Category: Military issues

I’ve received countless emails in the last week or so about Army Reserve Col. Lawrence Sellin and his subsequent firing over a screed he sent to United Press International disparaging the mindless use of PowerPoint presentations in his shop at the International Joint Command in Afghanistan. You can read the whole complaint at The Army Times.

The Army Times also interviewed Colonel Sellin.

“I don’t hate PowerPoint. It’s a useful tool,” he said. “But it can be a crutch as a substitute for thinking. It’s too easy to produce a lot of slides and create volume, not quality. You really think that with a lot of detailed slides that you’re making progress, when you are actually not.”

The only thing I know about PowerPoint is that’s the format that ConcreteBob uses to send me pictures of hot chicks. And my wife busts me every time.

But I do know there’s some weird stuff going on in the Army these days – GI Korea from ROK Drop wrote to tell us that TAH is blocked from Army computers in Afghanistan because we’re “too political”. I’d like to know what they mean by that. Colonel Sellin was officially punished for not clearing his rant through the PAO before sending it to UPI, so I figure that we’re being blocked for some reason other than being “too political”.

Thanks to Gary for the tip. A spy who was busted trying to board an aircraft bound for China with sensitive documents on Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) will remain in custody and transferred to Oklahoma according to the Associated Press;

Liangtian Yang, 26, of Lawton, Okla., is charged in Oklahoma with one count of theft of government property. During a detention hearing, investigators testified he had copies of two restricted Army field manuals on multiple launch rocket systems on his computer equipment when he was arrested last week at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Yang had quit his job days earlier after he lost his security clearance for failing to report his marriage, prosecutors said.

I don’t know why he was busted. China is a our greatest ally aren’t they?

i don’t know how I’ve missed this story. Back in late June, Staff Sergeant Rashad Valmont shot multiple times and killed his supervisor 47-year-old Pedro Mercado at their Army Reserve Center at Fort Gilliam, Georgia, south of Atlanta.

Here’s a picture of Valmont in happier times;

It seems that portly Valmont was denied permission to attend a military school because he couldn’t meet the weight standards;

Sgt. Rashad Valmont’s attorney William Cassara said Monday his client was dehydrated and exhausted from sauna treatments, body wraps and other efforts to meet “arbitrary” weight guidelines to go to an advanced training course.

Well, if by “arbitrary weight guidelines” Mr. Cassara means the same standards that have been around since the carter Administration – and the same “arbitrary weight guidelines” that the whole Army is subject to when we attend military schools, he might be right – well, except for the fact they’ve been around forever and everyone is required to comply.

Oh, and I see where Valmont tried body wraps, fasting and saunas, but nothing about actual exercise to lose weight. He sounds like a lazy slug. I’m just saying. Only a slug would think he could loose weight by sitting around in a sauna. I’ve known plenty of them. Some I met while sitting around in a sauna trying to lose weight.

Cassara said Valmont was in “some sort of delirium” when he shot and killed 47-year-old Master Sgt. Pedro Mercado in June at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in nearby Fort Gillem.

Prosecutors say Valmont, who was charged with premeditated murder, went into a downward spiral after he was denied his leave for repeatedly showing up to work late.

It’s not clear to me who was on leave prior to MSG Mercado’s murder, because the Associated Press author of the article isn’t clear on that point. I guess they should be giving remedial writing class at AP. It’s hard to understand the whole “hunger delirium” excuse, though. By the looks of him, Valmont had another six weeks of “stored energy” under his skin. And if he was on vacation, I doubt that his adherence to a strict regimen of saunas and body wraps were uninterrupted by trips to Dairy Queen.

Thanks to Just a Grunt for the link.

Associated Press reports that the Defense Department has decided which States will and which won’t get waivers for the new Military and Overseas Voter Act (MOVE Act) that most affects the vote count of service members serving overseas;

Not getting the waiver calls into question how the affected states – Wisconsin, Hawaii, Alaska and Colorado – will comply with deadlines for counting all votes cast for the Nov. 2 election by members of the military and other Americans living overseas.

The Defense Department granted Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Washington the waivers.

It’s funny, but Vermont and Minnesota moved their primaries to be in compliance with the mandated 45-day turnaround time for mailed absentee ballots. The others just thought it’d be easier to disenfranchise their military voters, I suppose.

As far as I’m concerned, there’s no legitimate excuse for a waiver. Those States all have the same number of days on their calender as the States in compliance with the MOVE Act. If they can make accommodations for the elderly, the handicapped, the illiterate morons, then they can accommodate the people who make it possible to have free elections.

Naser Abdo, a Muslim soldier stationed at Fort Campbell, KY who has been in the Army a year or so has refused to deploy with his unit (there’s video at the link);

According to documents provided to The Associated Press, Abdo cited Islamic scholars and verses from the Quran as reasons for his decision to ask for separation from the Army.

“I realized through further reflection that God did not give legitimacy to the war in Afghanistan, Iraq or any war the U.S. Army would conceivably participate in,” he wrote.

Apparently, he wasn’t aware that we are at war – because he’s not more Muslim this year than he was last year. The religion didn’t change in the last year. Hundreds of Muslims are serving this very minute without pretending to shit themselves over discovering they might be deployed. This rocket scientist waited until his unit was ordered to deploy before he pulled out his Muslim card.

“There was racial slurs,” Abdo told Channel 4. “On several occasions, I’ve missed prayers — sometimes, often times, involuntarily.”

A recommendation from the commander of his battalion’s rear detachment based at Fort Campbell said if Abdo deployed to a combat zone, he could jeopardize the lives of fellow soldiers as well as his own because of his convictions as a conscientious objector.

Sure I’m glad he didn’t deploy because he was a greater danger to those around him than any enemy he might encounter, but as an American tax payer, I want restitution for this gumball’s training and pay up to this point.

In fact, i want them all to pay me back…Jesse MacBeth, Geoff Millard, Matthis Chiroux…all of them. Every single one who made a promise and failed to fulfill it. In fact, I volunteer to be the repo man. Nothing would make me happier to use Matthis as a club to shake down Millard for the millions Millard owes us taxpayers.

The Move Act was supposed to encourage states to accommodate military voters serving overseas and especially those serving in war zones. But it has become a big excuse to disenfranchise absentee voters. According to Fox News 10 states as well as the District of Columbia and the US Virgin islands have requested waivers to avoid compliance with the Act.

In Delaware, for example, primary day, Sept. 14, 47 days before Election Day, leaving not enough time for officials in Washington to certify a winner, print ballots and ship them to Mazar-I-Sharif fast enough to comply with the new law.

So, pretty much States just decided that military voters aren’t worth the trouble of accommodating. It’s easier to get a waiver than to uphold someone’s right to a voice in government? Some people’s civil rights are more important than others, I suppose. maybe the Pentagon should do what Lincoln did in the 1864 election – send the troops home to vote. If I remember right, it was all of the Ohio Volunteers who were sent from the front.