Say Anything Blog

When I was an Army officer, we had people desert.  Typically, it was because the Army wasn’t what they thought it would be.  When we got ready to deploy to then-Desert-Shield, we had some soldiers whine about it, but everyone went with their units.

The lawyer’s statement is what this is all about.  They are prepping their defense for the courts-martial.  It doesn’t matter that desertions are down.  It only matters that they have a really good excuse.

Steve,

   Glad to see another GI on here.  We had about a 98% show up rate for Gulf War in 1991.  That was the Guard overall.  I am not aware of a single desertion in our unit of over 1,000 since 9/11/01.  In fact we had people show up for duty and not even expecting pay!   This is another attempt by the liberal press to paint the military as a bad place.  Sure, there may be a few that were mis-led by a recruiter.  There even was one female Marine who said something like, "I didn’t think I would actually have to use my rifle"!

Desertion is a constant in any military, the causes are as varied as the soldiers in that military. Very often desertion is tied to problems in personal life, wife/girlfriend trouble, problems occuring at home, alcohol/drug abuse. A troop may feel that CoC is not addressing issues which he feels very strongly about, perhaps friction between himself and other troops or superiors. Ideology rarely enters into the issue. Conscientious Objectors rarely desert, some do yes, most don’t. The very fact they stand and declare themselves C.O. shows they have higher morals than to just skip out. The desertion meme keeps popping up every couple of months, just like the enlistment numbers. Once the story gets vetted by the public it submerges again, just as this version will.

No one I served with ever deserted.  No one I served with ever even threatened to desert.

But then, The USA Today isn’t so much a newspaper as a colorful distraction at hotels.  (has ANYONE ever purchased a USA Today?) 

I have purchased USA Today, Rick...when I was staying at a hotel and wanted to be distracted.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

USAToday is NBCNews in print, with cutesy fluff crap added to bulk it out.

Doc, you must stay at classier places than I do.

2H9, sure its fluff...but it sure is pretty! 

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

You miss the point

USA TODAY is not and never has been a real newspaper.

Thank God For Blogs! (and Drudge and Rob). 

Sorry, no newsprint fan here. 

There even was one female Marine who said something like, "I didn’t think I would actually have to use my rifle"!

I was an artillery brigade adjutant when we deployed.  I had a female clerk who got pregnant while we were deployed.  She kept it a secret because she didn’t want to use it as an excuse to be sent home.  She only came forward when we were ordered to begin taking nerve agent pre-treatment pills just prior to the shooting started.  She was oncerned about the effects they would have on the baby.  She was heart-broken that she had let her fellow soldiers down.

You have to give credit to Bill Nichols, the reporter who wrote the article. The contortions he went thru in order to get that liberal bias into that article must have been painful.