Special to WorldTribune.com

By John McNabb

On this past Veterans Day a certain Air Force Maj. Gen. Rick Deveraux (Ret.) embarrassed himself, probably yet again, with his Veterans Day remarks in Weaverville, North Carolina.

He told patriots in attendance the following:

Military service members do not pledge allegiance to the flag but take an oath to defend the Constitution from “all enemies, whether they be hostile nation-states, terrorist groups or even dangerous domestic insurgent groups like those who attacked our Capitol on January 6th. Let’s make no mistake about that. That oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, extends to events like that.”

A great friend of mine in Asheville was enraged by this woke American general’s comments and sent me the details of the event, as I had lived in Asheville for a number of years.

This friend, you see, served in the Air Force and flew sorties over South Vietnam during the “conflict” as our government and the media attempted to portray it.  Let me tell you that the “conflict” was a flat-out war.

I too served during the Vietnam “conflict,” flying 137 combat sorties over North and South Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin abreast of Haiphong Harbor and Nam Dinh, both port cities in North Vietnam and in near proximity to Hanoi as the crow or a Mig-21 flies. But most of my flying was focused over Laos where the Ho Chi Minh trail gushed out of North Vietnam thru the mountain passes of Mu Gia and Ban Karai, my stomping grounds. I was constantly overflying the Plain of Jars.

Laos was the “Secret War” cooked up by the Democrat clowns President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. We were told not to communicate in any fashion that we were operating in and over Laos. Later both Johnson and McNamara became Democrat Party deities, sadly. But today think of Obama, Biden and Pelosi and their focused abuse of our patriotic military.

What’s new? Today we have Maj. Gen. Deveraux and his bosses, the sad little folks Gen. Milley and Secretary of Defense Austin. All unbelievably woke, clay-ankled leaders of America’s unforgettable failure in Afghanistan.

When you add poor Ole Joe Biden and “missing in action” Sec. of State Tony Blinken, we have the many-faceted force to Kill America. How about the very recent mask-mandate dictate that Biden tried to sneak through on all of us by using an OSHA regulatory trick? That will fail on part due to President Biden’s Chief of Staff Ron Klain’s texting blunder.

Here is more of what Gen. Deveraux described as his “unconventional remarks about Veterans’ Day in Weaverville, NC:

“I want to challenge us to think a little bit deeper about this day and what it means to many veterans,” he said.

“How best do we say thank you” to veterans, Devereaux asked. “My opinion is just by being good citizens.” He said being a good citizen included voting, reading the newspaper, wearing masks, getting vaccinated. “Be the kind of citizen that is worthy of defending.”

What about the citizens who didn’t? What about those who disagreed with the bureaucrats who imposed such harsh mandates? Are they ‘no good’? Are they unworthy of defending under the Constitution. From where does such thinking evolve?

But back on point, after my second tour in the second of my two fighter wing assignments I decided that the Air Force wasn’t for me. Why?

Politics.

I was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, the Air Force Commendation plus more. I loved my time in our military. So why turn down a tempting offer to advance from a senior officer?

The reason was “Politics.” Pure and simple. I didn’t want to commit to building a career that one mean-spirited reporting official could derail. So, I chose an Honorable Discharge.

I remember being summoned to meet with the Air Force general who was at that time in command of the Ninth Air Force. I had to find my Air Force “Blues” and change from my daily business wear, my Nomex Flight Suit!  I formally met with the general and he quickly asked me the reasons for my decision. I am certain that he didn’t like my answer.

I was polite but direct and what followed was a pre-designed response offering me various absolutely attractive assignments, both aircraft and locations. But I was done due to politics. My entrepreneurial bent pushed me elsewhere.

I have examined Gen. Deveraux’s record. The Air Force Academy and a mirage of predestined assignments and the staccato series of charm schools and carefully-planned experiences all combined to move him through the ranks.

My issue with all of that is moving up in the American military clearly becomes political the higher one moves. An aspiring senior officer inevitably has to “play ball” and play up.

The result of course is Gen. Deveraux remarking about America’s threat of civilian insurrection with no mention of the Chinese or the Russians. He worked hard at declaring that the Jan. 6th event was a large-scale uprising against the Constitution and even tries to do so by disconnecting it from the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

What actually was going on was simply that those folks represented some 75 million Americans who knew they had been hoodwinked and that the courts had gone completely dormant. They, too, are worthy of defending under the Constitution. Any thinking American would quickly ascertain that it was no large-scale insurrection.

We as Americans do have threats such as an open southern border with only God knowing who is coming into America and not all coming here with good intentions. Not to mention the steady flow of illegal and killer drugs. What happened in Portland, Seattle and Minneapolis was domestic terrorism.

There are many ways that our America is being killed, more than can be listed here.

So next year at the time of Veteran’s Day, if a community in Western North Carolina is looking for a Veterans Day speaker, give me a call.

John T. McNabb is co-founder of the Trump Leadership Council and former chairman and CEO of Willbros Group. He also serves as chairman of the Free Press Foundation Advisory Board and Vice Chair of The Council for a Secure America. He is the author of the new book, A Nice Ride: Stories of America.

  A Veterans Day speech in Weaverville, NC and politics