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Peace at any cost is a prelude to war!
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********** VOICE OF THE GRUNT
********** HAPPY THANKSGIVING
********** 24 November 1999
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TABLE OF CONTENTS ARTICLES
Hack's Column
A Thanks To The Ranks 1
Mac Notes 2
>From The Field:
It Takes A Village To Raise An Army 3
Set A Real Career Path 4
Just Another Burden For The Taxpayer 5
An Ill-mannered Childish Bunch 6
Medal of Honor: 7
*MARTINI, GARY W.
PFC, USMC, Co. F, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st MarDiv,
Binh Son, RVN, 21 April 1967.
Commentary:
An Admiral's Day On The Firing Line 8
*Indicates a posthumous award
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ARTICLE 1
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"A THANKS TO THE RANKS"
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BY DAVID H. HACKWORTH, 23 November 1999
I've been on the road for the past month promoting my new book, "The Price
of Honor." Visited 10 military bases and 20 cities. Reckon I talked to more
than 20,000 military folks -- active and retired -- and a bunch of civilians.
A book tour is worse than combat except no one's shooting bullets. The
tours are planned as marathons, as an extreme sport in which the authors
participating aren't allowed sleep, food or attention to other bodily
functions. I averaged four hours' sleep nightly during the tour. It was all
go, go, go. But at least I got through it, and "The Price of Honor" made it
onto the Los Angeles Times Bestsellers list.
I'm convinced that without Army training, where shaving, showering and
out-of-there is a 10-minute drill, I'd never have survived.
On the plus side are the wonderful folks I met along the way. New friends
and a lot of old pals stretching back to Italy, Korea and Vietnam.
Most shared their concern about where our country is going, especially the
good people who make up the bottom rung of our armed forces. They're really
feeling down these days. Many don't have faith in their senior leaders.
They think most are totally out of touch with them and don't have the moral
courage to sound off about the way things really are. Hundreds of senior
NCOs and junior officers with 10 to 15 years service said they weren't
sticking around for their gold watches.
At Fort Bragg, N.C., the home of our Special Forces, the book-signing line
was heavy with women. Dozens of Army wives told me that during the seven
years of Clinton's military misadventures, their men have been constantly
away on missions. "He comes home from Kuwait, kisses me, pats the kids on
the head, drops off his laundry and is off to Kosovo," explained one
frustrated wife. Almost the identical words were spoken by Air Force wives
in San Antonio and Navy and Marine wives in San Diego.
Doing too much with too little works only if the mission's critical and
our nation's imperiled. But not for Globo-Robo-Cop exercises in futility at
hot spots around the world that in no way have anything to do with our
national security.
Sixty-five percent of the force is married, and I can tell you the
military wife is unhappy. When Mommy isn't smiling, you can expect there's
a lot of pressure coming down about changing jobs. Particularly when
outside that base gate, things are booming and life's easy compared with a
frantically overcommitted military establishment whose medical services and
living quarters approach Third World standards.
The mandatory requirement to take Anthrax shots is another major morale
beater. Many warriors simply don't trust this inoculation designed to
prevent mass casualties during a germ attack. Literally thousands are
choosing to walk rather than risk the suspected side effects.
The force-feeding of women into combat slots and the morphing of the
military into a feel-good organization where political correctness is more
important than combat effectiveness are also still taking their toll. A
senior sergeant at Fort Drum, N.Y., told me there were 142 pregnant
soldiers in his unit who couldn't deploy. No wonder the Army's head man
recently declared this division unfit to fight! Yet to stand tall in the
military against women on the front lines or in maternity wards remains an
absolute career killer.
Then there's the January pay raise that the lower rankers say won't ease
their pain. The fact that sergeants will be getting a mere 10 bucks more a
month while a four-star somehow merits an additional 10 grand a year isn't
exactly winning hearts and minds. A wife at Fort Bliss said, "The brass
only look after themselves."
As we enjoy our bounty this Thanksgiving, hundreds of thousands of fine
men and women will be separated from their families at distant posts in
grim places like Korea, Kosovo and Kuwait. We should make a point of giving
thanks to these extraordinary men and women by asking our legislators to
dig into their concerns. This is our absolute obligation to those whose
service and sacrifice allow us to continue enjoying the fruits of our land
of opportunity and the freedom too many of us take for granted.
Keep Five yards……
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ARTICLE 2
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******MAC NOTES******
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Robert L. McMahon, 24 November 1999
It appears the word is out in force to be a volunteer for our Newsletter!
Our NBC "Staff" is growing rapidly so if you have some hard questions on
NBC issues, fire off a note to one of our new NBC Staff. If there are any
of you out there who would like to be volunteer but are worried because
you're still on active duty and want to remain anonymous, please get an
a.k.a. ID or e-mail address from a place like yahoo, hotmail or AOL.
Not only has the response to Hack's "Private Flake" piece been
overwhelming, but a great many of the responses are coming from women
serving and AGREEING with his comments. Hack isn't against women in the U.S.
Military, not at all. He's against the military collapsing in the face of
some of the dumbest social experiments and politically motivated
witch-hunting since Joe McCarthy.
Our enemies simply do not have this problem. The North Korean Army doesn't
have to worry about troop availability and pregnancy, unit strength numbers
and family concerns or a more egalitarian military regimen. Do you think
the Russian Army, the Serbs, Kosovars or North Korean troops have stress
cards in basic? Do you think that they train only when the weather is good?
There used to be a saying in the USMC that went, "If it ain't rainin', we
ain't trainin'!" Hope that's at least still true.
And I do know that the "Private Flakes" these days are not limited to
female recruits. Even when I went through "basic" back in 1983, there were
several "boot Marines" I ran across in I.T.S. that made me wonder if we had
been through the same "recruit training."
You see, males, such as the above example, were supposed to be "weeded"
out by the time our Recruit Platoon took off for the rifle range -- by the
fifth week. You had one week of "Receiving," one week of "Forming," two
weeks of "High Stress" and one week of "Initial Testing" (SDI Inspection,
Drill, Knowledge, and PT).
If a Platoon started out with 76 knuckleheads, by week five the Marine
Corps process had turned this into a more manageable number of 60. We lost
21% of those who thought they wanted an Eagle, Globe and Anchor by week
five. By graduation the count had dropped to 44. Granted, some were lost to
broken bones, failed urine tests, pneumonia (I was dropped initially for
this and stayed down there for four and half months), rashes, bug bites,
etc… However, they were in the later losses column -- that 60 to 44 drop
off. As the saying went, at least these were guys who made it off the beach.
The metaphor of "the beach" is a good one too. When that ramp goes down
and it's a "hostile shore" everything that came before means absolutely
"diddly." If the military is not the place for you, the last place you
should be testing yourself is under a hail of lead where the people around
you are looking to depend on your being there. Your desire, your will, your
heart for the task had better be put through some stress before you're sent
to take a beach.
Recruit training is supposed to be part of this process. If today's
recruit training has generally slackened off, God help the unit that finds
itself called into combat near term. I would be looking at the Troop,
Sailor, Airman or Marine next to me and wondering if they're here because
they want to be, because they believe the way that I do or, are they only
here for a "paycheck and benefits." Please, let's not kid ourselves about
this.
If any of you want another good book to read (after you finish Hack's "The
Price of Honor") I would like to suggest Nicholas Warr's PHASE LINE GREEN:
The Battle of Hue 1968. It's one of the most emotional Vietnam memoirs I've
read and a grunt's book to boot. Mr. Warr was a platoon commander in
Charlie 1/5 from 1967 to 1968. His story recounts his Company's retaking of
the Imperial City and the Citadel in particular from several dug-in NVA
regiments.
Don't bunch up, have a good week and a Happy Thanksgiving!
Semper Fi,
Bob
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.freeyellow.com:8080/members7/rlmcmahon/
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ARTICLE 3
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IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE AN ARMY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By James Masters
I read your column about female soldiers with interest. You may, or not,
know that around two, two 1/2 years ago the services received recruiting
directives that allowed single parents, mainly female, to be priority
enlistment's. Officers such as I, raised to question such a policy were
ignored.
I deal mainly with reserve/guard enlisted recruiting. I've reviewed the
"family care plans" for these single soldiers with the full knowledge that
we are enlisting a soldier who at anytime can jump deployments due to
parenthood and the unit commanders are powerless to stop it.
I found it odd that this directive came out after the September rally held
by Mrs. Clinton honoring single parents, mainly female.
============================================
~~> more articles in Part B ~~>
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