At 0300 hours on 2 March 2002, C Company, 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry walked about a mile and a half to the flight line in full gortex, poly-pro and full field uniform. They sat in chalk order until their loading time of 0500 hours. Their flight to LZ 13A gave them a touch down time of 0600 hours. SGT James Rissler was a Senior Medic of an Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) team attached to the Infantry Company. According to Rissler, they loaded one of the CH-47s with 34 packs and rucks. The flight was to take them from Bagram Airbase at 4,200 feet to LZ 13A in Shahi-Kot valley to just outside the city of Marzak at 10,500 feet in just an hour’s time. Their mission set up blocking positions outside the city of Marzak while Zia forces pushed the Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces in their direction.
The flight left at 0500 hours as planned and touched down at LZ 13A at 0600 hours. When the chopper touched down, the unit hastily split and went off to the left and right sides of the aircraft and soldiers assumed prone positions. Once the aircraft had taken off, the unit immediately started receiving small arms fire. The problem was that no one could locate the direction of fire, so they dropped their rucks and ran up the side of a small ridge. Soon realizing that the direction of fire was coming from the same side they were on, they ran to the top of the ridge to the other side to take cover. Once Sergeant Rissler reached the top of the ridge, an RPG round exploded about 10 feet from him and a piece of shrapnel hit him in the knee.
Once they all got to the other side, the unit consolidated and started constructing fighting positions. Soldiers were placed on a small observation post to the right of the unit, but were quickly targeted by Mortar fire also. The Mortars adjusted fire and the unit took 13 casualties by the time the second round hit. The unit then realized that the enemy forces were running out of the city of Marzak to surround them, which meant that they would now be taking fire from three sides, being targeted by Mortar fire. Sergeant Rissler set up a Command and Control Post at the bottom of the ridge and it was quickly targeted. As the enemy continued to adjust fire on them, Sergeant Rissler and other soldiers would drag as many casualties up and down the ridge as possible, covering their bodies with theirs to protect them as the rounds detonated.
While moving the soldiers up and down the hill, Sergeant Rissler was wounded a second time, taking fragments in the hand. Both times he was wounded he treated himself. Moving the injured soldiers up and down the ridge was only aggravating the injuries; consequently, each time a soldier was moved, controlling of bleeding and treatment of wound started all over again. The Mortar fire would slow down when fire missions were called in from the F-16s and AC 130s, allowing Sergeant Rissler and other soldiers to dig pits in the center of the valley to put the patients in and using dirt or whatever materials found to cover the wounded. All patients were stabilized and the unit lay in their positions returning fire until nightfall.
As night started to set in, Sergeant Rissler knew that it would be getting very cold soon. With the amount of blood lost through the day and the rapid decrease in temperature the patients would probably go into shock. So Sergeant Rissler used tape to repair the wounded soldiers’ clothing and covered the soldiers with whatever he had to prevent shock. Then he and other soldiers lay on the wounded patients to maintain their body temperature. Finally, when night fell MEDEVAC could get to the site. The first helicopter received two Mortar rounds and heavy small arms fire. Another AC-130 was called in to cover the evacuation. In all, 25 wounded were evacuated with no fatalities. Around 0200 hours the next morning, Sergeant Rissler and the rest of the unit were extracted.
On October 24 at Chicago’s Palmer House Hilton, the Chicago-based Tawani Foundation will present the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing to Gerhard L. Weinberg.
The Pritzker Military Library Literature Award recognizes a living author for a body of work that has profoundly enriched the public understanding of American military history. The recipient’s contributions may be academic, non-fiction, fiction, or a combination of any of the three, and his or her work should embody the values of the Pritzker Military Library.
Mr. Weinberg was born in Hanover, Germany, on January 1, 1928. He was the son of Jewish parents. His father was a decorated Soldier who had fought in the German Army during World War I and his mother was a loving homemaker. After returning from WWI, Weinberg’s father went back to work in the judiciary, but found the atmosphere so unpleasant that he moved to the new Ministry of Finance.
In 1933, the Nazis came to power and passed a law forbidding all Jewish persons from holding civil service positions. However, German President Paul von Hindenburg insisted that Jewish Germans who fought on the front lines of WWI be granted exception from the law. When Hindenburg died in 1934, everyone exempted under the Nazi law were fired.
Weinberg’s father was unemployed – and unemployable – and decided to open an office to advise Jews leaving Germany on the constantly changing rules about what could be taken from the country. Weinberg’s living room was converted into an office and his hallway became a waiting area full of Jews waiting for quote numbers to emigrate from Germany to the United States.
After the November 1938, Quakers in England followed up on changes in the English government as a result of the pogrom. The government allowed Jews waiting to get into another country to stay in England temporarily. Weinberg’s parents shipped him and his siblings on a boat from Hamburg to England where he attended school.
During the Battle of Britain and at the beginning of the blitz, the family’s quota numbers came up and in September of 1940 they were sent to the United States on one of the last passenger ships making the trip.
Weinberg settled in Albany, NY and it was there that he began his love for education and writing. A few years earlier, he had been abruptly removed from class while non-Jewish classmates looked on. The principal walked into the classroom and read the official decree that Jews could no longer be in the school system. He and another boy were literally required to collect all their belongings on the spot and leave the room, alarmed and concerned.
Weinberg loved his American education so much that he quickly decided he wanted to become a secondary school teacher. He went on to attend New York State College for Teachers in Albany, which is now known as the University of New York at Albany.
When Weinberg turned 18, his education was interrupted as he was drafted into the Army Air Corps. After attending basic training at Camp Polk, he was sent to San Francisco and transferred to the 4th Replacement Depot at Camp Zama, Japan. Shortly after arriving in country, his education was put to good use as he was transferred to Yokohama in August 1946.
At the time, Yokohama was home to an Army Education Program School. The Army needed teachers badly and Weinberg was a perfect fit, having completed three years of college credits prior to being drafted. For the next year, Weinberg taught American History and American Government for the Information and Education Headquarters of the 8th US Army.
In 1947, the Army was discharging all its draftees. Since Weinberg had not yet attained his American citizenship, he was unable to remain in service voluntarily. After hardly more than a year of military service, Weinberg was given an honorable discharge and sent back to the United States.
Weinberg returned to the University at Albany and used his G.I. Bill benefits to receive a B.A. in social studies and an M.A. at the University of Chicago. By the time he graduated in 1951, positions in the academic world were scarcest and enrollments were shrinking as all the WWII veterans had completed or were about to complete their G.I. Bill-funded education.
He began work as a contractor for the Air Force in Montgomery, Alabama at the Human Resources Research Institute on the “War Documentation Project.” His research included sorting through captured WWII German records that were being scanned to microfiche and sent back to Germany.
Through his years of teaching, lecturing, research, and study, Weinberg has published a string of books, and longer string of reviews, article and other publications, on World War II German history. He has become a trusted source of military history that is sought out by authors, scholars, and historians alike.
For his more than 50 years of military historical research, Gerhard Weinberg will be honored with a $100,000 honorarium, citation and medallion, sponsored by the Chicago-based Tawani Foundation, which will be presented at the Library’s annual Liberty Gala on October 24, 2009. Weinberg currently lives in Efland, North Carolina, with his wife Janet.
Friday, Sept.18, 2009 is National POW/MIA Recognition Day. The United States’ National POW/MIA Recognition Day is observed across the nation on the third Friday of September each year. Many Americans take the time to remember those who were prisoners of war (POW) and those who are missing in action (MIA), as well as their families.
The President is expected to issue a proclamation commemorating the observances and reminding the nation of those Americans who have sacrificed so much for their country.
Observances of National POW/MIA Recognition Day are held across the country on military installations, ships at sea, state capitols, schools and veterans’ facilities. This observance is one of six days throughout the year that Congress has mandated the flying of the National League of Families’ POW/MIA flag. The others are Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day and Veterans Day. The flag is to be flown at major military installations, national cemeteries, all post offices, VA medical facilities, the World War II Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the official offices of the secretaries of state, defense and veterans affairs, the director of the selective service system and the White House.
What do people do?
Many Americans across the United States pause to remember the sacrifices and service of those who were prisoners of war (POW), as well as those who are missing in action (MIA), and their families. All military installations fly the National League of Families’ POW/MIA flag, which symbolizes the nation’s remembrance of those who were imprisoned while serving in conflicts and those who remain missing.
Veteran rallies take place in many states, such as Wisconsin, in the United States on National POW/MIA Recognition Day. United States flags and POW/MIA flags are flown on this day and joint prayers are made for POWs and those missing in action. National POW/MIA Recognition Day posters are also displayed at college or university campuses and public buildings to promote the day. Remembrance ceremonies and other events to observe the day are also held in places such as the Pentagon, war memorials and museums.
Background
There are 1,741 American personnel listed by the Defense Department’s POW/MIA Office as missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War, as of April 2009. The number of United States personnel accounted for since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 is 841. About 90 percent of the 1,741 people still missing were lost in Vietnam or areas of Laos and Cambodia under Vietnam’s wartime control, according to the National League of Families website (cited in the United States Army website).
The United States Congress passed a resolution authorizing National POW/MIA Recognition Day to be observed on July 18, 1979. It was observed on the same date in 1980 and was held on July 17 in 1981 and 1982. It was then observed on April 9 in 1983 and July 20 in 1984. The event was observed on July 19 in 1985, and then from 1986 onwards the date moved to the third Friday of September. The United States president each year proclaims National POW/MIA Recognition Day. Many states in the USA also proclaim POW/MIA Recognition Day together with the national effort.
Symbols
The National League of Families’ POW/MIA flag symbolizes the United States’ resolve to never forget POWs or those who served their country in conflicts and are still missing. Newt Heisley designed the flag. The flag’s design features a silhouette of a young man, which is based on Mr Heisley’s son, who was medically discharged from the military. As Mr Heisley looked at his returning son’s gaunt features, he imagined what life was for those behind barbed wire fences on foreign shores. He then sketched the profile of his son as the new flag’s design was created in his mind.
Mr. Heisley with the flag
The flag features a white disk bearing in black silhouette a man’s bust, a watch tower with a guard on patrol, and a strand of barbed wire. White letters “POW” and “MIA”, with a white five-pointed star in between, are typed above the disk. Below the disk is a black and white wreath above the motto “You Are Not Forgotten” written in white, capital letters.
Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III, Secretary of the Army Pete Geren, and Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli will participate in a ceremony inducting Army Sgt. 1st Class Jared C. Monti into the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., EDT, Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, at the Pentagon auditorium (6th corridor, basement level).
Monti will be awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously at a White House ceremony scheduled for Sept. 17. His parents will be present for the unveiling of the Hall of Heroes plaque on Friday, Sept. 18.
Monti is recognized for actions above and beyond the call of duty during combat that cost him his life on June 21, 2006, in Afghanistan. He is the sixth service member to be awarded the Medal of Honor during the Global War on Terror, the second to receive it for actions in Afghanistan.
Found this story buried in the obituaries and didn’t want this going unknown. This hero served his country in WWII, Korea and Vietnam! He was awarded numerous medals for valor. May God bless our combat veterans.
Colonel Richard D. Humphreys, 85, retired U.S. Marine, attorney-at-law, and real estate agent, of Forsyth Place, died Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009, at 8:10 a.m. at the Stone Pear Pavilion at the Fox Nursing Home in Chester.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pa., March 13, 1924, a son of the late Harry W. and Helen V. Davidson, he was a 1944 graduate of Franklin & Marshall College. He furthered his education in 1949 at the Dickinson School of Law where he earned a J.D. in Law. A Distinguished Graduate of the Naval War College in 1967 and a holder of the Certified Commercial Investment Member designation (CCIM) from the Realtors National Marketing Institute of the National Association of Realtors. He was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the United States Supreme Court, and the United States Court of Military Appeals.
He is past president of the Rotary Club of East Liverpool, and the Columbiana County Board of Realtors, and a former member of the Ohio Job Training Partnership, Inc., the Realtors National Marketing Institute, and the National Association of Realtors. He is a former member of and past chairperson of the Private Industry Council of Mahoning-Columbiana Counties, the Southern Columbiana County Joint Services Employers Committee, and of the Ohio Small Business Council Coordinating Board. He was formerly a member of the Ohio Governor’s Human Resources Advisory Council, the Business Advisory Council of the National Alliance of Business, the Advisory Committee for the Columbiana County Incubator, and a member of the Steering Committee of the Mahoning Valley Incubator. He is a member of the First United Methodist Church of East Liverpool, a member of Chapter No. 126 of the Korean War Veterans Association, a life member of the Korean War Veterans Association, a life member of the Disabled American Veterans, a member of the Dog Company 2nd Battalion Seventh Marines Association, and a member of the American Legion Post No. 374. He is the author of “Triumph on 1240″ the history of the Marines of D Company 2nd Battalion 7th Marines 1st Marine Division in Korea.
Colonel Humphreys’ active military service began with his enlistment as a Private in the U.S. Marine Corps on Dec. 14, 1942, and ended with his retirement on April 30, 1970, as a Colonel of Marines on duty as the Director of Legislative Plans and Coordination, Office of the Secretary of Defense. He joined the Second Battalion 7th Marines in Korea on Dec. 6, 1950, and was a Platoon Commander of the 3rd Platoon and later the company Executive Officer until June 6, 1951, when he was wounded and evacuated to the hospital in Japan. During his active service he received the following decorations and awards: The Silver Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Bronze Star Medal with Combat V, the Purple Heart Medal with one Star, the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge, the Good Conduct Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the Victory Medal (WWII), the Navy Occupation Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal with one Star, the Korean Service Medal with three Stars, the United Nations Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation, the Presidential Unit Citation, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Navy Letter of Commendation, the Vietnam Service Medal with one Star, the Vietnam Campaign Medal with device, and the Navy Commendation Medal with combat V.
Since his retirement from the service, he served in several positions in the East Liverpool Area Chamber of Commerce including that of Executive Vice President and Secretary from 1982 to 1987. He was also a member of the Riverview Cemetery Association Board.
His wife, Ann Louise Stewart Kerr Humphreys, survives at home. The couple married June 1, 1980.
There is a daughter, Paula Humphreys Land, and her husband Richard, of St. Jo, Texas; along with two sons, David S. Kerr, and his wife Victoria of Ellicott City, Md., and James R. Kerr, and his wife Marguerite of Medina.
Other survivors include six grandchildren: Catherine Gay, and her husband Matthew, Kenton Hutcherson, Allison Land, Virginia Land, Amy Kerr and Nicholas Kerr; and two great-grandchildren, Taylor and Lauren Gay; one sister, Jane Agriesti, and her husband Carl, of Johnson City, Tenn.; as well as a brother, David Humphreys, and his wife Loretta, of Pittsburgh.
He was preceded in death by a son, Richard D. Humphreys Jr., on July 10, 2009, a sister Marjorie Bright, and a brother Howard Humphreys.
Friends may call Tuesday afternoon and evening at the Dawson Funeral Home where the family will be present from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. The Rev. Dale Sutton of the First United Methodist Church will conduct a funeral service at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home.
Burial will be at Riverview Cemetery where full military honors will be conducted.
Following the service, family and friends will gather at the Dawson Family Center for further remembrance.
In lieu of flowers, memorial tributes may take the form of contributions in care of the First United Methodist Church, 200 West Fifth Street, East Liverpool, Ohio 43920 or the Beaver Local High School Marine Corps JROTC, 13187 State Route 7, Lisbon, Ohio 44432.
View this obituary and send condolences online at www.dawsonfuneralhome.com
11:55 AM EDT, August 22, 2009
It was an honor for a former soldier from Lackawanna County forty years after his time in Vietnam.
It was a special ceremony at Genetti’s in Wilkes-Barre to honor one man’s heroism.
“The president of the United States of America has awarded the Silver Star to Private First Class Paul J. Wedlock, United States Army. . . ” the loudspeaker sounded on Friday evening.
Congressman Paul Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, pinned the Silver Star onto Paul Wedlock of Scranton.
In 1969 Wedlock was 19 years old and serving with the U.S. Army in South Vietnam. During one firefight, he crawled across a battlefield to pull his severely wounded commanding officer to safety.
“I don’t feel like I’m a hero, no not at all, not at all, it’s just one of the things we do that’s our job being in infantry,” PFC Wedlock said of his bravery.
I was thinking about military women the other day. Past and present. They have made great strides since they were first allowed to serve openly (besides being nurses) during World War II. I say openly because when our country was founded, a woman by the name of Deborah Sampson served in disguise as a man for 3 years, taking the fight to the British. She even did surgery on herself to remove a musket ball from her own thigh.
“At a field hospital a French doctor bound up the head wound, but was not advised of the thigh injury. When the doctor began to attend another wounded soldier, Deborah limped out of the hospital, and later, with iron nerve, using her knife, managed to extract the musket ball in her thigh. She was some time recovering from her wounds until she was able to rejoin her company.“
And because she was thought to be a man, she served in the Light Infantry. She was a grunt.
Officially though, women couldn’t serve outside of nursing until the WAAC was formed in 1942 (later to be known as WAC). They were “auxiliary.” That word brings to mind typing and fetching coffee. But they were so much more. According to this article, they landed at Normandy a few weeks after the initial invasion. They’ve “been there, done that.”
Other branches opened up and there were WAVEs and WASPs. Women who served with distinction. One thing I discovered was that a handful of women in the WASPs towed target planes for anti-aircraft live fire practice. Stop and wrap your mind around that concept for a moment. Would you tow a plane to get shot at? Seriously?? Another little known fact is that the women who died during this time were not afforded the honor of a flag draped casket or even having the military pay to return their remains. That was left up to family and friends. They weren’t real military, I suppose.
And guess what…women have been receiving awards like the Medal of Honor and the Silver Star going back to the Civil War. Yes, they have served with distinction for all these years, through war after war, battle after battle. Laying down their lives alongside the men.
So next time you see a woman in uniform, think back to this blog post. Think of Lori Piestewa and Leigh Ann Hester or Monica Brown, who both were awarded Silver Stars, SGT Hester in Iraq and SPC Brown in Afghanistan. Think of the WAACs and WASPs and all the others who went before. Thank them for their outstanding service to our nation, going back to the very founding of it.
Oh, and that picture above…the tall gangly woman on the left….that would be Goldie Caroline Hundertmark. She and I share the same middle name. I know this why and how? Because she’s my grandmother and I’m damn proud of her and her service to the United States of America.
U.S. Army astronaut Col. Tim Kopra today became the first International Space Station crew member to communicate through Twitter. Col. Kopra sent the following message, “What a fun shuttle mission – especially with 13 people on board station. Life here is amazing – still getting used to floating!” He will send periodic updates to his Earth-bound followers on his daily life in space. Kopra, whose Twitter account is astro_tim, can be followed at http://twitter.com/astro_tim.
Kopra, an Austin, Tex. native, is living and working on the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 20. He arrived at the space station aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on July 17, 2009. Kopra conducted the first space walk of his career on July 18, 2009.
Kopra is serving as a flight engineer on the space station for the next six weeks and will be conducting various experiments. He will return to Earth on the next space shuttle mission to the space station scheduled for late August.
“Col. Kopra personifies Army values and the opportunities that the Army provides to its Soldiers,” said Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, Commanding General of U.S. Army Accessions Command, responsible for Army recruiting. “Col. Kopra used many of the tools available in the Army – including a fully-funded undergraduate education at West Point, advanced degrees and aviation training – to help him succeed in his career at NASA. We are happy to see him harness the latest social media technology through Twitter to communicate an experience that only a select group of people have had the chance to accomplish.”
Col. Kopra’s Twitter messages from space are the latest in the U.S. Army’s continued growth into social media. Internet users can submit a question to Col. Kopra to answer by video while he is in space by visiting www.goarmy.com/space. In addition, www.goarmy.com/space site visitors can also link to other Army astronauts’ social networking pages.
Col. Kopra is an Army aviator and graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. In 1998, the Army assigned Col. Kopra to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, a unique opportunity provided by the U.S. Army.
He is one of four active duty soldier astronauts in the Army detachment at NASA, and he credits the Army for giving him the leadership skills and education he needed to become an astronaut.
The NASA Army detachment is part of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command.
Here’s a test for you non-military types: Name the Army Chief of Staff. If that’s too hard, name the CENTCOM Commander. Pretty easy, right. It’s General Casey and General Petraeus, respectively. Now, name the Sergeant Major of the Army and the CENTCOM Command Sergeant Major. Now, don’t cheat! (The answers are Sergeant Major of the Army Preston and Command Sergeant Major Marvin L. Hill, respectively)
NCOs in the military are the backbones of their respective services; and they all have them. The problem is that they never get the credit they deserve. NCOs rarely get the respect and recognition for the countless ways they contribute to winning the fight. We train Soldiers, we discipline Soldiers, and we care for Soldiers. When a Soldier needs something, the first person he/she calls isn’t an officer, it’s an NCO.
So, it was refreshing to see this article at KansasCity.com:
In many countries it is the officers who do most of the daily work and instill discipline. The net result is that few armies can act independently if their officers are not around.
The professionalism of the NCO corps results in a force that adjusts quicker to battlefield realities, adapts to asymmetric enemies and takes advantage of opportunities without waiting for authorization.
Indeed, the fact that the Army has been able to adapt rapidly from a force prepared to fight tank-on-tank conventional battles to one involving counterinsurgency is a testament to the NCO corps. I would even assert that absent our NCO capability, we would not be in a position today to even debate withdrawing our forces from Iraq.
Many people have asked me what they can do to support “the troops.” One way is to support efforts that would help more NCOs get higher levels of education while they are on active duty.
As you may have heard (I’ve only talked about it a few dozen/million times), 2009 is “The Year of the NCO.” Even better than the fact that this was an article about NCOs is the fact that it was written by Grant Martin who is a major in the Army. MAJ Martin goes on to make three recommendations about how this country can support our NCOs:
• Institute a program within the current NCO educational system that incorporates an associate’s degree by the rank of staff sergeant. This could be a program co-sponsored by an accredited university, combining credits for military courses as well as required outside classes.
• Institute a similar program for a bachelor’s degree by the rank of sergeant first class or master sergeant and a master’s degree by sergeant major.
• Review the current degree-completion programs offered by satellite campuses, especially those that cater to the military, to make sure they are as valuable outside of the military as they are inside, and have stringent, broadly-recognized accreditation.
These are all well and good, but I’d like to build upon his recommendations. The problem right now with the NCO Corps vs. the Officer Corps is that officers are GIVEN opportunities to obtain degrees that enlisted troops and NCOs are not. We don’t get to put our careers on hold for 12-24 months to get a degree. I suggest that the military offer similar opportunities to attend a graduate program during an NCOs career just as some officers are.
Another way we can support our NCOs is to quit cutting our NCOES programs. Since this war has started, NCO education has been axed. In the name of saving money and time, we’ve cut our initial NCO training course, the Warrior Leader Course, from four to two weeks. We’re slashing the First Sergeant Course and talking about making BNCOC/ANCOC an distance learning course. That effects every single NCO leadership course all the way up to the Sergeants Major Course.
NCOs benefit greatly from physically attending these leadership course. I’m still friends with Soldiers I went to PLDC (now called WLC) with who don’t share my job skill. I learned a lot working alongside engineers, commo specialists, infantryman, etc. At the First Sergeant Course, I met senior NCOs from Combat Arms, Combat Support, and Combat Service Support. The networking that was incorporated into these courses organically through personal instruction and student input were invaluable. We are stripping our NCOs of these opportunities to learn more about how the Army operates. Speaking with these other NCOs allows us to better take care of our low density Soldiers in Companies and Battalions (administration, supply, etc.).
MAJ Martin is correct that if we take care of NCOs and provide them with the training and education benefits that they deserve, “the returns to the Army would be tremendous…I think we owe NCOs — and this could apply to the other services as well — the best we can offer in terms of opportunity. We sure do ask a lot of them.” We sure do. And it’s time the military started paying them back instead of cutting them down.
Don’t get me wrong, NCOs are resilient leaders. The Army keeps cutting our training, but we find ways to adapt and overcome. We are NCOs for a reason. It just requires more personal sacrifices and motivation. A true NCO will overcame training and education shortfalls at any cost. Unfortunately, those that end up bearing the brunt of these sacrifices tend to be the families as these Soldiers must use their personal time in pursuit of these educational opportunities.
I don’t think all these great ideas are the result of a lack of respect for NCOs. Far from it! I’ve seen firsthand the respect that officers for the accomplishments of our NCOs. General Chiarelli has so much respect for NCOs that he wouldn’t stop calling me sir when I interviewed him on our radio show. When I interviewed Major General Bergner at the Milblog Conference he launched into how much NCOs have shaped his career. Talk to any senior officer and he’ll tell you about that NCO that made the difference in his life as a Lieutenant or Commander at any level. Words are great, but I truly hope that the Army will take some of MAJ Martin’s advice and show us some more actions.
Getting back to the beginning of my post, the American people need to understand that behind every General Petraeus and General Casey is an accomplished, successful, loyal, and competent NCO!
Sean Dunne, a filmmaker from Brooklyn, NY recently notified us about his 10 minute film of Frank Buckles, the last living US WWI Veteran. Watch and listen as Frank recounts his recollection of World War I.
