Higher Ground (a program of Sun Valley Adaptive Sports), officially announced it is attempting a purchase a 29-room, 5-star luxury hotel in Sun Valley, Idaho. The hotel would be transformed into the nation’s largest rehabilitation/retreat facility for wounded veterans with traumatic brain injuries and PTSD (outside a medical setting).

The catch: Higher Ground has 90 days to raise $10 million by September 1 to buy the hotel. Higher Ground programming is already the nation’s gold standard for its innovative and multidisciplinary approach to the long-term healing, restoration, and rehabilitation of the wounded veterans with TBI/PTSD.

www.svasp.org

We don’t often comment on political goings on here at SSD but the recent disclosures by GEN McChrystal to “Rolling Stone” magazine demand comment. Many have questioned why a man who has risen so far would do something so dumb. All we can come up with is hubris, either that or the Peter Principle is real. Those of you unfamiliar with the Peter Principle should know that it postulates that one rises to the level of one’s incompetence. Meaning, you do such a great job that you get promoted to a position that you are incapable of performing. Sounds pretty apropos in this case.

Perhaps hubris did play a role in McChrystal’s undoing. After all, he didn’t have someone following him as he rode into Kabul reminding him that he is but human. Additionally, while he did serve several regular Army assignments his extended assignment to the super secretive JSOC may have twisted his view a little. Their idea of dealing with the press is to NOT deal with the press in any form. Consequently, he may have just not been used to reserving comments in front of the fourth estate.

President Obama should not have accepted GEN McChrystal’s resignation. Instead, he should have flat out fired him. There is too much honor in resigning and the actions that led him there are far from honorable. Hopefully, there will be a reexamination of his roll in the cover up of Pat Tillman’s death in Afghanistan and perhaps he will be held to the same standard that he enforced when Commanding General of JSOC where he ordered the investigations of several retired command members who wrote books and articles related to their service. After all, it only seems fair.

Was he right? Probably on many levels, but saying it to your closest confidants is one thing and those confidants probably shouldn’t be guys who work for you. Saying it to a reporter is entirely another and having the guys that you confided in talk to the reporter as well is also pretty dumb.

His replacement is also an interesting choice and concerns me as it shows just how shallow our bench is. GEN Patreus is a fine commander as his record has shown, but isn’t there someone else the President can call upon to get the job done?

10% of each subscription to “Maxim” magazine goes to the Wounded Warrior Project. When you get a two year subscription, that makes it 75 cents an issue!

There have been several modern pinup artists who have hit the military scene over the past few years. While John Kidd has begun to make a solid name for himself in his home, the UK, he is relatively unknown here in the US. We at SSD think that it’s high time we changed that. He does an excellent job of producing customized icons for units incorporating not only attractive ladies but the unit’s defining imagery. Additionally, he has begun to produce some excellent commercial art for vendors.

Some samples of John’s work as well as his contact info can be found here. Additionally, he is available on Facebook www.facebook.com/militarypinups as well as Myspace www.myspace.com/militarypinups. He IS a pinup artist so the art depicted at the link may be considered by some as NSFW.

Here we are right dab in the middle of Eurostatory held in Paris and to me this was the most poignant news I received. An attendee sent me this image from the Charles De Galle airport where it adorns a wall. It depicts a jeep full of American GIs at the base of the Eiffel Tower. Our parents and grandparents; they didn’t just defend the American ideal. They liberated an occupied Europe and Asia and the world owes them a debt of gratitude.