Check Your Priorities

Posted on June 11, 2012 by psessum

By: Peter Sessum

Not only was the national government wasting time on this months later, but this is still in the courts just a few months ago. Don’t people have better things to worry about?

So there I was, in Afghanistan, no shit. I was standing in the terminal at Bagram Airfield waiting to fly to Khowst Province. I had a M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) slung across my front, a rifle on my back and a pistol strapped to my thigh. I had enough bullets and bang to warrant a visit from the ATF.

I was heading with a three man PSYOP team to a firebase not far from the Pakistan border. There had not been any PSYOP support at the base so we would be starting from scratch. Never a good place to be. Because of the tactics, I still consider it my most dangerous time in country. I didn’t know that standing in the terminal; it was one big question mark.

The television was playing AFN news. They were talking about senate hearing about the Superbowl wardrobe malfunction. My first thought, and the one that sticks with me was, “This happened a month ago. People are still talking about it?”

I admit, I was pretty pissed. I was standing there in Afghanistan and the decision makers in my government thought the best use of their time was to conduct hearings about Janet Jackson’s boob. As a man, I like boobs as much as the next guy but there comes a time when you have to go back to work no matter how epic they are.

This is a good example of the disconnect between military members and the civilian population. Civilians have the luxury to care about things that absolutely do not matter in the grand scheme of things. More importantly, some civilians actually judge people on how much they care about shit that frankly does not matter.

I do not consider celebrities to be real people. They don’t live in a real world. I know for fact that I would go to jail if I had a DUI or had a few ounces of cocaine on me. And I would not go to 90 minute celebrity jail with an hour off for good behavior or be under house arrest in my mansion. I would go to real jail. So I don’t waste my brain cells caring about celebrities. However, I used to work with a woman that not only cared about them, she wanted to talk about them all the fucking time.

Her name was Becky and she loved to read about celebrities. I think the thickest thing she read was a people magazine special edition. It wasn’t news if it wasn’t about a star. Not only did she blather on Britney Spears, but she delighted in the fact that Spears was going through a tough time. Becky actually felt better about herself when bad things happened to famous people. The worst part is that she looked down on me because I didn’t care about what celebrities were doing.

At the time I was only a few months out of working counter-narcotics in Afghanistan. I just wanted a nice quiet job where lives were not on the line every second. A few months prior, I had made a decision that had I been wrong, I would have gotten 1,000 people killed. They followed my recommendation based solely on a cell phone call from me. I went from talking to ISAF S2 to talking to people who got their info from weekly celebrity magazines.

Before talking to vets, check your priorities. If your “hero” is someone that regularly trashes a hotel room that costs more than a new Marine makes in a year you might want to be quiet. If your heroes refuse to go onstage for fans that paid good money until they get the right color of M&Ms or start a concert late just to have a hissy fit, please do not talk to me. People who make millions of dollars should not whine about stupid shit.

My heroes are sitting on a hill in Afghanistan waiting for the next rocket attack. My here is the guy in Kosovo that is going to miss the birth of his first child to do a job for less than the guy that separates out M&Ms. My hero is the woman that is missing her baby’s first steps from half a world away. Right now there is a guy in an Army medical center that was just told he won’t walk again and he is thinking “fuck you, yes I will” while politely nodding to the doctor who is also a Colonel. That young soldier is a better man than most and so is the man who has to look at a man who isn’t old enough to drink and tell him that he will never walk again but will still help that young soldier try.

I all for the First Amendment and how you have the right to express yourself any way you want, even if that means only caring about what Lindsey Lohan is doing. But the members of congress and the president with all his cabinet people need to seriously pull their heads out of their fourth point of contact and get some real work done. When our government is come concerned about Janet Jackson’s boob that either supporting the war effort or getting us the hell out of there then we have a real problem. And if it takes a soldier to tell you that, we are in deeper trouble than I thought.

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America’s Got Liars

Posted on June 6, 2012 by psessum

By: Peter Sessum

On Monday, a person got on stage of America’s got talent and told a sob story about how he survived an RPG attack in Afghanistan and was worried that he would not live to see his kids grow up. Because of his injuries he stutters but when he sings, the stutter disappears. It was moving and touching. People in the audience cried and he moved on to the next stage. After the episode aired, the story came out that he had lied about his service.

My initial response? Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me? This is why we can’t have nice things, because of stuff like this. It is because of things like this that you have to pay attention when someone tells a story about their military service.

Tim Poe, the Minnesota National Guard member that lied about his service on America’s Got Talent is not alone. He is part of a culture that dishonors the military and people that legitimately serve, get injured or earn honors. Like others, Poe has a history of lying about his service and awards. Unlike most, he went on national television and talked about it.

People that lie about their service are pathological liars. The problem with telling tall tales, and I have heard some good ones, is that they have to grow. They always start out in truth, but at some point, the starts to change. Sometimes is it because the truth is embarrassing. Sometimes it is because the attention starts wane and the person is addicted to the attention. Either by intention or situation, the story gets out of control.

Poe’s lies are extreme, but not any greater than what so many other people out there are saying. There are some very wrong things going on in his head to tell some of the lies that he has told. I can’t even imagine why he would even say that he was in the military for 14 years when he only served from 2002-2011. Maybe he was so cool that some of his years counted for double.

At a Defenders of Freedom golf event, Poe lied about having a Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Combat Infantry Badge (CIB), two tours to Iraq and two to Afghanistan. Poe added the extra tour to Afghanistan, the Iraq tours and the extra medal because he felt out of place with what medals he had. Some people think that their service isn’t “real” because they were not in combat or in a combat job. I will say that as long as you did your duty with honor and integrity, it counts and it was important.

There is a guy that always introduces me as an Iraq vet. Each and every time I correct him. Part of it is because I don’t want to mislead anyone, but also because I think my time in Afghanistan is enough to be proud of. Guys like Poe don’t feel the same about their time. They think it will sound cooler if they say they were in Iraq and what is the big deal?

Reports are coming in that Poe’s ONE tour to Afghanistan lasted only 32 days. It is said that he hurt himself falling out of a truck his first few weeks in country. On US Army W.T.F. Moments Facebook page a person claiming to be from his unit says that Poe was sent home because of an ear infection. When he got home I doubt that he was rushing to tell everyone that he tripped while getting out of a humvee. When everyone kows you have deployed and you come back in a back brace, you better have a good story. What sounds better than “I fell” how about “I almost got blown up saving lives.”

Of course, since he told stories about being on patrol, it will sound better if he says he was Infantry. Keep in mind, in the National Guard, soldiers are not collocated. Poe might live hours away from other members of his unit so no matter what he says in the bar, none of it might make it to the ears of people who know the truth.

What every real soldier knows that POGs always seem to forget is that the success of the military is because of the team. That means everyone. I know that sitting in a supply office or behind a fuel truck sucks. But I appreciate the troops that do those jobs well so that other people more cool than me can go out and do what they do. Without chopper mechanics, Intel weenies, armorers, fuel jockeys and a whole host of other people, Osama bin Laden would still be watching old reruns of Power Rangers, Friends or whatever in Pakistan.

Pop quiz, which is the more hardcore trooper?
#1 “I was in the Marines. I deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Thunder, Operation lightning as a machine gunner.”
#2. “I spent some time in the Army.”

If you said number one, you were picking up a big fat POG on your grunt radar. This is the kind of stuff I hear all the time. First, “machine gunner” is not an MOS or military job. It is a position in the squad. Saying you are a machine gunner is like saying you have the keys to the executive bathroom. You want people to think that you are one of the corporate executives but really you are the guy that cleans the toilets.

Every platoon in the Army has vehicles and crew served weapons. Saying “I am a machine gunner” could mean a hardcore Infantry soldier that carries a machine gun on foot patrols and hunts bad guys, or it could mean a cook that is issued a machine gun and has to carry it to and from the chowhall every meal on deployment.

Next, Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) was the overall mission in Iraq. Everyone that deployed to Iraq was part of OIF. Operation Thunder and Lightning are specific missions within the deployment. Keep in mind, when the Marines do anything they call it operation something. So they may go one a two week mission, come back and head out on another week-long mission and call it something else. All on the same deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Another important point is that everyone, even the support people can say they are part of Operation Whogivesashit. So the troop that loads MREs in a chooper to be flown to the guys in the field can say he supported Operation Chowtime. This hardcore machine gunner Marine was not a grunt, he was a jet mechanic. Pilots do not sleep on the ground. And Jets do not sit on the dirt strip of a FOB in the middle of nowhere. Jet mechanics do not go on foot patrols and kick down doors.

The guy who says, “I spent some time in the Army,” most likely has some skills. That is what the Special Forces guy in the corner is going to say. He is going to let everyone else POG out and tell bullshit stories while he quietly sip his beer.

So how can you tell if someone is full of crap? It is actually pretty easy. Vets will talk about everything with people they know, but close hold most information around strangers. If someone brags about having PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) or number of kills, they are attention whores. If they have cool stories but never tell you what their actual job is, they are full of crap. I know a cook that was allowed to ride in the turret for one convoy in Bosnia. He wore the dust goggles on his helmet for the rest of the tour.

If you are impressed at the first meeting of a trooper, they might be full of crap. If they insert themselves into as many events, organizations and causes as possible, they might be full of it. I knew a former Infantry soldier that was a complete attention whore. He wanted to be in as many interviews and talk to as many people as possible. The problem was that he was not very good at doing the job; he just wanted to look cool.

When interviewed, he claimed to be the veteran club president, and even kept it as his email signature even though he had long since passed on the responsibility. When it was confirmed that he was lying, he changed his signature to be with another student veteran organization. One that he didn’t do anything to help veterans, just wanted to be able to say he had a cool position.

You can tell when someone is hardcore when other people have to brag for him. Or, you earn his or her trust and they tell you some of what they have seen and done. But if you ever come across someone claiming to be something they are not, be sure to call them out. Just be careful how you do it. I still laugh about the time a woman asked me if I was a POG. I was polite and only laughed, if anyone else asked, I would most likely tell them to fuck off. I have earned my grunt status.

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Celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander Month By Recognizing True American Heroes

Posted on May 18, 2012 by psessum

By: Peter Sessum

CPT Young Oak Kim being awarded Silver Star by General Mark Clark. His other medals include the Distinguished Service Cross, and other Silver Star, 2 Legion of Merit, 2 Bronze Stars, 3 Purple Hearts, Légion d’honneur, Croix de guerre (which was upgraded in 2005 to France’s highest military honor French Legion of Valor and Taeguk Cordon of the Order of Military Merit (Korea).

When most people think of the “Greatest Generation” they picture a platoon of fresh faced, corn-fed farm boys from the Midwest and one wise cracking kid from Brooklyn. It is the movie stereotype of the WWII American fighting man. For some reason it is always Brooklyn. Rarely do people think of a platoon of Japanese Americans.

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month and the Dog Tag Chronicles is going to take some time to recognize some of our greatest Americans. The Nisei Veteran, the second generation American citizens that fought for their country while many of their families were imprisoned back home.

Disclaimer: There has been a lot written about the Nisei vets from a historical perspective. Here at the Dog Tag Chronicles (DTC) we write from the veteran perspective. While most of the posts by Sessum are written in a particular style, this will have more military vernacular aka grunt-speak. You have been warned.

The Nisei vets are among the best examples of American citizens for three distinct reasons. Their entrance to service, their service overseas and their post war activities.

Signing up
The Niseis are shining examples of American patriotism during some of America’s darkest days. Or at least some of the darkest days of government policy. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps. American citizens, born and raised in America, were imprisoned in camps. In the camps men were asked two questions. Are you loyal to America? Would you fight for the country?

Answer “no, no” you were sent off to another camp because you were high risk. If you answered “yes, no” you would stay in the camp. I would not blame anyone for either set of answers. It would be easy to be angry at your government that put you in jail because of where your parents came from. I think it takes character of high caliber to stay true to a country that oppresses you and I understand not wanting to fight. There are a lot of current Americans that make the choice everyday not to fight for their country so there is nothing wrong with that.

To answer “yes, yes” is amazing. The government has taken everything, moved you and your family to the middle of nowhere to live in a prison camp and a man is still willing to fight for his country. There are no words for that. They might have all had different reasons, but they still volunteered to fight. When the call went out to recruit Japanese Americans, in some areas they came out in droves. In Hawaii, the place where America was attacked, 10,000 men volunteered.

The white officers in the basic training were given psychological training to be able to spot and weed out potential traitors or Japanese sympathizers. Like the Tuskegee Airmen, the Nisei soldiers knew that they had to work twice as hard to prove they were half as good. The officers would send messages to higher reporting on the men. The plan didn’t work out as expected. Instead of proving that the all Japanese American units would fail, they proved that these men were exceptional soldiers. Several earned the Soldier’s Medal for actions performed while still in training.

Going to war
While Japanese Americans served in other units, the Army had two all Nisei units, the 100th and the 442nd. The 442nd remains the most decorated unit in history. While their exploits are legendary, I would like to address two that illustrate the service of these fine men.

Lieutenant Young Oak Kim, was a Korean American assigned to the 100th during WWII. He was offered a chance to be reassigned for racial reasons because Korea was still under Japanese control but he declined reportedly saying “There is no Japanese nor Korean here. We’re all Americans and we’re fighting for the same cause.”

The Americans were concerned about a possible German tank battalion in the area that they were going to break through in German held Italy. Unfortunately, there were no prisoners to question. Kim said he would get a German prisoner.

Let’s break this down. A good plan would be to probe the enemy lines, find a weak spot, send in a squad under the cover of darkness while evading patrols, subdue an enemy soldier and get him back to friendly lines without being compromised. It is, in a word, stupid. But Kim is not stupid.

So he takes a private (which in the Army is like letting the clueless lead the useless) and sneaks under the cover of daylight. Yes, they crept across enemy lines in the daytime because he figured that most of the soldiers we awake at night looking for American patrols. The low crawled across a wheat field and cut through the wire. Kim thought (correctly) that no one would be looking inside the perimeter, instead that they would be looking outside for people trying to come in. Even so, once he was inside the wire, they waited in a ditch until they heard snoring.

Two German soldiers woke up with barrels in their mouths, disarmed and made to low crawl back into American territory. His plan was crazy and awesome enough to work. Murphy’s Law of Combat states, “If it is stupid and works it isn’t stupid.” The intel gathered from the Germans let the Americans know that there was no tank battalion waiting for them and the attack could proceed.

When a General was pinning the Distinguished Service Cross onto Kim he realized that just a few weeks earlier he had been pinned a Silver Star onto the same man. The general called over his aide, took off the man’s captain bars and promoted Kim on the spot. Captain Kim was the ONLY Korean-American to receive the Distinguished Service Cross in World War II. He would later fight in Korea eventually earning the rank of Colonel.

Another story of Nisei awesomeness is the taking of the Gothic Line. Built with forced labor by 15,000 Italians it was a series of bunkers and fighting positions along a ridgeline in the Italian Alps. The Germans had held it for five months when the 442nd and 100th arrived on scene.

They spent eight hours sneaking up 3,000 feet of shale covered mountains with 70 lb packs. Noise and light discipline was in full effect (that means no talking to you civilians.) Men slipped and were injured without making a sound. At least one man (I have conflicting reports) fell 300 feet to his death without making a sound.

This is epitome of hardcore. Normally, slipping and falling gets an involuntary “Shit!” But falling 300 feet? That takes some time. I don’t have the words to describe a man that will fall, knowing he is going to die and have the presence of mind to keep silent so that the rest of the unit can succeed.

After spending all night to get into position, they initiate the attack at 0500. These men must have been exhausted and sleep deprived. They were taking on a force that had kept the might of the American Army at bay for months. Just the fact that they were attacking is a amazing. And keep in mind Murphy’s Law of Combat “No plan survives the first contact intact.” That means, no matter how well you plan something, everything goes to shit when someone pops a can of firefight.

The Gothic Line that had been built over nine months using slave labor and repelled the Americans for five months fell in 32 minutes. With every law of tactics working against them, they broke the line in about the same amount of time it takes to watch a sitcom.

Post war Nisei
Their heroics are amazing, and the men were well decorated for their exploits. Yet they still returned to a country that still didn’t fully like them. My grandfather is still mad at the Japanese for Pearl Harbor, and he didn’t even fight in the war. He just can’t forgive the country so you can only imagine what it was like for men returning from war.

With their families released from prison camps, these men went back to work repairing their lives. Not just talking about the veterans now, but everyone affected by the internment had to rebuild their lives in the country that they were born in. And they still raised good, patriotic American citizens. With every right to be angry, the men and women that had survived extreme oppression by their own government went on to be hard working American citizens and raised hard working American citizens. And patriots too, some even competed in the Olympics for America.

While the rest of the country takes this month to recognize the contribution of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, DTC will be reflecting on the contribution of our fellow warriors in the AA/API community. The Nisei veterans are real heroes and one of the reasons why we call WWII veterans the greatest generation.

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Life Was Better When You Could Punch Someone

Posted on May 14, 2012 by psessum

By: Peter Sessum

I am not an advocate of freeform or random violence, however, things were better when you could punch someone in the face without getting fired or going to jail. Of course you couldn’t just hit anyone; that would be wrong. But there was a time when you could punch a bully. After all, that is the only thing that a bully understands.

Remember the phrase, “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” Now think back, when was the last time you heard it? It has been a long time hasn’t it? That question was always rhetorical. Not because you are not supposed to answer it but because if you came upon a bully pounding on a smaller kid he never verbalized his answer. Bullies never picked on someone their own size because someone their own size could beat them up.

Punch and consequences
If you came across someone being bullied, you could grab the bully and punch him. It was simple, the bully invoked the law of the jungle where the strong prey upon the weak and he is now subject to that law where someone stronger gets to beat him up. It has deep roots in Guy Code. While you are not defending yourself, you can use violence to defend others. Now, you go to jail. In the letter of the law since you are not in danger, you do not have a right to self defense. Or, since you had to approach the bully, you instigated the violence. And now you have a civil suit on your hands.

Knowing that your actions could get your punched in the face kept men in line. Mainly, it kept the weaker men in line. Without the threat of an ass whupping, the weak have come up with a new form of bullying. It is called “Little Brother Bullying.”

Little brother bully
Quite simply, it is anything that is annoying that you could punch your little brother for. The difference, is now you can’t punch anyone. Some guy keys your car, you want to kick his ass, but that is property damage, not damage to you so self defense is not in play. Even if you know that D-bag isn’t going to pay to fix it, you still can’t do anything. The law says you have to sue him for the property damage, you can’t touch him.

But the worst kind of little brother bullies are the ones who claim it is all in good fun. They harass other people and claim that they are just joking around. If the person gets upset, they are then ridiculed for being too sensitive. There is no escape.

Bully comparison
At the core, being bullied is being singled out for harassment that you do not have the power to stop. Where words or walking away won’t help and the bully does not care the damage or anguish he causes and in fact delights in it.

It is easy when it is a big kid sitting on a little kid’s chest saying, “Why are you hitting yourself, why are you hitting yourself?” If you ask the bully what is going on he would not say, “I am tormenting this kid because he is smaller.” He will almost without fail say, “just having some fun.”

That is exactly what the little brother bully will say. For a pop culture reference, Howie Mandel used to little brother bully Piers Morgan on the show America’s Got Talent. Mandel would relentlessly tease Morgan even to the point of disrupting the show. During breaks, he would move soda machines in front of Morgan’s dressing room door. He would delight in how much it bothered Morgan. When things would go too far, Mandel would tease Morgan for not being able to take a joke.

If Mandel would have thought that at any time Morgan could get up and slug him, the harassment would never have gone that far. But since he knew there was nothing Morgan could do, he kept going. On a day that Morgan was not there to judge, Mandel would forward acts that he knew were bad just so that Morgan would have to see them. Now he is pulling other people into his sick little game. How would you feel if you were being advanced in a competition just so that someone else could eliminate you on national television?

Sharon Osbourne was in on the torment as well. She would say nice things to Morgan and send pleasant tweets, but would egg on Mandel. Bullies often say they are friends of the ones they torment. They also don’t do well when the tables are turned. Take away Mandel’s hand sanitizer for a few minutes and see how he handles it.

Whether traditional or the new little brother type, bullies only understand one thing… a bigger bully. The tragedy is, when someone does get sick of a little brother bully, they will not have the skills to defend themselves.

Take it to the woodline
In the military, there are not too many little brother bullies. There are, however, plenty of bullies. It used to be that regardless of rank. You could invite someone into the woodline to settle your differences. It was a very, very rarely used tool to settle disputes and like Vegas, what happens in the woodlines stays in the woodline. Once the pair emerges, the dispute is over. Win or lose, you drop it. Often, the winner will gain respect for the loser for standing for what he believed.

Now, too many will hide behind rank to avoid the woodline ass kicking. In Panama, I invited another soldier into the woodline. We were the same level of position, but he outranked me in grade. He kept trying to push me around and finally I asked if he wanted to get off the truck and step into the woodline. But he was just a rank bully and declined even though I was giving up at least 20 pounds in the fight.

There will always be bullies. Until little brother bullying is recognized as a form of harassment, it will continue. This is why things were better when you could deck someone that deserved it. Not full on random violence, but just punch the guy that is going out of his way to tick you off and delights in it. If I were in his shoes I would have quit long before Morgan did. It is not worth going to jail for decking a douchebag on national TV.

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I Miss the Pig

Posted on May 11, 2012 by psessum

By: Peter Sessum

Sessum with his old M60 in Bosnia when he was a young man with an old school weapon.

When the going gets tough, the tough get cyclic. That is why you gotta love machine guns. A sniper rifle is like a surgeon’s scalpel, removing bad guys one at a time. A machine gun is like focused chaos. I know that the M240 might be easier to takedown and clean, but I love the M60.

I used to say it is like a good woman, it is best when oiled and a little dirty. (Give me a break; I was a grunt not a philosopher.) While it fired well clean, it fired even better after you put some round through it.

From a ground pounder’s perspective, a higher cyclic rate sucks. If a gun fires twice as fast means I have to carry twice the ammo. No matter if it is coming out the barrel at 500 or 950 rounds per minute, if a bad guy gets hit with a 7.62, he is taking a time out. That is why you still need good aim rather than just spray and pray.

Here are a couple of my favorite M60 memories.

So there I was, in Grafenwoehr, no shit. I had my M60 all dialed in and was at the qualification range. It is simple, one meter high targets out to I think 800 meters. This is how my run went.
I fired about three rounds and my squad leader reminded me. “Six to nine round bursts.”

The next target popped up and this time I fired two rounds. “Six to nine round bursts,” he reminded me.

The third target popped up. “Bang!”
SSG T. smacks the back of my helmet, “I SAID six to nine round bursts!”
“But the target is down,” I answered.
“Oh.”

I would stop firing when I would see I hit the target. Of course you are not supposed to try and snipe with a machine gun and iron sights. But what could I do? My sights were really dialed in. At the end of the qualification time the range safety officer asked who still had left over rounds. I was the only one who raised his hand. I must have had almost half a belt. They put all the targets up and let me have fun.

An open range, a bunch of green targets and a fully loaded machine gun. My inner 13-year-old boy was so happy. I was actually given one of my favorite orders. “Fire all remaining rounds.”

So there I was, at Fort Lewis, no shit. This was before it was Joint Base, it was just Lewis. I was at the range with my PSYOP unit. They had 10 pigs to take to the range. It was a night fire, which in grunt terms is “fun as fuck.”

Every fifth round on the ammunition belt is a tracer so the range looks like a bunch of supersonic, radioactive pissed off bees heading toward the targets. You can also see the ricochets better at night. Going to the range is fun, but cleaning the pig is a pain in the ass. Fortunately, this was just a fam fire, so I Jedi mind tricked my platoon sergeant into letting me not put my gun on the line. I immediately wrapped it in plastic to keep it clean and helped out on the range.

Once a unit draws live rounds, it is a pain to turn them in. Turning in spent brass is easy. So we were told to fire off the rounds. Proof that they are POGs, most of the unit did not want to shoot. Like a grunt, I was more than happy to blow off a few hundred rounds. Especially when I don’t have to clean the weapon.

I grabbed a soldier and brought him over to the ammo point. Throwing belt after belt over his shoulder I gave him very simple instructions. Just feed me smooth. We went to the firing line and linked the belts together. I easily had over 1,000 rounds in one long continuous belt.

If firing 50-75 rounds on a range in Germany was fun, this was like a gungasm. Yes, it was so awesome it needed a new word. I think this was the most fun I had shooting. And not having to clean it was the icing on the cake.

Not that they didn’t try. I went to turn in my weapon and the armorer tried the regular bullshit. He tried to say I didn’t clean my ’60 well. I told him he had two choices, take the unfired weapon and I would help other people clean their weapons, or I would sit on this clean one for a couple hours and do nothing. Then the other arms room guy said, “This guy was active duty Infantry.” They took my weapon without another word.

I know that the M240 is a better machine gun. It is easier to dissemble and more reliable but I just like the pig better. It isn’t about function or look, just one of those things. I am an old school guy I guess. And the pig is old school.

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Military Leadership Part 2: Officer v. Enlisted

Posted on May 8, 2012 by psessum

By: Peter Sessum

USMC enlisted and officer ranks. FYI a Lance Corporal does not outrank a 1st Lieutenant because he has been “promoted more times.”

If I were a human resources manager and had to fill two position in a corporation, one for CEO and one for a factory shift leader and only had to choose from an Army Staff Sergeant and a Major. Knowing nothing else about the two candidates, I would make the Major the CEO and the Sergeant the shift leader. The reason; generally, officers are better at the big picture and political side and NCOs are better at directly leading people. In a situation where there is only one position open of a middle manager/office manager, I would take the sergeant without hesitation.

This is not to say that enlisted soldiers are not good at big picture, but their careers are more about the people they lead and not as much jockeying for position. Each platoon sergeant in a company can work together, but the captains in a TOC will cut each other’s throats to get a better Officer Evaluation Report.

Relationship to subordinates
The terminology itself sets the tone of the relationship. The term “superior officer” is used when referring to an officer of higher rank. However, the higher ranking NCO is called the “senior sergeant.” The difference from superior to senior makes all the difference in the world. Superior means better, but I don’t know a single enlisted man that thinks officers are better people.

An enlisted soldier can spend his entire career side-by-side with troops. An E-8 (master sergeant) platoon sergeant would have day-to-day interactions with his soldiers. Once an officer makes 0-3 (captain) he is off to staff or command at the company and higher levels. He might not have any hands on leadership with anyone outside his staff. After a while, those troops stop being people and start being icons on a map.

Leadership approaches
Being an NCO means wearing multiple hats. You have to be a boss, big brother, friend and counselor. Being an officer at the lowest level means being a manager. The performance of an individual soldier will reflect on his first line supervisor, but it is the performance of the entire platoon that impacts the officer. Because of that, both officers and enlisted have different approaches to dealing with below average soldiers.

The last thing a good sergeant wants to do is kick a soldier out of the military. As long as they are not a catastrophic screw up, every attempt is made to help the soldier improve. This isn’t about making everyone clone troopers; it is about getting the best out of your soldiers. I have had poor performing soldiers and I know what it is like. When I had a soldier that could not pass a PT test I did everything I could for him. Including doing PT twice a day. I did every push up he did and ran every mile with him. I did not just stand on the sidelines and yell at him.

The performance of subordinates reflects on all leaders. Officers, however, lack daily personal contact so they look at overall performance. The response is to get rid of anyone that doesn’t meet the standard. For a sergeant it looks worse to get rid of a soldier than to help that soldier meet the standard. Unless, of course, that soldier is a catastrophic failure.

In civilian terms, you are in charge of 10 people. Three of them are not meeting projections. The officer response is to get rid of them. Then the numbers will show that everyone is meeting 100 percent projections. While that is less productivity than 10 total workers, it is about justifying the decision to higher.

The NCO approach would be different. An NCO would be tracking progress and know who was not going to make projection early. Instead of getting rid of lower performers, attempts would be made to increase their productivity. Retaining workers will lead to increased morale. Knowing you won’t be fired for one bad month/quarter/whatever will usually make workers pleased with their job and happy workers are productive workers. There is no one leadership style that works for everyone. Some people need to be pushed more and some need more freedom.

High morale in the workplace will not just affect the slackers, it will have an impact on the other workers too. Also, since workplace value is not just based on productivity, keeping someone who might not be producing as much can still add to the team. The old guy with a ton of experience can help mentor younger employees.

Written v. Verbal
This is the main difference between officers and enlisted leadership roles. Officers love to get it all on paper. Sergeants prefer to do everything verbally. Written corrections create a paper trail which is something sergeants try to prevent. Granted, an NCO’s verbal correction will most likely be accompanied by some pushups.

Three written incidents constitute a pattern. You can get rid of someone with a pattern of poor performance. In civilian terms, an employee is late, misfiles her TPS report and misses her quarterly projection goals. This shows a pattern of poor behavior and therefore she is terminated.

The NCO approach will involve a verbal counseling session. This includes listening to the reasons for being tardy. After that discussion, as long as the employee isn’t late again, the matter is dropped. When she screws up the TPS report, again, she is corrected and the matter is dropped. The NCO approach will also know that while she missed her quarterly numbers it is because she was new and needed more mentoring in the beginning but has been the top producer the last two months and was just shy of making up for the first few weeks. If you keep her around, she will be on pace to be the best worker ever.

Why This Matters
This is important because the other workers will see that anything can get you fired, even if you are good at your job. Three incidents over an 18 month period is not really a pattern of bad behavior if the rest of the time the soldier is stellar. What your people will learn is to just do what is necessary to not get fired. It is better to inspire your people to work hard because upper management will not fault you for having one person with low numbers if you have the best department in the company.

It isn’t really their fault. It is how officers are trained. They want to get everything on paper and that is what they trust. You have to convince them that you are not the dirt bag that the paper suggests. It is a leadership failure on the NCO is the soldier fails.

Knowing how the military leadership styles work will help work with veterans in the civilian world. Since most soldiers deal with NCOs, that is the better approach. If a vet makes a mistake, talk to them on how to fix it and then let it go. This is really important so I will say it again LET IT GO! Throwing a mistake back in their face months later will cause you to lose their respect. There are slackers in the military that need to be reminded over and over but the professional soldier just needs minor adjustments to excel at any job.

It is also important to note that this is a broad stroke look at leadership styles. This is how things work in large units like the Infantry. Sergeants in staff positions can be more political than other NCOs. Officers in jobs like Military Intelligence. Civil Affairs or Special Operations have different daily interactions with their troops than officers in combat arms and might have a more personal relationship.

Officers that used to be enlisted are generally accepted by troops to be the best officers. They know what it is like on the other side of the house and take care of their troops better than any other.

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The Inherent Racism of Star Trek

Posted on May 7, 2012 by psessum

By: Peter Sessum

Spock: It is only logical Captain, you are a racist. McMcoy: “Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor, not a Klansmen.” Admit it, you used the voices in your head.

When you say that Star Trek is racist, geeks around the world freak out. They want to point out the diversity in the Federation and lament on how a black woman was fifth in command of the Enterprise in the original series. How can it be racist?

It isn’t the Federation that makes Star Trek racist; it is how the rest of the universe is perceived. The Federation is diverse and open, but every other race is exactly the same. Humans can be whatever they want, adventurers, scientists, farmers or whatever tickles their fancy. Every Klingon is a warrior. A Klingon scientist is rejected by their society and seen as lesser. A human scientist is regarded as an expert in their field, a Klingon scientist is viewed with suspicion and treated like a powder keg waiting to explode because his or her Klingon instincts cannot be controlled for long.

So Klingons are obviously darkies. Full of passion and angry and warlike. Vulcans are the Japanese, all logical and unemotional. Until Pon Far, and then all the repression explodes in a fury of passion. Romulans are the Chinese (Yeah, think about it) and are believed to have shared ancestry with Vulcans. How racist is that? Or course they would think that all Asians are alike. How can people in two different parts of space share roots? To travel to distant planets requires a certain level of technology, so wouldn’t they have some form of records to say that they seeded two different planets? That would not make them Vulcans and Romunalns, they would be whatever it was that they came from. You would think the anal retentive Vulcans would have kept those records.

I am sure you can figure out who some of the other races are. Short, big nose, only care about money, that is the Ferengi. They will do anything for money and if a Ferengi wants to do anything that doesn’t make a lot of money, they are an outcast. Yeah, that isn’t offensive at all.

Why is this on a veterans website? Two reasons. First, this is the shit we talk about on those long nights on guard shift or on downtime during missions. Despite the perception, not all soldiers are hard charging killers. There are plenty of geeks and nerds. Sure, they can shoot you from 1,000 yards away, but they are still geeks at heart. I have had better conversations discussing possibilities of faster than light travel with military members than with civilians.

The other reason why this is here is because that is how we as Americans view the world. Americans are individuals, but everyone else is all the same. An American goes on a shooting spree and we are quick to point out that is the actions of an individual, but hear about a suicide bomber and the reaction is, “They are all like that.” This is evident in Star Trek when a rogue captain goes into the Neutral Zone, the Enterprise will say that there is no call for war, it is the actions of one man. But let a Romulan ship skirt too close to the Neutral Zone and suddenly it is an act of war.

Americans support the profiling of Arabs, Afghans and Muslims in general with the idea that while not all Muslims are suicide bombers, all suicide bombers are Muslims. Tell the same person that not all white Christians are members of the KKK but all members of the KKK are white Christians and they will be offended. Start treating all white Christians as racists and they will get pissed.

After my first deployment to Afghanistan I sat down with three individuals that would describe themselves as informed, educated and best, left leaning. I heard things like, “They don’t want us there.”

Really? I had to ask how many Afghans they had met and talked to. You can find people in Montana that don’t want the government to tax them can you say about all Americans “They hate the government.” The Afghans did some major damage to the Soviets, the fact that I am alive is proof that not ALL Afghans don’t want us in their country. I have been face-to-face with literally over a thousand Afghans, just in tribal diversity alone there is no one “They” when talking about Afghans.

Of course you won’t see that by sitting on the couch watching television. And it would be difficult have a deeper understanding of the rich culture and diversity of Afghanistan when the country is viewed from behind a gun sight. I admit my perspective is different because my job was to build rapport and to understand the people and culture. I left the conversation laughing about how my year drinking tea with the locals was somehow equal to one person watching a two-hour special on TV.

Putting large numbers of people into a single category is not only a disservice to the people, but can also lead to critical mistakes. Treat an enemy too friendly and they can get close enough to stab you in the back. Treat an ally like an enemy and you will destroy trust and cost a good relationship.

This is where you can take your Mom’s advice and treat everyone the way you want to be treated. You would not want to be treated based on a negative previous experience with Americans. A little cultural awareness goes a long way toward making friends. If you build that rapport, give them your respect. If someone still insists on being a bad guy, give them your bullets. It may be cultural awareness, but it is still a fucking combat zone. You still have an obligation to try and get home alive.

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The Culinary Arts in Bosnia

Posted on May 3, 2012 by psessum

By: Peter Sessum

Fajita night on Mt Vis with a very young Sessum.


So there I was, in Bosnia, no shit. I was part of the second rotation into Bosnia to enforce the Dayton Peace Accord. Things in country were still a little hairy. We were on a little hilltop about 20 kilometers from Tuzla with about 50 people. Only a handful of us were grunts.

A few times we had to react to a sensor going off or flares popping in the wire but nothing serious. There had been reports of people sneaking on the camp to steal food and fuel, but that didn’t happen once we got there.

Overall the food was decent, but after a while you wanted something different. Being such a small camp, the chow hall hours were fixed and if your missed dinner, you had to take matters into your own hands. With guard shifts 24 hours a day, sleep schedules might conflict with meal times.

We had limited resources, but problem solving made the time go by. My mother sent me an air popper and popcorn kernels. Unfortunately, the voltage was all wrong. Even the transformers got it 10 volt shy of what we needed. All it would do was swirl hot air. Great for drying out boots, but not so good for popping popcorn.

We had a big box of aluminum foil that someone had “liberated” from the chow hall. First we added some butter and made makeshift jiffy pop bubbles for cooking it over the kerosene heaters. Then we started taking the tin cookie containers people sent from home, poking holes in the top and using that. We went through a two pound bag of popcorn pretty quickly.

Sometimes we would raid the chow hall for ingredients to see what we could find. Personally I liked fajita night. We would slice up steak, heat up tortillas and throw on some cheese. I know that a kerosene heater covered in foil does not make the idea cooking surface, but we had to improvise.

On a side note: My mother does not like the story of the popcorn popper. She felt bad that she sent something we couldn’t use. I thought it was great because trying to figure out how to make all the popcorn helped keep us sane. And when you are trapped in a tent with seven other people without dividers for five months, you really have to work to keep the crazy away.

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Real Heroes: Meeting SFC Leroy Petry

Posted on April 30, 2012 by psessum

By: Peter Sessum

MOH recipient SFC Leroy Petry taking time to talk to veteran Peter Sessum on the 18th green. Photo By: Aaron Stadler

So there I was, on the 18th green, no shit. It was the last day of Rumble on the Ridge golf tournament. It was military appreciation day and the pin on the 18th hole was an American flag. As each group would finish, a military member in dress uniform would replace the flag. Each time, the crowd would cheer. It was pretty cool. Walking the course with the leaders was Medal of Honor (MOH) recipient Sergeant First Class (SFC) Leroy Petry.

MOH recipients are our rock stars. It is nice to meet someone that has put out a couple CDs, but shaking the hand of a man that represents It used to be called the Congressional Medal of Honor (CMH). Since Vietnam, there have only been three living MOH recipients. Most do not survive the incident that they are awarded for.

For the gomers and if only rangers who think that they could be in the Ranger Battalion because they played a video game all weekend long, you don’t have what it takes to tie this guy’s boots. I still get chills when I read the MOH citation. We all want to think that when we are tested by life that we will pass. I know that I have mettle, but I don’t know if I got what Petry is made of. I have met three MOH recipients and read more than a few citations. While they are all worthy, Petry’s is incredible. No one would have blamed him for taking a time out after being shot in both legs and losing his hand returning a live hand grenade. But in true Ranger style he tied a tourniquet on his wrist and radioed for back up.

Now he is one of a handful of men that get saluted by the president. Regardless of rank, everyone salutes the MOH recipient. I think that Petry is the only one still serving. The Marine was already out and the other Army sergeant was planning on getting out.

I saw Petry when the tournament leaders teed off but I didn’t get a chance to meet him until the end. While watching the last few groups finish up, one caddy pulled the flag/pin out of the 18th hole and set it on the ground. Now I know it is just a piece of fabric to most people, but it is what that piece fo fabric represents. It was all I could do not to rush onto the green, but I was working in a press capacity and my actions would not reflect on me alone. Fortunately, one of the military members walked over and secured the flag.

After the last putt was sank and a winner declared, the tournament officials met on the 18th green for the photo shoot. The flag wasn’t put back in the hole since it would block the pictures. One woman was walking around trying to figure out what to do with it and I overheard he say, “I don’t know what to do with this, I don’t want to set it on the ground.”

Neither were comfortable when simple greeting became a photo op, but both were troopers. Photo By: Aaron Stadler

I offered to hold it and she happily passed it off to me. After the pictures were done, Aaron said I should walk over and meet Petry. I brought the flag with me. Everything that I had heard about the man was true. He was humble and down to earth. His prosthetic hand felt a little weird as it closed on my hand to shake. A MOH recipient standing there by the flag made a good photo op so I got some extra time with him.

As we stood there while the photographers snapped away I explained why I was guarding the flag. “One of the caddies put it on the ground,” I said.
“Did you run him through with it,” Petry said.
“No, I was too far away, but I thought about it.”

He smiled and I thanked him and said it was an honor meeting him. While it is well known that I like myself, it is moments like that one that truly humble me. It is also why I don’t brag too much about my experiences. I am a guy that went overseas, did his job and came home without any holes in his uniforms. It is men like Petry that deserve our respect. It humbles me to be part of the same organization as men like him and that true warriors call me brother.

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POGs, Gomers and Geardos

Posted on April 24, 2012 by psessum

By: Peter Sessum

The ultimate geardo rifle. But there is still room for a couple more attachments.

I saw this comic once. In it a diner asked a passing waiter for a glass of water, the waiter replied that it was not his table. The man started having problems and was gasping for air, the waiter passing by again said it wasn’t his table. Then the man collapsed on the floor and the waiter said that is wasn’t his table. That is the POG mentality. If they can justify not doing it, they won’t.

This is one of the reasons that grunts hate POGs. Those that don’t do shit demand the respect that the military doesn’t run without them but want to treat dirty grunts like they are lesser. This may not be the mentality of everyone that isn’t combat arms, but the mentality is too prevalent in the military.

I went from being Infantry to Psychological Operations and it was a huge shift in mentality to me. At the time, PSYOP fell under Special Operations Command so many of the soldiers were acting like they were Special Forces once removed. Yet few wanted to put forth the effort to be improve themselves. And why would they? They were already as hardcore as could be right?

The attitude was Special Operations soldiers kick down door, I am in Special Operations, therefore I can kick down doors. It made all the sense in the world to them. But every class that would come up, they would blow it off. Why learn land navigation when I have a GPS? Why learn convoy operations when I won’t be leading a convoy or driving? And my person favorite, “I don’t need to learn that, I’m not a grunt.”

This is why soldiers hate Jessica Lynch. Not really her specifically, but what she represents. If the members of her unit would have known how to do their jobs, they would not have gotten separated, they would not have gotten lost and their weapons would not have jammed. In short, that shit would never have happened to grunts.

So there I was, on Bagram, no shit, and my First Sergeant comes up to me and asks to see my rifle. I cleared it, handed it off to him and went back to what I was doing. I didn’t need to watch him because I knew my rifle was spotless. He handed it back to me and said he had to check because my platoon sergeant’s weapon was filthy. Of course it was, SFC B. was a POG. Since he hadn’t fired it, he didn’t clean it. Even though I hadn’t been on a mission in a couple weeks, I cleaned it because Afghanistan is still a dusty country. I didn’t think anything would happen on one of the biggest bases in country, but you never know.

There are plenty of people who can kick ass that are not in the Infantry. I can name people that are not in combat arms jobs that I would trust on my fireteam. Being a POG isn’t about type of job, it is a state of mind. Unfortunately, there are some grunts with the POG mentality. Fortunately, they don’t last that long.

Gomers are POGs, or worse yet, civilians that want to think they are high speed. Also known as “If only Rangers.” As in “If only I joined the Navy, I would totally be a Navy SEAL.” They want to talk to grunts about “being in the shit” because they played a lot of Call of Duty. I actually had a guy talk to me about the Barret .50 cal and Mark 19 grenade launcher. I almost punched him when he said, “You press X to reload.”

Or they act about how they know what it is like to go to combat because they played paintball with their cousin last year. Anytime a person can go running off the “battlefield” to show a booboo to their mommy, it isn’t that hardcore.

Don’t get me wrong, I love paintball. I especially love it because it isn’t real. My style of play to intentionally be more reckless because it doesn’t matter. No matter what I do, everyone is alive after each game. It must be what Michael Phelps feels like at a pool party.

Because of that, I used to wear non camouflaged cloths when I played. Cammies don’t make that much of a difference in a paintball scenario. Later I started using old uniforms just so I wouldn’t ruin my street clothes.

If you want to see some real gomers, check out the people who play airsoft. They spend hundreds of dollars to look like a SpecialForcesDeltaRangerNinjaSeal. (Yeah, that is all one word) I saw a 17-year-old kid wearing the Special Forces, Ranger and Airborne Tabs. I get that this is his make believe, but the people who do that shit for real don’t think of it as tribute, they laugh at the gomers. Why would you want to pretend to be someone that would laugh at you for pretending to be him? If you want to wear an SF tab, go out and earn one.

You know how you can tell a geardo? His gear is new and pretty in every picture.


A geardo is a gomer that is actually in the military. Also known as “gear queers” they get all the latest cool guy gear and wear it around the basecamp. They have the ultimate tricked out M4, but don’t know how to use any of the attachments on it. It is funny watching a geardo carry a 30lb rifle to chow and back to their office. You just know that they are thinking they look super cool.

When possible, I just carried my pistol to chow. I can draw and shoot pretty fast if things get hot and I can fight my way back to my rifle or use the pistol to upgrade to something bigger. On a micro firebase, I might still carry my rifle, but on a huge air base, it is too clunky to take to chow 50 meters away.

Of course the worst of the lot is the geardo with the POG mentality. He won’t take time to learn how to be an effective soldier but wants everyone to think that he is a hardcore mofo. I knew this guy who was just looking for his Rambo moment. He was looking to kick ass and take names but couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag.

As he was getting ready to deploy he went out and bought hundreds of dollars worth of gear. He looked like a character straight out of a movie. When he was modeling his gear to other people, I was actually showing new soldiers what kind of gear I used. No real soldier has pretty gear. It might be clean, but stained and soiled from real use. My gear was a few years old, but I knew how it fit and where everything was. He set all the gear to fit him perfectly, but didn’t take into account body armor. Typical geardo move. Fortunately, POGs don’t have to worry about poorly fitting gear. It doesn’t matter how well it fits when heaped in a corner.

POGs, gomers and geardos are basically harmless. Civilians should never ask someone if they are a POG or not. Being a POG is more of a mentality than a job description. So asking a supply or Intel soldier that actually does their job might offend them. And you will get laughed at by a grunt. Some POGs actually break the wire, and if you have never been overseas, you haven’t earned the right to look down on them. But feel free to fuck with civilian gomers. Especially the if only Rangers, they deserve it.

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