UPDATE: Is there an inherent difference between military and civil service?

UPDATE: THE BILL HAS BEEN PULLED FROM CONSIDERATION FOR TONIGHT. NO VOTE FOR NOW. WILL GET BACK TO YOU.

Not according to a bill being discussed and voted on in the US House today. Let me start with an example….

Imagine two best friends, Allen and Bob who decide to attend VA Tech together. Allen majors in English, but his heart and soul is dedicated to the Corps of Cadets, where he is an Army ROTC member. Bob is a wood science major, and wants more than anything to join the US Forest Service under the Department of Agriculture. Both graduate with honors, and move on to their respective fields.

Allen trains for about a year, and becomes an Infantry platoon leader. He’s a young LT who just wants to do the right thing. He finds himself quickly deployed to Afghanistan, assigned to a scout section in the Wardak province. One day his convoy of humvees comes under attack by small arms and RPG fire. He’s waited his whole life for just such a moment, and knows that on a near-side ambush, you attack into the source, and he orders just that. He is killed in the line of duty, but his quick response saves the lives of many of the men in his command.

Bob is hired by the US Forest Service, and becomes an expert on Pteridophyta (ferns.) One day while doing a survey of the flora of the Shenendoah National Park, he spies a particularly large Ophioglossales and goes to investigate. He never sees the large branch that has been recently broken from a recent hurricane, and said branch lands on his head, killing him immediately.

Both are tragic deaths to be sure, but are they both deserving of the same honors? If H.R. 2061 passes the House of Representatives today, and goes on to become a law, they will be. This bill would:

To authorize the presentation of a United States flag at the funeral of Federal civilian employees who are killed while performing official duties or because of their status as a Federal employee.

Further,

A flag shall be furnished and presented under this section in the same manner as a flag is furnished and presented on behalf of a deceased member of the Armed Services who dies while on active duty.

Does that seem right to you? It certainly doesn’t to me.

There is an inherent difference between military and civil service. You can quit a civil service job any time you like. You ever try to quit military service? I’ve seen guys pretending to be gay just to get out. (At basic one dude paid another to beat him up so he could claim he was being ostracised for being gay. Didn’t work.)

You think the pay scale is the same? Take a look some time at the average salary of an E5 and compare it to the starting salary of a State Department person.

Here is an article I found from the NYT from 2007. As you read it, just imagine that they were military personnel, instead of State….

Many U.S. diplomats refuse to work in Iraq

While the diplomats and Foreign Service employees of the State Department have always been expected to staff “hardship” postings, those jobs have not usually required that they wear flak jackets with their pinstriped suits.

But in the last five years, the Foreign Service landscape has shifted.

Now, thanks to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the White House is calling for more American civilians to head not only to those countries, but also to some of their most hostile regions — including Iraq’s volatile Anbar Province — to try to establish democratic institutions and help in reconstruction. That plan is provoking unease and apprehension at the State Department and at other U.S. agencies.

Many U.S. employees have outright refused repeated requests that they go to Iraq, while others have demanded that they be assigned only to Baghdad and not be sent outside the more secure Green Zone, which includes the American Embassy and Iraqi government ministries. And while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice maintained Wednesday that State Department employees were “volunteering in large numbers” for difficult posts, including Iraq, several department employees said that those who had signed up tended to be younger, more entry-level types, and not experienced, seasoned diplomats.

We are seeing a lot more of this thinking of late, whether it is this asinine bill, or the DoD floating their jackass retirement plan to replace what we have with a 401k. The distinctions between military and civil service are there for anyone with the capacity to look for them, and yet we are under a concerted effort to ignore those differences, and treat us all equally.

As it says in the Book of Job (and Captain Jean Luc Picard in First Contact): ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’

This bill has to go down. It is just one more front in the war to take from us that which we have earned. If the Federal Gov’t or individual families wish to honor those civilian employees killed in the line of duty, then fine. But don’t try to couch it in terms that equates the service with the one we perform.

It just reminds me of Shinseki and the Black Beret Boondoggle. Everyone can’t be a Ranger, but we can make everyone feel good about themselves by issuing the black berets to every S1 and supply clerk in the military. It also reminds me of idiotic Massachusetts sports where no one keeps score. If having a flag draped over your coffin means as much to you as it does to me, give me a call, and I will help you locate the closest MEPS. But don’t try to take what has been reserved for those who raised their right hand and swore to defend this country, and hand it out to every Bob, Dick and Harry who decides to serve in the IRS. There exists a difference in the services of Bob and Allen, and it takes a Congress with 16 percent approval ratings to not understand this simple concept.

For those who would make this a partisan issue, think again. Bill is sponsored by a Republican (Hanna from NY) and even my former GOP Congressman (Frank Wolf of VA) is a cosponsor. This is a bipartisan shitsandwich, and it needs to get scuttled.

So, do two things:
1) Call your Member of the US House. The switchboard at the Capitol is 202-224-3121.
2) Reach out to other military and political blogs. I have as much chance of getting things up at HotAir, Ace of Spades and simliar blogs of late as I do of becoming an international hand model. So, send them all emails, and get them on this. The vote is today, so we have no time to lose.

ON EDIT (ADDITION): for those of you claiming this is needed because of the State Dept guy assasinated scenario, persons like that are already authorized to receive this benefit:

Federal civilian employees who die of injuries in connection with their service with an armed force in a contingency operation are eligible to receive a United States flag. 10 U.S.C. § 1482a.

Category: Politics