Dear fellow ETS forum members,

I have just been notified and corrected by the ETS boss for violating a forum rule. And so I have [or asked the ETS boss & administrator for assistance in helping me to] remove the offensive comments that I made on one of my postings. Which appears to have been already removed.

And so I want to apologies not only to those who were offended by my remarks, but to all the forum members here on ETS.

As we say in the Army...I stand corrected, Hooah! And will knock out 52 pushups (which by the way is my age) for my violation.

Therefore I am going to take a leave of absents from this forum but just for awhile to clear the air.

I have no heartburn for being corrected by the ETS boss, but...Rules are rules, and if I violated a forum rule, then I should be corrected and reprimanded and I accept full responsibility for my actions and comments.

If any of you wish to continue this topic, "What's your input on Ranger Rick's SOS Necklace," please feel free to do so without my participation. If there is a certain question that only I can answer, feel free to contact me via a PM or to the email in my bio.

Thanks again for allowing me to participate in this fine forum up til now.. And so once again I apologize to those who were offended by my comments and to all the forum members here on ETS.

Buona Notta (Good night in Italian).

"Army Ranger Rick" Tscherne

US Army, Retired (1972-93)

I'm sorry for not being offended by anything that you have said but maybe that's because I'm a retired coastie who was just another stupid enlisted man.

Whatever the issue was, please do come back to the forum when you (or others) are ready. We all learn from our mistakes, and your experience is great for the forum.

Many thanks to you and all the others (including my dad - my hero who survived WWII's battle of the bulge with a purple heart, bronze star, & silver star, but is now a victim of Alzheimer’s) who put their lives on the line to protect the freedoms and opportunities that I've enjoyed and that I hope my children enjoy for many years to come.

Ken K.

"Ranger" Rick come back when your ready we still need input from guys like you.
BTW I found out from my brothers, after we submitted our grandfathers name for inclusion in the WW 2 Memorial that he was field promoted to 2nd Luey under Gen Patton (he was one of Pattons Own) we never knew this until 2 years after his death, funny what comes out after someone dies!
Mike "Hooah" Davis

Let me make it clear to the membership that Rick was never asked to stop posting on ETS. Rick rec'd the SOP response to complaints about a personal attack, the same as many others have before, was asked to delete the offending posting and make the SOP public apology and as far as we were concerned, that was the end of it. That Rick has chosen to stop posting is entirely his choice.

I am getting sick and tired of this sort of BS. I almost shut down this forum once before over crap like this and I am very close to pulling the plug now.

The rules are clear. When we get complaints we take action. If we notice something inappropriate we take action. Neither Chris nor I have time to read every post here, so we depend upon you to police yourself for the most part and to let us know when someone isn't following the rules. We try to be as fair as possible, but we are hardly perfect. We will not get into a position of sitting as judge between members making claims and counterclaims. That's one of the reasons we have the rules about personal attacks. If you impugn someone's honor or reputation, directly or indirectly, that's a personal attack. This is especially the case when you are a vendor promoting a product and attack a competitor, as was the case in this instance. There is no call for that. It isn't our job to determine if it is true or not, all we want to do is maintain civil discourse and that is impossible when there are personal attacks. If you cannot be civil, if you cannot operate without sniping at others, or you don't like the way we run this forum, find yourself another forum.

The rules are designed to work to the benefit of the majority to ensure civil discourse about topics that can make the difference between life and death. No flames wars, no pissing matches, no personal attacks because they are totally counterproductive.

End of discussion!