Quick takes: Kim threats, VA screening, Uniform kerfluffle
Well, Fatty da Kim is once again threatening to nuke joint South Korean – US exercises. Must be November.
North Korea issued a veiled threat Tuesday to use nuclear weapons to get the U.S. and South Korea to “pay the most horrible price in history,” an escalation of its fiery rhetoric targeting the ongoing large-scale military drills between its rivals.
Pak also accused the Pentagon of formulating a North Korean regime collapse as a major policy objective in an apparent reference to the Pentagon’s recently released National Defense Strategy report. The report stated any nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies and partners “will result in the end of that regime.”
If I get this, they are saying that our hypothetical response to their actual act would cause them to commit the actual act in response. Huh? Maybe they need to look up MAD, and I don’t mean Gaines’ magazine.
Expect new screening questions when you go to VA – they are expanding a former pilot project which VA says generated 13,000 reponses on exposure to harmful substances. They want to know (partial list):
Do you believe you experienced any toxic exposures, such as Open Burn Pits/Airborne Hazards, Gulf War-related exposures, Agent Orange, radiation, contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, or other such exposures while serving in the Armed Forces?”
If Yes, do you believe you were exposed to any of the following while serving in the Armed Forces?
- Open Burn Pits/Airborne Hazards,
- Gulf War-related exposures
- Agent Orange
- Radiation
- Contaminated water at Camp Lejeune
- Other exposures
This could be interesting. I have to think “other substances” should include asbestos… they may not be ready for the answers they will likely get. “What do you mean ALL the answers were “YES”?
A battalion commander at Ft. Bliss has made the news for barring soldiers from wearing Army-authorized uniform pieces…just because.
“The fleece cold weather jacket is not authorized for wear as an outer garment,” Lt. Col. Geoffrey Lynch, commander of 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division, said in an August memo reviewed by Military.com.
It’s not the first time a debate over the fleece has popped up, as questions sporadically surface about whether the jacket is primarily intended to be an undergarment worn under other cold weather gear. Though Army rules make it clear the jacket can be worn as an outer garment and are otherwise generally loose on when and where troops can wear it.
A top Army official overseeing uniform rules squashed any of that confusion back in January.
“It’s an outer garment,” Sgt. Maj. Ashleigh Sykes, the top enlisted leader for uniform policy said on Twitter in January. “There is hook and loop for name tapes, rank, and US Army to make that obvious.”
Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston, the service’s top enlisted leader, endorsed the message. “That settles that,” he tweeted.
Why is it always Ft. Bliss…I remember when in the ’80s a battalion commander banned the then-authorized jungle fatigues three work-days a week so that troops could look “uniform” in their hot-as-hell BDUs. Must be something in that lithium-laced drinking water. Might be interesting to see the next O-5 board’s results – attracting publicity which appears to show your troops are not being treated well does not seem like a positive promotion criterium.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", Army News, International Affairs, Media, Veteran Health Care
In today’s military Lt. Col. Lynch just put himself on the fast track for CoS. He has shown great leadership by ignoring Army regulations for his own personal Karen opinion. I’ll bet his DIE and CRT CBTs are all up to date.
If I have to walk back to my car because some idjit tol’ me I forgot my mask, then I’m leaving.
I didn’t wear a mask very much during the height of the coofdemic (and only under duress at that), and I wear one even less now (i.e., zero)
Be a Crusty Curmudgeon.
Hack Stone is currently in the waiting area at Walter Reed/Bethesda. The building has 100% mask requirement regardless of local and state policies. So Hack is sitting in a chair with a mask, while the closest person to him is about 50 feet away.
Haven’t they heard? Pandemic’s over. Biden said so.
True or not, you forgot the (/s) tag.
Yep, Same situation down here at Dorn Medical Center in SC! 100% masks…I was the only person in the waiting room area of where I was (had my mask) the eight people behind the desk were basically in a 10×20 cubicle and all had theirs pulled down to their chin!….hmmm…wonder who is more likely to get the “virus”?!!
Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger; the hospital I am taking cardiac rehab in is also 100% masked. Looking on the sunny side, aerobic exercise while wearing a mask probably strengthens the breathing muscles.
Fortunately, the cafeteria isn’t too bad, unlike some hospitals (Why is it that hospital cafeterias lack both quality and healthfullness?). I can get bacon and extra blue cheese dressing on my salad. The in-patient menu, however, is totally screwed; evidently taste and flavor are unhealthy.
I was exposed to a lot of stuff the state of California says are hazardous, arms and ammunition for one. Used motor oil. Radiation? Sunlight, granite, mash potatoes….
With the military we currently have, the Norks would kick our asses unless we nuked all of Norkland.
The confusion over the fleece started because of the black fleece. That one was never authorized as outerwear but some commands authorized it on deployment. Some soldiers would wear it in garrison. Eventually it went away as the cor matcg.fleece came on lip with the velcro.
Color match FUAC
The black fleece, aka the SF smoking jacket.
Wait…you mean CGSC was complete FUBAR when they told us we could wear it since they took all of our issued outerwear when we PCSed to FLKS and issued none when we signed in to CGSC since it is a school!!!??
I was certainly glad I saved a few when I left Afghanistan in 2003. The PBO forced me to take them back from all my soldiers so he could account for them…and then promptly handed them back to me because he was just going to burn them! The Post office didn’t want to believe me when I mailed ten boxes of them back to my unit…to hand back to my unit since they all flew before the PBO settled the account.
Re: uniform kerfluffle, that reminds me of when I was a Forward Air Controller in a Marine Corps infantry battalion on a winter deployment with a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) to the Mediterranean in the late ’80s.
The MEU had been provided with the relatively new ECWCS Gore-Tex cold weather gear, but we were never allowed to wear it, not even when training for extended periods in the field during the winter in Europe while it was raining/snowing with temperatures in the low 30s.
Instead, we stayed perpetually wet and cold in the old-style cloth field jackets and ponchos, while our ECWCS Gore-Tex gear remained sealed up in embark boxes in the holds of the ships. It was hypothermia a-go-go whenever we were in the field that winter.
TINS: Turned out that the MEU commander didn’t want to turn in “used” Gore-Tex gear at the end of the deployment, so he wouldn’t authorize the S-4s to issue the gear to the MEU’s Marines and Sailors.
Unbelievable.
Ossifers with bright ideas thinking only about themselves and their careers, bless their hearts.
“…commander didn’t want to turn in “used”…”
Nice to know some things haven’t changed. Commanders also want the troops to look sharp, which means wearing starched OG-107 fatigues, field jackets, and baseball caps no matter the temperature or atmospheric moisture content.
Toxic fumes you say? Anybody here serve in Kuwait? That whole country reeked of toxic chemicals, pretty much 24/7. All the various factories and refineries were built right there on the coast and the wind blowing in off the Arabian Gulf would blow that toxic mix right into the likes of Camp Arifjan and Buehring. It was absolutely nasty. (It was also crazy humid, which is not something you’d expect in a desert, but then again, it was right next to the ocean.)
Hey KimCheese, news flash for you. FAFO! Maybe Kimcheese figures when he launches his nukes and vaporizes a buncha troops, he will be safe and secure in his bunker and the turning of his subjects into crispy critters just means there is more food for the ones left?
I think that the worst thing that many of us were exposed to during our Service was unfiltered stupidity…especially from higher. Seems as if that part has just gotten worse.
“Other exposures”
We had a guy get transfered out for that.
HA!. Everyone knows that the SgtMaj of the Army outranks some pinhead, coffee gopher of a light bird.
I recently completed the medical evaluation portion of the burn pit registry process, including the breath test. It’s a pretty straightforward process… At least at the VA hospital that I went to.
Had the same experience. Except the VA sent me to a different clinic for the pulmonary test, they billed Tricare, who now wants $350. Now I get to fight with the VA.
Dear LTC Geoffrey Lynch,
Lighten up, Francis.
Former Bn CDR here. As stupid as I personally think the fleece looks by itself (not to mention only minimally effective), a) CSMs should be managing uniforms, not LTCs, b) why are we inventing crap when it’s clear what the policy is, and you ain’t IAW that policy? And, c) maybe focus on training readiness? Let ‘em wear fleece if that’s what they want. I also managed to not care about the *}**€# pile cap in not-cold weather even though that’s even worse than fleece because we have leaders whose business IS to worry about that and I don’t want to undercut them with stupid-officer crap.
I remember when we switched from OD’s to CADPAT. There were a lot of complaints about how hot the new pants were in Spring/Summer.
That being said, anything other than a g-string was bound to feel warmer than the heavily worn OD bottoms that had probably been issued to 10+ dudes before myself.
No exaggeration, I had a pair where you could count the change in my pockets and rule out what religions I may follow.
Way too late for my generation. We grew up chewing tar from the roads, spattered with creosote, playing with mercury, breathing dust from dirt roads sprayed with used motor oil & other substances, eating red dye #2, etc. And that was before we served in the military.
They pulled that fleece crap over our eyes in Iraq. Told us we could wear it, as long as the blouse and body armor, and all battle gear was on top. Granted, they were black then, and stood out much more than the sage green of later versions.
There was no logical way, you could get your blouse on over it, much less trying to adjust your battle gear larger. Then, you had to adjust it all back smaller when the day warmed up a bit. Fortunately, our CO told us to wear them the obvious way.
We were entry point security for the major logistics airfield. The CO said if any of these HQ pukes want to go in or out of the base, make sure they are dressed appropriately according to their own regulation.
After stopping numerous Majors and LTC’s, having them exit their vehicles for uniform inspections (can’t go to Baghdad looking improper, now could we?), the stupid dress code was dropped within a month.