You could hear a pin drop!

[Cris1102]

YOU COULD HEAR 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 was 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 intended
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 cocktail 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 Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German."

You could have heard a pin drop.


A group of Americans, retired teachers, recently went to France on a
tour. 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 your 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
'44 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find any Frenchmen to
show it to."

You could have heard a pin drop.


What Is a Veteran?
A "Veteran" -- whether active duty, discharged, retired, or
reserve-- is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made
payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "up
to, and including his life."
That is honor, and there are way too many people in this country
today, who no longer understand that fact.

[Ferus]

That is epic.

Great post.

[marinepilot]

Thank you Cris...

That brought tears to my eyes. Quite an awesome thing to read first thing in the morning.

[Adamantine]

This is a good one Cris, thanks for posting....

[highwayman]

The French always had an attitude with Americans anyway, that's why they stay in France.
The naturalized French are not as bad, they know better :rolleyes:

[Cris1102]

The French always had an attitude with Americans anyway, that's why they stay in France.
The naturalized French are not as bad, they know better :rolleyes:

why does your green light avy flash only part of the time?

[KnightRider3702]

Awesome post Cris!!! That has now gone out on my email list :D

[Adamantine]

The French always had an attitude with Americans anyway, that's why they stay in France.
The naturalized French are not as bad, they know better :rolleyes:

The French have always had an attitude with everyone!:eek::D LOL You should see some of the correspondence written in the 16th century about that mentions interaction with the French, one I saw was from a German, another was from an Italian monk, and then you have the English and the papers of Queen Elizabeth. I think its part of the French culture....:D

[highwayman]

why does your green light avy flash only part of the time?

That's a tricky question isn't it ? :rolleyes:

[4goods]

That was Great! thnx Cris

[KnightRider3702]

After distributing that in my email, I was surprised to see this response from one of my old Computer Science Professors:

Dear John,
Thank you for this wonderful reminder.
I remember entering a French harbor not long after WW2,
on a ship loaded with High Octane aviation gasoline,
in hundreds of 50 gallon barrels, the harbor was a minefield.
While we were preparing to enter the Harbor the Captain explained
that some of these mines had been in the water since before ww2
started and the chains that held them in place sometimes rusted away
and !
It was kind of tense--but then once we were safely at the dock,
the French communist longshoremen started to unload the cargo,
continuing to smoke their famous Galois cigarettes, in the holds of
the ship without regard to the gasoline fumes. We slept on board while
they smoked. somehow we got used to it, it took a few days.
Your email reminded me of this bitter--sweet memory.
Every evening I watch the news on channel 13, at the end
they show the photos of our brave young people who have lost their lives
in this war in Iraq, I read a recent account of an 18 year old who covered
a live grenade with his body to save his buddies. I served in the Maritime
service after ww2 and into the Korean war our loses were the highest of
any branch of service, over 32%. I think all of us honor our service people,
regardless of 'political' points of view. I can't watch the evening news without
tears. We want to find a way to live with out having to kill each other.
Prof. Owens

[highwayman]

The French have always had an attitude with everyone!:eek::D LOL You should see some of the correspondence written in the 16th century about that mentions interaction with the French, one I saw was from a German, another was from an Italian monk, and then you have the English and the papers of Queen Elizabeth. I think its part of the French culture....:D

I think it is too, I have a cousin psychologist married to a diplomat and they live in Paris, so she came to visit L.A. and she brought two shopping bags full of different types of cheese (don't know how she managed the airport check :rolleyes so I was all cheesed out for a while, stuck with a cranky female psychologist and be a tour guide for 2 weeks.

Anyway, from day one all she did was complain about the smog, traffic, pedestrians, banks, and pretty much everything else.

The only thing she did like out of all the places I took her to visit in Los Angeles was the B.Hills courthouse building next to the BHPD which she sat and admired for about 2-3 hours and took several pictures.

Thank God she only stayed 2 weeks because all all she talked about the rest of the day was how Paris is better than L.A. in so many ways, so I had to bite my tongue until I waived goodbye at the airport.

[Pookie44]

Thank you for posting that Cris.

[FutureBlue]

Thank you for posting that!

[pafindr]

Thanks Cris
I sent it out as an email.

pafindr