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

Category: Military issues

  • Joint statement from other Military bloggers

    The Military blogs aren’t totally in synchronized on this DADT thing, so in that spirit, CJ Grisham presents this letter, oddly enough signed by some of the same people as yesterday’s letter;

    Like all Military Bloggers, we consider the US military the greatest institution for good that has ever existed. No other organization has freed more people from oppression, done more humanitarian work or rescued more from natural disasters. We also want that to continue.

    Today, it appears inevitable to us that the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and law restricting open homosexual behavior from serving will be changed. We believe that the changes resulting from the repeal or amending of this policy will cause unnecessary burdens upon the current force and readiness.

    Homosexuals have always served in the US Military and in many instances were severely ostracized or worse when found out. The current policy of preventing disclosure of sexual orientation is in keeping with good order and discipline.

    The service chiefs are currently studying the impact and consequences of changing the DADT policy, and how to implement it without compromising the morale, order and discipline necessary for the military to function. The study is due to be completed on Dec. 1st. We also ask Congress to withhold action until this is finished, but no longer.

    We urge Congress to oppose any efforts to repeal the law and lift the policy of openly homosexual service in the military. A large number of associated concerns and costs are associated with the repeal, among them housing, legal status in various states, and moral objections from the majority of the force. The policy would also open doors to legitimate objections from polygamists and other groups who would feel discriminated against. The time is not now to consider such actions while our military is at war on more than two fronts.

    We don’t believe the US Military is ready to adapt to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell without compromising its mission. We disagree with Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen about lifting the ban but will welcome any and all lawful orders that may be given as a result of any repeal. The US Military is a professional force, but would take years to adjust to these extreme changes.

    C.J. Grisham – A Soldier’s Perspective and You Served

    Troy Steward – Bouhammer

    Uncle J – Blackfive (yeah, awkward, huh?)

    Bob Miller – Eagles Up: Talon

    LL –Chromed Curses

    You’ll notice that I haven’t signed either letter – that’s because I think we have more pressing military issues to discuss than who should be allowed to put what into whom.

  • Medal for restraint?

    According to the Associated Press and the Army Times, some military leaders are contemplating a medal for using restraint in battle;

    “The idea is consistent with our approach,” explained Air Force Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis. “Our young men and women display remarkable courage every day, including situations where they refrain from using lethal force, even at risk to themselves, in order to prevent possible harm to civilians. In some situations our forces face in Afghanistan, that restraint is an act of discipline and courage not much different than those seen in combat actions.”

    Soldiers are often recognized for non-combat achievement with decorations such as their service’s commendation medal. But most of the highest U.S. military decorations are for valor in combat. A medal to recognize a conscious effort to avoid a combat action would be unique.

    Only in the Age of Obama in our war against Human Caused Disasters could there be conceived a medal for avoiding combat.

  • The real difference.

    Recently Travis Bishop commented on a post about him a few days ago. One thing that he did bring up was the group called Disposable Warriors. Now don’t let the name fool you, this website is very different from it’s alleged counter parts that Travis linked it with in his post.

    The person running the show is Former Sgt Chuck Luther He has been working with those with honest to good real issues and really seems to care about the each person. In his recent case shows that it working with Private First Class Jacob Wade He went AWOL during mid-tour leave. While while I still think AWOL is never the right thing to do, it is more sympathetic then others.

    He said he made the decision after dealing with the effects of what he witnessed and experienced during his first six months in Iraq with the 1st Cavalry Division.

    “Riding through town we got attacked,” he said. “I had a grenade go off five feet behind me, and only one other soldier that was with me made it into the truck, and we thought everyone was dead.”

    So Chuck talks about how to face this challenge and this is the real difference.

    “We have a large amount of AWOL cases; the rest are soldiers that are currently there that possibly if nobody intervened they would go AWOL,” Luther said.

    He said he has handled more than 175 cases across the country so far with more than 70 active cases.

    “It’s not something that can’t be taken over and fixed,” Luther said. “But there is help out there, and AWOL is seriously the last resort, and it shouldn’t ever get to that point.”

    That is just it the real divide over who wants to help the person or help their cause. Something we already know about you James.

  • Is 20-year military retirement too soon?

    I picked this story up from our buddies over at ROK Drop and thought I’d bring it over here because it fits with my warnings that the Obama Administration is coming for our compensation.

    The discussion begins with Nathaniel Fick, the CEO of the Center for New American Security who claims that the current 20-year retirement system that the military depends upon is outdated because, somehow we’re not an agrarian society now;

    Cliff retirement at 20 years of service, for instance, strikes me as a relic of an age when twenty years in the Army left a veteran a broken man, with blown joints, no hearing, and a limited ability to work in an agricultural or industrial economy.

    Fick is basically an imbecile. According to his bio, he’s a former infantry officer, and I noticed he didn’t bother to do a twenty or thirty year stint, but I’ll bet he had career NCOs who trained his young, hairless ass how to be an infantry leader. What if those guys had decided that sticking around for thirty years wasn’t worth it.

    Fick acts like retention won’t be affected, like James Orbitron Webb thinks that lower pay won’t affect retention.

    The result: lower and more flexible personnel costs that are heavier on discretionary spending and lighter on mandatory spending, and a system more aligned with your view (quite correct, in my opinion) that people are much more important than things — paying our young warfighters more and our “retirees” (if we can call someone in his 30s that with a straight face) less.

    Um, Fick, don’t you want those “young warfighters” to hang around long enough to be retirees? There’s a cause and effect model here that I don’t think you want to tamper with from your ivory tower think tank, Fick.

    Not only that, but servicemembers who accept the lower pay, the family displacements, the deployments are twenty years behind their peers when they get out of the military and the paltry retirement makes up for that deficiency somewhat.

    So how are the musings from a think tank related to the Obama Administration? Well, given the importance that the Obama Administration places on the denizens of this particular tank should give you reason to worry. The two founders of the Center, Michèle Flournoy and Kurt M. Campbell, are currently members of the Obama clan as Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, respectively, so they wield some measure of influence among the Obamistas.

    Our military is unique in the world because we have a young and experienced core of professionals, but the Obama Administration and the Democrats in Congress seem deadset on tearing down the professionals by destroying retention.

    Funny how outsiders always seem to have all of the answers for lowering costs, and the answers always seem to be the military and their personnel issues.

  • Where in the world?

    If you’re wondering where TSO is this week, he’s in Colorado Springs at the Warrior Games;

    The Warrior Games will take place May 10-14, 2010 at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Sports include swimming, cycling, track & field, shooting, archery, wheelchair basketball, and seated volleyball. This program is designed to elevate abilities through athletic competition for wounded, ill, and injured servicemembers, providing a focal event to empower the incorporation of athletics into Military Service Wounded Warrior Programs.

    The Warrior Games will be an annual event to celebrate the achievement and abilities of wounded, ill, and injured servicemembers, while building camaraderie and raising awareness for adaptive sports.

    From KKTV;

    At the Olympic Training Center, more than 200 wounded warriors from every branch of the military are about to compete for the glory of winning a gold medal in the inaugural Warrior Games.

    The games, a joint effort between the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Paralympics, the United Services Organizations and Ride to Recovery, are designed to give our fighting men and women who’ve been wounded an opportunity to inspire us all once more.

    Many have battled back from the brink of despair, often with the help of sports. And like the olympic flame, burning bright over the Olympic Training Center, they are a symbol of everlasting determination.

    I swear, he’s like a rock star on tour these days jetting back and forth across the country hanging out with cool people. I may have to give him a pay raise.

  • Kagan talk

    So the President has named his choice for the Supreme Court and SURPRISE! it’s a liberal who pushes a gay agenda and opposes the military. Who would have thought that would ever happen. In the Wall Street Journal, Bobby Clark tries to explain away Kagan’s anti-military policy by blaming it on Harvard policy;

    I, along with many faculty and students, publicly stated our opposition to the military’s policy, which we considered both unwise and unjust, even as we explicitly affirmed our profound gratitude to the military. Virtually all law schools affiliated with large universities did the same.

    When Ms. Kagan became dean in July of 2003, she upheld this newer policy.

    So, you see it’s not her fault, as long as you accept the fact that she had no free will and she was forced to adhere to liberal policy. Ezra Klein makes the point that Kagan has a “this record”;

    There are at least two reasons that it’s hard to say whether Elena Kagan is a “good” or “bad” pick for the Supreme Court. First, her thin written record means we don’t have enough evidence to answer our questions.

    So we’re stuck judging her on what she’s done – at Harvard, she threw military recruiters under the bus in favor of making the politically correct decision to condemn “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, the Clinton Era policy.

    Wesley Pruden writes;

    Mzz Kagan has always tried to keep her opinions hidden or cleverly camouflaged, as if she might one day want to be a stealth candidate for the court. She has been open and passionate only about expanding rights of gays and lesbians at the expense of everyone else.

    I don’t trust ugly little trolls who put their sexual proclivities ahead of our National Security.

  • A well-deserved salute to Mr. Doug Sterner

    mr-doug-sterner

    Just A Grunt sent us a link to a Washington Post story about Mr. Doug Sterner. Some of you who hung around here this weekend might recognize his name as one of our commenters.

    At times, the database has been his only job, and an unpaid one at that. He’s fallen behind on rent and bills. Friends have urged him to slow down. But he continues, driven by a desire to prevent “the real heroes” from “being lost to history.”

    In 2008, the Military Times bought Sterner’s database for $250,000, allowing him to devote himself mainly to the project. His list is so comprehensive that FBI agents routinely rely on him. “He would be my first source to go to,” Cottone said. “He’s invaluable.”

    While we’ve never met, Mr. Sterner and I have shared some email communications. Like the good folks at POW Net, Mr. Sterner has been in the shadows of some of our phony soldiers stories. I’m sure he’s a bit embarrassed by the Washington Post article, humble guy that he is, but he’s probably one of the most important people in the battle against fakes and phonies. Mr. Sterner practically wrote the Stolen Valor Act and created the Home of Heroes database.

    Every time his name pops up in my inbox, I’m humbled by the thought that such a fine veteran and American bothers to read our humble blog. Last week I almost went weak in my knees when a reporter told me that Mr. Sterner had recommended This Ain’t Hell and our research to him.

    Thanks to Just A Grunt for providing us at TAH with this opportunity to thank Mr. Sterner for his difficult and selfless labors.

  • Army recruiting fraud investigated

    Army recruiting Command is investigating about 38 recruiters in the Denver area for falsification of discharges (DD214) and other documents used for enlistments;

    Those documents could include items such as phony diplomas and other altered records. The investigation was confirmed by Douglas Smith, a spokesperson for the United States Army Recruiting Command Public Affairs office at Fort Knox Kentucky. There are presently 307 recruiters in the Denver Army Recruiting Battalion. The number under investigation represents more than 10 percent. The recruiters work out of offices in Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, Kansas and a small part of Iowa.

    CBS4 Denver report;

    Of course the numb-nutted Left will charge that this is a result of Army policy, but like everything else that the Army has been accused of since 9-11, they’ve already begun their investigation and the only reason the media has a story is because they caught a whiff of the inquiry;

    CBS4 Investigator Rick Sallinger learned of the Army probe through an internal email he obtained. It had been sent by the battalion commander Lt. Col. William Medina to his staff. He writes of an investigation involving “new suspected impropriety” and some recruiters “tarnishing the reputation of us all.”

    The commander’s internal email adds, “leaders at any level who actively or passively condone, encourage or turn a blind eye to violations will be held accountable for failing to do their duty.”

    I never spent a minute recruiting (except as an ROTC instructor) so I have no idea.

    H/T to Casey