Category: Army News

Today’s outrage seems to be about a Green Beret. The Army established the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia earlier this year. Their mission, according to Mil.Gov is;

The 1st SFAB is the first brigade purposefully built to help combatant commanders accomplish theater security objectives by training, advising, assisting, accompanying and enabling allied and partnered indigenous security forces.

Their shoulder patch is a little odd;

Soldier Systems says that the tab has changed, but I can’t verify that;

But the biggest stink is about their beret, which is a different shade of green than the traditional Special Forces Green Beret, supposedly. There are a number of petitions out there from special forces soldiers and veterans asking that the 1st SFAB not wear their shade of Green Berets.

I haven’t found any instance of anyone wearing that distinctive headgear, even on the 1st SFAB Facebook page. All I see is helmets and patrol-type caps. But then I remember the Shinseki days when the Army Chief of Staff decided that a Black Beret taken from Rangers would improve morale in the US Army.

The Army is seeking volunteers for the 1st SFAB and offering $5000 bonuses for reenlisting volunteers, so yeah, they might be thinking about a beret as a cheap way to attract soldiers – but I don’t see anything tangible in that regard.

I remember in 1979, when the Army Chief of Staff wiped out all of the distinctive headgear that wasn’t in the Army Regulation 670-1 (Uniform Wear and Appearance standards) which took away the maroon beret from Airborne soldiers, Stetsons from Cav soldiers, black berets from tankers, the wool blanket beret of the 172nd Brigade in Alaska, basically everything that wasn’t Special Forces Green Berets and Rangers’ Black Berets. It took changing the Army Chief of Staff to return the maroon beret to airborne troopers.

Given the Army’s love for changing uniforms, I don’t doubt that they’ll try to slip this one past us, but there’s no real evidence right now.

According to Fox News, Bowe Bergdahl, admitted deserter and absconder, told a British newspaper, that he trusts the Taliban more than he trusts the Army;

“At least the Taliban were honest enough to say, ‘I’m the guy who’s gonna cut your throat,’ ” Bergdahl tells British TV journalist Sean Langan in an interview with the Sunday Times Magazine of London headlined “The Homecoming from Hell.”

Langan, too, is a former Taliban hostage.

Bergdahl, 31, from Hailey, Idaho, says he never quite knew where he stood with the Army as he performed “administrative duties” while awaiting his desertion trial.

“Here, it could be the guy I pass in the corridor who’s going to sign the paper that sends me away for life,’’ he says. “We may as well go back to kangaroo courts and lynch mobs.”

Yeah, well, at least you know that the fellow you pass in the corridor isn’t going to saw your head off for the entertainment of his pals. You know you’re going to prison for the things you did, not because you’re from Idaho. Does it really matter who puts you away? You did it and you must be punished, live with the consequences of your selfish actions and quit bitchin’ about it.

Stars & Stripes reports that Major General Joseph Harrington, the commander of United States Army Africa/Southern European Task Force, was canned for an inappropriate relation with an enlisted subordinate’s spouse.

Army Col. Patrick Seiber, an Army spokesman, said Friday that Harrington is under investigation for sending inappropriate Facebook messages to the woman, who is married to a soldier on that same base in Vicenza, Italy. Harrington, who is also married, was suspended from his post on Sept. 1, but had stayed in Italy.

Under the latest move, Seiber said Harrington will remain in the Army but will be reassigned to the Pentagon. As is usually done in discipline cases, Harrington will work as a special assistant to the director of the Army Staff until the investigation is finished.

“First Sergeant, recall the company. We need to add a paragraph to the weekend safety briefing”.

Last week we discussed Lt Spenser Rapone and his antics celebrating his communist leanings while in uniform. Yesterday, the Superintendent of the West Point US Military Academy, Lieutenant General Robert Caslen addressed the problem;

We posted a statement that Lieutenant Colonel Robert M. Heffington wrote about Cadet Rapone. The Lieutenant Colonel explains his motivations for releasing that statement last week in a letter posted in Medium.

First and foremost, standards at West Point are nonexistent. They exist on paper, but nowhere else. The senior administration at West Point inexplicably refuses to enforce West Point’s publicly touted high standards on cadets, and, having picked up on this, cadets refuse to enforce standards on each other. The Superintendent refuses to enforce admissions standards or the cadet Honor Code, the Dean refuses to enforce academic standards, and the Commandant refuses to enforce standards of conduct and discipline. The end result is a sort of malaise that pervades the entire institution. Nothing matters anymore. Cadets know this, and it has given rise to a level of cadet arrogance and entitlement the likes of which West Point has never seen in its history.

The Officer basically says that USMA is no different than any other university in the country, more concerned with creating a safe space for cadets than educating them. This is not my shocked face.

The Army unveiled a prototype of their new “pinks & greens” service dress uniforms on models SGT Schacher and SFC Johnson at the AUSA convention this week, because, you know, if those folks who design uniforms don’t come up with uniforms, they’ll have to do something useful like pull triggers and kick doors on deployments. If it ain’t broke, make up some shit.

I was all for the Blues, the color harkened back to our beginnings of the Revolutionary Army. There’s no need to change that. Well, no need except to justify a job position, another flag officer and his minions.

Thanks to Bobo for the link.