Bouhammer's Military Blog » Bouhammer Ranting

Iraq is flapping their gums

Bouhammer — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:33:27 +0000

Iraq will take legal action to ensure justice for the families of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians killed in a U.S. raid in Haditha seven years ago, a government spokesman said Thursday, after the lone U.S. Marine convicted in the killings reached a deal to escape jail time.

Really, REALLY? What exactly are they going to do? Not a damn thing. This is all some eye-wash and hot-air by Iraqi politicians to make it look like they can do something. Sorry it didn’t turn out the way they wanted, but the facts of the case are the facts of the case. It was war, things happen in war, bad things, that is why war is hell and why it is something we don’t like to do.

Read the whole story at:

www.military.com/news/article/iraq-may-take-legal-action-over-haditha-raid.html

Please don’t think that votevets.org speak for any vets

Bouhammer — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:49:03 +0000

Votevets.org is about the most left leaning and ultra-liberal organization as IVAW and even a little more than IAVA. On their about page they state

While non-partisan, the group is the largest progressive organization of veterans in America

That is one of the biggest lies told on the site and goes along with many others. Jon Stoltz should be ashamed as a former NCO to put such lies on the web and portray him and his scrappy gang of left-pushing followers as anything close to non-partisan.

They are now generating their own news because they sent a letter to GEN Odierno asking him to block LTG (ret) Boykin from speaking at West Point. LTG Boykin has more than earned his opportunity to speak at West Point. Just pick any one timeframe of his career. You can start when he graduated form the very first Delta Force Selection course, his work on Operation Desert One, Just Cause, Gothic Serpent, Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom or any number of other “conflicts” he was involved with.

VoteVets (or as I call them, VoteforLiberalVets.org) is swallowing to the hilt, the lies spread by the MSM and the liberal left about LTG Boykin.

Had they read his book or did their research and not listen to the MSM and liberal, atheist-loving, religion-hating groups then they would know he was NOT comparing Christianity against Islam. He was comparing his God (The Lord Almighty) against the “God” of the guy he was interrogating (which was money and greed) when he said “My God is more powerful than your God”. Just because the not so skinny “skinny” was a skinny (i.e. somali) does not make him muslim or a practicing one at that.

Oh and in case you are wondering when this happened, watch Black Hawk Down. They portrayed BG Garrison as doing the interview of Osman Atto they got at the start of the movie, but that was actually Boykin.

Atto was stealing UN food and support from his people to make money for himself. He was not taking care of Somalis and instead was worshiping the false idol of greed.

GEN Odierno, I ask that you support LTG (ret) Boykin speaking at the US Military Academy and if possible even attend yourself. If Votevets.org was truly non-partisan then they would focus on getting vets elected and not attacking every Bush-era appointed leader that doesn’t see things their way.

Is the National Guard back to being 2nd rate soldiers again?

Bouhammer — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:00:53 +0000

Prior to 9/11 the National Guard was looked down upon by Active Duty forces. Since I served half my career in both both services I can tell you some of that was earned and some was just ignorance by active duty forces. When I was active duty we never took the National Guard (or as we sometimes called them “Nasty Guard, “No-Gos”, or “Nasty Girls” ) seriously. They never trained as hard as us, had as good equipment as us, or were as disciplined and professional soldiers as us.

However that was while I was active and I only had limited visibility of the National Guard and well, that visibility was not always good. Once I came into the National Guard I found there were many professional and technically expert soldiers who called the National Guard home. I have served with some awesome and highly motivated soldiers in the National Guard and I have also seen some pieces of crap (both soldiers and leaders). However I had also sen plenty of bad soldiers when I was active duty too.

After 9/11 the game changed, the “weekend warrior” was dead once our op-tempo kicked into high gear overseas while we also took on many new unforseen homeland security responsibilities. In 2003 my company deployed to NYC 3 times with two times having less than 12 hours notice. Think about that for a second. One day my soldiers left their campuses, cubicles, work-places, etc. thinking they were going home for the night and would be back the next day only to get a phone call telling them to bring any gear they had from home and report to the armory. I remember being on a bus to NYC handing my cell phone to soldiers so they could tell their bosses they would not be in to work and were not sure when they would be back. In addition to those homeland deployments, we also went to Germany for 3 weeks to help train up an active duty Brigade for an Iraq deployment and we were alerted 4-5 times ourselves for deployment. The last alert in November of 2003 finally came to fruition and most of the company deployed in January 2004.

We went from the standard “2 weeks a year” implying the amount of annual training we did and the longest timeframe we would be away from our families, work, college to “2 weeks a year” which now meant how much R&R leave each soldier would get at home to be with family.

The US Army leaned hard on the National Guard as two war fronts were happening in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Those, in addition to other deployments like Kosovo, Sinai, Gitmo. That is not even the homeland missions like Noble Eagle, wildfires, floods, ice storms and of course hurricanes.

National Guard troops in a Humvee guard a Wal-Mart which had been closed and fortified against Hurricane Gustav on September 1, 2008 in downtown New Orleans.

Photo Courtesy of bigstockphoto.com

So for the years of 2003-2011 the National Guard was shoulder to shoulder with active forces. This was a great thing for the Guard because it forced the National Guard to flush its ranks of poor performing soldiers and get the “ghost soldiers” off of its rolls. There were many times when I had Active Duty leaders tell me they could not tell the difference between their soldiers and National Guard soldiers. The National Guard had earned the respect they deserved and accomplished pretty much every mission they were handed.

However lately I am starting to question the integrity of our DOD leadership as the National Guard appears to being put on the back-burner again. Almost like they are not worthy of being in the 1st class cabins anymore, but are being put down below the upper decks with the 2nd class guests.

The 27th BCT out of NY was scheduled for Afghanistan again, after getting back from there in January 2009 and now instead of going there they are going to Kuwait to sit on a huge camp and secure gates and towers. This is a Brigade whose soldiers were some of the first to respond to Ground Zero in NYC (before being ordered or asked to) and stayed there and in many other sensitive places around the city and the state for years. They have deployed several times on both stateside and overseas missions. They have a wealth of combat experience, yet now they have been given one of the worst deployment assignments there is. They will be doing the crap jobs and being the whipping boy for CENTCOM for a year protecting a humongous camp in the relatively peaceful Kuwait.

The 37th BCT out of Ohio was at the National Training Center in California when they got re-missioned like the 27th BCT. They were gathered up and asked who wanted to go home. From what I understand about 900 soldiers opted to go home rather than get stuck in some country waiting out a year away from their families for no good reason. Now the way I understand it, some of the 37th BCT soldiers will go into Afghanistan to perform mundane duties, but the rest will get stuck in a country in the mid-east to wait out their time.

For me personally if I am going to be away from family, home and work for a year I want it to be for a good reason and not because DOD is forced to do something with me. If I am going to a war zone, I want to do my trained job and not a job that nobody else wants.

I hear there is a National Guard aviation Brigade whose mission is also up in the air now (forgive the pun). I realize that the ideal world would mean the Active forces could handle the workload of the overseas mission and the National Guard would just handle the stateside mission and be on-hand in case a natural disaster happens. However these are highly trained units with soldiers and families ready for the deployment. The units have already received their warning orders, equipment and have been preparing for over a year for this war-time deployment.

Why wouldn’t DOD keep them on the deployment track they had planned for them? Why push these units off to bogus countries to sit and waste time just to call up active duty units that probably weren’t planning to deploy? It makes no sense to me. The DOD knows over a year out who is on the “patch chart” and will be deploying. In the 5-sided puzzle palace they track the units, their readiness status and when they are up for deployment. It is called ARFORGEN in the US Army.

The only answer I can come up with is that DOD leadership is now back to looking at the National Guard as 2nd rate and not their first choice for the needs of the country. If my suspicions are true, then that is a very sad state of affairs. I will truly be let down by this lack of respect of some of our greatest fighting forces.

Why did Bouhammer.com go dark

Bouhammer — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:38:59 +0000

You may have noticed that the Bouhammer Blog was down yesterday. Yes, I took this site offline to join many other sites like wikipedia.org, reddit.com and many, many others in order to raise awareness and protest the SOPA and PIPA. It is a terrible act and if they became law, it would empower the Government to violate the US Constitution and give the Government the ability to block you from the websites you want to see.

See, if these were to become law and lets say I have an image or a quote from a story or something like that which the Government considers a copyright violation, they would be able to block all internet users in the USA from getting to this site or any website they considered violating a copyright law.

In my opinion that is a gross abuse of the law and Government responsibility. Please join me in contacting your Representative or Senator today and let them know you don’t support SOPA in the House or PIPA in the Senate.

Karzai has officially gone crazy

Bouhammer — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 04:22:02 +0000

I am convinced that Karzai has officially lost his ever-loving mind and gone crazy…

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said if the United States and Pakistan ever went to war, his country would back Islamabad, drawing a sharp rebuke Sunday from Afghan lawmakers who claimed the country’s top officials were adopting hypocritical positions.

Read more: www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/23/karzai-says-afghanistan-would-back-pakistan-if-us-attacks/#ixzz1bfX2PDiM

This guy has repeatedly opened his cake-hole and spouted some really stupid things. At a time when more and more Americans are starting to question our involvement and continued presence in Afghanistan, this was a dumbass thing to say.

It looks like some the members of the Afghan Parliament feel the same way.

The comments set off a firestorm of criticism in the country. Afghan lawmakers argued they were particularly hypocritical coming just weeks after the assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani by a suicide bomber.

I almost want to see us go to war with Pakistan so we can see if he is talking B.S. or if he would really try to commit the fledging Afghan forces we are training, against us. That would be about the most destructive thing that Karzai could do for Afghanistan. The last ten years of progress would be wiped out almost instantly if he tried to turn the Afghan Army against US Forces. Of course I doubt the Army commanders would listen to him since he is nothing more than the Mayor of Kabul anyway.

I have said in the last couple of blog posts about him that I think he is crazy or drunk with power or something. The guy really needs to be removed and replaced. If he keeps up stuff like this, that may just happen.

SFC Cashe keeps getting slighted

Bouhammer — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:28:25 +0000

I first heard about SFC Cashe and his superbly heroic actions over at Blackfive.net (www.blackfive.net/main/2011/09/sfc-alwyn-c-cashe.html). Lately he has been back in the news as there is finally talk of upgrading his Silver Star to the Medal of Honor. However it seems his name is back int the news for another reason.

Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe was awarded the Silver Star six years ago for running into a burning Bradley multiple times to save his fellow soldiers. Friends and family believe that he deserves the Medal of Honor, and have been pushing for that recognition for years.

But amazingly, as top Army officials consider whether to upgrade that honor, Cashe’s grave site doesn’t even reflect the award he did receive. Instead of the Silver Star, his headstone lists only the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

Read the whole story at www.military.com/news/article/heros-grave-displays-wrong-military-award.html

There is nothing wrong with a Bronze Star as it is a very honorable recognition. However the guy earned a Silver Star (actually I think he deserves the MoH also) and after several years you would think the Army could somehow find the time to fix this and give SFC Cashe’s gravesite the recognition it deserves. How long does it take to do the right thing?

The mistake is just the latest headache for the hero’s family, who have also struggled to get their deceased soldier’s awards records and medical files, as well as reimbursement for some funeral costs.

Does it take a call to a Congressman to start an inquiry? That seems to always get the Army moving. Not that I am saying you should call a Congressman but hey if you happen to have their number on speed dial and have nothing else going on…..

Not enough room in NYC?

Bouhammer — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 12:24:28 +0000

This post is a follow up to one I wrote the other day on Military Pundits Blog (militarypundits.com/2011/09/is-bloomberg-an-atheist/). Besides the controversy over Bloomberg not allowing clergy at today’s ceremony at Ground Zero, another big controversy is that not all the first responders that rushed to the air of those trapped in the building and then rushed to the “pile” to look for survivors.

The excuse given is that there is not enough room foe everyone. Which I find completely asinine. How could a city that hosts over 1 million people to watch a crystal ball drop at midnight not handle the men and women who were willing to risk their lives? I am sure the first responders realize not everyone can be right around the memorial, but would be willing to just be there, even if it meant in the streets around the memorial. This is the city that never sleeps, and is one of the largest most recognized and visited cities in the world,

I just can’t conceive how this is the excuse. These people are heroes, not on a foreign battlefield but on our homeland, in our country, amongst our citizens. These responders didn’t do it for money or to be famous. They did it because they cared and it was the job they wanted to do. Many of these first responders lost friends and family in the attacks. People they cared for and loved.

To be honest I am not sure which is worse, not allowing clergy or not allowing these first responders. Both are crimes against the people of our country in my opinion and damn Bloomberg for doing this. I can’t believe one pompous ass like him can make these decisions and get away with it.

Headlines lead to wrong first impressions

Bouhammer — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 13:27:41 +0000

When I first read the headline NATO airstrike kills 4 police officers in Afghanistan I thought “oh man that is not good”.

But then as I read into the story I thought to myself, “oh, well maybe this was a good thing”.

The governor of a province in northeastern Afghanistan said today a NATO airstrike killed four police officers at a checkpoint in the remote and mountainous region.

Jamaluddin Badar said coalition forces also detained 12 police officers after the airstrike. He strongly condemned the attack and arrests, which he said occurred late Sunday in the Wama district of the largely lawless Nuristan province bordering Pakistan.

It is not uncommon to have police, especially those near the border, to be crooked and actually be the enemy. I mean we fought against the police in 2006-2007 and I have to assume they haven’t changed that much yet. They are motivated by money, threats, ideaology like many others in Afghanistan.

I am glad I took the time to read the story HERE and getting a little better insight into this incident. I hope that most people who see headlines in the news or hear a sound bite also take time to investigate and learn more about a story than just the eye-catching snippet of words used to title the story.

Are MRI Machines needed in Afghanistan?

Bouhammer — Mon, 09 May 2011 13:51:36 +0000

Troops in Afghanistan may have to wait 10 to 12 months for advanced medical machinery for treating concussions, raising concerns among top military leaders that the equipment will not be available for potentially hundreds of sevice members with mild brain injuries.

I read this story the other day and I was amazed that some of the top Service and Combat Commanders are asking for this common medical technology but some doctors in the services are disputing the effectiveness of these technologies,

Army surgeon-general Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker said that although an MRI is a helpful tool in battlefield care, it is not essential for diagnosis.

The Navy surgeon-general, Vice Adm. Adam Robinson, echoed the view that an MRI is primarily a research tool.

Rather than saying “no” and saying they don’t agree with the top Commanders, these medical professionals need to be presenting their cases to the Commanders and either showing they are right and the Commanders are wrong or they need to have their minds changed and support the Commanders’ request.

Without an urgent demand, the two machines for $9 million must be acquired through competitive bidding, the Navy says. They will not reach Afghanistan until August at the earliest, Robinson says.

More than 300 U.S. troops per month suffered concussions last year in Afghanistan. Mullen’s science adviser, Army Col. Christian Macedonia, said if purchased outright, without competitive bidding, MRI machines could go to the war zone in a period of weeks.

So because of acquisition rules and policies about the urgent need of these the MRI machines will take months to go forward and be used rather than weeks which is how fast it could be done.

I bet if some of our Representatives in Congress starting applying some pressure or if the mainstream media started talking about this then those machines would be on the next plane heading east. But until then, I guess it will fall on Army Times and MilBlogs to get the word out.

Read the whole story at www.armytimes.com/news/2011/04/gannett-no-mris-in-afghanistan-041511/

5.1.11, another date we won’t forget

Bouhammer — Fri, 06 May 2011 02:50:44 +0000

There is a company called 5.11. They are known for their tactical clothing and gear. I wonder if they will capitalize on the date of 5.1.11?

See 5.1.11 is the date that Usama (or Osama) Bin Laden was sent to hell by the trigger pull of a Navy Seal. Anyway, 5.11 tactical is not the point of this post, killing of that piece of crap is. I was very thrilled the other night when I saw the news. I remember sitting there watching the news and then the President speaking and then the news again thinking I felt that same way when they caught Saddam in the hole. One of those, I will never forget where I was when I heard the news.

Just like when Saddam was found, the killing of Bin Laden won’t end this war right away either. It may be a big moral booster for Americans, it may have gotten us a lot of intel, and it may be a great sound bite for the President, but the bottom line in my humble opinion is that the war will still be there for a while longer.

The Al-Queda organization is a decentralized group that may have gotten motivational messages from the top guy but he surely is not running things. It is clear by his lack of security and the few people that were around him that he was like the mafia boss that had retired and had alzheimers, just wasting away with a lot of respect by his underlings but no influence over them.

It is great news so we can say we got him and I am glad that they put a bullet in his head and not try to bring him back to the US alive so the ACLU could defend him. Look at the KSM fiasco where our government can’t decide where he should be tried and what rights he is allowed to have. The last thing we needed to do was waste more tax dollars on securing Bin Laden in a jail somewhere and coddling him to make sure he had all his muslim rights.

I personally have no problem with dumping him in the sea either. It keeps the radicals from making wherever he was buried into a memorial site. Heck even that doesn’t stop them radicals as they are now calling the body of water he was dumped into “martyr’s sea”. Personally they should have fed his body to a pen full of hungry hogs but that is just me. Hungry swine will eat everything, to include bones so there would not have been anything left, except for pig crap. Instead now he is fish crap.

Photo courtesy of CLM.