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

Category: Military issues

  • VV’s Friedman on smoking

    Brandon “Beaker” Friedman of Vote Vets is unhappy that soldiers will retain their choice whether to use tobacco or not after the Department of Defense rejected recommendations to curtail tobacco use in the military. Somehow he blames some nebulous “pro-tobacco opposition”;

    Even though no one suggested the government’s Morale Suppression Squad would immediately deploy agents to the front lines to confiscate Joe’s smokes, that’s exactly how the pro-tobacco opposition framed it. And you guys were successful. So well played, my tobacco-loving friends, well played.

    I don’t remember anyone except real soldiers who like to dip tobacco to fend off stress and fire up a stogy to celebrate when it’s over expressing their opinions. Somehow we did irreparable damage to future soldiers. But see, that’s not the end. How can anyone write a post at Vote Vets without pulling statistics out of their ass? Well they can’t. In defense of his post, Beaker wrote this;

    beaker-on-smoking

    Notice the first line; Military service is not more dangerous than smoking and drinking. I don’t have the data, but I guarantee you more veterans died of smoking- and drinking-related causes last year than died in combat. In fact, that’s a statistic I’d love to get my hands on.

    He had to say “veterans” because no one on active duty dies of tobacco use – it takes decades of use to die from tobacco usage. No one dies when they’re 19 from a year of a pinch between teeth and gums. But ya know, when you say “veterans” that means people who don’t go to combat – because they’re not in the military. They’re veterans. And they get to choose whether they use tobacco or not – irrespective of military policy.

    So, and I’m just guessin’ here, I think that 100% more veterans die of tobacco use than die in combat.

    Below the jump, Freidman sings “Ode to Joy” to repent for his anally-retrieved statistics;
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  • Birthers use Ron Paulian tactics

    stefan-cook

    You probably remember the big dust up we had this week with the “birthers” (or “nirthers” if you really want to piss them off) over Stefan Cook’s dismissed lawsuit this last week. TSO and I were reminded of the ordeal we suffered through last year as a result of the Paulian invasion of TAH. The comments were all the same; “learn your Comstitution”, “read a book”, “educate yourself” and all of the same old stupid general blather. An attempt to take over the comments by the intellectually shallow. And we always get the blowhards who think that quanitity equals quality.

    Apparently, they’ve adopted the same blathering obnoxious approach across the internet. take a look at the comments Uncle Jimbo’s Ace of Spades post in the post below. Same techniques. I guess they didn’t recognize that Ron Paul’s biggest failing was having nutjobs as supporters who would cut and paste their comments on every Technorati search result of “Ron+Paul”.

    The Columbus, Georgia Ledger-Enquirer discovered the same thing.

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  • We had an XO like that

    Ann Scott Tyson of the Washington Post is embedded with Marines in the Helmand region of Afghanistan. Today’s article is about shortages of stuff the Marines need. After reading these last few paragraphs, I was reminded of our XO who drove four days in a Bradley to get us cigarettes and pogue bait while we spent Easter screening for the Shi’ites;

    Earlier this week, Larosa decided to launch a one-man supply chain. Armed with orders from his men and a large plastic crate, he jumped on a helicopter to the nearest large base, Camp Leatherneck near the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. Once there, armed with $1,200 of his own money, he literally stripped the PX shelves of cigarettes and chewing tobacco.

    Larosa’s shopping spree irritated customers at Leatherneck, but, arriving back at the camp in Garmsir, he was greeted as a conquering hero.

    The LaRousa in the story is a Marine Gunnery Sergeant but the effect is the same. What was his name, COB6?

  • Not good news for the Taliban

    Retention will probably drop among the Taliban over the next few weeks when they get the news that the paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team are headed back there this winter according to the Stars & Stripes;

    The country is becoming a second home for the “Sky Soldiers,” who served previous rotations in Afghanistan in 2005-2006 and 2007-2008. The announcement didn’t specify a date the deployment would start or mention where the soldiers would be deployed.

    It said two units — the 173rd and the 3rd Brigade Combat Team from the 101st Airborne Division — would “replace forces currently deployed in Afghanistan. …”

  • The Post 9-11 GI Bill Guide

    Here’s a video from the Veterans Health Administration on the new GI Bill. I know some of you qualify so get a pad and pen.

  • The military’s smoking ban

    smoking-soldier

    You’ve probably all read by now about the Institute of Medicine’s report to the Pentagon that recommends they start phasing out tobacco use in the military. I figured I’d let the smoke clear before I weigh in on it. I’ve been a smoker most of my life – the rate at which I smoke has varied over the years from about a pack a day when I was a platoon sergeant to about six every day now. When I’m at bars, that increases somewhat. When I’m standing in a group of hippies, it increases, too.

    I actually quit for two years when I taught ROTC in Vermont, and then I started again during the Gulf War. I remember when the Army used to give us three cigarettes in a C-ration, and I remember the first time we got C-rations without cigarettes – talk about a miserable field problem.

    During the Gulf War, we were deep inside Iraq for several weeks screening for the Shi’ite refugees from Saddam – a two day Bradley ride from the nearest PX. Everyone ran out of cigarettes and our company XO slipped away for four days to bring us cigarettes. I had my mother and my wife both sent me cigarettes and they were all gone the first day I had them.

    The USAToday article I read cited some nimrod in California who obviously has never been in the military recently;

    The military complicates attempts to curb tobacco use by subsidizing tobacco products for troops who buy them at base exchanges and commissaries, says Kenneth Kizer, a committee member and architect of California’s anti-tobacco program.

    The PX quit selling cut-rate smokes more than ten years ago. They survey the cost of cigarettes outside the gate these days and sell cigarettes on base for the same price as the local vendors – including sales tax. I remember when the Commissary on Howard AFB in Panama sold a carton for $1.25. Now the Commissary at Walter Reed (the PX is in Maryland) sells them for more than $50/carton while ten miles away the Commissary at Fort Meyers. VA sells them for about $35/carton. Kizer should do his homework before he spouts off.

    Do I think folks should smoke? Nope. I’d quit if for a minute I didn’t enjoy it so much. I love a good cigar (something my non-smoking son and I share) and I’ve been known to dip and take a chaw on occasion (there’s an old railroad spittoon on my porch for the occasion).

    In fact, many of us military bloggers stood out on the balcony of the convention the first night puffing on big cigars. Mr. Goody Two Shoes, a certain lobbyist I know intimately who blogs, shoved some dip in his mouth while we were observing a hippie protest a few months back.

    So how will the military enforce a ban? Are they going to give the troops a monthly urinalysis? If they dip or chew, the urinalysis can’t tell tell the difference between nicotine from smoke or chaw.

    Smoking is part of the military culture, which is probably why the Left is going after the practice. They hate the US military and everything that makes it the awesome force in the world that it is, and they get giddy at the prospect of dismantling it, a tiny piece at a time.

    Seein’s how the military is the Left’s social guinea pig, how long before the smoking nazis try to get the entire country to follow suit? Of course, this is more important than fighting terrorists, isn’t it? I’d like to see the Left take an interest in keeping the country safe as much as they worry about ancillary bullshit.