Russ Vaughn

Here's the latest from Russ Vaughn. I have his permission to reprint all his stuff here, and as soon as I figure out how to do it, I'm going to put it all in the same place and put a permanent link to it on the front page. Great stuff from a Vietnam Era Screaming Eagle.

The “No Right Answer” Game
(Inspired by “ The Wrong Army,” by Jeff Edwards, USN, Ret., warrior and novelist)



America’s forces have won all their wars,

From Revolution to war in Iraq;

And Lefties don’t point to the Vietnam War,

Where you stabbed winning troops in the back.

No, the truth is we win; we win time and again;

Done it time after time after time.

Doesn’t matter to you, ‘cause whatever we do,

We’ve always somehow dropped the dime.



To Lefties our generals just have to be wrong,

Wrong tactics, wrong weapons, wrong forces;

We’re the gang who somehow can never shoot straight,

To hear the mainstream media sources.

Just look at their headlines, view every day’s news,

With their blistering barrages of blame.

To warriors out here at the point of the spear,

It’s those losers’ “No Right Answer,” game.



In this lugubrious game loved by Liberal elites,

There’s just but one rule to enforce:

Whatever we do, in whatever war,

Must naturally be wrong of course.

There is no right answer, no matter what,

Even when our warriors are winning;

There’s always the sly implication we lie,

In the splenetic stories they’re spinning.



In peacetime they charge our forces too large

During wartime they squall they’re too small;

In peacetime they whine we’re spending too much;

But in war, “Where’s the armor for all?”

With consummate confidence they know what’s best,

Puerile pundits so smug and so smarmy,

Pontificate loud to their Liberal crowd,

That we once again have the wrong Army.



Pick a war, any war, or a period of peace;

Field marshals of the media are spinning;

If generals of journalism are so in the know,

Why are genuine generals winning?

So here at the front, harsh home of the grunt,

We ignore their attempts to defame.

The troops know the score, know what this war's for;

They can stuff their “No Right Answer,” game.



SSGT Russ Vaughn

2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment

101st Airborne Division

Vietnam 65-66