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Who is Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman?
To ask this question is forbidden. As I was told by one of my Ricochet colleagues the other day, “you do not publicly convict a decorated soldier for espionage either. Especially to save your own rear end. Stop telling me how much you love the troops, Donald. You are full of it.”
I’ve seen a lot of that sentiment. No one respects the uniform more than me but I also know that the uniform is not a cloak of holiness. Like the rest of the society it draws from, the US armed forces has its share of people whose actions do not represent the uniform in a good light. The Disciplinary Barracks at Ft. Leavenworth is full of them.
So who is Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman? Let’s ask someone who knows. This was posted on Twitter by Lt. Col. James Hickman, US Army (ret.):
I know LTC Alex Vindman from a Combined US-Russian exercise called Atlas Vision 13 in Grafenwoher, Germany. He worked with the Russian Embassy and I was assigned to the JMTC (Joint Multinational Training Command), within USAREUR (US Army Europe). He worked coordination with the Russian 15th Peacekeeping Brigade, and I was in charge of all Simulations planning, as well as assisting the USAREUR Lead Planner as the Senior Military Planner.
The following account of LTC Vindman’s words and actions are completely accurate to the best of my recollection and have been corroborated by others. We interacted on several different occasions throughout the planning cycle, but it was during the actual execution of the exercise, that we had an issue relevant to his recent testimony. As stated earlier, Atlas Vision 13 was conducted at JMTC in the VBS2 (Virtual Battle Simulations 2) Classrooms for Simulation. Vindman, who was a Major at the time, was sitting in one of the classrooms talking to the US and Russian soldiers, as well as the young officers and GS employees about America, Russia, and (President) Obama. He was apologetic of American culture, laughed about Americans not being educated or worldly, and really talked up Obama and globalism to the point of uncomfortable.
He would speak with the Russian Soldiers and laugh as if at the expense of the US personnel. It was so uncomfortable and unprofessional, one of the GS employees came and told me everything above. I walked over and sat within earshot of Vindman, and sure enough, all was confirmed. One comment truly struck me as odd, and it was with respect to Americans’ falsely thinking they’re exceptional, when he said, ‘He [Obama] is working on that now.’ And he said it with a snide ‘I know a secret’ look on his face. I honestly don’t know what it meant, it just sounded like an odd thing to say. Regardless, after hearing him bash America a few times in front of subordinates, Russians, and GS employees, as well as, hearing an earful about globalization, Obama’s plan, etc…I’d had enough. I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to step outside.
At that point I verbally reprimanded him for his actions and I’ll leave it at that, so as not to be unprofessional myself. The bottom-line is LTC Vindman was a partisan Democrat at least as far back as 2012. So much so, junior officers and soldiers felt uncomfortable around him. This is not your professional, field-grade officer, who has the character and integrity to do the right thing. Do not let the uniform fool you…he is a political activist in uniform. I pray our nation will drop this hate, vitriol and division, and unite as our founding fathers intended!
Note: The above was written over the course of 11 Tweets and has been edited for readability.
Published in Military
You’re both acting dumb.
Why not? There was a time…
I just checked, and I’m not sure, but it does seem that the Marines no longer have a green class A uniform available. The military used to have intermediate uniforms that weren’t too formal (again, Class A’s). I agree with the Marines with their ban on cammos in the civilian world. I think the other services should enforce that too.
I do think the argument that using your military ID to get early airline boarding is somehow a conflict of interest, or has the appearance of such, but wearing your uniform somehow shields you from that.
The Marines have more outfits than Ken and Barbie.
You have your Alphas, your Bravos and your Charlies, your Dress Blues, your Evenings (if you’re an officer) and your field uniforms (Greens & Deserts). I know this because my father-in-law and I split the bill to upgrade everything when my son made NCO (New stripes, new belt buckle, blood stripe on the pants and service stripes on the sleeves.)
Like i said before LTC’s in DC get the coffee and donuts.
Thanks a lot. 😕
Lt Col (R) Herring, USAF
VDH addresses this nicely. What is Vindman to learn from his role models? https://amgreatness.com/2019/11/03/the-military-intelligence-complex/
Are you worried about Australia’s involvement in ‘five eyes’ complicity trying to frame the American President?
Oh please, everybody knows Australia does whatever US Presidents ask! It’s like trying to blame Israel for its role in Iran-Contra.
Last night I looked for some news headlines about the Hickman statements. Here is one I did not see:
“New whistleblower emerges, raising concerns about Vindman claims.”
I haven’t been keeping up on this post until this morning. This was written 2 years ago, any changes since then?
I’m sure the overall plan came from Obama’s intelligence appointees.
Why John Brennan, Peter Strzok and DOJ Needed Julian Assange Arrested – And Why UK Officials Obliged…
If you go there you will see how effective the plan has been so far. We still don’t know if Barr and Durham will expose this. The final connection to Ukraine appears to be Crowdstrike, the private cybersecurity company the DNC chose to examine their allegedly hacked computer instead of the FBI.
Haven’t any thing either way on West Point. Rapone was discharged.
Telling the truth to a Congressman on the eve of a war can do that. A good friend of mine was group commender in Gulf War I for the Marine Corps. One the eve of the war a Congressional delegation passed through and asked if the Group had everything it needed. He replied that they lacked a few items. They got them before the pushoff and he got passed over for BG. He retired, started his own company and sold it about ten years later to 3M for $23 million. He was the Marine with the most combat missions in Vietnam, almost 500. The first Marine Top Gun instructor. The Wing CO who sunk him with a weak OER, was cashiered a few years later for flying his girlfriend around in a Marine Corps plane.
I hate to see the rhetoric from people I do admire, like Barry McCaffrey, but the military seems to love their wars.
Maybe the Generals like the wars.
I believe that the young DT was admitted to the Wharton School of Business at UPenn. This happens to be the single most selective program in the Ivies, themselves the most selective schools, arguably, in the country. Wharton students must first be accepted into Penn, and then Wharton. It is double secret difficult. The reason? An undergraduate degree from Wharton is the near equivalent of an undergraduate Ivy degree and an MBA, combined, like a BA in Economics from Harvard and an MBA from the Business School. You can go from your last Frat party to your new office at Goldman Sacks without the useless BA, a three year wait and a two year grind in Business school; a five solid year’s head start toward millionairedom.
Trump did pass a first semester calculus exam. It’s a requirement.
Thanks for that. And Trump wasn’t just handed the Republican nomination either. And he didn’t have a setup like Clinton.
In the final analysis those who oppose Trump need to oppose him on where he wants to take the country or, if they are ok with that, make a case that he is failing to do that. We know where the Communist Democrats want to go.
We don’t have to support or oppose politicians 100 percent. We can vote for someone while still acknowledging their weaknesses.
Let’s say I don’t just want to take your word for it.
Do you have a link to where I can verify that what you have written is true?
You lose a lot of credibility here when you begin to act as though you are speaking seriously when you call Trump an idiot, even if hyperbolic. Being different does not mean less intelligent.
You can criticize him for a decision such as dealing with the Syrian situation and we might argue pros and cons but I’m not going to treat your calling him an idiot as in that category.
I agree with that statement and I don’t agree with all that Trump does but I haven’t had to address that on the major issues so the less important take a back seat. No action to ameliorate the financial conditions facing the Social Security Program would fall there for me. I think the timing to do that is bad so I hold my tongue. How does calling him an idiot help?
I wear my loss of credibility in your eyes like a badge of honor.
Do you know how to use Google? I just did so and have even seen the program listing the graduates from Wharton the day he graduated. There are many, many articles written about his Wharton years. You’ll enjoy reading many of them, especially the articles written by Trump haters who try to make little of his Wharton degree. You can even go to the Warton/ University of Pennsylvania site and find a list of required courses. Forgive me for not providing the links for you as I think it’s to your benefit if you learn to use Google or the search engine of your choice.
Has Trump ever released his high school transcripts, proof of his SAT test score and his college transcripts?
All you have to do is listen to Trump talk and you can tell that Trump isn’t very smart.
It’s comments like this that kept me from registering R for years and has caused me to regret it many times since.
That’s an amazing skill you have. You ought to try to monetize it.
I thought Clinton produced the masterpiece during her Presidential campaign. Now I do see that many establishment R’s are limited in their view of the world but I have never known any to think they could measure intelligence by listening to someone speaking.
Just don’t call ’em lefftenant colonels.