Military

I am still one of the few people out there who does not think that everything in Iraq is going to hell in a handbasket, even when I read reports like this:

To Staff Sgt. Charles Pollard, the working-class suburb of Mashtal is a “very, very, very, very bad neighborhood.” And he sees just one solution.

“U.S. officials need to get our [expletive] out of here,” said the 43-year-old reservist from Pittsburgh, who arrived in Iraq with the 307th Military Police Company on May 24. “I say that seriously. We have no business being here. We will not change the culture they have in Iraq, in Baghdad. Baghdad is so corrupted. All we are here is potential people to be killed and sitting ducks.”

One thing anyone who has had more than just a brief experience with the military understands is that the best way to see that your soldiers are alright is to see if they are bitching. When they stop complaining, then you have trouble. At any rate, I read these reports, and I find them appalling- I would never, never, not in a million years, have bitched to reporters when I was on active duty. Yeah, there were a lot of times when things REALLY sucked, and I really was in a lousy mood, but I just would never have bitched to anyone outside my unit. I guess times have changed- and we have to keep in mind that in many cases, these are Reservists and Guardsmen, and many of them do have a right to feel as if they have been sold a bill of goods.

Bitching SoldiersPost + Comments (8)

This hit close to home:

Four soldiers from the Army’s 1092nd Engineer Company, a civilian Army contractor, two civilian captains and two boat drivers were sailing up the Shatt al Arab waterway in the al Faw peninsula Sunday to pick up Iraqi South Oil Co. personnel when they were taken by force by Iranians, a spokesman, Cmdr. Dan Gage, said from Central Command headquarters in Tampa.

I served in Detachment 1, Company C, 1092 ECB for five years. IF anyone has any information on the names of these individuals, please forward it to me ASAP.

Close To HomePost + Comments (1)

Remember.

Happy Memorial DayPost + Comments (3)

What is going on onboard the USS Nassau?:

A U.S. Navy vessel experienced no loss of life during months of action in the Persian Gulf, but as it returned to the United States on Monday, one sailor was missing and another presumed dead.

A ship search on the USS Nassau continued Monday for Petty Officer 1st Class Shaun Dale, after a sea and air search the day before turned up no clues as to his whereabouts. He was first reported missing from a Sunday morning roll call on the Nassau , an amphibious assault ship with a crew of nearly 1,000.

Suspicious ActivityPost + Comments

They better go back to the drawing board, because this dog doesn’t hunt:

THE US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber.

Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed without leaving its boundaries, without a jury and without right of appeal, The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported yesterday.

The plans were revealed by Major-General Geoffrey Miller, who is in charge of 680 suspects from 43 countries, including two Australians.

The suspects have been held at Camp Delta on Cuba without charge for 18 months.

General Miller said building a death row was one plan. Another was to have a permanent jail, with possibly an execution chamber.

This is a pretty appalling idea.

WTF?Post + Comments (19)

Bob Hope will be turning 100 on the 29th of May, and it made me wonder whether it would be possible, if he desired, for him to be buried in Arlington National Cemetary. I don’t believe he ever served officially in the military, but I would be hard pressed to think of someone who has done more for our military over the years than Hope.

Does anyone know what the requirements are? Are there loopholes/exceptions?

Bob Hope and ArlingtonPost + Comments (8)

This is what a coward, a liar, and a mooch looks like. He used the military to further his personal goals, and now, when the nation needs him, he is turning his back on those who got him where he is now. The press should not be allowed to refer this twerp as a marine. Kick him out, and take back every penny that the military has given to him in college aid.

Then, get rid of conscientious objector status in the all-volunteer military- and for the exceptionally stupid, force all recruiters to tell potential recruits that they just might have to kill someone in the future.

*** Update ***

John Scalzi has some trenchant remarks regarding Mr. Funk:

You have to be a really interesting sort of ignorant not to know that the Marines kill people from time to time. Your first hint: The big rifle so many of those Marines carry around. Your second hint: All those movies, books and television shows, widely available to the general public, in which Marines are shown, you know, killing people. Your third hint: The fact that the Marines are widely acknowledged to be a branch of the military of the United States, and militaries are likewise widely known, by most people who are smart enough to stand upright on two legs, to kill other people on occasion (typically members of other nations’ militaries, though sometimes they’re not so picky, depending on country and context).

Coward, Liar, or Mooch?Post + Comments (8)