Combat troops win one against POGs
USAToday runs an article today about some findings by Midwest Research Institute in regards to Gulf War syndrome. i doubt their research, actually, because it’s based on so few Gulf War participants and I’ve always been leery of people who claim to be victims of the ailment. But I’m no doctor, so what do I know?
Anyway, MRI claims that many of the ailments associated with Gulf War Syndrome seem attached to the use of pesticides that never made it to the frontline troops and apparently were horded by people other than grunts (POGs);
Insecticides used in rear areas are only considered potential causes. Only Army support troops used a 70% DEET insecticide and lindane powder, which is no longer used in the Army. Insecticides now contain only 30% DEET. DEET contains the same chemical that causes problems in nerve agents, but the Environmental Protection Agency has determined it’s safe as long as it’s used as directed by civilian manufacturers.
Soldiers also used the insecticide permethrin on their clothing. It’s designed to last through six months’ worth of washings, but the researchers found that improperly trained soldiers applied the solution once a week or even, in some cases, daily.
I never saw any pesticides among combat troops…which wasn’t odd for Desert Storm. Combat troops saw very little of the equipment they needed. For example, we didn’t get our desert camouflaged uniforms until the day before the Ground War started – but every fucking forklift driver in the port had three sets. I couldn’t get socks or boots for my troops until a member of COB6’s platoon went down and hit up his wife in the support battalion for some socks and she gave us enough to replace the socks for every member of the company. I had to go to the IG to get one of my platoon members a pair of boots after he walked out of three pairs because our S-4 NCO (who later killed himself with what I hope was the .45 Colt Commander I threw in the amnesty trailer) said he didn’t have time to look for one pair of boots for one private. While he was being a dick, he had himself at least one brand new pair of desert boots.
So you pogue fucks that were hording the equipment that was supposed to go to the front finally got what you were asking for – you poisoned yourselves with your greed. And the grunts win one. Not that we would have been pussies and used the pesticide anyway.
Sorry, i just needed to get that off my chest.
Category: None
OIF I, I crossed the Kuwait/Iraq border, wearing just my interceptor vest and a M9.
Back then, my battalion didn’t have enough stock M-16’s to issue to those of us that were crew served weapons gunners. (I was a mortarman). And we didn’t have enough SAPI plates for the CSW guys, (we gladly offered them to the 0311’s, who most likely needed them).
Now, I’m attached (still infantry) to a Logistics Battalion in Afghanistan as PSD. I have made sure that my Marines have what they need before we leave the wire, and I always find out who we are going to support, and try to bring them extra stuff (dip, smokes, FROG suits, candy, ect).
The disparity was still going strong in 2009. I was part of an airwing unit that never ever ever would be sent forward beyond a handful of guys detached to a line company COC. We barely convoyed, and the closest we came to having guys patrolling was a few Motor-T guys that augmented a Victor unit and some support personnel who got picked for FET.
We still got brand new sets of winter gear including those obnoxious happy suits that we could have probably invaded the North Pole with. Most of it was completely useless to us, and we ended up sealing most of the gear in garbage bags to be sent over later in a QUADCON. There were a bunch of us who wore the winter Danner boots in order to keep our garrison boots in good shape. I didn’t wear mine to keep them in good shape, and now use them for cold weather hiking.
We got buffalo fleeces that mostly stayed unused since someone in the chain of command way above our unit said we had to wear them under our cammie tops which is nigh on impossible to manage. We all got two brand new sets of FROG gear. The most use it got was when we wore the bottoms during the summer until someone else way above our unit chain of command said we couldn’t wear FROG gear on the FOB so they mostly never left the plastic. We got cammie exchanges because someone didn’t like the black patches and tearing our rifles gave our blouses that didn’t impact our job performance one iota. As nice as it was to have that stuff it all could have been put to much better use by units that actually left the wire.
ObamaGirl, I echo the comments everyone else has directed at you. You are an imbecile.
Oy veigh