Army cancels “Soldiers Show”
Bobo sends us a link to the Army Times which announces that the Army has canceled this year’s tour of Soldiers Show, a Broadway-style performance group that has been around since 1983, according to the Times.
“A few days ago, I was still in the process of writing the show, after the auditions,” said Victor Hurtado, the show’s artistic director who would’ve entered his 30th year with the performance. “Every single person involved with this performance knew it was about way more than the singing and dancing. It’s about helping and moving people.”
Rob Dozier, spokesman for Army Installation Management Command, said the command had “no official statement” on the show and would not answer questions regarding the decision.
Hurtado said he received no detailed reason for the cancellation.
Really? You need an explanation? How about budget cuts which cut everything that doesn’t help folks prepare to pull triggers?
I’ll admit that I’m not a big fan of these shows. Mostly they cut into my sparse training time with no discernible benefit. But then, so did the NCOA car insurance sales men who convinced the sergeant major that his talks were compatible with “Sergeants’ Time” training schedules.
Category: Army News
Not enough transgenders signed up.
Didn’t have a bit of problem with the Hawaii golf vacation going on tho did they? That dirty SON OF A BITCH!
Yeah NCOAA and SGM’s looking for work after retirement. Right now I’m doing battle with USAA who now insures enlisted folks over a screwing one of my kids took from them. Anyone on this sight received shitty treatment from USAA over anything? They have a retired AF CMSgt of the AF on their board and I would love to lay out how USAA treats enlisted with financial problems inappropriately.
In all of the surveys I’ve seen (Consumer Reports magazine and others), USAA ranks at or near the top of all insurance companies in terms of their customer service. My own experience with them (almost 30 years) has been excellent. Even the best drop the ball sometimes, though, so I’m not surprised to hear that some customers may have had bad experiences.
I’ve had USAA for over 20 years. I was enlisted and never had a single problem with them. I even once had a Soldier that had to get SR22 insurance because he stepped on his crank. His insurance went up a whopping $8.
I had them for homeowners insurance and I will never use them again.
They will take your money but drag their feet on a legitimate claim.
The irony is that they have a huge lobbying wing to get in “backdoors”.
Fuck them.
I had them for auto and homeowners. That will never happen again. The only thing they’re good at is advertising.
I’ve had good experiences with USAA for about 12 years. I’ve only had to call them on auto business, and always got the results I needed plus a human touch I liked.
(As I have learned in dealing with other corporations, the fact that one department is good is no guarantee that another will be. My own dealings with Wells Fargo as a bank, and my clients’ dealings with Wells Fargo auto finance, might as well have happened on different planets.)
Back in the ’70’s USAA would not sell auto insurance to enlisted folks. To be fair, several insurance companies would not sell to enlisted folks.
I get snail mail from them from time to time and it goes straight from the mail box into the shredder.
They weren’t there for me then; I’m not there for them now.
USAA was established for officers by officers. There were also similar groups established for enlisted. That’s just the way it was. So what?
With the drawdown in the 90s, USAA, like many other groups, realized their pool of potential customers was shrinking. So they first started with Senior NCOs and gradually working down E-1s through E-4s. They also split the company internally into two groups – those who are directly eligible and eligible by marriage, birth, etc. If you are in the first group, it is pretty tough to be dropped for any reason. The latter group are treated just like any other insurance company and that you can be dropped much easier.
And yes, I have been with them for 36 years.
Had numerous loans through them. Auto insurance wasn’t too great of a deal to switch from Allstate. Applied for a home loan through them. I am self employed, own my own business. They could not comprehend all the tax forms I sent them. Junior loan processor apparently did a SWAG on my yearly income. Stated I just made over 20k. Told him I paid more in taxes than that. My retirement was more than that. Didn’t take into account my retained earnings, etc. Miserable experience. I got approved through another lender at 3.5%. Other than that, USA is great.
USAA insures anyone who was or is in the military and family members of vets.
Here in Slammintonio they have a very group of employees that hail from India. Wonder if they get USAA insurance?
It took several hours but I finally cracked their system and got to speak to a higher level customer service type. The Bank is separate from the insurance side and therein is the problem we are dealing with. I asked the collection department if they would have reposed a voluntary surrender car from an officer at 5 AM and they would not answer me. They happened to make the mistake of repossessing an enlisted guy’s car that was in my driveway for safekeeping from this warrant officer who is a 42 year USAA member at 5 AM. I dealt with a bunch of arrogant SOB’s in collections all day and I will obtain resolve so maybe next time they will think twice.
My youngest son financed a car loan thru USAA. They couldn’t seem to ever get his money deposited into the account where he was paying for his car loan.
It was a monthly ritual of phone calls, calls back to him, more calls to USAA. He put the loan account # on every check he sent them, and he invariably ended up having to talk to a supervisor’s supervisor, because they couldn’t find his check. He even sent his payments in registered mail, return receipt requested, and they’d claim he didn’t pay.
Over 30 years with USAA here. Had occasion to make several claims on both auto and homeowner’s insurance. Also have our bank accounts with them. Never had a problem. We won’t do a mortgage with them, though, because they routinely sell the loans to one of the most crooked mortgage companies ever, PHH.
Good. I hate these shows. And get rid of any other mandatory “fun” days as well.
“Every single person involved with this performance knew it was about way more than the singing and dancing. It’s about helping and moving people.”
Oh, and shut the fuck up Victor.
Soldiers need more time for Master Resiliency Training. What a waste of time those were. When I first got to Camp Atterbury my CSM wanted to make me the Brigade MRT trainer. I explained to him that I just got back from Iraq and just finished my time as an Infantry Platoon Sergeant so I probably wasn’t the best choice to be the touchy feely NCOIC. He agreed.
This was TOG’s baby.
I remember it well.
Is what it is.
Entertainment? The people in Vietnam had Bob Hope and the USO shows. No one ever made any of us go to mandatory entertainment.
We had our own entertainment. Shopping, movies, stuff like that.
Why isn’t the USO supplying entertainment to the troops now? They did that during WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Isn’t that what they’re supposed to do?
You don’t hear about “Up With People” these days, but enjoyed the show they did for us at Ft Carson back in ’66.
As somebody mentioned in an earlier thread, this might have been a good (or at least not terrible) idea in 1943, when troops were stationed at every ass end of nowhere with nothing to do but smoke and play cards. Even then, USO shows toured extensively with better talent that the guys actually wanted to see.
Today, with DVDs, Xbox, Internet access, etc, this stuff seems pretty superfluous, and the fact that guys have to be ordered to go see it says a lot. Besides, USO shows still have better talent that the guys and gals actually want to see.
Hopefully Tops in Blue will be next.
…Tops In Blue got mercifully shitcanned a couple weeks ago. There was an incipient revolt brewing over the money, the ‘mandatory fun’ aspect and the fact that the lil’ darlings were out in the footlights while still counting against their units deployment quotas. Not to mention the stories about life on the road were really starting to piss off people with 2 or 3 trips to the sandbox.
Mike
Guess I need to check my AF Times a little more often.
Well you got your wish!! It was announced in AF Times this week that Tops in Blue has been axed for the 2016 season, pending internal HQ AF reviews of reports about numerous accidents/ground safety violation’s and F-W-A in the TnB program during their 2012 tour.
Coincidence with the cancelling of the Army’s Soldier Show? However I have a feeling both are now permanently done for.
BTW, Interesting discussion on USAA. A lot of things I have observed with the company have been represented in the discussion both pro and con.
John Q. Public’s blog has featured a number of articles about the waste that is Tops in Blue. I think the cancelling of the the Soldier Show is the Army’s answer to the Air Force finally axing Tops in Blue.
“Vietnam had Bob Hope”
Bob Hope and friends, Wayne Newton, Ann Jillian, Loretta Lynn, Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders etc came to see us in Beirut too….it was kinda cool to see him and think about his presence over so many decades and experience a small part of that.
I was being brief on purpose. You left out Ann Margret, IDSarc.
Yeah…I left some out and used etc…but yanno, I don’t remember seeing Ann Margaret….wish I had. Woof!
With the way the military is going these days, you might want to include Clay Aiken and RuPaul.
fapfapfap…Ann Maragret …fapfapfapfap…not listening to you GT…fapfapfap…Ann Margaret…fapfapfapfap
yeah…she’s old..so fukking what?
Truth be told, in the realm of sekks with Ann Margret…I wouldn’t even rule out necrophilia
fapfapfapfapfapfapfapfap
IDC_SARC is TAH’s equivalent of Tig from “Sons of Anarchy.” 😀
He’s his very own Red Light District! 😀
The only celebrity I saw while in Iraq was Toby Keith. We had just came off patrol and went straight to his show still wearing our gear and filthy as hell only to find out that the Fobbits had taken up all the seats. He had them make room for us.
Word.
I never saw any.
Always out of the wire. And when back, meetings, MWE and sleep.
Its always funny when you see the picks of Soldiers with “stars” that they post. Especially the ones that the “stars” post for PR.
I have rarely seen an Infantryman among them.
Just an observation.
During a port call in Jebel Ali, UAE, the carrier USS Enterprise CVN-65 hosted former President George H. W. Bush and enjoyed a live concert by Grammy Award-winning rock group Hootie & the Blowfish.
This was in 1998 before we was involved in Operation Desert Fox.
I think the show just way too ghey and fabulous, thus skyrocketing costs for multiple types of changing rooms and facilities:
1. Male
2. Female
3. Gender Identity Crisis Male
4. Gender Identity Crisis Female
5. Pre Op Male
6. Pre Op Female
7. Pre Post Op Male
8. Pre Post Op Female
9. Post Op Male
10. Post Op Female
I think you get the point, unsustainable and impossible to budget for …
Wasn’t this part of the show???
“Soldiers Show”? Never heard of it. Must have played the east coast bases.
Oh, wait, now I remember. I think I was landfill duty NCO on the day they played the Dustbowl at NTC in 86, or was it 87?
Landfill Duty NCOIC!!!!
Holy shit does that bring back memories!
I sat the little guard shack on fire by laying my cigarette where I shouldn’t have while checking a load in a couple of trucks. The wind blew my cigarette off and under the shack and it caught fire.
I tried dumping canteens frantically to no avail. I panicked and using my adrenalin fueld retard strength I lifted up the shitty little plywood shack, tossed it over and put the fire out.
As the PFCs truck drivers watched gawking in amazement at this crazy ass Sergeant
Took 4 of us to upright the shack again
Yes Sir,isn’t it surprising how the smallest thing can trigger a memory?
Just another day in the Army.
One year out there the civilian gate guard at the landfill was a WWII 101st Airborne Paratrooper. When he spotted my 101st right shoulder patch, we started a real good conversation that took up most of the day. He even made a call and when the gut truck showed up at the guard shack, he bought me and my detail lunch. He declined our offer of giving him our unopened MRE’s in trade for the lunch.
Smart guy.
Rats! One of the few things that were fun while I was Fort Jackson for Basic is gone.
Don’t worry, the “don’t rape anyone”-skits and “don’t be a terrorist”-videos will make up for it plenty.
I don’t recall having been subjected to any sort of traveling dog and pony show made up of service personnel, or even hearing of any such thing (except that Air Force flying show, can’t recall name atm).
Want to see a band or comic or other entertainment? Go to the E-Club during libo.
We’ve gone the ol’ Soviet Way with troop dispersal, it seems to me. Military personnel doing everything except their military duty. Hell, we’ve even got military personnel in the Olympics, just like the ol’ Soviet.
Heck, I even once queried my First Shirt on why the Corps allowed the divisions to have a damned band. He informed me that the band members were the ghouls (Graves and Registrations) during war. I replied that if they spent all that time practicing squad maneuver and tactics, rather than playing their instruments, they’d be better at gathering our dead. He told me then, to shut up and finish waxing the hallway.
I was once told that the band was supposed to be the CG’s security during war time.
Ah, well, the Brits do it a lot better than us anyway, right?
I’ve never been to one of these shows but I’m picturing white gloves, twirling rifles and tights. How far off am I?
I remember getting “volunteered” to attend the Soldiers Show at Nuremberg some time before Christmas in 1987. IIRC the 1SG had asked for volunteers at morning formation and when only a couple of soldiers raised their hands, a bunch of us were picked out and told to get on the bus.
Got us out of a duty day (most of which would be spent in the motor pool) but there was a reason why they didn’t get volunteers – the show pretty much sucked. From the looks on the faces of the other GIs there from the greater Nuremberg area (mostly 1AD with maybe a few 3ID or 2ACR folks for good measure) most of them had been shanghaied and “volunteered” as well.
I think the whole “soldiers show” was just some officer’s GFI and a boondoggle anyway. During the Cold War there was a lot of that, organizations with no real job but who somehow had convinced the higher ups that their services were somehow critical to defeating the Godless Commie Hordes when the balloon went up.
That was the nice thing about being “fast and black and never come back.” No shows, few VIPs.