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

Category: Military issues

  • And In the (Historical) “WTF?” and “YGBSM!” Departments . . . .

    Remember how Jimmy the Clueless treated the military just “oh so well”? (Yes, that was sarcasm.  This article includes much of that.)

    The recent mention of Operation EAGLE CLAW here got me curious, so I did a bit of digging.  I discovered something I never knew.  And as the old Southern expression goes:   “Y’all ain’t gonna believe this sh!t!”

    Take a look at this list. It does not include an entry for Operation EAGLE CLAW – AKA the Iranian Hostage Rescue Mission.

    Now, take a look at this list – specifically, at the 7th entry on the list’s 2nd page. I suspect you’ll be as shocked as I was.

    Yes, you’re reading that correctly. Military personnel who actually flew into Iran on that mission DID NOT receive the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (AFEM). Instead, they received . . . the Humanitarian Service Medal (HSM).

    I wish I was kidding.

    I’m not slamming the HSM; humanitarian assistance missions are legit, and they can be dangerous as hell too.  We recently lost some Marines on a humanitarian mission in Nepal.

    But it just seems to me that going in harm’s way to rescue American citizens and military personnel held hostage as the result of an act of war by a foreign government is fundamentally different than any kind of humanitarian relief operation. IMO serving in such an operation should receive a different kind of recognition.

    But it didn’t; don’t ask me why.  Only thing I can figure out is that either the Pentagon or the POTUS must have felt attempting to rescue US prisoners held by Iran after they invaded sovereign US territory (the US Embassy in Tehran) was essentially no different than helping resettle the criminals Castro palmed off on us during the Mariel Boat Lift.  Or maybe they were afraid of p!ssing off the Iranians even more if they offered appropriate recognition with an AFEM.  (Either way, my money’s on the POTUS – but I could be wrong.)

    In a bit of historic irony, US military support for resettlement of those Mariel Boat Lift “refugees” is the next operation on the list of officially recognized HSM operations. It started 2 days after Operation EAGLE CLAW.

    If this little bit of historical “appropriate recognition” doesn’t fall into the WTF? And YGBSM! categories, I’ll just be damned if I know what does.

    Thanks once again “oh so much”, Mr. Peanut.

  • Two Fought Back

    It appears that at least two of the individuals at the Chattanooga Navy Operational Support Center did considerably more than simply wait to be slaughtered when the facility was attacked last week.

    Multiple news reports (Fox, Navy Times, Washington Post) say that internal DoD investigation/reporting indicates two of the military personnel there appear to have been armed with personally owned weapons when the facility was attacked last week. Those individuals were one of the slain Marines (not further identified) and LCDR Timothy White, the Center’s CO. (CDR White survived the attack.)

    Both also appear to have returned fire at the facility’s terrorist assailant, Mohammed Abdulazeez, during his attack on the facility. It is not clear yet whether either fired shots that hit their attacker.  (Autopsy results are expected this week.)

    Both the slain Marine and LCDR White appear to have been in violation of DoD policy by being armed with a personally owned weapon while at their facility. In general, DoD policy prohibits personal firearms on DoD installations or facilities.

    Can’t say I blame either of them for apparently intentionally disregarding policy, though. Being an unprotected and unarmed soft target during a war is NOT a good thing.  Policy mandating that is simply freaking foolish, and we’ve got enough data now to know with certainty that the enemy – radical Islam – can on occasion strike targets here in the US directly or by proxy.

    I also hope further investigation shows that one or both of them fired shots that hit Abdulazeez, ending the attack. Maybe then DoD will finally find the backbone to do what’s been obviously necessary since at least 2009.

  • Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling; discharged for Bible verse

    Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling; discharged for Bible verse

    Monifa Sterling

    I’ve been getting this story for a few days. It’s about Monifa Sterling a former lance corporal in the Marines who had a Bibical phrase posted in her workspace. When told to take it down, she refused;

    The plight of Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling seems unbelievable – a member of the Armed Forces criminally prosecuted for displaying a slightly altered passage of Scripture from the Old Testament: “No weapon formed against me shall prosper.”

    Sterling, who represented herself at trial, was convicted February 1, 2014 in a court-martial at Camp Lejune, North Carolina after she refused to obey orders from a staff sergeant to remove the Bible verses from her desk.

    She was found guilty of failing to go to her appointed place of duty, disrespect toward a superior commissioned officer, and four specifications of disobeying the lawful order of a noncommissioned officer.

    While I sympathize with the young lance corporal, and I doubt this would have reached this level of discipline under other similar circumstances, the way I was always taught to deal with circumstances in the military with which I disagreed is to do what you’re told and then complain about it to the proper military authorities. It doesn’t look like Sterling did that. She was charged with disrespect and disobeying orders. That’s not how you get the military judge on your side in a hearing or a court martial.

    She was right until she was wrong.

  • Israel closes tanks to women

    Israel closes tanks to women

    AFP reports that the Israeli Defense Forces have decided to exclude women from their armor units because the jobs involved too much physical work;

    News website Ynet and other outlets reported that after an inquiry, military chiefs had concluded the requirements for tank crew exceeded the physiological capabilities of most women.

    Women can join combat units only when those units do not require excessive physical abilities or direct contact with the enemy, the daily Haaretz quoted the authors of the report as saying.

    The report also cited the close confines of a tank as being unsuitable for women to serve alongside men, as is already the case in the submarine service.

    According to the article, the IDF was mandated to integrate women into combat units “unless there was a valid reason not to do so”, you know just like the mandate from the US Department of Defense recently. Everyone likes to point out to me that “the Israelis do it” so we must conform to their standard (well, except when the IDF is killing terrorists). I know this won’t change anyone’s minds about allowing women in combat arms, but at least they’ll finally stop lecturing me on the Israelis and how they “do it”.

  • About Those “JV” and “We Were Taken By Surprise” Claims . . .

    Remember back in January 2014 when the POTUS said that ISIS was “JV” (short for “junior varsity”)? And those claims that the rise of ISIS “caught the intel community by surprise”?

    Well you probably know where this is going. Yeah, your leg’s wet again. And you haven’t been outside, so it’s not rain.

    Those claims appear to be bull. According to a news report yesterday, apparently US military intelligence reports predicted the rise of an ISIS-like group in Iraq in August 2012 – or 17 months before the POTUS denigrated them as being “JV”. It also seems to me that predicting something 17 months in advance kinda negates the “taken by surprise” claim, too.

    And it gets even better. Remember that little unpleasantness in a place called Benghazi – in September 2012? Want to guess when arms shipments from former Libyan military stocks to Syria, likely for radical Islamic rebel use, started?

    If you guessed “about a month later” – give yourself a star.

    Oh, and the reports aren’t just based on rumor and innuendo, or on “anonymous sources”. These reports appear to be backed by documents (in redacted form, of course). They were obtained by Judicial Watch via FOIA request.

    Yeah, it looks like the current       DC clown krewe       Administration lied to us. Again. Twice.

    Surprised? Me neither.

    Sheesh. This bunch makes Nixon and LBJ look like paragons of honesty and forthrightness by comparison.

  • Another Deadly USMC Aviation Mishap

    News reports indicate that a USMC MV-22 Osprey made a ‘hard landing” at Bellows Air Force Station, Hawaii, shortly before noon (HST) on Sunday. “Hard”, as in “burned afterwards”. Local reports indicate there are 1 reported dead and several injured.  (A later report from a different source puts the number injured at 21).

    The aircraft was from the 15th MEU at Camp Pendleton, CA. It had been participating in exercise activities associated with the first US Pacific Command’s Amphibious Leaders Symposium.

    The old recruiting slogan was right: “It’s not just a job – it’s an adventure.” And the “big-boy toys” you get to play with are neat.

    It’s sometimes a damned dangerous adventure, though. Those big-boy toys can also be fickle sometimes. And if things go south or someone makes a mistake, they can be deadly.

    May God comfort the surviving family and friends of those dead and injured, and grant the injured a full and speedy recovery.

  • Major Mathew Golsteyn may face hearing

    Major Mathew Golsteyn may face hearing

    We talked about the case of Major Mathew Golsteyn, the Special Forces officer who had his Silver Star for gallantry under fire taken from him by the Secretary of the Army John McHugh. Allegedly, Golsteyn told CIA investigators that he had captured an Afghani bomb maker and summarily executed him. He buried the body, but then Golsteyn claims that he returned to the scene, exhumed the corpse and burned it.

    The Army can’t punish him because they can find no witnesses nor can they find the body, according to the Associated Press, criminal investigators won’t rely solely on his confession for prosecution;

    Though a criminal investigation failed to find remains of his alleged victim and didn’t result in charges against Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, he’s been targeted for possible dismissal from the Army and the consequent loss of veteran’s benefits with a less-than-honorable discharge.

    A Fort Bragg hearing before three, higher-ranked Special Forces officers could meet later this month to weigh arguments from Golsteyn’s attorney why he should remain on active duty.

    “My hope is that Golsteyn will receive a fair and impartial hearing. Based on the Army’s actions and decisions thus far, I regret to say this won’t be the case,” one of the soldier’s defenders, U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., wrote Wednesday to Army Secretary John McHugh. Army brass have kept Hunter updated on the case.

    So the Army really has no evidence against the Major, so they intend to punish him administratively – a pretty common practice in the military. Let’s say that Golsteyn had captured the bombmaker instead of killing him. The murderer probably would have been released by the Karzai administration, or escaped from custody and he’d be back at making bombs, killing not only US military personnel but Afghani civilians as well. The world is a better place without the fellow – and that’s if Golsteyn had actually killed him and he wasn’t just bragging to the CIA investigators, as evidence, or the lack of evidence, actually, suggests.

  • Veterans Trading Company fires exec for military service

    Wendell sends us a link to the story of the Veterans Trading Company, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned, HUBZone-certified Small Business, that fired it’s President, Paul Costello, a Navy Reservist and a plot, because he went on active duty with his unit and refused to rehire him when he finished his committment. VTC initially filed a law suit against Costello to recover the wages and expenses they had compensated him. Now, the DOJ is taking up Costello’s cause under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act;

    The government is pursuing damages equaling Costello’s lost wages and forfeited ownership and distribution shares in the company since June 2013, as well as compensation for legal fees.

    Veterans Trading Co. filed a lawsuit against Costello in April, alleging he was compensated improperly in his role as president of the company while on military leave. Federal lawyers are seeking a dismissal of that lawsuit and claim Costello took “personal leave” during his military service to conduct company meetings.

    From Market Watch;

    On April 30, 2015, Veterans Trading Company, LLC (VTC) filed a lawsuit in Utah State under Civil No. 150902921 against a former officer of VTC for the return of monies paid to him during a time when he later claimed he was on active duty for the United States military. That suit claims fraudulent non-disclosure, conversion, and breach of fiduciary duty in connection with his employment.