SFC Martland’s appeal rejected
According to Fox News, Sergeant First Class Charles Martland whose discharge was ordered because he confronted a child-abusing Afghan police chief in 2011, has lost in his appeal process. The Army denies that reason has ended the 11-year veteran’s special forces career;
Gen. John F. Campbell, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement Tuesday that he is “absolutely confident that no such theater policy has ever existed here, and certainly, no such policy has existed throughout my tenure as commander.”
He said he expects “any suspicions of sexual abuse will be immediately reported to the chain of command,” and he has personally spoken with President Ashraf Ghani on the issue.
“I want to make absolutely clear that any sexual abuse or similar mistreatment of others, no matter the alleged perpetrator or victim, is completely unacceptable, and reprehensible,” he said.
The response from the Army’s Human Resources Command was handed to Fox News by Congressman Duncan Hunter’s office. The Congressman has asked the Secretary of Defense to step in and save the warrior’s career. But, you know, the Secretary of Defense hasn’t heard from his social justice warriors on the issue yet.
Thanks to MustangCryppie for the link.
Category: Real Soldiers
Given this Administration’s disconnection from reality regarding matters military, ich fürchte, dass der junge Hauptfeldwebel unverdienterweise gefickt wird.
Unfortunately.
In a related note: I seem to remember a guy named Taylor was saying flatly a couple of days ago that ignoring the Afghan “chai boy” abuse had been de facto theater policy since 2003. I wonder if he’ll come back here today and publicly call GEN Campbell a liar?
Lars, was a little right on Look the other way. But we had issues like this all the time and as I wrote it never went up top like this !!!
This is New and it comes from the top…
Either from State and or the executive Branch. Or should I say both with the top giving the order !!!
I were in charge, I would have fined 15 dollars and trasferred the sargeant To Pakistan. Then reported to the highers that corrctive action had ceen taken. Joe P.S. sorry for the bad in my posts Meds are kicking in.
I would have promoted him on the spot.
This reminds me of the SEALS who smacked around the fuckwad who killed the Blackwater guys, then hung their burned bodies from a bridge.
NO court martial would have found those heroes guilty and we would have the same result if this case went to court martial. Hell, I would have asked him why he stopped with just shoving him.
I really, really hope that his appeal comes out in his favor.
This is such crap. Lord save us from our allies …
Allies, hell. Here, we need someone to save DA from itself.
It’s not our allies who are discharging a decorated hero because he and another guy confronted a woman-beating child rapist, then shoved that child rapist (without injuring him beyond maybe a bruise) when the bastard laughed in their faces about what he’d done. DA’s doing that.
WOW ? I’m shocked. A warrior loses his Military Career for going the right thing.
Martland should of been promoted and used as a example of what is RIGHT.
Aren’t we there to protect the people? I get it..protect the child molesters and rapist first and then the enemy. Drop a big bomb after we evacuate our troops. If we can’t protect the children, at least a bomb would kill the rapist and put the children out of their misery. WAIT! DON’T THEY HANG HOMOSEXUAL MEN? DOESN’T RAPING A MALE CHILD MAKE THE RAPIST A HOMOSEXUALS? Done! Hang em high.
IIRC, he was a Staff Sergeant at the time, so he in fact not only put the bad OER behind him, he still managed to pick up SFC.
I understand.
I was lamenting that we must look the other way, rather than hold our nominal allies to account, for heinously egregious conduct.
Otherwise, the alliance must be ended.
This is sickening. Perhaps it’s time to cut our losses and move on, because the cure has become worse than the disease, so to speak.
This makes me sick!
This isn’t surprising. HRC Separations (who deals with QMP boards, their appeals, etc.) doesn’t give a rip about extenuating circumstances. All that matters to them is checking the block and pushing people out.
You’d think they were getting a bonus for kicking people to the curb the way they are pushing people out. I think the entire QMP process is a scam and only “connected” NCOs are being saved from the process.
Kicking good NCOs out for one evaluation isn’t just ridiculous, it is disgraceful. But then HRC is full of people who have no ethics, morality, or concern for the Army. Yes, there are many people who work there that are doing the right thing and supporting Soldiers. But the ones in charge are not them.
If Martland had a string of bad evaluations, okay fine. But he had one, years ago. That in itself shows they are finding any excuse to kick people out and reduce the force, no matter what.
And as far as the “policy” goes. Show me a WRITTEN awards policy for units that says “this rank and above gets this award, this rank gets this award, and so on.” There isn’t one written because it would be an IG complaint. So saying there’s no “policy” for it because its not on paper is another ridiculous statement/response from the chain. They’d rather kick 1000 good NCOs to the curb than admit they were wrong.
Yep. I can’t say that I’m shocked by this decision.
“He said he expects “any suspicions of sexual abuse will be immediately reported to the chain of command,” and he has personally spoken with President Ashraf Ghani on the issue.”
Oh, I’m sure dudes are just rushing to the front of the line to report this type of shit now, sir.
One of my “significant successes” (for me anyway) was that I found documented proof of a governor stealing project money for himself. I did the research, talked to the personnel for it, found all the info, and compiled it.
I briefed the chain of command, sent the info to the PRT and the Rule of Law Task Force about him saying, “this guy is dirty and here’s proof.” I was told great job, good going, etc.
When I left Afghanistan, that guy was still a governor of a district living in a %500,000 house in Jalabad. I was there another 7 months after I reported this. I bet he’s still a Governor there. The Afghans were smart enough to keep moving Govt officials around so either we wouldn’t catch on they were dirty, or would move them to another location so they could say “he’s gone!” to us as if we wouldn’t know.
All this while Karzai was proclaiming “corruption is not acceptable!” which is like a crack addict saying, “crack is bad mmkay.” while he’s smoking it.
…And SGM Ebrecht stays in. How do they sing, “…And the Army goes rolling alone…”
John; is it possible to do a story about a Sergeant Major being busted down to Specialist AND staying in the Army?
SFC Martland’s attorney should have claimed he was gay and could not stop himself or some other weird crap. Sure winning defense these days.
“Gay” is so yesterday. Today’s designated victim class is the tranny. He’s gotta claim that he wants to dress up like Bruce. They might make him a CSM.
What can I say, I am approaching geezer status. How about LGBT, that is the in” term in Little Rock. I was conducting election worker training the other day and trying to explain why someone would have a different name than in the book. Simple things like marriage or divorce for women and adoption for both. Some butch les in the audience was offended because she said men get married and I said something many uptight liberals would have considered offensive. She was insulted and I invited her to leave but keep in mind or safety policy and not let the door hit her in her fat as. Went down hill from there.
What absolute and utter bullshit!! The Army Brass, and those pencil pushing dicks at HRC are what is wrong here, not SFC Martland.
^^^ THIS ^^^
Sure as fuck isn’t the military I joined.
And I thought they had petty reasons to deny reenlistment back in the 80s and 90s.
That goes back to the 1970s. If there is a drawdown, you’re superfluous.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of “Garrison Gazelles” (Politically Correct and/or connected brownnosing politician types) who couldn’t push their way past a layer of wet shit paper when the SHTF having no problem staying in. Warriors that aren’t afraid to take a stand are being pushed out, Garrison Gazelles are shit scared of them and usually faint at the scent of testosterone, it’s like the post-DS/DD drawdown period of the early nineties!
I’m with brother but it’s not just the Army the Navy has been letting good troops go also and it sucked.
The pussification of the Army continues.
I’m sure they’ll find a female, transgender, pervert that will pass the altered criteria for special forces that will take Sergeant First Class Martland’s billet.
They will not have a problem with pedophilia, hell they’ll probably participate.
BTW, where’s bergdahl’s discharge and conviction??
What the fucking fuck…
This isn’t some surprising thing, either. There’s been talk about the open pedophilia of the Afghan Muj since the beginning. This is just a pathetic reason to discharge someone who did the right thing.
I hope this reaches, and spreads around, the warriors at the front lines in Afghanistan. . .
Instead of “see something, say something”, it’s time to practice another set of “Esses”, namely, “The Four Esses”;
Suppress(or) (if possible)
Shoot
Shovel
Silence (that includes no selfies, etc)
If I were President, I’d punish the Army by issuing an executive order stripping the National Guard from the Army, making the National Guard an independent branch of the Armed Forces, and abolishing the Army.
If President Truman could end segregation in the Armed Forces with an executive order, I’m pretty sure I could do the above and get away with it.
Okay, you’re assuming the President would be on the side of the warriors were he to do this. Our current POTUS sees the military as nothing more than a huge social experimentation laboratory in which he can try out the latest fad of the day and see how hard it is to implement (and how much push-back exists) and then purge it of those pushing back.
You forgot to mention using DOD as a piggy bank for social programs and “green” programs too.
So did they take that required statement off the NCOER or just change it?
You know the one “Strongly supports the Army EO and SHARP policies”
must have modified it to include “but allies are allowed and expected to be pedophiles and we will not comment because colonialism, patriarchy, privilege or some other bullshit reason”
There are two issues here. One is SFC Martland’s discharge. He claims the Army is booting him because he assaulted an Afghan in response to reports of sexual assault.
This is a classic information campaign waged by both parties. The Army says “No, that’s not why we booted him, but due to privacy laws we can’t disclose why we did” while he only releases information to make it look like that hot button reason is why.
Without the full report, we don’t know why he was kicked out. There maybe other contributing factors. We just don’t know.
The second issue is the “dancing boys of Afghanistan” a morally reprehensible tradition maintained by our allies over there.
We didn’t go over there on a moral crusade or to revolutionize that part of the world. Our job was to remove the Taliban from power, ensure stability of the region, and get them ready to fight and defend themselves when the time came.
And it is because we forgot why we were there and turn it into a crusade, seeking to impose western ideals of justice, honor, and morality upon a region with completely different ideals that we fucked ourselves.
And its not just SFC Martland who’s guilty of this. CA missions to build women’s schools. PSYOP missions to get women out to vote. NGO operations that focused on equal rights or children’s education.
Anytime we violated the mores of a particular group, that group turned on us a little bit more and we lost that much more credibility and authority over them.
Now if you want to argue that we should be there to reform and to Westernize, I’d agree with you. Its the only way we are going to have a long term ally in the region. But we can’t do that by shoving our way of life down their throats, (unless we are the conquering heroes, imprisoning, killing, or otherwise destroying anyone who disagrees).
We have to work within the system and change the system by altering fundamental concepts and ways of life.
On your first point: I was thinking along the same lines. SFC Martland may have been a stellar NCO who had nothing else in his record, or there may be more than we know. Remember the letter from the Major who was separated last year? (http://allenbwest.com/2014/08/letter-army-major-received-pink-slip/)
It sucks, but career Soldiers today sometimes pay for mistakes they made as first-termers years ago. It’s kind of an adaptation of “hero to zero”, maybe “hero to zero, back to hero, no, zero and out”. Until and if more information is released, though, there is no sense speculating. As it stands now, it seems that confronting the child rapist is the only thing that ultimately led to the Army losing a good NCO.
Its one thing to have something bad in your early years and not have repaired from it. If there’s a pattern of “zero” as you put it, then so be it.
This is the zero tolerance army right now which is rewarding “minimalists” who do the bare minimum, don’t exceed, don’t push, and so on. Meanwhile, those who try to go above and beyond can make a mistake and it will haunt them and cause them to be removed.
That’s not how the Army is supposed to be. You make mistakes, you learn from them, and you do better the next time. If you see something wrong, you fix it or try.
That’s what I see as a failure of the QMP process and/or why I think there’s some crap going on behind the scenes. One bad NCOER and 5+ after being stellar (according to the initial report) should indicate that he be retained. Plain and simple.
Is the QMP supposed to be used as a reduction in force option? Fuck no. But they are using it for that anyway. Why? Because “the they” can and they aren’t being effected by it, only NCOs that are just numbers to them.
SFC Martland is being separated as part of the Qualitative Management Program (QMP). It is very likely that he came under review because of the GOMR in his record, it is also possible that he failed to attend the Senior Leader Course…
Either way, remember that while it seems unfair,as the Army downsizes NCOs and officers are competing with their peers in their career field for the remaining slots. In other words, Martland is being compared to other 18 Series E7s, most of whom probably have the same amount of combat time, schooling, etc.
This happens with officers as well- remember the captains that got their pink slips while deployed to Afghanistan?
SFC Martland’s mistake is that he didn’t go to Congress and the press when he was initially given a relief for cause NCOER. (I don’t think that he got a GOMAR.)
Once the relief for cause has been placed in the official file, its extremely hard to have it pulled. The guys/gals on the board just vote on whats in the file and HRC is just executing the process.
If I was their commander would I have handled things differently? Perhaps, or perhaps not. I don’t know the full facts nor have read the 15-6 investigation.
This is beyond fucked up! Not so many years ago this would have been handled by Company SGM and Bn SGM. Kicking out a young hard charging 18 series W7 for doing the right thing is reprehensible. Don’t give me any of that undo Command influence bullshit!! Clearly, no one at HRC gave his QMP review a second look as the decision was already made. Even more disheartening is the silence from SOCCENT, USASFC and USASOC! Not one fucking flag officer has the spine to say yes!! We’ve known about the cultural practice of abusing/raping young boys not just in Afghanistan, but throughout many of the countries that we deploy to in the middle east for as many years as we’ve been deploying there! Next time you need an 18 Series W7…. He just might not be there because of bullshit like this!!!
This is why you never hit a guy like that, you shoot him in the head and press his cold dead fingers all over his weapon’s booger hook. Then you claim it was another green on blue.
Dead motherfuckers don’t dispute your version of reality.
Training accidents happen as well!
“Dead motherfuckers don’t dispute your version of reality.”
Just as long as everybody involved can resist the urge to post the incident on YouTube.
“[T]he U.S. Army is unable to confirm the specifics of his separation due to the Privacy Act.”
Okay, hold the phone. Got a question. There is always paperwork. Always. I do not see that this soldier has provided that paperwork for establishing that he was canned for shoving a child rapist. The Privacy Act doesn’t pertain to what HE does with his paperwork. Did I miss that stuff somewhere? All I see is what he said. Gimme the proof so I can join the chorus. I know that Martland received a letter of reprimand but were its contents released by him? Anyone see it?
Anyone?
That is my issue. He did receive a letter or reprimand for what he did, and I’m sure it was a contributing factor but the Army says it wasn’t the deciding factor.
Of course then the Army says, “Yeah, we can’t tell you what the deciding factor was” so trust us…
He on the other hand says it was the reason he was booted, but hasn’t released any of the paperwork. So he is also saying “trust me this was the reason”.
Oh. Well, that sucks. Thanks.
GOMRs and adverse NCOERs are different administrative actions, even when they are based on the same “wrongdoing”.
I wouldn’t be surprised if HRC is “carefully parsing words” here, and that the deciding factor was the fact that he had multiple items of derogatory info in his file – e.g., both a GOMR and a RFC NCOER. The fact that both were due to the same incident (shoving a child-raping woman beater vice beating the hell out of him) would be “mere coincidence”.
Yes, I’m being somewhat facetious above. But only somewhat. Bureaucracy and bureaucrats often play such games to justify their actions if/when someone questions them.
Well, then, what of Martland’s paperwork, the stuff he received? Do you know whether he furnished it to any of the newsies who published the story?
I have no idea what Martland has, or to whom he’s provided a copy. My intent above was merely to provide a plausible, semi-tongue-in-cheek explanation for HRC’s actions here – one consistent with what bureaucracies sometimes do to cover their own ass when they’re caught with their “pants down”. FWIW: it’s quite possible that any Report of Investigation (ROI) relating to the incident leading to Martland’s GOMR and/or relief was either FOUO or classified. If the former, Army Regulations would preclude Martland from releasing it to the press without requesting authority to do so; doing so without authority would violate Article 92 of the UCMJ (violation of lawful general order or regulation). In the latter case (e.g., classified ROI), Martland would not even be able to retain a copy for his personal records. He’d at best have a redacted copy – if that – which might still be FOUO. It might also have the exculpatory or mitigating details redacted to “protect the privacy of the child”. If I recall correctly, some years ago MP and CID investigative reports were often FOUO and/or LE SENSITIVE (or both). 15-6 ROIs often were as well. On occasion, some MP/CID/15-6 ROIs were classified. I’m guessing that’s still the case today. SFC Martland would indeed have copies of his RFC NCOER and GOMR (assuming they’re unclassified; classified evals are quite rare, and I’m sure the same is true of GOMRs). A GOMR and an NCOER would likely be non-FOUO (and thus releasable by Martland without his violating existing regulations). However, they also might only use generic language to the effect that Martland had “become involved in a physical altercation with an Afghan national”. The background information regarding what caused the altercation would be in the investigative report. Bottom line: it’s entirely possible that documents exist showing Martland’s claims are effectively true, that he in fact has them – and that he cannot release them without getting himself in more trouble. Or that he doesn’t have them, but that they exist in storage in FOUO or classified form. Or maybe Martland’s got nothing, and he’s the… Read more »
Another point of the bureaucracy battle on this one.
“They” don’t care what the incident was in the documents that caused him to be boarded for QMP. They only see that he received something. And yes, even ONE evaluation or ONE GOMOR are being used to kick people like SFC Martland out. I’ve been told this be several people.
So, HRC and Mother Army can say all day long its a fact they didn’t QMP him for that incident and its still a partial truth. He was denied continued service for the Relief For Cause NCOER. It is irrelevant to them what is in the evaluation itself. They just see the RFC code and Sr Rater bullets (4/4 or 5/5).
Are there those getting QMP’d for multiple items? Sure, but even one item is tagging them for QMP and denial of continued service.
As I mentioned above, this is a bunch of dirtbag bureaucrats using any excuse they can to kick people to the curb. I’ve seen enough in the last couple years to believe this QMP process is a huge scam to used to reduce the force.
While the QMP Board might review the files, they are receiving “administrative guidance” and “select objectives” as for who to remove and why. Further, who’s to say that the board’s decision is even being followed? We don’t know because no one sees the administrative information and results from the board other than “tada!” bureaucrats at HRC…
Not so much a scam as much as a well publicized and widely understood method for reducing the force.
It definitely sucks for those on the list, but the fact is that the Army is getting smaller, and HRC has to have a method for selecting those mid grade NCOs to separate.
Congress downsizes the military after every war, and it has always proven to be a mistake, but the Army still has to figure out a way to do it.
And Muslims have been fucking chai boys for centuries. Politicians have been corrupt for decades. Flag officers are bigger politicians than elected officials. Well, that’s just the way it is, so accept it and move on.
I keep hearing this and its a bullshit response. “Well, that’s just how it is.”
We are paying millions to personnel and think thanks to “think”. Their response continues to be “well the easiest thing is just cutting personnel. That saves money!” So, why aren’t we cutting all the “strategists” who can’t think of anything but “cut personnel”?
Secondly, this is not (just) Congress. This is Obama’s plan, he’s even said so himself. His DoD “leaders” have gone to Congress multiple times saying, “please cut our budget and personnel!” They aren’t doing it because that’s THEIR point of view. They are doing it because the Commander in Chief is telling them to. Yes, sequestration is causing it (though I don’t see these kind of significant issues with other Federal Departments. Nor do we see other Cabinet members and their suck-butts going to Congress saying, “Please cut my budget!”) and recall that sequestration came from a good idea fairy in the white house. But, it sure doesn’t seem to be working because the deficit and debt are still through the roof.
At the end of the day, there are a lot of weakling cowards at HRC and the Pentagon who are taking the easy way out. Why? Well it doesn’t effect THEM, so who cares, right?
In SFC Martland’s case, I hope that the ABCMR gives him better news than the bureaucracy of HRC. They have the ability to overturn this disgraceful action.
I miss quoted myself the other day on Numbers and I apologize. know down to business. per a former commanding officer of mine, this B.S. is all because of our new SOFA with the afghans, I guess unFacking the sickos was pissing them off. what ever the reason we should not be there if this is new policy it’s BS…
This makes me sick to my stomach!!!!!!!! So if the SFC Martland’s confrontation of the pedophile ass hole is not the reason for his discharge, what then is the reason they are giving for turning out and screwing over a soldier with a stellar career? Budget reductions, Army cutbacks and just the bad luck of the draw for the SFC? Yea right! And the Pope is scheduled to visit my humble home for a Pizza Hut large Pepperoni Lovers and Bread Sticks this week if anyone wants to come have a slice and meet him. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Obama and all of his lackeys, cohorts and advisers are Muslim sympathizers. Not even closet sympathizers anymore. How in the hell do we as a people, who criminalize and find abominable, the act of pedophilia, support a people who do it openly and proudly, despite their religious bullshit rhetoric which prohibits this? It is long past time for America to pack up and leave Afghanistan. Let them have the nation they are willing to fight and die for and nothing more. That is all any nation deserves. If they want Sharia law, let them have it. If they want to slaughter each other over which color of prayer rug the other guy uses, let them. Then from here, make it clear to them, that if they export their asshattery and terrorism beyond their borders, our answer will be swift and silent from above, Period. Of course this will require a completely new, top-down administration and a Congress led with more balls than John Boehner have ever hoped to have. The only balls left in DC are in all the golf bags. The only people happy about this? Our own NAMBLA folks. By the way, where the hell are the Amnesty International folks on this? They have scores of articles on their site about child marriage, child pornography, child slavery and child abuse in general. So what is their reply to this? Why aren’t they standing up for what they profess to hate and come to the… Read more »
As SGT Kane points out above, Sparks: we weren’t originally in Afghanistan (or Iraq) to “help the Afghan people”. Our original mission was to destroy the Taliban and deny use of the area to both the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies. When we quit doing that and started engaging primarily in “nation building” is IMO when things started going awry.
One can make much the same argument about Iraq.
You’d think we’d have learned from prior events in Somalia and Haiti that the “nation building” road has both well known pavement and destination. Apparently we haven’t learned that lesson yet.
Nation Building isn’t an easy or quick function. Politicians put a timeline on rebuilding a nation and expect it to be finished so they can get re-elected.
It was easy for me to get involved in rebuilding without “changing” their culture or ideals. I didn’t directly deal with pedophilia issues myself. However, I had involvement in women’s issues.
I’m a Civil Affairs guy, I know where I can push, but also where not to. I had to deal with villages where female issues were a no-go. But at the same time, I was till able to improve their village in other ways.
Yes, “we” (Coalition) pushed too hard and too fast on getting them to where they needed to be. However, CA teams are working in 100+ countries improving infrastructure, governance, security, etc. We don’t have these kinds of issues, but there isn’t as much pressure as there is in Afghanistan (let alone the ridiculous amount in Iraq). Add that pressure to maneuver commanders who are being told to put priority on infrastructure in their AO over finding and killing the enemy.
I would submit that the CA mission is one best left to AID, DoS, and other civilian agencies. The military should at most provide local security support and (perhaps) some logistical support. Otherwise, IMO it’s not a core military function unless we’re engaged in a long-term occupation of conquered territory.
Your last sentence is precisely why I say the above. The military’s function is to fight and win battles, not to build schools and promote commerce. But we do what we’re ordered to do, even if the order isn’t a core mission.
I agree partially. This is also why CA should be in USASOC because its an unconventional mission of the Army.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, The Army became the bill payers for things they shouldn’t have. Prior to OEF/OIF, “we” were scroungers that helped support other organizations, NGOs, IOs, AID, etc., to rebuild those functions. We coordinated for military logistical functions (like transportation) and security for the effort. We coordinated between military and civilian functions. We provided expertise to make things better (teach a man to fish and all that). We mainly solved problems so people’s lives were improved without us being there. We didn’t go to maneuver commanders and say, “Sir you need to pay for these 4 projects.”
However, that was also part of the rush to rebuild two countries within a handful of years.
We were successful in the Balkans, yet we didn’t have Army dollars paying for things. We got others to pay for it. Lots of “missions” were adjusted because of Iraq and Afghanistan. That irritated many. But like you say, “ours is not to reason why…”
Our original mission, and authority in the AUMF, was to go after the perpetrators of 9/11. If the Taliban had permitted us to go in an do that we wouldn’t have given a hoot if they had stayed in control of Afghanistan.
The military mission is to break shit. Any military support group involved in intelligence, logistics, etc. is tasked with helping the military break shit as efficiently as possible. If someone thinks the military’s mission is to restore democracy, realign someone’s political system, be a social experimentation test-bed, or any other function not addressed in the first two sentences, they need to refer themselves to the State Department, Peace Corps, or some other appropriate civilian agency.
Sparks. I don’t know the actual reason for his sudden and unwanted discharge from the Army. There is nothing of substance that I can find that provides the reason. There is his oral account which, if true, should be reason enough for him to get the hell out yesterday, not fight the discharge. But that’s his call to want to remain with an outfit that would screw him so royally. I just want some verification that the reason reported is the actual reason. I saw Hondo’s reply. Maybe Martland can’t. Well, if that’s true, I’d be happy to hear that from him. I would give him all benefit of doubt then, but I got nothing. It’s true that the Army is FUBAR, what with its pc, ROE bullshit, and sexual awareness training garbage or whatever it’s called. But to hang an NCO merely b/c he pushed a rapist is something I’m having a lot of trouble accepting on mere say so.
A few weeks back, I wrote my two Senators and Congressman asking them to engage.
Unfortunately, my two Senators are Ben Cardin and Barb Mikulski, and my Congressman is Chris Van Hollen.
I haven’t heard shit from any of them about this.
Oh, I did hear from Cardin when I contacted him about his non-support of the Iran JCPOA. Even though his no vote was bullshit, I wanted to tweak him to go down the hall and slap some sense into Barb. I am sure he didn’t.
Not a surprise.
Indignation, outrage and speculation are fine, but no one here has all the facts on this so far. It is all speculation, and there is a draw down/cut back underway.
The cutbacks are not new. They happened after WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietam, etc., all the way to now. Whatever did happen, someone over there complained about being shoved by a US Army guy. That equals bad PR for the USA. The circumstances don’t matter at this point, however unfortunate they may be.
If the good sergeant has paperwork he can’t publish until his fate is signed and sealed, we have to wait until he can do so.
Until then venting anger is fine, but it is based on speculation. I think the most reasonable explanation for this is the draw down, which is going to put anyone who is senior under a microscope. Unfortunately for TPTB, nobody is perfect. Those lopsided fools think this is the right thing to do. It will backfire on them some day when they need people like Martland the most.
TPTB?
I think it means: Teh powers that be
Yep, I had to google it to find what it meant. lol
I must be getting old. Ex-PH2 and all these other crazy kids are using that lingo I just don’t understand.
I can learn though, I’m too legit to quit! (people still say this right?)
You think you’re too old? If I talk about something that happened in the 1960s, I get blank looks and ‘how do you know about the 1960s?’ from junior editions of us all.
Did you know Elvis?
Seems like a good NCO doing the right thing in a war where sometimes doing the right thing is not conducive to accomplishing the mission.
However, we do not know all the facts.
It certainly violated the guidance on the ground despite what Gen Campbell claims. However, he reinforces the guidance by saying all incidents should be reported to the chain of command. Which essentially means; do not do anything about it yourself.
good point Lars.. as I posted above about SOFA well this incident happened in 2009 and not after 2011 so SOFA was not a issue here.
there are a lot of unanswered questions here that keep bugging the hell out of me… so I’m keeping my Trap closed on this one
Let’s look at it another way: what if he’d personally seen or been given credible information that a US soldier was either viewing child porn or abusing a child? Would he be in the right, legally speaking, to handle the matter himself as judge, jury, and executioner? Heck, the “old west justice” part of me says “yes,” but the answer is quite the opposite. What if the soldier was stealing money or equipment? Is it the level of crime committed by the other guy that justifies his actions? I’m torn over this, and without all of the facts like all of us here, but going just by what he said still raises questions. Do we really want officers, NCOs, or fellow soldiers policing the ranks in ways that are “extralegal?”
I see your point of view. However, when it comes to a child being used as a fuck toy by dirtbags who laugh about it, I wouldn’t be able to do nothing if that man was in my face either.
As well, (I posted something about it above too) identifying corruption was something I did and did more than once. The worst offenders weren’t put in jail. They were “transferred” somewhere else.
At the same time, a maneuver commander I worked with had a police chief I was working with fired. Why? Because he didn’t go to work in his uniform. That commander wanted him to wear his uniform everywhere, even in the worst areas where he’d get tortured and killed. What happened? “They” put a Taliban member in as the new police chief.
Lastly, this is the Army. We handle things at the lowest level. That child rapist would probably fit in well in some cities in the US because he played the victim card. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had his buddies smack him in the face a few times so it looked like he got beat up too.
Confronting someone regarding a sexual battery or rape and serving as judge, jury and executioner are hardly synonymous, D. But, yes, there may be instances in which someone is killed because “he needed killin’.”
I can’t frickin explain how ri-GAT-damn-diculous this nonsense. The Government does a decent job enough dissuading and alienating veterans as it is; Now the active component and DOD literally ignore a stellar Soldier for adhering to not only the Army Values but to the values that made this nation great to begin with.
Shameful…. Simply shameful…
Hot off the presses:
Army secretary delays separation of Green Beret who beat up Afghan commander
http://militari.ly/1RsTjQt