See, I grew up in an organization defined by its respective mottos, creeds that guided those of us who served. And if people are really sincere about their service to this nation within their respective military units, these mottos define them for the rest of their lives.

I recall being a young fella and watching the movie “The Green Berets” with John Wayne. I remember the scene of him standing at Airborne School and shouting, “Who are you?” and hearing the reply, “Airborne!” The next challenge was “How far?” and the response was, “All the Way!” Years later, there I stood on that same training ground shouting: “Airborne, sir! Airborne Sergeant Black Hat!”

And when I and the rest of the 4th Battalion, 325th Infantry Regiment (Airborne Battalion Combat Team) reached our first duty station in Vicenza, Italy, we took pride in our challenge and response, “Airborne all the way!” This motto signified that we were a cut above others, that our standards were just a bit higher. We were U.S. Army paratroopers after all.

My second duty assignment was in the famed 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kan. Our motto harkened back to the division’s incredible landing on Omaha Beach, France, on D-Day: “No mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great, duty first.”

That simple creed articulated what it meant to serve in that division but also to serve our nation. It was never about you. It was about duty first!

I also was an artillery officer and commanded Bravo Battery, 6th Field Artillery Regiment, where our motto was “Swift and bold.” I have always tried to honor that creed by being swift to action, not delaying, and being bold in my stance for freedom and principle.

After I commanded, I served in the 4th Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment. (Trivia fact: Our sister battalion, 1/5 FA, was the home of Alpha Battery, which was known as “Hamilton’s Own” after our first Treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, who served in that historic artillery outfit.) The motto of the 5th Field Artillery was “Faithful and true,” and God knows none of us are perfect but what a fantastic motto. To be faithful to a set of principles and true to something greater than self is the epitome of being a selfless servant of the republic.

Recorded on 4/20/13 – Captured Live on Ustream at : http://www.ustream.tv/channel/Young-Americas-Foundation

This video is about TrentoVision 5.9.13 – Navy SEAL Extortion 17 EXPOSED – Obama Failures

This video is about TrentoVision 5.9.13 – Navy SEAL Extortion 17 EXPOSED – Obama Failures

5/12/13 – Former Congressman Allen West on Sunday (R-FL) said that an admission by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that it had improperly scrutinized tea party groups was part of a wider conspiracy that included President Barack Obama’s administration forcing Republican-owned car dealerships to be shut down during the auto bailout in 2009.

Fox News host Alisyn Camerota asked West if he had any indications that the recently-revealed IRS practice of examining whether tea party groups were abusing their tax-exempt status was not limited to “rogue, low-level IRS agents in the Cincinnati office who thought that they were going to personally stick it to the tea party.”

“Well, of course,” the tea party-favorite Republican declared. “The most important thing we need to come to understand is your First Amendment rights is you have the right to petition the government for redress of your grievances. If we start to have a government that is targeting certain groups for their political ideology because they don’t believe it is in concert with their beliefs, this is Orwellian, to put it in the least manner.” “We’ve got to come back and have hearings on this,” he continued. “This is something that is criminal.”

Camerota wondered if West knew why the IRS had been asking tea party groups for their donor lists.

“One of the things you have to understand with those donor lists — and this is something that was brought up before the Small Business and also the Oversight Committee when I was there in Congress — they are after those lists because they want to put a lot of pressure on individuals,” West explained. “And there are a lot of folks out there concerned about coming out and being forthcoming about their support to political candidates and what have you.”

“There were a lot of automobile dealerships that were closed down because people found out who they were providing funds and support to, when you go back and look at that auto bailout.”

As part of Chrysler’s bailout deal with the U.S. government in 2008, the company agreed to close about a quarter of its 3,200 dealerships. By 2009, conservative media outlets like The Washington Examiner and Fox News were suggesting that the Obama administration had been disproportionately targeting Republican-owned dealers.

But FactCheck.org looked into the claims in September of 2009 and found that the “best evidence shows that dealerships with Republican donors weren’t disproportionately targeted — auto dealers overall tend to lean overwhelmingly Republican.” And even a Fox News study determined that “the data do not support the charges.”

“Nobody has bothered to look up data for the control group: the list of dealerships which aren’t being closed,” FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver wrote in 2009. “It turns out that all car dealers are, in fact, overwhelmingly more likely to donate to Republicans than to Democrats — not just those who are having their doors closed.”

“Overall, 88 percent of the contributions from car dealers went to Republican candidates and just 12 percent to Democratic candidates,” Silver pointed out. “There’s no conspiracy here, folks — just some bad math.”