Don't be a fool and die for your country. Let the other sonofabitch die for his.
-- General George S. Patton
October 16, 2004
Unit Refused Iraq Mission, Military Says
I found a very disturbing article on AOL news this morning titled, Unit Refused Iraq Mission, Military Says.
My first thought was what do you mean refused mission? Maybe they mean that a commander had a deployment turned off because he couldn't support it. Sometimes manning shortages prevent a commander from deploying more of his people. That sort of thing is unavoidable and isn’t a direct impact on the mission as some other unit will deploy in their place.
Ok, so just go here and read the full article, I did.
Now the media is good at altering the magnitude of any situation so this one may not sound so bad to those who are not "in the know" so to speak.
According to AIM news:
The Army is investigating up to 19 reservist members of a platoon that is part of the 343rd Quartermaster Company, based in Rock Hill, S.C. The unit delivers food, water and fuel on trucks in combat zones.On Wednesday, 19 members of the platoon did not show up for a scheduled 7 a.m. meeting in Tallil, in southeastern Iraq, to prepare for the fuel convoy's departure a few hours later, the military statement said.
``An initial report indicated that some of the 19 soldiers (not all) refused to participate in the convoy as directed,'' the statement said.
Luckily other brave members stepped up to the plate and carried out the mission. These convoys are responsible for delivering everything from food/water and fuel to much needed supplies such as munitions or other war fighting assets.
The 19 people potentially endangered the lives of countless other Soldiers, Sailors, Airman and Marines.
One of the cowards was quoted in a phone call to her mother as saying, "This is a real, real, big emergency,'' Amber McClenny said in her message. "I need you to contact someone. I mean, raise pure hell.''
Translation, help me mommy I was talked into failing to report for duty/dereliction of duty by some other morons in my unit and it just hit me that dereliction of duty is punishable by death in war time.
This is the kind of break down in discipline that the military cannot afford regardless of who did it or which branch of service.
I know first hand what it is like to perform a mission with inferior or substandard equipment. Thanks to Senators like John Kerry we often are forced to press on with less than the best equipment. However, nowhere in my military record will you find something so absurd as failure to go.
I hope that the Uniform Code of Military Justice prosecutes all of these participants to the maximum extent allowable. It's actions like these, and those of the incompetent reservists at Abu Ghraib that make us look bad to the public and spawn the anti-military views of the pacifists.
There would be no love lost here if all 19 of these perpetrators were sentenced to numerous years of hard labor.
SlagleRock Out!
I had heard the bare bones of this story on the radio, I thought It Can't be like they were portraying it! What these people did should be prosecuted harshly under the UCMJ.
I served in a S&T Bn. such as these people were, the thought of NOT going on a convoy, no matter WHAT the risks were, simply would not have entered our minds.
Most of us had been in front line Infantry or Armor units prior to becoming REMF's and we were well aware what the effect of our not doing our jobs on those front line units were,ie,the probable rise in death to our fellow brothers in arms due to lack of ammunition,fuel,rations etc. Being gung-ho doesn't work very well if you don't have the tools to be gung-ho with.
I remenber one time that a young Spc. made light of our unit's contributions to a (training)live fire mission during a Reforger period. (closest thing to real w/o being real, although there are causelties,including death,every period)
A young Cpt. called him to attention on it and asked just what he was going to do when he ran out of ammo in a firefight if WE weren't there delivering to the front, and just how long could he effectively fight without a good meal in his stomach? He then ordered him to divest himself of all but 2 magazines of ammo and told him he wouldn't eat anything or fire any ammo he couldn't scrounge himself from the forest, none of his friends were to be allowed to share their rations/ammo with him,for the next three days.
The Specialist apologized to us the next convoy we brought in. He had been the first "causelty" his unit experienced in their mission.
Posted by: delftsman3 at October 16, 2004 03:33 PMThe unit I served with was Transportation, our first mission in country was a night mission after a long full days convoy from Danang to get to our company’s destination North of Quang Tri in 1968, 50% of us pulled the mission that night using a hand drawn map to deliver fuel to LZ. Stud, Cam Lo and back, with no escort, Korean War vintage equipment and no armor. The Equipment was ancient gas fired tractors, not a multifuel amongst them, we sandbagged the floors smeared mud over the stars on the doors and went for broke. We hauled ash and trash all over I Corps after that, often meeting mine sweep details or infantry patrols who asked us what the hell were we doing out there. We were always understrength, out of parts and loaded with missions to some godawful shithole firebase in the boonies that needed to be resupplied. Outposts get overrun and Infantrymen die when they run out of supplies, we made damn sure they had plenty. Our C.O. was a mustanger with Korean War experience and he ran a tight ship, his attitude was were going to get the supplies there even if we have to pack them there on our backs. We never missed a mission and damned well never refused any, and we faced the same crap these troops face, snipers, mortars, RPGs, IED's (command-detonated explosives) and sapper teams. We were self sufficient and pulled our own security details as well as supplying personnel to battalion. Afraid, hell yes, every f***ing day, but we did our jobs.
Their whining is no excuse, Court Marshall those that staged and participated in the insurrection and get them a new Commanding Officer one that they'll respect and fear more than the enemy. I wouldn’t want those flakey bastards watching my 6 either.
I don't have any personal military experience, but I was shocked to hear that people didn't "want" to get supplies to their fellow soldiers because they would be in great danger, themselves. Isn't this clear-cut mutiny? (Is that term used in our land-forces?) Remove these people and court-marshall them immediately, for they can't be trusted to carry out a mission!
What contrast to those who wish to re-enlist after being seriously injured!
Posted by: American Mother at October 16, 2004 08:44 PMShit! Carrying out the mission with inferior equipment has been an everyday occurence for our troopies for years...thanks to a continuing line of *spit* liberal *spit* governments!
Ya just gotta stay low, run fast and tuck in your nuts! Your buddies depend on YOU!
Posted by: Canadian Jumper at October 17, 2004 01:30 PMVery nice comments you guys have here, congratulations and thanks to allowing my post...
Posted by: Phendimetrazine at April 15, 2005 12:42 PM