End of Season Message to Hockey Parents from the Coach

Dear Parents of Peewee B team,

In keeping with the 24-hour Coach to Parent communication rule, I wanted to send a note to all of you both recapping our season as well as explaining why I missed the last game at CanAm on Saturday. After a disappointing loss in the third game that kept us out of any medal consideration and a Sunday game, the opportunity came for me to attend my son’s High School hockey playoff game Saturday evening in Coney Island.  After talking with our President and Coach Frank, they both said they would cover me for the game.  I jumped in my car and just made it to Abe Stark arena in Brooklyn for the start of the game Saturday evening.  i didn't have the chance to communicate with any of you about this before I left, and I apologize for that.

My son’s team lost, but I want to tell you a quick story about the game before talking about our season.  His team has finished the season the past two years at Coney Island, and they started a tradition last year that, regardless of win or lose, they would do a “Polar Bear” dip into the Atlantic Ocean after their last game. Last night at about 9:30 PM after being defeated by Monseigneur Farrell to eliminate them from championship game contention, the Iona Prep JV hockey team stripped down to their skivvies, gathered at the shore of beach, and, along with their coach, all went in the freezing ocean water together. When they ran out of the water, they got together for one last time as a team, and were left with some final words from their coach –they won’t remember all the wins and losses of the season, but they would always remember this and the fact they all did it together, and that they would forever be a team and would always support each other.  As father, a former high school and college athlete, a combat vet, and a coach, I could hardly contain my emotion watching this.  I was just so thankful my son got to participate in this event and he was a member of this team.  It also got me thinking how he got to this point in his life.

This all happened because of hockey. This happened because I got him on skates when he was small and watched him fall.  This happened because we got him to the rink for a 6:00 AM Metro Game, dragging him out of bed sometimes when he didn’t want to go. This happened because as a family we traveled to places like Morristown, NY, Ashton, PA, and Marlboro, Mass and stayed in cramped hotel rooms for the weekend. This happened as I watched him deal with overzealous parents who sometimes yelled at him while he played, difficult teammates, and referees who inserted themselves in results of games.  At the end, this happened because he embraced hockey as his own as I hoped he would, and it got him to a place that had really nothing to do with game, but then again, everything to do with the game.  As a hockey parent, I never thought watching 20 high school sophomores and freshmen jump into freezing water together would be a seminal moment for my son.  But it was, and it all happened because of hockey.

I mention this because in some ways I think we were all waiting for that great moment for our Peewees this year.  I know I was.  I wanted them to have it so badly I could taste it.  They deserved it. Who could have predicted such a disaster in Needham.  Never in a thousand plus peewee games I coached have I ever seen such an out of control situation that I could not get my hands or head around.  We were so close, but once again, our boys were left with another hard lesson that bad things can happen and we just have to learn to deal with it.   We had such high expectations for Can Am, and after such a great start in the first game, we just couldn’t find a level of play that resulted in us coming out on top.  As their coach, I always knew we had flaws with this team.  You try to mask the flaws and over-play your strengths and that usually gets you good results. We just weren’t able to do that on a consistent basis this year. It’s no one’s fault.  These are boys with a wide range of skills and maturity, wider then most teams at our level.  We had some great highs, but I am afraid lows that were so fatal we couldn’t recover from in some games in order for us to claim a victory.

I have been very open to the boys all year, telling them where they stood and the facts as I see them. There should be no doubt in their minds how I feel about something related to their game. They were not coddled.  I demanded them to behave, didn’t always get the result I was looking for, and they paid the consequence.  Some got it faster then others and never crossed the line; some always tested the boundary even in the face of it affecting their teammates.  We had multiple “life talks” in the locker room following mostly our most harrowing defeats; some of you attended them and heard what we talked about.  We had one of those talks yesterday after the Rye game, where the boys got some real talk about both what we needed to do as team that day and had failed. I promised the boys a written individual evaluation of what they need to do to improve, and I will email that to each of you in the coming weeks.

I know some of you are experienced hockey parents, but most of you are not, so the story about my son is to remind you that playing hockey is all things an experience, a hardship, and a journey. You have to endure the hardship in order to get to that future moment, and it doesn’t always happen every season. Coach Frankie always reminded the boys they must sacrifice and give all their effort.  It’s hard to accept when trapped in the moment, as I was as a parent, and I am as a peewee coach, but I am sure the experienced hockey parents will tell you what I know - you love this game and it will eventually love you back.  It gives more then it takes.  It will happen as long as you support your son and his desire to play the game. My goal this year as their coach was to make sure your child loves hockey when the season was over, and if they can say that after all the crap we have been through this season, then we have all succeeded.

I want to thank Dave for his long-lasting support of me and our team this year, doing all he could to get us games and practices.  Dave juggles so many things during the season and we could not have a better person leading our organization.  He places the priority of the kids in the program first and foremost, lives and dies with how we all do, and represents the program marvelously throughout the state.  Thank you, Dave, for letting me share yesterday’s moment with my son too.  You are the penultimate hockey parent.

I also want to thank Frankie for being a superb role model for the boys and teaching them the real fine points of the game.  He connected with the boys on a level I couldn’t.  Also thanks to Coach Phil for joining us midway through the season for his leadership and his infectious enthusiasm during games and practices. Last but hardly least, George and Rosemary were terrific team managers, as well as conduits from me to you.  Thank you both for helping create a team environment in what was some very challenging moments during the season.

Lastly, I know tryouts are just around the corner.  I will agree with you that we all have to do the best thing for our child.  I believe we are the best-run youth hockey program in all of Hudson Valley. We surely are not perfect.  We try to put the kids on the right team based on their ability. We then try to schedule the right teams to play based on the skills of the team.  We often punch above our weight class; we hardly if ever schedule something below.  It sometimes creates adversity. I think the stable of coaches who work with us are the best in not only the Hudson Valley, but all of Long Island as well. If you want to find one incident over the course of this season or for that matter any season that could cause you to think about whether you even want your child to play the game, you likely could do that.  I would ask you to put things in perspective.  Given where all of you are now, if it’s your child’s goal to play hockey in high school, I don’t think there is a better program anywhere to help your child achieve that goal.  I can’t guarantee when they get there they’ll be jumping in the Atlantic Ocean, but I will guarantee they will have all the tools to compete, participate and contribute to their High School team in what will be a substantial chapter of their life. But if they do end of jumping in the Atlantic Ocean, well, then you will know who to blame - hockey!  

I am always on and available to talk about this message or your son’s hockey career, so reach out to me any time. Thank you again for trusting me with your son for practices and games this season. It’s a privilege that I struggle to put into words how strongly I feel about its importance to me.  

See you at the rink

ML

How Landing on the Moon Helped us Capture a Terrorist

“These are extraordinary times. And we face an extraordinary challenge. Our strength as well as our convictions have imposed upon this nation the role of leader in freedom's cause. No role in history could be more difficult or more important. We stand for freedom.  That is our conviction for ourselves--that is our only commitment to others. No friend, no neutral and no adversary should think otherwise. We are not against any man--or any nation--or any system--except as it is hostile to freedom.”

These were strong words spoken by a US President who was about to launch the nation in a race against a sworn enemy.  Were these words spoken by President Bush in response to the attacks on 9/11 by Islamic fundamentalists?  No, these were words spoken by a President who used them to lay out a challenge to the nation which took almost 10 years to accomplish. Here’s a quote from the same speech that you are more likely to be familiar with:

I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.

President John Kennedy spoke those words on May 25, 1961 before a joint session of Congress.  These words are a great example of a “mission statement” – a goal that contains hundreds (thousands in this case) of both stated and implied tasks to complete in order to accomplish the mission.  In the case of the Space Program, many technologies did not even exist and had to be invented in order for us to achieve the goal of a landing on the moon and returning safely to earth - liquid rocket booster systems, lunar modules, navigation systems, satellites.

With all the turmoil that is normally associated with the 1960s, it was a time of great imagination and accomplishment with respect to advances in technology.  As with anything difficult, there was also great sacrifice and tragedy as we set out to achieve the goal.  On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, and the vision set out by President Kennedy and continued by President Johnson became a reality.  The moon landings would pay dividends forward for many years, as the technologies developed to put man on the moon would result in tremendous improvements in our everyday lives, from personal calculators to microwave ovens and even flame retardant clothing. 

In December of 2001 following the 9/11 attacks, President Bush was meeting in the Oval Office with Thailand's prime minister and was asked a question about Osama Bin Laden’s capture.  While he would not predict the timing of the Al Queda leader’s capture, he said he didn’t care how the suspect is brought to justice - "I don't care, dead or alive — either way," Bush said. "It doesn't matter to me."   

While this statement does not have the same eloquence and tone as President Kennedy’s words, it was the prelude to what would become the Bush mission statement that would define his Presidency. 

Shortly thereafter at the commencement address to the cadets at West Point in June of 2002, President Bush outlined the mission statement to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden and terrorists like him:

Homeland defense and missile defense are part of stronger security, and they're essential priorities for America. Yet the war on terror will not be won on the defensive. We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans, and confront the worst threats before they emerge.  In the world we have entered, the only path to safety is the path of action. And this nation will act.

The work ahead is difficult. The choices we will face are complex. We must uncover terror cells in 60 or more countries, using every tool of finance, intelligence and law enforcement. Along with our friends and allies, we must oppose proliferation and confront regimes that sponsor terror, as each case requires.

All nations that decide for aggression and terror will pay a price. We will not leave the safety of America and the peace of the planet at the mercy of a few mad terrorists and tyrants.  We will lift this dark threat from our country and from the world.

President Bush’s statement defined our priorities and gave the nation a clear vision, just as President Kennedy’s statement had in 1961.  President Bush changed national policy from waiting for the terrorists to strike the US to one of going after them, “draining the swamp,” to rid the world of our enemies.  Similar to President Kennedy’s vision of putting a man on the moon, there were thousands of tasks to accomplish for this mission to be considered accomplished – and perhaps the most important of all the items on that list was the capturing or killing of Osama Bin Laden. 

Why did it take almost the same amount of time to accomplish these missions?  In both cases, a large and complex infrastructure with many moving parts needed to be either built or rebuilt.  It would take major contributions from multiple agencies of the government, as well as a contribution from the corporate world to build NASA and rebuild the CIA.  We needed the same level of imagination to invent new technologies during the 1960’s as it did to both rebuild our human intelligence collection capability, as well as design new weapon systems to fight the war on terror.  Recently we have seen the results of our Predator drones, which are able to look and fight over the horizon without risking the life of a pilot, and our stealth helicopters flew into Pakistan undetected, performed the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden, and returned safely to their airbase in Afghanistan.  

Just like the mission to the moon, the killing of Osama Bin Laden will pay dividends for years to come. With a rebuilt intelligence collection and processing community, the US now has the pieces in place for greater warning of similar threats to come.  It’s taken 10 years to break down the silos that once existed between the military and civilian intelligence communities.  

The capability of the US Special Forces operators who accomplished the mission has improved tremendously, so much as to act as a deterrent and a message to other nations who harbor terrorists – Should you decide to protect those who are our enemy, then you must understand we will do whatever we have to in order to kill or capture them, including a raid across your border.  The message is clear to our enemies – you can’t hide, we will find you. 

The finding of Osama Bin Laden and the mission to raid his compound started with a vision established by a US President to go after terrorists where they live.  A different President finished it.  We weren’t given a time frame in which this was to be accomplished by, and I don’t think any of us thought it would take 10 years.  Like the mission to explore the moon’s surface, the mission to find and kill Osama Bin Laden had an abundant of stated and implied tasks, and combined with imagination, courage and sacrifice, will become the defining moment in the war on terror along with keeping us safer for years to come. 

Bill LuMaye Show: Bill LuMaye Fri. 04/8/11

Bill LuMaye Show: Bill LuMaye Fri. 04/8/11: "Bill talks to Mike Lyons, the CBS News Military Consultant MP3 File"

War in the Name of Humanity

We jumped into the Libyan Civil war with both feet and a made to order, air dropped No Fly Zone on the side that has no military power or even political legitimacy whatsoever.  The standard Libyan Rebel fighting force looks like this - has two pickup trucks, one machine gun, a few AK47s, an RPG grenade launcher with a couple of grenades, another rifle and a surface-to-air missile, a few men, boys, and a Rebel Flag.   When you put that up against even the most disorganized military with only a modicum of skill and equipment like the Libyan Army has (Cold War era Soviet made Tanks and armored personal carriers), the result is still called "no match".   Take a look at the front page of today's New York Times and you will see a picture of a boy training for the Rebel forces.  The article goes on to say the young man has already been at war for 37 days and has fired his weapon numerous rimes.  Flash-forward a week from now, the boy is riding in a pick up truck that is incorrectly identified as enemy by the crack NATO targeting specialists circling overhead in an AWACS.   The initial mission is for the close air support; they won’t get there for another 4 hours because the British and French don't really have the weapons to fly close air support properly.  The mission gets handed off to the US Navy, who proceeds to launch a Tomahawk cruise missile in the general direction of the truck, under the justification of it being a military target.    The Cruise missile is an "area fire weapon" - you don't have to hit the pick up truck directly in order to "neutralize" the target.  The end result of the Tomahawk attack is one less Rebel Force - a few more AK47s, another SAM and Rebel forces all are removed from the battlefield.  Also removed from the battlefield (and from the living) is the 13 year old boy who was with the Rebel force.  He never had a chance.

We got into this war (frankly, it's appalling to be calling this “a limited military action in Libya in support of an international effort to support and protect Libyan citizens and of short duration with limited kinetic action”) under the pretense that we saved the lives of "thousands" of civilians who would have been slaughtered by the Libyan Army.  Instead, we are going to kill people one or two at a time.  Meanwhile, we try to arbitrarily separate combatants from non combatants on the battle field, and when we make a mistake, it's chalked up to the fog of war.  It still is very difficult for any soldier or combatant to flip the switch from war fighter to peacekeeper. It’s part of the requirement today, all in the name of humanity. 

Bill LuMaye Show: Mike Lyons Gives Latest On Libya

Bill LuMaye Show: Mike Lyons Gives Latest On Libya: "Mike Lyons (Ret. Major US Army), CBS News Military Consultant, talks on the latest in Libya, give us his response to the President's speech,..."

Stalemate in Libya

With two weeks in the books, we are at a stalemate in Libya. First, let's agree on this - there is a Civil War taking place there.  The Rebel "army" in unorganized, has no command and control, does not fight as coherent units, is out manned 10-1, and does not have the weapons to defeat the Libyan Army who they are up against.  I have read all the feel good reasons we got involved in Libya, and even despite the multiple and layered criticisms - we haven't done this before, why Libya and not Darfur, the President acting unilaterally -  the conclusion we saved at least one life (someone) then no one; It's better to save someone then no one.  I disagree.  We can't personalize it to that level - it's not the way to run neither a country nor its foreign policy.

Where I struggle with this intervention is how we got involved so late in the game, how our policy towards Libya changed virtually overnight, the clear divisions within the administration about what to do, a President who acted unilaterally without Congressional support, and what our military was used for, which was to completely destroy the Libyan air force and other military targets.  Rest assured, we killed people on the ground, but we seem to think it's ok to kill them because they are soldiers and not civilians. You don't launch 150 cruise missiles and not hit a person.  We launched a Humanitarian mission to save Libyan civilians, but it started out with us killing people.

We brought a type of warfare to the battlefield of which the enemy had no defense against. I grew up in the US Army during the Cold War, commanded a unit in Germany before and after the Berlin Wall fell.  I always thought we would be involved with the Super Wars, not the regional skirmishes, and especially where our national interests were not at stake.  I never thought I would see our military used as the proxy to fight the war of another country - neither the French or the British were capable of targeting and launching the Blitzkrieg type of attack required to implement the no fly zone.  The US was the complete and absolute "hammer" of this operation.  Sec Gates knew all to well it would take a massive air attack to set the environment for the no fly zone (150+ Tomahawk missiles is a massive attack in my book). In previous no fly zones, we already controlled the ground. We tipped the balance in favor of the Rebels, and after two weeks, all it brought was a stalemate.
 
It's pure conjecture to say we saved the lives of thousands of civilians.  We have intervened in another country's civil war and we can't even project what Libya looks like 6 months from now.  We did a classic "ready-fire-aim" operation here, and I am afraid we weakened American interests by having our military used to advance the interests of other countries which is a dangerous precedent to have set.

Mr. President - now is the time to seize the opportunity to declare the war in Iraq OVER. I am not talking about landing on aircraft carriers in front of banners or anything like that. I am talking about defining clearly and concisely what we have done - call the transition of troops something else, but it surely is not "war" and it is not combat. There will be those who will criticize and want us to use the word "victory"; we don't have to use that word, the results speak for themselves. This is a not situation about war fighting, but about something else - "peace sustainability". If we keep saying there is a war in Iraq, we surely will continue to have one. August 31, 2010 is too far in advance, and does draw a line in the sand for our enemies. Let's say it's over now, we have transitioned into a new security model, which will require resources which are currently sitting on the bench at home and ready to work. Declaring the war in Iraq over is the quickest way to jump start things here at home. The country needs closure, and now is the time.