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

Category: Big Army

  • In Memoriam: Ten Years Ago

    On 23 March 2003, the US military suffered its first wartime “fragging” incident since Vietnam.  On that date Hasan Karim Akbar – then a soldier assigned to A Company, 326th Engineer Battalion, 101st Infantry Division – conducted a grenade and firearms attack on fellows soldiers at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait. 

    To execute his attack, Akbar first disabled a generator to disrupt lighting during the early morning hours while most troops were asleep. He then threw four grenades stolen from supply into three sleeping tents. In the resulting confusion,  he fired at other US troops with his assigned weapon.

    Akbar’s attack killed two US personnel – CPT Christopher S. Seifert, 101st Airborne, and Maj. Gregory L. Stone, 124th Air Operations Squadron, who was attached to the 101st Airborne at the time.  Fourteen other US personnel were wounded.

    Akbar was apprehended after the attack.  He was tried by court-martial and found guilty of premeditated murder in April 2005.  During his court-martial, he attacked and injured an MP escorting him to the latrine with a smuggled sharp object. 

    Akbar was convicted of murder and was sentenced to death.  His case was automatically appealed to the Court of Military Appeals, which heard his appeal in 2012.  A decision on his appeal is still pending. 

    Rest in peace, Maj. Stone and CPT Seifert.  You’re not forgotten.

    And as for you, Akbar: it may take a while, but I’m guessing that your days are indeed numbered.  I’m also guessing that you won’t die of old age.

    I recommend you start making your preparations to meet Shaytan. 

  • Senators introduce stopgap to reinstate tuition assistance

    Senators Jim Inhofe and Kay Hagan introduced a stopgap budget bill that would reinstate tuition assistance for the troops still on active duty according to Fox News;

    “The president wants Americans to feel the pain of the arbitrary across-the-board budget cuts from sequestration, but to cut off promised education assistance for our service members when there are other lower priority spending programs to draw from is an injustice,” Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.

    He and Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina introduced an amendment Wednesday to a stopgap budget bill that would restore the program.

    Inhofe recognizes what the service chiefs have ignored – it will hurt retention to cut off the few things the troops have which keep them motivated to stay.

    Hagan, in a statement, also said she understands the Pentagon has some “tough budget decisions” to make, but called the decision to suspend tuition assistance “shortsighted.”

    It’s especially sad that the politicians are looking out for the troops’ welfare better than their own generals are doing. And I especially think that it sucks that the Navy Department is willing to cut Marines’ tuition assistance, while keeping their own for other-than-Marine Navy personnel.

  • Review of the Distinguished Warfare Medal

    Yes, I heard that Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is reviewing the Distinguished Warfare Medal. From the Stars & Stripes;

    Pentagon spokesman George Little said Tuesday said the review was prompted by complaints from veterans groups and lawmakers about its ranking above the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

    The review, to be led by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, will look at whether the order of precedence for the new medal should be changed, but will not consider eliminating the new award. A report and decision on the issue is expected by April 12.

    The announcement comes days after Hagel defended the medal to critics, and just weeks after the Pentagon announced the new award.

    TSO called to remind us that when he was on a conference call with DoD a few weeks ago, they were adamant that they weren’t going to review anything, that it was being rolled out as planned. But, today, somehow, things have changed.

    Since this whole thing began, I’ve said it was a distraction from real issues. Panetta gave Hagel a gift that made Hagel look like someone who is on our side, a member of the E-4 Mafia who is just like us.

    Meanwhile, we’re not talking about the thousands of retirees who are being kicked off of Tricare Prime next month. We’re not talking about the Tricare premiums and co-pays that are jumping up. We’re not talking about the cuts to tuition assistance for active duty folks. We’ve forgotten about the $700 million dollars raided from our Tricare surplus. We’re not talking about the carrier group that won’t be supporting the troops in the Gulf.

    I just wonder what the next shiny object will be that they’ll use to distract us from actual issues.

  • Army suspends Tuition Assistance

    Following in the footsteps of the Navy, the Army has decided to suspend their Tuition Assistance Program – you know out of all of the things the Army could do to save money, enlisted soldiers’ career progression is what they decide to cut. From the Washington Times;

    The move will suspend financial assistance for soldiers who take classes in their off-duty time after work and on the weekends.

    “This suspension is necessary given the significant budget execution challenges caused by the combined effects of a possible year-long continuing resolution and sequestration,” said an official Army statement Friday.

    Yeah, it’s “necessary” to suspend career enhancement, because there too many idiot sergeant majors sucking up the oxygen at the top tiers. What sergeant major decided to keep quiet when asked he was asked his opinion about this? Where is SMA Ray Chandler, waving his arms and telling the ACoS to get his head out of his ass? Morrell and Gates wouldn’t have stood for this bullshit.

  • Marines end tuition assistance, other services may follow

    A couple of you folks sent me the message from the Department of the Navy on how they planned to make through the sequester. Buried way down near the bottom of the message was the cessation of the Marine Corps’ tuition assistance program. The tuition assistance program is how most folks on active duty get to work on their education. Between tuition assistance and teaching ROTC, that’s how I saved the VA some money by only using three semesters of my education benefits. From Stars & Stripes;

    An administrative message published Saturday for all Navy and Marine Corps personnel from Navy Secretary Ray Mabus noted that one of the impacts of the across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration would be to “cease new USMC enrollments in voluntary education tuition assistance.”

    But Marines already using the program said they were informed that their assistance also would be cut off after the current semester and that they should meet with guidance counselors for information about scholarships and grants.

    Good move, Navy. Tuition assistance also benefits the services because folks get educated. I guess this is the way they intend to make sequestration especially painful. I guess while they were raiding our $770 million Tricare surplus, they didn’t think that they could use it to help out the youngsters instead of getting some general new carpeting in his office or something, which probably would have made me less critical of the DoD. But, it looks like the Marines aren’t the only ones considering the cut;

    On Tuesday, the Defense Department comptroller released guidance that suggested all services consider “significant reductions in funding new tuition assistance applicants … for the duration of the current fiscal situation.”

    Probably because the folks looking for places to cut at DoD have never worn a uniform.

  • Jeff Denham holds DoD and VA feet to the fire

    Someone dropped off a link to our Facebook page to a video of Congressman Jeff Denham, an Air Force veteran representing California’s 10th District in the hearings this past week about the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs inability to gin up a system by which they can seamlessly share veterans’ records.

    He begins by asking why in the decades since he left the service does he still have to maintain his little yellow shot records card when as a businessman he had all of his inventory and business on a computer network. He’s correct in his conclusion – not that the VA and DoD CAN’T do it – they just don’t WANT to do it.

    Thanks for being our voice, Mr. Denham.

  • VA & Pentagon fight over sharing; vets pay

    The Stars & Stripes reports that the VA and the pentagon can’t come to an agreement on the information system that would allow them to seamlessly transfer veterans’ records – like the big immature babies that those agencies have become. DoD is shopping for a big wasteful POS system that doesn’t exist yet and the VA doesn’t want to lose theirs, so veterans are left holding the bag.

    Earlier this month, secretaries from both departments announced they would provide shared medical records starting this year, but not a shared, identical system among agency health officials. Lawmakers and veterans advocates blasted that as reneging on the president’s promise of seamless, lifelong medical records for veterans.

    Department officials insist that isn’t so.

    “We are not moving away from a single, joint electronic health record,” VA assistant secretary for information Roger Baker told the committee. “What has changed is the strategy we will use to accomplish the goal.”

    So, what they need is an administrator that will kick both agencies in the ass until they resolve their little selfish bullshit tantrums. But I don’t see Shinseki or Hagel being that guy. This is what happens when you put politicians in the position of an administrator. If I’m not mistaken, this was supposed to happen last year, and with a year grace period, they still haven’t taken the first step.

  • Bill to lower precedence of Distinguished Warfare Medal

    Members of Congress have begun to intercede on the Defense Department’s efforts to introduce a new medal designed to reward combatants who are removed from the battlefield by geography. DoD had originally planned t make the medal higher in precedence than the Bronze Star Medal which rewards performance on the battlefield, but warriors have complained that the Distinguished Warfare medal should be lower than those awarded for participation in combat. From Stars & Stripes;

    A trio of veterans serving in Congress, Reps. Duncan Hunter, D-Calif., Tom Rooney, R- Fl., and Tim Murphy, R-Pa., introduced the bill on Wednesday, in response to what has been a public outcry against the creation of the medal, which was announced on Feb. 13.

    “Combat valor awards have a deep and significant meaning to those who serve in America’s military,” said Hunter, a former Marine, in a statement. “These awards represent not just actions, but also the courage and sacrifice that derive from experiences while in harm’s way. And those engaged in direct combat put their lives on the line, accepting extraordinary personal risk.”

    Personally, I think the announcement of the medal was timed to distract from the rest of the crap the Defense Department is engaged in right now, like raiding the Tricare surplus and kicking thousands of retirees off of Tricare Prime. DoD’s insistence that their plans go forward on the medal is out of character for them. But, I guess we’ll see what Congress can do about the inequity of this award.