Good-bye to all that.
Today I made a big decision.
I decided that I would not re-enlist in the US Army when my contract expires. I made the decision while standing in morning formation. The impetus for this decision, or, more accurately the straw that broke the camel’s back, occurred at approximately 0710 hours, this morning.
Our entire unit was told that our formation would convene in a location different from the norm, and that it was at the directive of the Sergeant Major. Everyone thought that something was wrong, that we were in for some type of punishment (or, corrective training, the code word the Army likes to use for punishment not approved by a Commander). There were rumors that the barracks had been found an unkempt abode and so the NCOs may have to mop floors while the soldiers looked on, all as a way of teaching mid-level leaders to do their job of supervision.
But then the 1st Sergeant stepped to the front of the formation with an award folder in his hands. Still, we were wary until the award for a departing NCO was read, and the order to commence physical training was given.
I will grant that the last 4 months have been some of the most trying of my Army career. The 10th Mountain Division has been a large part of the War on Terror since 9/11 and the operational tempo is extremely high. Additionally, I was placed in an E7 position, though I only held the rank of E5 for most of that time (I’m an E6 now). This has been extremely demanding. And let’s not forget, that due to military draw-downs, my entire Brigade is only 70% manned, and will continue to be so until Brigades in Europe are dissolved.
But what really hit me this morning was the realization that I live in a constant state of fear. I do not fear the enemies of the United States. I fear the Army. I walk around all day fearing, at a subliminal level, that I have done something wrong. Did I walk on the grass? is my patrol cap properly situated on my head? Is it past the date on which we are allowed to wear fleece caps?
If I were to write a book about my time in the Army, I would title it, “Sweating the Small Stuff.” The Army gives this the noble title: “Attention to Detail.” The way the Army ensures attention to detail is by cultivating an atmosphere of fear. I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say that every morning meeting I’ve gone to in the last 2 months contained accusations of dereliction of duty by NCOs. All of it hyperbolic. I have many tasks during the day, and frankly I don’t have the psychological energy to worry about ankle-biting regulations. I avoid walking on the grass at all costs.
I fear the grass. A Sergeant Major may be lurking in it.
I miss my freedom. I have to fill out DA 31 leave forms to travel beyond a certain distance from home. I want to be able to wake up on a Saturday and drive where ever a grown man in America is allowed to drive. I don’t want to worry that being 10 minutes late for morning formation could result in legal actions against me, as it can in the Army.
While in Afghanistan, I rarely felt fear for the Taliban. Most days, I only feared my chain of command. I swear this is not an exaggeration.
All of this has led me to question the necessity of rank and to wonder how other systems that are not nearly as heirarchal as the military manage to work so well, and yet the inefficiency and communication problems are greater in the Army then in any other place I’ve worked. I’ve seen bullying by people of rank that astounded me. At my core, despite being a cop for 8 years, and now being an NCO in the Army, I’m anti-authoritarian. Or, more to the point, I need to tell someone to fuck off when they need to hear it. And the amount of bureacracy cannot be described. I’ll just say that I find it maddening.
I do not know how I have managed to succeed in the Army, but I have. Despite never feeling comfortable for more than a couple days in a row for years, on paper, I seem to be thriving. I reached the rank of Staff Sergeant in the quickest possible time. I was Solider of the Year for my unit in Germany.
As a police officer, I felt alive, energized. I felt like I really made a difference. Kent Anderson, in his great novel, Night Dogs, says that all a good cop needs is compassion and common sense. So much of both seem to be lacking in the Army.
I am not at all denigrating others who serve, or who choose to make a career out of the Army. Quite the opposite. I’m amazed that some can do it. That there are people who have the will to mind the little things and the big. However, there is a fine line between minding details and pettiness.
My artistic side has suffered greatly since I came to my new unit. I have little time or energy to read or write; both things are a joy to me. While at the law enforcement academy, we had a class on stress management. The main point made by the instructor was to keep on doing the things that you liked doing before you got into law enforcement. Many cops simply start living only their jobs. Not me. While I was a cop I always did all the things I loved, like hiking, playing softball, going to movies, reading. I wasn’t physically and mentally depleted like I am now.
My job needs to draw my interest and create motivation. I’m not all that great at creating motivation within myself over creating Power Point slides, which is mostly what I do all day.
But mostly my choice is about the atmosphere in the Army. There is always a sense of foreboding. As the specter of the “Garrison Army” looms with the winding down of the wars, it seems sure that the pettiness will only get worse.
I feel like a great burden has lifted from my shoulders. I have about 15 months left, and I’ve already begun to count the days. I burned my candle down to a nub and there’s simply nothing left to burn.
But mostly, I just don’t want to be afraid of the grass.
Good-bye to all that.
Army Leadership is Catastrophically Broken
The longer I’m in the Army, the more I question whether leadership can be taught in a formal manner. The US Army heavily stresses “leadership skills”, and talks about leadership incessantly in manuals and throughout its training. Ranger school is essentially a leadership school.
In all honesty I have never seen worse leaders than what I have encountered in the military. People who are downright abusive and in some cases mentally unstable. The Non-Commissioned Officer’s Creed states: ”I know my Soldiers and will always place their needs above my own.” I’ve seen very few NCOs who live up to that standard. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Most NCOs use lower ranking Soldiers merely to make their own jobs and lives easier. Obviously there is an accountability and rating problem in the Army, which I suspect is the same problem encountered in any industry that does not produce tangible goods. The fact that many NCOs can reach the rank of E7 and higher while remaining tactless bullies to those under them speaks more of the Army’s rating system than of the rated NCO. The Army is currently implementing a 360 degree rating system in which the lower ranking Soldiers rate their leadership, but even this will not present an accurate picture of what’s going on; lower ranking Soldiers will still be afraid of their bully superiors.
Just a small example of what I’ve consistently seen in the Army. The senior NCO in my office routinely calls his Soldiers “fags”, “nerds” and other derogatory names. Of course he presents this with a small dose of plausible deniability–like he’s joking. He may be joking but I’m aware of what he’s really trying to accomplish: To psychologically subjugate those under him. If he’s truly just joking around, perhaps he would mind if the E4 working for him called him a fag. Doubtful. He doubles his power by telling us all that he can’t stand people who can’t take a joke. Again, can he take a joke?
This is far from the only time I’ve seen this kind of behavior. In fact, I am surprised when I don’t see it.
The Soviet military held that there was no known way to efficiantly make leaders; leaders emerged and took charge through natural processes and those who displayed leadership characteristics were promoted. I tend to agree with this. A person’s psychological and ethical makeup, as well as his or her own personal experiences do more to determine leadership qualities than dreary doctrine.
In any case, it is my fundamental belief that the Army is broken in a deep way. Not only does its leadership exibit a proto-fascist quality in many cases, but the Army’s systems do not function well, systems that are used daily and should run like a smooth machine. But a rough-running machine would be tolerable with consistently good leadership. Instead the Army seems to attract and breed borderline sociopaths. In three years I’ve witnessed ethical and personal violations by NCO that I never saw in any other job. Daily verbal abuse, belittling, sexual relations with lower ranking female Soldiers (against regs), and other actions for which lower enlisted Soldiers would be counseled and punished.
Fort Drum: Welcome to your hotel room
In November I departed my old unit in Germany with my family and arrived at my in new unit in New York: Fort Drum. Fort Drum is widely regarded as the worst post assignment in the Army. The reasons that Soldiers feel this way are primarily because of the weather (it’s cold and snows a lot in the winter), it’s located in a remote area (near the Great Lakes, very close to the Canadian border) and the 10th Mountain Division is a Light Infantry Division, which means Soldiers do a lot of PT and ruck marching. Oh, did I mention that 10th Mountain is probably the most deployed unit is the US military since the invasion of Afghanistan?
10th Mountain: "Climb to Glory"
For me, all of the reasons other Soldiers don’t like Drum are all the of the reasons I do like Drum. Since I stopped playing softball, I don’t mind the cold. I’m from the great state of Maine. I don’t mind remote locations–I prefer the woods and mountains. I love PT and ruck marching. And being deployed is better than being in garrison, except for the family seperation.
But one thing I find inexcusable at Fort Drum is the severe housing shortage for Soldiers with families. Since our arrival at Drum on November 24th, my family (2 kids, a wife, and myself–the lonely male), have been living in a single room at the Fort Drum Inn, waiting to be assigned military quarters. I don’t like complaining. I prefer to salute smartly and carry on. But my one year old daughter is not in the Army. She likes to salute at the bugle call for ”Retreat” (really, she does) but other than that the only carrying on she does is crying upon waking from a nap.
The housing shortage for new Soldiers is so bad, that junior NCOs like myself can expect to wait 2-4 months for housing. Worst of all, after December 31, I will be paying about $65 a day for my hotel room, money that the government will not reimburse. The government must be out of their bloody minds if they think I can afford that. Sorry, but if branch managers (the people who control where Soldiers get assigned and what jobs they will be doing) find that there is a significant housing overflow at certain bases, they need to send Soldiers to other posts. Despite being a problem for a number of years, the housing shortages have gotten worse. Senator Charles Schumer brags on his website that he helped Soldiers by petitioning for more housing at Drum, but that was back in 2005, and as I said, things are much worse now. As of May, 2011, Ft. Drum reported a shortage of 1,700 housing units, and many Soldiers have decided to move to the base without their families so they can get immediate, cheaper, housing. This is horrendous, and yet another reason for me to consider greatly getting out in 2013. The more I think about it, the angrier I get.
Apparently no one got the message.
Sprinting and dehydration
Yesterday morning I decided to mix in some interval sprints with my usual walking here at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. I grabbed a small cup of coffee, drank it while reading Stars and Stripes, then started my walk. I worked in four sprints on the long side of the track, nothing too serious.
Later in the day I felt a tweak high in my hamstring. At first I thought it was a hip problem but later I recognized it as a muscle pull; I’d suffered almost the same injury 2 years prior, also while doing sprints in the morning.
This is the third time since being in the Army I’ve pulled a muscle doing sprints in the morning. I believe that in all three cases I was dehydrated, which contributed to the muscle pulls. We are most dehydrated when we first wake up in the morning. I drank very little water yesterday morning and on the previous day only ate two meals. Low food intake can contribute to dehydration. Also, the the sun is very intense and the humidity is low in Kandahar. I’d been walking for about 30 minutes before I began the sprints without drinking water.
In any case, I’ll be drinking more water before doing anymore sprinting, especially in the morning. The Army thinks training in the morning is best, but I don’t and neither do the US Marines. The Marines usually train sometime around lunch, and only 3 times per week as opposed to the Army’s 5. I think this is much better and the Marine’s results show.
My time walking through the Old Testament
I’ll be writing several entries on my blog about my experiences in Afghanistan. Look for it soon. It’ll include photos and several vignettes. Not everyone will like what they read; we screwed the pooch on this one.
Goals
If you don’t know where you’re going, any path will take you there. ~Attributed to General David Pataeus, in the book: Obama’s Wars.
One thing that I’ve found in the military is the importance of setting goals. It’s very easy to maintain some hazy vision of what we want, but never really considering what those visions really mean or what the steps will be to ge there.
The Army makes it fairly easy to set goals because the requirements for getting promoted in the enlisted ranks are clearly outlined. It’s a points based system and all a soldier has to do is see where he has the fewest points, be they civilain education, physical fitness, rifle, and address that area.
Of course we cannot always meet our goals. Still we need them, as they pull us up from our proverbial couch and get us to better ourselves. Last year I set a goal of being accepted by ODA (Operational Detachment Alpha–US Special Forces). I had to undergo the most extensive physical screening I’ve ever experience; 6 vials of blood removed, leaving me dizzy as I walked out the door of the doctor’s office. Chest X-rays, electro-cardiograms, urine samples.
A few weeks later, the doctor’s office notified me that there was a problem with my urine sample. The doc wanted me to come in for some follow-ups. Apparently I had more blood in my urine than the avergae person. They took another sample to ensure that the first was no fluke. It wasn’t. I have 5 times the amount of blood in my urine as the average person. The doctor told me that she’d have to suspend my process for ODA until they could figure out what was going on, or at least rule out cancer. I went to Landstuhl Hospital, the largest overseas US military hospital, to see a specialist. No cancer cells popped up in their tests, but there were more extensive tests they wanted to perform just to be sure. My ODA process would have to wait even longer.
At that point I decided that it was not worth it to me, that my future endeavors likely lay in another mission. At my age, I had little time to waste. The train-up time for an SFODA soldier is already almost 2 years from the beginning of selection, depending on the assigned MOS. Even six months meant a huge chunk of time in relation to my Army career. And I was no spring chicken. I dropped out of the selection process.
Dropping out would have upset me a lot more were there not lots of options in the Army. It’s one of the things that I love about the Army (there are plenty of things I don’t love); there are tons of options. I’m planning on submitting my warrant Officer packet 60 days before the end of my deployment to Afghanistan. I have back up plans if that doesn’t work out, too. I’ve set the goal of being promoted to E6 in 4 years and E7 in 7 years (if I reenlist). Both are the minimum times one can reach those ranks. I see no reason to wait around for more rank…
I’ve also set a goal of learning each of the Level 1 Warrior Common Tasks like the back of my hand, when I get back. I’ll drill them on my own time until I’m an expert.
The point is, we should have a destination in mind and a roadmap to get there. Plus, we need a Plan B. And C.
The Military Draft: The good, the bad, the ugly
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—
A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; A time to be silent and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate; A time for war and a time for peace.
~Ecclesiastes 3:7~
Recently, a friend of mine, Royce, asked my opinion on the military draft. Royce wrote an article on his opinions and concerns about the military draft, and said he’d like to know what I thought.
Let me start by saying that as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to realize the same things that the author of Ecclesiastes realized: That everything is contextual. Most actions have benefits and hindrances. The wise person finds the action that best fits the circumstances. Ideology is the enemy of wisdom.
That being said, I believe that the military draft has some very real benefits under some very specific circumstances. The most obvious benefit is that a country can increase the size of its fighting force more easily than with an all volunteer force. Don’t be fooled; numbers matter. If we had more troops in Afghanistan and Iraq from the beginning, we likely would have cut the time we’ve spent in this war by half. Counterinsurgency works best with lots of soldiers. Not tanks, planes or satellites. Men with rifles at every street corner. Eyes looking in every direction. Our current force structure is severely strained in COIN operations, because we don’t have enough men. We must rely on extraordinary mobility. But even then, the enemy can fairly easily just decide to be where we are not. With more men, we would be almost everywhere, and the insurgency would fizzle before it ever got rolling.
Another benefit of the draft is that it can break down social walls. For instance, blacks and whites were both drafted in WWII, and this resulted in blacks gaining considerable respect amongst the white soldiers. The military knows that shared hardship brings men closer together and helps cohesion. This is why Basic Training is made so uncomfortable; to teach people how to rely on each other. I’ve often made the point while deployed to Afghanistan and working in military intelligence, that we must find mechanisms to break the tribal barriers in order to make Afghanistan a truly unified nation. Of course, many of my colleagues are afraid of breaking anything, so they say we must work within the tribal barriers. Tribalism is an anathema to a healthy democracy. We should instead inspire nationalism. Remember what I said about everything having a time and place. Yes, even nationalism.
When I travelled to refugee camps in Afghanistan, I saw thousands of people from various tribes who got a long just fine. Something that could not be said for the non-refugee tribes throughout the country. The southern tribes generally hate the northern tribes, and locally situated tribes constantly compete for resources. The Taliban uses tribal conflict as a recruiting tool. But the people in the refugee camps we forced to work together. They moved to Pakistan when the Soviets invaded and experienced decades of hardship. The tribal lines are now essentially shattered. The societies within these camps function better than those outside the camps.
Myself and another analyst surmised that a good way to unify Afghanistan and to empower the critically weak central government would be to institute a draft. This would accomplish several things that may help the situation in Afghanistan:
- It would employ fighting aged men, those most likely to join the insurgency. It would also give these men a sense of nationalism, as being part of the system instead of seeing the system as the enemy.
- It would greatly increase the number of security forces to fight against the Taliban, which would in turn hasten the ability of the coalition forces to leave.
- It would have psychologically legitimize the government in the minds of the people. Two critical areas in the legitimacy of a government is its monopoly on violence and its ability to collect taxes. A draft may solidify a monopoly on violence.
- Lastly, people from all over Afghanistan would be forced to work together. And the hardship of warfare against the Taliban would bind them together. The Taliban may be forever alienated, as few men who’d fought a war against the Taliban would ever decide to join them, and they would probably teach their children to hate them, too.
I’m not saying that a draft is possible in Afghanistan, but I think the idea should be fully explored.
Historically speaking, there are many instances in which a draft produced a very effective army. America itself has used the draft as far back as the colonial, militia days. There was always some push-back, but generally the men served when asked to, and the world is a better place for it. And initially there were problems with minorities serving with whites, but eventually the US Army became the first organization to employ full integration under Truman. I’d dare say that today’s US Military has the least racial tension of any population block of similar size in America.
It’s difficult to imagine the United States fighting against an enemy such as Nazi Germany today without having to employ a draft. Approximately 18 million men fought at one time or another in the Wehrmacht (German Army in WWII) between the years of 1939 and 1945. Even given the immense proficiency and near miraculous technology available to today’s American war fighter, we have only approximately 3 million people serving across all branches, and that includes reservists. The German’s used a draft, and it was instrumental in building the virulent form of nationalistic pride we know as National Socialism. Never the less, it was that sense of nationalism that helped the German army to be the best man for man army of the war. Napoleon also employed a similar strategy with his Grand Armee’. Marching across Europe, he conscripted men from many European countries and proceeded to trounce just about everyone.
There are of course, several negative aspects of conscription. First, morale tends to be lower in conscripted armies than in volunteer armies. The word volunteer implies that people want to be there, whereas conscripted soldiers may severely damage the morale of those in their unit some of these men may not be the sort a commander would want in his charge. If we look at some of the instances of “fragging” in Vietnam, we can see the differences in that army compared to the one now. Such things are nearly unimaginable in the Army I serve in, yet in some cases in Vietnam, officers would not even venture into the barracks areas of enlisted men, for fear of being assaulted. Men who didn’t want to be in the army had little fear of being kicked out or put in jail, which they considered better than being in combat.
While the Germans did employ conscription in WWII, it must be noted that they had a very deeply ingrained military elite before the war. A German soldier was paid about six times as much as a French soldier and was drilled to utter perfection, a model of soldierly discipline. The army was very professional. Combining a professional backbone with nationalistic fervor had a synergistic effect that simply did not exist in America during the period of the Vietnam War. And it doesn’t exist now in America, either. The draft has become almost synonymous with Vietnam and fascism. In reality, it is merely a tool.
The draft can also introduce different types of people into the military. An all volunteer force may become too rigid in its thinking and may also become alienated from the civilian population. I do see some of this in America, but I don’t think it’s a huge problem; there’s always been a sense of alienation from the civilians, even in draft wars like Vietnam.
In a professional army, you get the best man for man army money can buy. But it takes a lot of money to buy it. The military is forced to become competitive with the civilian world in terms of pay and benefits.
Here in Germany, where I’m stationed, the German government makes people either serve two years in the military or do two years of service in another field, like helping disabled people. While I do see that this can help people in general, I don’t think it makes for a very good military. It leads to a “just passing through” mentality. I think that type of thinking could infect even those who want to make careers in the German Army. Some countries, such as Israel, do it because they need every body they can get. Countries like Israel also have mandatory service, but there are rumors that even the Israeli army is going soft. I think bringing everyone into the army inevitably leads to a slide to softness.
The Romans had an interesting take, and became a much better army when they professionalized. Originally, the Roman army was comprised of citizens who laid down their farming tools to pick up weapons when their country needed them. It did work well, because every Roman had a distinct sense of civic duty, soemthing lacking in most western nations, with the decline of state legitimacy almost universally seen through Europe and America. But eventually, the army became a proffession for Rome. There were massive reforms under Marius, which allowed people from the lower classes to enter the military, and the contract lasted something like 25 years. People served in the military at much older ages in Rome; some of the gereals were in their 70s and Julius was on campaign in his 50s, at a time that required much more physical hardiness in war than it does now. A little bit off the draft subject: I think we should up the age limit drastically in the military. Older people are the most knowledgable and mature people we have, and yet we cut out a huge swath of our best from eligibility. We’re hurting our military.
For now, I think no draft in America is the best thing. It does put a strain on the military to some extent, but the last thing the military needs is anymore softness, which is what bringing in every civilian at this point would do. In addition, people would just go nuts, throwing around terms like fascism and militarism and slavery and all that hyperbole that’s so popular (and damaging) on the internet. The zeitgeist is not right. For now, a warrior class is the best way. Most real warriors I know like it that way.
A pig with lipstick is still a pig
According to this report, the Whitehouse has banned the use of the word Islam when it comes to describing or reporting Islamic terrorists.
This doctrine was proven true, when in the Pentagon’s report on Major Hasan’s assassination of 13 US Soldiers could not even mention the fact that Hasan was a fundamentalist Islamic, or that Islam was a prime, motivating factor in his crime. Here is a man who made contact with al-Qaeda officials approximately 20 times, yelled the name of his Muslim god as he repeatedly drilled lead into men he swore to fight and die with–if need be. Major Hasan was some Soldier’s last hope. He treated people with PTSD who have fought in our wars. He betrayed them. He betrayed his nation. If not Islam, what was his motivation?
The coffins of Soldiers killed by Major Hasan
What a slap in the face to the Soldiers who sought psychiatric care from the Army. Instead of worrying about damaged warriors who put their life on the line, the Pentagon and this administration were worried about offending people sworn to kill us.
The reflexive argument is: Well, just because Timothy McVeigh declared he was a Christian, doesn’t mean all Christians want to be mass murderers.
Is this where we’ve come? Do we not know by instinct whom the enemy is? Sure, it is not all Islamic peoples. This is a Great Strawman set up by people who’ve never been in a real conflict. We don’t–and never have–targeted all Islamic people. We’ve protected them when they were the victims of genocide. Does anyone remember Bosnia? Kosovo?
We are targeting the men whom are targeting us, and they happen to be Muslims. If you are Muslim, and are not committed to jihad against the United States, then you are not our enemy. Is it not that simple? Can we not see the degrees between one, lone bomber in Oklahoma City two decades ago, and the onrushing wave of thousands of sworn jihadists? How does the label of Christian terrorist stand against Muslim terrorist? About 15,000 dead people since 2001 is the difference. But our incompetant Secretary of Homeland Security worries about backlash against Muslims. Like that’s the way Americans act. She believes that the average American is a raving red-neck with a 2nd grade education, a trunk-load of ammunition and an urge to kill people with mocha-colored skin. I got news for ya, Janet.
And yet, General George Casey, Army Chief of Staff had this to say after Hasan mowed down his own (we thought) brothers:
“What happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy, but I believe it would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here.”
Diversity? Who joined the Army because of diversity? Most people joined the military because of sameness. They hoped that all of the people that they worked with respected America and its values. They knew that each person standing and fighting beside them had raised their right hand and promised to die before giving up the Republic. They joined not because they hoped everyone was different, but because–despite the differences– everyone could function as a team. General Casey said it outright: Being different is more important than the safety and integrity of the Soldier’s unit. General Casey was saying exactly what he thought this administration wanted him to say. Because Democrats are obsessed with diversity.
Who was the enemy in Germany in 1943? Can we call them Nazis? I’m sure not every person registered tot he Nazi Party actually picked up a rifle and shot at our troops.
In 1864, who was the Union Army fighting? Was it ok to call them Rebels? Or did that just make them fight harder and create more enemies?
What exactly would it take to be able to call the majority of modern-day terrorists, Islamic?
Here’s the ironic thing: The terrorists want us to know that they are acolytes of Islam. That’s why they plead guilty in most of the cases against them. They state clearly that they want the West to clearly understand that they knew what they were doing and that they are proud to be fighting in the name of Allah.
And yet the current administration takes the course of an ostrich; it buries its head and hopes its enemies won’t see its gigantic, bulbous body. We’ll drone on endlessly about Guantanomo. Our elites will smack their lips over lattes in smug agreement. But when Soldiers die, Amnesty International is nowhere to be found.
We can expect that the platitudes will keep flying. Political Correctness is worth dying for to some. But it’s an insult to the intellectually honest.
See this movie: Restrepo
This looks to be an outstanding documentary by Sebastian Junger, author of, The Perfect Storm and his new book, War.
Many Americans do not understand what a force for good that American Soldiers are, what other people in other countries think of the US Soldier. He is their protector. They run to him and away from the Taliban and al-Qaeda. No matter how many times we see photos of Abu Graib, the world knows who the good guys are.
Now if we could only convince so many of our own citizens…
Von Steuben’s Ghost
Friederick Von Steuben was a former Prussian General Staff member under Frederick the great. Von Steuben found himself out of
work after the Seven Years War, but America required his service. George Washington brought him on board to straighten up his rag-tag Continental Army, prone to showing up drunk at work, possessing little respect for authority and generally having no idea how to be a professional army.
Von Steuben, wielding the myth that he was once a Prussian General, put America’s Army straight. Despite being only a former Captain under Frederick, the Prussian still possessed an excellent purchase on what it takes to get men ready to fight. And the Prussian system of order and drill was the best in the world. He understood the utter necessity of delegating in a military environment. Instead of merely assigning men to train an entire regiment, he first sent Soldiers to the School of the Soldier, a type of basic training, and then on to their regiments where they were drilled by hand picked Sergeants.
Since the US did not have the luxury of sending marginal Soldiers out of the Army, it was forced to make do. Mal-uniformed, undisciplined, often drunk and lacking any close quarter battle skills, the Continental Army now faced another enemy other than the English; the belligerent Prussian Drill Master, Von Steuben.
Frustrated by his marginal command of the English language, he had his personal translator march up and down the formations cursing at the Soldiers in English.
Von Steuben, along with Nathaniel Greene, wrote the Blue Book, outlining drill and ceremony.
Even today, Von Steuben’s vitriolic method of controlling unruly troops survives. For instance, while eating lunch one day at the NCO Academy, one of the Cadre from C Company marched in and explained loud enough to be heard over the buzz of chow conversation: ” If you’re Bravo Company, get the fuck out! Charlie is coming in. “
Von Steuben's Ghost haunts these hallowed halls
In any other job, this would clearly constitute a hostile work environment. Imagine your boss doing this to you as you at your lunch area. In the Army, while not an every day occurence, I would not say this is uncommon. As Bravo Company 1St Sergeant, I maintained a rank higher than any other Soldier in training. I thought about how to handle this. Many in Bravo Co. were grumbling and complaining about this apparent show of disrespect. I myself would have preferred that the Cadre member simply approach me and ask me to tell the troops to eat quickly and move out so that C Co. could eat. By delegating, he would have handed me the responsibility and since I had a better feel for how the people I was with would react, I could give them the order in a tactful manner. The Army itself describes tact as a way to communicate a message without giving offense.
There are of course, times when tact must be thrown out the window. The more immature the Soldier, the more tactless belligerence is needed to make him obey an order. I can assure you that there are many undisciplined troops. For instance, while standing in formation at parade rest or at attention, a Soldier is not supposed to talk. Many though, take the relative silence as an opportunity to draw attention to themselves; the quiet makes them stand out if they crack a joke or yell something out. I’ve seen over and over where a Sergeant must repeatedly make an entire formation do pushups because a few rabble can’t shut up.
On another occasion, we were threatened with negative counseling statements–something that would eliminate a Soldier’s chance for Honors–if we talked in formation. During morning PT (physical training), the Senior Cadre told us: “If you don’t be quiet, I’ll PT you until your noses bleed.” I believed him.
Some of this type of talk used to offend me. I was capable of being quiet when told. I saluted smartly and moved out when given an order.
Slowly though, I began to realize that this type of speech was not intended for me. My skin got thicker. I saw that if I merely did what I was told, I actually stood out against 18 year old imbeciles who think everything is a joke. That, combined with competency at my job and excellent physical conditioning, have put me on a fast track. Now, when I hear an NCO cursing at someone, or even a whole formation I’m in, I know he’s not talking to me so much as the lowest common denominator.
But I’d like to remind these NCOs that you’ll get far more from your troops in the long run if they love you, not merely fear you. You can only get down in the gutter with them for so long. In the end, they must believe that you hold some special knowledge, capabilities or moral high ground. If they see you cursing too often, they’ll think you’re just like them, and thus they’ll lose any sensitivity to your commands and presence.
And I still hate Drill Sergeants.
Back from WLC
Today I returned from the Non-Commissioned Officer’s Academy.
While at the Academy, I received instruction in Drill and Ceremony, Physical Fitness, small unit tactics, Army Leadership and several other areas that concern NCOs.
My family at WLC graduation
I served for a week as Bravo Company 1st Sergeant. Those attending the course were tested in several areas. In the end, I made the Commandant’s List (Honor Graduate, top 20% of class GPA) and I also received the Douglas MacArther Distinguished Leadership Award which is given to the Soldier or NCO who most represents the Army Leadership standard. In order to be eligible for the McCarther Award, I was chosen by my peers to attend a board manned by Academy Cadre. I answered questions along with three other Academy grads. In the end I was chosen the winner. I missed Distinguished Honor Grad (highest GPA in the company) by .3 points; I had a 97.6 average, the winner had a 97.9.
Overall I believe I represented myself and my unit well. I hope to continue showing progression throughout my military career, resisting sitting on my laurels.
Off to training–again.
I’ll be headed to the Warrior Leader Course (Non-Commissioned Officer’s Academy) in Grafenwoer, Germany for the next 17 days. Everyone stay well.
Women in the Army
Women in the military is related to the issue of gays in the military. The argument for including gays and women (especially women in combat) in the military usually starts with this assumption: That gays are like straight men and women in all aspects except that they are gay, and that women are like men in all things except that they are women.
A close inspection of reality shows this to be rhetoric based on wishful thinking.
I’ll speak now of my own observations and experiences in regards to women in the military environment while I’ve served in the Army, starting with basic training.
The first thing I noticed when I arrived at Ft. Jackson, for my ten weeks of hell and humiliation, was that drill sergeants suddenly gained a sense of humor when interacting with female Soldiers. They spent more time with them, “mentored” them more often, encouraged them more and spoke in softer tones to them.
At first I shrugged this off and even gained a sense of hope from this: The drill sergeants were human after all. However, the interactions between many of the DSs and the females quickly deteriorated into a nearly incestuous daddy-daughter relationship.
I will be frank, and in doing so I will piss off my fair share of feminists and liberals. What’s new. I saw, and so even did the male 20 year olds without much life experience, that women get treated differently in the Army. And, the girls adored the drill sergeants. The image of power and absolute control, the unknown characteristics of each man under the hat had a remarkable effect on the girls in particular, though I must confess that even some young men seemed to fall under the sway of Stockholm Syndrome. But with the women, it was sexual. Many girls would flirt openly, even following DSs around to help them with various tasks. And the DSs usually did not stop these types of interactions.
On one occasion, my platoon sergeant in basic, whom out of all the DSs I respected most (he was extremely competent in his Soldiering skills, tough, direct and what I believe is a true leader), during one of our nightly round tables with the drill sergeant, outright told one of the girls, “You–stop flirting with my drill sergeants”. It gave me hope that someone besides me noticed.
Eventually, one drill sergeant lost rank and his hat. One morning at around 0400 hours, another drill sergeant caught him in a room with a female Soldier without a “Battle Buddy” (second Soldier), which was in violation of the rules. I believe the two formed a sexual relationship, also against the rules. Not to defend the DS, who was a prick of the highest order, but the girl–I say girl, but she was old enough to have a Bachelor’s degree–slobbered all over him for weeks. Everywhere he was–so was she, standing in a puddle of her own drool.
I shared a bay with almost 60 Soldiers, most of them younger than me. I saw the effects on morale the sexual tension and resultant DS leniency toward women had on these still developing men. They complained openly about the girls who stuck their hips out, batted their eyes, giggled–and received all the benefits we’d expect of a girl who did the same thing in a bar. Well, instead of free drinks, they got yelled at less.
It seems to me that the physical deficiencies in women when it comes to combat need little attention, but I’ll give you some anecdotes. During several of our forced marches in Basic, the females would grab on to the packs of male Soldiers, pulling themselves along and increasing the difficulty of the man’s march. The women could not pull their bodies over obstacles. On one occasion while were on Victory Tower, a team building exercise in which Solidiers have to help one another move up the levels of the wooden structure, I dropped a women who simply could not move herself. Now, I’ll admit my weaknesses–but physical strength isn’t one of them. I reached down to with one arm to help her up, as I’d done with several male Soldiers throughout the exercise. She could not move herself even a foot as I pulled her arm. Eventually, her grip failed, and when hers went, so did mine. She hit her hand on the wooden platform below before landing on a pad on the ground. I felt terrible. I’d let someone down. And I would not make excuses if I thought it were negligence on my part. The DS who would later be demoted for his interaction with the female, took the opportunity to belittle me in front of my platoon. The female cried for hours, something any man would be ashamed to do. The young men were outraged, and expressed it in our barracks. They knew what kind of Soldier I was and what kind of physical conditioning I maintained. Not once did a DS say to the girl: “You need to lose weight and get stronger.” She did need both.
An obvious argument showing that the military doesn’t really care about the real physical realities of Soldiering, it only cares that it can be as fair as any other government mchine, is the physical fitness test. An 18 year old girl must perform 18 pushups in two minutes, while an 18 year old boy must perform 42. It’s as if we think the Taliban or the weight of a rucksack works on a sliding scale.
The sexual silver cord between men and women in the Army is more evident than in any other place I have worked. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because there are fewer women and the men have to compete harder to gain their favor. Perhaps it’s what happens to the male libido and ego when he’s put in uniform and into a fraternal organization. Perhaps it’s just plain culture. But it’s a real problem and I see daily how it affects men’s ability to impose discipline in a fair way between the sexes. It seems every young NCO always hopes that by being lenient, he can get a piece–and in many cases his hopes are fulfilled.
I see female Soldiers that routinely whine to the right people to get out of duties men are forced to perform. Going to the field for instance. Women hate it. It’s too physical. They get out of it though.
When I was in the field this weekend, I kept pointing out to a sergeant who trained with me, the absurd affections displayed openly by male instructors toward females, as well as other things I saw that bothered me. On one occasion, an instructor kept cracking jokes with female students, over and over, and repeatedly he picked them out of the squads for demonstration purposes–many of which required touching the female. On another occasion, I noticed that several high ranking Soldiers and officers sat together at the back of the dining facility. Huddled around them and listening attentively–was every single female Soldier in the room. It was like Daddy was reading a bed time story.
Rarely can a female Soldier walk down a hallway without getting an oblique: How you doin’? , from a male.
From what I have seen, females compromise unit Esprit de Corps, the equal dispensation of justice and work, and their physical shortcoming compromise mission. They are not aggressive in a physical setting, and the instinct to decimate an enemy doesn’t seem to enter their minds. Not to mention that the rampant disease of infidelity stalks every battalion hallway; Which Captain is sleeping with which married Major this week?
The brotherhood that must remain strong in combat is fractured when Eros steps on scene. And it’s for that reason, if we truly believe what we say when we say that unit cohesion is the single most important factor when it comes to war fighting, that I believe the benefit of women in the military is questionable, and when it comes to combat, is downright stupid. Social engineering may well result in future losses on the battlefield, and we’ll keep denying the facts in order make ourselves look apropos. We insist the world be fair. The enemy only insists on winning.
The Army retains only 25% of its recruits after an initial contract expires. This is a travesty. One reason is that men see how women effect the Army. How it’s more like pretend time than serious business. Men are leaving, in some cases, because of this, and it’s just one example of how political correctness is killing our military. Major Hasan is another.
But of course, I’m shoveling back the tide. Women in the military aren’t going away. This is another reason I’m hesitant to let open gays in; even if it’s proven to cause severe problems, once the rule is removed, it’s gone for good. So goes the Law of Entropy.
On the last day of training last week, I strode into the latrine and sat down to enjoy the colorful graffiti on the stall walls. Someone had written in marker the following:
“Female Soldiers run NCOs”. An arrow led to someone else’s wisdom: “You should have joined the infantry.”
Back from training
I returned from TSIRT yesterday.
Each training day at Grafenwoehr involved several blocks of basic soldiering skills training. The days were long and broken only by short lunch breaks. We wore our ballistic armor and helmets the whole time unless we were in a classroom. We lived in ten man barracks rooms.
Many people talk about how soldiers must re-acclimate themselves to garrison or civilian life after returning from a deployment. We have to consider that the difficulties presented in “reintegration” are not entirely because of the stresses of actual bullet-flying combat. They also stem from the alien atmosphere. When deployed, Soldiers get no days off. Everyday is a day at the office. In some ways I think that this is a good thing. There’s not much to do on a FOB in Afghanistan besides work, though the internet and XBOX can help with boredom. So can a good book and PT. But generally, constant work can make the days go by much quicker. But I also think it can change a person. When someone works that much for that long, they become almost like a robot, and when they return, they may feel out of sorts.
Even after only a week in the field, when the training was constant and all I thought about was when the next formation was or how to properly perform a skill, I found that my return to garrison and to my apartment left me feeling as if I’d stepped onto alien soil. All the people buzzing around the base. You wonder what you’ve missed since you were gone. The smells, too. Grafenwoehr is basically a giant forest, so you smell nature the whole time you’re there. When I first walked into my apartment, I smelled–and still do right now–my wood floors. I can’t remember smelling them since I’ve moved in.
Over there
“The proof of battle is action, proof of words, debate. No time for speeches now, it’s time to fight”~Homer, The Iliad.
It’s my time to do my duty.
In the near future, I will deploy to a war zone. The exact date and place are classified. The time for politics is over. It’s now time to do what a Soldier is called to do: Make the best of a bad situation, strap on your armor, pick up your rifle and just move out.
Reflections: The Army, Foreign Policy, Life and War
Lately I’ve thought quite a bit how my concepts and perceptions of America’s role in the world have changed, what America should do in regards to its foreign policy and about my choice to join the Army. I’d like to talk a bit about Army life, my choice to join the Army, the Army’s future and mine. Some of these thoughts are rather random.
Comparing my previous job as a police officer to my position in the Army, I sometimes wonder if I’d go back if given the chance. The answer I’ve come up with is: No. I’d stay right where I am. Of course there are some very difficult things to deal with in the Army, but I think overall it suits me well. I’ve had to adapt somewhat, but I’m good at this. The best thing is the chance to do so many things while in the military. The upward mobility is much more evident than it was at the police department and I’m satisfied with my pay and benefits. Not to mention that I don’t have to deal with obnoxious drunk people very often. I get a lot of time off–plenty of four-day weekends and 30 days of leave a year. I’ll never starve in the Army. I remember working for the PD, living paycheck to paycheck many times, though I can’t say I felt I was underpaid. I consider both the Army and police work to be an honor and I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity.
I have so much more to learn both about the Army itself and the very technical aspects of my work as an Intelligence Analyst. I like the challenge though. I get to see the world, though I’m looking forward to being stationed in the States again. I miss my country and the sense of freedom there.
It’s exciting to me to think about all of the learning I’m going to be doing, and the things I’ll have to write about and tell my kids. The promotion system is very motivating–kind of like leveling up in a game. You earn points for doing well and learning different skills and than when your time comes, if you have enough points you get promoted.
As far as the future of the Army and its role in the world: The nature of near-future conflicts is of course going to be different than the set piece wars of decades ago. We’re the dog who caught the car and now doesn’t know what to do. I was reading an article the other day about the war in Afghanistan. Some people were commenting about asymmetric warfare (guerilla warfare), saying tha Saddam Hussein should have used guerilla warfare instead of trying to fight straight up. I think this misses the point. Hussein could not have retained any of his power while conducting guerilla warfare. He would have been driven underground with his fighters, living like a dog. Hussein never had a chance. He was a fool, who would be alive today had he taken GW Bush up on his offer to simply leave power, or at least let people in to look for WMD.
Some are understandably very critical of the military’s choice of hardware purchases. Things like the F-22 Raptor. Many of these people speak as if we will never have to fight a conventional war again. While we should narrow our focus to the matter at hand, we must remember that conventional warfare is much more dangerous to fight than any counterinsurgency America will be fighting in the coming years. We should remain flexible, ever ready to change our course of action should another nation rise to confront us. The Russo/Georgian conflict shows full well that conventional conflicts can raise their disastrous heads at any movement. And the terrorists are getting better. They’re learning,a s the 2006 Israeli/Hezbollah war showed. The terrorists, armed with ultra-modern anti-tank missiles, used somewhat conventional methods of warfare–a defense-in-depth spider web–to wreak havoc on Israeli Merkava tank advances. Hezbolla was even able to hack the Israeli communication systems, enabling them to place defensive positions where attacks were likely to occur.
In some ways, Hezbollah’s success is exaggerated; the Israelis still maintained about 7:1 kill ratios. But this still surprised analysts who are used to complete Arab ineptness in war fighting.
It is interesting to speak about foreign policy, what wars should be fought, what ones shouldn’t. But in the end, I think a Soldier should separate himself from the political sphere and go about his job as a professional. Of course he does have morals. A Soldier on the battlefield, especially in a counterinsurgency situation, is asked to exercise his judgement and restraint to a much greater extant than the ranting pundits. And he has to do it while bullets fly at him. When Soldiers meet on the battlefield, it is a primal endeavor. Warriors on either side know they may die. It is Warriors that fight wars and win or lose them. Were it merely enough to “out-nice” the enemy, it’s doubtful there’d a war to fight at all. For instance, if we really have to worry that the Taliban is being nicer than we are to Afghan citizens, why are we worried about the Taliban? But when a Warrior in a Western Democracy is asked to fight, he should do his duty. His enemy, his counter-part Soldier, will forgive him. Soldiers in Western cultures pick up a fallen enemy Soldier, dust him off, offer him warm cup of coffee and a bed. This, I admit, is an adequate argument against enhanced interrogation techniques. Our Warriors should fight, and when the battle’s over, show the enemy why we’re better than they are, even after we’ve reminded them we’re better fighters, too.
Intelligence and its interpretation will rule the battlefield of the next generation. Knowing exactly where the enemy is has never been easier. Only the rapidity of modern mechanized warfare may outrun the intelligence collection array. In fact, the complexity, fluidity and speed of modern warfare has likely surpassed the ability of the human mind to keep up. The thrusts, ripostes, counter-attacks. The various methods of attack and defense. Future symmetrical fights will be over and done with before the TV cameras can expand their tripods. And this is a good thing for free nations. It is the character of media to criticise good more than evil. Evil gets a pass, because well, it’s evil and that’s what it’s supposed to do–evil things.
America will have to decide what it expects from its military. Is genocide, the possibility of rogue states possessing WMD, the harboring or training of international terrorists, enough to send our troops to a foreign land, to fight, to die, to risk the critical eyes of the world? We must ask ourselves these questions, or risk watering a growing tree of cynicism.
The utter destructiveness of massed industrial war may be enough of a deterrent to avoid it for the coming decades. Instead, state actors will be like two men in a bar, puffing their chests, unable to back down and lose face. They’re more likely to slash the other guy’s tire in the parking lot than get into a fight. The cost of the fight is too high.
On the other hand, there is the aggressive drunk with whom the bar owners must deal. In this case, it is radical Islam, intoxicated with religious zeal. The Jihadist becomes part of an angry mob. Warlike, aggressive and absolutist, Islamic extremism abhors the perceived feminized West. We in the West will give soccer balls to children. The terrorists will train the children to blow themselves up. We will build and paint schools, and the terrorists will knock them down. We have fooled ourselves and ignored the most powerful factor in human history: Culture. Anything can be made morally right, anything is possible if one’s culture says it is.
Oddly, the lack of a real, professional, warrior class amongst the Arab nations allows their violent, human nature to show through. We need not ask if man will fight, but over what ideal he has that makes him willing to die for it. Instead of Myrmidons or Samurai–proud warriors set apart from the rest of their countrymen– Muslim nations are more akin to a barbarian horde. They lack discipline, cohesion, military standards. In fact, our most professional trainers, the best in the world at what they do, are finding that it is nearly impossible to impart military professionalism of any high standard to the army and police in Afghanistan. While our positivism may be our greatest strength, we need a dose of realty. When 70% percent of a country, such as in Afghanistan, cannot read or write, how do we propose that operations orders and police reports get written?
Man does not like peace for very long. He will begin to romanticize images of war even as it rages around him. In film, novels, video games. We must stop lying to ourselves; humans like to fight. If we can admit this, we can avoid being on the losing end of a fight. It’s a very bad thing to lose a war.
A poem
Sing a cadence o men of battle,
And trudge the dirt flat.
Dust and sweat form a mud,
Under your helmet for a hat.
Men who were never there will have a lot to say,
As they watch from over sea.
But were the bullets flying nearer them
You’d hear them cry– Why me, Why me!
American Soldiers do the Devil’s work,
Should the critic really believe in Bad.
Better you’d been like them;
A good, good studious Lad.
Pain they say, can never be real
As the stories they’ve long since read,
Scribed and published, glorious and true, in a New York Times ordeal!
Special Populations PT insructor
I have been assigned the duty of Special Populations Physical Trainer for my unit. My duties will commence next month. Special Populations are soldiers who failed their last Physical Assessment test or did not meet the Army’s bodyfat and weight requirements.
Now, I’m producing workout templates, that I can easily reference for a certain day’s training event. I plan on using the near fail-safe method of alternating hard and easy days–a method that everyone seems to ignore these days, even the supposed cutting edge Crossfitters.
Intensity is and always has been the core of my training regiment. It produces the fastest and best results. Low intensity workout are good for recovery and fat loss, but for athletic and health benefits, you’ve got to ramp things up–way up. My easy days will consist of ruck marches and perhaps just a walk. Some of the soldiers will probably be left wondering what benefit they get from so easy a workout. I’ll remind them on the hard days why they need the easy ones.
The two most important sides of the exercise coin are intensity and time. As intensity goes up, time goes down. And as time goes up–intensity must go down. If anyone tells you they work out for four hours at the gym, I can tell you that they’re not doing it very intensely.
Some who see my training may mistake it for Crossfit. I’ve stated before my problem with Crossfit, but also make the concession that Crossfit fundamentally changed the way people trained. Intensity became key–and for that I commend Greg Glassman, Crossfit’s founder. But the cult-like mentality of many Crossfitters is troubling, leading to mindlessly following the Workout of The Day (posted daily on the Crossfit website). Also, Crossfit lacks a significant strength protocol. Again–alternate easy and tough days and watch yourself explode. Try to peak everyday and wither like an over-watered flower.
I’ll incorporate some of the following workouts and ideas into my program:
Dumbbell Complexes: Pick 5-6 exercises with dumbbells and continuously move through them in a circuit.
Bodyweight Circuits: My favorite. I have several templates that I already use. My 100, 200 and 300 workouts are incremental in difficulty and easy to perform anywhere. I use the 300 template regularly and I can assure you, it’s an ass-kicker. Here was today’s 300 workout–300 calisthenic reps in a circuit:
50 Hindu Pushups
30 Frog Jumps (Standing vertical jumps)
20 Diamond Pushups
25 Jumping split-squats–4 count (place hands on hips; jump as in a jumping jack only move your feet front and back instead of out to the sides.)
30 Flutter kicks–4 count
50 wide hand pushups
20 Frog Jumps
25 Mountain Climbers–4 count
50 Regular pushups
25 Split Squats–4 count
I finished the workout a few seconds under 18 minutes. I could feel the bile building in the back of my throat as my body pushed out the Human Growth Hormone….
Tabata Sprints: Remember the gassers you did for your high school football of basketball team? Suck it up Soldier!
Good ‘ol weight training: Guess what? 3 sets of 10 repetitions of bench press and squats works just about as well as anything. So simple people stopped doing it….showing the incessant need for humans to over-complicate.
There are two types of Soldiers that fail to meet Army fitness standards: The uninformed, the unmotivated. Genetic deficiancies as well as issues in the personal life also enter the equation, requiring added doses of dedication and knowledge. My mission is to provide knowledge to those who lack it and to motivate those that don’t care. Of the two, motivation is the more difficult to impart as the greatest drives come from within, not without.
But a good leader makes his troops want to perform to standard. There are a hundred ways to skin a cat and every soldier must be handled in subly diferent way, with varying degrees of praise and admonition. Some require very little of either, others lots of both.
If one person in my PT group fails the PT test, I will have failed my unit.
The Hurt Locker
I just finished watching the much raved about movie, The Hurt Locker, today. What, I wondered, could all the hype about a war movie possibly be?
It was difficult, I admit, to be absolutely impartial when watching the film, since I’m in the army and have done EOD work. When the film was over though, I felt that only someone who had never been in the military or done EOD work could think it was a great movie.
First of course, I looked for realism. Give me something besides shiny new equipment, haircuts non-compliant with AR 670-1 and someone holding a rifle like a lawn rake. The film does ok here, but it’s not perfect. For instance, the first scene has Sergeant First Class William James putting on a bomb suit and approaching a suspected IED. The bomb robot’s wagon broke, so the counter-charge couldn’t be carried to the target. Ok. I’ll buy it. Maybe. Probably not. It’s highly unlikely that someone would approach a bomb like that. The one thing–the biggest thing–that they emphasized in EOD school at Redstone Arsenal was that bomb techs must improvise. You use your head to minimize danger. EOD is the tough man’s brain-game. Physical but technical. The team most likely would have brought the robot back and found a way. Instead, William James carries the counter charge to the device, at which time he sees someone with a cell phone. James walks away from the bomb.
But he walks with his back to the bomb.
There must have been lots of technical advice on the set of this movie, because they had all the right equipment. Yet any bomb tech knows you walk backwards for several meters before turning around. All the suit’s protection is in the front–almost all of it anyways. A slow walk backwards would even have had a dramatic effect, so there can be no only-for-dramatic-effect argument. Over and over again, William James eschews the use of the bomb robot to approach, in his bomb suit, another insurgent laid Infernal Machine. William James would have likely found himself court martialed or at least supervising Privates sweeping the dining facility floors . I’ll admit this part of the story was meant to show what an adrenaline junky James was. His team mates ven consider killing him at one point because he routinely endangers them.
The bomb squad likes to use radios near bombs. RF makes some bombs go boom. This movie must have driven active bomb techs mad.
Oh yeah-his team mates. If you think that SFC James had no redeeming values, you’ll be hard pressed to find them in the other soldiers in his team. One, a Specialist, is seeing a psychiatrist because he’s worried about dying in the war. He whines, he fails to pull the trigger when he needs to. He’s paralyzed by the “hell of war.” Right. Director Kathryn Bigelow has this character telling us how bad war is. We’re rarely shown though.
The story meanders until you wonder: What’s going on? At one point the EOD team is driving through the desert and happens upon a bunch of British Mercenaries. Ah yes. Mercenaries. Like…pirates. Bad… And since they’re bad mercenaries, not only do they shoot two escaping, handcuffed prisoners in the back (of course, this could be done in war, as the prisoners could return to fighting, but we’re reminded that mercenaries are bad when one mutters something about the monetary value of the escapees, then cuts them down with a burst of gunfire), but they simply aren’t very good at fighting insurgents. One of the mercs goes prone with a .50 cal sniper rifle, takes aim on two insurgents in a small shack–and proceeds to miss by three feet. And so does one of the EOD guy who takes the rifle after pirate/mercenary catches a bullet in the gut.
All through the movie, we don’t meet one person with honor. Not one good guy. Oh sure, SFC James likes kids. He plays soccer with an Iraqi kid. But then the kid disappears and James believes Iraqis selling DVDs on base are insurgents. So James goes rogue and starts hunting insurgents on his own. All he manages is to shoot the whiny Specialist in the leg by accident, thus proving to us that: War is Bad. Gee, thanks.
.jpg)
Now I know I’m being tough on this highly regarded movie. But it won 22 awards. I don’t get it.
The movie gets the uniform right. It’s real army stuff. I was happy with that, as most films do an atrocious job with this, something that seems so easy. Except for the combat patches that the team members wear. All three are deployed with the same unit, but James–of course–is different; he wears a 75th Ranger Battalion combat patch.
In the end, I found that the movie was just about a guy who’s addicted to adrenaline. It took a whole movie to say this. There’s little suspense. The best thing that could have happened in the movie would have been for James to get blown up, end the movie with him being crippled, but somehow continuing in the war.
I think maybe, that papers like the New York Times drooled over this because–like Avatar– it shows military people to be weak, psychopathic, shallow and outright cowardly. Everything a good liberal would believe. Not once does it show the comradeship that comes when men share great physical danger. Not once is there a hint of professionalism. The Soldier’s Creed: I am and Expert and I am a Professional.
The cinematography was top notch so I’ll watch it again, but I think I’ll come to the same conclusions.
Leadership is key
Leaadership is the art of gtting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.~ Dwight Eisenhower
Recently, the section I work in at 66 MI BDE (S2, intelligence, security and information) had a change in leadership. It’s astounding the difference a good leader can make. The person who’s been put in charge is an E8, but he will be staffing the Officer in Charge’s position because of a deployment. This guy is super high-speed. I was almost immediately charged with a new energy after he spoke to me briefly about my career development. It went something like this:
“It’s clear to me that no one has ever sat down with you and done a career development plan with you. I want you to be an NCO by May.” He also said that he’s pledged himself to making our unit better, and that “we cannot fail.”
He’s made immediate changes and set down guidelines that have helped our shop in less than a week. An obvious work-a-holic, I couldn’t hope to match his work output, but I’m going to listen and watch intently, because I have something to learn from this person. He made E8 in 8 years, which is amazing. It also gives me great hope that sometimes the Army gets it right and promotes the most competent people the quickest. If I get promoted in May as is the plan, I will have made E5 in 2.5 years.
There’s been a couple of times that I did not meet his expectations because I didn’t know what they were. He spoke to me and made them clear, and did it in a calm, professional manner. I really appreciated that. I have no problems meeting expectations as long as they are consistant and made clear. When a good leader speaks, one who leads by example, it’s almost inconsequential what he asks of you. He’s maintained our motivation, given you a clear vision of the future, and when the time for action comes, you execute.
2009–A self Odyssee
“The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose ones attitude in any given circumstance.”~Victor Frankl, Holocaust survivor, world renown psychotherapist
2009 has been a tough year for many reasons. In addition to the tremendous changes that the military life imposes, I’ve had to face down my own demons and admit that I’m not good at everything. I am of course, good at almost everything.
It took me about seven or eight months to acclimate to the military life after I graduated from AIT. The Army has its own culture. In some ways, it’s like being in an alien world and I think my experience outside the Army actually hindered my development as a soldier in some ways. Many of the leaders in the Army are not used to having life experienced people under them and their thinking is calcified. And unfortunately, the Army has its portion of unscrupulous individuals who will use their authority to further their own agendas, even when those agendas are downright illegal.
I found myself faced with several of those situations over the last years, and frankly I find myself exhausted and jaded. In one instance I had to go to the JAG (Judge Advocate General–military legal services) to have an order of no-contact placed on an E7 who was stalking Donna. I’d tried everything up to that point, even going face to face with the guy on two occasions, which is just not something that someone of my rank does but it’s how I do things and I can only survive in this environment if I hold on to some vestiges of myself. The situation had become so incredibly seedy, that this E7 had even conspired with my NCOIC at the time to make some bad things happen to me–like counselings and threatened article 15s. I was not allowed a copy of my counseling statement, which by regulation I must be allowed to have. Why? Because it was all to scare me. It went into the trash because what was on it as a lie. The former E7 has had two DUI arrests since I’ve been here and the NCOIC had been removed as 1St Sergeant of one of the battalions because of a domestic violence charge, and he’d been sent home from Iraq after only two months because of rage issues. He’s also an admitted steroid user.
I believe much of this problem stems from the termination, in 2002, of a program called the “Qualitative Management Program.” The QMP evaluated potential problem senior NCOs and made recommendations for dismissal from service based on unacceptable conduct. The Army ended the program because it needed more NCOs at the beginning of the Iraq War. However, it has since reinstituted QMP. Other programs, such as allowing some convicted felons to enlist, are also being terminated.
As the retired Sergeant Major, Gerald Purcell, and the author states in the above linked article:
Asked how senior NCOs could have accrued such demerits as letters of reprimand, Article 15s or, especially, courts-martial, and not already have been discharged, Purcell said that sometimes deference to rank provided an undue protection or leniency.
“A lot of what happens is – ‘move this guy, get him out of here,’ ” Purcell said. “All we’re doing is transferring problems,” he said.
That’s exactly what happened in my case. The Army has it right when it comes to its manuals. Its NCOs recite a creed that’s supposed to remind them of their duties and expected behavior. At the ground level, though, it doesn’t seem to be working. The two NCOs that I mentioned above obviously believed they could get away with what they were doing. They have been taught by Army culture that it was something that people of their rank could get away with. And I thought they could get away with it, too, for a while. Then I got angry.
See, I have this nifty little skill that many NCOs don’t have; an ability to write clearly and convincingly. I wrote a long letter about my NCOIC’s actions (many of which I’m leaving out of this posting) explaining all of the problems. I presented the letter to the 1st Sergeant. I really didn’t want to get the NCO in trouble, just to make him change his actions. I had legitimate Equal Opportunity complaints but I didn’t want it to go to that level yet.
The problems did end, and then of course I won the Soldier of the Year award. The Sergeant First Class figured out I was probably the wrong E3 to mess with and that there were plenty of 19 year olds that he could vent his rage on.
Letting the problem NCOs remain, as well as allowing felons in the Army has had a deleterious effect on Army culture. The problems with senior NCOs has a trickle down effect on the whole Army. Some may say that there are problem people everywhere. But I don’t think it’s to this level. The problems I had as a cop were never with the people I worked with. It was with the populace who didn’t get it. When I went to work as a police officer, I knew these guys I worked with were on my side. Not getting drunk then driving went without saying. There are senior NCOs walking around base who’ve been accused of sexual assault and are being investigated, guys with DUIs. I didn’t work with those types of people. I understand that the vetting process for the Army cannot reach the level of the police department, but the Army should get rid of problems and clean up its messes.
All this being said, I understand why the Army allowed these people to remain during the war years. I just don’t want to work with them.
So I learned a lot. I learned I can be crushed if I’m led to believe I can’t make things better. See: Learned Helplessness. I actually became quite despondent over my situation. Most people who know me would probably agree that it’s not like me to lay down and take stuff like a beaten puppy, but I did. My self-respect and confidence suffered greatly. Before, I’d always been a very confident person.
I learned that psychological state is inherently linked to physical well being. I learned that if I maintain a purpose in my mind, I can get through anything, that I always control my response to any situation, and that response will determine my own worth and dignity. That very tough times usually pass and the feeling when you come though it all is euphoric.
Why I considered quitting blogging
I’ve often thought about the thing I write about on this blog, how they may affect the Army’s morale, and what boundaries I may step over in regards to my thoughts on the current president. President Obama, is after all, my Commander in Chief.
Things like Twitter, Facebook and military blogs have become a rather large issue in the military culture. In some occasions, the Pentagon has outright declared war on social networking, and in other instances blogs are encouraged, and even used by people like General David Patreaus to communicate and lift the morale of troops. Heck, the chief of NATO has a Facebook page!
But then the real Army steps in. The one that simply can’t stand a free thinker. Apparently, al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Iran aren’t keeping out senior people busy enough, so they’ve set their sights on a decorated Master Sergeant named CJ Grisham, who for 6 years running has managed a popular blog that managed to ruffle some Royal commissioned Feathers.
So Grisham is forced to quit his blog.
So what’s little ‘ol me to do, I thought? If the Army will take down someone who’s been in for 15 years, surely it’ll stomp the crap out of someone who’s been in for 2.
Fact is, the Army needs to toughen up. It’ll be the first to tell a soldier, “stay flexible” (what they really mean is, our planning never goes the way we want, so be ready to do whatever at all times). Ok–the Army needs to be flexible, too. From what I’ve seen of the average soldier’s ability to read, write and spell, the Army should be encouraging blogging, not crushing it. And I refuse to write propaganda for the Army. I write propoganda for America, because I think America has it right and it’s truly troubling that the military would crush one of the very essential aspects of Americanism: Freedom of Speech.
I know I’ve been down on the Army in my most recent postings. But the Army needs a boot in the butt every now and then. And I figure I’m the perfect person for it, because if they piss me off enough, I’ll simply go do something else. I’ve done everything they’ve asked of me, and excelled. It’s a slap in the face to soldiers, who are told to go to the worst places on Earth, but cannot point out obvious problems right here in this organization without someone getting butt hurt.
Yeah, I considered quitting his blog. But I won’t. If I’m overseas fighting, the Taliban can pry my M-4 carbine from my cold, dead fingers. While I’m here in garrison, the Army can do the same with my keyboard.
Just because
I mistrust all systemizers and avoid them. ~
Friedrich Nietzsche
In the Army, there’s a lot of “Just Because”.
We don’t know why we have formations, we just do. Drives me nuts.
“There’s just so many moving parts, we need to have accountability.” That’s what one 1LT told me.
Here at Wiesbaden Army Airfield, my unit is stationed with the 1st Armored Division: Old Ironsides. You know, only the most powerful ground unit in the entire fricken world. Yeah, the same armored fist that smashed the Nazis at Anzio. It flicked aside the forces of Saddam Hussein in Kuwait, destroying 768 enemy vehicles while losing only four men.
Well, the might 1st AD, many times, has five formations a day. One at morning PT (0630), one at work call (0900) one before lunch (1130) one after lunch (1300) and one at the end of the day (1700). They do it “Just Because.” Fortunately, my unit only has in the morning, sometimes another at the end of the day.
I always hear reasons for all the stuff the Army does, and I might get suckered into buying the proverbial bridge, but I’ve lived a long life before the Army. I know any organization can function without five formations or musters, a day. Has a lot of moving parts, huh LT? Sorry, but my company has far less people in it than a Super WalMart has. Bet WalMart doesn’t mke it’s people spend almost an hour a day (or more) standing around looking dumb and waiting to be told they can go eat.
There’s lots of other needless stuff, too. For instance, today we did a four mile ruckmarch. Look, I can smoke any dude on my base at rucking. Not bragging, just a fact. At the Soldier of the Year competition, I finished so far ahead of the second place guy, that I could even see him, and he was more than ten years younger. Point is, I like rucking. But the Army has to makes what should be a simple and enjoyable little walk so complicated as to ruin the potential for motivating soldiers to be better ruckers. Word was yesterday we were to have a 0600 formation with 35 pound packs. We’d step off at 0630. “Yeah, right, I told Donna, we’ll mull around until everyone’s grumbling and ready to go to sick call from aggrevation.
I was not to be disappointed. We stood outside in -10 degree Celsius weather, for 50 minutes waiting for the “Risk Assessment” to be signed by the company commander. A Risk assessment is an estimate and analysis of potential dangers to soldiers for any exercise or mission. But seriously, could a walk around the base be dangerous? Should I get a risk assessment when I walk the half mile to the chow hall for lunch? This is the damn American Army, the most powerful, badass killing machine this blood soaked planet has ever seen. Yet, by the time we finally started our march, the damn Boy Scouts would have been finished and roasting marshmallows. Oh, but we still had to get a lecture from the 1st SGT about extraneous stuff that was 1) Common sense and 2) Could have waited. One thing I’ve noticed is that anyone who makes it to a position of high authority in the Army really likes to hear themselves talk–a lot.
The minutiae in the the Earth’s Greatest Army would leave Alan Greenspan in a coma. Don’t walk on the grass. Always wear a hat outside. Want to take a day off? Need a commander’s approval sheet, a DA 31 leave form, a driver’s risk assessment. Want to sell your inoperable car to someone who just wants some spare parts? Both people need paperwork signed by the company and brigade commander. What. The. F!@#?. You’re telling that the brigade commander has nothing better to do in a time of war? On what basis would not sign the paper? That the car doesn’t work? That’s why you need the paper in the first place!
Oh–and don’t wear logos on your PT socks lest a Sergeant Major have a coronary and recommend you for firing squad. Why? Just because. I’ve got logos on my running shoes. That’s ok though. Just because.
Meanwhile our Predator drones are being hacked with hardware bought at the local electronic shops in Iraq. Shouldn’t we be focusing on that and defeating IEDs?
It’s too bad.There a re so many good things about being in the Army. So many things about it that I’m good at. I’m this brigade’s Soldier of the Year. That’s out of about 4000 soldiers. Yet, I find there to be massive deficiencies. The Army has it exactly backwards when it comes to how to be successful and happy. There’s ton of dime store self-help books that actually get it right: Don’t sweat the small stuff. Not only does the Army sweat the small stuff, in many cases it does so at the expense of its most important asset: Its soldiers.
May keep me from re-enlisting.
We can destroy the Taliban, but we can’t change Afghanistan
The Taliban has no chance, and never did, against aggressive American attack. But if we think the corruption which is endemic to Afghanistan will magically disappear, we’re fools. If we believe the tribalism will evaporate, if we dream that a populace with over seventy percent illiteracy will suddenly flower to learnedness, well, we’d best wake up.
Recent Comments