Another reason I dislike civilians
1stCavRVN11B sent me this link and reminded me of how my intense dislike of civilians began while I was an active duty private.
On Jan. 3, several soldiers stationed at Fort Drum were waiting for a shuttle back to the base after flying into the airport. Because of the long wait, a soldier contacted Phenix Cab Co. to find out the fare to the base and was quoted a price of $90. The soldier informed the cab company that there were three going to the base for the $90 fare.
When Lavery arrived, he solicited another two soldiers to join the cab ride with the agreement that $90 would cover all five.
When the cab arrived at the Northern New York base, Lavery told the five that the price was $90 per person and that they owed him $450, not $90.
During the discussion on the rate for the ride, Lavery threatened to have the five arrested and called the military police. When the MPs arrived, Lavery told them he increased the amount for the trip because he had to drive through bad weather. When MPs said the rate sounded excessive, Lavery said he didn’t care and threatened the soldiers with criminal charges. Knowing that criminal charges could hurt their military careers, the soldiers paid the $450.
Thanks, MPs. Lavery has since been charged with grand larceny. By the way, it’s about sixty miles from Syracuse to the barracks on Drum. And it’s all highway. For $450 they could have rented a car and bought a week’s worth of groceries and intoxicants.
But that taxi ride is a metaphor for how northern NYers are taking the whole Fort Drum community for an expensive ride. Government housing is spread out over three counties so all of the towns can get a piece of soldiers’ paychecks. Young spouses get to the commissary for groceries with Bluebird buses and it’s almost an all day excursion. And don’t get me started on the lack of a military hospital. Thank the current Army Secretary McHugh, who was the congressional representation for the area, for that cobbled-together design.
Category: Liberals suck
The MPs could have told him to shut the fuck up and get off the base but they decided to live up to their reputation as douchebags.
I was there when it was reactivated in the late 80,s. My first kid was born in Watertown. I knew guys that rode the bus to their housing that was 50 miles away. When you think how bad the weather can get in the winter thats just nuts. The 10th Mountain Division should be at Ft Carson where there are actual mountains. New York sucks and given the political climate there they should have no bases.
I was in 3rd brigade 10th Mountain from 2007-2010 and hated the whole area. Everything in Watertown was designed to get Soldiers paychecks and rip you off. Housing now on post has improved a little but not much. You still have Soldiers living as far north as A Bay and as far south as Pulaski and Oswego… and don’t get me started on the Ugly Stick…
I think Fort Carson full up with the 4th ID.
bman, my point is if you are a Mountain division You should not have to go to Vermont to train.
It’s all a matter of politics. For decades the 10th Mountain was the ‘stack arms’ division. Congress poured money into Fort Drum for the votes, which is why there’s housing and so on all over the place; and when the Army announced it was going to case the 10th’s colors – wow! What a ruckus!
After that, the 10th got about every mission that came along, just to justify the expense of renovating Fort Drum.
When I was there, they were part of the XVIIIth Abn Corps and they had to take the Division in cattle cars to Romulus to fly them anywhere (about 80 miles). Then the BRAC closed Romulus so they had to build another airbase on Drum, but it could only handle C130s, so they’d fly the troops in C130s to Dix for a transfer to 141s. What a cluster.
DaveO, I agree with that. When I deployed from Drum we had to go to Griffiss AFB. That was about 80 miles. I wonder where they fly out of now?
Jonn, Thar answers my question.
Maybe they work out a deal with 1st MarDiv and share space at Camp Pendleton plenty hills and Mtns around Horno and Onefre…they could have full combat load competitions up and down the hills with particular attention to Mt. Motherfucker.
Chuck-
When we deployed to Afghanistan in 09 we flew right out of Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield which is just across Route 26 from Drum. The airfield is capable of handling C-17s and most other large cargo aircraft. But the area still sucks…
Ah good ole Mt Motherfucker. Had a guy in a another platoon break his leg going down the other side during bootcamp. Everyone within 50 yds heard the damn thing break. Broke the femur when he stepped into a gully.
Nevyan, When I was there Wheeler-Sack could only handle helicopters. My company was still in the old wooden buildings on the old side of the base.
Yeah they really built up wheeler… 3 runways between 10,000 ft and 4,482 ft. When I first got to Drum we were on Old Post in the rotten ass wooden buildings. We ended up moving to the newer buildings in late 2007/early 2008 but then they neglected to open a DFAC on our side of post so the single Soldiers all had to either walk 2 miles to the DFAC or just survive on delivey pizzas.
Needless to say we know how THAT turned out…
We lived on Jreck subs. They were by the old main gate.
Jreck… yum. One of the FEW reasons to venture off post.
A soldier in a military town is treated like a cash register. A soldier in a non-military town (at least in fly over country) is treated like a hero. I once had to go to court in Pocatello, Idaho, while on AC/RC duty, because my neighbors complained about my dog barking one too many times. When the Judge found out I was active duty Army, he was on my side. When he found out that I was training the unit his son belonged to, he ruled that since I was living on military pay, I was “indigent” and couldn’t even afford the $65 court cost. I paid a $1 fine. That’s a far cry how my soldiers, circa 1996, in Hinesville, GA, got treated.
I once had orders for Ft Drum, but because of the medical needs of my daughter I was able to get the orders changed. The lack of medical facilities is a biggie. You can’t just load up the snowmobile and take somebody to the hospital.
Dogs and soldiers (sailors), stay off the grass. Nice to see how nothing’s changed. The fact that this asshole cabbie was even willing to TRY to pull that shit amazes me. Worse than cab drivers in Korea. At least when the guy in Korea pulled over on the edge of Pusan (he knew we wanted to go to Texas Street and we had previously agreed on that) and tried to get an extra $20 out of us, the 3 of us just folded our arms and waited him out.
Had a friend up there when that wicked ice storm hit in 96 I think…what a freaking nightmare. Because of that, they moved out to the city and it was even worse. Alex Bay and W’town very nice, though…
My experience has been that there is an entire “sub-economy” to separate soldiers from their pay virtually anywhere there’s a significant military presence. It sucks. In Augusta, GA, the region south of town is just such a place, preying on the soldiers at Ft Gordon. I wish there was some kind of orientation that warned them about this crap.
Bama Redleg is spot on. I think there’s definitely a proportion between the amount of soldiers in a town and how well civilians are willing to treat them. For example, if there’s only one soldier they can treat well and then never have to think about the military again, good to go, but if they might have to consistently treat soldiers well again and again, a lot of them tend to say “Screw that.”
Thanks for reminding me about the ice storm, defendUSA. It was 1998 and the little town I lived in, Redwood, about 15 miles from Drum, was without electricity for 16 days in January.
After the ice knocked down the power poles across the roads, it snowed 18 inches on top of them, so we were essentially trapped in our homes. The Army brought us food and potable water three times every day for more than two weeks.
Since our only contact with the world was the local radio station, I got to listen to the residents of Watertown and Black River bitch because the Army wasn’t cleaning the debris from their streets and shoveling their side walks.
I was raised in upstate New York, but the people around Drum are flaming assholes.
The ARMY wasn’t cleaning the sidewalks? How’s about those dumb bastards clean their OWN freakin sidewalks? During the windstorm last February, a tree on the easement in front of my property fell across the road. The town cut up and removed just enough to clear the road. My across-the-road neighbor and I had to clear out our own properties.
Asshats.
#17 Bama Redleg is right, near outside of every military base there seems to be a subculture of vultures circling for prey. I saw about everything during my first few months at Fort Campbell. Almost got taken by one of the insurance salesmen, who came to my door looking to sell one of those policies where you can withdraw money at any time. Made my rounds of the scalpers before learning about MILES and buying from a reputable dealer. Not to mention the interactions with other civilians off-post. It got to the point where I started wearing my old work uniforms around when I was off-duty just so people wouldn’t try to take advantage of me. DC was better in that it wasn’t a military town, but there were still plenty of people viewing those of us in uniform as cash registers, especially the homeless.
Here around Baton Rouge it is much different. I can hardly go anywhere without being thanked for my service, and have had many a beer or meal paid for.
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Is there any military base that doesn’t gouge the military? All the ones I have been one do. I don’t think it’s right.
In the early 1980’s for a brief time, the city of Jacksonville NC was pulling that sort of crap on Marines at the bases there. The CG promptly put the entire city off limits and started liberty rides to other cities. After about two weeks the city was on its knees and begging him to lift the off limits. They got the word the hard way. But it takes a non political lion in command for such things to happen.