Operation Just Cause... ...for as long as it takes
by Marilyn Grote
I was born in Connecticut. I spent most of my childhood in Stonington, a small, seaside town on the Connecticut-Rhode Island border. My father was a commercial fisherman and since he was from Norway, life on the sea was a natural for him. My mother was a housewife. We were the typical '50's family. Much of my childhood was spent around the docks and fishing boats of Stonington. In 1954, my father and a few of the other fishermen decided to try their luck at shrimping in Brownsville, Texas.
After a few months, and very little success, we returned to Stonington. Most of the Stonington boats were selling their catches in New Bedford, MA, so it was no surprise that in 1959, we packed up and moved.
New Bedford remained my home through my secondary school years. I graduated from New Bedford High School in 1965. I had the opportunity to go to college, but I opted for a hitch in the Navy. If you recall, at that time, you only had a few choices: go to college, wait a be drafted, enlist or get married and hope for the best.
After an exciting ten weeks at NTC Great Lakes and a couple of weeks leave, I flew to Subic Bay in the Philippines, to catch my ship, the USS Mansfield DD-728. Our main mission was plane guard duty with the carrier USS Kittyhawk. We also alternated three-day support fire excursions up the Saigon River and along the Vietnam coast with the other ships in our group. That was a lot of excitement for an eighteen-year-old kid. We had liberty calls in Hong Kong, Yokosuka, Subic Bay and Pearl Harbor. In June of 1966 I went to CT (Communication Tech) school in Pensacola, FLA. Upon graduation, I was sent to Bremerhaven, Germany for two years or so.
After being discharged from the Navy in 1969, I returned home and met the girl I would end up marrying in April of 1970. We have two grown daughters and three grandchildren. We live in Acushnet, MA., which is right outside New Bedford.
As far as work goes, I have been involved in the textile graphics field ever since I got out of the Navy. I began printing hand screens and then became involved with the making flat bed and lacquer rotary textile screens. For the last several years, I have been a supervisor in the Textile CAD department at RothTec Engraving Corp. Textile graphics is the taking of a customer's artwork (original painted design, paste up, disk file, films) scan it, and bring it into our software and edit the image. We put it into the correct repeat, clean the trash, and make color separations. If you are familiar with silk screening for tee shirts, it is the same thing, just on a much more sophisticated level. We use Vision Systems Info software, Stork Imaging Software and PhotoShop. We use drum and tabletop scanners, and several types of ink jet printers. That's it in a very simplified nutshell. I get to use state of the art equipment and software. I really enjoy working with computers and surfing the Internet.
Questions:
Q: How did you get involved with OJC? And why?
A: I was originally in another webring and when OJC began I joined. I was probably one of the first twenty to join. OJC allows me to show my support for the men who were left behind. There is a bond between people who have served in the armed forces. It is one of those intangible things that some people, especially today, don't understand. It seems with our "all volunteer military" we have also reduced Patriotism to a club with fewer and fewer members.
Q: Could you explain to the non-military people what the “bond” is that exists between the Veterans?
A: One analogy I can give you for the feeling veterans have for one another is a woman who has a child. Only another woman who has had a child knows what it feels like, the connection that is formed between mother and baby. If that child should die, there will ALWAYS be that connection. This is the connection I feel to my comrades.
Q: What were you jobs when you started and what do you do now?
A: In the beginning, I had my POW/MIA webpage. Somewhere along the way, Dennis Johnson asked for volunteers to help out with some of the tasks involved with running OJC. I ended up in the webring checking section. I had a block of sites and was later put in charge of co-coordinating the monthly reports from all the webcheckers. I have donated graphics for use by OJC members and created others for the Newsletter. I have helped people with graphics/HTML for their websites and dedication pages and I also have written a couple of articles for the Newsletter.
Q: What do the webcheckers do when they check a web site?
A: When the checker goes to a site they check to see the URL is correct and the webring code is on the incident page. They check the email address and make sure it hasn't changed. They can check the "next" and "previous" links in the webring table. If they find something wrong you email the site owner, identify who you are, and politely point out the discrepancy.
There are over 1000 member pages in the ring.
Q: Can you describe what makes up a volunteer for OJC?
A: I think the most important asset is to be a responsible person and belief in the organization you belong to. If you are going to volunteer for something, follow through or don't volunteer in the first place.
This goes for all volunteer work. If you are doing it for an item to list on your resume, don't waste OJC's time or your own. You won't be remembered as an asset to OJC, well, maybe just the first three letters of asset.
Q: As a volunteer what keeps the fire going in you that you keep going full speed ahead?
A: Naturally, believing in OJC and its goals, keeps me involved. Knowing that, what I, as an individual and the webcheckers do, as a group, is appreciated and useful.
Q: How do you answer the questions that come up concerning the possibility of POW/MIA's being alive today and is it worth it all to keep trying to bring them home?
A: This goes back to the first question and the sense of comradeship veterans share. You do not want to leave anyone behind. These are the guys you went to war with. To me, it doesn't matter if I knew them personally; they were in the same armed forces I was. To believe that there are NO POW(s) left alive is ludicrous. Just look at the South Korean prisoners who have come back from North Korea. We owe it to our men to get a full accounting. We owe it to their families and we owe it to the people of the United States and our national conscience. I sometimes wonder if we still have one, I would like to think so, but read the \following question/answer.
Q: How do you answer the question "Why don't we have them all back home by now"?
A: As "Deep throat" told the reporters in "All the President's Men", 'Follow the money'. I have come to the conclusion that all political decisions, and in my opinion, the POW/MIA issue is a political, not a military decision, are all made based on money. I think our best chance to get them back was in the 70's. Now they are little more than a footnote in a forgotten war. It seems all our government wants to do is apologize to anyone and everyone, kiss their backsides and get big business into every country in the world. This is a pretty sorry epitaph to the brave men who have served this country.
Q: Do you have any ideas as to what we can do the "bring them all back home" that we are not doing?
A:: Not really. As I said, this is not a "hot button" issue and one, I'm sure, most Americans today don't even think about. We have to remember that a lot of our government officials today never served in the Military. They do not share that comradeship I spoke about earlier. As members of OJC we can write our Government Officials and remind them of the issue because as time goes by, it will be more and more difficult to find sympathetic ears to hear our message. The POW/MIA issue is unpopular to the Government. It is something they can't explain away and every time it comes up, it is a thorn in their sides, as well it should be. As in everything in life, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If politicians hear enough squeaks, maybe more of them will pay attention.
Q: You have an outstanding web site --what suggestions do you have for the reader to build a good, interesting web site?
A: First of all, thanks. It is something I have spent a lot of time on and given a lot of thought to. I think the first thing you have to do is decide what the focus of your site is going to be. Concentrate on your theme and get all the help you can find gathering material (articles, pictures, stories, etc.) My site has my POW/MIA section, my ship (USS Mansfield DD-728), and NSGA Bremerhaven (my CT days). I have kept the same look (menus, background, navigation, sections) for all sections of my page. If you go to my ship section and then to my CT pages you will be able navigate them with little difficulty. They are set up exactly the same.
I have a lot of pictures and graphics, but have done my best to compress them for the minimum amount of load time. I have tried to divide the pages into manageable sizes. I only have a couple pages that I would still consider "long". I've gone to some websites where pages seem to go on forever.
I have used META TAGS on my pages to help identify my site contents to search engine spiders. I am pleased to say if you type in "USS Mansfield" or "NSGA Bremerhaven" in most search engines my website comes up in the results. I am also fortunate to have page subjects, which are not represented on the web. in great number. Every little bit helps :-)
META tags are part of HTML. It's an area you can put a description of your site and keywords that search engines. There is a URL you can go to ( http://vancouver-webpages.com/VWbot/mk-metas.html ) and it will create the tags for you and you just cut and paste into your pages.
Q: Being part of the Web Ring Site Check Team what is the most common problem you see with the web sites submitted?
A: The most common problem I have seen is the dreaded “file not found” and the other dreaded one is “this site is not on our server”. People change ISP or get rid of their pages and don't bother to tell OJC. Another problem is change of email address. Again people fail to let us know when they make a change. One of the tendencies I've seen in the last year is the webring page on a lot of websites. I have one myself. People put all their webrings on one page rather than their index page or specific pages of their site. Therefore, some of the OJC webrings tables end up on webring pages. The webring code is supposed to be on the page with your MIA's incident report.
Q: Is there any message or comment that you care to share with us on how you feel about things?
Opinions:
1. The Draft. In my opinion, we should have never stopped it and we are now reaping the benefits. We have people in the service that can't read the manuals to fix multimillion-dollar equipment they work with. The standards have been lowered so that, God forbid, no one gets turned down. The retention rate of all branches is at an all time low, along with the morale of the troops. I think a lot of the troubles we have today are a result of no draft. It made us make a choice when we graduated from high school. Go to college or go into the service. So my opinion on this one, is bring it back and raise the standards. If it gets bad enough, I think the President (not this one of course) may have to reinstate it by executive order as a matter of national security.
2. Paying our service people. This one really irritates me. It is a national disgrace that there are members of our armed forces whose families are on food stamps! We expect these people to put their lives on the line for us, but our government doesn't pay them enough to buy food for their family. Shame on us! Did you also know they have to pay for dental insurance?
3. Women on board ship. This one leaves me with mixed feelings. My daughter was in the Navy. This is where she met her husband, who is still in the Navy, stationed in Norfolk on the USS Radford. I have heard
so many negative stories of women aboard ship, that I've come to the conclusion they do not belong there. When a girl gets pregnant when she finds out her ship is going on a six-month cruise, in order to get a discharge, everyone loses. The Navy loses trained personnel and the money it has invested in her training. We as a nation lose, because now we have to hope there is someone willing to "volunteer" to join and take
her place. There is just no upside to this.
4. Respect. Or more accurately, lack of respect. For our country, our flag and our military. I am so sick and tired of a person knocking anyone who wants to spend money to keep our military strong and well paid. Yet, when there is trouble, the first thing you here is, "where are our carriers?" or "where are the Marines?". It is like prisons, everyone wants more of them, but not in their neighborhood. Everyone wants the Military to come in a kick someone's butt when there is trouble, but no one wants to part with the money to keep it strong. And of course, a lot of the people who are against the military have never had to serve. See all of the above on that one.
I've gone to a lot of pro football games and I'm really ticked when I see people carrying their two beers to their seats when the National Anthem is being played. How much effort does it take to stop, face the flag and show some respect to the emblem so many before them have died for? How about taking off the hat and putting your hand over your heart?
Do you know anyone in the service now? Have you thanked them for their service to their (your) country? Have you shown them the respect they deserve? I think for the average American, the answers would be no, no, and no.
I know many will disagree with my opinions, but that's why they are my opinions. But I will never be ashamed of the person I see in the mirror every morning. I see someone who has served his country, is proud of his country and the people who defend it and the basic ideals of freedom it represents. I'm not that keen on a lot of the people who run the country, but that's for a different time. :-)
Karl's web site can be found at: Karl's Korner
Articles that Karl has written for the Moonduster can be found at: -and- What Price Peace in Our Time? - One Vet's Opinion
From George “Gunny” Fallon: Karl and I have never met face to face, but I feel like I've known him for years. Karl is one of those special people who work behind the scenes in the true spirit of OJC, without hope or expectation of reward or recognition of his efforts. His goal is simply to get the answers for the families. He makes life easier for me in ways I'm sure even he doesn't realize.
As OJC Director, my job is to make sure we maintain our integrity and purity of purpose. In a world full of frauds and phonies, it's often a full time job just to insure that no one confuses us with that other element.
Unfortunately, that isn't the only responsibility we have so I find myself relying on the OJC staff and Board of Directors on a constant basis to get the job done. It is a great source of comfort and security to have a dedicated staff like ours and one of the main reasons is Karl. It was only recently that I found out Karl's last name was Kristiansen and not Kristiansenzgotitcovered. Every time I asked a Staff member if something was being taken care of, the answer was frequently Karl Kristiansenzgotitcovered.
This is a difficult task we've taken on and it takes a lot of people to make it work. We have to get the job done, keep accurate records and still maintain our integrity while looking always to the next day, week, month and year. We have to anticipate problems and when they are unavoidable, we need to have the solutions prepared ahead of time. From the day he came on board, Karl has been there for OJC. He accepts any assignment without question and carries it out with confidence and dignity. In short, he gets the job done on time with maximum efficiency. Karl, if you're reading this, I want you to know I personally am very grateful to have you on board and I look forward to many years of friendship.
Your Brother,
From Steve Golding: Karl is one of the volunteers that exemplifies what OJC is all about; people doing whatever is necessary to attempt to reconcile the truth. Without folks like Karl, this effort would be but a terrific thought.
Thank you Karl for everything you have done and what you will do in the future for our unrepatriated POWs and unaccounted for personnel from SE Asia and for your efforts through Operation: Just Cause.
Steve
From Dennis Johnson: Karl is a steadfast supporter of and contributor to OJC. For a very long time, Karl has managed the webring site checking. It is not a "glamorous" position but one that is of importance, nonetheless. He pursues the task with both vigor and diligence.
Unlike most webrings, ours is not designed to showcase the members' sites but to bring honor and remembrance to those who are still not home. One of the primary criteria is that the webring code be placed on the incident report as Karl mentioned above. There is a very valid reason for this decision on our part.
We want a ring that connects these heroes together. One that remains unbroken, as our commitment remains unbroken. If a visitor has to hunt all over for the next site or the next site is missing, we have failed in our commitment. That is why we have site checkers supporting this commitment. They also check to assure that there is no link to adult material so that children can use this ring to learn and that veterans, friends, and family members can view these sites without fear of running into anything that would besmirch or sully the honor that we pay these men.
Karl is responsible for making that happen and he does it very well. As a fellow veteran, he has the "connection" he spoke of with other veterans and our POW/MIA. He would willingly go to great lengths to protect and defend them.
He is a brother to us and to all the still-missing heroes.
Thank you, brother. From Kimberly Thomas-Bowles: During the time I have been with OJC, Karl has been one of the tireless individuals who work closely to make sure that everything runs as it is supposed to. Karl and I have done a lot of emailing back and forth and he's always quick, polite and to quote one of our favorite phrases "great minds think alike". Karl is a dedicated and compassionate individual when it comes to the fullest accounting of all of our men and I am proud and privileged to know him and work so closely with him.
Kimberly Thomas-Bowles
From Marilyn Grote: I have heard many good things about Karl but I never got to know him until I did this article. I was told that Karl is genuine and a truly nice person and over the last month I learned how true these statements were and are. Thank you for your cooperation Karl, thank you for the time you gave and the information you so freely shared. You had a lot more to say then even you thought you did. I enjoyed doing the article and keep on keeping on. MG
Gunny
Dennis
