Damn.
If you’re unfamiliar with this story, read this.
After Wanat, COP Keating, and Ganjgal, two things are very clear to me:
1. The United States Army needs to clear out some field and staff grade officers.
2. The United States Army has completely failed at #1.
Quite a story and quite a warrior. (to say the least!)
“We are not infantry”.
Unfortunately, the cowardice and incompetence of some almost outshine the courage of SGT Meyer in this story. I cannot believe how few ran to the sound of gunfire to rescue their comrades when they knew that they were surrounded and on the brink. I hope those honor-less cowards can’t sleep at night thinking about the lives that they could have saved but were too scared to. What is wrong with our Army these days that the majority do not have a will to fight or the courage or sense of duty to attempt a rescue of their brothers who are heavily engaged in combat and surrounded? And the medics who would not do their duty because they aren’t infantry. What a sad commentary on the degradation of our military and indeed our society. The “its not my problem” mentality even pervades our armed forces in combat. No personal responsibility at all. At least there are still responsible Americans like SGT Meyer to pick up everyone else’s slack. The others should be ashamed of themselves and do not deserve to call themselves soldiers or Americans. They have dishonored themselves, their Army, and our country and should be taken to task for it!
I’ll bet she went home and told everyone about her experiences leading troops in combat.
Probably. The more I think about this the more it boils my blood. I have served with and seen this type of behavior first hand. Its bs, but if anyone calls them on it its harassment or “hazing” or some other contrived nonsense and the person doing the calling out gets in trouble, not the lazy, worthless “troop” being a pile.
Reminds me of the recent story about the Marine LCPL who killed himself over being corrected by two other Marines. They supposedly “hazed” him and that caused him to be depressed and shoot himself. He fell asleep on guard duty repeatedly in a combat zone! He could have gotten many of his fellow Marines killed for his laziness, but now the two squared away Marines who attempted to correct him are in trouble for it. Apparently the brass is more concerned with being politically correct and playing nice nice with the media to care about troops doing their duty and protecting each other. Read about LZ Oasis in Vietnam to find out about what happens when troops fall asleep in LP/OP’s. Our military needs to get rid of some of these pantywaist officers and start promoting some of the squared away troops who put the mission ahead of political correctness.
The biggest problem, in my opinion, is that too many are joining the military “to get money for college and learn a trade”. The entire point of the military is to kill people and break things, not pass out flowers and make friends.
I think there are too many in the armed services that, when trained on their firearm, think “I hope I never have to use this”, and too few that think “I hope I never have to use this, but will if I need to. And god help them if I need to”.
hear hear
Yeah, it’s not just officers; the combat arms/non combat arms disconnect is just beyond imagining sometimes.
I think Eric has said it best. The other rumblings I hear from older former service folks is that many of the higher ups are from the Clinton era and feel the army is for school building and farming, not for killing people and breaking things. Take it for what it’s worth, I don’t know, I wasn’t in the military.
Unfortunately the problems listed in the article are what happens when the brass at the Pentagon let the PC Police play social experiment with the military. I agree that too many are in the military for college money and because it’s a job in a tough economy. I had too many Soldiers with that mindset prior to my retirement. I had a Combat Service Support MOS yet our small unit manned a tower on the perimeter in Iraq. I think the Marines have it right when they train and say every Marine is a rifleman, some just have other jobs.
“It is well that war is so terrible — lest we should grow too fond of it.” — Robert E Lee
One thing in common is 10th Mtn with all these horrible events. They are the same dudes that followed the Blessing theory of building bases at the bottom of mountains for the 173rd and other units.
When I redeployed to the States, I connected with some active duty Army officers and SNCOs I knew. Most were SF/Rangers. I told them that the Army infantrymen I saw in Iraq were unprofessional, and they didn’t like what I had to say (maybe I should have been more diplomatic). I just remembered that the unit I saw most often was with/from the 10th Mountain. Interesting.
“When the death of a husband or son or brother has grown distant, and the world is free again to think without impiety that courage is not common, men will remember that all the fine things in war as in peace are the work of a few men; that the honor of our race is in the keeping of but a fraction of her people.”
Dr. Charles Wilson, The Anatomy of Courage
I agree that there is a lack of aggressiveness in too many in the Army (never had much interaction with the Marines while in Iraq). That said, I did work with the 10th Mountain in Basrah in 2009 and some seemed aggressive and professional. I think the attitude of âI want money for college and technical trainingâ is exaggerated. For generations, military training took (often less-than-willing) conscripts and turned them into aggressive, trained soldiers. I think that proper training/indoctrination/conditioning can still produce excellent troops. Honestly, I doubt that all who join the Marines do so out of purely patriotic and warlike motives, but the Marines turn them into, well… Marines.