Pin Drop

At a time when our
president and other politicians tend to apologize for our country's prior
actions, here's a refresher on how some of our former patriots handled negative
comments about our country.

These stories are good reminders of how
proud and thankful we should always be as Americans:

JFK'S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was
in France in the early 60's when

DeGaule decided to pull out of NATO.
DeGaule said he wanted all US

military out of France as soon as
possible.

Rusk responded,

"Does that include those who are
buried here?"

DeGaule

did not respond.

You could have heard a pin drop.

**************************************************************

When
in England,

at a fairly large conference, Colin
Powell was asked by the

Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans
for Iraq were just an example of

'empire building' by George Bush.

He answered by saying,

"Over the years, the United States
has sent many of

its fine young men and women into great
peril to fight for freedom

beyond our borders. The only amount of
land we have ever asked for

in return is enough to bury those that
did not

return."

You could
have heard a pin drop.

***********************************************************

There
was a conference in France

where a number of international
engineers

were taking part, including French and
American. During a break,

one of the French engineers came back
into the room saying, "Have you

heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has
done? He has sent an aircraft

carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami
victims. What does he

intend to do, bomb them?"

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: "Our
carriers have three

hospitals on board that can treat
several hundred people; they are

nuclear powered and can supply emergency
electrical power to

shore facilities; they have three
cafeterias with the capacity to

feed 3,000 people three meals a day,
they can produce several thousand

gallons of fresh water from sea water
each day, and they carry half a

dozen helicopters for use in transporting
victims and injured to and

from their flight deck. We have eleven
such ships;

how many does France have?"

You could
have heard a pin drop.

***********************************************************

A U.S. Navy Admiral

was attending a naval conference that
included

Admirals from the U.S., English,
Canadian, Australian and French

Navies. At a [rooster]tail reception, he
found himself standing with a large

group of officers that included
personnel from most of those countries.

Everyone was chatting away in English as
they sipped their drinks but a

French admiral suddenly complained that,
whereas Europeans learn many

languages, Americans learn only English.
He then asked, "Why is it that

we always have to speak English in these
conferences rather than

speaking French?"

Without hesitating,

the American Admiral replied,
"Maybe it's because the

Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and
Americans arranged it so you wouldn't

have to speak German."

You could have heard a pin drop.

**************************************************************

AND

THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE
ABOVE...

Robert Whiting,

an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in
Paris by plane.

At French Customs, he took a few minutes
to locate his passport

in his carry on.

"You have been to France before, monsieur?"
the customs officer asked

sarcastically.

Mr. Whiting

admitted that he had been to France

previously.

"Then

you should know enough to have your passport
ready."

The American said,

"The last time I was here, I didn't
have to show it."

"Impossible.

Americans always have to show their
passports on arrival in France!"

The American senior

gave the Frenchman a long hard look.
Then he

quietly explained, ''Well, when I came
ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in

1944 to help liberate this country, I
couldn't find a single Frenchmen

to show a passport to."

You could have heard a pin drop.