SMA talks tattoos
ROS sends us a link to a Stars & Stripes article in which the Sergeant Major of the Army, Ray Chandler, addressed the most important national security issue facing our troops today; tattoos. Apparently, he is salivating at the thought of the Secretary of the Army signing the new regs into effect;
Media reports last year identified potential changes to rules governing things such make-up and fingernail polish, hair styles, body piercings, and the length of sideburns, among other items. Chandler, however, only confirmed changes to the policy on tattoos.
Under the new policy, new recruits will not be allowed to have tattoos that show below the elbows and knees or above the neckline, Chandler told troops. Current soldiers may be grandfathered in, but all soldiers will still be barred from having any tattoos that are racist, sexist or extremist.
Once the rules are implemented, soldiers will sit down with their unit leaders and “self identify” each tattoo. Soldiers will be required to pay for the removal of any tattoo that violates the policy, Chandler said.
I suppose that soon as the troops stop getting tattoos, and start to learn more about the Afghan culture, the Taliban will have no choice but to surrender. Way to focus on what’s important, SMA Chandler. Maybe a couple more police calls around the D-Fac will speed up our victory in Afghanistan, too. Just being helpful.
Category: Military issues
@50 Statistically everybody has more combat zone time than the SMA. He was the CSM for 1/7 Cav in Iraq in 2004. That’s it. That was also the only time he was a CSM of a unit. Everything after 1/7 was TRADOC.
http://usarmy.vo.llnwd.net/e2/rv5_downloads/leaders/sma/sma_chandler_bio.pdf
@51. TRADOC…..that explains everything.
No tattoos and keep your goddamned hands out of your pockets…i am sick of this shit. The best Plt. Sgt. i had was a two tour Nam vet. He was a master in the field, he could not stand the garrison bullshit. Never wore half of his awards on his class A. His fuckin corcorans had white walls. I would have followed him into the bowels of hell.
What’s next, no smoking, chewing, or “dipping”? Candyassed REMF chickenshit comes from him like water over Niagara Falls!!
“…but all soldiers will still be barred from having any tattoos that are racist, sexist or extremist.”
Too Racist: Initials–Kevin Kilpatrick Kelly (KKK)
Too Sexist (Gay): “I Love Uranus”
Too Extreme: “Live Free or Die”
The previous tattoo policy said: nothing racist or extremist and you couldn’t get a tat that showed outside your Class As; however, if you had a tat that showed when you enlisted it was up to the Recruting Battalion commander whether or not to take you. If a soldier got a tattoo contradicting this policy then that’s the fault of the soldier’s leadership for not kicking his ass out. If the SMA wants to point fingers about upholding standards, he was the CSM of the Armor School in 2007 and the commandant of the Sergeant Majors Academy in 2009 which means the CSM of the soldier who had the “f*ck you” tattoo on their neck that he likes to talk about was one of his students. Was enforcing the tattoo policy on his agenda back then?
Well, I will say this, to the Army’s credit, at least you waited until the war is almost over before coming out with your stupid policy regarding tattoo’s. The Marine Corps has been swinging and missing on a tattoo policy since before 9/11 and two hot wars did nothing to dampen the feelings of our senior leadership that we had to get the “right” policy in place. Bunch of confusing bullshit that did nothing but make the troops question the competence of their leadership.
I am just curious since when the Class A was a short sleeve uniform.
It’s interesting that as we abandon two active theaters of conflict without any actual plan of action to avoid both nations reverting to violent inter tribal conflict within their borders that the SMA was able to determine the most pressing problem with US Army was
tattoos that extend below the elbow, knee and above the neckline….
That’s very impressive, no doubt he’s been able to apply that same level of deductive reasoning to determine that most of the problems with conducting operations in the middle east were based entirely on the lack of properly shined combat boots and pressed trousers.
[…] culture, the Taliban will have no choice but to surrender,” wrote a former platoon leader at This Ain’t Hell. “Way to focus on what’s important, SMA […]
[…] online forums and blogs, where troops vent much of their frustration, the new tattoo policy has been met with a largely […]
Help me get the word out that the new tattoo policy is a direct Equal Opportunity violation. To say that someone with a tattoo is any less the a person without is an assumption and a stereotype. This is pulled from the Commanders EO Handbook. I would think that the focus should be on the staggering number of men and women in the military that are committing suicide. That’s just me though.
STEROTYPING
Stereotypes are distorted generalizations about others who are different. The
greatest harm to soldiers that comes from using stereotypes is that it reinforces
underlying prejudices about others who are perceived as different. Prejudiced attitudes
reinforce judgments about others based on a superiority vs. inferiority belief system.
Prejudice also fosters the destructive “ism” — racism, sexism, and ethnocentrism that
combine with the institutional power to discriminate.
ASSUMPTIONS
Assumptions are an extension of the stereotyping process. Although
assumptions about others have similar characteristics as stereotypes, they have a very
different effect on people during cross-cultural communications. Stereotypes are
frequently associated with negative pre-judgments. Assumptions based on the same
stereotype can create expectations, which are perceived as both negative or positive
and can blind people to what is being said or done by others. Assumptions create a
self-fulfilling prophecy by filtering perceptions about others so that a person is not
affected by what another person is really saying.
To do this reduces the opportunity to learn that the
stereotypes held toward different groups often have no basis for truth.