The other day Tim referenced the fact that the military is stretched to its absolute limits, and you have to wonder how many stories like this are out there:
Erik Botta believes he’s done right by his country.
Days after 9/11, as a young Army reservist, he volunteered to go to war. He was soon in Afghanistan.
The next year, he was sent out again, this time to Iraq, part of a Special Operations team.
In the next two years, he was sent to Iraq again. And again.
He thought he was done. But now, the Army wants Sgt. Botta one more time.
The 26-year-old Port St. Lucie man has been ordered to report to Fort Jackson, S.C., on July 15 for his fifth deployment. And that has compelled Botta, a first-generation American who counts himself a quiet patriot, to do something he never thought he’d do: sue the Army.
”I’m proud of my service,” he said. “I never wanted it to end like this.”
Nearly seven years into his eight-year commitment to the reserves, the personal costs are higher for Botta. He could lose his home. His job at Sikorsky, working on the Black Hawk military helicopter, could be on the line. He’s halfway to his electrical engineering degree, planning a career in defense work, but his professors say he’ll suffer a significant setback if he is deployed. He doesn’t mention the danger another deployment would bring, but his wife and parents do.
”I’m proud of being in the Army,” he said. “They taught me responsibility. They taught me maturity. And they gave me a good toolbox of technical skills to work with. I think I’d be more valuable to my country at this point by being here, getting my degree and working at Sikorsky.”
In a lawsuit he expects to file this week in federal court in Florida, Botta says he will ask for an exemption or delay so that he can complete his engineering studies. He will also ask the court to prevent the Army from requiring him to report for duty until the legal questions are settled.
How many tours is enough for a reservist, and at what point will the Guard and Reserve just be broken beyond repair?
ThymeZone
Pressure building on all sides. McConnell, known as a veritable talking point machine for the GOP, is being reported as having said this today.
Tax Analyst
“But…but…he’s a good horse…can’t we beat him just a little more?”
I guess it’s really easy to be the “Decider” when you don’t give a fuck about anybody else.
“Stretched to the limit”? Hah! There is no “limit” to the stretching. This bunch recognizes no stinking limits…to the Army, the Reserves, the Treasury, the Constitution, the Truth…you name it, they’ll stretch it till it bursts…
Yer money, yer life, yer pride…it’s all grist for the Bushmill.
Wilfred
I agree with TZ. There seems to have been both a quantitative and qualitative change in tone over the past 10 days or so. Ass covering abounds – today Petraeus said:
How inspiring is that? The soldiers will be taking up Iraqi citizenship by then.
As such, isn’t it time for our own jihadis to step up and man the bridge. A score of well-funded private militias should get the job done. Lieberman’s Jesusmen, maybe, or Hewitt’s You’re Its, or a Redstate Ricochet Rabbit Troop, ministered by the Reverend Dobroberwell. Hell, I’d put up some cash to outfit some hero.
Bubblegum Tate
Suing the Army? Wow, Erik Botta is a bottomless well of hatred for America.
Jake
Why do you think they call it I-Rack?
My guess? The second we have a Democratic president. Republican hacks will squeal about the deplorable state of the NG. Until then, to suggest any part of the military isn’t working at 110% will be the mark of the America Hater.
tBone
How many
angelsponies candancefroliconin thehead of a pinbucolic Iraqi countryside?When our victorious troops are being showered with candy and flowers in Iran and North Korea, and not a minute before, freedom-hater.
grumpy realist
Maybe if more of the idiots who got us into this mess had actually done some, y’know, military duty under fire (i.e., not getting plunked by Daddy Dear into Coast Guard of Montana), they’d realize exactly how ghastly these never-ending tours are.
Am afraid that this war is going to drag on until we have an actual draft and all the upper-middle-class war-supporters have to worry about their little College Republican actually getting shot at. Horrors! That’s for “those people” to do, not little Jason, who’s going to go off to a nice cushy job as an intern for AEI.
Punchy
Hey, they VOLUNTEERED. They knew what they were getting themselves into. There’s no free ride, and they’re getting a free education in engineering, blowing up Brownies, and suntans to boot.
Besides, we haven’t had a single hurricane yet, so who the fuck needs a bunch of NGs sitting on their fat asses stealing paychecks when they can be out shoveling sand off some Abhrams with a bum turret. Fucking whiners.
mclaren
This offers a good lesson for any deluded fool who things it’s “patriotic” and “public-spirited” to volunteer for the army.
NEWS FLASH: the people who run the army don’t give a s**t about patriotism.
The people who run the army don’t give a good goddamn about serving their country. The people who run the army want one thing and one thing only — human cannon fodder to feed into the grinding machine so the gutless cowards in charge can keep talking tough while your sons and daughters die for no reason.
Anyone stupid enough to volunteer for the army deserves what he gets. And what he’ll get is: killed by friendly friend then dumped into a memory hole; raped (if she’s a woman) by her fellow servicemen; sent in without support to die alone for no reason. Because the people who run the army care about only thing, getting promoted. Nobody in the army gets promoted by saving the lives of grunts. People in the army get promoted by kissing the asses of the civilian leaders, no matter how deluded or demented or sociopathic those civilian leaders may happen to be.
This ignorant fool deserves to get deployed 27 times. Let him get deployed until he dies slow, screaming, and then let his family and friends learn the brutal lesson — THE ARMY IS NOT YOUR FRIEND.
NEVER, EVER, EVER VOLUNTEER FOR THE ARMY.
THE ARMY WILL THROW AWAY YOUR LIFE WITH LESS THOUGHT THAN THROWING AWAY A USED KLEENAX, AND THEN THEY’LL LIE ABOUT IT TO COVER THEIR ASSES SO THEY RETIRE ON A RICH DOUBLE-DIPPER PENSION.
Zifnab
Wow. Mitch McConnell is such a brave and stalwart Senator, really telling it like it is and not giving America any guff. I’m so glad our strong Republican Minority Leader doesn’t sugarcoat things. That’s a man I can trust.
And he even goes so far as to acknowledge that (filthy) public opinion in a Democracy matters. How wise. How noble. How musky smelling.
Now excuse me. After doing all that swallowing, my MSM-inspired throat has been rubbed raw. I’ll need a nice cold glass of Aqua Velva to wash it down.
Tsulagi
mclaren,
After reading your comment I took a few moments thinking which part to blockquote as being the most fucking asinine and brain-dead part. But you know, no one sentence or paragraph really stood out above the others. And since I really don’t care to blockquote the entire POS train of thought you’re riding on, I’ll leave it alone. Peace.
r€nato
…and still the military (in general) thinks that Republicans are their friends, huh?
Chad N. Freude
100% correct. Up to that point, we will be fighting an absolutely necessary war in Iran as well as Afghanistan and Iraq, and the moment the Dem Prez takes his hand off the Bible, the horribly unnecessary war in Iran that has totally destroyed the armed forces will be the Democrats’ fault.
tBone
You know, I can understand where righties get that irritating “the Left is so shrill!” talking point when I read idiotic shit like this.
Chad N. Freude
Fixed.
Chad N. Freude
Earth to mclaren: If armed forces volunteers were to take your advice, the US, that is WE, would have the choice of (1) no defense against other nations who — unimaginably — might want to harm us militarily, or (2) a draft to maintain a defense against [see above]. Which is your preference?
BTW, your statement about deserving what they get is so far beneath contempt I get dizzy just looking down on it.
RSA
A fifth tour of combat for Botta, a reservist? That’s heartbreaking. I think that our commander in chief and his underlings have lost sight of the basic meaning of “reserve”. As a reservist, Botta is probably wondering whether soldiers in the regular Army have all had as many tours. If they have, it’s worse than most of us have realized, I think, as bad as we think it is.
grumpy realist
And this thing about “volunteering”….yeah, right. When I volunteer for something I don’t expect to be sent on tours over and over again until I die in a stupid little war simply because Bush and his enablers don’t have the balls to stand up and say “I made a mistake.”
You want to really honor the troops? Then get them out of that hellhole called Iraq, bring them home, and give them the medical and financial support they need.
Krista
As any half-decent non-profit could tell you, do not overtax your volunteers.
They’re giving their time out of the goodness of their heart, and at any moment, could say “fuck you, I’m going home”. Do they honestly think that people are going to volunteer for the reserves after reading a story like that?
sydney stotter
if he had an ounce of scruples, he would have admitted this BEFORE it became a game of numbers and re-election brownies points. Way too little, way, way too late.
MNPundit
Even the Romans had enlistment limits during the Republic times.
Chad N. Freude
Fixed.
Redhand
There’s no doubt that the elitist scum in the Bush Administration have always looked at “the troops” as IED fodder. (“You go to war with the Army you’ve got.”) They have been so fixated on “winning” that the don’t care how many reservists they screw over with multiple combat tours. How many people did FIVE tours in Vietnam!? Nobody who didn’t want to.
What’s being done to these solid, basically patriotic middle American types from Arkansas, Oklahoma, et al is an absolute effing disgrace. What a breach of faith with these people!
A consequence of this disgusting and selective abuse of NG volunteers will, I think, be grave damage to the entire Reserve force structure in future. After all the redeployment madness of the Bush Administration, who in his right mind would volunteer for this kind of exposure again?
This is just another example of how these bastards have broken faith with the people who elected them. Sickening.
rachel
Ah, I remember the days when the “serious people” who thought this clusterfuck was a good idea used sneer at my opposition to it. Insisting that Afghanistan was where the real danger lay and that we ought to be sure whether Saddam had any real ability to cause trouble for us before we sent our men to be shot at wasn’t “supporting the troops,” you see.
Richard Bottoms
>My guess? The second we have a Democratic president.
Word.
Banzai Bunny
Remember when the Guard and Reserves were a way to get *out* of military service? Good times.
Richard Bottoms
>Remember when the Guard and Reserves were a way to get out of >military service?
I know George Bush does.
Unless he was on a bender the whole time.
Chad N. Freude
“There but for the grace of Daddy go I.”