Happy 4th of July

I have never been in the Army or Navy, but I have spent my life serving the Department of Defense. In the 1970's, I worked at the Navy lab in Point Loma, San Diego, CA. I worked "Hunting for Red October", dealing with research on Acoustic Systems for understanding how to find a "hole in the water".

I can remember many times sitting and pondering the problem. I have spent many months on small (180 ft) "Mud Boats" in the distant Northern Pacific, Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean. In addition, I have sailed on Gray Ships (Navy Ships), White Ships (Navy Research Ships), and even a Canadian Naval ship (requiring formal dress for dinner which was maybe the hardest duty).

Throughout the 1980's I worked on a variety of Navy research efforts and a development of a trial genetic software program to analyze what genetic tests my be needed based on family history.

In the 1990's I worked away from the Navy trying to build a software business. Near the end as the business dream came to an end, I went back to working on Navy efforts. This time it was no longer research systems, but building an actual system to protect our sailors in harms way.

In the early 2000's, I moved from working on the actual systems to working with the Navy as next generation systems were being designed to keep up with the threats of the world. As I found myself living on the road most of each year, I eventually moved to the Washington D.C. area where I now reside.

In my 40+ years, working for the Navy, I found myself being able to move technology to support the Army. I now spend much of my time bringing the Army and the Navy (whom have for hundreds of years, argued and spent seperate resources so as they could own solutions - they believed in "Not Invented Here") together. I now see a growing sharing of resources between the two major forces and in turn finding they both can move forward faster than doing it alone.

I guess the bottom line is that on the 4th, I look back over my 66 year life and am disappointed at where our country has begun to evolve. People are not engaged in our current war against terror, they stand around and act like children, scared but without a direction, without a leader. The corruption at the top of our government allows our people in foreign lands to be killed and do nothing about it. They blame guns and do nothing about the people using guns/bombs/knives... because its not "Politically Correct".

I miss the old days when there was a love of country...now our country is losing it borders and may become a non-country. They take the belief of as long as they reach their goal, the means does not matter. We have lost respect for the law and the constitution. They hide information from the public just to protect themselves, even though their actions hurt the country by losing the confidence of the citizens for whom they work, but they don't care...anything to keep power.

I for one am fed up, tired and quickly loosing my respect our government. If I break a rule, I go to jail, if the secretary of State breaks the same rules, the president forgives her and nothing happens.