Yesterday, I attended the funeral of Corporal Donald Marler, who was killed in action along with two other Marines in Helmand on June 6th. At the time he was serving with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines (3/1), which was on its sixth combat deployment in support of the war on terror. I served with Don for two years, first at Marine Barracks Washington and then as part of the Marine security detail at Camp David.
Today in my summer session geography class, a disaster the size of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico struck our basement classroom-THE PROJECTOR WASN’T WORKING. Paralysis and panic seized the instructor, who had no training on how to teach a class without a PowerPoint presentation (or on how to write on a whiteboard). She called ASU’s tech support who promised to send someone to the classroom right away to help mitigate this epic emergency. While waiting for the cavalry to come and rescue the class from our PowerPoint deprivation, the instructor rambled incoherently on topics ranging from the World Cup to why she likes Al Gore so much. Finally tech support arrived and immediately pushed one button on the projector which fixed the problem. Tech support than returned to their dungeon fortress to continue playing World of Warcraft and Farmville. The day was saved and learning occurred.
This was a pretty common occurrence during my first semester at ASU. Instructors and professors have become so reliant on PowerPoint to teach a class that when it doesn’t work (which is frequent) they don’t know what to do. I had at least five classes canceled throughout the semester because a projector or computer wasn’t working. My girlfriend told me that it was common when she was at University of Arizona that students would intentionally break the projectors in the hopes that class would be canceled. The problem of over-reliance on PowerPoint presentations is not just confined to academia unfortunately. As many of you know, PowerPoint has infected the US military to the point where almost nothing is done without it. In fact a couple of months ago the New York Times ran article that implied that the overuse of PowerPoint was hindering military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and forced officers to spend hours creating intricate presentations instead of devoting time to actual operational tasks. Some choice quotes from the article:
So the last day or so I have gotten a lot of emails and Facebook messages about actor and Marine R. Lee Ermey dying suddenly in his home. This story is untrue and whoever started this rumor needs a beating. In fact I know just the guy to give it to them….
Between June and September of every year is when the majority of enlisted servicemembers leave the military since high school graduation occurs towards the end of spring and early summer. Many of the people leaving the military in the coming months (whether they are retiring after 20+ years or leaving after one enlistment) are planning to go back to school and use their educational benefits which they have earned. Over the past few weeks, I have had a lot of friends still in the Corps asking me about going back to school. I really only have one piece of advice and that is that college is a game and you need to learn all the rules (and how to bend them) in order to be successful. So, I have decided make a post with some advice based on my experiences going back to school. If anybody has anything else to add, by all means post it in the comments section.
This post isn’t going to be a rant about what a Charlie Foxtrot the VA is or about the problems they had processing Ch. 33 (Post-9/11 GI Bill) claims. If you want a pretty complete documentation of that fiasco, head over to our friend Army of Dude who has done an outstanding job documenting the various issues with VA educational benefits. Also, if you want detailed instructions on how to apply for educational benefits from the VA, head over to their website. I plan to focus on more general pieces of advice with this post.
More below the fold…
If I saw the London 2012 Olympic mascots coming towards me in Arizona, I would probably be within my legal rights to blast them:
Apparently they are “gender-neutral”, which will make stuffed animal versions of these creatures perfect gifts for the children of DU posters.
Today, there has been pretty much nonstop news coverage about scumbag politicians. First and foremost, you have Richard Blumenthal whom we’ve been putting through the wringer here at TAH. Then you have Republican Congressmen Mark Souder from Indiana who resigned today after admitting to an affair with a staffer. Souder was a “do as I say, not as I do” morality crusader who was a shaky fiscal conservative and he barely won the Republican primary two weeks ago. Only after it seemed inevitable that the story of his affair would come out and only after he had wasted his party’s time and resources did he admit to the affair. And last but certainly not least is Arlen Specter, the man whose ideology is whatever is politically expedient at the time. After openly admitting to jumping parties to win reelection, he gets stomped by Joe Sestak, whom the Obama administration tried to bribe to get out of the primary by offering him the position of Secretary of the Navy.
So, as a change of pace, lets talk about two candidates who we need to get elected to the Congress. More below the fold…
You can watch the news conference on Real Clear Politics here (thanks to TSO for the link).
First of all, it is kinda of ironic that Blumenthal was defending himself against allegations that he lied about serving overseas in a combat zone in a VFW hall. Everybody knows that to be a member of the VFW you have to serve overseas in a combat zone. In my opinion, he had no business setting foot in a VFW hall.
Blumenthal surrounded himself with veterans (mostly Marines) and one spoke defended Blumenthal against the allegations he lied before Blumenthal spoke. On the Fox News feed, I heard a lot of “hooahs” and no “oorahs”. Marines don’t say “hooah” and most of the vets I saw on screen were Marines. Seem strange to anybody else?
Blumenthal starts out by emphasizing he “volunteered” to serve in the Marine Corps reserve. In a technical sense, yes. However, it is clear that for five years (from 1965 to 1970) he avoided serving in an active-duty unit that could have been sent to Vietnam. In 1970, he did not receive a deferment and that is the year he joined the Marine Corps Reserve.
Blumenthal then admits to a “few misplaced words” and that he misspoke “on a few occasions”. I guess a “few ocassions” means eight times, including in print news articles that he didn’t make an effort to correct. He also stated he “regrets” those words. Yeah, I would regret them too when my lies become national news.
Blumenthal then took questions and in response to one question he chastises the New York Times for barely mentioning his reserve service and deingrating the Reserves in its article. Here are some excerpts from the New York Times article, you decide if they barely mention his reserve service:
“In 1970, with his last deferment in jeopardy, he landed a coveted spot in the Marine Reserve, which virtually guaranteed that he would not be sent to Vietnam. He joined a unit in Washington that conducted drills and other exercises and focused on local projects, like fixing a campground and organizing a Toys for Tots drive.”
“He said he had tried to stick to a consistent way of describing his military experience: that he served as a member of the United State Marine Corps Reserve during the Vietnam era.”
“In April 1970, Mr. Blumenthal secured a spot in the Marine Corps Reserve, which was regarded as a safe harbor for those who did not want to go to war.”
“Mr. Blumenthal landed in the Fourth Civil Affairs Group in Washington, whose members included the well-connected in Washington. At the time, the unit was not associated with the kind of hardship of traditional fighting units, according to Marine reports from the period and interviews with about a half-dozen men who served in the unit during the Vietnam years.”
The Times also posted this picture of Blumenthal in his blues:
Obviously, they didn’t ignore his service in the Reserves. Now on the issue of deningrating the reserves during the Vietnam War, it is a fact that (with a very few exceptions) the vast majority of reserve and National Guard units did not deploy to Vietnam. Service in those units was seen by many as a way of avoiding service overseas. That is indisputable.