Category: Who knows

Mr Wolf sends us a link to Marine Corps Times‘ Battle Rattle which went after the Six Flags Illinois security guards for wearing military ribbons based on the views of a former Marine whose child pointed out the ribbons after the Marine, Robert Smith, showed his son his own awards;

“I saw a 23- or 24-year-old wearing a Combat Action Ribbon with two gold stars,” Smith told Marine Corps Times. “Another guy had four rows of three ribbons. I know gunnery sergeants or staff sergeants when I was in that didn’t even have that many.”

Smith said he asked the security guard wearing the Combat Action Ribbon what the stars stood for, and he said they represented reuniting lost children with their parents. All day at the park, Smith said he was offended every time he saw another security guard’s ribbon rack.

“Every award I have means something to me,” Smith said. “It was belittling and hurtful to have [my son] say, ‘Oh, look. He has the same ribbons as you.’ ”

Battle Rattle says that they contacted Six Flags on Monday and by Tuesday, their policy had changed;

“We have the utmost respect for the men and women who serve our country and the rewards and recognition they earn,” said Katy Enrique, communications manager with the park. “It was never our intention to undervalue military ribbons by using them as part of our park’s recognition program.”

The uniform policy was not a company-wide policy, so only applied to the Illinois location, Enrique said.

TSO calls to tell us that he’s in Sturgis and his booth is set up but that no one is paying much attention to him because he’s next to a bikini car wash, and since without pictures it never happened;

I’m taking off for part of the day to play with my wife so here’s a place to discuss whatever you want. Here’s some food for thought from our buddy Dave in Texas at Ace. I can hear the phonies salivating from here.

The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division posts a long-overdue article at army.mil about the scams we see almost daily at TAHHQs in regards to people pretending to be members of the military in order to separate you from your money;

Be extremely suspicious if you are asked for money for transportation costs, communication fees or marriage processing and medical fees.

Many of the negative claims made about the military and the supposed lack of support and services provided to troops overseas are far from reality, check the facts.

If you do start an internet-based relationship with someone, check them out, research what they are telling you with someone who would know, such as a current or former service member.

Be very suspicious if you never get to actually speak with the person on the phone or are told you cannot write or receive letters in the mail. Servicemen and women serving overseas will often have an APO or FPO mailing address. Internet or not, service members always appreciate a letter in the mail.

Be very suspicious if you are asked to send money or ship property to a third party or company. Oftentimes the company exists, but has no idea or is not a part of the scam.

Be aware of common spelling, grammatical or language errors in the emails.

Be very cautious when placing your personal photographs on social media sites.

I’d add that real members of the military will never scan and send you their ID cards.

CID strongly recommends that Soldiers, civilians and family members who come across any known suspicious social networking or dating site profile or are solicited in this fashion from a person posing as a U.S. Soldier, immediately email CID at Army.CID.Crime.Tips[at]mail[dot]mil.

I saw this a few days ago, but I was pretty pissed that Mark Wahlberg was playing Marcus Luttrell. However I had about thirty emails about it this morning, so I guess y’all want to talk about it. Yeah, I’ll go watch it for Marcus, but the popcorn better be especially good.

By the way, you should probably read the book before you see the movie, if you haven’t already, so you’ll understand the movie.

Someone sent us a link to this gentleman’s Facebook page last night. I’m sure he’s legit just from the 1000-meter gaze and the way he doesn’t care about displaying rank and name tags.

The folks at FirstBIKE wrote to tell us that they were offering a 25% discount to their “balance bikes” for military personnel and asked me if I wanted to try one out, since my great-grand daughter’s 4th birthday is coming up, I said “Sure!”. My family has always been bicycle-centric, and I know my son-in-law had bought a balance bike for my grandson a few years back and as he approaches 6 year old, he’s already riding a two-wheel bike. So they shipped me a bike.

I had to assemble the thing (like everything else we buy these days) and it took me about 15 minutes. The instructions were clear and well-organized, even the part about putting the stickers on. So, Zaydie, my great grand daughter arrived yesterday. I gave her the bike and her eyes got wide and she got the biggest smile I’d ever seen and she took off with the bike across the driveway;

Now a balance bike doesn’t have pedals so it’s really a tall “Big Wheel” that kids push with their feet and it has hand brakes to help them control their ride. I couldn’t get her off of the bike even when it started to rain. I also got big “grampa points”. So here is First BIKE’s message;

The team at FirstBIKE, a leading designer of balance bikes (http://www.firstbike.com), would like to send its sincerest ‘thank you’ to the men and women who have served this country. FirstBIKE gladly announces military families will receive 25% off of FirstBIKE purchases.

The FirstBIKE’s unique design allows for children as young as 2 years old to enjoy and learn how to ride a bike without training wheels. The bike is comfortable, lightweight and provides children with a no-stress method of learning how to ride.

I always thought training wheels for teaching kids to ride was kind of a crutch, and this balance bike option is a good alternative and helps kids learn to balance themselves at an earlier age than waiting for them to get big enough for a bike with training wheels. And anything that gets them away from the TV and the video games has to be a good idea. And it looks like a good way to score some “cool points”.

A parting shot of Zaydie and her mother;

In the Salt Lake Tribune retired Marine Sergeant Major Nick Lopez noticed that his local police department, in their formal uniforms, were wearing awards that were real military decorations, like the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, Army Distinguished Service Medal and others. That didn’t sit well with SGM Lopez so he complained to his city government, which seemed to ignore his complaints.

However, they took his letters and emails seriously;

Many of the police ribbons earned by officers are similar in design to military ribbons, said West Valley City Manager Wayne Pyle, a 21-year Army reservist who took a leave of absence in 2006 for a 15-month deployment to Afghanistan. Pyle said the police and city officials exhaustively researched the issue and determined the department had done nothing wrong. But the ribbons officers earned from the department are being redesigned to eliminate any perception that they are wearing military awards without earning them.

I know it’s probably cheaper and easier for police departments to just pick up some bits of ribbon from the local surplus store, but as we’ve pointed out in the past, there are awards available to local LEOs that are designed specifically for their use. they should really take advantage of that option instead of giving the impression that officers earned military awards.

Pyle and Powell pointed out that the law specifies the wearing or use of the awards are criminal if they are done to intentionally commit fraud. Having local police ribbons that are similar to military ribbons doesn’t fit that criteria, they say.

Yeah, well, that doesn’t make it right.