[kato13]

Webstral 08-31-2005, 10:14 AM It's been a long time since I sent out anything. Right now, I have a belly full of fire, so I don't care how far this edition of Adagio for Strings gets distributed. In fact, I would look on it as a good thing if people were to distribute this to anyone and everyone of an age to join the Army or who knows someone who might join the Army.


Yesterday, I was really unhappy. It was my first full day back from leave. CPT Clark is being relieved. They are calling it something else; but for all intents and purposes, he is being relieved. It's all tied in with the 184 scandal. The press has claimed that B Company extorted tens of thousands of dollars from local businesses. This is complete nonsense, but now that the press has printed it the Army feels obliged to act. Never mind that CPT Clark is guilty of a procedural irregularity regarding a thousand dollars, at worst. Never mind that the Army has already slapped his wrist and said carry on. Now that the press has thrown CPT Clark in with the torturers of A Company, the Army has decided to offer CPT Clark up as a sacrificial lamb by removing him from command.


If I wasn't through with the Army already, this would be it. [deleted for content] the Army. [deleted for content] them in their stupid, hypocritical [deleted for content].

The Army talks all the time about the Army virtues: above all, loyalty. Yet when the time comes for a senior commander to defend his people, he throws his officers to the wolves. This is different than sacrificing them for the sake of the mission. Everyone accepts that we may have to give our lives for the greater good. If the mission calls for us to die so that the job can get done, so be it. But now the Army is demanding something more than its soldiers' lives. The Army is demanding a sacrifice of honor. To be relieved of command is to be stripped of honor. This is worse than being killed or wounded. For a soldier, losing honor is like losing the soul. In order to present a politically correct image, the Army is demanding the honor of its commanders associated with any publicly-recognized malfeasance. Justice doesn't even enter into the equation. It's a matter of being able to say: "Yes, we dealt with the officers responsible for this mess," instead of, "We're looking into the problem and applying even-handed justice to everyone involved." The Army has a right to demand its soldiers' lives. It has no right to demand their honor be sacrificed for the sake of public image. The ultimate sacrifice is not a soldier's life but his honor.


[deleted for content] the Army. [deleted for content] them in their stupid, hypocritical [deleted for content].


If I could send one message to the people of America, it would be this: don't enlist. The modern Army is no place for a good American or a good soldier. The Army senior leadership is a pack of gutless turds who will see injustice done to their subordinates rather than stand up for loyalty, fraternity, brotherhood, and above all justice.


I am writing this on a day when I feel pretty good, truth be told. Yesterday was a disaster. I was so physically affected by the news that CPT Clark is being relieved that I crashed into bed at 8:00. I couldn't concentrate on my job. I felt like I had just lost a fight. After a good night's sleep and some morning yoga, I feel much, much better. I'm ready to look at this problem a bit more analytically than I was yesterday--thus the distinction about sacrificing honor over sacrificing a life.


It's cooler today than it was during the weeks before I left. It's about one hundred degrees, as opposed to one hundred ten. That ten-degree difference is huge. It's warm and pleasant as opposed to being oppressive. The temperature probably has something to do with my increased sense of well-being.


Lt Leung (Learn) got on my nerves today. He's a Regular Army officer and a tanker attached to Bayonet. I was in the checkpoint CP today, talking with one of the riflemen about the state of affairs in the battalion. I mentioned LTC Frey, and Lt Leung immediately announced that LC Frey had already been relieved. There was a cool, vicious glee in his voice as he said it. Then he threw in that the sergeant major was being relieved, too. From someone else, that might have been nothing more than additional news. But from him, it was a "Fuck you, National Guard" thinly disguised. I tried to go on with my conversation with the other rifleman. Lt Leung announced that all of the officers and senior NCOs who had been relieved in association with the scandal had been replaced by 3rd ID people. Again, the cool and vicious satisfaction dripped from him. Imagine an evil Spock. He was so pleased to work that Regular Army versus National Guard rivalry. I've had my issues with him, but this incident really illuminates him as a mean mike foxtrot.


I think about all the people this deployment has made into career casualties. My first platoon leader, 2LT Parry, was relieved when were at Fort Bliss. Ditto First Sergeant Hollingsworth. Any number of junior enlisted people have fallen out for discipline and medical reasons. Now LTC Frey and the 184 command sergeant major are out, along with the A Company commander. And, for good measure, CPT Clark. We have done worse to ourselves than the enemy's best effort. I am beginning to feel that I should count myself lucky to return home with my honor intact, to say nothing of having done anything laudable.


Leave was excellent, by the way. My wife truly is a dream wife. Several nights, we lay in bed for a little while watching cartoons. We laughed at fart jokes and acted like kids at a sleepover. That's a good partner for me. Only five more months of this misadventure, and I can get back to her and my real life.



Webstral

********************

TiggerCCW UK 08-31-2005, 02:43 PM Don't let the fuckers get you down Web! Stay alive and safe my friend, and soon you'll be home with your wife, with all of this behind you. If you need someone to talk to or to sound off to PM me and I'll give you my email address. Stay safe and take care.

********************

Abbott Shaull 08-31-2005, 03:45 PM Ouch. Sounds like the Army brass isn't too concern with re-enlistments for some National Guard units. Let alone their own recruitment efforts are lagging. Shrug.


The way it sounds most of the Senior NCOs and good share of Officers have more or less lost their jobs. It is shame and I wonder how other NG and Reserve units have faired with their command staff at Battalion and Company levels. I am sure your current situation isn't unique. Just a shame that these stories aren't the one making the news outlet. More worried about other things, and then we cut lose the key people who we should be supporting... (Shakes head in disgust)...


It is bad enough that we are asking our people to put their lifes on the line, but then they also have to worry about what orders to follow and not along with other needless bullshit. Then again, I wish, I was up on the entire story, but I think after hearing the small sliver that I really don't want to hear about. Then again this is coming from th same command who insist to the general public that only a handful of MPs and support personnel were responsible for scandal from that prison. While there were plenty of photos with other people who should know what is going on since they were in some pics that weren't plastard on the various news outlets. Yet, these people and company grade officers on up knew nothing...(shaking head) What flipping asshole...


I will stop now, due to the fact there is so much more that could be said...


Just hang in there Web....



Abbott

********************

ReHerakhte 09-01-2005, 05:29 AM Hey Web, like the others have said, hang in there coz everything ends sooner or later, you just gotta stick it out for long enough to see it.

As my father used to tell me when he was recalling some screwup when he was in the Aussie Army, (if I remember the spelling!) "Nil Coborundum Bastardum" which he told me was bastardized Latin for "Don't let the bastards grind you down"


There's a few of us here who have served/still serve in the military and although senior personnel hanging their juniors out to dry isn't a new thing, it's usually the sort of crap we see in peacetime. It reminds me of the stuff I was told about Vietnam, my own father (a junior LT at the time) admitted to me that the leadership shit was so bad one time that he considered putting a poisonous snake into his Captain's boots. This wasn't the US Army, but the Australian!

I am, like Abbott, disgusted by the situation you are facing, the combat zone is no place for the full-time versus part-time military rivalry bullshit let alone a place for senior officers to be rolling shit downhill onto junior leaders.

Like Abbott, I'm going to sign off now because there is soooo much more I'd like to say!


Reminds me of something else from Vietnam (that Graebarde might be familiar with!), the phrase "Don't mean nuthin"

Don't let the bastards grind you down Web, don't give the pricks the satisfaction.


Kevin

********************