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

Category: Military issues

  • Naturalization ceremony for troops

    Naturalization ceremony for troops

    naturalization ceremony

    In case you missed the news, President Obama took time out today to witness the swearing in of our newest US citizens at a ceremony in the White House. Before the ceremony, this message came out from the White House staff;

    On Friday, July 4th, as our nation celebrates its birthday, President Obama will host a naturalization ceremony at the White House for active duty military service members and their spouses, as well as veterans and reservists. The President sees this important White House tradition as an opportunity to reiterate his commitment to an immigration policy that honors our rich history as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. The President has previously hosted and participated in naturalization ceremonies at the White House in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013.

    The ceremony, which the President will deliver remarks at, will recognize the contributions made by foreign-born members of the U.S. Armed Forces who have earned their American citizenship by serving our country, and the contributions that immigrants from all walks of life have made to our country throughout its history. Fifteen active duty service members serving in the Navy, U.S. Army, Marines, and Air Force, two veterans, one reservist and seven military spouses will receive their citizenship, together representing 15 countries. Joining these men and women at Friday’s ceremony will be military service members, their families, and community leaders who continue to advocate for commonsense immigration reform.

    On it’s face, it looks like another ceremony celebrating “the troops” from this administration, but the little cynical creature that lives in my head these days, read this line that I’d missed;

    The President sees this important White House tradition as an opportunity to reiterate his commitment to an immigration policy that honors our rich history as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.

    In other words, once again the President is dragging those in uniform into the political debate, and this time, it’s about immigration. He cloaks a political discussion in terms of the military. And, if anyone thinks that we are truly a “nation of laws” we wouldn’t be having this discussion about whether they’re illegal aliens or not.

    Yeah, generations ago, my antecedents immigrated here. My mother’s side of the family were early colonists in Massachusetts, while my father’s family came through Ellis Island in 1899 – you know, the legal way. My wife is an immigrant. We went through all of the paperwork to get her admitted legally and we jump through hoops every couple of years so she can remain. In the first few years she lived here, we had to report where she lived, until Jimmy Carter thought that it was unfair that they tracked aliens in this country – you know, how we lost track of many of the 9-11 terrorists until that fateful day.

    Somehow we’re supposed to believe that those thousands who are pouring across the frontier every day are all going to join the military someday – that they’re going to do their part in this nation. At this point, that’s hard to believe since they’re all becoming a burden on the government/taxpayers already.

    But it seems to me that every time the president finds himself in a jam, he stands behind those uniforms to deflect criticism. Maybe it’s just me.

  • About Berghdal’s “Reintegration” . . . .

    Berghdal has lately been “out and about” as part of his “reintegration”. Well, I guess that’s . . . OK. Sorta. Maybe.

    Bergdahl has been back under US control for nearly a month now. An Army MG has been appointed to investigate his . . . well, let’s just say “unusual” disappearance in Afghanistan.

    So I wonder: how’s that investigation coming? I mean, there aren’t that many soldiers who were members of his unit and were at Berghdal’s location when he disappeared. So even if they’re out of the military, they’ve certainly been contacted by now – right?

    Um, well – not exactly . Seems no one has contacted them yet.

    For some reason, the terms “Tom Sawyer” and “fence” keep coming to mind. But maybe that’s just a coincidence.

  • Hagel thanks Howard

    Hagel thanks Howard

    Hagel Howard

    Our Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel thanked some soccer dude named Tim Howard for “defending the United States” against the evil Belgians’ attack on our goal thing at the World Cup of Nonsports according to Fox News;

    Howard set a World Cup record for saves in Tuesday’s match against Belgium, launching the hashtag #TimHowardCouldSave on Twitter. His record-breaking efforts were insufficient however, as the United States fell to Belgium 2-1. The disparity in goals bodes poorly for the man Hagel said “could someday become the real Secretary of Defense.”

    Yeah, I guess this Howard person couldn’t do any worse than Hagel in that position, but I’d like to hear his plans to get us out of the difficulties that this administration has created for us around the world – especially since I haven’t heard anything from the White House or Hagel.

    By the way, Chuck, there are a several thousand other folks whose pictures aren’t in the news today who you could thank by not screwing them to the wall. They’re also defending the United States against worse enemies than a bunch of Belgians in short pants.

  • WSJ; the recruiting dilemma

    Average NCO sends Someone sent us this link to the Wall Street Journal which warns that the shrinking pool of military recruits endangers our ability to field a military for the upcoming challenges we face in the world;

    The military deems many youngsters ineligible due to obesity, lack of a high-school diploma, felony convictions and prescription-drug use for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. But others are now also running afoul of standards for appearance amid the growing popularity of large-scale tattoos and devices called ear gauges that create large holes in earlobes.

    A few weeks ago, Brittany Crippen said she tried to enlist in the Army, only to learn that a tattoo of a fish on the back of her neck disqualified her. Determined to join, the 19-year-old college student visited a second recruiting center in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and was rejected again.

    Apologetic recruiters encouraged her to return after removing the tattoo, a process she was told would take about year. “I was very upset,” Ms. Crippen said.

    I guess folks who who are looking for a career in the military ought to rethink whether they want a tattoo or not. At least until there’s a new sergeant major of the Army. The article continues that the pentagon estimates that only 71% of folks who are military age are fully qualified for service;

    About a quarter of high-school graduates also can’t pass the Armed Forces Qualification Test, which measures math and reading skills, Gen. Youngman said. “They aren’t educationally qualified to join the military in any capacity, not just the high-tech jobs,” he said.

    Well, so much for the myth that service members are drawn from the lower educated portion of the population. It supports the contention that we send our best and brightest to fight our wars, while the rest of America hangs out at the mall, though.

  • The Damn Few, Season 2, Episode 4: PTSD

    Our friends at Ranger Up present their latest video, this one is about PTS and should be watched by everyone in the country, but because it’s Ranger Up and it’s on TAH, there’s a “STRONG LANGUAGE WARNING“;

  • Bergdahl news

    Bergdahl news

    Our friend, Aunty Brat at Assoluta Tranquillita writes that the initial investigation of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl by the Army CID in “inconclusive”;

    An initial Army investigation into the whereabouts of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl following his disappearance in June 2009 did not conclude that he voluntarily left his installation, an Army official, speaking on background, said today.

    “My recollection is that it didn’t make a conclusive finding on that,” the official said.

    He’s also been cleared of any misconduct during his captivity, according to The Wire;

    As the Army continues to investigate whether Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is guilty of deserting his unit, this afternoon they said there is no reason to believe that Bergdahl engaged in any misconduct during his five years in captivity.

    Yeah, well, as much as they can investigate that by asking him questions. We’ll never know the answer to that unless one of his captors writes a book in the near future. I’m not expecting that though, probably because I’m a racist and I don’t think that his captors were even barely literate.

    Meanwhile, the list of people that are being victimized by Bergdahl’s late night stroll five years ago continues to grow as his hometown, Hailey, Idaho, which stood vigil for him for those five years is feeling heat that they really don’t deserve. From Stars & Stripes;

    The past month has disfigured that inviting image. Hailey residents have seen their city branded as the birthplace of a soldier widely vilified as a deserter, a traitor and various unprintable words, and their support of him denounced as treasonous. As they worry about Bergdahl’s well-being and await his return to Hailey, their warmth toward outsiders has chilled. They wonder if, in the coming weeks, there will be more malice.

    They really don’t deserve the treatment they’re getting there – they were invested in bringing him home and didn’t realize the caldron boiling underneath the issue. I’m sure it came out of no where for them.

  • Hoofed warriors

    Hoofed warriors

    Horsemanship

    USAToday reports that at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center near Bridgeport, California, Marines are bringing back horsemanship skills and teaching Army Special Forces to ride, care for and select horses;

    At this remote training area high in the Sierra, the U.S. Marine Corps is reviving the horsemanship skills that were once a key part of the nation’s armed forces but were cast aside when tanks and armored vehicles replaced them. The need to bring these skills back was driven home in Afghanistan in 2001, when the first Special Forces soldiers to arrive found themselves fighting on horseback alongside tribesmen in rugged terrain without roads. Many had never ridden a horse before.

    “We don’t want to reinvent anything,” said Marine Capt. Seth Miller, the officer in charge of formal schools at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center. “These are skills that were lost.”

    Marine instructors are teaching the students, most of them Army Special Forces soldiers, how to control horses, care for them and load packs. The students are taught how to calculate routes and distances for rides and what to look for when purchasing horses from locals.

  • Slear clarifies his WP opinion piece; I’m still paid too much

    Our buddy, Jeff Schlogol of the Military Times, wrote to ask Blue Falcon LTC Tom Slear to clarify his opinion piece in the Washington Post this weekend. Apparently, we didn’t understand what he was saying, he says and we shouldn’t get upset, mostly because he didn’t write the “provacative headline”. OK, I’ll give him that one. But it turns out that we weren’t wrong about anything else he wrote;

    Q: To be clear, do you feel that benefits for service members are “too generous”?

    [Slear:] I believe Tricare is very generous. A 10 or even 20 percent increase in premiums is reasonable. Retired pay is generous enough that the proposed 1-percent cut in the [annual] cost-of-living adjustment for those under 62 is also reasonable.

    […]

    Q: Would you also be willing to take a reduction in retirement pay?

    [Slear:] I would be willing to take the 1-percent reduction in the [annual] cost-of-living adjustment as proposed in the budget agreement last year. I would be willing to take a larger reduction as long as it’s part of a reassessment of all federal pensions and social security.

    Q: Based on the feedback you have received, what do people misunderstand about your arguments for compensation reform?

    [Slear:] The common misperception was that I’m for taking a meat cleaver to military benefits. What I did say was that military benefits aren’t sacrosanct — they should be part of the discussion about reducing the federal deficit.

    So, I’m not sure what he thinks we misunderstood about his back-stabbing bullshit trying to make veterans look like money-grubbing welfare recipients. Like I said in the initial post, Slear can refuse to accept his pension and refuse to use Tricare – he can make personal decisions if he thinks that he didn’t earn his benefits. But, I don’t see him doing it. He’ll only do that if the rest of us have it forced down out throats.

    Well, I’ll only go along with it if I see Congress make the hard choices and slash Federal spending across the board. If Congress closes tax loopholes for illegal immigrants and cracks down on Social Security and welfare spending for the folks who will never work maybe then I’ll think about contributing that which Slear thinks I can afford without reviewing my personal spending.

    So, it turns out that we didn’t misunderstand LTC Slear at all. He’s climbing on the Obama Administration’s train to roll over veterans to tell us to sacrifice even more without asking the rest of the country to sacrifice – because we used to go along to get along. As early as 2009, the Obama Administration was coming for our medical benefits when they tried to make service-connected veterans buy insurance and it hasn’t stopped. So, LTC Slear walked off the FOB in the middle of the night and surrendered himself to the White House.