Dahr Jamail tongue baths another vat of whiny, pathetic, bitchy malcontents
I’m doing this post because I promised Jonn I would. I still have my other one of the GenCon to do as well. But the more I read of this asshat the more angry I get. Today’s addition to the fetid, stinking pile of shit that is the body of work of inveterate liar Dahr Jamail is entitled: Echo Platoon – Warehousing soldiers in the homeland.
Echo Platoon is part of the 82nd Replacement Detachment of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Soldiers in the platoon are relegated to living quarters in a set of dimly lit concrete rooms. Pipes peep out of missing ceiling tiles and a musty smell permeates beds placed on cracked linoleum floors.
For soldiers who have gone AWOL (Absent Without Leave) and then voluntarily turned themselves in or were forcibly returned, the detention conditions here in Echo Platoon only serve to reinforce the inescapability of their situation. They remain suspended in a legal limbo of forced uncertainty that can extend from several months to a year or more, while the military takes its time deciding their fate. Some of them, however, are offered a free pass out of this military half-life — but only if they agree to deploy to Afghanistan or Iraq.
It goes on in this vein interminably. Illustrative of what a total pack of [eupemism for cat] these guys are, I give you the words of Specialist Kevin McCormick, a guy who went AWOL for 4 1/2 months:
Echo is like jail with some privileges. [You are] just stuck there with horrible living conditions. There’s black mold on the building [and] when I first got there, there were five or six people to a room, which is like a cell block with cement brick walls. The piping and electricals are above the tiles, so if anything leaks or bursts, it goes right down into the room. … You’re less than human to the commanders. [They act as if] you don’t deserve to be alive. A sergeant told us he wanted to take us out and shoot us in the back of the head. We get threatened all the time there.
Look asshole, the guys deployed sleep on the ground. And they risk death every second they spend over there. In Afghanistan I lived in a plywood hooch that had 8 guys in it. I think the B hut was like 15×30. 8 of us. No walls. The Air Conditioner would freeze over, and temps would rapidly rise. When it got hot enough the Air Conditioner would melt and all of my stuff would get wet. Then this process would begin anew. Those were on good days. On bad days we slept on the ground, on rocks, on whatever there was there. And we pulled guard all night, watched the radio etc.
So I really could give 2 shits that you live in a musty, moldy barracks. The men you were supposed to be serving your country with are over there doing work that you wouldn’t do, and they are shouldering your portion. Next time you bitch about looking up from your play station 3 to view with dismay a missing ceiling tile, how about spending a millisecond in thought not entirely devoted to you.
GD this article pissed me off.
Category: Politics
Sounds like these whiners need a daily 20 mile forced march with full gear on.
TSO: F**kin-A-right, bubba!!!!
Nothing more needs to be added to that fine piece.
Besides which, these @sshats can’t even speak the language. Going AWOL lasts for 30 days. No one really goes looking for you unless you are in a hostile area. They pack your sh!t up and notify your next of kin. After 30 days, you are listed as a deserter. Again, unless you are in a hostile area, no one goes looking for you. They simply put your info into the national crime reporting system, and wait for the cops to pull you over some day. meanwhile the military ships your stuff to your next of kin.
Also, if you are AWOL and return, you get sent to your command and usually have an article 15 within 5 working days, if not sooner.
These whiny, b!tchy, complaining @ssmaggots are deserters, and they are damned lucky to NOT be thrown up against a wall and shot.
TSO,
You forgot that the barracks we stayed at in Bragg to prepare for Afghanistan were actually worse than what’s being described by these..”cats”. How about the Old Division area of Bragg where the complete upstairs shower floor fell into the downstairs shower while a Soldier from 2nd Plt/ A Co. was in there!
And..lol..we were on lock-down for 4 months! AND WE WERE HAPPY TO BE THERE AND TO DEPLOY!! These jackasses!
Don’t comment much but gotta say…amen brother, amen. Hell, best sleep I ever had was on the deck of a brad.
We can read the same article and pick very different things out. The part of the article that troubles me the most is the one I’ve seen myself and is not confined to only those who go AWOL. They remain suspended in a legal limbo of forced uncertainty that can extend from several months to a year or more, while the military takes its time deciding their fate This is something that the military does that it absolutely needs to stop. As soon as someone in the military thinks they may want to charge someone, they can be flagged and their life can begin infinitely sucking in a lot of small ways. There are no rules stating how long someone can be in legal limbo for, as far as I’m aware. To be honest, I find it frankly un-American to hold someone without charges for the amount of time that many are being held for. They are, in effect, being subject to pre-trial confinement, without the credit for time served. This is a very real problem, and I really wish the military would get its head out of its ass and start examining it all over. This sort of thing violates not only the Constitutional 6th amendment right to a speedy trial but also UCMJ, which prohibits excessive delay of proceedings. It is just plain wrong, and no matter what you or anyone may think of what they are being held for, these soldiers are entitled to due process just like any other American. Maybe more so. In addition, yes. We’ve all endured shitty barracks in the Army. I myself particularly remember a barracks full of rats where someone put them on little pikes in the front yard to make a point about the infestation. I also remember being in the dead of winter with no heat and everyone using illegal space heaters because they were the only way, short of using your field gear, not to freeze to death. Everyone has those stories. Yes, while deployed, everyone lives in even more shitty conditions. But the difference between that and… Read more »
Don’t forget about the Airborne School barracks at Benning… Holes in the walls, vermin of all kinds, black mold, etc. Talk about poor conditions… My hooch in Iraq was better than that. I remember those poor souls who got hurt during airborne training and had to live there for months on end as they healed, doing manual labor and hating life. Those are the guys I really feel for.
“For soldiers who have gone AWOL (Absent Without Leave) and then voluntarily turned themselves in or were forcibly returned, the detention conditions here in Echo Platoon only serve to reinforce the inescapability of their situation.”
A situation they willingly put themselves into. Geezus this friccken’ WAR has been going on since 2001 and these dim-bulbs joined the PARATROOPS… Who, NEWSFLASH, jump out of perfectly good aircraft while in flight to get on the ground and goddamned KILL people, not the peacecorps.
“This is something that the military does that it absolutely needs to stop. As soon as someone in the military thinks they may want to charge someone, they can be flagged and their life can begin infinitely sucking in a lot of small ways”
They are adults who chose of their own free will to take the oath and Soldier. If the non-hackers want to be baby-sat instead of Soldiering as they swore to, they have no right to be shocked that resources to get things done in a timely manner are going to serving Soldiers, not malcontents.
If they’re concerned about the living conditions; send them to the field and let them live there. That being said, here are two questions that haven’t been addressed:
Are they collecting a paycheck? If they are, why isn’t the military doing everything it can to expedite their chapters?
It’s obvious we’re not dealing with the cream of the crop here, so why is the military trying to strike a deal and have these dudes go to combat? If I ever had to go outside the wire over there with a guy who went AWOL, I probably wouldn’t feel that comfortable.
“Soldiers in the platoon are relegated to living quarters in a set of dimly lit concrete rooms. Pipes peep out of missing ceiling tiles and a musty smell permeates beds placed on cracked linoleum floors.”
Sounds like my old barracks at Harmony Church. Fucking pussies should have been shot for cowardness.
AS- you ever chaptered somebody out? If you have, then you know it ain’t that cut and dry.
If you wanna complain about substandard barracks, talk to congress. Underfunding maintenance and upgrades has been a staple of military life since the nation was founded. Only recently, since 2001, has adequate funding been allocated to provide proper barracks facilities to our troops. And it has been hit and miss from post to post. The worst posts got the most money. The larger posts had to prioritize which projects to fund first. By the time everything is modernized, it will be time to upgrade again.
With the elimination of post Correctional Custody Facilities (CCF) in the 90’s, commanders had to house their ne’er-do-wells someplace. Why would a commander waste prime living space on some dirtbag that MIGHT be rehabilitated. Unfortunately, the chapter process (an administrative process) requires multiple legal reviews and other hoops to be completed. This prolongs the process and requires additional time to be wasted on these dirtbags that could be spent training troops. 90% of a leader’s time is spent dealing with 10% of the troops.
Why are the scumbags and losers of the military highlighted by the media rather than the 99% of the servicemembers who quietly go about their duties? One asshat from an entire Brigade Combat Team (approx 3500-4000 troops) refuses to deploy and he gets in the news, whilst the remaining 3499 troopers who have deployed hardly get a mention. We have a name for a guy like that- Blue Falcon.
H3ll yes! At Fort Knox, in ’74, I was quartered in old white wooden WWII era barracks. No matter what we did, and we kept those old buildings clean, they still looked worn and shabby.
Later on, when I enlisted in the Navy, I was sent to Sandy Eggo, and.. wait for it.. Was quartered in old WWII era barracks. Those peer structures were sorry to behold. About 1/3 of the window panes had been broken and replaced by olive darb fiberglass. The linoleum was so worn and chipped, that you still couldn’t bring it to a shine. Every stinking pipe in that head, all of that brightwork, and throughout the building was either copper or brass, and took forever to put a shine on. Every single fire bottle was an old school one with a brass body and copper plates and fittings. Those things would ooze vertigris.
When it rained, we had to put the mop buckets out to catch the leaks, and we didn’t get them all.
But we cleaned them, and we kept them ordered and neat, and did the best we could.
Like John Wayne once said: “Life is Tough. It’s even tougher when you are stupid.”
Those guys need to muckle down and clean their own damned sh!tholes, rather than wallow in the misery and complaints. However, THAT would require some self-effort and leadership, something that none of them seem to have in any measurable quantity.
He should try living aborad ship, and not one of the new ones, either. I served aboard Independence and Ranger when they roughly in the middle of their service lives and on Kitty Hawk when it was twenty five years old. But remember, a Man-of-War is not built for comfort, it is built to fight. Plumbing, wiring, cables and 1MC speakers in the overhead. Sleeping 3 deep on your locker, with maybe 2 feet of distance between sets of racks.
When I got aboard Nimitz in ’88 for an extended workup, it was not the Cadillac it had been when commissioned in ’75.
At the end of my career, I was on staff at the Restriction Barracks, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, WA. It was in what was the old Marine Barracks, when we had a MarDet. The south end of the first floor had been the Globe and Anchor Club. At one time this was the finest little saloon in the entire Pacific Northwest. The Station Security Department took it over after having been in a WW2 era building. It was remodeled into an open bay barracks. Under the paint on one bulkhead the outline of the Marine Corps Emblem could be seen, in the correct light.
I also lived for about a week in the Upper MAU camp at Cubi Point in ’79 while chasing Ranger around WestPac.Quonset huts with no AC and a walk to relieve oneself and take a shower.And the monkeys running in, out and through at night. I even woke up with one on the foot rail of my bunk once. The shower hut was next to a main road and the passengers in busses could look down on you while you were in the shower.
This guy wants sympathy? My Dad, SGT, USA, told me where to find it. It’s in the dictionary, somewhere between shit and syphillis.
AS: You said this “THere is no excuse, stateside, for housing soldiers in barracks that should be condemned. Again, whatever they may or may not have done (and please remember that in America, individuals are innocent until proven guilty), to deliberately house them badly because they’re “just legal holds” is unjust and against all Army values.”
Well, I don’t know how you can defend someone who went AWOL and then deserted as innocent until proven guilty. It’s not like it wasn’t them that went AWOL, or that someone else was using their body to go AWOL. So, to say they are innocent until proven guilty really doesn’t stand up in these cases. As for expiditing their cases, please tell me what the proper amount of time is, that they should be held, before dispensation of their case? Can you point out where it gives an exact timeline for such?
As for Constitutional questions, well, when you sign on the dotted line, then the UCMJ becomes the rule book. As an NCO you should be well aware of that.
That they have been made a little uncomfortable breaks my little heart. Maybe they shouldn’t have gone AWOL? Maybe they shouldn’t have deserted? There is nothing prescribed in the UCMJ about the housing of those awaiting Courts-martial; is there? If there is, please post it so we can all see it.
It all comes down to “if ya can’t do the time; don’t do the crime”.
Dahr Jamail is a whiney little weasel and I’m sure there was no bias on his part in this article. Maybe that little dirtbag should shack up with the runners for a little while, in order to get the full effect of what they’re going through?
These soldiers have no grounds for complaint. Living conditions aside, they have committed the worst crime a soldier can…deserting his fellow soldiers in time of war. I have no doubt that their Article 15s were executed quickly and they are in the midst of the chapter process. They ought to be court martialed, not chaptered.
I’ve been a rear det commander and I put these dirt bags as far away as possible for my incoming replacements and wounded soldiers. They are cowards and I didn’t want them infecting the rest of the soldiers.
They have not only shrunk from their duty, but it requires an NCO to ensure that they actually show up for their chapter appointments. Despite their bitching they needed to be escorted everywhere as most would intentionally miss appointments in order to drag out the chapter process and collecting a paycheck.
Guess what? When a unit deploys they turn their barracks back in to the installation to house deploying reservists or returning soldiers. As the Army renovates barracks, it means those barracks are unavailable for occupation, creating a continuous shortfall of living space. We’re certainly not going to house good soldiers in crappy conditions if we can help it. Thus, crappy soldiers go in the crappy barracks. We don’t reward misbehavior.
The rear det’s job is to care for soldiers and families. This includes training new soldiers to deploy, caring for the wounded and families of the deceased, and getting rid of derelicts. You must be joking to think that we keep chapter cases around a minute longer than neccessary. We do not get a replacement soldier until the chapter case is out of the Army. It is a zero sum game.
Well, that about sums it up as to what things are garnered from the same article: cowards, scumbags, dirtbags, f-ing pussies, malcontents, crappy soldiers, losers, whiners.
Strange; there was pretty much a consensus as to what was in the article and only one or two that didn’t see it the same way? I wonder why?