Tag: US Army

Contributor Post Created with Sketch. ‘Twas the Season in West Germany

Clifford A. Brown
By Clifford A. Brown
Clifford A. Brown Contributor
Retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a Colonel after 30 years of active and reserve assignments. M.A. Political Science, M.S. Strategic Studies, Army War College, JD. Served in 1st Armored Division in West Germany when the Berlin Wall came down, in 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea during the regime of Kim Il Sung, and commanded a logistics battalion in Iraq 2003-2004. Wide-ranging public policy interests. Occasional home brewer and infuser of alcohol spirits.
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20 COMMENTS
 

I experienced Christmas 1987 through 1989 in West Germany, in the heart of Bavaria, serving as a young Air Defense Artillery officer in the Army Reagan rebuilt. This was just before the influx of disillusioned East Germans and other relatively lawless former Warsaw Pact people, corrupted by the poison of living compromised lives under communism. West Germans were rule-followers. Ordnung muss sein! There must be order! The affirmative answer to “is everything alright?” “Alles ist in Ordnung.”

Everything is in order. One result was that private and public spaces were clean, neat, in order. At the same time, we and the British Army of the Rhine (by its name still an occupying force) had our boots firmly on the backs of a people who had shown a particular penchant for mass violence against others. So, I got to experience German culture and society at its best. I remember two German traditions and an American military tradition.

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Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. 245th Birthday for the United States Army

Clifford A. Brown
By Clifford A. Brown
Clifford A. Brown Contributor
Retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a Colonel after 30 years of active and reserve assignments. M.A. Political Science, M.S. Strategic Studies, Army War College, JD. Served in 1st Armored Division in West Germany when the Berlin Wall came down, in 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea during the regime of Kim Il Sung, and commanded a logistics battalion in Iraq 2003-2004. Wide-ranging public policy interests. Occasional home brewer and infuser of alcohol spirits.
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3 COMMENTS
 

June 14 is both Flag Day and the Army Birthday. 245 years ago, the Army was first authorized by the Continental Congress. See “Celebrating the Flag and the Army” for the details. This year, President Trump issued the annual proclamation and presided over the U.S. Military Academy graduation and commissioning ceremony this Saturday.

President Trump has made a point of presiding over a different service academy’s graduation and commissioning each year. On each prior occasion, he took the time to stand and shake each new officer’s hand as they crossed the podium. No other president has done this, to my knowledge. Unfortunately, the political theater of COVID-19 prevented President Trump looking each of the newest Army officers in the eyes and shaking their hand. He made the best of the limiting circumstances:*

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Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. First Call!

JimGoneWild
By JimGoneWild
JimGoneWild Coolidge
JimGoneWild is a member of Ricochet.
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24 COMMENTS
 

4:30 am. Monday. Temperature -20F. Ray Barracks, Friedberg, West Germany.

It’s the coldest winter since the Battle of the Bulge. That was in 1944. This is 1978.

Every Monday and Friday, our mechanized infantry battalion, 1/36 Infantry, 3rd Armored Division, has battalion P.T. or physical training, calisthenics. The other days, its company level. But on Monday and Friday, the whole battalion turns out on the battalion parade field for P.T.

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Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. Freedom Isn’t Free: 3 Soldiers Die in Exercise

Clifford A. Brown
By Clifford A. Brown
Clifford A. Brown Contributor
Retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a Colonel after 30 years of active and reserve assignments. M.A. Political Science, M.S. Strategic Studies, Army War College, JD. Served in 1st Armored Division in West Germany when the Berlin Wall came down, in 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea during the regime of Kim Il Sung, and commanded a logistics battalion in Iraq 2003-2004. Wide-ranging public policy interests. Occasional home brewer and infuser of alcohol spirits.
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10 COMMENTS
 
M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle (photo by Shane A. Cuomo, U.S. Air Force, public domain)

The Bradley Fighting Vehicle is a tall, boxy, tracked, lightly armored vehicle designed to carry a small squad of soldiers while a driver, vehicle commander (squad leader) and gunner maneuver and fight the vehicle. It looks a bit like a tank because it has a turret with a 25mm rapid fire cannon, which can kill peer vehicles but not tanks, due to heavier armor. A unit was out training at night, when a Bradley slipped or got one of its tracks too far over the edge of a bridge in the Fort Stewart, Georgia, maneuver areas. Three of the crew died in the accident and several others were injured.

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Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. Rebalancing Forces

Clifford A. Brown
By Clifford A. Brown
Clifford A. Brown Contributor
Retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a Colonel after 30 years of active and reserve assignments. M.A. Political Science, M.S. Strategic Studies, Army War College, JD. Served in 1st Armored Division in West Germany when the Berlin Wall came down, in 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea during the regime of Kim Il Sung, and commanded a logistics battalion in Iraq 2003-2004. Wide-ranging public policy interests. Occasional home brewer and infuser of alcohol spirits.
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17 COMMENTS
 

BrownLandSalesTwo news items caught my eye this weekend, both of them in Stars and Stripes. One story was from Korea, and the other from Germany. Together, they told a story of rebalancing our forces in the world.

The first story is about the activation of a group of new Army Reserve units in Europe. This was a growth in the total number of units or end strength in the Army Reserve. Instead, this was a relatively typical rebalancing of types of units in different parts of the world.

It may seem odd to you to hear of Army Reserve units based in Germany, but this has long been so. There is a very small full-time staff, then unit members either fly in from the States or fly/rail/drive from their American expat civilian jobs in Europe. I had a War College classmate, a native-born American citizen, who lived with his Finnish wife and kids in Finland, working for a tech company. He drilled in Germany.

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Walk-Ins Welcome w/ Bridget Phetasy #29

Aaron Schmidt Believes in Extreme Accountability, Unrelenting Preparation, Ruthless Efficiency and Unapologetic Passion Explicit

0 COMMENTS
Hosted by Bridget Phetasy

Aaron Schmidt grew up a military brat and met his wife, Kara Dawn, freshman year of high school when they were assigned to be lab partners. He talks wanting to be a college football coach but being the student manager of the UVA football team cured him of that desire, being raised Catholic, becoming a 7th grade English teacher, and then getting married, selling everything and hightailing it to LA because he and Kara could see the next 10 years of their lives mapped out before them. A series of odd jobs and a series of personal losses left him at loose ends until he found a passion to pursue in Gorucks that ultimately led him to join the Army Reserves as a psychological operations specialist two years before the cutoff for enlistment. He and Bridget have an honest and revealing discussion about being mission-oriented, the hard work of a successful marriage, overcoming loss and aimlessness, and the 4 tenets of his personal ethos.

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Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. Member Post

Clifford A. Brown
By Clifford A. Brown
Clifford A. Brown Contributor
Retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a Colonel after 30 years of active and reserve assignments. M.A. Political Science, M.S. Strategic Studies, Army War College, JD. Served in 1st Armored Division in West Germany when the Berlin Wall came down, in 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea during the regime of Kim Il Sung, and commanded a logistics battalion in Iraq 2003-2004. Wide-ranging public policy interests. Occasional home brewer and infuser of alcohol spirits.
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48 COMMENTS
 

This is a tale of unexpected gifts of grub, indeed tasty treats, while in the field on military duty. Each is an unexpected relief from planned, forecast, resourced Army chow. None of these, well almost none, were going to win any awards, but they were gifts of sweet relief from the grind of standard Army […]

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Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. I’m a Liberal

JosePluma
By JosePluma
JosePluma Thatcher
Ex Army Officer, retired cop, emergency room nurse. Trouble always seems nearby for some reason.
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23 COMMENTS
 

I have been following the military career of Spencer Rapone, the West Point graduate who wrote “communism will win” on the inside of his cadet cover and wore a Che Guevara t-shirt under his uniform. As I predicted in an earlier post, the Army cashiered him, albeit a year later. He said that he wanted to rise through the ranks and change the Army from within.

Why am I so interested in this guy? Well, some forty plus years ago, that was me.

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Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. Member Post

Nanda Panjandrum
By Nanda Panjandrum
Nanda Panjandrum Inactive
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18 COMMENTS
 

Greetings! Just wanted to say: Happy 243rd Birthday to all my active, reserve, retired, and vet Army peeps here on Ricochet: Thank you! “Hoc Defendam ” and HooWah, Everyone! Preview Open

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Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. My First Jump

JimGoneWild
By JimGoneWild
JimGoneWild Coolidge
JimGoneWild is a member of Ricochet.
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41 COMMENTS
 

I graduated from U.S. Army Jump School in January of 1981. Two weeks later I was making my first jump with my new unit, B Company, 1/325 Airborne Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division.

But it wasn’t just my first jump, we – our battalion – was jumping into Panama to attend Jungle School.

Jumps are pretty nerve-racking. Jumping into the jungle is double-espresso nerve-racking. Only our platoon sergeant had been to Jungle School before (plus a couple of tours in Vietnam), so the rest of the platoon was worried sick about the jump and the jungle environment: snakes, spiders, ants, and weird diseases for starters. The dangers and fears mix with the adventurous feeling one always gets from doing something new.

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Member Post

Nanda Panjandrum
By Nanda Panjandrum
Nanda Panjandrum Inactive
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9 COMMENTS
 

Greetings! Just wanted to say: Happy 242nd Birthday to all my active, reserve, retired, and vet Army peeps here on Ricochet: Thank you! “Hoc Defendam ” and HooWah, Everyone! (Thanks to @arahant, traditional version in a comment below; contemporary here.) Preview Open

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Member Post

JimGoneWild
By JimGoneWild
JimGoneWild Coolidge
JimGoneWild is a member of Ricochet.
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18 COMMENTS
 

In the 1870’s, the Army was tasked with solving the “Sioux Problem” in the Lower Yellowstone region, but logistics problems confounded the command. And it is logistics–supply’s and supply chain–that weighed heavily in Custer’s final days. Enter the American buffalo. A big shaggy haired beast, weighing up to 2000 pounds, and eats a lot of […]

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Promoted from the Ricochet Member Feed by Editors Created with Sketch. On Military Service

SpinJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By Spin
Spin Coolidge
Spin is a member of Ricochet.
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43 COMMENTS
 
“Color Guard at Fort Belvoir” by US Army Corps of Engineers, via Shutterstock.

Last night, I went on a short adventure that got me to thinking about my time in the military. We were having dinner with friends when we learned that their son, in his 20s, was stuck out on a dirt road somewhere and needed help. They had contacted another friend, Mick, who lived nearby, and we also ventured out to help. When we arrived, Mick was on the scene, but he was surprised to see me. I said “I can’t let a Navy man have all the fun!” Later that evening, I was thinking about the ribbing that guys give each other when they’ve served in different branches. But I also thought about the bonds that exist almost immediately between most men, once they learn that each other served.

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Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Member Post

EJHillJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By EJHill
EJHill Podcaster
Thirty years in television production. Living in a midwestern city in the productive custody of his wife and four children (Baby Girl, Marine, Future Tony Winner & Xerox). Unrelenting, unrepentant conservative. Needs a better temperament that equals his photoshop skills. Will probably die broke but believes more in freedom than the welfare state.  
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21 COMMENTS
 

The words and photography of Army National Guard Sgt. Ken Scar (From Marines.mil – The Official Website of the Marine Corps) ARLINGTON, Virginia — I noticed her in my peripheral vision as I was lying in the grass trying to get a meaningful photograph of all the “60s” etched into the backs of the gravestones. […]

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Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Veteran Suicide Remains a Problem

A.D.P. Efferson
By A.D.P. Efferson
A.D.P. Efferson Contributor
After receiving her Masters in Speech Pathology, she moved around the world a bit, had three kids, then settled into the D.C. area working for a defense industry consultant, who does union workforce initiatives in support of DOD programs.  She has worked with both public and private union bosses, on the national and local levels, and concludes, we have nothing to fear. She currently working on her next masters degree in clinical psychology and raising her kids. Or, reverse that. She spend… [more]
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21 COMMENTS
 

shutterstock_181602527According to a 2013 Veterans Affairs study, approximately 22 veterans take their own lives every day. That is a staggering 8,030 soldiers a year. In a recent article, former Army Ranger and author Sean Parnell points out that the cause of these disturbing numbers remains unknown. He suggests that it may have to do with the Veterans Administration’s process for identifying and treating soldiers with suicidal ideation:

Given the well-documented challenges in getting access to VA services, there’s little reason to believe a gigantic dysfunctional bureaucracy can respond with the appropriate speed and sensitivity needed for a veteran struggling with thoughts of suicide.

Parnell isn’t wrong. The VA is the Gordian Knot of bureaucratic disasters. How much they are to blame for suicides can only be speculated at but, considering how many individuals have died by accident while under the care of the VA, it’s not an unreasonable suggestion.

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Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Lying To Ourselves: Who’s Being Dishonest Here?

EJHillJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By EJHill
EJHill Podcaster
Thirty years in television production. Living in a midwestern city in the productive custody of his wife and four children (Baby Girl, Marine, Future Tony Winner & Xerox). Unrelenting, unrepentant conservative. Needs a better temperament that equals his photoshop skills. Will probably die broke but believes more in freedom than the welfare state.  
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24 COMMENTS
 

PUB1250Two long-time U.S. Army officers, now retired, have written a paper for the Strategic Studies Institute at the Army War College titled Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession.

In it, Professors Leonard Wong and Stephen J. Gerras lament that the Officer Corps of the Army has become “ethically numb” and that there is “rampant duplicity” in a “deleterious culture.”

Sounds bad, doesn’t it? After all, we like to think of our military as being the most conservative of all large government institutions and therefore run to a higher standard. Each of the Service Academies stress ethics at their core: “Duty. Honor. Country.”, “Courage. Honor. Commitment.”, ” Integrity. Service. Excellence.”

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