This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Hondo

  • Regarding That Latest Postal Rate Increase . . . .

    . . . idiocy like this might have something to do with it.

    Seems that in 1988, a guy left active duty.  He went to work for the US Postal Service.

    In 1990, he rejoined the National Guard.  He was active in the Guard.

    So active, in fact, that in 2000 the USPS fired him for “job abandonment”.  They thought he’d neglected his job at USPS and had taken off too much time for Guard matters.

    During a 7-year period, the matter went to court multiple times.  Courts ruled repeatedly in the soldier’s favor.  But for some reason, the USPS apparently simply refused to reinstate the man in his former job.

    The matter finally went to the Merit Systems Protection Board – again – late last year.  And in it’s latest ruling, the board clearly was not amused with the USPS’s antics.

    The board ordered the man reinstated – and also ordered the USPS to pony up for 12 years back pay and other costs.  The total could come to roughly $2 million.

    The USPS is reportedly appealing the latest MSPB decision.  Hey, interest rates are low – what have they got to lose, right?

    Sheesh.  Talk about being too dumb to stop digging . . . .

    Details are found here, and here.  (The second link is from this guy’s union, so it’s hardly an unbiased source – IMO, lotsa spin there – but it does provide a few pertinent details not present in the first.) I’ve heard a couple of other stories of government agencies (both Federal and state) treating members of the Reserve Components quite shabbily, so I can believe this wasn’t just an accidental “Oops” on someone’s part.  And the fact that multiple Federal judges and boards have ruled in this guy’s favor leads me to believe the facts are overwhelmingly on his side.

    If that’s the case – and it appears indeed to be the case – this is long overdue.

    It’s also good to see the USPS get absolutely body-slammed here.  Government entities aren’t exempt from the Uniformed Services Employment/Reemployment Rights Act.

    Hopefully those individuals at the USPS who are responsible for this idiocy end up with the same problem they foisted on this guy – unemployment.  But in their case(s), it would IMO be fully deserved.

  • Apparently Magpul Wasn’t the Only Firm Serious About Relocating

    Previously, I noted that Magpul had decided to relocate outside of Colorado due to their dissatisfaction with Colorado’s new, restrictive gun laws.  Turns out they weren’t the only firm that decided “enough is enough” recently.

    PTR Industries, formerly of Bristol, Connecticut, has relocated to South Carolina.  They’re a small manufacturer of “military style” (whatever the hell that means) rifles.  They expect to resume production – in South Carolina – in about a week.

    The firm announced the move in April of last year.  Restrictive firearms legislation passed by the Connecticut legislature was the reason.  So PTR said, “See ya!” – and moved.

    No, the move isn’t exactly earth-shaking.  PTR had fewer than 50 employees in Connecticut, and doesn’t plan to reach 120 employees in South Carolina for three years.  Still, it’s IMO a hopeful sign.

    Like an individual, a company has to consider its own interests.  And when the local lawmakers signal – clearly – that they no longer want a company around . . . well, then movement becomes a damn good option.

    Are you paying attention, Beretta?

     

  • All I Can Say Is – It’s About Damn Time

    Longtime TAH readers know my position on this subject, but in case some are reading this who don’t:  IMO DoD has grossly abused the “Combat Zone/Imminent Danger Pay” designation for years.  Year after year, many locations with absolutely NO active hostilities have continued to be designated IDP areas.

    Yes, it’s nice for those stationed there.  They get out of paying taxes (Combat Zone Tax Exclusion, or CZTE), and get extra pay (IDP) besides.

    But that’s not what IDP and CZTE is designed to do.  They’re designed to provide additional bennies for those assigned to locations where people are getting shot at – not the guys/gals “in the rear with the gear”.

    Well, it looks like DoD has finally announced something that’s IMO long overdue.  As of 1 June 2014, 20 locations lose Combat Zone/Imminent Danger Pay designation.  Those areas losing IDP designaton are:

    • The water areas of the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, the Red Sea, and the water area and airspace above the Persian Gulf.
    • The land and airspace areas of Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Serbia, and Montenegro.
    • The land areas of East Timor, Liberia, Haiti, Oman, Rwanda, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, Kyrgystan and Uzbekistan.

    As the title says:  IMO, it’s about damn time.  If you’re not in a place where shots are being fired in anger, in my book you’re simply not in a bona fide Combat Zone – you’re just on a remote/hardship tour.  Hardship tours are nasty, and get their own special pays.  But they’re also a part of military life, they’re not anywhere close to the same as combat duty, and don’t deserve combat zone bennies.

    As far as I can tell, the vast majority (if not all) of the locations listed above haven’t seen a shot fired in anger at US forces in a decade or more.  Hell, Saudi Arabia has been an IDP location continuously since 1991.

    It always galled me to see folks in Kuwait and Qatar get combat decorations while others in Iraq or Afghanistan got equivalent peacetime awards.  Maybe this will finally put a stop to that BS.

  • RIP, LtCol Jerry Coleman

    A baseball icon has passed.

    Jerry Coleman – former MLB second-baseman with the New York Yankees and longtime broadcaster for the San Diego Padres – has died.  He passed away yesterday at 89.

    Coleman’s career in MLB was interrupted – like Ted Williams, when recalled to the USMC for service in Korea.  However, unlike Ted Williams Coleman had flown in combat previously.  Prior to his career in baseball, Coleman had flown combat missions for the USMC in World War II, and did so again in Korea.  He was reputedly the only MLB player to see combat in both wars.  He retired from the USMC Reserve as a Lieutenant Colonel, giving rise to his nickname “The Colonel” among his professional colleagues within the San Diego organization.

    Coleman’s military awards included two Distinguished Flying Crosses, 13 Air Medals, and 3 Navy Citations (I’m pretty sure this was the forerunner of the Navy Commendation Medal; Navy types, correction please if I’m wrong).  He was no slouch as a ballplayer or broadcaster either; he was the MVP of the 1950 World Series, and received the Ford C. Frick Award in 2005 for his contributions to baseball as a broadcaster.

    Coleman was honored by the San Diego Padres with a statue near PETCO Park in 2012.  When interviewed about his military career shortly before the statue was unveiled, he remarked: “Your country is bigger than baseball.”

    Truly a life well-lived.  Rest in peace, my elder brother-in-arms.  Rest in peace.

  • Slips and Lapses

    Jonn tolerates my random mental wanderings here.  And I’m about to wander “off the reservation” again, so consider yourself forewarned.  (smile)

    Music was a huge part of my youth.  I won’t try to give a rundown – I’d be writing all night if I did.

    But I was always fond of music that was both literate and well-crafted.  And because of that, one of my favorite artists while a youngster was an English group called Pink Floyd.  Perhaps you’ve heard of them? (smile)

    Seriously:  once Floyd moved past their early psychedelic fascination and began making serious music – in the early 1970s – they were IMO a creative force rivaled by few in the music industry.  Beginning with Meddle in 1971 and continuing for well over a decade, their work was truly exceptional.  It’s still eminently listenable today, and IMO ranks among the best ever produced in the modern popular music genre.

    Yet life has a way of changing your focus.  By the late 1980s, because of what was going on in my life at the time I wasn’t following music as closely as I had in years before.   As a result, I missed something truly special at the time it happened.

    I’ve since discovered it.  I thought it was worth mentioning.

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  • A Damn Nice Gesture

    Well it looks like one Midwest regional retailer will get some business from me if I ever end up out that way.  As will another, somewhat larger retail chain.

    The Indianapolis Colts play a first-round NFL playoff game this weekend.  Up until yesterday, though, it looked like the game might not be sold out – and thus unavailable on TV locally.

    Enter the Meijer supermarket chain.  On Saturday, Meijer purchased the last 1,200 remaining tickets for the game.

    That’s not why they’d get my business, though.

    They’d get some business from me because they’ve announced they’re donating the tickets to local military members and their family.

    Yeah, they’ll get a helluva lot of good press and goodwill out of that.  And you know what?  That’s fine with me.

    I’ll also have to consider shopping at Kroger, too, from time to time.  Kroger is apparently doing the same thing in Cincinnati – though they haven’t yet achieved a sellout in Cincinnati.

    Kudos, Meijer.  Kudos, Kroger.  And thanks.

  • Magpul: We Weren’t Kidding

    Jonn’s pretty busy today, so I’m posting this one on his behalf.

    As Jonn wrote here some months ago, last year both Beretta and Magpul publicly went on record as opposing proposed changes to firearms laws in their respective states (the People’s Republic of Maryland and Colorado, respectively).  Both firms were essentially ignored by those states, which each enacted   truly ignorant and in practice utterly meaningless and counterproductive   substantially tighter gun control laws.

    Well, regarding Magpul the other shoe has now dropped.  Magpul announced yesterday that it will indeed move its production/distribution/shipping operations and corporate headquarters outside of Colorado.  Production/distribution/shipping will move to Cheyenne, WY; the corporate headquarters, to a yet-to-be-determined location in Texas.

    Way to go, Colorado.  Looks like when Magpul told you you were about to GFY, you were too stupid to listen.  Tell those jobs – and the taxes they generated – goodbye.

    Your turn, Beretta.

  • “I just felt like someone would want to know when these people had died”

    Not all heroic acts occur on a battlefield.  And not all are recognized at the time; some are not observed, or otherwise slip through the crack.  Some are even ignored or forgotten for a while – sometimes permanently.

    Sixty-plus years ago, an act of heroism occurred.  It was one among many that occurred during the Korean War.

    It’s a story you’ve likely never heard.  I hadn’t either – until today.

    It’s a story worth hearing.  But you might want to grab a tissue or two first.

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