Category: Who knows

USAToday reports that Specialist Terry Harrison was suspended from her duties at the Wisconsin National Guard for her antics earlier this week, posting disrespectful comments to her Instagram photos in regards to a funeral detail;

“The specialist involved has been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation,” he said. Harrison, a full-time member of the National Guard, has been suspended from Wisconsin’s honor guard and assigned to other duties while an investigation is ongoing.

“She has received death threats to her and her family,” Rickert said. Wisconsin officials also have notified the National Guard Bureau because the other soldiers in the photograph were from other units.

The National Guard Bureau did not immediately return a message left for comment.

Maj. Gen. Donald Dunbar, Wisconsin’s adjutant general, issued a written statement about the “controversial and distasteful” photos Tuesday.

“We expect all of our soldiers and airmen to live by a core set of values, in word and deed,” Dunbar said. “I was appalled by the offensive photos and comments that appeared on this soldier’s social media site regarding her duties as a funeral honor guard member.”

Our buddy, Denise Williams at Chicago Now, who also happens to be a Gold Star Mother, writes an open letter to Specialist Harrison and her defenders;

I am a Gold Star Mother. I received one of those folded flags in a deeply moving and solemn ceremony. The idea that the members of that squad, though displaying exemplary behavior at the services, also may have at any time displayed the type of behavior you did offends me on levels I can scarcely describe. I would never have believed those who had the honor of performing this sacred duty would hold such a cavalier attitude.

Because of you I find myself thinking back, trying to remember and picture the faces I barely registered at the time. Did someone roll their eyes before they got out of the vehicle to line up next to my son’s casket? Surely, those attending the services of a soldier Killed In Action would not even be aware of their own physical discomfort at such a moment? Because of you, these thoughts entered my head.

I don’t intend to fixate on this story, as long as Harrison is punished for her bad behavior, I’ll be happy, and it looks like that will happen. And don’t kid yourselves, your opinion in this discussion counts. Journalists know that TAH is the place to come to see an unvarnished account of what veterans are thinking.

In The Great Scheme of Things, this story is a popcorn fart. But, apparently Ms. Harrison and some others haven’t run into the boundaries of decent behavior, and that leaves it up to we veterans to demonstrate to her, her friends, and the rest of the military what is unacceptable behavior. Quite obviously, they didn’t get that from their families, or from their leadership, so it’s left up to us, the Old Guard of the military to establish those boundaries.

As someone mentioned in the comments yesterday, combat patches are few and far between in those pictures, and this generation of troops, the ones who don’t know war, don’t fully understand the impact of war on our jobs. They’ve inherited the good will that generations of warriors before them have built for them, and obviously, they interpreted that inheritance as some sort of armor to protect them from the ill-will that they can generate with their bad behavior. But it’s up to each new generation to reinforce that good will, that professional image that Americans have of the folks who sacrifice for them.

The media would like to present the military as a bunch of out-of-control borderline criminals, and this blog is the voice of the majority of veterans who won’t tolerate that image. For every troop that misbehaves in public, there are thousands who wouldn’t even contemplate that behavior. And that’s why this blog exists – to give those thousands a public voice.

Ex-PH2 sends us this article, so I guess I have her permission to post the photo (below the fold) of Hannah Ferguson, a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model with a enviable heritage, according to Fox Sports;

Ferguson, 22, was born into the most disciplined of environments. Both her mother and father are U.S. Marines. And not just any Marines . . . her mother was a drill instructor, her father a sniper.

Growing up in rural Texas, she lived an understandably strict childhood, one that included plenty of chores, including feeding farm animals.

“We grew up with sheep and goats and chickens and geese and ducks and cats and dogs,” she told SI. “My four siblings and I had our schedules written out. We were were each assigned a day when we had to go out and feed the animals. We also had to pull weeds and pick up trash and stuff.

“We weren’t allowed to paint our nails or get our ears pierced until we were 15. And certainly not to date!”

Anyway, she says that she always wanted to be a model, since her father had past SI models posted in his shop. So, I’m thinking any man with designs on Ms. Ferguson’s attention is in for quite an experience. But she looks worth it;
(more…)

The Olympic athlete who scored four goals against the evil Russians yesterday during their hockey match, T.J. Oshie was asked how it felt to be heralded as a “national hero”. His response should be etched in every locker room;

“The American heroes are wearing camo,” he replied. “That’s not me.”

Of course, to be truthful, even those heroes in camouflage would humbly deflect the label, too. All real heroes do. That’s why we find so many phonies in the media. Heroes don’t live for the glory, they’re the ones who’ll be the first to tell you that they were only doing their job, that they did it to bring their friends home.

Bull Halsey once summed up where heroes come from; “There are no extraordinary men…just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are forced to deal with.”

ADDED: Speaking of patriotic hockey players, you should check out goalie Jonathon Quick’s mask.