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

Category: Military issues

  • Blind squirrel finds a nut

    Charlie Rangel takes a lot of crap from this blog, but someone in his office sent us a press release on his latest resolution; H. Res 376 – Calling for Repatriation of POW/MIAs and Abductees in North Korea;

    “This resolution gives hope to the families of the thousands of American soldiers and Koreans who never made it home from the Korean War. I am elated that Congress came together to pass this resolution, reaffirming our commitment to finding our heroes and loved ones even 60 years later,” said Rangel. “However, this is just the beginning. I will keep working with the State Department to make sure we do everything we can to bring our loved ones homes.”

    Despite a gridlocked House, Rangel’s resolution achieved overwhelming bipartisan support from both sides of the aisle. The resolution calls upon the U.S. government to resume and continue search and recovery operations for remains of 8,000 American soldiers in North Korea. It also calls for repatriation of the 100,000 South Korean civilians abducted during the Korean War.

    Now, I’m not so naive that I think the North Koreans have been just waiting for 60 years hoping that someday the US Congress will pass a resolution demanding accountability from them. I don’t figure they’ll readily hand over all of the documents they have to help us account for these 8000 warriors and the thousands of South Koreans. But it is nice to see that we haven’t forgotten and that there’s someone in Congress willing to do the light lifting in this heavy issue.

    Now, who is goiing to grow the teeth to put behind this resolution?

    I’d also mention that despite the things he’s done since he’s been in office, Charlie Rangel was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star medal for his wartime service in Korea. I think it’s great that he hasn’t forgotten his fallen comrades and hope this resolution helps us turn a corner in this dark chapter.

  • Cleaning house; the Army/Navy version (Updated)

    Greg and Tman sent us links to a couple of disciplinary problems. First up is Sergeant Major Teresa L. King who is the commandant of the Drill Sergeant School in Fort jackson, SC. You may remember a few years ago it was national news when she assumed the position. Even Oprah WInfrey recognized her accompishment of being the first female commandant of that school. Well, according to the Army Times, she’s no longer functioning in that position for disciplinary reasons;

    “She is still the commandant of the school. She is not carrying out the duties as commandant,” said Stephanie Slater, a spokesperson for the command.

    Slater would not elaborate on the circumstances behind King’s suspension, citing the ongoing investigation and King’s privacy.

    “This is an internal personnel action, and we want to respect Command Sgt. Maj. King’s privacy,” Slater said.

    So I guess we can just speculate in the comments about what has caused the downfall of the mighty. If I’d known this particular nugget before, I would have guessed she wouldn’t last long;

    King has the nickname of “Sergeant Major No Slack” after the “noslack” vanity plates on her black Corvette.

    Sergeant Majors who drive Corvettes with vanity plates are always trouble.

    The next story is about a true dick in the Navy who used his subordinates to entertain his family at a reunion;

    A Navy skipper who lost his command this summer was fired in part for making his Sailors work on a Sunday to help him host a family reunion at which he allowed his relatives to drive military vehicles and go for rides on a landing craft, according to a Navy investigation report.

    I guess he thought it was his own personal Navy. I know the bubbleheads are glad he’s not a nuc. But there have been a number of O-5s bite the big weenie in the last year. If I was an O-5, I’d just run for it with my retirement intact because it looks like the new regime is cleaning house. Especially in wetter services.

    UPDATE: On SGM King, someone sent us some inside information that I don’t mind sharing. Apparently SGM King was boinking a subordinate and had a serious drinking problem – both serious infractions for the military. I saw a lot of senior NCOs losing their jobs for excessive drinking. It’s been going on for thirty years, you’d have thought King would have noticed.

  • Operation Toy Drop 2011

    Fort Bragg soldiers donated toys to needy children so they could have an opportunity to earn foreign jump wings in an annual event called Operation Toy Drop. Last year they collected more than ten thousand toys for local children and this year they hope to collect 24,000;

    More from NBC17.

  • Daily Beast: Bergdahl attempted escape

    Tman sends a link to Idaho Press-Tribune which reports from the Daily Beast that Bowe Bergdahl, the only known captive ot the Taliban attempted to escape back in September and was successful for three days;

    The story is hard to corroborate – even that Bergdahl was confirmed still alive was news to U.S. Central Command, according to The Daily Beast. But the website appeared confident in its report, based on interviews with “three reliable militant source”who heard the details from fighters present when Bergdahl made the escape attempt.

    They’re calling him Sergeant Bergdahl, but I could have sworn he was a PFC when he was first captured more than two years ago. I noticed that his AKO account has expired in his absence.

    …the sources say, Bergdahl successfully avoided capture for three days and two nights. The searchers finally found him, weak, exhausted, and nearly naked—he had spent three days without food or water—hiding in a shallow trench he had dug with his own hands and covered with leaves.

    I wish him better luck next time.

    ADDED: Aunty Brat answered my promotion question. Thanks, dear.

  • Hundreds of remains of fallen heroes sent to the dump

    ROS, VTWoody and Old Trooper have been sending us links to this story in the Washington Post about how Air Force personnel somehow decided to dispose of the remains of hundreds of fallen warriors at the local landfill;

    The landfill disposals were never formally authorized under military policies or regulations. They also were not disclosed to senior Pentagon officials who conducted a high-level review of cremation policies at the Dover mortuary in 2008, records show.

    Air Force and Pentagon officials said last month that determining how many remains went to the landfill would require searching through the records of more than 6,300 troops whose remains have passed through the mortuary since 2001.

    So, find the fucksticks who did it and make them sort the shit out under the strict supervision of some combat warriors. They must know who did this dastardly deed. Find ’em and fuck ’em. It’s one thing when bureaucrats did that screwy shit at Arlington, it’s quite another when active duty people do it.

  • Atheists in foxholes

    Old Trooper sends a link from CNS about some dildo who is complaining that the troops are praying together before they leave for missions into the mouth of the lion;

    Jason Torpy, president of the Military Atheists and Free Thinkers Association, told “All Things Considered” over the weekend about an incident in 2003 or 2004, in which his commander gathered his team together to pray before the Army unit deployed — rather than make preparations for the mission.

    NPR: Can you give some examples of where as an atheist, as a humanist, you felt left out?

    TORPY: Going on a military mission, for example, we were getting ready to roll out. And ‘Everybody come in.’ So as the commander of this convoy (said), ‘Everybody come in and we’re going to do a prayer first together.’ We’re not going to talk about communications, we’re not going to talk about route planning, we’re not going to talk about first aid, we’re not going to talk about maintenance.

    Like I’ve said before, I’m not a real religious kind of guy, but I’m also not anti-religion either. When I found myself in those kinds of situations, I just bowed my head and went along with it…why get in the way of someone else asking for a blessing from their Creator, or being a dick and complaining to NPR that someone violated my right to be a God-less heathen.

    In the remainder of the interview, Torpy told NPR that chaplains in the military today do not “minister” to troops. but carry out secular “support” roles — and that atheist chaplains are needed to support humanist soldiers.

    The military already has atheist chaplains, they’re called psychiatrists and psychologists. How do people with no faith need “ministering”? I guess what pisses my off most is the implication in the name of Torpy’s organization that being faithful to God isn’t “free thinking”.

    I guess he and I are both lucky that he wasn’t my company commander.

  • Privates see the folly of a timetable withdrawal

    Tman sends us a link from the LA Times in which even Army privates can see the folly of a time table withdrawal from Iraq;

    Logan Trainum, Hickman’s best friend, said David told him troops felt compromised by President Obama’s announcement in October that U.S. troops in Iraq would be home by Christmas.

    “David was frustrated — he said all the guys were frustrated,” Trainum said. “They felt like people were going to make one last try to get them before they left.”

    If [Gold Star Mom] Veronica Hickman could meet Obama, she said, “I’d tell him: ‘You shouldn’t have broadcast that everybody would be out by the end of the year. It made them targets. You should have slyly got them out.’ ”

    But everyone is in such a big rush for the exits, there’s no time to consider the cost that the troops have to pay for politicians’ campaigning ploys. And the LA Times doesn’t have to act like they had no part in the whole scheme to get troops killed.

  • Coburn and Closing Base Schools

    According to Fox News,  Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. has a plan to close schools on military bases INSIDE the U.S. in an effort to save around $50,000 per student, per year.

    Currently, the Pentagon operates nearly 200 on-base schools around the world. Sixty-three of them are in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

    According to Coburn’s office, the Pentagon is spending an average of $51,000 per student per year to attend the U.S. schools on military bases. That figure is sure to rise as the Defense Department endeavors to repair the glut of schools that are in deteriorating conditions, though the military estimates the per-pupil cost is far lower than Coburn’s figures show.

    Coburn has proposed shutting down the U.S. schools, and sending students to nearby schools in the local communities to get their education. In exchange, his amendment would allow the defense secretary to send up to $12,000 per student every year to the schools that take those students — in turn saving the government $1 billion over five years, according to Coburn.

    The article goes on  to describe dilapidated schools with bugs and inadequate heat.   DoD argues that the cost of educating the students is much lower and has pledged to repair the buildings.

    The plan Coburn lays out doesn’t seem outrageous to me, aside from if the schools are located in communities with failing school districts.   School me.   I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a base school, and with the rudimentary search I did, I found that students who’s parent is at Great Lakes or Norfolk attend the local school district.  So, what about this plan?   To me, it sounds way better than slicing up retirement and medical.