Category: Military issues

OK, I’ve avoided this story for a few days, probably because I’m a homophobe, they’ll say, but my inbox has been filling up with tips about it, so I guess you want to discuss it. According to Stars & Stripes, at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, gay troops stationed there, sponsored by OutServe, put on a drag show for a fundraiser;

Amid the unexpected success, OutServe carefully avoided any mention of politics, but its variety show comes at a pivotal time for gay civil rights in the United States, with many states passing laws dealing with marriage or debating individual liberties.

It is also a sign of the times within the military; just a few years ago, gay and lesbian drag performances on a military base would have been unthinkable and potentially a cause for dismissal from the service.

The repeals of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, as well as the Defense of Marriage Act — the law barring the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages — have allowed gays and lesbians in the military to be open with their sexuality for the first time.

Yay! Isn’t that wonderful? I remember the good old days when OutServe and their cohorts at the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network told us that they wanted to repeal the Clinton-era Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy so that servicemembers who were gay could serve, that it was all about some imagined “right to serve” in the military. There was no larger agenda, just simply service.

I only made it about ten seconds through this video, so I don’t blame you if you don’t either.

Ex-PH2 sends us a link to the Navy Times which reports that six women have completed training successfully for duty as Riverines and will be deploying with their unit, Delta Company, Coastal Riverine Squadron 2 at Portsmouth, VA.

They’re currently in Cherry Point, N.C., in the midst of pre-deployment training, according to a Navy Expeditionary Combat Command spokeswoman, waiting for the go-ahead.

“Since these women are already assigned to CRS 2 Delta and have completed the required riverine training, there will be no time lag between congressional approval and report dates,” Barbara Wilcox said.

The Navy’s two other riverine units — Squadron 4 in Virginia Beach, Va., and Squadron 3 in San Diego — are next, she said. Squadron 3 has a company deployed and Squadron 4 just returned from deployment. Once they’ve completed post-deployment procedures, they’ll begin integrating women.

Well, good for them. My complaint about women in combat arms units is that they must meet the same standards as the men with the standards being adjusted and that appears to be the case here, so more power to them.

In today’s Washington Post appears Andrew J. Bacevich a history professor, a retired Army colonel and a Gold Star father who vocally opposed the Iraq War and George W. Bush. He has decided that the US doesn’t need a large Army. That an Army smaller than the one we had before Pearl harbor would be just fine. In fact, we don’t need many tanks, either. Of course, I’m guessing that the good professor wrote this before recent events in the Crimea which sort of exposed to the world that which realists have suspected all along – that the new Russia has the colonial ambitions of the old Soviet Russia.

This isn’t 1940. Moreover, as an instrument of coercion, that smaller army would be more lethal than the much larger one that helped defeat Nazi Germany and imperial Japan. Given a choice between a few hundred of today’s Abrams tanks and a few thousand vintage Shermans, Gen. George Patton would not hesitate to choose the former.

Nice try, Colonel Bacevich, but we’re talking about an Army that won’t be facing 1944’s Tiger tanks, but Russian T-90s or some variant. Let’s try to avoid hyperbole, shall we?

Yet to judge by outcomes, the Army is not a force for decisive action. It cannot be counted on to achieve definitive results in a timely manner. In Afghanistan and Iraq, actions that momentarily appeared to be decisive served as preludes to protracted and inconclusive wars. As for preventing, shaping and winning, this surely qualifies as bluster — the equivalent of a newspaper promising advertisers that it will quadruple its print circulation.

Weak sauce. There was almost a decisive action with US armor in the first Gulf War, the first war with Iraq, until the history professors and politicians stuck their nose in and didn’t let us finish off Saddam Hussein. Then in the second war in Iraq, there was a decisive victory using US armor when Saddam’s statues fell. But, what the history professor should have learned from that war is that the enemy will attack you where he finds your weaknesses and so an army must be prepared in all aspects of warfare.

Defense per se figured as an afterthought, eclipsed by the conviction that projecting power held the key to transforming the world from what it is into what Washington would like it to be: orderly, predictable, respectful of American values and deferential to U.S. prerogatives.

The “Global War on Terror” put that proposition to the test, with disappointing results. Putting boots on the ground produced casualties and complications, but little by way of peace and harmony.

So, the good colonel professor figures that we’re unprepared at fighting armored warfare, our enemies will oblige us and fight us only in manner in which we’re prepared. Instead of looking at the long term history of warfare, he’d prefer to look at the last war exclusively – because that war, standing alone in history, supports his vision for a depleted military force. So we can have more Gold Star fathers.

A real student of history would look at the First Battle of Bull Run, Kasserine Pass and Task Force Smith, but Colonel Bacevich has a political point to enforce. Weak sauce, Colonel.

Thanks to Chock Block for the link.

The 82d Airborne Division identified the crew members of the M777 155mm towed artillery piece who were casualties yesterdays.

Pfc. James Groth, 22, of Ethal, Wash., a cannon crew member, was killed during this incident. Groth was pronounced dead upon arrival at Womack Army Medical Center. Pfc. Groth is survived by his wife Jordan Nicole Groth and his parents, Wayne and Billie Groth.

Groth enlisted in the Army in 2012. Upon completion of basic combat training and advanced individual training at Fort Sill, OK., he was assigned to Bravo Battery, 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Bragg, N.C.

His awards and decorations include the Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon.

Sgt. Cory Muzzy, 25, of Pecos, N.M., a cannon crew member is in critical but stable condition at Duke University Medical Center. Spc. Scott Yeates, 30, of Sanford, Fla., a cannon crew member is in serious but stable condition at WAMC.

The folks who were less severely injured and already released for duty are listed at the link. The cause of the accident is still being investigated.

The Raleigh News & Observer by way of the Stars & Stripes reports that eight members of the 18th Fires Brigade were injured, one of whom died, in an accident yesterday at Fort Bragg during a live-fire exercise;

Two of the wounded soldiers were seriously injured, and five suffered minor injuries, said Capt. Douglas Ray, a spokesman for the 82nd. Friday night, one remained at Womack Army Medical Center on post and one was in Duke University Medical Center.

The families of the soldiers have all been notified, but the Army has not released their names or described the nature of their injuries.

It’s at least the second live-fire incident in which troops were injured during training at Fort Bragg in three years.

No other details were released because the incident is under investigation. What is clear, though, is that training for war is as deadly as the war itself sometimes.