-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! ***************************************************************** ********** SOLDIERS FOR THE TRUTH ********** DEFENDING AMERICA NEWSLETTER ********** 01 March 2000 ********** "When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen." General George Washington, New York Legislature, 1775 Soldiers For The Truth, PO Box 63840, Colorado Springs, CO 80962-3840 ***************************************************************** TABLE OF CONTENTS ARTICLES Notes from the Prez Hack's Column: Moral Courage is the First Commandment 1 Z-gram: Of "Chem" Suits and other Scams - in the Defense Industry We can't Trust! 2 Big Picture: 5,500 U.N. Troops to Be Deployed to Congo 3 Grange Gets Only One Star In Retirement 4 *VOICE OF THE GRUNT* Army - Some still doing it right? Maybe NOT! 5 USMC -- Osprey or Albatross? 6 More on the Decline of the Warrior Ethic… 7 Nightmare "Kosovo", Part II 8 Veterans' Issues: Hepatitis C and Vietnam Vets 9 Medal of Honor: 10 *WILLETT, LOUIS E Vietnam 1967 G.I Humor: A Crappy Situation… 11 =========================================================== PREZ SITREP: 1. Still working on making us fully operational in the State of Colorado. We expect final authorization by the end of this week. 2. Despite some bureaucratic obstacles, the merger moves continue behind the scenes. You will notice that our combined newsletter is now called the DEFENDING AMERICA newsletter. *Voice of the Grunt* is now our editorial section, still echoing the voices from the field. 3. Got a lot of mail on the LTG Kennedy piece. Some of you thought we are becoming a sort of "Defense Enquirer" with some of the rumors printed in that reader piece. You know, the big brass always preaches that perceptions become the truth. Maybe the little guys' perceptions are important too! If you know the truth, write us!!! Some complained that I used the description MI troopers. I've been in the military a couple of days too and know that there are CAV troopers and paratroopers. Maybe I just wanted to be polite and not call you MI "Weenies." Give me a break, will ya! 4. Please keep writing us, so we can build that "Internet camaraderie" that makes us grow stronger and helps us to keep our fingers on the pulse. R.W. Zimmermann President SFTT ========================================================== ARTICLE 1 -- DEFENDING AMERICA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Moral Courage is the First Commandment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BY DAVID H. HACKWORTH Napoleon was right on target when he said, "In war the moral is to the material as three to one." Since Desert Storm, I've watched our Armed Forces go steadily downhill. Yet for 10 years, not one general or admiral has had the moral courage to sound off to the citizens of the republic about what's been going on. Nor has one (and that includes Air Force Gen. Ronald Fogleman, who quit not over principles but for very personal, private reasons) stood before Congress and told the truth: It's not lack of funds that's busting the forces, but wrongheaded, ever-expanding missions like Bosnia and Kosovo; misguided, politically correct social engineering; and the constant lowering of training, discipline and leadership standards -- mistakes that our warriors will pay for in blood on a future battlefield. Has the moral courage from stand-up guys like Nathan Hale, John Paul Jones and Billy Mitchell been blown completely out of our military and America? Have these giants of moral resolve been replaced by people who don't care how they trample on values and principles, just as long as they get to the head of the line? Even though the two-fisted straight-shooters seldom make it to the top anymore, I prefer to think moral courage in America is down but not out. It's true the slickies who put self and bottom-line first seem to be running America from the White House to Congress to virtually every big business in the land. Less those few, brave, family-owned concerns that haven't yet exchanged their values for fast-lane stock options. I naively thought this sickness just prevailed in our military, but gradually changed my mind because of the responses to a book I wrote. Over the years, I've received thousands of letters from folks in every walk of life in this country saying: What you described in "About Face" as the sickness that destroyed our military and caused us to lose in Vietnam is rampant across the board in the United States. These letters bear witness that the same cancer that struck our Vietnam-era military now infects almost every American entity -- from Wall Street to education, from medicine to the media, from the police and fire departments to the unions, etc., etc., et cetera. But these letters also convinced me that there are more than a few good men and women out there who aren't afraid to "Stand up and be counted" -- once a standard Army officer fitness-report rating question in the pre-Vietnam era, when speaking out was encouraged -- and fight for right over wrong. Take Air Force Maj. Sonny Bates. He recently single-handedly took on the Pentagon over anthrax. It was roll up your sleeves and take the needle or go to jail. When the Air Force leaned on him, he chose to take a general court-martial -- which in the military is about the same as spitting in the judge's face and expecting a fair trial. Married with three kids and only seven years from retirement, Bates had a lot to lose. Yet he fought for what he thought was right and steered through the anthrax flak as smoothly as he's flown his airplane during his brilliant career. And the good news is the brass backed down. Another moral hero is Army sergeant David Gloer. After serving in Korea since 1994, he decided to retire. Petty people in his chain of command bumped back his paperwork, saying "no way." For absolutely no reason, just an uncaring bureaucracy doing its thing. After 20 years of exceptional service, 13 of those in a South Korea on perpetual war-footing, a few jerks arbitrarily told him to get lost. He pulled all plugs -- the media, Congress -- and even took his case to the Army chief of staff. He fought for what was right, and like Sonny Bates, he won. So Gloer's retiring from the Army with a smile and a positive thought: "All that rule are not evil." Moral leadership should be the top plank in the presidential elections. It's more important than Social Security or campaign reform. Without the right moral stuff, America is going to join Napoleon's France -- which swapped the moral for the material and ended up at the bottom of the heap. *** © 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 - Z-gram ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Of "Chem" Suits and other Scams - in the Defense Industry We can't Trust! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By R. W. Zimmermann 03/01/00 How's this one for building more trust in the Pentagon? While the Defense Department strongly insists that Anthrax vaccinations are absolutely critical for force protection and continues to do legal battle with concerned soldiers and citizens, we are now confronted with a report that hundreds of thousands of war-stock chemical suits are defective. Essential for operations in chemical and biological environments, the shoddy suits might have been delivered by Isatrex, a now bankrupt New York based company, since 1989. Maybe we were just lucky that Saddam didn't have the guts to use chemical weapons against our troops in the Gulf in 1991. The results could have been what he had only dreamed of -- massive US casualties, almost self-inflicted by our own greed. As reported in most of the nation's major newspapers, Isatrex's president and production manager pleaded guilty in US District Court in New York to one count of making false statements. Others have been charged with conspiracy to defraud the Government, major fraud, and false claims. Potentially, over 700,000 suits could be defective. The chemical suit case, Anthrax and other incidents of fraud and price overruns make you question if contracting and purchasing have really been "reinvented" as claimed by al Gore and company. More likely, we have again fallen victim to good old greed and crooked business tactics. It's very simple. The cheapest and slickest bidder got the nod for the suit contract. No big deal for the "numbers-crunchers" in charge. The possible consequence for our forces in the field -- troops could have died in combat against any 3rd World Nation that decided to use chemicals or bio weapons. No Anthrax vaccination would have prevented it! It is appalling that we again made our troops believe that we would only send them to war with the best equipment our money can buy. Instead, we are ready to sacrifice them for the almighty Dollar - greed still rules! We have been there before: In WWII we sent our soldiers out to kill German Panther and Tiger tanks with adapted 75mm, low velocity naval guns and the bazooka. Our grunts experienced big shock when their anti-tank stuff bounced harmlessly off the rolling tank fortresses. In Korea, we repeated the folly and attacked Russian made T34/85 tanks with the same deficient weaponry. Maybe we believed that everything the "Ruskies" built was greater junk than ours… In Vietnam we gave our trusting grunts a new revolutionary weapon, the M16 assault rifle. It probably wasn't as revolutionary as advertised, especially since it came 20 years after the successful German "Sturmgewehr 44." Contrary to the "Sturmgewehr," the M16 jammed when just slightly soiled. We sold the F104 Starfighter interceptor to NATO. A crash-prone "lawn-dart," equipped with a substandard ejection seat. Hundreds were lost; many Pilots killed without combat action. I believe only the Japanese "Kamikaze Zero" fighter had a worse flying record than the F104. We fielded the "Dragon" anti-tank weapon and sold it to the Army as a 90% hit capability weapon. In reality the Dragon was a little "Lizard" and only achieved about a 60% first round hit average. We claim to have the best and finest main battle tank in the world, the M1. But it is also a tank that can't deep ford more than 3 feet of water, guzzles fuel, and in its latest version features a Cal.50 machine gun that can't be fired from the inside by the tank commander. Thank God we fought Desert Storm in the desert environment and against an incapable enemy! And now -- faulty chemical suits! And who is supposed to believe the Defense Department's Anthrax story, and all the other procurement fairytales any longer? All the shady characters involved in these scams must to be held responsible, in or out of uniform. Putting the American soldier in harms way, without the best of equipment available is not only unacceptable, it is criminal! Maybe we need to apply the Airborne Rigger rule to anything produced by the Defense Industry. Riggers must be prepared at any time, to jump with any chute he or she has packed and certified for use. If a similar rule existed for to the guys that made the crappy chemical suits, I bet the suits would be serviceable! I would love to hear from the troops in the field on this topic. How do you feel about being sent to combat without the best gear? Tell us about other experiences with some of the "finest equipment" our hard-earned tax money has bought? Zimm © R.W. Zimmermann, President SFTT 00 ========================================================= **COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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