Category: Military issues

Old Soldier sends us a link about Sgt. Jeffrey Sarver, the soldier who was supposed to be the model for the main character in the movie “Hurt Locker”;

Days before the 2010 Academy Awards, Sarver sued the makers of “The Hurt Locker,” including director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal.

Boal profiled Sarver in a story for Playboy magazine.

Sarver’s filing states some of the film’s scenes contradict proper actions, and fellow service members have questioned his abilities since the movie’s release.

Let me see, here. You lent yourself to a movie, got paid, did interviews with Hollywood assholes. And now you’re unhappy with the way your fellow soldiers treat you. What, you didn’t see that SCUD coming?

Who knew that Hollywood would take liberties for the story and make a soldier look incompetent? At least Sarver got paid, not like the generations of soldiers who were maligned over the decades with no recompense.

So aside from the fact that we both spent more than a day in uniform, General Petraeus and I were both fathers sweating our sons’ deployment to Afghanistan last year. Associated Press link;

Petraeus replied: “I may not be at this table, probably won’t be, in 2015, but I’ll tell you that my son is in uniform, and Lieutenant Petraeus just completed a tour in Afghanistan, which thankfully we were able to keep very quiet, and left in November after serving as an infantry platoon leader. We’re very proud of what he did. He thinks he was doing something very important.”

His son, 2nd Lt. Stephen Petraeus, served in Afghanistan as a member of Alpha Company, 3rd Platoon, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.

OK, my son is an Air Force Sergeant who works in a hospital and his son is an infantry platoon leader, but ya know, just having a son or daughter so far away in a dangerous place is a life changing experience. I don’t have to tell a lot of you.

Last year, the Army announced that it ended bayonet training and it claimed that particular series of combatives is obsolete. They stopped issuing bayonets to soldiers which prompted soldiers to bring their own blades to the battle, which in turn has prompted the Army to develop training for fighting with knives according to Stars & Stripes;

The new technique was demonstrated during last year’s Association of the United States Army convention in Washington. A soldier approached an attacker, who grabbed the end of his rifle. In the ensuing scuffle, the soldier grabbed his bayonet from a sheath on his leg and stabbed the attacker into submission.

Despite the change in training, [Matt Larsen, the former director of the Army’s combatives program] has not heard of units issuing the bayonet to soldiers again.

“What I have seen is they are teaching it now in basic [training], but it’s a trickle-up effect coming from basic,” he said. “In fact, I’m in Iraq right now and one of the things I’m doing is showing units this new doctrine.”

Civilians are probably shocked that the Army teaching soldiers to fight with knives is a newsworthy event. It’s sad that the Army is moving away from traditional military skills, skills which build teams and individuals aside from improving combat skills. I guess its a result of our dependence on technology to do our killing.

Thanks to Jeff Schogol for the link.

Tman sends this hanky alert story about a cancer-stricken 10 year-old named Brennan Daigle in Louisiana.

Brennan had been told he was going fishing with his father. But when he got out of his dad’s truck, he was greeted by a formation of 1st MEB soldiers, standing at attention in front of a National Guard Humvee. After a moment, they all shouted “Happy Birthday, Brennan!,” and broke into applause.

Brennan was speechless, according to his mother. “All he could do was giggle,” she said.

Brennan and his best friend Kaleb were invited to check out the Humvee, and Brennan sat behind the wheel. Then soldiers took the two boys out for a spin. Afterward, Brennan and Kaleb put their heads out the hatch on the vehicle’s roof, while the crowd snapped pictures.

But it wasn’t over. Brennan got out of the Humvee and was led to the front of the formation, where he shook hands with each soldier. He was inducted into the Army as an honorary member, then given a coin symbolizing merit and excellence, as well as a military jacket with his name on the pocket, and other Army-themed gifts.

For those pf you on Facebook, here’s Brennan’s page.

Kathy Strong, was 12-years-old in 1972 when she was given a POW/MIA bracelet in her Christmas stocking. She made a promise to wear it until the soldier named on the bracelet returned.

Strong wore her bracelet much longer than most. In fact, James Moreland’s name has been on her wrist every day, without exception, for the past 38 years.

“I just wanted to keep the promise,” Strong said.

At this point, Strong says keeping the promise means wearing the bracelet until Moreland’s remains are found and returned.

“I knew there was family out there who was waiting for word, and I was just going to wait along with them,” Strong said.

Strong met Moreland’s family;

Anita and Linda are Moreland’s sisters and closest surviving relatives. When they heard about Kathy a few years ago they asked to meet.

“To have worn his bracelet for so long,” Anita said, “we just love her to death.”

“She did care,” her sister Linda added. “And she still does care.”

The CBS News article reports that Moreland’s remains have at last been found and after 43 years, he’ll come home and to be placed between his mother and father with a small bracelet.

Thanks to Jerry920 for the link.

The Military Leadership Diversity Commission delivered it’s report to Congress and there’s nothing surprising about it. The leadership of the military isn’t diverse. For some reason, since higher echelon leaders should know something about the way in which war is fought, you know, hands on experience, too many white men are in those higher echelons. From UPI;

The Military Leadership Diversity Commission said the Defense Department should end policies excluding women, and other “barriers and inconsistencies, to create a level playing field” so women get the credit they deserve.

The recommendation was one of 20 made by the commission, led by retired Air Force Gen. Lester L. Lyles and established in 2009 by the National Defense Authorization Act.

“We know that (the exclusion) hinders women from promotion,” Lyles said in an interview published by American Forces Press Service. “We want to take away all the hindrances and cultural biases.

Ya know, if my experience was in the Air Force, I might think the same thing. You may infer whatever you want from that statement. My experience, however, was as a combat infantryman (with the exception of a few years training cadets and a year as the Fort Drum G1 NCOIC) and I don’t find it quite so easy to wave away the current restrictions on women in combat – just for the sake of having women in combat. Think it’s not that simplistic? How about this statement from MSNBC;

One barrier that keeps women from the highest ranks is their inability to serve in combat units. Promotion and job opportunities have favored those with battlefield leadership credentials.

In an occupation that occurs on the battlefield, battlefield leadership credentials are essential. Would a company hire me to lead their quantum physics laboratory if I didn’t have the practical experience? Now, if I was the janitor in the quantum physics lab, why would that same company let me work in the lab just so I could get some practical experience so I could lead the lab?

I’ve known and worked with wonderful female NCOs, cadets and officers. All very proficient at their jobs, physically fit, excellent leaders and trainers. A very small number of them, however, would have made good infantrymen. Ya know what? There is probably a small percentage of infantrymen who can’t be good infantrymen, too. But if it’s one, it’s one too many.

From Canadian Press;

Seventy-seven per cent of senior officers in the active-duty military are white, while only 8 per cent are black, 5 per cent are Hispanic and 16 per cent are women, the report by an independent panel said, quoting data from September 2008.

Um, it’s a volunteer force. People volunteer to get out as well as stay in. If you think that the leadership is holding back minorities because of their particular levels of melanin, you haven’t been in the military…even for a day. There is no institutional racism in the military. Not like the racism I’ve seen out here in real world. If they had a valid point, they would have included the diversity breakdown of the 2008 year group of 0-1s (lieutenants).

They could have just left the word “Leadership” out of the name of the Commission. It’s all about bowing down to the diversity gods and it has nothing to do with leadership. Do you want the doctor that operates on your child to be the diversity choice of his med school class? Do you want the commander who takes your child into combat to be the diversity promotion of his year group?

Thanks to Jerry920 for one of those links above and getting my blood pressure jacked.