Category: Military issues

Twelve females began Marine Corps infantry training and after their 20 kilometer (12 miles) march, four are left. Seven began the march, of the three who didn’t complete it, two will retry, and the third elected to train for another specialty. 10% of the men who began didn’t complete it either. From USAToday;

The Marines said 26 men out of the 246 who started also did not complete the hike.

In order to satisfy the requirements for the hike, the Marines must keep up with a brisk pace carrying equipment weighing more than 80 pounds on their backs.

So the social engineers aren’t going to be happy about this. The Navy Times reports that the Pentagon is already in the process of rewriting the standards;

[Jessica Wright, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel] is overseeing the process of opening up all military jobs to women by 2016, including more than 200,000 billets that make up the core of the ground-level combat forces in the Army and Marine Corps. The four services are developing a new set of job-specific physical standards.

She said military officials are consulting with fitness experts, occupational therapists and other medical and health professionals to ensure that the emerging physical standard will be based on “science” rather than “opinion.”

“The standard” as it currently exists has served this country and it’s warriors in combat for more than two hundred years, but I don’t see on Jessica Wright’s list of experts any combat experienced men. “Opinion”, in this case, is based on the crucible of combat.

Compare Ms. Wright’s answer to the article from USAToday about ten months ago when the Pentagon assured us that “The military will not need to lower its physical standards as it opens direct combat jobs to women”.

We can probably rest assured that we won’t see Ms. Wright anywhere near the sound of weapons fired in anger.

Several of you have sent us links to the story going around about troops who might have problems making their tape going to doctors to get liposuction to cure what ails them.

A number of military personnel are turning to the surgical procedure to remove excess fat from around the waist so they can pass the Pentagon’s body fat test, which can determine their future prospects in the military.

“They come in panicked about being kicked out or getting a demerit that will hurt their chances at a promotion,” said the Rockville, Md., surgeon.

Some service members say they have no other choice because the Defense Department’s method of estimating body fat is weeding out not just flabby physiques but bulkier, muscular builds.

Yeah, I don’t think it’s as widespread as the article implies. And I’m pretty sure that it’s not combat troops who are looking for ways to get around the wide body control measures. How many combat units are there around Rockville, MD (a DC suburb)? I think these doctors are turning anecdotal incidences into a news article. But that’s never happened before, has it?

There’s a Fox News story percolating out there about one Joe at Fort Hood who claims that some “counter-intelligence agent” told a group of troops at a pre-deployment briefing that if they contribute to or contact Tea Party or evangelical Christians, they’ll be considered a terrorist threat.

Michael Berry, an attorney with the Liberty Institute, is advising the soldier and has launched an investigation into the incident.

“The American public should be outraged that the U.S. Army is teaching our troops that evangelical Christians and Tea Party members are enemies of America, and that they can be punished for supporting or participating in those groups,” said Berry, a former Marine Corps JAG officer.

“These statements about evangelicals being domestic enemies are a serious charge.”

Yeah, no, sorry, I don’t believe it ever happened, based solely on the fact that I know Joe. I think he’s trying to get out of something. The whole incident stems from one soldier’s report, no others have come forward and claimed the same thing. I’ll concede that there probably are people out there who think along those lines, but I’m pretty sure they’re not stupid enough to make it part of a briefing for the troops.

Like I said, it sounds like Joe wanted to be famous or get out of something and made this shit up. I’m pretty sure if it had happened, someone would tell us about it, and I haven’t heard a peep. But lots of people are just so willing to believe things about this administration and the current military leadership that fit their perception, they’ll believe anything.

Hey, I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure this will fade away quietly. There’s too much real stuff to be outraged about to be outraged based on the report of one rogue Joe.

Our buddy, Jeff Schogol, sends a link to Defense News which reports that Army Chief of Staff, Ray Odierno told the press that he has only two combat ready brigades;

Odierno said [he] hopes to get the number of trained and equipped brigades to seven by June 2014.

“There is going to come a time when we simply don’t have enough money to provide what I believe to be the right amount of ground forces to conduct contingency operations,” he said. “We’re not there yet, but it is something we are going to continue to review.”

Army Secretary John McHugh said he and the chief are committed that “whatever the Army’s end strength and its budgets may look like, we will never send a soldier into war unprepared, untrained or improperly equipped.” But he acknowledged that there are unprecedented uncertainties with which the service must contend.

Of course, noodle-spine McHugh’s unprecedented uncertainties are the Congress and their inability to pass a budget. The House has passed budgets, but Harry Reid has other things on his mind besides what he’s paid to do. What those things are aren’t exactly clear.

So the Army is doing some cost-cutting in order to squeeze some readiness into the Secretary’s priorities;

One step in this endeavor is an effort to cut 25 percent of overhead in headquarters. The Pentagon only required a 20-percent cut, but Odierno said the larger slice “can achieve some significant savings” — thousands of soldiers that could instead help fill a Brigade Combat Team, for example.

Yeah, that’s one brigade I wouldn’t want to be any part of – I’ve taken in troops that came from Battalion headquarters who needed to learn how to tie their boots, I’d hate to see a whole brigade of former wienies.

But, yeah, let’s cut out 10 more brigades while there are only two that are combat ready. And, oh, yeah, let’s have a press conference to tell the world how unprepared we are. Maybe our enemies aren’t reading the news today.

A young lady sent us this stuff to verify whether this fellow she met on the internet was legit. Apparently, he’s claiming to be an American soldier stationed in Libya and he goes by the name Joseph Anderson. He included some forms that she needed to fill out and send back along with $3000 so he could take leave.

Of course, the Department of Defense guarantees that she’ll get her three thousand bucks back – it’s just a deposit, you see;

Of course, there are rules that the person sending money to let a soldier come home on leave must agree to;

And this from the soldier’s commander in an email;

How are you doing today, Hope all is well with you?, I got your mail as to the leave request for Joseph Anderson.

To make a leave request has a procedure, Three(3) forms will be sent to your e-mail which you will print out, fill, scan and send back to me before the leave can be approved.

The leave request takes up to 24Hours (24) hours to process, you are required to pay his round trip ticket fee, but the money will be refunded to you through the US Army .

The ticket fee is just a sign of commitment from you and to show how serious you are and that you can really take good care of our hero, There is a money pay back Guarantee form which has been attached to this mail, this form will enable you to get your money back when the Deployed officer is with you, both of you will have to go to any Military cantonment or the United Nations Quarters with the form, and the money sent for the ticket fee will be duely refunded within 12 hours with a 30% interest.

Any body making a request for the deployed officer pays the sum of $ 3,000 USD for a round trip ticket.

The scanned copy of the leave request documents has been attached to this mail, you can download the attached copy for your view.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Congratulations to you
Hope to hear from you soon.

Best Regards
Comm.Martins Jones

Ladies, this is a scam, so don’t fall for it. The first document has former Army Secretary John O. Marsh’s signature over a phony colonel’s signature block. But, people in the military don’t need money from you to go on leave, not officially, anyway.