Category: Army News

Last month, the New York Times pleaded Bowe Bergdahl’s case for a pardon from President Obama because of President-elect Trump’s undue command influence in the case of the traitor who wandered off from his post into the waiting arms of the Haqqani network. According to the New York Times, Bergdahl’s lawyers have made the formal request to the President.

Eugene R. Fidell, […] Bergdahl’s lead defense lawyer, declined to comment on the pardon petition. But if the case is still pending on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, he said, he will file a motion to have it dismissed, arguing that a fair military trial will be impossible after Mr. Trump becomes the commander in chief.

[…]

“I have grave concerns as to whether […] Bergdahl can receive a fair trial given the beating he has taken over many months from Mr. Trump, who will be commander in chief, as well as Senator McCain’s call for a hearing in case […] Bergdahl is not punished,” Mr. Fidell said. “It is really most unfair.”

Ya know what else is unfair? The fact that a guy whose selfish lack of concern for his fellow soldiers caused their deaths and injuries while they tried to rescue him from himself. They deserve justice, too.

ABC News reports that LTC Jason Amerine retired yesterday after the government’s case against him collapsed. Amerine was accused of releasing classified information to Congressional staffers of Congressman Duncan Hunter. He has has always denied that;

Amerine…came under fire this year when FBI agents working hostage cases alerted the Army’s Criminal Investigative Command to what they claimed was a serious security violation stemming from Amerine’s contacts with Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a military veteran on the House Armed Services Committee, and Hunter staffers who didn’t hold Top Secret clearances. Amerine’s own clearance was pulled, ironically, the day [Warren] Weinstein was killed.

Amerine denied that he did anything wrong in his forceful testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on whistleblowers, recounting how “the FBI formally complained to the Army that information I was sharing with Rep. Hunter was classified. It was not.”

“After my criminal investigation began, the FBI admitted to Rep. Hunter that they had the utmost respect for our work but they had to put me in my place. Again: the FBI made serious allegations of misconduct to the Army in order to put me in my place and readily admitted that to a U.S. Congressman,” the Green Beret said at the dramatic June hearing, in which he appeared in uniform.

Amerine finally retired yesterday, ending the quixotic persecution of a real American hero.

HMC Ret sends us a link from the Army Times which reports that the Pentagon Inspector General has told Senator Claire McCaskill in a letter that it was entirely appropriate that Army National Guard Brigadier General Michael Bobeck got rent-free housing from a contractor, Peduzzi Associates, Ltd., when the general was tossed from his home by his wife when he was caught in extra-marital games.

The inspector general found that the free housing…fell “under an exception to the general gift prohibition.”

[…]

However, emails obtained by USA TODAY show that Peduzzi officials kept Bobeck informed about the interest of a key client, Sikorsky, maker of the famed Black Hawk helicopter , as the Army and National Guard wrangled over a reorganization plan that had serious ramifications for Sikorsky’s bottom line. A draft letter in February that Peduzzi helped craft to key members of Congress on behalf of the National Guard Association requested that the Pentagon spend $367 million more on Black Hawks in 2017.

Bobeck and Peduzzi had also negotiated a post-retirement job, which gave Bobeck a financial interest in Peduzzi’s continued success, USA TODAY reported.

I guess the Pentagon IG’s office in concerned that there may be a homeless flag-officer epidemic looming on the horizon.

For decades the 10th Mountain Division has been stationed at Fort Drum, New York – the flatest terrain in New York State. I seem to remember that one unit of the division was at Fort Polk, Louisiana, again mountainless. Our buddy, Nina Bookout at Victory Girls reports that the Division now has a National Guard unit at Camp Hale, Colorado, where the division began it’s storied history before World War II;

These American soldier skiers were instrumental in turning the tide of war to Allied Victory at Riva Ridge, Mount Belvedere, Mount Della Torracia and Lake Garda. One of their own, PFC John Magrath, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. After the war, many went on to serve as ski instructors, establish ski areas by the name of Vail, Aspen, Arapahoe Basin, or as one soldier by the name of Bob Dole did, enter the world of politics.

In the 1950’s Camp Hale served as a training ground for the Mountain Cold Weather Training Command. It became so due to the fact that those serving in Korea were ill-equipped to handle the weather and terrain. I’m proud to say that my father, Tyler Dodge, was one of those instructors. Others with the same command went on to establish new ski areas – Chuck Lewis with Copper Mountain, work as geologists, or become engineers who now enjoy a second career as an artist, and others became business owners or entered into politics.

From the Vail Daily;

Now official members of the third maneuver battalion of the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain), organized under the 10th Mountain Division, many of the 300 to 400 troops of the 550-member battalion who were present on Sunday will learn vertical and high angle movement on rock faces like those at Camp Hale. Other troops will learn skills like inserting themselves into high altitude alpine terrain, long range weapon operation in mountainous terrain and high-altitude marksmanship. Some will even learn to ski.

“As a National Guard Unit, we don’t have the time to train every single day,” said Lt. Col. John W. Hancher with the 157th Infantry. “So we wanted to spread out the knowledge and experience throughout the entire battalion.”

Prior to the 157th Infantry’s re-patching on Sunday, the 10th Mountain Division patch was for active duty personnel only. The troops who were re-designated Sunday are part of a pilot program where the part-time servicemen and servicewomen with the Colorado National Guard’s first battalion of the 157th Infantry are now organized under the 10th Mountain Division. Captain Rich Piltinsrud was among the troops to receive the new designation; he was one of only a few selected to have their patches adhered to their shoulders by an original member of the 10th Mountain Division who trained at Camp Hale in the ‘40s.

Nina was at the re-patching ceremony and took some good pictures, you should click over and look at them.

A number of folks have sent us links about Major General John Rossi who killed himself on July 31st He was two days away from pinning on his third star and taking command of the Army Space and Missile Command. He killed himself in his home at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama;

Investigators could find no event, infidelity, misconduct or drug or alcohol abuse, that triggered Rossi’s suicide, said a U.S. government official with direct knowledge of the investigation. It appears that Rossi was overwhelmed by his responsibilities, said the official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.

Rossi himself talked in March about suicide at a conference on preventing troops from killing themselves.

He held up a card from his wallet with photos of 10 soldiers who had died under his command at Fort Sill, Okla. Four of them had committed suicide.