Like clockwork
Remember all those optics that went missing from JBLM a couple days ago? Well it turns out it’s about $600k worth of stuff that was secured in a locked but not alarmed room. Whatever, like that doesn’t happen all the time. Somehow, though, the thieves managed to cut the locks and make off with it unbeknownst to the Company’s Supply section for as long as three weeks.
Right on time, the North Korean apologist, Stalinist lunatics at International ANSWER have crawled across I-5 from Coffee Strong to use this opportunity to take up the locked-down comapany’s cause via their front group “March Forward”. You might remember some illustrious members such as Michael Prysner. According to the Seattle Times:
The lockdown has angered some of the soldiers, who are part of the brigade’s 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment. They have received support from March Forward, a group of soldiers and veterans opposed to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, who have been circulating a petition calling for an end to the lockdown.
“The Fort Lewis, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment is again being subjected to abusive treatment by its chain of command,” the petition reads.
Ah, good to have some emo-Communist burnouts in your corner, isn’t it guys?
Don’t get me wrong, if I was stuck on lock down in the BEQ because some criminal in cammies stole a bunch of crap from my unit I’d be pretty pissed too. All that being said I have to add that, in the big scheme of things, sitting around drinking beer and watching cable while the CID figures out who’s going to lockup isn’t exactly a humanitarian crisis.
Update:
Looks like IVAW board member and Coffee Strong super senior barista Jorge Gonzalez added his two cents via ABC alliliate KOMO News:
Jorge Gonzalez, a JBLM veteran who now works to help soldiers, says the restrictions are worsening morale that has already suffered from overseas deployments.
“And now they’re coming back to being harassed more or on base by their chain of command that they’re all basically known or thought of as possible suspects,” he said.
Gonzalez supports March Forward’s online petition drive calling for an end to the lockdown.
“They’ve been locked down since Wednesday, so it’s pretty over-reactionary for just some lasers and scopes,” said Gonzalez.
You know what would be great? If the media would bother to look into the scum they find lingering around the Berkley St off ramp on Interstate 5 and actually figure who these people are are instead of just writing down whatever non-threatening line of crap they feed them after getting a microphone shoved in their face.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Crime, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Shitbags
Again and again we get this picture as Soldiers as Victims. Again and again we forget that far from victimhood Soldiers are willing Participants, and while there is always some level of happy horseshit, We know well that there is always a reason, even if it is something that gives us some serious ulcers.
“They have received support from March Forward…” translation a dozen socialists/communists, led by one or two former members of the military noted for their failures, one of whom’s mother owns a fax machine.
I stopped pondering their stupidity a long time ago.
The lock down is what it is; everyone who has served for more than a day knows that it is SOP in most units to lock down if sensitive items are lost. Sucks, but it can be effective.
Could be worse–they could be in a REAL lockdown.
Once again reality doesn’t mean much to the leftists. Think maybe that those locked down are all being viewed as potential suspects because they are, well, like, all potential suspects?
Poor Jorge. It’s all just so very troubling. He’s probably going to get PTSD from all this worry over these poor victims. The fretting. The angst. All those unnecessary media contacts. It’s just so UNFAIR!
(anyone really need the /sarc?)
A guy in my unit lost his M16 out at NTC (he forgot it on a helicopter) and they locked down the whole place and had us on line going through the desert following the flight path of the helicopter. Yeah, walking through the desert looking for an M16 that fell off a helicopter. Mission impossible anyone? Well, the luck of the Irish must have been with us, because it was found 20 miles downrange and the young troop received an article 15 right there.
We jumped in to Alaska in January on an airstrip (not on Richardson or Greely, but the other one) and someone lost their .45 from 1200 feet, in three feet of snow. We were on line looking for it. Miraculously, someone found it after several hours, but it was certainly a daunting task.
Soldiers should Unionized! Then the Command can’t hold Soldiers against their will or make us go to war, and Obama won’t be able to implement his troop reductions. I almost forgot the best perk of all, the left wing commies will support the military as long as we put a sickle and hammer over the American Flag! This is a joke for those who don’t recognize satire!
WE had an officer get his butt dismissed because he was lazy. Rather than return to the hanger and stow his gear and secure his classified material, he decided to just toss it into the trunk of his car and head for home.
Well, sure as hell, his car got broken into and not only was his flight gear stolen, but also his helmet bag with classified manuals, and other items.
Fortunately, the 2 numb nuts who stole the stuff showed up the next day at a local surplus store. The owner, a former veteran, thought that something wasn’t quite right. He managed to stall the guys while “inspecting” all the stuff, and had his wife call the cops. The idiots went to jail (several years, if I remember, because of the cash value of all the items) and the Navy got it’s stuff back.
The good LT, however, found hisself on the street.
The whole sorry story was reported at quarters on the flight deck, and it certainly put a stop to anyone’s ideas of taking short cuts with securing their gear and classified materials.
Camping fun: Fort Jackson, SC. M-16 turned up missing. “Nobody moves, nobody eats, piss in place– until that M-16 is found.And it will be found!” It was. They hauled away some goon from Philly who hid the weapon in a log.
Harassed? What is this Jorge idiot smoking? Sensitive items came up missing, this is SOP. Guess he wants that ‘kinder, gentler Army”. It really pisses me off that all these outside organizations are getting involved in internal Army business. My answer…”Stay the fuck out of our business, let us do our jobs.”
I still remember the one time my unit got locked down for a missing M9 in the Arms Room. The entire company got locked down in the motor pool, no barracks, so that really pissed us off. Enough that the culprit was found out, internally, before the clock hit 2200 on that first night and the lockdown ended. Nobody wanted to be locked down in the motor pool. You would think us married guys would be more pissed than the single soldiers, but get a single soldier away from his comfort zone (beer, xbox, music) and watch them all become sleuths. Peer pressure is a bitch, and it worked…at least in this occasion.
@#7,
The military is prohibited by law from unionizing. That law was passed during the Carter administration. The military was so damned pissed with his mismanagement, and the massive cuts he made (along with the Demoncrat-controlled congress) that there were serious talks about forming a military union. It was all over the pages of Navy Times, Army Times, and MSM publications too.
Congress got the living shit scared out of them at the thought of a conservative, all-military union and passed the law in record time and Carter signed it within hours of it arriving at the White House.
I remember being amazed at how swiftly Congress could actually act when they felt like it.
This is shaping up like it has happened to everybody.
Try losing a T-9 manual in Nuke School. Talk about pain. No pissing in place, but damned if that kid ever lost a thing again–after they booted his ass out of the program. A few O-gangers on the boat have had “issues” with TS material not confirmed destroyed or shipped. Again, wouldn’t wish that pain on my worst enemy.
you know strangely I had a 1SG loose his weapon in Iraq. No arms across Kirkuk for that one. . . guess it matters who loses their weapon.
Also correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Zarcowie have a “look at me I’m a bad ass” video where he was firing a 249 (where someone had to show him how to clear a misfire)
I also remember an AF crew that had the “asset” (if you know what it is OPSEC DAMMIT!!!) and lost the “Bible” that went with it, yeah we had to tare apart our AO to find it.
Last one I swear: my brigade was doing train up for Iraq in Schofield, and apparently some jackass in 1-21 Infantry got all the way back from the training area before he realized that he was missing his ANPVS-7D’s… can you guess what happened next? A bn that had just been in the field for three weeks went back out and spent another three days looking for the missing NODs. Its a wonder he survived long enough to get his Article 15.
As evidenced by these posts, accountability is everything–especially when it comes to sensitive items. If people like Gonzalez are butt hurt over this, imagine their outrage if they found that Soldiers are held hostage every day until the Armorer gives an “up”. As an Armorer myself, I put hands on every piece of equipment before closing out, and it took new squad leaders and platoon sergeants only a couple of days to realize that I would not compromise accountability for their sakes.
I had a PVS-7 that had been damaged by a vehicle fire in Iraq. It was in a sealed bag with the serial number recorded on a label and had to be accounted for daily as well as by serial number monthly. Until the PBO writes off an item, it must be maintained regardless of its condition.
I am guessing most of the soldiers being locked down aren’t pissed about being “harrassed” or “though of as a suspect”, they are pissed that some a-hole stole the stuff and are causing the lock down, not the leaders who are following procedure. Those that do blame the leadership for following the book, and not the theives, are probably future IVAW members.
re #15
If memory serves that SAW Zarqawi was using came off a dead Marine from an ambushed sniper team.
That’s how CID works…”lets hold everybody until we find something.”
They did it to us in Bosnia because a few retards committed some minor infraction of the rules…so the pulled in all the teams, took away our weapons and ammo and put us on lock down– stopped all missions.
Until one day the dumbass General in charge asked why he wasn’t getting info on something we did…finally somebody had the balls to tell him what CID was doing.
As a civilain investigator, if I wolked like that, I’d have been sued. But, CID has their own laws and kind of suck at investigations if you ask me.
I heard a story from my Dad (Navy officer); once upon a time, in the ancient mists of prehistory known as “the early 1960s,” the USS Neverdock managed to “misplace” an ASROC. (There’s only two places to PUT an ASROC on a Coontz-class DLG: in the launcher, or in the ship’s magazine.)
The ASROC that was reported as “misplaced” was a “special weapon.”
To say that the squadron commodore went completely batshit would be a gross understatement. NAVSTA San Diego went on lockdown, the commodore was threatening everyone and anyone with courts-martial, and screaming “YOU’RE TRYING TO KILL ME! YOU’RE ALL TRYING TO KILL ME!”
My father was on the DESRON operations staff, and being the inquisitive soul that he was, asked the WEPSO on the Neverdock for a magazine inventory; all ASROC load spaces had weapons, none matched the missing weapon’s serial number. He then asked for status report on the “pepperbox” (8-round ASROC launcher). Answer: 7 rounds loaded.
“How do you know seven rounds are loaded?”
“ASROC status console in CIC shows all tubes loaded except #4.”
“Would you be so kind as to send a sailor around to physically check the status of tube #4?”
“But the status console says–”
“Just humor the staff weenie, will you, please?”
Turns out that the firing cable that was plugged into the ASROC had a short-circuit that resulted in the tube showing as empty. The short also would have caused the weapon to immediately fire had any electrical power been applied to the launcher. Since they were tied up at 32nd Street, this would’ve resulted in a nuclear-tipped ASROC getting fired onto Wabash Boulevard, resulting in an “Oscar Sierra” event, much angst and paperwork for the DESRON staff, even more ansgt and paperwork for the COMCRUDESGRU staff, and caused much concern within the larger community.
WEPSO got relieved and cashiered–the only thing that saved the skipper was that he’d been in the job two days and had already expressed concern to the commodore that all was not well in his weapons department.
4th Bn, 9th Inf…”Manchus” whining like a bunch of little kids? I can’t believe it…
Lock downs…they have always been SOP when a piece of sensitive kit went missing/unaccounted for. Happened in the early 80s at Lewis at least twice that I can remember. Once in 2/77 Armor (lost a coax…don’t ask me how…one of the then new FNs) while in the field, and believe they stayed out there for a couple of weeks. Another time an Inf Bn “lost” and M60, and did penance in the filed for a week or so. The “pig” was eventually found, but months later…someone had stolen it, and left it half buried in the training area, IIRC.
They’ll find out what happened, eventually. On another forum, the general thought is that this stuff arrived after “reset”, and the unit was on block leave for the holidays. Instead of a proper serial number inventory, securing in arms rooms, etc, the Rear-D just locked all of it up in a storage cage and this is the end result.
As others have said, Jorge needs to stay the fuck in his lane…he’s clueless.
I can sympathize with these poor soldiers. On New Years Eve I lost my mind and the wife still has me on lock down.
Since we’re sharing- was along for the ride on a BCT deployment to AF in 08. Train-up in 07 involved plenty of time at FT Drum. On a range in late October a 1LT (call him unlucky) set his weapon down after qualifying at night. While standing next to his weapon another 1LT (call him moron) came up, gathered up his own kit & got on the waiting bus to return to garrison, w/LT Unlucky’s weapon. Why neither of them caught it? Who knows, but LT Unlucky later caught the SNAFU & informed the Co CDR. By that point no one had any idea where LT Moron was (different unit in the BDE, went out to eat after return, etc.) SO just to cover all the bases the command had the range locked down & we (NCOs/enlisted) spent most of the night out there checking each others weapon serial numbers before the idiot came back from his little sabbatical, & the command was sure only the two LTs were involved. Good times.
[…] the Seattle Chapter of the Trotskyite International Socialist Organization and generic IVAW goon. The last time JBLM was generating controversy in the news the producers at KOMO slithered all the way to the bottom of the heap and enlisted the help of the […]
[…] course, it’s not the first time we’ve heard of Gonzalez. NSOM wrote about him a few weeks ago doing the same […]