Tag: Military Service

America And The Immigrants

For a decade this country has been having a debate about those illegal aliens streaming (their words not mine) across the border and stealing jobs and getting a free ride on the welfare gravy train…….one of the deals to help this situation is that these immigrants could join the military and if they serve honorably then they will be fast tracked to the citizenship thing….

Personally, I think it is a good idea….but beyond that how has this program worked out for the immigrants?

Countless foreign-born US veterans were deported after the federal government failed to assist in their naturalisation process, a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union said.

According to the report, many of the soldiers, whose service dated back to the Vietnam War, were deported after facing charges for minor misdemeanors – which can be deportable offences – and courts were not allowed to consider military service.

“By requiring deportation and stripping immigration courts of the power to consider military service, the United States government abandons these veterans by expelling them to foreign countries at the moment when they most need the government’s help to rehabilitate their lives after service,” Bardis Vakili, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU of California, said in a press release. “This is a tragic and disgraceful example of how broken our immigration system is.”

Source: ACLU says US deporting ‘untold number’ of military veterans | Americas | News | The Independent

So was this a con job or an oversight?

A program more devious than the draft……another governmental lie to achieve an end……

Women And The Draft

The big news, at least for some, is that women have been approved for roles in direct combat units…….and the peasants went batcrap crazy at the news….they say that families will be destroyed and other such fears…..

So if we have a draft will women be forced to register?

Well Batman….if they turn 18 then yes they should register for the draft….but then we have some like this tool from the Congress, Duncan Hunter,……..

A key congressional committee voted last week to require young women to register for potentially compulsory military service, but the gender-equalizing reform threatens to make felons out of women who refused to participate.

Though prosecutions currently appear unlikely, men jailed for not registering with the Selective Service System and some former authorities who participated in the cases are concerned about criminalizing a large swath of the population.

Enforcement wasn’t always lax, and the law that may be applied to women allows for five-year prison sentences for “knowing and willful” non-registration with an equally long statute of limitations.

Source: Gender-Neutral Draft Registration Would Create Millions of Female Felons | US News

This is so much CRAP!  And yes I capitalized it because it is that much crap.

This may be a moot point…..there are some in the Congress that wants to do away with the draft altogether….but I think that is to protect the rich from actually having to serve this country than it is to protect women.

As far as I am concerned……if women are capable of doing the job then they should have the same chances as a man…..as far as the ruination of the family goes….NO one cares that the fathers have to go and the family has survived….the family will survive if women are sent to war.

“We Need More Troops”

I have written about the necessity of the reinstatement of the draft (conscription for those that have NO idea what the Draft is all about)…..I call for it because I feel that there is NO shared experience in war ……this country turns its back on our troops the first chance they get because they do not have to think about it….no one cares.

If you would like to check out what I had to say……

The US seems to be Hell bent on continuing war upon war……and if so then it will need to drastically change its way of think about the military….that is if they want a primo milita…

Source: Time To Re-Think Conscription? | Ace News Room

I have been writing about this since 2007…..

Things are not going well for the military, what with Iraq and Afghanistan and any other conflict that Bush wishes to engage in . US Troops are being extended an extra 4 months, the National Guard …

Source: Why No Draft? – In Saner Thought

This country is at war…….granted it is not a declared war but if troops die then it is a war……..and we enter into a new conflict almost monthly and we have only a finite amount of troops to use for these deployment…..

But no one in Washington seems to hear the call…..and they say that we need more troops…..

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee has introduced a defense bill that would increase the U.S. Army by 45,000 soldiers.

Rep. Mac Thornberry’s version of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Bill would provide money to add 20,000 soldiers to the active Army’s end-strength, bringing it to 480,000.

The bill would also add 15,000 to the National Guard and 10,000 to the Reserves, resulting in a Guard strength of 350,000 and a Reserve strength of 205,000. The panel was expected to approve the measure on Wednesday.

Under the President Barack Obama’s current proposed defense budget, the Army projects its end-strength to be at a total of 980,000 soldiers by fiscal 2018, including 450,000 for the active force, 335,000 for the Army National Guard and 195,000 for the Army Reserve.

But how will this increase be handled without a draft?

Oh they have a plan…….

Thornberry’s revised budget earmarks just over $2 billion in additional funding for the troop increase, according to language in the bill. That’s about $2.5 billion short of what the Army would need, according to Army senior leaders that have testified it will cost about $1 billion for every 10,000 soldiers.

“Where possible, Chairman Thornberry’s proposal cuts excessive or wasteful expenditures and rededicates those resources to urgent needs,” according to the bill’s summary. “Even with a vigorous re-prioritization of programs, the Committee was unable to make up essential shortages in the President’s budget and simultaneously provide a full year of contingency funding.

“The proposal is designed to restore strength to the force through readiness investments and agility through much needed reforms, while providing a more solid foundation for the next President to address actual national security needs,” it states

I love the thought process in DC….they are best called MORONS!

Here is a simple solution…..the draft is just inactive….re-activate and all this creative bullsh*t will not be necessary.

Simple solutions are always the best solutions.

 

Why Is My Kindergartner Being Groomed for the Military at School?

I am not a big fan of the military advertising….and I do not like the idea of any recruitment in schools other than printed stuff left for anyone to take…….

I saw the title of this piece and felt I needed to read it…….and after I read it I thought it asks some pretty good questions and made some good points…

In the US, young children are primed for military recruitment before they’re old enough to ask questions. How can we push back?

Source: Why Is My Kindergartner Being Groomed for the Military at School?

There are just some places that military recruitment should be banned…..kids already get enough pro-war crap in their vid games they really do not need it in school……

Is this indoctrination?

Just a thought.

Let’s Return To Yesteryear

May I see a show of hands…..how many served in the US military?

The topic is “dog tags”…..that piece of metal around a soldiers neck that has all his pertinent information imprinted on them…..in Vietnam they were in the lace of your boots……it seems that the military has decided it was time for a change……after I read this article my first thought was…..well duh!

For soldiers, a dog tag “individualizes the human being who wears it, despite his or her role as a small part of a huge and faceless organization,” CNN quotes the Library of Congress as saying. But few citizens probably realize the danger dogs tags can put soldiers in. “If you find a pair of lost ID tags you can pretty much do anything with that person’s identity because you now have their blood type, their religion, you have their social, and you have their name,” says Michael Klemowski of the US Army Human Resources Command in an Army press release. “The only thing missing is their birth date, and you can usually get that by Googling a person.” And so in a bid to combat such potential ID theft, the Army announced Tuesday it’s making changes to dog tags for the first time in four decades, the Army Times reports.

CNN reports the Army will be removing each soldier’s Social Security numbers from his or her dog tags and replacing it with a 10-digit, randomly generated Defense Department ID number. SSN-less dog tags were actually called for in 2007, but implementation has been a long time coming due to the number of Army systems that use Social Security numbers, the Army Times reports. Each of those systems had to be reprogrammed to work with the new 10-digit ID number. As for the rollout of the new tags, “This change is not something where Soldiers need to run out and get new tags made,” says Klemowski. “If a Soldier is going to deploy, they are the first ones that need to have the new ID tags.”

Gee….when I wore them you had your service number imprinted on them…..in those days it was an 8-digit number and it told others if you were regular army, reservist or a draftee…..so I guess we are going back to the “old days”……yet again.

What, No Retirement Party?

My last post of the day is a personal one……and not something I usually pay much attention to on any given day….but this story got me to bitching!

I served in the US Army from 1967-1971…..in a war that was just sucky……and in that time when I traveled I wore my Army dress greens (and I did cut quite a dashing figure if I do say so)…….But I got some sad news over the weekend……

I am and was proud to wear my green uniform…..it will always be the ONLY dress uniform for the US Army, in my opinion.

Without much fan fare and probably means very little to anyone that did not wear the uniform….the Army is retiring the uniform that made me a dashing figure when worn……

The dark green Army service uniforms—the standard for soldiers and generals alike from the Vietnam War to the war in Iraq—received their dishonorable discharge Thursday, the Army Times reports. The “Green Class As” were increasingly unpopular with the troops, not least because they were made of stiff polyester that had gone unchanged since the 1970s. But don’t worry; the Army isn’t shaking things up too much. Blue uniforms, which became standard issue in 2010, will now permanently replace the greens.

The Green Class As—dark green jacket and pants, light gray undershirt, black tie—were introduced in 1954 to give the Army a “sharp, classic, and dignified look” following WWII, the Army Times reports. The dark green color was a recommendation from scientists and fashion experts. The Army hoped the new uniforms would return “dignity and prestige” to the military after every Tom, Dick, and Harry started wearing the previous olive and tan uniforms in the years after WWII. The new blue uniforms are a callback to those worn by the Army between the Revolutionary War and the Spanish American War.

This sucks……awhile back the Army took the black beret a way from the Rangers and made them wear a tan one instead….as a past Ranger (but default not by choice) I think it sucked!

Now they will replace another Army icon with a sub standard replacement…..a blue uniform?  The Air Force wears blue…NOT THE ARMY!

Why does the Army have to give up its traditions?  Make the ones that do not do the heavy lifting make a change.

THIS SUCKS!

Thoughts?

With Congress It Never Ends!

I always find it amazing when this Congress decides to do something they consider constructive……most times it is not constructive at all.  When they take on ways to cut spending it is always someone who is their bread and butter voter and they almost always get away with it.

Take for instance our military…..back when I was a soldier the re-enlistment talk was about how if you lasted until retirement that you would have all the benefits that you had in the military…..total medical, dental and a good pension and the big one, an education, for when you retired at an early age…..I never fell for the BS and now the Congress wants to stick it to the military once again……..

McClatchy is reporting……..

Congress is considering changing, for the first time in decades, the way service members get retirement pay.

Military retirement now carries an all-or-nothing pension plan that requires a minimum of 20 years of service. The new plan would cut those pensions to 40 percent of pay from 50 percent, and create a matched 401(k)-style plan open to all service members.

The new retirement rules would affect all troops enlisting after the new plan is put in place in October 2017, Military Times reported. Troops already in the ranks could opt into the new plan or stick with the current “cliff vesting” system, it said.

It is bad enough that Congress spends its time figuring ways to screw the veterans but now they are messing with the active military…..their educational benefits have fallen way short of the promises and now Congress, who does very little work and has their pay exempt is going to f*ck the soldiers and the families…….
Are you still proud of voting for these pricks?

Mandatory Military Service for Congress by Chad Nelson — Antiwar.com

As long as I am posting on war today……some ideas are better than others……

What can I say…..but this is the best idea yet!

In my youth I was a grunt in Vietnam…no I did not get drafted….I volunteered……but the days of that war if you were fortunate enough to be from a wealthy family then your chances of NOT going off to fight in Vietnam were very good.

And along that line of thinking…….our Congress makes knee jerk decisions that constantly put our troops in harms way…… (please they are individuals….so be respectful and STOP calling these people “boots on the ground”…it is demeaning.) ……..maybe it is time for them to step up and actually serve in the military before they run for office.  after all such things as foreign aid, war, weapons sales, etc are in their hands…..maybe with service they would be a bit more responsible in their decisions……

I have NO problem asking these cowards to serve their country as a military member…..maybe then our injured vets could get some justice from the government.

 

Mandatory Military Service for Congress by Chad Nelson — Antiwar.com.

What Were They Thinking?

First let me state…I am in full support of women serving in all capacities in the military…even in combat….for they are capable of doing any task a man can and sometimes they even do it better…….

But then there are some cases when the military just does not get it.  I do not question women’s capabilities…..I do question the thinking of our so-called leaders…..

They, military leaders, just do not use commonsense in a rush to do the most political things…..one such situation is the serving on submarines and there ignorance is showing…..

A big scandal for the Navy’s submarine integration program: Some of the first women ever to serve on American subs were secretly recorded showering on the USS Wyoming, reports the Navy Times. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating a 24-year-old male officer who is accused of recording the women over the period of about a year on the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine and distributing the videos, officials say. A retired supply officer in touch with one of the victims says a report was first filed on the videos after one of them was received by an officer on another submarine.

The Wyoming was one of the first submarines to have female crew members when they started being assigned to subs in 2011. The retired officer says that on her first day on a sub acting as mentor to younger female submariners, a young sailor asked her, “Where are the females?” She says she “looked at him and said, ‘All right, let’s get one thing straight: They’re not females, they’re junior officers on this boat, they’re division officers, and you will address them as Ensign So-and-So, and you can tell everybody else on the boat.” At least 43 women have served on submarines since the ban was lifted, and the Navy plans to integrate fast-attack submarines for the first time in January, starting with the USS Virginia and USS Minnesota, reports the Washington Post.

I am sorry but…what did they expect?  Self-control?  Young men will be young men and by that I mean….HORNY!

I mean NO disrespect to our women in uniform….just that human nature will be just that…human nature.  This may not be the best time to integrate women into the submariner service…sad part is that the men see them as women first and officers last……sad to say until men can think with the big head….maybe women should be excluded from submarine duty……

Again I mean NO disrespect and will probably get some heat for stating my mind…..the term military intelligence (an oxymoron) does not apply in this situation.

There is a time and a place for everything…….Now is NOT the time and subs are not the place.

DADT–The Game

On December 18, 2010, the Senate voted to end debate on S.4023, the Senate’s bill identical to H.R.2965, via a cloture vote of 63-33. Prior to the vote, Sen. Lieberman gave the final argument in favor of repealing DADT and Sen. McCain argued against repeal. The final Senate vote was held later that same day, with the measure passing by a vote of 65-31.   President Obama is expected to sign the repeal into law on December 22, 2010.

Finally, it has been signed and now all the hard work that has been done by so many will pay off…..the problem is that the Pentagon has to come up with a plan and in 60 days or more before it will be officially over…..DADT will remain in force until then….

I personally did not think that this would happen in this Congress….that gays would have to wait for a more liberal time……I was mistaken….with that said……

The game is afoot!

Just yesterday I had a comment on a fdriend’s blog, Why We Worry, (blogroll will get you to this good and informative site) that I expect the GOP to play games with the repeal…and I did not have to wait long, at all…….

Delegate Robert G. Marshall said the Constitution reserves states with the authority to do so and that he’ll introduce a bill in the state General Assembly next year that ensures the “the effect of the 1994 federal law banning active homosexuals from America’s military forces will apply to the Virginia National Guard.”
“With the repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ President Obama seeks to pay back his homosexual political supporters,” the Prince William County Republican said, echoing a sentiment shared by many of the repeal’s most ardent opponents. “This policy will weaken military recruitment and retention, and will increase pressure for a military draft.”
“The Constitution never would have been ratified if states were not [guaranteed] unqualified control of the militia, now called the National Guard,” he said.
I knew that it would not be as easy as the prez signing it into law…….I knew that games would be played and so they begin!