Free Remember The Alamo by William W. Johnstone;J.A. Johnstone

surprised we've lasted as long as we have.
The media's turned all the politicians into gutless wonders. My
God, if you can't start a war in the morning and wrap it up by
the time the evening news comes on, with no casualties to boot, the American people don't want any part of it anymore!
It's a damn wonder we're not all speaking Arabic and bowing
to Mecca by now!"

    Dave said, "Don't you think you're exaggerating just a mite,
Belko?"
    "Maybe a little," Belko growled. "But not much!"
    "Anyway," Phil said, "we think it's wrong, what they're
doing with the Alamo."
    "How can you stop it?" Dieter asked.
    "Well ... I don't guess we can. But we can make it clear
that we're opposed to using the Alamo to put on some
politically correct dog and pony show."
    "You're talking about protesting?"
    Phil nodded. "I guess so. To tell you the truth, just the
thought of holding up a sign and marching around puts a bad
taste in my mouth. That's the sort of thing that liberals do. It
smacks of whining to me ""
    "Yeah, me too," Belko said. "To this day, those blasted Vietnam War protesters won't acknowledge the fact that they prolonged the war instead of ending it, even though Uncle Ho's
old buddies have come right out and admitted it. No, they're
still lost in their damn fog of self-righteousness."
    "Back to the Alamo... ." Dave suggested, knowing that
Belko could go on for hours about the truth of the Vietnam
War protests. Right or wrong, all that was in the past. The
world faced new, even more dangerous threats today.
    "If all we can do is protest, we'll protest," Phil said. "And
we'd like to have the two of you, and maybe some of the other
survivors from the VFW massacre, to join us. Just vets,
though. Dave and I have been talking about it, and we'd like to
have vets from as many wars as possible there"
    "You won't get any from World War One," Belko said.
"There's a few of 'em still around, but they're all too feeble to
be out protesting. I know some guys who fought in the Big One, though, and they're still spry enough to take part. Same
goes for fellas who were in Korea and 'Nam. I got a feelin'
they'll be just as pissed off as we are about what's gonna
happen at the Alamo."

    Phil smiled. "I was hoping you'd feel that way. Dave and I
were in Desert Storm that's how we know each other and
we can round up some other guys who served then. If we
could get your help with the soldiers who have come back
from Iraq and Afghanistan in the past five years-"
    "Yes," Dieter said with an emphatic nod of his head. "I can
do that"
    It would be something to keep his mind off his wife's death,
Dave thought.
    "That's great," Phil said. "We've got less than two weeks
to set everything up, so we'll have to work pretty fast" A look
of concern appeared on his face. "I know you were wounded,
Dieter. Are you sure you're up to this?"
    "Don't worry about me," Dieter said. "I'll be fine."
    Phil leaned back and smiled. "It's settled, then. And there's
something I haven't even told you about yet, Dave. I have another old friend from Desert Storm. A Marine colonel named
Peter Stark"
    Dieter looked surprised. "I've heard of him. He served
during Operation Iraqi Freedom, too"
    Phil nodded. "That's right. Can't get that guy out of the hot
spots of the world. Anyway, he's still on active duty somewhere-he won't say where, of course-and I've been trading
e-mails with him."
    "What's this got to do with our plan?" Dave asked.
    "Pete's father is John Howard Stark," Phil said.
    The other three men stared at him. John Howard Stark was
a hero. A rancher in the Rio Grande Valley near Del Rio, he
had found himself at war with a gang of Mexican drug smugglers that wanted to use his ranch as a route for transporting their poison. Stark's wife had died in the resulting violence,
and then the drug smugglers had really found themselves in
trouble. Stark had been a Marine in Vietnam, and he had
gotten his old squad together to take the fight to