and the West. They are allies of China, Iran, and North Korea. Among others. Little has changed in the ideology that morphed from the Soviet Union into Russia. But let us also be clear, Russia is a broken communist nation. Their only value to the world is oil and some grain. They are simply a gas station on the world stage (on a good day). Their economy sucks, their military is a mess, and they’re hanging onto the thread of the post-WWII years with the hopes of raising their world standing by whatever means possible.
I’ve visited their facilities, participated in some joint military exercises, and met their troops. Soon after the Iron Curtain collapsed, I was the second American military jet to ever land in the former Soviet Union. Ironically, it was a Russian MIG base in Stryy, Ukraine.
Honestly, I have a visceral hatred for the former Soviet Union based on years of experience. Putin is horribly corrupt and a murderer. His invasion of Ukraine is a war crime.
But is our support worth dumping additional untold billions to prop up Ukraine, further reward our military industrial complex and OUR politicians who continue to get rich on war? I say no.
I say close our effing border immediately.
I say before we pledge another cent to Ukraine, we clothe and house our homeless vets.
I say it is time (far past time) that we take care of America first. Funding Ukraine has become a get-rich-quick scheme on the part of our politicians, former politicians, and defense firms, and it’s disgusting. I didn’t serve my nation and put my life on the line for this. Once again, our military are pawns in a political game and I, for one, am sick of it. How about you?
