Sometimes the military does some good

Posted on February 4, 2017 by psessum
Maj Parker, a good guy despite being a field grade officer.

Maj Parker, a good guy despite being a field grade officer.

BY: Peter Sessum

Every veteran I know has stories about discussions with young, idealistic civilians that didn’t go well. At some point we have all been lectured about all the babies that we are killing, all the countries we are invading and how we, specifically, are why the rest of the world hates us. On the flip side of that is the war junkie who wants to talk about all the guns we shoot and things we have blown up. If you ask either group about the good we have done overseas you will get a blank stare.

I guess we can blame the media and video games. Not to attack either industry, but stories of digging a well just aren’t very sexy on the front page, especially when a Kardashian might be showing side boob out there somewhere. As for video games, there is no Call of Duty: Civil Affairs but maybe there should be. So while it isn’t getting a lot of attention, there is a lot of good being done by the military in the world, here is some of what just one team did.

So there I was, in Kandahar…no shit. We were breaking the wire six days a week conducting village assessments. Our team was made up of a mix of Psychological Operations (PSYOP) and Civil Affairs (CA) and would visit three villages a day. The CA side, led by Major Parker (Now a retired Lieutenant Colonel), would ask questions to see what their reconstruction needs were while one PSYOP soldier would ask questions about how they receive messages and the other would talk to locals about the PSYOP product we were handing out. This was 2004 when the Afghan government was trying to stand up the Afghan National Army (ANA) and for a while they joined us as our security so an ANA officer could talk to the villagers about joining up.

Testing one of the new CA provided wells.

Testing one of the new CA provided wells.

While I only did that for about six months of my tour it was the time where I had the most positive interaction with the locals. Sometimes I would sit outside the meeting with an interpreter and Sadiq, our guide, and talk to the locals. From time to time we would sit in a field with a farmer, cut open some melons and have some really interesting conversations. That was the best way to better understand the the people, country and culture.

The CA troops I worked with were very dedicated. The “Hearts and Minds” campaign always came off as disingenuous. It is like the waitress flirting with you to get a better tip. What that team was doing is more like a person bringing you soup when you are sick. One is being nice to get something and the other is being nice for the sake of being nice. The mood of the team wasn’t to manipulate the locals into liking us, but to help with reconstruction efforts. People who sincerely wanted to help. It also made us a lot of friends. Who would you trust more, the Taliban guy holding a gun to your head or the one that is making your life better and asking for nothing in return? That is why CA efforts are such a threat to the enemy.

It is also kind of difficult to hate a person that comes to you with respect, gives you access to more resources and leaves without compensation. It was a very rewarding time for me. Being a former grunt, it was good to actually mingle with the locals rather than look at the country from behind a gunsight.

We also got to see a lot of good being done. Parker had a formula for how much aid a village received. Simply put, find out how many people were in a village, find out how many wells they had, if they didn’t fit the ratio, have more wells dug. We visited a couple hundred villages in all and we would visit each one about every 40 days or so. That gave us the opportunity to check on the progress of the well or see if the water was good. Unfortunately, it was not a fast process and in some areas they found salty water  at one depth so they had to dig deeper. While not instant gratification, it did feel good to get out, meet the people of Afghanistan and help them in some ways.

Not everyone had those opportunities. Major Wilson, a supply officer with the 25th ID, and his people had never been outside the wire and they didn’t want to go home without feeling like they had done some good. They wanted to help refurbish a school but didn’t know where to go. As the resident expert on the local villages Parker was consulted on which village to help. He selected New Salo Kalay, a village that was supporting of the coalition and progressive in that they insisted their girls go to school.

Maj. Wilson inspecting the work he and his troops did. It was so hot gear had to be dropped.

Maj. Wilson inspecting the work he and his troops did. It was so hot gear had to be dropped.

Normally we would visit three villages a day, not stay too long and vary our routes in and out to minimize the risk of enemy contact. Parker was tactical savvy and wanted to keep us safe. He was also a good leader in that he tried to make things suck less for his troops. We would break the wire early and be back before the hottest part of the day. Something I still appreciate him for.

Unfortunately, this was not going to be one of those days. We spent eight hours in that village, during the hottest part of the day. When we got back it was reported the temp topped 140 degrees that day. It was hot and miserable but everyone hung in there. At the end of the day they had built a wooden floor for the school so the students wouldn’t have to sit in the dirt anymore.

Pashtun hospitality. For many it was their first time eating local food.

Pashtun hospitality. For many it was their first time eating local food.

Overall it was a good experience for the soldiers. They got to do some good and the village hosted them for lunch. If you have never experienced Pashtun hospitality you are missing out. They fed the entire platoon so they wouldn’t have to eat MREs. It was good for the soldiers who got to get outside the wire, eat with the locals and do some good. They felt productive and like their deployment was about more than handing gear to soldiers.

I wonder how many of those people who lecture vets would feel if they saw what happened that day. Would it change their minds about soldiers? Knowing that not only had American soldiers volunteered to help a village, but that is one that we had already installed wells to give clean drinking water to the village. Every time we visited we also would drop off humanitarian assistance, school supplies, radios and even stuffed animals.

A kid coloring a PSYOP product tell them to stay away from military convoys.

A kid coloring a PSYOP product telling them to stay away from military convoys.

Few Afghans will remember our names but many will remember our actions. Men like Parker brought clean water to villages around Kandahar. He helped so much and did it without asking for anything in return. Somewhere in Afghanistan there are people that remembered what Americans did for them. They remembered that we endured the heat to help rebuild their school. There are men in Afghanistan that are now giving the stuffed animal I handed them, maybe the only one they have ever had, to their own kid.

We only focus on the negative, but there is a lot of good being done by the military. It isn’t sexy or cool, Michael Bay isn’t lining up to make a movie about it but that doesn’t take away the good that is happening. Hopefully, more people will share those stories so others will know it isn’t an isolated incident.

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Suicide and Support: Don’t Be an Elitist Asshole

Posted on November 22, 2016 by behrlylit
Some contractors are former military, like this one, but some are in harm's way without the same consideration as those that swore the oath.

Some contractors are former military, like this one, but some are in harm’s way without the same consideration as those that swore the oath.

It’s been over a year now since I wrote the first draft of this article. Reading over it is pretty excruciating, it reads like a poor attempt at controlling an angry rant. Probably because that’s what it was. The initial article was written shortly after a good friend of mine, Keith, committed suicide on Veterans Day last year. I know the mantra. You can’t blame yourself, you can’t blame other people. Ultimately, if a person is going to take his or her own life it’s going to be their choice. But fuck that. You may not be able to change the final outcome, but at least you can try. It’s obviously not that the veteran community isn’t trying. We all know we are. My issue is who we consider to be part of the veteran community.

Keith’s story isn’t that unique. He spent years serving his country, deployed more times than I kept track of (six since we met), and ultimately came home to a world that had moved on without him full of people who didn’t understand him. That’s something that most, if not all, of us can relate to. What set Keith apart is that he had never been in the military. I never did quite understand how he ended up where he did (a long running joke between us, but completely true). He was employed by a defense contractor shortly after 9/11 and by the time I met him, sometime in ‘06 or ‘07, he had served multiple tours in combat zones and racked up an impressive history. Still, he wasn’t technically a vet.

All of this meant that the resources that are made available to vets weren’t available to Keith. I’m not talking about the VA or crisis hotlines, but the actual people who had gone through similar experiences. When it seems like the world has gone to shit, and you don’t want to try to spell out what’s going on in your head to some well-meaning but clueless friend or shrink, the people you turn to are the guys who have been there and get it. Your fellow vets. But as a contractor you’re not one of them, and no one wants to be the outsider asking to be let in.

Ford F250 being driven by contractors that was hit by a suicide bomber outside a FOB in Helmand Province.

Ford F250 being driven by contractors that was hit by a suicide bomber outside a FOB in Helmand Province.

Keith and I had a lot of conversations over the years about the loneliness and isolation of not fitting in to the veteran or civilian communities. When you’re a vet you get the benefit of being able to claim that title in an attempt to surround yourself with like-minded people. To some extent, more support is available to the guy who spent 4 years as a cook in the army than to a guy who spent 10 years risking his life for his country but never took the same oath. There is a lot to be said on the difference between having gone through the process involved in joining, training for, and being active in the military versus those who have not; but, for the sake of the point here perhaps we can avoid the inevitable debates on that topic for the time being. Personally, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that support is available to me because a few times a year I ran around in a uniform and not because of the far more active (and more risky) duties I performed in a civilian role in service of the same government.

Two U.S. contractors were in this vehicle that was hit by a VBID outside a FOB in Helmand Province. The armor saved them but would vets value what they went through.

Two U.S. contractors were in this vehicle that was hit by a VBID outside a FOB in Helmand Province. The armor saved them but would vets value what they went through.

We need to do a better job of defining our community and being there for the people who really need it. Support networks, whether organized or just a bunch of people who have come together, are critical for many of us to get through tough times. Knowing that there are people out there who understand the things you’ve seen and experienced, who get where you’re coming from, who can empathize without needing to talk everything through, can literally be the difference between life and death on some days. It’s bullshit not to extend that support to the men and women who have spent the same time away from family in the same shitholes around the world facing many of the same dangers because they can’t show you their DD-214.

Being a member of any branch of the military is a culture in of itself. I’m not for a second suggesting that being a contractor or DoD civilian deployed to a combat zone makes all things equal. I’m definitely not suggesting that the rules need to be bent so civilians can be a member of some exclusive club and avoid having their feelings hurt. I don’t think civilians should start getting the GI bill or receiving financial benefits. All I’m saying is that if you served an active role in defending this country you are my brother or sister. We need to recognize that sentiment more widely when it comes to offering each other support.

We’re conditioned to think in terms of us vs. them, military vs. civilian; and with good reason. We think, speak, and act differently. A lot of the time we have trouble relating to each other. Then there are these people who fall in the middle, in some weird gray area. They’re not ‘us’ by our traditional definition, so by default they must be ‘them.’ But let’s be real. Our experiences line up pretty neatly. They’re close enough to being one of us that having their backs should absolutely be our concern. Maybe that would have made a difference for Keith, maybe not. More importantly, maybe it’ll make a difference to someone else in a similar situation who might, with the right support, still have a fighting chance.

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Protesting the national anthem distracts from your cause but you have the right to do it

Posted on September 10, 2016 by psessum
Kaepernick is getting an early start to warming the bench.

Getting an early start to bench warming.

As patriot, proud of my service, I can say without reservation that I don’t give a good damn if a football player stands for the national anthem or not. In fact, having the choice to stand or not it is one of the ways I know I am free. But if it is used as a form of protest you are distracting from your cause and the message will not be about your protest but about your right to remain seated.

I addressed this last year when apparently it was cool to disrespect the flag. Like then, any American symbol has a number of different meanings that are individual to each person, but as soon as you disrespect the symbol it only represents you having the freedom to express your beliefs and not whatever meaning you try to assign it. Colin Kaepernick’s actions shows how truly free he, and every other American, actually is. In fact, it is only through the expression of unpopular opinions that we know how free we actually are. One of the very benchmarks of freedom are protesting openly and protesting a national symbol. Try that in North Korea or Russia and see how far it gets you.

Quarterback for the 49ers, so easy a Specialist can do it.

Quarterback for the 49ers, so easy a Specialist can do it. Image from a previous Military Appreciation Day by the Chargers.
Photo by” Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jennifer S. Kimbal

He has every right to remain seated during the national anthem. As a veteran I served my country and believe I defended that right. I will continue to defend that right to my last breath. I don’t have to agree with him to know that he retains his rights and freedoms as an American citizen. In fact, I think he is a huge douchenozzle. And that is my right. I get to express my freedom of expression by saying that I think Colin Kaepernick is a huge douchenozzle and there is nothing that he or anyone can do about it. Unlike Captain Douchenozzle, I earned my rights and freedoms with blood and sweat in distant lands. My tab is paid. I get to say that it doesn’t take much courage to sit on your ass, protected by venue security and police officers where you will be escorted on and off the field and if the team decides that he is not performing (which he isn’t) he is still guaranteed more than $11 of his $19 million contract this year.

Can you honestly think of a lazier protest? The only way he could have been lazier is if he stayed at home. The result would have been exactly the same. He could have instagrammed in his PJs that he wasn’t going to suit up as long as there were people “dying in the streets.” In fact, with all the sitting he is going to be doing this season maybe standing for a few minutes wouldn’t hurt. In the quarterback rankings I could quickly Google he didn’t even make the list of the first two and on another site he is listed as the backup quarterback on the last ranked team. It is a lazy protest by a mediocre player.

Now I get it, he doesn’t like a lot of what he sees in the news and neither do I. But instead of lending his celebrity to put a spotlight on the issue he is distracting the conversation away from his protest and making it about his right to protest. I have seen more posts about whether there is a requirement to stand than about what he is staying in his seat for.

This is the Charger's response to the national anthem, cover the entire field with the flag.

This is the Charger’s response to the national anthem, cover the entire field with the flag.

That is the inherent issue with protesting a national symbol. The conversation becomes less about the cause protesting for and more about the right to protest. Truth be told, the national anthem is a poor symbol to protest. The reason being it doesn’t represent just one thing. It means s many things to so many different people that the very cause you are trying to support will not be the focus. Many people have been breaking down the meaning of the words of the anthem to include the verses that are not sung at the start of football games. All of this analysis is not on the issue Kaepernick is trying to champion but on the object of his distain. I would think that a song about resilience would be a good one for him to get behind. This oppression he speaks of will be survived and we will come out the other end better and stronger. Which is kind of the American way. We fight tyranny and oppression and are stronger for it.

Kaepernick is pretty much the embodiment of the American dream, you would think he would support any symbol of the country that has taken such good care of him. He was adopted by white people, had a full scholarship to college, and up until a couple of years ago, was at the top of his game and hugely successful. Even as he rejects the nation that has given him so much he is still guaranteed $11 million if his team cuts him for sucking at his job and $19 million if they allow him to warm the bench for another season. If he was a few shades lighter he would be the epitome of white privilege and not the champion for black people everywhere.

I don’t think he is an idiot because of the cause he chose to champion but the way he tried to champion it. What he should be doing is something that doesn’t distract from the cause. Celebrities are finding ways to protest the North Dakota pipeline without turning the conversation from the issue. He is also giving other teams ammunition to use against him and his team. For example, the San Diego Chargers had a freedom orgy all over the 49ers during the preseason game. Teams are going to continue to have fun with this because it will be good to get in the heads of the 49ers.

Kaepernick should have participated in a protest, or even led one, to gain support for the movement. Since he is lazy he could have just flown out the family members of black people killed by police like Beyoncé did and had them sit in the front row of games. There are much better ways to use his celebrity to advance a cause and the mechanism he is using it not very effective. So yes, Kaepernick is free to be lazy and sit for a couple more minutes per game. Just as I am free to call him a doucenozzle.

 

Full disclosure: I was raised in Seattle and have long been a Seahawks fan so I have thought Kaepernick was a douche for a long time. I am a black man, born and raised in the U-S-of-A. I am also a veteran forged in the Infantry with a couple deployments under my belt. I was the true believer grunt. I was the guy that believed that the service of the men and women to my left and right were defending our country and way of life. As a patriot that has seen flag draped coffins and performed funeral honors for both active duty soldiers and veterans I respect the flag and do not think it represents what  he thinks it does. I do more than lip service about veterans and veterans issues, I am so passionate about veteran’s issues that I created this website where I express my rights and freedoms. Especially the right to call Kaepernick a douchenozzle.

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Don’t be a Dick on Veteran’s Day

Posted on November 11, 2015 by psessum
I guess we should take down the Medal of Honor memorial. We wouldn't want anyone to be bothered by this display of appreciation.

If this is the standard for ‘hero’ then we will all fall short.

I have been seeing articles popping up lately by vets about Veteran’s Day. Some are insisting they are not a hero and some are pissed that some furniture store is having a sale because this day is about sucking up to vets and not buying a couch. Whatever your deal, stop being a wet blanket and messing it up for the rest of us.

The ‘not a hero’ vet

I get it, we all were just doing our jobs and only a few are Medal of Honor recipients. Anyone compared to them will come up short. Some people that insist they are not heroes do so because they think of the person that didn’t make it home and want to canonize the fallen as the heroes and the rest of us as people who returned from war. Or some people joined the military with the idea of fighting terrorists and ended up in an MOS they hated and didn’t feel they did anything heroic.

I understand, I don’t think I am a hero. I didn’t return a live grenade or fire a .50 cal from a burning tank like Audie Murphy. I came back with no new holes and that is a good thing. But my standard of heroic is not the civilian standard. Just spend a day on a college campus and you will see that for some people standing straight while being yelled at takes more intestinal fortitude than they can muster.

The attacks on 9/11 united the people of this nation and everyone knew that something had to be done. Some wanted to be the person that did something and joined the military while other people wanted to sit back and let someone else take care of it. The people that live in a nice little bubble that we protected think that just the act of stepping up is a big deal so let it go. No, you are not a hero by your standards, but civilians don’t have a word for “person that rose to defend the nation and endured a lot of hardship and sacrifices and was lucky enough to make it back all while I sat at home and went to college and played Halo.” Know that they have the best of intentions and just say, “thank you for your support.” If not for you, then for the real heroes out there.

The ‘don’t thank me for my service’ vet

“I am so glad that we got to avoid all the people throwing praise at us and I feel so sorry for you young vets,” said no Vietnam vet ever. If you can’t appreciate the support for yourself, accept it on behalf of the people that never heard it.

I know the military sucks and some couldn’t get out soon enough. There are a number of reasons for that and I’m sorry if you had to deal with it. Some people had serve traumatic experiences and I am not just talking about combat. Some people just had bad experiences that made the day-to-day life in the military miserable. I can relate, I was a hard charger and loved what the military was supposed to be but hated what it had become. Like so many others I got out with mixed emotions. I don’t see my time in the military as special especially since I know people that did more.

And of course there are the people that see the outpouring of support as being false or lip service. Trust me, I get that too. If every company that said they wanted to hire vets actually hired vets there would be no unemployed vets. Starbucks wants to hire thousands of vets but I don’t think many of them are high paying jobs and I don’t think being a barista is considered a step up for someone that used to lead men into combat.

With all the things that civilians have to think about in their own lives learning about the true military experience is something they just don’t have time for. They are trying to show support and a simple “thank you for your service” is a nice gesture. It is not going to make up for whatever you are personally feeling and snapping at them will not be productive. When someone tries to do something nice it is appropriate to be nice in return. Just say, “thank you for your support” and go about your day. If veterans start snapping at well-meaning civilians they will quickly stop being so well-meaning. We need the civilians to keep pressure on the VA to encourage them to overhaul their system. If civilians take the “they don’t need our help” position then the VA will be able to do whatever it wants and no one will care. We need civilian’s help to resolve veteran issues so let’s all be nice to them. So be grateful for the support or it will go away. If you don’t think you are deserving, say “thank you for your support” on behalf of the vet that is.

Just because I don't go after the free stuff doesn't mean it is wrong, just be cool about it.

Just because I don’t go after the free stuff doesn’t mean it is wrong, just be cool about it.

The ‘attention whore’ vet

Not all vets that are a dick on this day hate the attention. Some love it a little too much. You know who you are. I know guys that would map out all the places that advertised free stuff for vets and planned their Veteran’s Day around it. Instead of a being people that benefited from a kindness on a special day, they are the freeloaders that come to your wedding to drink up free booze and hit on bridesmaids. If you are going to be that guy, just remember you tip off the original price and not based on what you were actually charged. Don’t be the dick that gets a free meal and tips off the cost of his soda.

The world doesn’t owe you anything. I know some love the attention of walking around in the old uniform or military inspired shirts and hats. There is actually nothing wrong with that. Crossing the line from attracting attention to demanding it is where people go wrong. I am proud of my service too, but I don’t expect other people to recognize it.

Last year I was wearing a shirt that said “Army” on it and the waitress asked if I was a vet. When I said yes she said my lunch was free. When our bill came my food was on there. I didn’t ask for a correction because I appreciated the gesture the restaurant was trying to extend and I wasn’t going to make the difficult job of a server any more difficult by asking her to fix the bill. Also, it felt like it would be a little sad of me to ask.

The respect the day vet

I too believe that the military does a very important job and I am proud to have served next to some of the best that the country has to offer but we can’t call ourselves defenders of freedom if we dictate how to be free. The people that do this are the same ones that complain that Memorial Day is not just a free day to BBQ. I personally don’t know what is more American than getting drunk and grilling meat but that is just me.

No, people don’t have to go to a memorial cemetery to pay their respects and they don’t have to shake the hand of every vet they see. In fact, some vets wouldn’t like that at all. The best way to honor the sacrifice that vets have made is to take a real day off to be truly free. If that means sleep in that is fine. If that means lounge on the couch and get caught up on the DVR that is cool too. Or if you want to go to a local Veteran’s Day ceremony I can respect that. Whatever people want to do that is legal they should be able to do because they are in American and therefore are free. Part of being free is not having to acknowledge how free you are.

The contrary civilian

Actually, according to reputable, credible journalists he didn't. Doesn't mean invading was a good idea but they did exist.

Actually, according to reputable, credible journalists he didn’t. Doesn’t mean invading was a good idea but they did exist.

Look pal, I get it, you watched a lot of Jon Stewart growing up and you thought it was real news. Or you thought “I can glean what is really going on through the jokes” and I am going to tell you that you can’t. The New York Times did a great story last year about Iraq’s chemical weapons program and a couple of months ago Stewart was still saying that there were no chemical weapons in Iraq. I am not saying that means the invasion was a good idea, just that some of your information is wrong.

So while it seems like a good day to put on your “Bush lied” shirt and correct some vets on their life choice, I am going to say don’t do that shit today. This isn’t the day we talk about how much fun it was to kill people it is a day to get together and remember the good times we had together. We are trying to honor our service which is a part of who we are and trying to ruin that by quoting some douchebag college professor is not forward thinking of you it is being an asshole.

You have 364 days to give us a piece of your mind how about we have one day to ourselves? And by the way, no veteran I have ever met will say that they had their perspective changed by some white kid in dreadlocks yelling a bumper sticker slogan at them. I know that this might come as a shock, but there are a lot of veterans that opposed the war. Many actually didn’t agree with the president. Contrary to popular belief, all soldiers are not mindless robots. So next time you want to give a vet some crap ask what he or she believes and actually listen to the answer. But don’t do it today, give us a day off.

To the vast majority of veterans I say that I was proud to serve with you even though we have never met. As a person that has enjoyed freedom his entire life I say to all vets I appreciate all you have done for this great nation. To the minority of veterans that are vocal about not being heroes and not wanting to be thanked for their service please give it a rest. Just say “thank you for your support” on behalf of those that are deserving and move on. To the guys heading out the door for some free nachos, don’t forget to tip properly and enjoy your free meal. While it is not what I am going to do I am not going to fault you for doing it just don’t be a dick about it.

For the record the irony of telling someone what to do on a day that is about freedom is not lost on me. So this is more of a request than a demand. Please don’t be a dick on this day. But if you are, know that it is a veteran that made it possible for you to do that and yes, you vets have earned the right to be dicks about your service but please don’t. It ruins the day for the rest of us.

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Random Memory: The Power of the Sham Shield

Posted on November 6, 2015 by psessum
Getting to this image on FB inspired this post. Pretty legit but there is so much more to the E-4 experience. Check out Grunt Style for more funny stuff.

Getting tagged on this image on FB inspired this post. Pretty legit but there is so much more to the E-4 experience. Check out Grunt Style for more funny stuff.

By Peter Sessum

A recent post on social media about the attitudes of the enlisted ranks in the Army prompted me to write this. The breakdown of ranks were pretty accurate but I thought the Specialist one was too limiting to fully capture the E-4 experience.

There are two kinds of Specialists in the Army, the hard charger trying to get some stripes and short timers waiting to get out so they can grow their hair and smoke pot in college. While there are varying degrees that pretty much sums up most E-4s in the Army. It isn’t just about avoiding work, it is the creativity that goes into avoiding work. Some troops put more work into getting out of work than they would have done if they had actually done the work. For them it is more about the principle than the effort and for some it is about general amusement.

General shamdogs

If you want to see a productivity vacuum, take away all the NCOs and privates and leave the E-4s alone for a day. If you leave one Sergeant, the soldiers will have to pretend to work and if there are Privates around they will have to set some form of positive example. Either that or they will mess with him, but even that would be doing something. But if there is no one but a bunch of Specialists, they will do fuck all. It would be like putting a bunch of adults in a room without bosses, spouses or their children. Don’t expect a lot to happen.

The I-Corps Color Guard is a prestigious unit that represents Fort Lewis and the Army in the community. A former NCOIC had been a Tomb Guard at Arlington and rewrote the SOPs for the Color Guard. On paper they were the best that the Army has to offer but in reality they are still soldiers. When the troops were allowed to do PT on their own the E-4s would go to the gym and a few soldiers would nap under the bleachers while a couple would stretch and keep look out. Unsupervised, most Specialists will do a whole lot of nothing.

Creative laziness

When there are people around, expect the same laziness with some creativity thrown in. How many times has an E-4 taken a nap with a military manual in his lap? There is no better prop for a public nap than a military manual. An NCO might overlook the nap and give credit for reading the manual. The best place for such a nap is in the driver’s seat of a mechanized vehicle. You can’t be seen unless the person climbs up and that will make enough noise to wake you up from a strategic catnap. Even if they are fast, the view is from above and the brim of a cap will shade the eyes so they won’t know if you are sleeping or looking down. This is one of the many drawbacks of the widespread use of the beret.

I knew a guy that was short timing his entire time in the Army. He was like a Jedi at convincing people that didn’t know him into thinking he was a decent soldier. I remember that even though he had been at the unit longer on at least three different occasions I wondered who the new guy was when I saw him in formation. On a work detail he was the first guy to jump into action to get work done.

We were setting up GP medium tents and he grabbed the sledge like he couldn’t wait to get started. After a few enthusiastic swings the NCO told him to not wear himself out and to give someone else another chance. Immediately, he passed it off to another soldier. I found him sleeping in the cab of a deuce and a half a few minutes later. But he got credit for working right off the bat before he disappeared.

Next level shamming

The Specialist has been in long enough to know the rules. In the Army, the rules can’t be broken, but they can be bent. Or at least interpreted liberally. For example, at the time AR 670-1 which governs Army dress and appearance said that a soldier could dye their hair as long as it was a natural hair color. This would allow for a female soldier to dye her hair blonde as is common, but I don’t think anyone factored that a black male soldier would do the same. It was done for entertainment and maybe a little bit of rebellion. As long as it was a hair color that existed in the normal human spectrum it was legal.

It is A natural color but doesn't have to be MY natural hair color. This is what troops do when they are bored. There was no good reason for doing it but at least the platoon sergeant thought it was funny.

It is A natural color but doesn’t have to be MY natural hair color. This is what troops do when they are bored. There was no good reason for doing it but at least the platoon sergeant thought it was funny.

There is a downside, if not allowed to cut or color the hair while in the field it will look matchstick red pretty soon. That would be a violation and almost got me in trouble. Of course, they have changed the regulation now but for a time there was fun to be had.

When trying to get out of work a good Specialist needs to be quick-witted. Everyone knows that the way to get out of an after duty hours “hey you” detail is to get out of uniform and crack a beer before anyone can knock on your door. But how do you get out of a detail given on the fly? By a Command Sergeant Major? For that, you need a piece of paper.

A soldier with empty hands could be up to anything or nothing at all. But a soldier with a folded up piece of paper is a man on a mission and this brings us to the story that the post reminded me of.

So there I was… in Germany… no shit. I was walking near the battalion HQ when I saw our Command Sergeant Major. The downside of my Spec-4 Mafia efforts was that I was somewhat infamous in that unit and everyone E-8 and above knew who I was.

“Hey Sessum,” CSM Brown yelled.

Being our CSM I had no choice but to stop.

“I have a detail for you,” he said.

“Is it more important than this,” I asked holding up the piece of paper before quickly correcting myself. “Nevermind sergeant major, what do you need?” I lowered the paper to show it had lesser priority.

“No, nevermind, I’ll find someone who doesn’t have something to do.”

“Are you sure sergeant major,” I asked dutifully, “because I will put this aside to do what you need.”

He assured me it was fine and dismissed me. I stepped out like I had to make up those seven seconds and headed back to my barracks to take a nap and he went on to find a sucker that wasn’t smart enough to have a piece of paper on him.

That situation was set up by me sitting in the mortar platoon CP wasting time. A good Specialist can tell when there is nothing going on and someone is going to think up a detail so I did what any good shamgod would do, I went to my squad leader.

“Nothing is going on, can I go do that thing,” I asked.

“What thing?”

“That thing I told you about that I need to do.”

“What thing?”

“If you ask, you lose all deniability.”

“Oh that thing, sure.”

The entire exchange was to give me permission to take off and he maintained the illusion of accountability of his soldiers. If asked he could claim that he couldn’t remember what I was doing and if I was caught doing something wrong I would take the fall and he could claim that I was supposed to do something legit and had abused that trust. My plan was almost ruined by CSM interference.

When I was in charge of troops I tried to return the favor by telling them to “go do that thing” when things were slow to get them out of the AO. Unfortunately, I had a knucklehead Private who didn’t know to disappear and instead asked “what thing?” But what are you going to do? Eventually he caught on.

The best part about being a Specialist is not being treated like a Private anymore. All privates are worthless. It is just a fact. They are like puppies, they don’t know anything until taught. The only thing they have going for them is their enthusiasm. A lazy Specialist is practically a cliché but they have paid their dues and are given opportunities to show they are ready for the responsibilities of leadership. Knowing how to navigate the enlisted system as an E-4 is essential to good leadership.

It isn’t that being lazy makes a person a good leader but taking those first few months in the rank  to be a true Specialist will help a person be able to recognize the differences between a worthless soldier and one that isn’t properly stimulated. A regular soldier can become stellar troop with good leadership. An important part of leadership is knowing when someone is trying to get one over on you and being a proper shammer will help a person recognize from personal experience. Having been a good Specialist made me a good Sergeant and makes me a good leader in the civilian world.

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The Duality of the American Veteran

Posted on October 29, 2015 by psessum

By: Peter Sessum

Serving in the military is one of those few jobs that brand you for life. No matter what you do, you will always be a veteran. It is one of the few professions that stays with you long after you leave it. In the civilian world your current job is what you do, but once someone identifies you as being former military that is who you are, you will always be a vet first in their eyes.

Veteran is a title some wear with pride while others try to hide, but like it or not, the civilian world will often not let us forget our former lives and treat us negatively and positively at the same time. There is this duality in how we are perceived when it comes to our experiences and how we fit into civilian society.

Post 9/11 reactions

This is one of the biggest dualities vets face. I don’t know a single vet that hasn’t been held accountable for the invasion of Iraq and yet I also don’t personally know a single person that was involved in any part of that decision making process. This is is especially experienced in college. The brother of a literature professor was deployed with the Marines the quarter I took her class and I paid for it almost every day. Even though I was Army, I embodied the organization that had put him in harm’s way like it was my fault he chose to join or I had any hand in deploying him.

College can be tough for identified vets because there are no shortage of young intellectuals that are happy to regurgitate something a professor said or something they heard on the Daily Show. Don’t tell them about The New York Times article that went into great detail about Iraq’s actual chemical weapons program because they will lose their minds.

On the flip side, there are people that appreciate that we defend the nation so much that it makes some vets uncomfortable. The genuine support is appreciated but most vets could do without the lip service. Every company and corporation says they support vets but none of them are going to hire a person just for being a veteran, the vet has to be the most qualified person. So in other words, there is no benefit to veteran status in getting a job. The only time there is a benefit is if the job requires the person to carry a weapon.

A stress shoot range might seem cool to civilians, but brag that it makes you cool in front of vets will get you mocked.

A stress shoot range might seem cool to civilians, but brag that it makes you cool in front of vets will get you mocked.

A particular set of skills

The best recorded shot I ever took was in basic training. I say recorded because they put a large dot on the target where the bullet hit. At a distance of 300 meters I hit center mass so that means at the distance of three football fields that round would have hit a man in the heart. I tell that to civilians and it seems impressive.

I have qualified expert with every weapon and weapon system I have ever put into action. In my lifetime I have easily fired tens of thousands of rounds at paper or steel targets. All of that sounds cool unless you are a vet.

The same story that would impress a civilian is laughed at by veterans. A center mass shot at 300 meters? That is pretty much expected for Infantry. A question I could get asked is “only 300 meters?” Snipers are mocking me as they read this right now. I know people that fire in a year the number of rounds that I have fired in my life and there are some out there that shoot that in a month. There are people laughing while they read this because shooting small arms is cute to them but it can’t compare to hellfire missiles. In military circles my training, skills and experience are no big deal. I consider myself pretty middle of the road, maybe slightly above average because most military jobs are support roles and I spent my time tactical. As a vet I am nothing special but I am the most dangerous person some civilians have ever met.

Dangerous vets

The idea that all vets are dangerous is almost comical to those who have served, and not just because an overwhelming majority of the jobs in the military are noncombat related. A student in one of my classes liked to think that all soldiers were these robots waiting to be ordered to kill. We would kill anyone at any time if ordered to do so.

I am pretty sure some civilians think this is true.

I am pretty sure some civilians think this is true.

“Soldiers are trained to target children,” he said in class with no supporting evidence.

I stood up, took over the class and talked about Rules of Engagement (ROE), the law of land warfare and answering any questions for about 20 minutes. ROE is the difference between self-defense and murder and the military does prosecute murder. An unlawful order by an officer does not overrule ROE or the Geneva Conventions and following such an order is a war crime. Another vet in the class clearly didn’t agree with the student’s beliefs but didn’t want to self identify so he let me fight alone. This guy did what all people like that do when faced with the truth of their own losing argument, he went personal.

He said that because I had been to Afghanistan I had Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) and that was why I was getting mad. This is how I know that the people that think vets are dangerous know that we are not. He pushed me and walked away unscathed. Simple ROE, I was not physically threatened so I didn’t physically react. But like many others I think he wanted me to. Either he gets to take free potshots at me or I prove his point.

When civilians do that they are not standing up to someone strong, they are being the bully. I am sure he told all his friends about how he stood up to a big bad vet, but the truth is he was the one that needed to be defended against. Antagonizing a vet in public is like throwing rocks at a Pitbull. In their heads the people are stopping a vicious animal that could easily rip their throat out but when the dog is behind a fence, chained up and asleep the rock throwing isn’t that heroic and is actually very cruel.

Because of our “breed” we can be attacked without provocation. We are dangerous so any attack on us is justified. We also can’t express any passion or emotion or will be seen as someone about to snap and go crazy. On more than one occasion I have been treated like I was going to hurt people just because I raised my voice. Sometimes it is I am black, sometimes it is because I am a vet. Both are scary to civilians in this area. Of course they feel bad about thinking that about a black man, but thinking a vet is dangerous is treated like it is prudent thinking.

We are these dangerous animals that can snap at any moment, but if things do go bad, you can guess who they want with them. There are plenty of examples when a vet has been the person to respond in a time of crisis. Most recently, on a train in France and a college campus in Oregon vets tried to stop someone with murderous intent. The duality of being both crazy people with PTS and heroes in waiting never ceases to amaze me.

Airman Spencer Stone was on vacation with friends in France when Ayoub El Khazzani boarded a train with an Ak-47, a 9mm pistol and some gas. Stone was the first to rush the attacker with his friends close behind. Fortunately for him, the rifle jammed and he was able to tackle the gunman without getting shot because with the restrictive avenues of a train car his actions would lead to certain death. This plan relies on pure luck, which he had, or having enough momentum that your dead body falls on the attacker and your friends are able to disarm him.

When they called for someone to step up in a dynamic and dangerous situation it is a vet that answers the call. Mintz survived seven shots and lived to smile about it.

When they called for someone to step up in a dynamic and dangerous situation it is a vet that answers the call. Mintz survived seven shots and lived to smile about it.

When shots were fired at Umpqua Community College a teacher said that someone needed to warn the people in the library. Note that he didn’t go himself, he said someone else should. Chris Mintz, a veteran, rose to the challenge. After warning the people in the library, he ran outside and told a young woman arriving on campus that she needed to stay away, he then went back in to confront the gunman.

He could have gotten away, no one would have blamed him for escaping when he had the chance but he didn’t, he went back to confront the gunman getting shot seven times in the process. On the news a couple of days later they celebrated a couple of police detectives who were first to arrive on the scene. They were heralded as heroes because they approached the situation without vests but Mintz confronted the man without a gun. Hit seven times and he still survived? Mintz is hardcore.

When other people fun away, we run toward the danger. Not only do we do it, but civilians expect us to. Why didn’t the teacher at UCC run and warn other students? Because he is a civilian and I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he was safely outside when Mintz was getting shot.

I don’t understand how people can reconcile in their heads that they want vets far away from them so as to not be murdered but want the vet right next to them to protect them from murderers. I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that there are students in Mintz’s class that thought he was ready to snap at a moment’s notice prior to shots being fired.

The soldier family man

One of the most difficult dualities is the one at home. It can be difficult to be the person your family needs and the person you need to be overseas. You can’t be the guy that picks up your kid at school in a firefight and you can’t be the guy that has to drop the hammer on a bad guy when picking up your kid from school.

It isn’t easy being a person that has seen the worst in people and what they can do and still be positive with a young mind you are tasked with molding into a productive member of society. Few people exist in the same reality as the one veterans have experienced and it is a struggle to determine how much of that to share with family and friends. Case in point, I had a friend tell me that my world was too real and she was not sure we could be friends anymore and our conversation barely scratched the surface. Some people really don’t want to know what the world can be like outside our borders.

Vets are forced to compartmentalize who they are at work and who they are at home.

Vets are forced to compartmentalize who they are at work and who they are at home. The same man in two very different worlds.

Maybe one of the most difficult aspects is balancing the idea of being the strong veteran and the broken human in front of the family. When a man is seen as an invincible hero to his children he might find it difficult to be vulnerable and needing help. Getting help is what is best for the family and the vet.

Being a veteran means walking a tightrope of expectations and dealing with a number of perceptions from civilians. Some appreciate our service while others see us as the embodiment of a government or foreign policy they hate. There are people that see us as protectors and some that see us as the oppressors. Depending on our personal actions we fall somewhere in the middle of the different perceptions. Some of us are the best people you have ever met and some are the worst but as a whole, military service members and veterans are some pretty decent people with good values and that is why I tend to surround myself with them. They fit another duality of veterans, and something General Mattis said about Marines, no better friend – no worse enemy.

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Who is to Blame for 9/11 a Veteran’s Perspective

Posted on October 25, 2015 by psessum
Shouldn't we be blaming the terrorists and not a president for this?

Shouldn’t we be blaming the terrorists and not a president for this?

By: Peter Sessum

This has been in news lately as names have been thrown around and the blame being passed like a political hot potato. I thought it might be fun to weigh in, not the political part because we try to stay out of politics on this site, but the blame game. When assigning blame should it be the president that was in charge, the one that could have stopped him or the one that started it all?

The president at the time

It makes sense, he was in charge at the time so the buck stops there. But did he really have the information handy to stop the attacks. I don’t believe the conspiracy theories that he knew and let it happen so we could invade Iraq. Mainly because someone that sinister would have had a better attack plan and could have drawn the 9/11-Iraq invasion connection better and would have had a better plan than “attack and take Bagdad and see what happens.”

Some people argue that he had some intelligence and could have done something. These are also the same people that claim the Intel used to invade Iraq was faulty so the intelligence services can’t give bad Intel when it supports one argument and great Intel when it supports another.

There is also another hole in the “Bush knew” theory. There really are no secrets in America anymore. China and Russia have our launch codes, the only successful secrets we have are the recipes for coke and the 11 herbs and spices and even those have been reverse engineered. In a time of Manning and Snowden there are too many people willing to blow the whistle. By now, someone credible would have brought out documents showing how Bush or Cheney orchestrated the whole thing. Give me a credible source and I am on board.

No doubt that Bush had all kinds of interesting intelligence briefings. I am sure there were reports of all kinds of threats. But he had only been president a few months and unless those attacks were planned, funded and put into action that year, someone else should have seen it coming. If he did know when it was going to happen I am sure he would have been in a better location than a school classroom. It would have been better for the cameras if he could have been on a military base or somewhere that would have been good security and a great backdrop for the news conference cameras.

The president that could have stopped it

Like it or not, al-Qaida is part of Clinton’s legacy. There is the World Trade Center bombing, millennium plots, embassy bombings, the bombing of the U.S.S Cole and poor Rules of Engagement (ROE) which helped Osama bin Laden get away a few times.

You forgot about this didn't you? Trying to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993 should have been an indicator.

You forgot about this didn’t you? Trying to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993 should have been an indicator.

I also guess that everyone has forgotten that a month after he was sworn in as president al-Qaida set off a truck bomb in the World Trade Center. The truck exploded in one of the parking garages killing six and wounding over a 1,000 more. Maybe if he had handled the first terrorist attack of his presidency better there would not have been an al-Qaida around eight years later to hijack planes.

The millennium plots were a series of attacks that were supposed to happen around New Year’s Day 2000. A couple were failed attempts. There was a boat that sank in the same harbor that the Cole would be in a year later because it was overloaded with explosives. Alert border guards also caught a couple suspicious men trying to enter Washington State from Canada. They had explosives and plans for the Space Needle in Seattle. Their plan was to blow it up at midnight New Year’s Eve. The closed down the Needle but had the normal fireworks go off. I was a couple blocks away watching the fireworks and remember the story in the news. I might not have been so close if I knew it was part of a larger plan.

I don’t remember Clinton being blamed for the bombing of the U.S. Embassies in 1998. Sure bin Laden had made declarations to attack the west but the attacks were planned in secret. He did have a decent cruise missile response but it didn’t eliminate the terror group.

Obama is clearly bored with them discussing who is to blame for 9/11 every time they get together.

Obama is clearly bored with them discussing who is to blame for 9/11 every time they get together.

The fact that someone tried to blow up a ship in early 2000 should have been an indicator, but the Cole was in the same waters a year later. This is a serious lapse in judgement or ignoring the lessons of the investigation. It also carries over into the ROE issue. Petty Officer John Washak was reprimanded for pointing an M60 at a small boat approaching the fantail of the Cole less than 24 hours after the attack. To a rational person it might look like a repeat attack but the ROE was not changed to protect the boat from follow up bombing, something that I don’t think would fly today.

The issue of ROE extends to when bin Laden hid out in Afghanistan. Ahmed Shah Massoud was fighting the Taliban and was working with the U.S. because of the similar goals. Massoud was laughed at the ROE that the U.S. imposed on him. They wanted bin Laden captured alive and when approaching they could not fire unless fired upon and still had to take care not to kill the terror mastermind. Of course it was ridiculous but for the U.S. too give his group the intelligence on the enemy’s location he would have to play by our rules. Keep in mind, if SEAL Team Six had the same ROE they would not be alive today. Of course if Massoud had the same ROE as SEAL Team Six then the al-Qaida head might have been killed in the late ‘90s.

Killing the mastermind would only have prevented the attacks on Sept. 11 if he was killed before the plan was formed and funded. Any time after that and the plan would still have gone forward. So unless we can pinpoint the exact date of the funding and planning we might be able to pin the attacks on Clinton. Maybe we should blame the guy that pushed a madman over the edge.

The president that started it all

if this pushed Osama bin Laden over the edge, he must be spinning in his grave knowing that there are female Rangers.

if this pushed Osama bin Laden over the edge, he must be spinning in his grave knowing that there are female Rangers.

This could be placed on Bush Sr. After all he did something that made bin Laden really mad. He was the president that allowed girls to drive in the Holy Land. To some, an inexcusable crime. It of course started with Iraq invading the friendly nation of Kuwait. Naturally Saudi Arabia was worried that they might be next and called in the help of a coalition of nations. It kicked off Desert Shield and the barely 100 hour “war” of Desert Storm.

It could be said that the president should not have deployed females to the Middle East because it would insult the sensibilities of some of the locals. Since I am not an idiot, I am not going to get into the discussion of if not deploying females into areas that oppress females encourages those behaviors, how sexist it could be and the obvious issues of equality and military readiness but feel free to discuss with a broad range of people and let me know how it turns out.

No matter the reason if he didn’t think about it or decided to deploy females anyway, it was a point of contention for Osama bin Laden. Saudi Arabia is the home of Mecca and there were women doing things only men are allowed to do, like walk around without hair and face coverings, driving, holding jobs and generally not having babies which is just wrong to some people. It could have been the first sign of the apocalypse for him and we had to be stopped.

I am pretty sure this is how bin Laden imagined it.

I am pretty sure this is what bin Laden thinks they do. How dare she sit there not having babies?

I wouldn’t point the finger at H.W. Bush because he didn’t anticipate one of what is no doubt on a long laundry list of things that pushed bin Laden over the edge into stepping up his terror game. A guy that crazy can’t be reasoned with. He considered the U.S in his home country and invasion of the Holy Land even through it was at the request of the government and what was most likely seen as a good move for the nation. The only thing that got Iraq out of Kuwait was a coalition forcing them out. That and a 40-day bombing campaign.

So Bush Sr. might have contributed to the madness of the 9/11 mastermind, Clinton didn’t do all he could to kill the man and didn’t prevent future attacks and Dubya was in charge on Sept. 11 and had the benefit of the knowledge of historical events. Everyone knew how dangerous al-Qaida was but couldn’t stop them due to the secretive nature of the terrorist organization. If the U.S. would have known what they were planning they might have been able to prevent Massoud’s assassination which would have most likely led to him being president of Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban and the region would look a whole lot different.

Pointing fingers is easy and would be great if there was only one indicator to place responsibility. Unfortunately, what everyone could have done would have had political ramifications. There is no way congress or the American people would have been on board with invading Sudan after an embassy bombing or an attack on a single ship in the Middle East. Maybe if the American people would have supported more than just airstrikes then Clinton would have taken greater action but he pulled troops out of Somalia and most likely didn’t want a similar situation like Mogadishu that hurt his predecessor.

Instead of trying to figure out who to blame for an attack 13 years ago for camera time, I want to know what a future president is going to do to prevent the next 9/11. Ayman al-Zawahiri is still out there and I am sure he and his friends are planning something.

Breakdown for the comic book geeks: Is Spiderman responsible for the death of Ben Parker? Peter Parker had a chance to stop the thief but didn’t. The thief, a man he didn’t know to be a killer, later shot his uncle in a robbery gone bad. If he would have known the future he would have for sure put in the effort to stop the thief, but lacking that information he took no action because it seemed appropriate for the given situation.

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You Can’t Cherry Pick Your Oath

Posted on September 30, 2015 by psessum

By Peter Sessum

oath enlistment armyI was really hoping to let this die, but since Kim Davis is back in the news I just have to vent a little about the situation. What drives me crazy is how she disagrees with part of her job and instead of quitting, she just refuses to do it. That is a luxury that military members do not have. Unlike her oath of office, soldiers can’t pick and choose what parts of their oath of enlistment to follow.

On Oct. 10, 1995, Specialist Michael New was in formation in regulation BDUs and a soft cap. He was out of uniform because he refused to wear the United Nations (U.N.) baby blue cap. We were in the same brigade in Germany and I remember the story. His unit was tasked with a six month peacekeeping rotation to Macedonia. Peacekeeping is the mission of the U.N. and since the U.N. doesn’t have a military, member nations provide the troops. It was considered a pretty cake duty depending on where you were stationed.

This is the headgear New decided to wear that got him a big chicken dinner.

This is the headgear New decided to wear that got him a big chicken dinner.

New decided that since he did not join the U.N. the order to deploy was therefore unlawful and he wouldn’t go along with it. Or more specifically that he wouldn’t deploy as a member of the U.N. and so wouldn’t wear the baby blue hats or berets that soldiers wore. He considered the U.N. a separate power and asked, “Where does my oath say that I have to wear U.N. insignia?” I am hoping his command said, “Right next to where it says Third ID patch.”

His command understood and respected his beliefs but a lawful order is a lawful order. They tried to convince him to wear the hat and go because it would all be over in a few months and it wasn’t considered a combat deployment. He refused so they kicked him out for disobeying a lawful order.

Military members have to obey the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). It is the legal system of the military but it is also in the oath of enlistment. Just as he promised to follow the orders of the president of the United States and the officer appointed over him. He might have had a case if he was forced to actually join another country’s military but in joint operations sometimes there is a foreign officer somewhere in the food chain which is what New was debating. Unfortunately, the oath of enlistment does not specify American officers so he had no case.

Ironically, New is now part of a group calling themselves the Oathkeepers. He also has written a book and spouts conspiracy theories, mostly targeting the U.N. and of course celebrates the day he historically stood up against the Army. But is historic if history doesn’t remember you?

People that were in their MOS school on Sept. 11 joined a different military than the one they graduated into. Anyone that joined Sept. 12 or later should have known that deploying was a possibility and anyone that joined after the invasion of Iraq should have known that a trip to that sandbox was in their future. Ehren Watada was one of those people. He joined the Army and became an officer a month after the U.S. invaded Iraq. So he wasn’t a dumb 17-year-old private.

Only after a WARNO to deploy did Watada decide to research Iraq. Even for an LT that makes him slow on the uptake.

Only after a WARNO to deploy did Watada decide to research Iraq. Even for an LT that makes him slow on the uptake.

He was good with his decision during training, during the year he was stationed in Korea and even during his time a Fort Lewis, now Joint Base Lewis McChord, and it was only when he received the Warning Order (WARNO) to deploy to Iraq did he suddenly have a problem with it.

After the WARNO he did his research by reading book on the history of the region and he decided that the Iraq War was unjust and that deploying would make him guilty of war crimes.

My issue with Watada is twofold. First, he joined the Army after the invasion of Iraq had already kicked off. The invasion was not a sneak attack, so there was a lot of press leading up to it. He had to know at that point that joining might make deploying a possibility but he still joined. Second, his decision that the war was unjust came after being told his unit would deploy. Only then did he decide that the war was wrong. After three years of enjoying Army pay and benefits, he suddenly didn’t want to play anymore. Soldiers can’t play Army until something happens they don’t want to do. Doing stuff that sucks is kind of what the military is all about. If you could quit at any time or refuse to do things you didn’t agree with the military would fall apart. The solution is simple, if you don’t want to do that shit, don’t join.

As Americans everyone has the right to do believe what they want. There is a huge difference between these two men and Davis and it isn’t that her beliefs are spiritual and not political. The monumental difference is that she can walk away at any time. There is nothing forcing her to stay.

New and Watada had military contracts to fulfill. They had the UCMJ to follow and a chain of command to answer to that extended all the way up to the president. Davis can just walk out the door and not show back up to work. The only negative downside for her is the lack of a paycheck. But I am sure she can get a job at the pizza joint that won’t cater gay wedding receptions.

As an elected official she must have some form of oath of office that she had to swear to do the job she was elected into. Yet she is deciding not to do that job. Regardless of your political or religious beliefs, you have to agree that not handing two dudes a piece of paper is not the same as invading another country without an exit strategy.

John Boehner is proof that elected officials can walk away from their job. If the man that is third in the line of succession to be president can deuce out, so can a woman in Kentucky in a county clerk’s office. Watada and New had two choices, follow 100 percent of the orders given to you or get booted. That is what bother me about the Kim Davis situation, there is nothing stopping her from quitting, she just doesn’t want to.

There is nothing about her religion that forces her to have a government job. If she doesn't want to do it then she can quit.

There is nothing about her religion that forces her to have a government job. If she doesn’t want to do it then she can quit.

Even more infuriating is that her reasoning is wrong. In an interview her husband said that “five judges making a decision doesn’t make it a law.” Yes, you country ass motherfucker that is the very definition of a law. A Supreme Court decision is literally the law of the land. They are not the only ones who makes laws, but when they make a determination, it is no shit legally binding. It is called the Supreme Court because there is literally no higher court in the country.

I wish she would just quit her job and fade away, but with the claims that she met with the pope during his visit she has jumped back into the news. She has a job, she has to do it. Just like we all had to do our jobs whether we wanted to or not. There are a lot of orders I would have loved to disobey, but you can’t ignore orders just because they are stupid, they have to be clearly unlawful.

Until she can show me the passage in the bible that requires its followers to hold a government office, she is not following her religion by staying. She is violating her oath of office and it drives me crazy that she can do that by choice when so many of us couldn’t. Too bad there isn’t a UCMJ for elected officials.

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I am Going to Cut Brian Williams Some Slack

Posted on September 28, 2015 by psessum

By Peter Sessum

Brian_Williams_2011_ShankboneThe Pope’s visit to America heralded the return of Brian Williams to news. While vets will long remember his statements and liken them to stolen valor, civilians will soon forget. As a vet, I do not take offense to his claims and I am going to cut him some slack. Mainly because I have seen vets do the same thing.

Embellishing a story is nothing new and I don’t think it is going to stop anytime soon. Military stories often evolve over time, especially for those who love the attention. The story also changes depending on what message the story is supposed to convey. Often a minor detail is changed to make the story sound better.

“I was in Berlin when the wall came down” is true for Brian Williams. Worded like that makes you think that he was present when the wall was coming down. But he and Tom Brokaw visited the wall the next day. Unfortunately, for Williams, the story later evolved to being at the wall when it came down. A minor change that doesn’t change the significance of that moment in history but it sounds better than missing it by a day. After all, he was in the city at the time and it sounds cooler than the truth.

The same goes for the story of the helicopter in Iraq. A chalk of helicopters comes under ground fire and they are forced to land because one is damaged by an RPG. Williams shows up in the following chalk and they end up staying overnight. The truth would be that he stayed overnight out in the middle of the desert and that would be a good story for most civilians. The fact that he wasn’t in the helicopter is a minor detail. Placing himself there would add to the tension which would be important for a storyteller.

For vets it seems too close to stolen valor but to Williams it might just be making the story better. It is also possible that as time has passed, the exact details fail him. It seems that each time he has publicly told the story the details have changed. If his story has changed that much when a camera has been on him I can’t imagine how much the story has been muddled in the countless times he has told it to friends and family.

MH-47 Chinook Afghanistan night ops by Sgt. Daniel P. Shook

To civilians, does it matter what chopper he was on? He was actually in Iraq so he really didn’t have to embellish at all.

I am going to cut the guy some slack because I have seen military members do the same thing. Not necessarily claiming to be something they are not but embellishing a story to make it sound cooler. Here is the evolution of a story that was told by a PSYOP soldier about a situation in Afghanistan.

The convoy was at a halt and he was in the TC seat of a Humvee when two Taliban fighters fired at the unit from a ridge-line. A squad of Infantry was sent up the hill but the pair had already disappeared over the crest and were gone.

The convoy was at a halt and he was ground guiding his vehicle into a better position. Two Taliban fighters fired at the unit and a squad of Infantry was sent off after them. The bad guys got away.

The convoy was at a halt, he was ground guiding the vehicles and HE came under fire. Not just the unit but they were aiming at him and his vehicle. Again, squad of Infantry sent out to chase after the bad guys.

And my personal favorite, he was outside the vehicle during a convoy halt. They were ambushed by the Taliban and he led the Infantry squad up the hill after the bad guys.

Bearded man in a sterilized uniform with a rifle in the background, what do you think this is? This picture, while published elsewhere, has never been misrepresented. Former grunt turned speaker monkey having lunch with the locals. Not a Special Forces soldier

Sessum refers to this time as when he “ran missions with SF.” He always clarifies that he was PSYOP support and not SF qualified. It disrupts the flow of the story but an important distinction. Some don’t do that and are suspected of lying about their service by misleading.

That was the evolution of the story that happened while we were still in Afghanistan. At least Williams has the excuse of a 10 year span of time. This troop changed his story with each telling over the course of a couple of months. One of his soldiers would shake his head when he would talk about the situation. The soldier later said that the NCO was asleep in the vehicle when someone popped off a couple AK shots and fled but that is not a sexy story to tell people that have been through more. He is also one of the guys that never worked with SF but wears the SF group combat patch since PSYOP was under special operations. Legal but misleading.

It takes some diligence to not embellish a story or wording a story to not be misleading to the audience. Seeing soldiers embellish their stories and seeing how they evolve over time leads to me to cut Williams some slack over his stories. I think it was harmless and now that he has been busted he will be better about that kind of thing now. Either his ego or his pocketbook (he lost a job that was rumored to pay $10 million a year) will keep him in line. Everyone knows a troop or vet that embellishes a story here and there and it seems unfair to hold a civilian to a higher standard.

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What it Feels Like to be a Veteran: Harry Potter

Posted on September 18, 2015 by psessum
Mixing military and fandoms, either this is genius or a bunch of geeks are about to be pissed off.

Mixing military and fandoms, either this is genius or a bunch of geeks are about to be pissed off.

By: Peter Sessum

The military experience can be difficult to put into words that civilians understand. Not that they lack the mental capacity, but it is hard to put it in terms that they can relate to. Military life is often too foreign to those that have never served. Some people bring in their own prejudices that impair true understanding.

Every vet has heard someone say, “I just couldn’t stand to have people tell me what to do all the time.” Or have talked to someone that fixates on combat when on a deployment a lot of life happens between missions. So to aid in better understanding we are going to use something from popular culture that many civilians can relate to: Harry Potter.

If you have not read the books or see the movies I am going to guess that you never will. But in case it is on your list, here is the required spoiler alert.

Imagine you are in the Harry Potterverse, when you received your letter to Hogwarts you entered a world that you had heard about but never fully immersed in. Maybe someone in your family has told you stories about their time there, but it is all second hand and from their particular lens. You arrived at the school excited to learn and prove yourself. Like other first years you were considered to not know anything and to be pretty much useless. You were expected to keep your mouth shut, follow the rules and learn from the prefects. That is like being a private, which are famously known for not knowing anything and needing the guidance of their sergeants. Literally: Shut up and do as you are told.

Being sorted into a house is like selecting an MOS or joining one of the different services. Everyone is told that their service or MOS is the best and while there is some friendly rivalry the “one team one fight” mentality is what counts. Just like there is a friendly rivalry between houses but underneath it all you are wizards and that it the thing that binds you all together. Your first year was pretty uneventful but you hear stories about a basilisk from last year that was attacking students and the school was almost closed.

Your second year was during the Tri-Wizard Tournament. It is amazing and bigger than anything you have imagined before. There were dragons! Then it all becomes real when one of the students die. You didn’t know him all that well but it still hits close to home. Suddenly magic stopped being something you play with and was a very real danger. There is a major threat that is back and the Ministry of Magic doesn’t think it is real. One of the most powerful, and evil, wizards of all time used a competition for students to stage his comeback and murdered a classmate.

Military and intelligence budgets were slashed after the cold war but there were still threats out there and no one was listening.

Military and intelligence budgets were slashed after the cold war but there were still threats out there and no one was listening.

The Ministry of Magic represents the government or chain of command. Many service members or people in the intelligence community struggle with knowing of a threat and not being listened to. I myself have experienced trying to talk to officers who wouldn’t listen just because I was enlisted even though I was a subject matter expert. The frustration is painful. The worst is when you can see how people are going to die because of the current course of action.

The next year things got worse. The ministry still didn’t believe there was a real threat despite what you saw were clear warnings. The headmaster was removed and the entire school changes. You were one of the first to sign up with the group of students that could see where things were heading and you wanted to make sure you were prepared. It wasn’t easy but you knew what you were doing was right.

The loss of Dumbledore is like losing a good commander or platoon sergeant, usually through a change of station. But leadership really sets the tone for a unit jut as Dumbledore being replaced changed the fictional school. Just like a good unit, the school fell apart and the wrong people were in charge. When a serious threat is finally recognized is like when the ministry finally recognizes that Voldemort is back.

The battle for Hogwarts is on. You were ready, it is what you trained for but it is far worse than you had imagined. Then, almost as suddenly as it started, it stopped. You tended to your wounded and mourn your dead.

The Battle for Hogwarts is like having a fire base overrun. How do you explain the complexity of emotions to someone that can't relate?

The Battle for Hogwarts is like having a fire base overrun. How do you explain the complexity of emotions to someone that can’t relate?

But it wasn’t over, the war, it was far from over. You hadn’t had a chance to recover from the last battle before you were at it again. At the end of it all you were happy to be alive. While you were prepared for the magic side, nothing prepared you for the emotional side of magical duels much less an all-out war.

Battle of Hogwarts, for the purpose of this, is a deployment. The pause in the battle could be the downtime between missions or the time between deployments that is never long enough. I know people that have done turnarounds of less than 90 days to different theaters.

Like some soldiers, the students were not prepared for the fight. You can teach anyone how to shoot, but there are aspects of a deployment that are hard to train for. And you can’t unteach those skills. If you were one of those kids at Hogwarts, you wouldn’t dream about levitating feathers, you would dream about the battle. The friends you lost and the lives you took. You can still see the face of a death eater you killed. There are a couple that were moving and are just a blur and one you are not sure if it was your spell or the kid from another house, the ones lost in the fog of war, but there might be that one death eater who was looking right at you. You will always remember his face as you flicked your wand and the look of fear as he realized he couldn’t defend against it. You know it was him or you but the dreams don’t.

Returning from deployment is like returning to Hogwarts the year after Voldemort is defeated. The First years (privates) were all excited to be there and many would say how they wish they had been a year older and could have been there for the battle at Hogwarts. After a while you stopped correcting them that they really wouldn’t want to have been there. You quickly got sick of reminding them how useless first years are and that they most likely would have been like many of the other first years that died that night.

Graduation is like the enlistment ending. For a vet it is too often going home and trying to figure out what is next. There was a huge feeling of “now what?” You fought the forces of Voldemort and now are you going to be a security guard at Gringott’s? Should you get a job working a cubicle at the ministry? You are well qualified to help hunt down the remaining death eaters but you know the deadly side of magic and do you want to go through that again, after all, the dreams stopped a year ago and do you want more sleepless nights? People don’t understand what you mean when you say you miss it.

“How can you miss it,” they ask, “the battle for Hogwarts was horrible, what kind of person would miss that?”

If you were there for this moment, how would you explain this to someone who wasn't there? Imagine how you would feel years later having someone tell you that Voldemort was just misunderstood and that you are just angry for hating him.

If you were there for this moment, how would you explain this to someone who wasn’t there? Imagine how you would feel years later having someone tell you that Voldemort was just misunderstood and that you are just angry for hating him.

What no one understands is that you don’t miss the battle, you don’t miss losing your friends and you for sure don’t miss the taking of the life even from someone you consider to be evil. You miss what came after. The joy of finding a friend alive after it was all done. Mourning together when you see a mutual friend didn’t make it. The best feeling was reconnecting at the start of a new school year after living among the muggles for the summer. You miss being around the only people that will understand you because you share a bond that can’t be broken. And now you live apart and you won’t have that bond again.

It can be difficult for veterans to go to college. Not for the workload, but being around a bunch of faux intellectuals that will spout off all kinds of stupidity thinking that because they watched Jon Stewart or John Oliver they are up to speed on a topic that you are far too familiar with.

Image you are that young wizard, and after a few years you hear people sympathizing with the forces of Voldemort. Instead of being someone so feared that no one says his name, they act as if he was misunderstood and somehow you, a person that looked at his face, is not qualified to debate his intentions. The death eaters, murderers to you, have become a group of people fighting for what they thought were right. How did murderers become sympathetic?

How do you think one of these people would react to someone telling them they are too afraid to step on a spider?

How do you think one of these people would react to someone telling them they are too afraid to step on a spider?

The worst part is trying to find a connection with people around you. Think of being a wizard and going back home to talk the kid from across the street. Your best friend until you were 11, is now a complete stranger. He got in a fight after school once, you had to defend your school against monsters. He has arachnophobia but you had to fight off spiders 10 feet tall. The only thing you have in common is that you both like pizza. Something that wasn’t even served at school.

Even though they are well meaning, it can still be difficult to talk to someone will never really understand about something that you might not even be able to fully talk about. If civilians are muggles, how would a wizard that fought against the forces of Voldemort relate to them?

The veteran experience is a very individual one. It is be difficult to have been part of something incredible and dynamic and then losing your connection to it. What that means is different for everyone. Some feel they were part of something bigger than themselves and now are working in a situation where everyone is in it for themselves. Some feel they did something that mattered and now face just punching a clock and not doing anything important for the rest of their life. Some just feel detached from the country that they love so much and defended for so long. It sucks to feel like a foreigner in your own country.

That is what it feels like to be a vet. This is painting with a pretty wide brush but it helped to put it in a context many civilians could understand. This isn’t about making civilians feel bad or comparing experiences. Part of what the Dogtag Chronicles is about is to help civilians better understand the military experience. This isn’t a competition, the fact that your life has been quiet is good. It means we did our job. I am not going to look down on someone for thinking that missing the bus or a barista getting their order wrong will ruin their entire day, all I ask is not to look down in vets because all your worst days are still better than some of our good days.

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