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

Category: Support the troops

  • Bias against veteran candidates

    On February 12, Stuart Rothenberg, a contributing writer for Roll Call attempted to write about the latest crop of veterans seeking office in 2010. Instead, he merely beclowned himself;

    My first meeting of the year (and the cycle) was with Kinzinger, and to be totally honest, I was dreading it. Another Iraq War veteran running for Congress? Oh, brother. Given the track records of veterans who have nothing else on their résumés, I wasn’t optimistic.

    Then I saw Kinzinger. I thought he looked old enough to vote, but I wasn’t sure.

    Yeah, that’s the way a supposed unbiased reporter begins an unbiased report to folks making up their minds about their choice for office. Let’s look at Rotherberg’s résumé on Wikipedia, shall we?

    Rothenberg, currently a resident of Potomac, Maryland, lived in Waterville, Maine while attending Colby College before relocating to Connecticut to earn his Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut. For a time, he settled in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, to teach political science at Bucknell University, a subject he has also taught at the Catholic University of America.

    In addition to his writing, he has been frequently featured in news broadcasts and worked with CNN as a political analyst for over ten years. Last election cycle,[vague] he also served as a political analyst for CBS News and for the Voice of America. He is also a guest contributor for Political Wire.

    Rothenberg is married and the father of two children.

    Whew, impressive, huh? Of course, I’m biased against people from Maine, but somehow Ph.D. doesn’t say experience to me, neither does being a teacher. Classroom isn’t real life.

    Now, the guy Rothenberg is writing about in this instance was an Air Force pilot…I don’t care if he flew trainers, it says a lot about his demeanor and his ability to reason in a tight situation. It says he ha more real world experience than a pointy-headed teacher whose toughest decision was whether he had time between classes to get a muffin at the student union.

    But Kieran Michael Lalor, a Marine Corps veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and chairman of Iraq Veterans for Congress Political Action Committee says it much more eloquently than I could;

    We expect a reflexive dismissal of the value of military service to appear in Department of Homeland Security reports, not in a “nonpartisan analysis of American politics and elections.”

    But it has been clear for years that most “analysis” of House races involves looking at Federal Election Commission fundraising totals and ensuring that candidates fit the narrow template that the pundits have developed for House candidates.

    Rothenberg’s analysis of Iraq vet candidates is equally superficial and couldn’t be more wrong.

    Veterans have already demonstrated selfless service to country, a credential sorely missing in Washington, D.C. The current generation of veterans is pure volunteer. They joined up when there was no draft, when military service was the exception rather than the rule as it was in previous generations. Many Iraq vet candidates enlisted after 9/11, knowing combat was inevitable. And each candidate led troops in the most arduous of conditions.

    Now, who has the thin résumé, Mr. Rothenberg?

  • Laia makes it to her new home

    You may remember that last week we found out that arrangements were being made to ship back to the States from Iraq, Laia, the dog which belonged to Major Steven Hutchison, the Vietnam veteran who was killed in Iraq last month.

    Thanks to an observant reader, I can report that Laia is with her new family;

    A fallen soldier’s five-month-old dog arrived on American soil Monday afternoon, allowing mourning loved ones to see the puppy princess that kept Major Steven Hutchison so happy in Iraq.

    The Vietnam Veteran and Army Major left behind a piece of himself in his dog, Laia. The soldier’s team found her at the young age of six weeks old. She had a broken back hind leg, which they casted. Hutchison decided to name her in honor of Princess Leia from “Star Wars,” his favorite movie. From that moment forward, she had him wrapped around her paw.

    “I probably shipped over $300 worth of supplies to him for the dog… dog food, collars, leashs, bowls, deworming medication, all kinds of stuff,” says Richard, who flew in from Phoenix, Ariz., along with his wife, Steven’s sister-in-law, Nancy to meet the dog.

    “He lived for that dog,” says Nancy. “He loved her.”

    Actually, I thought I’d get an eye witness account of the story since I know the person who arranged for the Laia’s transport (you know him, too), but the account never came to fruition. Since that person is a regular reader at This Ain’t Hell, maybe he can regale us with the tale in the comments – because here at This Ain’t Hell, we love dog stories with happy endings.

  • John McHugh, the new Army Secretary

    President Obama has picked a new Secretary of the Army, Republican Congressman John McHugh;

    Obama said that Rep. John McHugh, who has represented upstate New York, is committed to keeping America’s Army “the best trained, the best equipped, the best land force the world has ever seen.”

    The president said that in his new job, McHugh will make sure the country’s troops can handle the new kinds of combat in the 21st century, including nonconventional warfare. McHugh has been a key member of the House Armed Services Committee.

    I know a little something about McHugh, since he was my Congressman for several years in Upstate New York while I was both active duty and retired. His district included Fort Drum which he took very good care of while he served that area. He covered for them every time the base came up for dismantling. However his interest was more in the counties he served. Fort Drum was a boon to the area and rescued a wavering economy.

    There is no military hospital to serve the ten thousand troops stationed at Drum – they’re forced to use a civilian facility in downtown Watertown, so Army dollars pay for a facility that civilians use. Military housing is spread out across two counties in order to spread the Army pay checks around to the smaller communities. Anyone who has tried to navigate that area in the winter knows what a stupid idea that was. They get an average of about 120 inches of snow every year. Some soldiers spend more than an hour on the Army’s Blue Bird buses each way to work.

    I’m not saying this is all McHugh’s fault, but he spent all of his time trying to keep Drum open and didn’t have an opportunity to take care of the troops and rectify those shortcomings. He ended up maintaining the status quo.

    He was probably the most conservative member of the New York caucus and he was a stalwart supporter of the military, and he’s probably a better choice than anyone else Obama could’ve picked, but he bears watching.

    Some of this may have changed since I left the area a few years back, but knowing the area like I do, I doubt much has changed.

  • Recruiting office shooting

    Laughing Wolf at Blackfive writes that one recruiter was killed and another seriously wounded in Little Rock. Fox reports that the gunman was apprehended along with his “assault rifle” – whatever that means anymore.

    Notice how, unlike some bloggers on the Left jumped to conclusions over yesterday’s shooting, I’m not speculating on the motivations of this shooter or his relationship to any other group of recruiter-haters until the facts are in – I caution commenters here to do the same.

    Added: From Associated Press;

    Recruiting commander Lt. Col Thomas F. Artis says the victims had just completed basic training and were spending two weeks in Little Rock to recruit in their home area, showing the difference that less than two months of training made in their lives.

    From Star Tribune;

    Hastings said he did not know whether the recruiting office was specifically targeted or was randomly chosen.

    Hastings said shortly after noon that investigators had not yet questioned the suspect and that police were still processing evidence from the crime scene.

    From Navy Times;

    Neither the victims nor suspects were named by authorities.

    A photo of the suspect from KATV (Thanks to GI Jane);

    Eyewitness interview;

    The scene;

    UPDATE: The soldier that was killed was 23-year-old William Long of Conway, AR.

    FOX16 has also learned detectives served a search warrant at the Bristol Park apartments on Mara Lynn. Police say they’ve seized some evidence related to today’s shooting.

    Updated again: Eagle-eyed readers (1stCavRVN11B, John H and mtngrandpa) in the comments section noticed that the shooter is a Muslim convert;

    A Muslim convert who said he was opposed to the U.S. military shot two soldiers outside an Arkansas recruiting station, killing one of the soldiers, police said Monday.

    “This individual appears to have been upset with the military, the Army in particular, and that’s why he did what he did,” Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings said in a phone interview.

    “He has converted to Muslim here in the past few years,” Hastings said. “To be honest we’re not completely clear on what he was upset about. He had never been in the military.”

    Hastings identified the man in custody as Carlos Bledsoe, 24, of Little Rock, who was going by the name of Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad. He did not have further details. The names of the soldiers were not released, nor was the condition of the wounded soldier.

    See how we did that without jumping to conclusions, Andrew Sullivan? That’s how civilized people act.

  • MAJ Hutchinson’s dog headed home

    You probably remember Major Steven Hutchison, the Vietnam Veteran who lost his life in Iraq this month. I’ve written about him here and here. Olga sends this story about the dog Hutchinson adopted while in Iraq;

    Somewhere in Iraq today, a little yellow dog named Laia is starting the treacherous journey of a lifetime to the United States. She’s being saved thanks to Maj. Steven Hutchison, who adopted her, and SPCA International’s Operation Baghdad Pups. But Hutchison himself won’t be part of the homecoming: He was killed by a roadside bomb May 10 outside Basra, just three months before he was supposed to return home to Scottsdale, Ariz. When she reaches the U.S., Laia will live with a friend’s family instead.

    We here at This Ain’t Hell love us some dogs, so we’re happy to report that the major’s troops are taking care of this little cutie and that we get to see something good come out of this sad story.

    The dog was rescued by Operation Baghdad Pups.

  • Heh. Now he goes to Landstuhl?

    Remember last year, during the campaign that candidate Barack Obama blew off the wounded troops at Landstuhl hospital while stumping across Europe? Well, Stars and Stripes is running a teaser headline (no story yet) announcing he will go to Landstuhl hospital and he will visit wounded troops there this trip to Europe. I took a screen capture since it’s sure to change sometime in the next few hours;

    Factcheck.org wrote at the time that it wasn’t a snub last year, but I tend to concur with Blackfive.

    I guess Obama is taking a Mulligan.

    ADDED: Here’s a link on the current story from USAToday.

  • Rolling Thunder

    I know I let y’all down this year since I’m running on one leg this Memorial Day and can’t get out to get you original reportage, but luckily, Uncle Jimbo is in town this year to fill in. Here’s his video of Rolling Thunder 2009 this morning;

    Here’s my coverage of last year’s event, and from 2007.

  • My two favorite cadets

    I spent two years of my Army career teaching ROTC at the University of Vermont from 1988 – 1990. After 14 years in the infantry, it was a great job, if it hadn’t been for the hippies, or crunchies (a reference to their tendency to consume granola), as we called them. I had two favorite cadets who I thought had the potential to do well in the Army, and like a good sergeant tends to do, I rode them relentlessly. But it looks like, despite my influences, they’ve both done well;

    After his commissioning ceremony in May 1990, brand new LT Cross disappeared without saying good bye. I was disappointed.

    Weeks later, he showed up outside of my barracks at Advanced Camp in Fort Bragg and he hollered at me – “Hey, sergeant, are you going to salute me, or what?” Reluctantly, I saluted him. He returned the salute and handed me a silver dollar – the tradition is that a newly-minted LT has to give the first NCO to salute him a silver dollar. Cross had ducked out of the commissioning ceremony because he’d forgotten his silver dollar, and he’d ducked saluting any other NCO until he finally caught up with me. I still have that silver dollar, of course.

    My other favorite cadet was this woman, now LTC Nancy Jo Hubbard (Newell);

    Then-Cadet Newell commanded our Pershing Rifles drill team. Her father was a retired armor colonel and two of her three brothers were combat arms officers – one of whom is Colonel Peter Newell – David Bellavia’s battalion commander in the book “House to House”. I emailed with LTC Hubbard a few weeks ago, and in addition to commanding a battalion, she has two toddlers at home. That takes more leadership skill than anything I can teach her. I also still have LTC Hubbard’s silver dollar.

    I don’t labor under the misconception that as an ROTC instructor, I had much influence on them – during their careers, I’m sure they got much better guidance than I could provide from many more people. I just thought y’all’d like to meet some of the folks that are leading our Latest Greatest Generation of soldiers on this Memorial Day weekend.