-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a prelude to war! ***************************************************************** ********** VOICE OF THE GRUNT ********** SFTT NEWSLETTER ********** 02 February 2000 ********** "When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen." General George Washington, New York Legislature, 17751 ***************************************************************** ~ TABLE OF CONTENTS ARTICLES Message from the President Defending America: ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY 1 "Z"-inger: READINESS -- Striving for Excellence in COO… 2 The McCain Mutiny: Attack on Hack! 3 Hack on Target! 4 Focus Issue: Army gets Sensitivity Training on Gays 5 Brigadier quits over Gays in Military 6 Medal of Honor: 7 Lieutenant Colonel HOWARD, JAMES H. (Air Mission) Germany, 1944 G.I Humor: 8 A Neighborly Confrontation… =========================================================== A word from the SFTT President: Thanks for the many positive responses concerning the merger of SFTT and VOTG. I am currently looking at all the volunteer notes to sort out how we will organize for the future. Please keep writing… there is much opportunity to get involved. Please note the official SFTT Motto at the head of the newsletter. I hope it connects us back to our true military/revolutionary heritage. Hold on to your wallets until we are ready to receive contributions. The SFTT site guru, "Woody" Groton is currently assessing how we can accept contributions electronically in addition to the standard manual means. Remember, all contributions will be tax deductible - we want to be able to give you a receipt! The McCain Mutiny: Hack has once more struck a nerve with many of you with his article on presidential candidate McCain. You would be surprised to know that support for Hack's position won 80:20 over the opposition. Please keep in mind that SFTT cannot openly take a political position, but exists to educate the public, our lawmakers, and the media military affairs. Since we are limited to 8 articles under current conditions, we will give you a couple of reader responses to ponder. Remember, America is a great country because we can disagree with one another. Unfortunately, in our current political climate, political correctness seems to limit the opportunity to get problems out and resolved in the open. The result can be a quiet, lingering hatred for each other that could become explosive...just remember Columbine. Let's not go there. Please limit mail in my direction this week, and don't feel offended if you don't get a response. I'll be away from my CP for eight days to visit my WWII veteran father who just got out of the hospital. Any of the specialty editors will try to help you out, if you have any questions or comments. Zimm President, SFTT !!!!! Beware that our letter is still limited in scope so we can reach all limited users of the Internet. If you cannot get the letter by E-mail, look it on the Web-Page at: http://www.freeyellow.com:8080/members7/rlmcmahon/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.freeyellow.com:8080/members7/rlmcmahon/ ===================================================== ARTICLE 1 -- DEFENDING AMERICA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By DAVID H. HACKWORTH, 01 February 2000 On every U.S. military post, base and ship -- active duty and reserve -- America's defenders are short critical gear from toilet paper to spare parts to training ammo, and many live in GI ghettos. Too often, our warriors' lives are put at risk because they don't have the stuff to make sure that the aircraft stays in the sky or that the soldier is trained to a razor's edge to survive the ultimate Super Bowl game of combat. The word from the brass is to "Suck it up." They claim -- falsely -- that President Clinton has cut military funds despite the almost $300 billion annual defense budget, about what the rest of the world combined spends on defense. But for those on top, it's pig-out time. The old saw that "Rank has its privileges" is still rampant in our all-volunteer force. And few people have the guts to sound off about different perks for high-ranking jerks because they don't want a ration of harassment followed by job termination. It was different in the Draftee Days, when nonvolunteers were just about issued whistles at the Reception Center. And how they loved to blow 'em. They trilled for the slightest trespasses, and Congress received red-hot "investigate this" letters from mamas and papas. Now our all-volunteers feel they have little recourse but to keep their mouths shut, bear the shortages and press on. Secretary of Defense William Cohen, hardly the type to suck it up, recently set the example for his hard-pressed troops on a trip to Hollywood. His vital mission was to sign up some mega-stars to help pump the Pentagon's flagging recruiting program. Cohen didn't bring his pup tent or stay at one of the nearby military bases. He and his foxy ex-TV anchor wife checked into the exclusive Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel and slapped the tab for the $10,000, four-day room charge right smack on the taxpayers' account. And then there were all his straphangers -- aides, security folks and assorted dog robbers -- whose total bill, I'm told, ran another 40 grand. Add the cost of his private Air Force jet from "The Greed Capital of the World" and back -- more than $100,000 -- and we're looking at enough dough to go a long way toward solving the toilet paper shortfall at least. A 110-grand-a-year Pentagon flack explained that Cohen's meetings with potential Hollywood hypesters such as Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise and Robert De Niro was "taxpayer business." The chief spinner also said Fortress Four Seasons was selected for "security reasons." Funny, I would've thought the 25,000 Marines at nearby Camp Pendleton might have provided better -- and certainly cheaper -- security for our self-important secretary of defense! Not sure what Army Gen. Hugh Shelton had in mind either when -- at taxpayers' expense -- he allowed his enlisted aide to make a 6-foot-5-inch chocolate replica of Shelton in full combat gear for a plush holiday bash. "It was some sculpture," purred his Airborne Ranger master sergeant, who draws a fat paycheck for running the four-star's house, along with a fire team of other uniformed attendants. While many Army combat units are short men and are without seasoned sergeants, why is a highly qualified combat NCO tasked with concocting costly chocolate ego trips to please a four-star general? Hollywood won't solve the Pentagon's recruiting problems. But if the taxpayers' money was spent as the citizens intended and the top brass put the troops first, there wouldn't be one to begin with. Just look at the Marines, who still believe in the old-fashioned notion that a leader's primary responsibility is the welfare of the troops. They don't need movie stars to inspire young folks to join up. They operate under the premise THE STERNER THE CHALLENGE, THE FINER THE RESPONSE, and our best and brightest are beating down the hatch to become United States Marines. What's needed are senior leaders who love and fight for the troops. Leaders who live by the principles of leadership. You know, like now-deceased Marine Chesty Puller -- always first up, last to bed, last in the chow line. A man who led by the motto: FOLLOW ME. *** Http://www.hackworth.com is the address of David Hackworth's home page. Sign in for the free weekly Defending America column at his Web site. Send mail to P.O. Box 5210, Greenwich, CT 06831. 2000 David H. Hackworth Distributed by King Features Syndicate Inc. Hack Http://www.hackworth.com is the address of David Hackworth's home page. Sign in for the free weekly Defending America column at his Web site. Send mail to P.O. Box 5210, Greenwich, CT 06831. ================================================== ARTICLE 2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ READINESS -- Striving for Excellence in COO… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By R.W. Zimmermann 02/02/00 As you enter Ft Carson, Colorado, home for the 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, 3 Armored Cavalry Regiment, and 10th Special Forces Group among others, you would want to believe that this post is combat focused. But wait…a big sign at the gate reminds you of what's really important - Consideration of Others or "COO," now spiced up with the COO "word of the month." Issues like consideration for others have crept into unit training schedules, as the military is unquestioningly complying with the demands of our political and social engineers. Commanders at all levels must go along to get ahead and Ft. Carson 's leadership is a front-runner in the race of the go along crowd. The party line of Ft. Carson's equal opportunity NCO, in the Post information paper, the "Mountaineer," sounds very much like that of a Chinese or Russian political officer: " we have the opportunity to address many subjects regularly here at Ft. Carson. This is because our Post Commander, Major General Soriano, has mandated time to be set-aside for every unit to participate in COO. The requirement is for eight hours each year, two hours each quarter..." Reports from thousands of active duty soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and "coasties" over the years prove that Ft. Carson is no different from the majority of our military bases today. During the quarterly training briefs, the topic of COO, in addition to family support groups, dental statistics, and off-post safety, receives practically more emphasis than combat training and deployment readiness. Why? Because senior leaders must make the numbers to impress the chain of command and their civilian superiors who have directed specific social engineering projects. The other reason is that tactical readiness can't be as easily measured and compared. The emphasis on non-combat items and statistical compliance has become so bad, that units and key leaders are brought in from important field training to obtain the required certifications. Oftentimes, critical tactical training is completely cancelled. Where did these methods and requirements come from? Everything points to the systems management techniques the Army copied from industry in the 1980's. Our MBA trained senior officers seem to be obsessed with finding systematic solutions to everything. Even when individuals show a lack of self-discipline, i.e. a soldier is injured in a vehicle accident by his own fault, the individual will normally not be found guilty. No, a system has failed and must be "reengineered." As a result, our leaders have created so many systems and certification requirements, that they have actually "straight-jacketed" themselves. Ask the average company commander and he or she will tell you, that there is not enough time in the training year, to accomplish all these certification requirements. What suffers? Combat training. Ever wonder why we have so many individual weapons accidents during deployments? Because soldiers are better briefed on COO than drilled on their assigned weapons! The top brass pretend to understand the problem, but things are getting worse each day. Why? You have to have impressive "stats" to get ahead. And there is a lot of painting and briefing to be done to show you're on the team. The signs remind you… we're ready… for COO, but not for war??? © 2000 SFTT ========================================================== more in Part B ~~> **COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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