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Peace at any cost is a prelude to war!
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********** VOICE OF THE GRUNT
**********
********** 06 October 1999
**********
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TABLE OF CONTENTS ARTICLES
Hack's Column
Does The Mafia Run The Wyoming Guard 1
Mac Notes 2
From The Field:
Navy's Topgun Routed By Israeli Air Force 3
80 Reasons To Retire 4
It Sure Isn't My Father's Army Anymore 5
Medal of Honor:
BAKER, JOHN F., JR. 6
SGT. (then PFC.), USA, Co. A, 2d Bn., 27th Inf., 25th Inf. Div.
Place and date: Republic of Vietnam, 5 November 1966.
.===========================================================
ARTICLE 1
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DOES THE MAFIA RUN THE WYOMING GUARD?
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By David H. Hackworth, 05 October 1999
I've soldiered a fair bit with Wyoming cowboys and have always found them
to be straight shooters who stood tall and did the right thing. But like
the corruption inside Washington these days, the Beltway Sleaze has now
infected the great state of Wyoming's top National Guard brass.
A Pentagon Inspector General's report says the problems in the Wyoming
Guard come down to outright corruption and a form of arrogance from the
governor on down that may cut it in a Third World country, but not in the
U.S. taxpayer-funded military.
According to the report, the Wyoming Guard is run more like the Mafia than
a U.S. military outfit. The following horror story is a textbook example of
what happens when there's a breakdown in top leadership -- and where
cronyism and crookedness take primacy over integrity and the fine people in
uniform who serve this country and that state.
The commander in chief of the Wyoming Guard is Republican Gov. Jim
Geringer. He was told by the Pentagon that his adjutant general, Maj. Gen.
Ed Boenisch, and a squad of senior Guard officers are bad dudes. Yet the
governor -- who "talks the talk" with a lot of public moralizing -- has yet
to take any action.
Among the abuses cited in the Pentagon report:
* Last year, Army Guard Lt. Col. Gary Kelly was passed over by Washington
for promotion. As the personnel officer of the Wyoming Guard, Kelly -- with
the full knowledge of General Boenisch -- got around this normally
career-ending event by "crooking the books" and promoting himself to full
colonel. Somehow, he even managed to scarf up $10,000 in "back pay." The
Pentagon report clearly substantiates the collusion of Boenisch.
* Gallant Guard legal officers Lt. Col. Gordon Schukei and Maj. John
Scorsine recommended that the perps -- their bosses Boenisch and Kelly --
be court-martialed for their hanky-panky. But instead of getting the
Whistle-Blower Medal First-Class, Schukei and Scorsine have been shunned
and harassed. After reporting his findings to the FBI, Schukei left his job
because, as he says, "a pattern of misconduct, lack of ethical behavior and
abuse of power" existed there. Scorsine, whose boss, Kelly, is breathing
hard down his neck, will soon be another casualty.
* Lt. Col. Roger Nyberg charged that Col. Robert Rodekohr was guilty of
doing a Bill Clinton when it comes to chasing Air Force subordinates'
skirts. Not only did Rodekohr go unpunished, but Nyberg was dismissed from
the Guard and his constitutional rights were trampled on and then shredded.
For example, Boenisch's crony, Col. Bruce Asay, removed an Army lawyer from
the case who found Nyberg had been subjected to unlawful command influence.
Then Asay, an obedient lap dog, was rewarded by being promoted to a top
Guard job.
* A lieutenant colonel improperly transferred equipment from troop-training
sites to the officers club. When this was proven, the action Boenisch took
was to make the lieutenant colonel a unit commander.
* Wyoming has a law that Guard members be "qualified electors" in that
state -- a law that apparently didn't mean much to Boenisch when he
appointed Army and Air assistant adjutant generals from Colorado.
Wyoming-based Col. Joe Michaels courageously stood tall and said this was
wrong. The Pentagon report backed him up and found that the way Michaels
has been treated since then both shameful and unlawful.
* A lieutenant colonel falsified documents that he'd destroyed classified
material. Boenisch looked the other way and then attempted to promote the
sinner to colonel. Recently this guy, who breached national security, was
awarded the Meritorious Service Medal by Boenisch.
* A major rewarded his troops and their gal pals by using taxpayer dollars
for a Disney World holiday in Florida. Again, the action Boenisch took was
more Mafia than G.I. -- he tried to promote the major to lieutenant colonel.
* Boenisch, despite repeated legal counsel against his using federal funds
for his "pet" project -- a tuition endowment for Guard members -- continues
to thumb his nose at the law and misuse your tax dollars for his baby.
Since the Pentagon can't demand that the accused be court-martialed
because it's state business, and since the governor won't do his duty, the
$54 million that the Wyoming Guard gets from the feds each year should be
put on hold. No point in we-the-taxpayers funding the Wyoming Mafia.
==================================================
ARTICLE 2
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*******MAC NOTES*******
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Robert L. McMahon, Editor, 06 October 1999
Some words are in order regarding the recent Korean War atrocities
committed by American troops during the early opening weeks of that
conflict back during the summer of 1950.
Many of you are veterans of that war and know better than I the "fog of
war" that grips troops engaged in a struggle for life and death. To say
that circumstances and temperament can vary under these conditions is
putting it rather mildly. However, to suggest that American troops wantonly
gunned down women and children would be stretching the incident to the
extreme.
Ugly, brutal incidents of slaughter are not endemic to American troops,
and
we should not think that they ever are. The very nature of war can harden a
guy who used to be the corner florist when he was a civilian, but
discussions of blood-thirsty sociopaths are best left out of this equation.
Let it be said that women and children were killed during the early days
of the fighting down that peninsula by U.S. troops, but that it was done
out of military necessity due to North Korean infiltration of the refugee
masses.
Inherent in that North Korean practice was the understanding that American
troops were genuinely "nice guys" who would not open fire on "civilians"
thereby allowing NK troops to infiltrate and get behind the lines in large
numbers. The North Koreans were the cowards. They were the instigators and
they were the ones who brought death by American fire upon the civilian
refugees.
It was a desperate time, and desperate measures are sometimes necessary
during those times. Is it ugly? You bet. Is it terrible? Yes. What were the
meaningful alternatives though? Sherman said it best, "War is hell."
Have a good week. Don't bunch up.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.freeyellow.com:8080/members7/rlmcmahon/
====================================================
ARTICLE 3
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NAVY TOPGUNS ROUTED BY ISRAELI AIR FORCE
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By Mark Crissman
Recently IAF F-16 pilots handed USN F-14 and F-18 pilots a lopsided lesson
in aerial combat over Israeli skies. The joint exercise between IAF and USN
Sixth Fleet pilots left no doubt what a double edged sword the phrase
"Fight like you train" can be. Maintaining proficiency in aerial combat
maneuvering is expensive. Today's multi-role fighters require dedicated
training in numerous warfare areas. Those funds are routinely raided to pay
for hotline crisis reactions by Clinton and his pentagon cronies. The
"Jerusalem Post Reports" quoted Israeli military sources as saying IAF
pilots "downed" 220 US Navy aircraft with a loss of just 20 of its own.
That's a 40:1 advantage in favor of the IAF.
The Navy's lopsided loss is a direct result of a military that has been
RIFed, slashed, and over extended to every hot spot around the world. The
porkers and perfumed princes have been seduced so much by the push button
mentality of warfare that the troops have lost the required edge to win in
a knife fight. Navy planners tally their over inflated readiness reports
and pentagon porkers spend the cash on platinum plated stealth weapons in a
materialistic feeding binge. Training dollars take a back seat to trillion
dollar fighter and bomber programs.
The Navy has shut down all but two Reserve Aggressor Squadrons where pilots
gain valuable experience fighting dissimilar aircraft. Training and
readiness just isn't sexy enough because it eats up money for the new
plastic toys that the porkers & princes want funded as they look ahead to
their future jobs in the Military Industrial Congressional Complex.
Topgun and Strike U now see aviators come through Carrier Airwing workups
short on the fundamentals and behind the power curve on the ability to work
as a cohesive fighting unit. Aggressor squadrons were also a well deserved
deployment break from sea duty where pilots and maintainers could live in
the states and pass on the tools of the trade. It's no wonder the pilots
and maintainers are leaving in droves.
A recent Navy recruiting add in "Aviation Week and Space Technology"
features a woman aviator earning money for a post Navy career education. It
shows her career path which includes marrying her pilot husband. You can
bet the IAF doesn't spend the manpower we do on consideration of others and
sensitivity training. The Israeli military has reversed its decision to
allow women in direct combat roles.
The cost of air warfare has increased exponentially with stealth and beyond
visual range weaponry. In low intensity combat positive ID of hostile
aircraft will dictate many visual engagements. Otherwise, accidents like
the USAF shootdown of a UN helo in the No Fly Zone in Iraq will result.
Second and Third World countries will come and go on the radar scope with
their ability to hug the belt and be top dog in aerial dog fighting. We
will have to spend the training dollars to maintain our proficiency in the
arena.
Post Top Gun Fighter Weapons School in Vietnam, the Navy learned to take it
to the edge of the envelope, and train the way it needed to fight. The Top
Gun Fighter Weapons School, stood up by junior officers, brought the dismal
2 to 1 kill ratio in Vietnam back to 13 to 1. The USAF didn't learn that
lesson until after the war. A backwater communist Vietnam was very good at
hugging the belt. The Navy's recent loss to a first rate IAF shows how soft
we've gotten around the waistline.
VOICE OF THE GRUNT, 1999-10-06-B
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ARTICLE 4
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80 REASONS TO RETIRE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By an Army Aviator
1. I kind of like seeing my wife and kids on a regular basis.
2. Korea - another opportunity to spend a year away from your family.
3. Kuwait - Been there, done that, hate the sand, food sucks, people dress
funny.
4. Kosovo - Another "tar baby"
5. Albania - Another swirling sucking pool of despair.
6. Bosnia - all troops will be home by December '96.
7. See #29
8. My pay is screwed up for the third time in four months.
9. I would really rather spend time with my family than watch Bosnians
spend time with theirs.
10. Staff PT. Why can't I go do PT on my own and enjoy a little peace and
quiet at the beginning of the day.
11. People who think I want to raise my PT score.
12. People who want me to raise my PT score.
13. PT standards were raised for the over 40 age group.
14. PT standards were lowered for the 24 years and younger age group.
15. Three guys get taken prisoner without firing a shot, get released
32 days later, get home before I do, and get six medals for it. Two of
which carry retirement bonuses.
17. SGMs - Too busy worrying about the status of the sleeves on my flight
suit.
18. SGMs that think they out rank Warrant Officers and the RLOs that let
them continually get away with it.
19. WO1s - They ain't raised right. They rarely accept responsibility and
generally don't seek it either. WOCs aren't challenged for the bar they're
given now, and it shows.
20. Paper work. Too much of it and not enough flying.
21. Power Point presentations.
22. Command and Staff call and other painful meetings in which I have very
little impact. If we would all communicate better we wouldn't need half
these meetings.
23. CW5 - If I get selected, 20+ only gets worse.
24. Not enough flying for me. (Yep I know I already said that)
25. Lack of quality training time for the younger aviators. Your only
hope of getting flight time is to get deployed. Lousy option.
26. Women in the military. Excuse me for being a male chauvinist pig but I
don't think women belong in combat arms MOS's. Not saying some aren't
capable (most aren't), just don't like the idea. I don't think women should
do much more than hospital or admin work in the military.
27. Not enough ammo to stay good at our business which happens to be death
and destruction on order.
28. "Peace Keeping Operations" That reminds me .....
29. Somalia, what the hell happened there anyway? And why is the public too
damned dumb to ask questions about it?
30. The United States Army Safety Center
31. DES & CASSD. (REMFs)
32. The ARMS team
33. Fellow aviators that actually believe that a good attack pilot doesn't
really need to understand aerodynamics, the anatomy of the eye and other
dribble.
34. Why would they wake me up at 0330 to ask weather minimums but not at
0440 to tell me we had a Class A mishap?
35. Lack of confidence in General officer leadership (ie..the enemy is
everywhere).
36. If women can do anything men can...let's start with the same PT test.
37. SGMs - Stop worrying about what color the patch is on my flight suit.
Believe it or not that patch actually does help moral and esprit de corps.
38. This tent is small....why did a guy just walk in and ask if Marv is
here?
39. When was the last time the SGM, that is overly concerned about WOs,
attended a Guard Mount?
40. Why did we have to take the cross off the steeple of the chapel?
41. Why are we "facilitating" a bunch a freakin' tree worshippers on a
military reservation ?
42. So I finish my 4+ mile run and am cooling down and some fat-assed NCO
stops to tell me that I'm out of uniform because my T-shirt isn't tucked in.
43. Currency -vs- Proficiency (Did I mention we don't get to fly enough?)
44. Why is it that the same SGM that is worried about my sleeves is wearing
a flight suit when he's not on flight status?
45. Why is it that if an aviator has 1 bad landing out of hundreds or even
thousands it can end his career, but finance and other staff pukes can
screw up numerous times with no effect?
46. We (4 Bde HQ) are supposed to get home 2-4 AUG. III Corps wants us to
go to Korea on 6 AUG to conduct an ex-eval on 6 Cav.
47. SECRET missions that everybody and their brother knows about.
48. The Russians are NOT REALLY our friends. Let's stop pretending they are.
49. OCONUS assignments for Apache pilots, Korea, Germany, UAE, Egypt,
Saudi, Netherlands
50. CONUS assignment choices for AH-64 pilots. Bragg (Airborne), Campbell
(Air Assault), Hood (Cav & Infantry), Irwin (Hell Prep), Hunter AAF (Mech
Infantry), Rucker (yea right).
51. 3000 Series tasks. We wouldn't require these if we didn't get so anal
that we couldn't or won't do anything until it's in writing.
52. Politically correct terms like "fighter management" instead of "crew
rest." "Attack by Fire position" instead of "Battle position." Come on
"Attack by Fire"? what else is there? "Attack by harsh words and dirty
looks"?
53. Dateline Desert Shield/Desert Storm: LTC Bn Cmdr shows his aviators how
its done by lopping off the PNVS turret and destroying hellfire missiles
and missile rack while landing in the dust. Aircraft goes in to phase real
early and incident is swept under the carpet. Same LTC makes 2nd star.
How's that work ???
54. Apache pilot retention rate stinks so DA offers bonus plan to AH-64
pilots with 7-14 yrs. service.
55. Non-tracked recalls and pass-overs get $12,000 bonus after completing
AH-64 AQC. Meanwhile, guys that have over 14 years and a lot of experience
get frustrated and retire in droves.
56. Have already missed too many birthdays, graduations, anniversaries and
I've seen the hurt in the eyes of friends that have too. The birth of a
child is too important for a man to miss. Nothing short of combat
operations should keep him from being there. Nobody is that important to an
operation.
57. Consideration of Others Training. If the big wigs are really concerned
about everybody's feelings they should read reason #56.
58. Ref. #48. The Chinese don't like us either. Let's stop pretending.
59. General lack of clear foreign policy by current administration.
60. English majors. I get tired of having my papers graded every time I
turn in one of these worthless memos. And if you take it to 4 different
guys and correct it after each one. Number five would still tell you a
different way to fix it. Warriors or English majors, which one are we
supposed to be anyway??
61. OPORDS - Do we really need an op order for everything we do? If we need
an Op Order for a picnic, maybe we shouldn't have a picnic because the
plastic spoons could be too dangerous to handle.
62. I'm Just Not Having Any Fun Doing It Anymore...and that's sad. I love
the Army but I hate the minority catering, fag tolerating, social
experiment that its become.
63. Acquisition Corps and the LCCs. They have done more damage to the Army
than the Iraqi Republican Guards.
64. Too many contradictions in terms that stem from the ongoing political
correctness. Let me give you a couple of prime examples. "Non-deployable
soldiers"- I realize that at times this can be due to temporary problems,
but some are permanent. "Maternity- Battle Dress Uniform." Jesus, need I
say more.
65. Why is it that if the Armor, Infantry or Artillery talk trash about the
other branches it can be called "pride" but if aviation does it its called
"arrogance"? We spend too much time apologizing about being aviation. I
realize it's a team effort and we can't do our mission without the legs,
tankers and cannon cockers. Do they realize the same about us?
66. For I don't know how many years, General Reimer has been telling
everyone how capable the Army is. Now on the eve of his retirement he
decides to tell everyone that the Army is running on a "skeleton crew" and
is over tasked.
67. The great medical & dental care they promised me and my family 21 years
ago doesn't exist anymore.
68. Eagle Base gets a new $300,000 DFAC but Comanche can't get money for
aircraft parking pads.
69. Why should we have to apologize to Bosnians, Croats and Serbs about
flying too low, when they admit that if we leave they will probably start
fighting again?
70. People that try to cover up stupidity with lines like "You're in the
Army, you signed up for this." Well, yes I did volunteer but that doesn't
mean I have to enjoy and accept piss poor leadership. Neither should anyone
else.
71. If the purpose of accident investigations is accident prevention why
won't the Safety Center tell me what caused the AH-64 accidents in Albania?
72. "Dog & Pony Shows"
73. So I make a phone call home on Sat. 22 May. I try to make another on
Thur. 27 May and some REMF at Ft. Rucker tells me I'm only allowed one
moral call per week. Oh, by the way, I've only made four calls home in
three months.
74. This one is from my days at DOTDS. I hate it when the O-6 Director has
the Pentium II computer with the 8 gig HD , 1.21 gigawatt processor and 21
inch monitor to read his email on and all the peons doing the real work are
still using parchment and quill pens.
75. Digitization meetings - Do you have any idea how many of these I've
been to in the last four years. None of these people that are going to link
the whole battlefield together digitally seem to be communicating with each
other. Does this seem like a problem to anyone else ?
76. Just got a Father's Day card from my kids. It says "I wish you could
come home now. That hurts...
77. Is this still the United States Army or the United Nations Army? Okay
maybe just part of the NATO Army based in the U.S.
78. CW4 Godfrey, CW4 Garvey, CPT Lee, CPT Sexton, LT Agular, CW3 Baker,
CW2 Wagner, CW3 Hughes, CW2 Walker...........Life is too short.
79. The aviation class A accident rate has more than doubled this year. I'm
sure its all pilot error. We're all just a bunch of reckless overpaid slobs
out to ruin some poor RLOs career. It can't be because we're not allowed to
conduct frequent and meaningful training. It can't be because the perstempo
and optempo have worn out good people and hurt morale! No, must be nothing
more than sloppy flying by incompetent pilots.
80. I have changed jobs a few times in 22 years and have managed to take
over and hand off the position and responsibilities without any problems,
and without a powerpoint presentation. But now some good idea fairy has
popped up with the idea and we apparently won't be able to successfully TOA
without powerpoint. Its absolutely amazing we were able to maintain our
freedom for 223 years without powerpoint, but now it seems our life,
liberty and pursuit of happiness depends on but Microsoft Office.
REASONS TO NOT RETIRE
1. I would have to decide what clothes to wear everyday.
2. As a W5, I could spend the next 9 years in the Army not sugar coating
any of my opinions without worrying about how it will impact my career.
====================================================
~~> more articles in Part B ~~>
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