God Bless The Military

Class of 2013 Army cadets got their branches today.

I got my second choice, armor. Feel honored/excited/motivated/nervous getting a combat arms. Any other cadets on the board get their branch? Anyone been through ABOLC?

 

There's about a 90-95% chance that I'll be flying a division (3) of Helo's up to a Navy vessel near NYC to assist with relief efforts in the greater NYC/NJ area. We will be leaving tomorrow and spending the next two-three weeks on the ship helping out the areas. So if anyone who lives up there reads this and sees a huge helicopter flying around the city, give us a wave because it will probably be me flying.

Ps, I'll be promoting to Captain tomorrow before we fly out.

 

At its simplest meaning, the salute is a visible way for one to show respect. I didn't know the protocol answer right off the bat so I googled and came up with this article. http://blogs.reuters.com/talesfromt...alute-or-not-to-salute-thats-obamas-question/. It is a decent read. Personally as someone who receives and returns salutes daily, it has become a routine occurrence that I don't give much thought to. However, for certain events (funerals, flag lowering) it still retains some of its impact. So personally, I respect the fact that POTUS would be compelled to show his respect in a manner that the fallen soldier had so ingrained in their lives. The article's comment on the militarization of the office by saluting is a little outside my pay grade but again, in my opinion, I don't find much fault with it.

 

I don't believe it is, no. Really he can do what he wants and either way it isn't really correct or incorrect as there isn't any regulation saying what he can and can not do. We have to salute him, so him returning the salute is only natural and you're supposed to render a salute at certain points during a funeral for a service member and I think that him saluting is perfectly fine. I believe the same is true for the secretary of defense as well as the secretaries of each branch, but I'm not 100% certain on that.

Also, it's pretty common for retired/discharged veterans to render salutes or follow certain military customs under certain circumstances like at funerals or when the national anthem plays. I think saluting is fine for people to do while out of uniform under certain circumstances, actually I'm pretty sure it's encouraged by the Air Force and Army to salute officers if you recognize them and you are out of uniform, but it isn't actually required.

 

I just finished the GoRuck Challenge (https://www.goruckchallenge.com/Events/Challenge) in Boston, an 11 hour ruck through the city, with various challenges and smoke sessions every few miles.

Overall, it was a great experience. It attracts a lot of interesting people (a mix between current and ex military types, crossfitters, dudes in a mid-life crisis, and thrill seekers), and the cadre are all pretty outstanding. I'd recommend it, especially if you do it with a friend. There were a bunch of serious what the fuck moments, like carrying a log through downtown Boston on a Saturday night, surrounded by drunks screaming the National Anthem at us. At one point we were around NEU and some asshole started stalking our group, telling us how the military should be ashamed for killing people and how we should burn the American flag we were carrying and so on. Our cadre member, an 18B SF guy with a ton of deployments under his belt, didn't say a word to this dude. He just slowly started walking towards him, and the guy fucking sprinted out of there. It was hilarious.

There were people crying and freaking out at the end, but if you work out and have done similarly stupid shit, it's nothing life changing. Worth checking out though, and they donate a part of the (huge) fee to the Green Beret Foundation.

 

This is a bit sad to post on Veteran's day, but I wanted to hear what others had to say on this topic.

A friend of mine from high school died on 11/5. He served in the Marines for 8 years and just came home a year ago. Knowing him since high school, and then spending time with him after he came home, nothing seemed wrong. I know some people seemed like they've changed after serving but he seemed like the same outgoing, happy-go-lucky kid after he came back. Turns out he committed suicide. Of course, everyone is baffled by this and no one, including his family, saw it coming. He just received full custody of his girls and everything seemed to be going right in his life.

My question is this--I know military suicides are prevalent, but exactly how prevalent are they? Is the military doing anything to try and curb the suicide rates? Is there any standard reacclamation program someone has to go through before they get discharged? It seems like more and more articles keep popping up on this topic, but nothing is really changing. I'd love to hear what you guys have to say.

Thank you to everyone serving in our military for your service! I can't imagine what you have to go through to protect our country.

 

I know news headlines several months back blew up about the suicide rate in the military close to being equivalent to one person committing suicide every day and that more people were dying at their own hands than in Afghanistan.

Yes, and they've been very aggressive as far as trying to do something at least since I joined slightly over 2 years ago. There are many different people and organizations that troops can turn to if they're having thoughts of suicide and we've been pretty regularly briefed about those options. As well as that, I know everyone at my last duty station (I think it was mandated for everyone in the Air Force if I'm not mistaken, I can't speak for other branches) had to go through training of how to talk to someone who tells you they are having thoughts of suicide and what to do. They've also hammered in the point that if you seek help it will not have a negative effect on your career, although I don't see how that's possible in all circumstances. So they are trying to do something, but I don't think the way they've been going about it has been the best way of doing it. I also don't believe that the DoD has the actual mental health resources at the ready to meet the services needs, and the VA has definitely done a poor job of providing mental health care to people who have retired or separated from the military.

Yes, people who are getting out of the military are required to go through re-acclimaton programs, I believe each branch has a different program. I've heard mixed things about these programs from my friends who have gotten out. Some say that they were immensely helpful and others say they were a joke. Note that, in my opinion, the people who said the programs were helpful seem to have acclimated to life outside of the military better than those that said they were a joke (and probably took them as a joke). I'm a little hazy on the specifics of the programs themselves, but from what it sounds like they do teach (or at least attempt to teach) some real life skills that you'll need on the outside like how to interview for jobs and how to build a resume`, stuff like that.

 

There's a fair number of them, but I don't think they're much higher than in the civilian world.

Yep. They court-martial people for attempting it. I read this article and laughed my ass off - only in the military will someone try to kill himself and get put in jail for it. Granted, the kid was a shitbag... but it's pretty revealing of the general theme behind how suicide is treated.

Every time someone commits suicide, everyone goes "Ah shit, not this again." The usual result of someone dangling off the fourth-story catwalk is a massive four-hour "safety standdown" where we get lectured on Suicide Awareness - signs, symptoms, and so on. Honestly, the material they present IS good. Unfortunately, it's presented extremely poorly by some shithead sergeant major who has no idea what he's talking about. He's just reading off the slide, and has contempt for the whole thing.

In reality, it's just a check in the box for the leadership to wash their hands of the whole affair. "We gave all these suicide prevention briefs! We can't understand why people are hanging themselves!"

One thing I've found is that there's an enormous stigma against seeking mental help while on active duty. Guy goes to seek mental help? He gets scrutinized by the command. The stigma ranges from "Hey, we're just keeping an eye on you" to "You fucking shitbag, I can't believe you're using your personal problems as an excuse, I'm gonna burn you for giving me all this shit to do" depending on the command. Mine happens to be the latter. It's actually not the fault of the command - they have all these programs set up for people to use... but the moment someone actually tries to use them, they jump on them and go "OH MY GOD PEOPLE ARE USING MENTAL HELP SERVICES, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR COMMAND YOU MUST BE TREATING YOUR PEOPLE LIKE DONKEY SHIT." Combine that with the fact that the military is stuck thirty years in the past, and you have a pretty nasty atmosphere toward people who make it known that they have mental problems.

Honestly, people have issues going to Medical for PHYSICAL problems, let alone mental problems. If you're seen as a shitbag for going to Medical with a twisted ankle, it's crazy to see people going to Medical because they feel like garbage about themselves.

One of the more amusing anecdotes I have - I happened to be in Headquarters one day, getting weighed in, when I heard the sergeant major screaming at someone. Nothing new - SMaj has two speeds - walk and kill. I ended up realizing that it was a kid who had attempted suicide the day before. SMaj was just tearing him apart - calling him worthless, bitching about how much paperwork the kid had created, saying he might as well have finished the job, etc. Last I checked, the kid's now institutionalized because, you know, he was fucking SUICIDAL.

In the Marine Corps, it's called TAPS (Transition Assistance Program Services, I think). Like Suicide Awareness, there's a lot of great information that's presented - the execution varies. Some commands really make it a point to take care of their guys and make sure that they have as many opportunities to succeed as possible. Others use it to create fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the civilian world. "You SURE you don't want to reenlist? Oh, okay. Fuck you then." My command happens to be the former; they have a very well-established program that teaches people how their military skills can apply to jobs in the civilian world. One of my friends over in Cherry Point had some retired first sergeant call them all unpatriotic for not re-upping. It varies.

 

Pretty well covered in the previous two posts, but I thought this might make a good supplementary read: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/09/a_new_moral_compact

 

Just for a little more perspective, at my last duty station we had a guy in my unit commit suicide and my unit leaderships' response to the incident was far different from what was being described by other people here.

We had a commanders call where they broke the news to us and his section chief said a few brief words about the guy, and then we were told that a chaplain, a representative from mental health and one or two other people who handle these kinds of situations were on hand in case anyone felt the need to talk to someone over the loss of their friend or and if we ourselves were in a state of mental distress to talk with someone, and then we were asked if we had any recent communication with him in the last few weeks that could give some insight into his state of mind at the time or specific reasoning why he decided to commit suicide to speak and if we did to approach the commander on an individual basis to talk about it in private. No power points, no boring speaker, the whole commander's call lasted 30 minutes max and I think they did as much as they could and they genuinely cared.

Also, my current unit has done a great job of ensuring that we are all taken care of and have been highly responsive to any problems we have had (they come up with some frequency as I'm currently stationed overseas at a base where people aren't allowed to bring their families) as well as being proactive rather than solely reactive. Again, I think it helps that the people actually seem to care about one another.

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I haven't seen the knee jerk response to these incidents that other people have. I have sat through a few of the dull presentations other people have talked about, but those were mandated by the DoD or the AF headquarters, they weren't in response to any specific incident that I'm aware of. I think perhaps smaller units may do a better job at preventing and handling the fall out of suicides than larger command units that are more detached from reality and only see statistics rather than coworkers or friends.

 

For those not in the know this might sound like a good thing, but it is a sad, sad day for the Air Force. Senior leaders are going through buildings and throwing out anything anyone might find offensive. They are quite literally destroying old squadron patches from WWII and tearing pages out of flying squadrons' history books among other things.

One butt hurt woman single-handedly destroyed probably a majority of what little heritage/history that the Air Force could lay claim to. I'm not going to pretend like she doesn't have some legitimate complaints in there, but most of it is fluff like saying she was exposed to this "pornographic" material, no shit that video is in the complaint. I'm just gonna say I was at the same base as her and have been in that fighter squadron building on a few occasions and I know that they keep some of the material she was allegedly exposed to in the mens bathroom. And how the fuck does someone get exposed to offensive or pornographic material on a shared network drive unless you are randomly clicking on files and folders when you don't know what they are or are searching for it. They shouldn't have had it there, but don't try and say you were exposed to it.

The sad thing is she legitimately had some complaints... 10 years ago, but she never pursued them. Instead she allowed people who (allegedly) sexually harassed her get away without reprisal and is now digging for any ammo she can find because, in my opinion, she has a grudge against someone or something over something completely different. She doesn't pursue being actually sexually assaulted or harassed but then, years later, finds some porn and goes through hell and high water to make the terrible injustice known? Get the fuck outta here. This is the military, we're supposed to be a warrior culture, not a bunch of kumbuya singing pussies. It's only a matter of time before they start painting over nose art on historic planes, god knows merely seeing the silhouette of a woman is going to drive us men to rape the nearest female.

 

While I think that most of the shit these guys were doing ranges from mildly unprofessional to extremely rapey, I find this to be hilarious:

That video is about as pornographic as a typical episode of South Park.

 

I have a girlfriend who is 33 and has suddenly decided she wants to join the military. Apparently the Army is the only choice she has due to her age. Does anyone know how common it is for "late bloomers" to join? Is it a bad idea? I will support her, but I'm curious if she will face any shit for being "old."

 

Whether she'll have any one else "her age" depends a lot on what MOS she wants. I joined at 25 in an intel MOS, it skews a bit older/more educated than the Army as a whole. Thinking back to the 12 or so of us who were junior enlisted for my first deployment, only three had joined straight out of high school, the oldest was about 35, most were in the 22-26 range. My platoon at Basic (mix of different MOS') on the other hand was considerably younger, mostly 17-19, although again this was skewed the other way because I went during the summer and we had a ton of National Guard split options (HS kids who go to Basic between their junior and senior years and then AIT after graduating), we also had one female who was 38 or 39 and one who was 42 (both reservists). What jobs is she looking at??

As for "facing any shit"....she'll get her ovaries busted some over it but nothing too bad. The biggest adjustment for me was that as a junior enlisted soldier in the Army you're frequently treated like a kid straight out of high school, regardless of how old you actually are. She'll also have to take orders from 21-year-old NCOs who joined straight out of high school, have no life experience outside the Army and as a result frequently have trouble thinking outside the box. That all said, having experience outside the military will benefit her in many ways as well.

 

The Husband joined three months before his 30th birthday.
As of April last year (one month before his 30th birthday) I'd been out of the Army for a decade.
I tried to warn him of a few things...
He'll be the "old guy", no matter what.
There will be drill sergeants younger than him.
His age will actually work in his favor with the NCOs, provided he's not a total douche, because he'll both understand what they're trying to convey (because of his previous life experience) and because even though they'll still treat him like the brand new soldier he is, as long as he carries himself like the mature grownup he is, he'll be treated fairly well.
His age will work against him in that his peer group will be light years away from where he is in life. His peer group will largely be younger guys, most of them without families to care for, and without more than a "serious girlfriend". It's quite isolated being the guy who has already done all the stupid young shit, doesn't enjoy going out to bars/clubs because it's fucking expensive and boring, and has a wife at home that he actually likes and wants to be married to.

For your girl I'd honestly say that she should be okay, but it'll get lonely, and she'll get irritated with dumb shit. Living in the barracks is fucking annoying - and when you're a single soldier, or in training, and you're living with people who are barely capable of taking care of their own very minor shit, and you're getting fucked up for it...any moment can be a moment to snap. Tried to warn The Husband about that too. There's a lot of drama within the barracks, but there's a lot of comedy too. Walks of shame, barracks rats, and the sheer number of people who come into the military with no idea of what they're really getting into all lend at least a bit of levity.



I went through basic and AIT with a woman who was 32 years old. I remember her vividly and she kicked ass. She had the same MOS as I had and from day one of Reception all the way through until we graduated from Fort Sam Houston, we were in the same platoon. I think she fared okay, but I know that the things I mentioned were things that made her want to beat her head into the wall when dealing with us.

 

Tell her to look into the Guard and Reserves. When I went through basic training (I'm chair force) a little over 2 years ago there were at least 5 guys who were in their mid to late 30's who were joining the guard or reserves out of a flight of about 50 people. It isn't terribly uncommon to join that late, I'm one of the youngest people in my unit and I'm 22.

 

Don't know if y'all saw this story, but a woman who deserted the marines in 1981 was recently found and given an "under honorable conditions" discharge. You fucking kidding me? At this point I think its pointless to try and punish her, but that's just a slap to the face of anyone who legitimately served their time. Maybe it's because bad conduct and dishonorable discharges require courts martial to be held and they don't want to go through that process, but honorable? At least give here a general discharge for fucks sake.

"She plans to meet with a counselor sometime in the next few days to find out whether she is eligible for veterans benefits."

Enraging.

 

Fuck her. Oh my God. I'm angry now.

I ETS'd early from the Army. My Family Care Plan was no longer viable - because I got pregnant and my husband was going to deploy and I was set to deploy as soon as I was eligible from the pregnancy, and I had no one I could entrust my kids to for an extended (and unknown) period of time like that. We were dual military, and an FCP is required. So, I chapter 8'd and got out.

I paid in for my GI Bill...but because of the circumstances for my discharge, I GET NO GI BENEFITS.


I hate this bitch.