Reflections from the River: Recent Episodes
Bill Enyart
There’s something about that “Old Man River” which brings out the storyteller. Reflections from the River comes from the banks of the Mississippi River, upstream from Memphis, downstream from St. Louis, where the aircraft carrier sized tows negotiate the twists and bends of America’s artery. In these five to ten-minute vignettes a modern-day Mark Twain, with the occasional O. Henry twist to an ending, holds a mirror to middle America, its challenges and its strengths. Author and speaker, Bill Enyart, draws from the well-springs of working-class Midwestern roots, tempered by his rise from enlisted military ranks to Major General and then US Congressman to tell stories that reveal much of the American soul and the path American military men, women and their families tread. Humor, duty, grief and comradeship share the stage. Audio production by Tom Calhoun at paguytom.com. Cover photo by Staff Sgt Lally Laksbergs, Army National Guard. Email comments or questions to: bill@billenyart Billenyart.com
After one hundred days of fighting in Israel and Gaza, who is winning? Iran. Hamas, Gaza’s ruling political party and its military wing inflicted a stinging blow to Israel when it launched its October 7th attack killing twelve hundred mostly Israelis and taking hostage over two hundred others, about half of whom have now been released. Although a propaganda victory, this attack was not militarily significant. It has, however, become significant as a triggering event.
To quote Washington Post writer Ruth Marcus in her Dec 1, 2022, opinion piece: “Originalism is bunk”. Marcus would have done well to quote former President Ulysses S Grant. And the Supreme Court would do well to consider his words...
As a veteran let me attest that the military teaches you some invaluable skills. Skills you will carry with you for a lifetime. Let me give you an example...
Here's what the media is missing about how the FBI knew exactly which classified documents were in Mar-a-Lago.
Farm boy breakfasts to military chow hall breakfasts to scrambled eggs in the halls of Congress, it's still my favorite meal.
My wife thinks I’m crazy. Now that’s not uncommon for couples who’ve been married as long as we have. She shares why she thinks I’m crazy with friends and neighbors, who then mostly agree with her that I’m crazy.
Now my bike riding friends all think I’m perfectly normal. She, of course, thinks they’re crazy too, as do our non-bike riding friends and neighbors...
Rainy June 6th and the anniversary of D-day, the Allied invasion of Nazi occupied Europe, and one old soldier's thoughts about murder in our schools, churches, grocery stores and city streets.
The Ukraine-Russia war has dominated headlines for months. This is the untold story of the Illnois National Guard in Ukraine.
“Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the mouth,” world champion heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson said when he was asked how he planned to defeat Evander Holyfield’s fight plan. Tyson was infamously disqualified for biting off part of Holyfield’s ear in one of the two championship bouts they fought.
Vladimir Putin had a plan. Had a plan until he got punched in the face. Putin’s plan was to do a “smash and grab”. Smash into Ukraine with his armor columns and grab the capital Kyiv from the north, deposing the democratic government and install a puppet regime while seizing the southern portion of Ukraine with its Black Sea ports...
I’ve been thinking about simple ways to explain Putin’s war on Ukraine. You all, I’m sure, remember that painting I loved as a kid. The one with all the dogs sitting around a table playing poker...
Like every retired military person in the world, the situation in Ukraine has occupied much of my mind for the last several weeks. In a phone conversation with another retired general last week, my former mentor asked me how I would go about defeating Putin’s attack.
Here's that strategy...
One of my listeners wrote me to ask: “Can you imagine your life without having had the military experiences you have?” As a non-veteran, he had other questions, too, such as: “How does the discipline of the military experience transform the future of young people’s lives? Not career people, but just those who do their stint.”
Frankly, I can’t imagine my life without my military experience. I suspect it would have been a lot more boring, a lot less traveling, and a lot less career success, but perhaps more family success. Hard to say.
The television analysts keep asking: "Why Ukraine? Why now?" Having spent a lot of time in Poland, a former Warsaw Pact country and done NATO war games in Ukraine let me suggest some answers to those questions.
I collect witty sayings for the treasures they are. Some are down home, like: “I been to two county fairs and a goat ropin’ and I ain’t never seen anything like that.” Some...
Just as I do every morning, this morning I rolled over and glanced at the alarm clock. The digital face read 5:56 am. Four minutes to six. No special meaning, unless you’re a veteran or a gun enthusiast.
The numbers 5.56 happen to be the size of the military’s combat rifle weapon system in millimeters...
Eight inches of snow and the world's fastest recumbent trike awaiting me in the garage. Melt baby, melt!
An old general's musings on where the world may or may not be headed in the next several weeks.
CAUTION: probably not a good idea to listen to this before bed.
When you’re eighteen-years-old, you're gonna live forever. Only old people die. Well, except for car accidents and war. Fall of 1967. Seatbelts wouldn’t be required in new cars for another year...
With Thanksgiving dinner over and the dishes done and Christmas dinner not yet planned, let’s have a conversation that guarantees a family food fight in Southern Illinois. Or at least it would in my family...
I may not be a starting linebacker any longer, but I’m still on the team, so I’ll show up and be ready to go in the game, just in case...
Veterans’ Day is the day our nation thanks its veterans for what they have done for our country. This Veterans’ Day of 2021 let me, as a veteran, thank our country and the state of Illinois for what they have done for me.
Why is it so difficult to get rid of stuff? I’ve read Marie Kondo’s book on paring down possessions and want to follow all its prescriptions. But somehow the stuff just hangs on.
Otherness
Every now and then in life you meet someone you just know is going somewhere. Someone who is smart and talented and has the ability to talk with anyone. Someone, who with all those gifts, doesn’t have an ego that gets in the way.
I had lunch with a person like that last week...
With the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, my mind returns, as it does most days, to the soldiers that I trained, equipped and ordered to Afghanistan during the five years of that two-decade long war that I commanded the Illinois National Guard...
Writing about sports sounds like a dream job to lots of folks. Imagine...going to sports games for free, sitting in the press box, access to the locker room, interviewing players and coaches and fans. Watching games, then writing about it. And getting paid, although not much, to tell the stories. What a life!
Except I hated it.
Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Veterans’ Day. The holy trinity of American patriotic holidays. As Independence Day approaches let us remember and think about the final clause of the thirty-one words of the Pledge of Allegiance. “With liberty and justice for all”.
Sometimes you've got big shoes to fill and eyes watching over you remind you of the right thing to do.
Some life lessons are hard. Ethical lapses by people you thought honorable are some of the hardest.
Tales are meant to be told, not read. There are few who cannot hear, although many who do not listen. And even more who read, but do not understand.
This podcast tells of old tales and new prophets.
(c) William L. Enyart
Email: bill@billenyart.com
Great mentors have blessed me through life with the occasional bits of wisdom that have proven benchmarks. Here are two of those hard-earned bits of wisdom and one lesson learned from them.
This morning, the fog fills the river bottoms from Illinois bluffs to Missouri hills. Above, blue-sky peeks through but from my perch halfway up the rocky bluff I see nothing but the gray fog swallowing all that lies a hundred yards away....
Some people measure their lives by their kids' birthdays. For others, it's their wedding anniversaries. For some, it's their jobs. For me and all those other working -class boomer guys li me, it's the cars we drove. Here's the (mostly) true story of the Mighty Blue Max...
Oh the surprises you find when you get your DNA tested to see where your ancestors came from...
Now don’t get me wrong, I love bacon just as much as anyone, in fact, there is no smell in the world better than that of bacon frying in the morning. You can have your roses, your Chanel and even the smell of sun on a beautiful woman’s skin. I’ll take the scent of bacon crisping and popping in an iron skillet...
Sometimes even having eyes in the back of your head isn't enough to protect a bicyclist from the broken bones and bleeding body parts...
The pain of losing a loved one in wartime has not changed, but the method of finding out of the loss has dramatically changed.
The (mostly) true story how are younger son got his name. You may want to use a different method!
It’s time to face facts folks.
Everybody gets to have their own opinion. You do not get to have your own facts.
You can have your opinion that Donald J. Trump is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Fine. I have my opinion as to your mistakenness in that opinion. I full well understand that I cannot change your opinion...
This podcast published as an op-ed in the St. Louis and Southern Illinois Labor Tribune, January 27, 2021.
I’m going to speak heresy here. We should be glad we are so politically divided as a nation...
There's free fire zones and cold fire zones. A free fire zone means you're locked and loaded, safety off, and eyes in the back of your head. Cold fire zone is a term I made up. It's one of those places American soldiers get sent to keep the peace, or enforce the peace, or make the peace. Some places the weather's cold. Most places the people are cold. Ain't no heroes in keeping people from killing each other. Just another day in doin' the job Uncle Sugar sent us to do.
Some Christmas cards you tuck away. You tuck them away because you can't bear to throw them away. You tuck them way because the memories they bring back haunt you. This is the story of that one card.
As the attack unfolded in real time on our radios, I realized we were but a few hundred yards away from the attackers, sitting unarmed, in an unprotected warehouse with gaping twelve-foot wide doors blocked open to ventilate the heat...
The thirty-fourth autumn of life on Abend Street, street of brick, of tall trees, of century-old homes, is rapidly approaching. The leaves have not yet begun to turn on the towering oaks but summer’s heat has begun to dissipate. The hummingbird’s flight a bit more frenetic as they dart about gathering sweet nectar for their long journey south...
Although divided we stand politically, united we stand in our belief in democracy, our belief in equality, our belief in freedoms of speech, religion, press and right to petition our government.
How we can all work to realize the vision set forth in the Declaration of Independence.
The war hasn't started yet. 9-11 has happened. The last few days of the peace-time National Guard helping out the Army in Italy
A tribute to veterans and their families and a request to honor them and all Americans in our great nation's unique diversity.
A long time ago, on a flight line a long way from home, the smell of jet fuel lingers like memories that won't be forgotten.
There's summer jobs, then there's summer job. July days on the mudbanks of the Mississippi River with the humidity trying to outdo the temperature, cutting rusty old barges in to scrap steel is not the summer job of a young man's dreams. But when you need a paycheck you trade your sweat for what you need.
There’s not much all of America can agree on, but maybe we can all agree that 2020 has been a really tough year so far, and doesn’t look to get much better with the election and all of the divisiveness. Maybe a road trip to take part in history will help.
Yardsticks and broken maple limbs are the pirate swords of boys' dreams. Hammered Toledo steel brings back a warrior's faded memory.
There are days that define a generation. Pearl Harbor Day. November 23, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. And 9-11. Days that reverberate through history. And the aftermath of those days haunt us today. Twenty-two veterans a day take their own lives. We, as a nation, owe them more.
This podcast is adapted from a speech Bill Enyart made to the employees of Aledade, a nation-wide primary care physician health care management practice to honor 9-11 and focus attention on the issue of veteran suicide. Special thanks to Erica Lanter-Stewart, Illinois Army National Guard veteran and Aledade executive, for her work in making the event possible.
A summer job, a girlfriend with a white convertible and clouds of war on a teenager's horizon. The summer of '67.
A five-hundred mile bicycle ride in four days to honor the fallen. A story of veterans seeking solace through remembrance.
There's trailer living, then there's the Pink Pagoda. A Midwest summer in a single-wide.
Major General (ret) Bill Enyart speaks to the Veterans and Military Families Council at the Democratic National convention on improving the VA and reducing veteran suicides.
The forty pounds of Kevlar body armor pulling on my neck and shoulders will do little good...
The story of Jill Biden helping heal veterans families from the effects of combat deployments.
Fighter pilots on bicycles, Roy Rogers cap pistols, toy soldiers, the gut wrenching sixties, it's a family tradition.
Farmhouse kitchen tables are meant for family gatherings, saying grace, lumberjack breakfasts but not for spittin' watermelon seeds.
Natchez Trace. Four hundred forty miles of gently, rolling pavement runs from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee. It's a great way to spend several days on a bicycle...if you don't break it.
Spring 1969. America in another of what has become, in the last seventy years, one of its never ending, never winnable wars. The social divisions, the racial divisions, the political divisions even greater then than today.
Not many farm kids today know the phrase “walking the beans”. Certainly, no town kids do...
Poverty smells. It smells like yesterday’s cigarettes on today’s clothes. Like unwashed bodies. Like stale sweat. Like half-burnt motor oil from aging cars with bad mufflers and rusted out floorboards. Like overflowing toilets and full diaper pails. Like coal smoke and chemical factory fumes.
Once in basic military training, we all cursed the lies the recruiting sergeants told us to entice us to enlist, but sometimes they gave good advice...
A Father's Day story of the gift from a combat veteran father to his combat veteran son.
Most Americans have seen the evening news clips of the president standing at Dover Air Force Base as an American servicemember comes home for the final time. Yet few know what happens after that. As a Memorial Day remembrance this podcast tells the rest of the story.
Memorial Day reflections in a time of pandemic. The former commander of the Illinois Army and Air National Guard provides insights into the meaning and history of Memorial Day from the perspective of a long-serving veteran. The episode is a tribute to Gold Star families and veterans, as well as servicemembers who have fallen in our country's service.