The pride of an NCO

[unhappycamper]

The pride of an NCO
by Geoffrey Millard | Fri, 06/08/2007 - 1:13am


When I became a Non-Commissioned Officer in the Army I had a level of pride that could be seen in everything I did though after my departure from the military I have felt void of this pride. Void that is until I saw Adam Kokesh on the stand, under oath and in defense of his honor!

When Adam came to his first meeting with IVAW he reminded me of the Privates who would come to my unit fresh from Basic Combat Training (BCT). Adam was timid and unsure of his place in this new unit. He had the swagger of someone who excelled at his BCT yet the uncertainty of someone who now found himself at the “real show.” Adam’s BCT though was not just a 10 week test, it was a seven and a half year tour of duty with the Marine Corps that included seven months in Iraq as a civil affairs NCO. To top it all off, this time the “real show” was not a regular military unit but a group of veterans with aims set at ending a war.

As an NCO, a leader of soldiers, in the Army it was with great pride that I trained soldiers. It was peaked when I saw my young soldiers able to complete, with proficiency, tasks well above their pay grade. It was with that level of pride that on 04 June 2007 I watched Adam Kokesh transcend the rank of a mere corporal and into the realm of a true American patriot, a defender of the Constitution. As a member of the press I was in the room when Adam took the stand and not only defended his own honor but the honor of the sacred document to which we in the armed forces (and I thought congress and the president) all swore allegiance.

Adam could have at any time chosen to stop fighting, say he was sorry and gone about his promising political career but instead he fought! He stood up to the US Marine Corps, to an administration, but more than that he stood up to a country that would like its veterans to come home and die in silence so that they may continue their wars and their lives free of guilt.

In nine years of military service I was never prouder of any of my troops than I was of Adam Kokesh on the stand for his Honor! The DC chapter has made Adam our outreach coordinator and I hope he gets the pride of mentoring such a fine veteran as I have with him.




Geoffrey Millard