Tag: Marines

Now over a decade with two wars of choice and added to the previous decades of ignored issues and not fully funding the Veterans Administration, thus saving monies instead of increased costs to catchup with the needs, as to the results of our wars. Easier to lay blame on the agency rather then the country, the 99% who don’t serve it, who collectively don’t look in the mirror at their total lack of Sacrifice as they wave those flags!

Last night, 30 July 2011, the Congressional House (T)’s did exactly what many thought they would and now the Congressional Senate (T)’s, going into their oft used filibuster, follow the Houses lead, and their Supporters Cheer, a day after this:

There’s been a great deal of concern around here about the effort to prepare the US military for the full repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT), and I’ve had a few words of my own regarding how long the process might take.

There was a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee last Thursday that had all four Services represented; with one exception these were the same Service Chiefs that were testifying last December when the bill to set the repeal process in motion was still a piece of prospective legislation.

At that time there was concern that the “combat arms” of the Marines and the Army were going to be impacted in a negative way by the transition to “open service”; the Commandant of the Marine Corps and the Army’s Chief of Staff were the most outspoken in confirming that such concerns exist within the Pentagon as well.

We now have more information to report-including the increasing desperation of some of our Republican friends-and if you ask me, I think things might be better than we thought.

So we got the good news that legislative repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy that kept LBGT folks from openly serving in the military has occurred, as the Senate voted Saturday to first cut off debate on the question (that’s the vote that required 60 Senators to pass) and then to pass the actual repeal legislation (which also garnered more than 60 Senate votes, even though it only needed 51).

Most people would assume that once Bill (remember Bill, from Schoolhouse Rock?) made it out of Congress and over to the President to for a signature that the process of repeal will be ended-but in fact, there’s quite a bit more yet to do, and it’s entirely possible that a year or more could go by before the entire process is complete.

Today we’ll discuss our way through why it’s going to take so long; to illustrate the point we’ll consider an actual military order that is quite similar to the sort of work that will be required from the Department of Defense (DOD) before the entire “DADT to open service” transition is complete.

I just caught this and there doesn’t seem to be much on it yet

U.S. to Appeal Blackwater Case Dismissal, Biden Says

There isn’t a time mark on the NYT piece but the few others I found had it as about an hour ago.

This is a cut from the Times piece.

For those that seem to have a problem with the facts of how we humans live and readily do damage to our environment, and really seem not to care, that around us as well as adding to what everyone else has done making it a global problem, this post, and the links etc. that it contains, may educate you some, and this is only about what our military does, knowingly or not, and corrects or not.  

This is going to be short, but should get the notice it needs and the corrections in a system that is broken, in a military breaking, in many ways, because of the failed policies of the previous administration and those beating the drums of war but unwilling to serve!

Joshua Fry Was Recruited Out of Group Home for Mentally Disabled

My grandfather was in the Army for all of 3 days during WWII. He was an artilleryman at the Battle of the Bulge. After those 3 days he was given a medical discharge as he had completely lost his hearing. He came back and worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yards as a tank mechanic.

My uncle served in the Navy in the 50’s before returning to work as a DoD contractor for Sperry, later Unisys, where he joined my father, eventually becoming the company’s manager in charge of all DoD contracts.

My dad, an electrical engineer, was on the original design team for the E2-C AWACS radar at Sperry in 1959. Most of his career was spent developing and testing radars and weapons guidance systems. Many of the battleships, destroyers and carriers out there have been worked on by my father. He was also involved in the development and maintenance of Polaris, Trident and Terrier missile systems while at Sperry/Unisys in Great Neck and Ronkonkoma, and later at Harris PRD/GSSD in Syosset.

I’m not one of the IGTNT Posters, that do such a Great Honor for those who have lost their lives to this Countries Failed Policies. And I doubt they’ll mind me using the initials for I bring Sad News!

Back on Febuary 21st I posted an Alert about a missing Marine, Eric Hall {that link takes you to my site}.

I started that off with this:

Do not watch this if you are squeamish.

It’s graphic.

Iraq is still dangerous, Afghanistan is still dangerous, and the Marines want out of Iraq and they are willing to be redeployed to Afghanistan to prove it.

First, the NY Times reports that Pushed out of Baghdad, the insurgents move north.

Sunni insurgents pushed out of Baghdad and Anbar Provinces have migrated to this northern Iraqi city and have been trying to turn it into a major hub for their operations, according to American commanders…

The insurgents who have ventured north include Abu Ayyub-al Masri, the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a predominantly Iraqi group that American intelligence says has foreign leadership. American officials say the insurgent leader has twice slipped in and out of Mosul in Nineveh Province to try to rally fellow militants and put end to infighting.

Okay, even more confirmation that all the Kagan-McCain-Bush “surge” did was to send the insurgents outside of Baghdad and Anbar Province where they laid low until the summer heat – military-wise and temperature-wise – cooled off. But, Baghdad and Anbar is safer now, right?

So– the latest plan being argued is to make Afghanistan a Marine mission while the Army takes full responsibility for Iraq. This makes sense. More below the fold.