Thank you Paul, you are welcome here and thanks for your service.

(Note: my service was from ’74, 2 months to the day from when they stopped sending service people to Vietnam… my European service was from 75-81, and 1982 as I was preparing to go back to wearing civilian clothing… )

I served in the US Army, ending with Sgt. stripes, and leading a radar crew on a Nike nuke site in Germany, from 1975 to 1982.

The targets on my crew’s scopes were comrades of a certain middle-management Col. in the KGB.

That Col.’s name was Vladimir Putin, which authoritarian monster didn’t take the hammer-and-sickle on his lapels any more seriously than he does the Russian Orthodox crucifix he’s taken to sporting.

Yet, in my nation, we are inundated with authoritarian followers who, since a certain hero of theirs of recent vintage showed such adulation to a fellow authoritarian, here we are.

From an old US Army soldier and Sergeant, a proud citizen of the USA, and a proud fellow Jewish man, I only offer:

Slava do Zelinskeyy

And

Slava do Ukraine.

And thank you, friend Lichtenberg, for your heart being obviously in the right place, both for this share, and for your entire vibe, as I’ve followed this site for about as long as you’ve been running it.

With Shalom, Love, and Respect,

Paul Julian Gould
Sgt./E5,
US Army Air Defense Artillery
16C20 – Nike Hercules Fire Control Operator/Crew Chief
1974-1982

And bless you for your open mind and open heart.