WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! ARTICLE 4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ US Medal Bazaar - Reality Check by an Aussie Comrade ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ed.: An Australian's response to my recent piece on the medal bazaar in our forces. Perry hits the bullseye with his observations and should raise concern how others, including our friends see us. The medals bazaar seems just another indication of our rapidly deteriorating value system and honor code. Thanks and cheers to all our trusted allies who read this newsletter. **************************************************************************** * By Perry Gamsby, a fellow Aussie Grunt As an Aussie Ally to the cause I chuckle whenever I see an American serviceman/woman portrayed on the silver screen. Having just finished boot camp, they have a chest full of medals. Sorry, but we do find it amusing how your country gives out medals for completing basic training and so on, service ribbons, efficiency medals etc. The uniforms end up looking like Christmas Trees and quite frankly, the US troops I trained with, whilst top blokes in their own right, were hardly up to snuff unless their job involved an enormous amount of technical equipment. As far as basic soldiering, field craft and so on was concerned, I'm glad you have a lot of them! I saw a lot of right-handers shooting around the left side of cover; gun groups running at the same time while rifle groups were on the move, obstacles crossed by the bunch up and pray method, etc. Great entertainment and a terrific show but not good examples for our younger Diggers. Don't get me wrong, America is my favorite vacation destination and I have many ex-military friends there I stay with (and vice versa). But the medal situation, as you stated, is a joke. I believe Grenada delivered tens of thousands of heroes. What a joke and what an insult to your veterans of real wars that actually earned their awards. My Grandfather won the Military Medal and the Distinguished Conduct Medal in the First World War. Mind you, he was in it from 1914 and took part in all the major battles, including the Somme and Ypres, Paschendale etc. My maternal Grandfather won the Iron Cross 1st Class in the first and a 2nd class in the second, (10 T-34's with hand placed mines!). My father fought in Malaya, Aden, Cyprus, Northern Ireland and Kenya. He has one medal, the General Service Medal, with clasps for each theatre, as well as a Long Service Medal. If he was a GI, how many medals would he have? He was also wounded twice, so there go a couple of Purple Hearts. My Grandad was wounded five times and gassed twice in the first war and he used to laugh at the idea of a Purple Heart. Reckoned he'd run out of chest. I don't have any medals because I never got to shoot anyone in my ten years in the army. I also find it embarrassing when I go to the States and my friends introduce me at the VFW post as a "veteran". Merely because I was Regular Army. We only consider soldiers who saw active service to be veterans and active service means on operations, not peacetime service. I know I did my bit and would have gone willingly had there been anyone to kill whilst I was in, but fate said it wasn't to be. I am disgusted by blokes who claim to have been the next best thing to Sgt Rock when the only action they saw was pay night. Having a chest full of bullshit medals only encourages that. I agree with and applaud your stance on the medal issue. As a supporter of The Battling Bastards of Bataan I am humbled when I compare my military service with those true heroes, and others. To see that the lessons of the old days have not been learned by your government, as well as mine makes me sick. When we went into East Timor last September, we were hard pressed to scrape together enough blokes to do the job. Many of them had flak jackets that were from the Vietnam era, some had borrowed body armor from friendly nations and many went without. Most of the combat grunts bought their own packs and LBE from civilian suppliers! I wonder who got to carry the bullet on the patrol that brassed up three Indo's for none of ours. =============================================================== ARTICLE 5 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Specialty Badges for Outstanding Accomplishments ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ed.: Instead of handing out medals, I recently proposed "Expert" insignia for all branches to make the absolute masters of their profession stand out for emulation. This NCO proposes to make the sapper badge official just like the long overdue armor assault badge. The sapper badge would truly help distinguish the elite of the engineer branch. Troops that are deployed ahead of infantry and armor to breach obstacles and mines should stand out as combat troops vs. their original classification as combat support. Other armies such as the Germans call their elite engineers "Sturmpioniere" or assault pioneers which is much more appropriate. **************************************************************************** By SFC N. L., US Army Engineers I am a 13-year service NCO and have long felt slighted by the powers that be. Little known to those outside of the Corps of Engineers there exists a school that teaches combat engineers to be Sappers. In your most recent SFTT you mentioned MOS specific qualification badges. "Institute hard to earn, military specific qualification badges. We already have the Expert Field Medical Badge (EFMB) and the Expert Infantryman's Badge (EIB). What we desperately need are special gunnery badges and branch qualification insignia to show that someone stands out in their career field - is more ready than others and worthy of emulation." The Sapper badge has been around at least 15 years however it is not authorized for wear on the uniform. Many people equate this course with ranger school but we who graduated are not allowed to show the world that we were able to cut the mustard and pass the course. After passing the course and feeling the pride of my accomplishments and then being told I was not allowed to show the world was rather disheartening. Regardless here is the link to the site that will tell you all about it. Looks an awful lot like ranger school but I am only a dumb 12B -- http://www.wood.army.mil/sapper/ ============================================================= ARTICLE 6 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Women Issues - We served proudly Too! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ed: Mrs. Thelma Hoffman is a veteran of the WWII WAC (Women Army Corps). In a recent letter to SFTT, she shares some of her thoughts on women in the forces, past and present. I find her insight and patriotism insightful and admirable. In WWII these women ensured that men were freed up to perform frontline duty in the direct fire combat arms. We salute her and all women veterans. *************************************************************************** By Thelma B.Hoffman Thank you for sharing your newsletter that I have forwarded it on to several other W.A.C. Vets. I am 78 years old and still can wear my WWII uniform and do so at many functions here in Phoenix, AZ. I am also a WAC National Honor Guard who has the privilege of posting the Colors at many Military assemblies. I just did so the past weekend in Scottsdale. AZ at the Convention of the Women Overseas League and really enjoyed the luncheon. We enjoyed talking about many things and especially the opposition the WAC's met when they appeared for duty. First comment was "but you are a woman". They were finally accepted when they proved they could handle the assignment they were sent to do. I guess the most of us had opposition even before we left for Basic. It seems the civilians at that time thought we were only going in to get a boyfriend and didn't mind being verbal about it. My MOM who was very proud of me doing it would really come to bat for me and tell them off. After Basic I went into Motor Transport School and had six weeks of Training on the mechanics of a vehicle. Was sent to Ft. Custer, MI, to work in the garages as an Inspector who checked out the vehicles to be sure the men had performed the necessary repairs they were told to do. Only one 'G.I.' gave me a hard time, because, we took his soft job away so he could be released for active duty. Which was exactly what we went in the Service to do. The G.I.'s in the Quartermaster garages were excellent. They accepted us and helped us in any way they could, especially after I allowed them to take my road test vehicle to go to the bakery. I then was made a Parts Chaser for the German Prisoners of War who were sent to Ft. Custer, which was a M.P. Training Camp at that time. I had a special pass that allowed me into the compound. I even had several of the Germans draw pictures of me in my coveralls and signed them "from a very bad German Terror Airman". I still have them in my scrapbook. I was taking training to go Overseas as an Ambulance driver when I received a Telegram from my fiancee who had been overseas for 2 years that he was being sent back to the States from North Africa for some R & R. I immediately asked for a Furlough. My C.O. said but you are in training for Overseas, I said this was more important, I had been waiting for 5 years for him to come back, so she gave me a 2 week furlough. We did get married Nov. 29.1944. I and a lot of us women vets agree with your way of thinking. There are some things they allow the women to do nowadays, that we do not approve. I think a pregnant woman in uniform looks awful. I had to be discharged six months after I was married because I was pregnant, and I feel that is the way it should be. I had a female Officer speak at one of our Conventions who was a pilot of the 135 that re-fueled planes in the air. She said she had twins at home six months old. Both she and her husband were pilots and her mother took care of the children while they were gone. She said you lead two lives at the same time. I asked her did she think about what would happen to the children if both of them were killed while serving their Country. She said that is the risk they agreed to take. I know the younger generation thinks a lot differently than we oldsters do, and that is their privilege. In a way I admire them for it. If they are qualified -- why not! You will never get some of the men used to Women being in Uniform and we have even had a book written about us and how much damage we did in WWII. That is one man's opinion. We have had twice as many written thanking us that makes up for the hurt. We have 5 WAC Vet Chapters in Arizona and I am going to try and get them interested in the SFTT. I hope I didn't bore you as I did my fellow barracks mates when they would say "TELL US ABOUT THE PISTONS KEIM'. My maiden name was Thelma B.Keim. I am proud that I was able to serve my Country and did so with my family's approval and admiration. My Mom had had three stars hanging in her front window. My two brothers and me. I still have that flag. ============================================================== ARTICLE 7 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And.more on Perfumed Princes and lowered Standards ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ed.: What's going on in the Intel community? Guys with top-secret clearances cheat on tests, NCO's are forced to accommodate duds and Perfumed Princes celebrate themselves with lavish parades. Well, maybe we haven't seen it all yet! I heard that most posts are celebrating changes of responsibility for senior NCO's now as much as they are doing changes of command for officer-type commanders. Someone should check on the cost for all these shows. **************************************************************************** By SFC O'Leary, US Army I have been following SFTT for several years now and am an avid supporter. I am an instructor at a base in Texas. We teach languages to AIT and other soldiers. For the past two years I have witnessed the dumbing-down of my MOS and training in general. All standards are for show only. We are mandated to achieve 0% attrition. To be a student here you must hold a TS/SI clearance, which apparently means nothing. At least twice students were caught cheating on a test, but because of our "0% Attrition" policy these soldiers were allowed to keep their clearances, even after having proved that they are not worthy of trust. AITers that fail their record physical fitness test are continually sent on with their MOS awarded them, even though AR350-6 states that they must pass this test (once again 0% attrition). The NCOs working and instructing here are some of the best I have seen, but morale is low when we are not able to enforce the standards. The final straw came at our Battalion Change of Command. I was here for the last COC and we did it on the parade field here on our base and paid the proper respects to our outgoing Lieutenant Colonel. But this time our outgoing Lieutenant Colonel had to have a huge ceremony at an old cavalry post. They brought a band from Ft Bliss to play while he rode up and down on horseback! Don't get me wrong, I believe in the COC ceremony, but not at this expense. I have been to Division changes with less fanfare. The figure I got put the ceremony somewhere in the $40,000 range (but am not completely sure of the accuracy of that figure). In a day and age when we have no money or funds (we can't even get required language training because Ft Huachuca-is out of money) this seems unseemly, if not abusive. There are many more instances of things like this going on here, despite the best efforts of the NCOs to shore it up. Many Instructors are hanging it up and are going civilian, even with 12-15 years of service under their belt. Wanted to thank SFTT for your support, it helps to know that we have a voice. ============================================================ *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! ****************************************************************************** ******************* A vote for Bush or Gore is a vote to continue Clinton policies! 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