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

Category: Veterans Issues

  • Politico: Veterans retreating from Obama

    Poetrooper sends us a link to Politico which seems surprised that veterans aren’t supporting Obama in the numbers that everyone expected. Apparently we’re supposed to be grateful that Obama “got” bin Laden and ended the Iraq War, but veterans are able to see through the smoke and mirrors, much to the chagrin of the Democrats;

    Back in May, Obama had the lead among Afghanistan and Iraq veterans. But a Reuters/Ipsos poll from September says that’s evaporated, with Romney now up 48 percent to 34 percent.

    Obama campaign aides said the slip in the polls needs to be considered alongside recent surveys showing the president ahead of Romney on questions regarding foreign policy, leadership and keeping the country safe from terrorist attacks.

    The Obama campaign makes some good points about the Romney campaign, in that Romney has all but ignored veterans and the troops serving in the war against terror;

    Obama campaign spokeswoman Clo Ewing predicted that the president’s standing among veterans would improve by November, flagging a Zogby poll released Monday that puts Obama up 14 points with a small sample of active-duty military and their family members.

    Ewing also knocked the Republican’s omission of the Afghanistan troops “during the most important speech of his career” at last month’s Republican National Convention in Tampa and swung at Romney for proposing a voucher program for veterans benefits. “Mitt Romney hasn’t shown he will stand up for the military family and veterans community,” she said.

    Yeah, well, the Obama Administration hasn’t “stood up” for veterans, either. Yeah, they’ve increased spending at the VA, but the other hand is increasing our Tricare costs, and we can’t forget that Obama wanted us all to buy health insurance to cover our service-connected disabilities early in his term. The only reason he didn’t follow through with it was because he needed to get re-elected. So what’s to stop him from doing in the next four years? Obama went through the motions of fighting the war against terror without really doing that which is necessary to win. Most veterans opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but somehow the Obama campaign thinks that helps them.

    Basically, the Obama Administration is vulnerable on the issue of veterans and national defense, unfortunately for the Republicans, so is Romney which is obvious because he won’t summon the testicular fortitude to confront Obama on those issues. So, it’s a coin toss.

  • Jarome Neil; saving the world

    ROS sends us a link to an article about a foiled jewelry robbery in Seattle during which 12-year Army veteran, Jarome Neil, tackled the fleeing malignant tumor of humanity;

    On the northwest corner of Seventh Avenue and Stewart Street, directly across from the federal courthouse, the robber turned and fired three shots at the pursuing doorman, said Jarome Neil, a 12-year Army veteran, who ducked when he heard the shots.

    Neil joined several other men who tackled and held the suspect.

    A man wearing a white chef’s shirt emerged from nearby Hotel Max and grabbed the robber in a bear hug from behind, Neil said.

    Merlyn Parker, a 38-year-old Real Change newspaper vendor, grabbed the robber’s arm and shoulder.

    “I got him in a headlock,” Neil said, “and took him to the ground and put my knee on his neck.”

    But, generally, the media would rather report that some disadvantaged jewelry borrower going about his own business was abused, assaulted and other wise disheveled by a crazed veteran. But here’s the video of the take down;

  • SFC James Rade; saving the world one person at a time

    A local news station in Illinois tells the story of SFC James Rade who came upon a woman who had injured herself when she fell from her horse while he was scouting for his deer stand;

    “Evaluating a casualty, which I was trained on in the Illinois Army National Guard, played a vital role in what I was able to do for the woman when I found her,” said Sgt. 1st Class James Rade. “I went right into my military training and kept my mind focused on the well-being of the woman.”

    [Susan] O’Rourke says Rade did save her life. “I would not have survived if it wasn’t for the National Guardsman that came along,” she said. “He was very professional and used his skills…he kept me calm and I trusted him to make the decisions needed to care for me and administer proper first aid.”

    But the national media would rather tell about people who have tenuous connections to the military and commit crimes than the veterans like SFC Rade who are saving the world.

  • Update on that “hostage taker”

    Earlier today, I mentioned Klein Michael Thaxton who took a hostage in Pittsburgh today. At the time i was blogging from the road and didn’t have time to do much research, but Hondo sent us a link to an Army Times story that has some of Thaxton’s military background;

    An Army spokesman said Thaxton enlisted in the Army in December 2008 and separated from the service in June 2010. The spokesman said Thaxton, who was never deployed, was a private with the 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.

    He was a combat engineer.

    So he had about 18 months in the Army (he spent longer in the public school system, I’ll bet, but that wasn’t part of the story, was it?) which means he was booted, and we can pretty accurately guess it was for discipline problems. He also broke out of his half-way house today to get to the scene of his crime. But that wasn’t part of the story initially.

    It just seems to explain so well to the public what the problem was when they mention his prior military experience. Thanks, media.

    Hondo adds;

    Yes, he served in the Army. He never deployed. He never completed his first enlistment. His only duty assignment, other than training, was as a combat engineer at Fort Riley, KS. I don’t know why he was released from active duty after around 18 months – but the fact that he was later arrested for robbery leads me to believe it probably wasn’t an amicable parting.

    I actually kinda hope his attorney tries the “PTSD defense”. Here, it’s so bogus that even the media will probably raise the bullshit flag.

  • Pittsburgh hostage taker has “military background”

    The Associated Press reports on this hostage taking guy in Pittsburgh and they start the article with the nebulous fact that he has a “military background”. No explanation as to the background at all, just the factoid all by itself. He could have grown up by a recruiting station for all we know.

    He was also arrested for robbery a few months ago, but it’s more important to lead the story with this “military background” crap because it explains the whole thing so well.

    [Klein Michael Thaxton] has a criminal record that includes a guilty plea to robbery earlier this year and a minimum six-month jail sentence.

    But let’s get the military thing out front, shall we?

    Thanks to Twist and Chief Tango for the link.

  • Third victim in Benghazi was a former SEAL

    Fox News is reporting that the third of the four victims in Benghazi yesterday was a former Navy SEAL currently working for a private security firm;

    Glen Doherty, a former Navy SEAL from Massachusetts, was one of the victims of the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, a family friend confirmed to Fox News.

    Doherty is the latest victim to be identified. The U.S. government earlier confirmed that U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and Sean Smith, a foreign service information management officer, died in the attack.

    The name of the fourth American who died in the attack has not been disclosed.

    So, two of the three who were murdered along with the ambassador yesterday were veterans, Smith being an Air Force veteran. Still serving and still giving their lives for their country.

  • The President on the military

    Like I’ve said repeatedly this election season, I can’t watch political speeches anymore, so Obama’s acceptance speech last night was no exception. Which left me to read the transcript this morning. This is what he said about the military, defense and veterans;

    And tonight, we pay tribute to the Americans who still serve in harm’s way. We are forever in debt to a generation whose sacrifice has made this country safer and more respected. We will never forget you. And so long as I’m Commander-in-Chief, we will sustain the strongest military the world has ever known.
    (APPLAUSE)
    When you take off the uniform, we will serve you as well as you’ve served us because no one who fights for this country should have to fight for a job, or a roof over their head, or the care that they need when they come home.
    (APPLAUSE)
    Around the world, we’ve strengthened old alliances and forged new coalitions to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. We’ve reasserted our power across the Pacific, and stood up to China on behalf of our workers. From Burma to Libya to South Sudan, we have advanced the rights and dignity of all human beings, men and women; Christians and Muslims and Jews.
    (APPLAUSE)
    But for all the progress we’ve made, challenges remain. Terrorist plots must be disrupted. Europe’s crisis must be contained.

    Our commitment to Israel’s security must not waver, and neither must our pursuit of peace.
    (APPLAUSE)
    The Iranian government must face a world that stays united against its nuclear ambitions. The historic change sweeping across the Arab World must be defined not by the iron fist of a dictator or the hate of extremists, but by the hopes and aspirations of ordinary people who are reaching for the same rights that we celebrate here today.
    (APPLAUSE)
    So now we face a choice. My opponent and his running mate are new to foreign policy, but from all that we’ve seen and heard, they want to take us back to an era of blustering and blundering that cost America so dearly.

    After all, you don’t call Russia our number one enemy, not Al Qaeda, Russia, unless you’re still stuck in a Cold War mind warp.

    My opponent — my opponent said it was “tragic” to end the war in Iraq, and he won’t tell us how he’ll end the war in Afghanistan. Well I have, and I will. And while my opponent would spend more money on military hardware that our Joint Chiefs don’t even want, I will use the money we’re no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back to work rebuilding roads and bridges and schools and runways.

    Because after two wars that have cost us thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars, it’s time to do some nation- building right here at home.

    Basically, it’s all smoke and mirrors. He honors the troops and veterans with his words, but he’s pricing veterans out of the programs that they earned and broke decades of promises that the government made to veterans. And I’m not sure how he intends to “sustain the strongest military the world has ever known” when he’s planning to slash the living crap out of the defense budget. Not to mention slashing manpower, weapons and R&D.

    Russia is a greater threat now than al Qaeda – because this administration have allowed them to determine what our policy towards are allies will be. That’s not Cold War mentality, that’s the situation this administration created. The “tragedy” of ending the war in Iraq too soon has become apparent this week as Iraq allies itself in Syria with Iran against the Syrian people.

    Obama’s attitude towards veterans illustrates why the economy hasn’t healed in the last four years. Employers need someone that they can believe, and Obama can’t be believed. He told veterans last year that he wouldn’t balance the national budget on the backs of veterans, however, veterans are the only people in the country facing any changes in their benefits. The benefits that they earned.

    Obama has made promises over the last four years that he might have intended to keep, but he hasn’t so how can anyone believe anything he said last night? How do you make decisions that effect your own future, or the future of your business when you’re getting faulty information from the country’s leaders.

    He says he wants to raise taxes on “the rich”, but under Bill Clinton, who promised a tax cut, we learned that even social security recipients are among the people Democrats call “the rich”. We learned last night that Democrats plan to slash defense even more than the $1.2T cuts looming over the Defense Department. I’m sure Russia is just one of the countries rubbing their hands together over the cuts.

  • Those crazy Vietnam vets

    Michael sent us this link last month about Jackie Murphy, a 71-year-old Vietnam veteran who decided that whatever he was shoplifting at a local store in Harrodsburg, KY was worth shooting it out with responding officers. Of course they were better shots than Jackie and he ended up getting airlifted to the hospital.

    But his friends blamed Jackie’s bad behavior on his service in Vietnam;

    “Jack saw some very bad stuff in Vietnam, and he’s been having some problems, hearing voices and seeing Charlie,” Peyton said last week. “We were coming out of Loafers the other day and he said, ‘I just saw two VC (Vietnam Cong)!’ I said, ‘No, Jack, we’re in Harrodsburg. There are no VC here.’”

    “I don’t know everything,” said Peyton, who also served in the Army after the war was over. “He’d tell me bits and pieces, and then he’d break up, so I don’t have the full story, all the details.

    “His squad got overrun by the enemy. There was a lot of close fighting with helmets and knives, hand-to-hand combat,” Peyton said. “He was the only one who survived, and he had to crawl a long way to escape.

    He was indeed a veteran of the Vietnam war. I don’t know how many squads of cannon-cockers there are who fought hand-to-hand in Vietnam, though;

    All of that hand-to-gland fighting and not a scratch worth a Purple Heart? I wonder why a squad would force poor Jackie to drag his howitzer out on patrol in the jungle. While it’s quite possible he may have been in a close combat situation in a firebase where his battery was, it doesn’t seem likely that he would have had to crawl for miles away from the protection of the firebase.

    And, I’m pretty sure that getting captured by loss prevention officers didn’t trigger any flash backs of his shoplifting escapades in the PX. He opened fire on the officers before they exited their patrol car, so you can’t blame it on the gunshots since his were the first.

    While I’m not ready to say he doesn’t suffer from PTS or that he wasn’t in any situation that could have caused PTS, that’s not what people with PTS do. I’m just tired after 40 years of watching people take for granted that all Vietnam veterans are nuts. Although his story sounds fishy, I’m not ready to call him a phony. But, I will say that nothing he did that day was related to his service in Vietnam.