Hello
everyone! I know it has been a while
since I’ve posted in this blog. However,
this may be the last post I do in this blog again for another long period. I apologize to anyone who follows
this blog of the lack of posts I’ve put into it, life has its way of interrupting
progress. Anyhow, I’m making this post
to let you all know that I’ve made the decision that I’m going to write a book
based on this blog. The book’s title
will be similar to that of the title of the blog, but with an additional
part. It’s going to be called Ass
Kissers and Toxic Leaders: Memoirs of my time in the US Army. I was sort of hesitant about my decision over
the past three years since leaving the Army, I was unsure if I would get in
trouble about it, to be honest. However,
after doing some research, asking other fellow Veterans that have written books
about restrictions, and looking at DoD guidelines, I am safe to say I can go
write my book with ease. Like my blog, like
it’s said in the Introductory post, those guidelines will be imposed into my
book as well. There was some opposition about
my decision to make the book from some of the very few people I served and still
stay in contact with, telling me that I may be violating OPSEC if I do
this. Also, the same people telling me
this knew about my situation when I was stationed at Ft. Campbell about my
First Sergeant trying to chapter me out based on his personal opinion though I
would be just bad mouthing the Army about all the bad times I had while being
in. This is not going to be a bad mouth
session on the Army, in fact, I don’t even hate the Army. I only have disagreements with the
organization, that is all. For the seven
and a half years I was in the Army, I was always told to report things that I
felt were not right going on, and this book is simply doing what I was trained
to do. Of course, there are going to be
some Vets that may say, “Well, that’s just the way the Army is” crap, but it
doesn’t mean it was right. Also, I want
my story to be told, I want to let people who are thinking about joining the
Army to know what they are getting themselves into, and that they may suffer
long term effects once they leave the Army, just like I have. This would very therapeutic for me because I
feel if I don’t do this, then I’m going to end up one of the twenty-two
Veterans who kill themselves every day.
The decision has been made, and I’m going forward with it. As I said earlier in this post, I won’t be
posting anything else for a while, so expect a long pause here. The next thing I will be posting in this
blog will be excerpts that will be in my book, just to let you all see what is
to come. I’ll try to get something up
soon.
Well,
just when I thought I’ve seen it all!
About a month ago, I was on Facebook as I seem to look at every
day. In the section of where they the
“People You May Know” friend suggestions, I came upon a former Soldier I was
put in charge of back when I was stationed at Ft. Campbell. At first, seeing her picture, I was pretty
disgusted but yet I checked her profile anyways. While on her profile, I saw she had of her
own page, so I checked that out and lo and behold, this former Soldier is now a
motivational speaker/coach. I have to be
honest, I was laughing so hard when I saw this page on Facebook. I almost began to think that this was some of
a joke. However, that page was not a
joke and this former Soldier is now a motivational speaker, and from the looks
of it, she is very serious about it. I
began to wonder about this, and think who or what is trying to motivate? Other people, that try to milk the system by
faking an injury like she did when she was in the Army? How to take advantage of the government? It was Soldiers like her that gave meaning to
the phrase Blue Falcon. First off, she had
an extremely bad attitude when it came to doing work and being at work call. One thing that really pissed me off was when she
got a dead man’s profile, so much so to where she didn’t do anything except show
up to work call. I remember her saying
it was because of her back, which I find ironic being when I saw her page, she
talks about working out all the time and going to the gym. As a result of her dead man’s profile, she
couldn’t drive a HMMV, do any kind of lifting, or do or even be present working
in PMCS with vehicles in the motor pool.
This was so aggravating and irritating enough, and then all of a sudden,
she gets another female Soldier from my section to literally do the same
thing! As a result, there would be two
Soldiers doing absolutely nothing while it was just leaders and some Soldiers doing
the tasks in our shop. I mean, there was
even a Soldier in our section that got blown up while deployed in Iraq, had his
back reconstructed, and still was doing some of the hard work for our missions. This Soldier would literally not lift a
finger to do anything because it stated in her profile that she couldn’t. She never deployed to a combat zone, in fact,
she even told me and some of our supervisors that she would rather get a
dishonorable discharge than go to a combat zone. What gall she has to say such a thing,
especially knowing that I knew friends that got killed by a suicide bomber in
Afghanistan. I also remember someone
telling me that she intentionally got pregnant one time just so she couldn’t
get deployed. I’m not one hundred percent
sure about that, but I wouldn’t put it past her. Plus, she would make excuses to not come into
work or try to come in late because of having a baby and unable to try to get a
babysitter. Don’t get me wrong, I can
understand having a child will lead to some issues at hand, but that doesn’t
mean you should make that an excuse to not be in work and so forth. Especially when you’re in the Military because
they’re not going to feel sorry for you for anything. All that the Military will say is “You
shouldn’t have gotten pregnant.” Then,
this Soldier tried to get my supervisor to let her leave early from work so she
can go to the gym. I remember my
supervisor telling her, “We get off work at 1700, you can go to the gym then.” Of course, she made her child as an excuse
saying she was unable to go to the gym after work because she would have her
kid and was unable to get a babysitter.
This sounded very odd being she was married, so why not the husband watch
their kid? Then she gets into a frenzy
and starts saying she will go to the IG office on base and report our
supervisor for not letting her leave early from work. It was such a fucking mess, between her and
the other female Soldier in our section, because the other Soldier would start
pulling the same garbage of trying not to be at work as well. I still remember her excuse about wanting to leave
early from work, “Well, all we’re going to do is sit there anyways. I can’t do any of the work, so I’m just stuck
playing on the computer.” It was getting
so ridiculous that only one or two Soldiers out of an entire section of six Soldiers
can do any kind of work. Along with them
not doing anything and trying to get out of being at work, the final straw came
when these two Soldiers tried to play the race game on just about everything,
considering both them were black just so they can get my supervisor in
trouble. Once that started happening,
another supervisor came back into our section due to his orders being canceled
to deploy to Afghanistan, which at the time the unit I was in was forward
deployed and we were in the rear detachment.
I and the other supervisor informed him what was going on with these
two Soldiers, so he decided to talk to them and try to work something out. Of course, these two Soldiers talked to them
as though he should bend over and tolerate their current position with
profiles, children, and so forth.
Thankfully for that supervisor, he didn’t put up with the garbage and
immediately got them moved out of our section.
To this day, I still don’t understand with some people who join the
Military. Whether they think they don’t
have to go to a combat zone or to think they can get on a dead man profile and
not come into work at all. I can’t stand
that way of thinking, that idea of not doing any kind of work but when it comes
to payday, they’re the first to come up with their hand open and saying “Gimmie”
for their pay. Now that the female Soldier
is a motivational speaker, most likely giving people the wrong advice. I don’t want to give this person any kind of
publicity, but here’s the link to her page if you have a good laugh.
Some people just need to get their head out and see life as it is.
Disclaimer:The views expressed in this article [or, book, blog post, essay, op-ed] are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the [insert your agency, institution, organization], Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
I was going to write this and publish this yesterday, but I
got taught into drinking a lot of mead and playing guitar so it didn’t work out
as planned. Today, however, I’m getting
it done. Well, I still can’t it, one year
since I took off the uniform for good.
Do I miss it? Some of the things I do
miss, like knowing a couple like-minded people over the seven and
a half years I was in. Unfortunately,
there are a lot more things I don’t miss, such as the immense toxic leadership,
the backstabbing, and overall poor quality of troops from the E-1 Private to
the Four-Star General. I began to
reminisce about my entire in the Army the past couple of days and just thought
about all the good and bad things that happened to me. Throughout my time, I had three duty
stations, went to Afghanistan for a year, and did a South Korea tour. I actually made Sergeant, even though it was
late in my career, and after being a Corporal for a few years. Overall, I would say my time in the Army was
disappointing because of how the Military is in this day of age. For every one good thing that happened to me,
a dozen bad things would follow suit for some reason. Plus, the sad part of this all is, the best
time I had in the Army was in Basic Training!
Once graduating Basic, it became a slow and steady decline from AIT to
my last duty station of Ft. Carson.
However, of all the rubbish I had to deal with, I still don’t regret
joining the Army. The reason for that is
only one percent of the US population serves in the Armed Forces, so that means
ninety-nine percent either chose not to join due to other opportunities at hand,
had medical issues, or just plain scared and said “fuck that shit!”
I joined the Army at a time when I was in a huge rut. I was living with a buddy of mine in Illinois
who was living with this father that had some mental issues. I knew my buddy for a long time, and I knew
about how his father was. His father was
a hoarder and a very bad one on top of that.
There are many other things I could talk about with him, but I’ll do
that at a later time. I moved in with my
buddy after I got into a huge argument with my father and decided I didn’t want
to put up with his crap anymore. Anyways,
I lived with my buddy for about two years before leaving for Basic Training. I remember signing up in May of 2009 at the recruiting
station in town. It was hilarious, I
dressed up like I was going to a job interview; dress shirt, pants, and a tie. However, it worked to my advantage because I
gave the recruiter I worked with a great impression to the point that he rushed me
into MEPS and immediately got me started in the Future Soldier Program that was
held in their Recruiting Unit. It kind
of sucked that I had to wait six months to leave for Basic Training, but I got
prepared as much as I could with the time I was given. I left in Nov. 2009 to go to Ft. Knox, where
my Basic Training would be held at. I
was originally supposed to go to Ft. Jackson, but my orders got changed at the
last minute when I was at MEPS about to be shipped to Basic. At first, I wasn’t too happy about the change
of order, but in the end, after seeing a lot of the Soldiers coming out of Ft.
Jackson while in AIT, I was glad of the change.
Basic Training, despite the craziness of it all, in the end, would be a
great experience for me. It really
showed me what I was made of. I will be
starting a writing project about my Basic Training experience in the next
couple of months, so be on the lookout for that.
My AIT was held at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL. I was a squad leader during my time there, so
really kind of enjoying myself the little freedom I had when I was off duty was
a bit hard. It was, however, my first
taste of leadership in the Army, so it was beneficial in the later years. My first duty station was Ft. Campbell, which
at first, I was happy about because it’s home to the 101st Airborne
Division and I was happy to be part of such a historical unit. Unfortunately, it only lasted for the first
two, maybe three months of my time there.
Immediately, I began to see how the Army really was, with its toxic
leadership and its two-faced, egomaniac hypocrisy. But I was able to go to Afghanistan while
stationed there and became a Corporal despite having a First Sergeant that didn’t
think I should’ve been in the Army, to begin with. I was there for four years, and after that, I
went to South Korea, which was literally one of the worst, if not the worst,
duty stations in the US Army. It was
like going back to TRADOC, being in AIT all over again. Luckily, I was only there for a year but
lost my Corporal rank due to mouthing off at my Company Commander. Finally, I went to Ft. Carson. That place was a trip, seriously. I never saw a base that did so much field
training and never deploy to a combat zone.
Literally, their field operations were the base’s deployments. That base burnt out so many Soldiers of field
training, it made them literally run out of the Army in a heartbeat. I’ve never been to a base where there were so
many Soldiers that wanted to leave the Army immediately, so much so Ft. Carson
had a hard time retaining troops. This
is another story I will about in later entries here in this blog, and the same goes
for much of the topics I’ve spoken here.
Glad to be able to take this uniform off
I still don’t that it’s been one year since I
finally taken the uniform off once and for all.
Also, I still think about all the people I ran into during my seven and
half years in that said it was a mistake to join. I remember the guy I used to be friends with
that I went to Basic Training by saying “I should’ve listened to the lyrics
more carefully” about his decision of joining the Army after going by a song
from Metallica.
He even wrote a blog
about why he got out of the Army, seventeen reasons in all. I would put a link to that blog, but I am not
going to promote that asshole in any way, so I’ll let you all try to find
it. I still would like to think I did
something very good, despite getting seriously injured and having some major
mental issues from my time in the Army.
But, I will say this for my final thoughts on this topic: I am happy
that I served in the Military, but I am even happier with being out of the
Military. I have spoken.
Another final thought on being out of the Army
Disclaimer:The views expressed in this article [or, book, blog post, essay, op-ed] are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the [insert your agency, institution, organization], Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
I
know this one is going to ruffle some feathers.
Being stationed in South Korea is literally like being in a prison camp
for the Army. I mean, it seems like all
the bad apples in the branch go to South Korea because you can’t get deployed
to a combat zone there, being the Korean tour is considered a forward-deployed
duty station, largely due to being in close proximity to North Korea. I was there for a year during my time in the
Army and the sad thing was I chose it for my next duty station when I
re-enlisted. If I knew what I was going
to get myself into, I would’ve gone “FUCK THAT!” and stayed in the states. South Korea is easily, for the first time
since the battle of Anzio in World War II, the US Army Largest Self-Sustaining
Prison Camp in the world! The chain of command there is a joke, for instance,
the rules are all TRADOC based and almost everyone there that is an E-6 and
below is treated like an E-1 Private!
The command’s reason for that is because there are so many Privates
fresh out of AIT stationed in Korea, they don’t know how the Regular Army is
run so the command tries to rewrite Army Regulations into their favor so they
can take full advantage of them.
Everyone that is E-4 and below has to be with a battle buddy to hold
their hand when traveling off base, which for some idiots they do need that,
but for promotable ones that have proved themselves to be non-troublesome and
squared away stay off their back for God’s sake. I mean, the sad part of South Korea is that
most of the troublemakers stationed there are the senior enlisted and
officers! Yes, the supposed “leaders” at
the posts in the country. I can’t even
count the number of times I’ve heard higher-ranked individuals getting reprimanded
for various idiocies, like staying out after curfew, getting caught in a red-light
district, and simply messing around with some stupid Privates. However, it all somehow manages to come down
that is was the lower ranking Soldier’s fault in the whole mess, so as a result,
these sorry excuses for leaders make some idiotic rules that would’ve gotten
them reported to the IG office if they try to implement them in a stateside
base. The command climate was so toxic
in South Korea that it made me extremely suicidal, so much so in my entire
life! And the sad part of this,
there was no services insight to help me out from this. The camp where I was stationed only had a
Chaplin available once a month, and my unit didn’t have any MFLC services
available. Also, if you have an IG
complaint about our command, you had to go to another base a half-hour away to
see the IG office. Pathetic. It’s as though the command in South Korea is
willing to go out of its way to not give you any rights whatsoever. I mean, I understand when you’re in the
Military there are some rights you have to wave off, but this isn’t the
Military of thirty years ago where you had no rights at all. I have never felt so much to kill himself at
any time in my life as I was stationed in South Korea. The sad thing is I actually like the country
itself, the people are amazing, and I love the culture. It, of all things, was the fucking Army and
its toxic cloud of stupid ignorance that made my time there the worst possible. Especially the shitastic
disgrace of the unit I was part of, the 6th Ordnance Battalion. All that the command has done there was haze,
harass, and get away with any kind of IG complaint possible to its
Soldiers. Everyone there from the
Battalion Command on down was pitiful, corrupt, and downright garbage. It’s sad because it’s an Ordnance Battalion,
I love the Ordnance Corps, so much so I am a lifetime member of its
Association. It was also in South Korea
where I lost a friend of mine from Basic Training, which is another long story
that I said in previous writings and will touch on that again in another blog,
but not here, I have other issues to deal with.
It was there I lost my promotable status to a piece of shit company
commander that had no business commanding a fucking custodial profession. Yes, I’m talking to you, CPT JK, you sorry
excuse of a person. If I ever see your
fucking pollock ass trying to cross my path I will beat you down to the ground
till you’re nothing more than a red stain on the concrete from which where you
were standing. I would say the same to
the SFC who cared more about his NCOER than his own troops, but I’ll just give
him a number one gesture if I ever see him again. The nerve this man said I could use him for a
job reference when I got out of the Army.
Do you really think after what you did to me in South Korea that I would
even think of using you as a job reference if you couldn’t defend against that
toxic piece of shit company commander because he was your senior rater? Fuck you, fuck that company commander, and
fuck that pathetic shady battalion commander as well. You all make me fucking sick. 😡 Disclaimer:The views expressed in this article [or, book, blog post, essay, op-ed] are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the [insert your agency, institution, organization], Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
The Angry Private! US Army Ordnance Corps 2009-2017 OEF 2010-2011
Of
the seven and a half years while I was in the Army, there were many times I was
angered with the Chain of Command of my units.
It seemed at times they would only focus on minute, pointless issues
over issues that did matter. For
instance, about a week or two ago I got into it with some stupid, brainless
minions that lost all way of thinking for themselves about unit PT shirts. You see, in the Army, and I do believe in the
other branches as well, units will have clothing with their insignias on it for
sale to their personnel. I never had an
issue with units doing this, I mean, if someone wants to wear clothing with
their unit insignia on it is fine by me.
The problem with it is units will try to force their Soldiers to buy
this clothing just so it looks like there is pride with the unit, and everyone
likes being in it. It’s not really so
much the sweatshirts or the sweatpants they offer for sale, it’s the t-shirts
that Soldiers can wear during PT sessions in the morning. I remember my past units where the First
Sergeant would tell the formation in the mornings that the shirts weren’t
required but encouraged to buy, and when I say encouraged the leaders in the
company would almost harass Solider into buying these shirts. Some of the things these leaders would pull
are assigning a Soldier to more CQ/Battalion Staff Duty than usual, deny their
leave form, or not give them a weekend pass.
Just a bunch of immature, high school inspired bullying only to purchase
something that is technically not authorized under AR 670-1. Now, some of you may say “It is authorized,
under command discretion”, that only means it’s an in-unit authorization under
Battalion Command, and it doesn’t say in AR 670-1 that it’s required to have. It states the standard-issue physical fitness
uniform consists of the following components: a. Jacket. b. Pants. c. Trunks.
d. T-shirt. e. Undergarments. f. Footwear. g. Socks., and that is it, no unit
t-shirt in there.If a unit tries to
state it’s a requirement to have, they are wrong and can be punished under UCMJ
to make such a statement. To be honest,
if units really wanted their Soldiers to wear unit PT shirt, then the unit can purchase
them for their troops and issue them out, or have the leaders contribute money into
purchasing the shirts which I’ve seen done before. Other items units always seem to try to
enforce Soldiers to purchase are jump boots, Stetson hats, or any other special
items that come along with being in specific units. For instance, jump boots you would only wear
if you’re in an Airborne unit or an Air Assault unit. I was stationed at Fort Campbell for a better
part of four years in my time in the Army, and I remember my unit didn’t really
enforce the purchase of jump boots to its Soldiers, but I did know some people
in units that did so, even if you didn’t become Air Assault qualified. To me, being I never became Airborne or Air
Assault qualified, buying and wearing jump boots would’ve been, say, sacrilegious. Unless I became one of those, I had no
business wearing them. However, you can
only wear them while you’re in that particular unit, and once you go into a
unit that isn’t an Airborne or Air Assault unit, you can no longer wear
them. The same goes for Stetson hats,
an item very special to Cavalry units in the Army. I’ve also known people in Cavalry units that
weren’t even Cav Scouts where their leadership wanted and tried enforcing them
to purchase a Stetson hat. Now, I know
some Cavalry units won’t let you wear one until you’ve done a Spur Ride, which
is a traditional activity done by Cav units with new personnel. It usually can be a variety of activities,
like a PT test, a rifle range, ruck marching, or all three together where you
have a score very high in. Others included
just drinking a nasty concoction out of your combat boot. Either way, like jump boots, I would feel it
would be sacrilegious to wear a Stetson hat if not performing a Spur Ride of
some sort. But enforcing Soldiers to
purchase jump boots or a Stetson hat is very unacceptable, considering these
are not cheap at all. Finally, this isn’t
an item of purchase, but I feel it’s something that also goes along with the
lines of this subject; Battalion Balls.
Every unit I was part of always pushed to get all their Soldiers to be
pathetic, high school inspired dances so leaders could show there’s comradery within
the unit. What a load of bullshit! I
mean, units were so serious about these that Soldier had to go to the Battalion
Sergeant Major and explain why they couldn’t go to a ball if they weren’t going
to go. It’s funny how the Army tries to say
their family-friendly with their personnel, but then turn around enforce them
to go to functions that are really nothing more than brown nose fests. Let your Soldiers have lives for God’s sake,
and let them spend time with their families as much as they can because when it
comes time to deployments or even field training, at least their Soldiers have
gotten reasonable time to be with their own families. I have fucking spoken! Disclaimer:The views expressed in this article [or, book, blog post, essay, op-ed] are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the [insert your agency, institution, organization], Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
The Angry Private! US Army Ordnance Corps 2009-2017 OEF 2010-2011
Well, this has been a few months process creating this
blog. Some of them I talked to about
writing supported me on it, others said I could get into a lot of trouble, but I
don’t care, I’m still going forward with this.
The way I see it, this needs to be told.
Instead of sitting around letting it go on the way, it’s been going,
there needs to a whistle blown. That is
what you are taught in the Military, if something is happening that seems
wrong, report it immediately. I’m simply
doing that, because if you don’t report any wrongdoing, then you are as guilty
as the person doing what is wrong. However,
before I begin adding entries into this blog, I wanted to do this introduction and
lay down some ground rules that I have to maintain a thorough understanding
this my audience, so let’s begin!
What I will be telling you is my personal experiences while
I was in the US Army. I am medically
retired, served for seven and a half years, and I’m a recently discharged
Vet. That is all you need to know about
me at this time, and chances are that is all you will about me. Also, I have some guidelines that will be set
here and not changed.
1.I will not be calling out people’s names here in
this blog. I will be discussing
them, but to protect the stupid their names won’t be mentioned. Also, do not bother asking who they are, because
I will not tell you.
2.As for calling out people’s names, I will, or
try not to, talk about certain units I was in.
I will say bases, divisions, and maybe brigades depended on how mad I
get. However, anything under a brigade I
will try not to mention.
3.I will not violate anything OPSEC here, which
means I will not talk about troop movements in a combat zone, talk about
anything that is considered classified material, and just about anything else
you can’t find if you do a google search.
The goal of this blog is to address issues within the US Army, not try
to get people killed. In fact, if there
is another goal here, it’s to save lives in the Army. I may have some disagreements with the Army, but
I do not hate it, and nor do I hate my country.
So, if you’re looking for ways to destroy the United States, you came to
the wrong place and you are just as much as an enemy to me as you are an enemy to the US.
4. As I have
earlier, what I have told you about me is all you need to know about me. Unless if it’s something I have posted in an
entry, that is all you will about me. If
you ask who I am, my only answer will be to refer to this entry and tell you
to re-read my introduction. So, do not
ask, unless you want a stupid answer in return.
There it is, some guidelines for this blog to
come. Some of you may ask, “Why are you
doing this?” The reason is to help get
some issues off my chest. This blog will
help serve as a therapeutic tool, considering how much the Army has given
me some very bad mental issues that will be with me till the end of my
days. However, I do see other comments
coming once the entries start being added, like “This sounds like you should’ve
never been a Soldier” or “That’s just the way the Army is”, and even my favorite
“You can always tell who was a shitbag in the Army”. My response to all of this is yes, maybe I
shouldn’t have been a Solider, because my IQ is way too high for such
stupidity. There are so many ways the
Army can conduct itself but only chooses the dumbest path. And shitbag?
Please, at least I wasn’t some stupid, brainless minion that can’t think
or stand up for themselves, and allow some idiot that couldn’t graduate high
school to save his/her save, but has a couple stripes in their chest so now
they think they’re an Einstein of some sort dictate their rightful path, even
if it’s the wrong one. Yes, I am
prepared for the upcoming flak I will receive, but it will still not stop me
from continuing on. Also, I can see
other comments coming like” You need to stay in your lane” or “You shouldn’t
say that about the Army”. My response to
these, or similar, comments is you can kiss my DD-214. Army conduct doesn’t apply to me no
more. Shoot, I almost thought about
creating this while I was still in the Army, but chose to wait until I was
discharged from service, which was probably the smarter path to go on. It just matters that now I have started on
this blog, and there will many more entries to come. So let the butthurt begin! Disclaimer:The views expressed in this article [or, book, blog post, essay, op-ed] are those of the author
and do not reflect the official policy or position of the [insert your agency, institution,
organization], Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. The Angry Private! US Army Ordnance Corps 2009-2017 OEF 2010-2011
