Spring forward.
To delete this message, click the X at top right.

Military behaving badly

User avatar
raison de arizona
Posts: 17654
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:21 am
Location: Nothing, Arizona
Occupation: bit twiddler
Verified: ✔️ he/him/his

Re: Military behaving badly

#51

Post by raison de arizona »

bob wrote: Sun Jul 10, 2022 2:13 pm The Week: Retired army general loses consulting contract after mocking first lady in tweet:
Retired Lt. Gen. Gary Volesky, who won a Silver Star in Iraq and previously served as the Army's top spokesperson, was suspended from his $92-an-hour consulting contract and placed under investigation after apparently mocking first lady Jill Biden on Twitter.

"For nearly 50 years, women have had the right to make our own decisions about our bodies. Today, that right was stolen from us," Biden wrote on June 24 — the day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade (1973) and returned the issue of abortion to the states.

In response, Volesky mocked the first lady's support of transgenderism in a now-deleted tweet. "Glad to see you finally know what a woman is," he wrote, according to a USA Today report published Saturday.
He was previously the Army's top spokesperson and it didn't occur to him that he might blow up his cushy consulting gig to publicly mock the First Lady? Or maybe he just didn't care, I guess.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
User avatar
pipistrelle
Posts: 6691
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:27 am

Re: Military behaving badly

#52

Post by pipistrelle »

This isn't the military behaving badly, per se. I looked this up in a few places as I didn't think it could be true (the part about the KKK plaque at West Point, not the part about removing it). I am wrong.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... nfederates
West Point’s KKK plaque should be removed, commission says
Panel is tasked with recommending which US military assets should be renamed, to remove associations with Confederates

A bronze plaque commemorating the Ku Klux Klan should be removed from the science centre at West Point, a congressional commission said, even though it falls outside the panel’s remit because the racist terror group was formed after the American civil war.
User avatar
raison de arizona
Posts: 17654
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:21 am
Location: Nothing, Arizona
Occupation: bit twiddler
Verified: ✔️ he/him/his

Re: Military behaving badly

#53

Post by raison de arizona »

The story is the y-axis, play the video.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
User avatar
pipistrelle
Posts: 6691
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:27 am

Re: Military behaving badly

#54

Post by pipistrelle »

It would be useful to include the injuries and maimings. They must play a role in the suicide rate. We emphasize battlefield death as the worst possible outcome but having to live with brain injuries and amputations and more can be devastating.
chancery
Posts: 1310
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 1:24 pm
Verified:

Re: Military behaving badly

#55

Post by chancery »

pipistrelle wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 7:51 am This isn't the military behaving badly, per se. I looked this up in a few places as I didn't think it could be true (the part about the KKK plaque at West Point, not the part about removing it). I am wrong.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... nfederates
West Point’s KKK plaque should be removed, commission says
Panel is tasked with recommending which US military assets should be renamed, to remove associations with Confederates

A bronze plaque commemorating the Ku Klux Klan should be removed from the science centre at West Point, a congressional commission said, even though it falls outside the panel’s remit because the racist terror group was formed after the American civil war.
Apparently it's not exactly correct to describe the plaque as commemorating the Klan.
The image is part of a large relief that features roughly 150 additional images that reference important events and people in American history. They include John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison, Booker T. Washington, the Atomic Bomb, and the Santa Maria, among others. The relief—executed by artist Laura Gardin Fraser—was completed in 1956 and dedicated in 1965. One of her most notable projects was the statue of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson that was located in Baltimore before its removal in 2017.

West Point’s archive includes the artist’s brief notes that explain each image. The Ku Klux Klan image is described as an “organization of white people who hid their criminal activity behind a mask and sheet.” There is nothing celebratory about it and it is certainly not in any way connected to the commemoration of Confederate military leaders on campus. One of the things that I now realize is highly misleading, both in the Naming Commission’s report and in the extensive media coverage, is that there is no indication that the particular image is part of a much larger relief.
https://kevinmlevin.substack.com/p/abou ... -marker-at

Kevin Levin is a high school history teacher. He is a well-regarded civil war scholar who has published several books (notably "Searching For Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth" (2019)) and many articles.
User avatar
Flatpoint High
Posts: 1278
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:58 am
Location: Hotel California, PH523, Galaxy Central, M103
Occupation: professional pain in the ass, voice actor & keeper of the straight face
Verified:

Re: Military behaving badly

#56

Post by Flatpoint High »

then there is this gem: https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7xp7/ ... servatives
Blake Masters, the Republican nominee for Senate in Arizona, has repeatedly said the U.S. should clean house on the senior ranks of the military, pushing the claim that all the generals and admirals are “woke” and “left-wing” losers who’ve never won a war.

His solution? Fire them all, and promote “the most conservative colonels.”

“Your entire general class, they're left-wing politicians at this point. It's very hard to become a general without being some kind of left-of-center politician,” he said at an Apache Junction Ladies for President Trump event in August 2021, according to audio obtained by VICE News. “I would love to see all the generals get fired. You take the most conservative colonels, you promote them to general. Not because the ideology is important, but because the conservative colonels will be able to leave the ideology aside. They just care about an effective fighting force.”
more at the link
castigat ridendo mores.
VELOCIUS QUAM ASPARAGI COQUANTUR
somerset
Posts: 788
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 12:06 pm
Occupation: Lab Rat

Re: Military behaving badly

#57

Post by somerset »

chancery wrote: Fri Sep 16, 2022 2:59 pm
pipistrelle wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 7:51 am This isn't the military behaving badly, per se. I looked this up in a few places as I didn't think it could be true (the part about the KKK plaque at West Point, not the part about removing it). I am wrong.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... nfederates
West Point’s KKK plaque should be removed, commission says
Panel is tasked with recommending which US military assets should be renamed, to remove associations with Confederates

A bronze plaque commemorating the Ku Klux Klan should be removed from the science centre at West Point, a congressional commission said, even though it falls outside the panel’s remit because the racist terror group was formed after the American civil war.
Apparently it's not exactly correct to describe the plaque as commemorating the Klan.
The image is part of a large relief that features roughly 150 additional images that reference important events and people in American history. They include John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison, Booker T. Washington, the Atomic Bomb, and the Santa Maria, among others. The relief—executed by artist Laura Gardin Fraser—was completed in 1956 and dedicated in 1965. One of her most notable projects was the statue of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson that was located in Baltimore before its removal in 2017.

West Point’s archive includes the artist’s brief notes that explain each image. The Ku Klux Klan image is described as an “organization of white people who hid their criminal activity behind a mask and sheet.” There is nothing celebratory about it and it is certainly not in any way connected to the commemoration of Confederate military leaders on campus. One of the things that I now realize is highly misleading, both in the Naming Commission’s report and in the extensive media coverage, is that there is no indication that the particular image is part of a much larger relief.
https://kevinmlevin.substack.com/p/abou ... -marker-at

Kevin Levin is a high school history teacher. He is a well-regarded civil war scholar who has published several books (notably "Searching For Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth" (2019)) and many articles.
Reasonable arguments from both sides. From the Guardian article:
Ty Seidule, a commissioner, retired brigadier general and emeritus West Point history professor now teaching at Hamilton College, who wrote a book about the academy and its ties to Lee, the most famous Confederate general, told the New York Times the Klan plaque was included in the report “because we thought it was wrong”.
I've read (and highly recommend) Seidule's book, "Robert E. Lee and Me - A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause." He doesn't impress me as a someone who would make such a recommendation lightly. But the plaque also includes a couple of negative examples throughout American history, such as the Salem witch trials and slavery, so including the KKK in a negative context also seems reasonable.
User avatar
RTH10260
Posts: 14351
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:16 am
Location: Switzerland, near the Alps
Verified: ✔️ Eurobot

Re: Military behaving badly

#58

Post by RTH10260 »

US couple charged in alleged plot to leak military health data to Russia
DoJ indictment alleges that former army major and his wife wanted to help the Russian government after it invaded Ukraine

Reuters in Washington
Thu 29 Sep 2022 19.25 BST

A former US army major and his wife, an anesthesiologist, have been criminally charged for allegedly plotting to leak highly sensitive healthcare data about military patients to Russia, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday.

‘Shell companies and webs of lies will not shield Deripaska and his cronies from American law enforcement,’ said Lisa Monaco, the deputy attorney general.
US charges Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska with violating sanctions
Read more
Jamie Lee Henry, the former major who was also a doctor at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and his wife, Dr Anna Gabrielian, were charged in an unsealed indictment in a federal court in Maryland with conspiracy and the wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information.

The indictment alleges that the plot started earlier this year, after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

Prosecutors said the pair wanted to try to help the Russian government by providing them with data to help the Putin regime “gain insights into the medical conditions of individuals associated with the US government and military”.

The two met with someone whom they believed was a Russian official, but in fact was an FBI undercover agent, the indictment says.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... hcare-data
User avatar
Maybenaut
Posts: 2579
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:07 am
Location: Maybelot
Verified: ✅✅

Re: Military behaving badly

#59

Post by Maybenaut »

Sailor Acquitted of Setting Fire That Destroyed $1.2 Billion Navy Ship


https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/30/us/f ... d=em-share

Sailor acquitted of starting fire that totaled Navy warship


https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... hard-fire/
A military judge on Friday acquitted a junior sailor accused of setting the fire that destroyed a $1.2 billion warship, a remarkable outcome for the Navy, which found widespread command failures contributed to the blaze yet sought to prosecute a single, low-ranking crew member.

Seaman Recruit Ryan Sawyer Mays, 21, sobbed with relief as the verdict was read at Naval Base San Diego, the Associated Press reported. He was accused of arson in the 2020 fire that left the USS Bonhomme Richard a smoldering scrap heap and faced the potential of life in prison. The prosecution did not present physical evidence to back up its claim of criminal mischief, and a key witness changed his story over time, the AP reported.

“I can say that the past two years have been the hardest two years of my entire life as a young man,” Mays said outside the courtroom, reading from a brief statement, according to the AP. “I’ve lost time with friends. I’ve lost friends. I’ve lost time with family, and my entire Navy career was ruined. I am looking forward to starting over.”

A Navy report last year found the fire was a “completely preventable” disaster. The ship, undergoing a quarter-billion dollar upgrade at a pier in San Diego, was “particularly vulnerable” to fire, its compartments festooned with combustible material and the crew unprepared to battle an inferno, investigators determined. Of 807 fire extinguishers on the ship, 15 worked. Two responding teams tried to find a working hose at one of the ship’s 216 fire stations but failed, the report found. Only 29 of them were serviceable.

Capt. Jason Jones, the prosecutor, tried to block presentation of the sweeping failures described in the command investigation, ProPublica reported. Jones argued that his efforts should not imply “the Navy needs a scapegoat and therefore we picked an E-1,” referring to the lowest enlisted rank. Military justice experts have long criticized an intractable practice of shifting accountability down the chain of command while senior leaders elude the most serious blame, a pattern often characterized by troops as “different spanks for different ranks.”
"Hey! We left this England place because it was bogus, and if we don't get some cool rules ourselves, pronto, we'll just be bogus too!" -- Thomas Jefferson
User avatar
Foggy
Dick Tater
Posts: 9554
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 8:45 am
Location: Fogbow HQ
Occupation: Dick Tater/Space Cadet
Verified: as seen on qvc zombie apocalypse

Re: Military behaving badly

#60

Post by Foggy »

:shock:
Out from under. :thumbsup:
User avatar
tek
Posts: 2250
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:15 am

Military behaving badly

#61

Post by tek »

a remarkable outcome for the Navy, which found widespread command failures contributed to the blaze yet sought to prosecute a single, low-ranking crew member.
Huh.
Shit does indeed flow downhill. :smokeears:
User avatar
Maybenaut
Posts: 2579
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:07 am
Location: Maybelot
Verified: ✅✅

Military behaving badly

#62

Post by Maybenaut »

tek wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 6:39 pm
a remarkable typical outcome for the Navy, which found widespread command failures contributed to the blaze yet sought to prosecute a single, low-ranking crew member.
Huh.
Shit does indeed flow downhill. :smokeears:
Fixed it. There is nothing at all remarkable about this. It happens all the time.
"Hey! We left this England place because it was bogus, and if we don't get some cool rules ourselves, pronto, we'll just be bogus too!" -- Thomas Jefferson
User avatar
Ben-Prime
Posts: 2599
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:29 pm
Location: Worldwide Availability
Occupation: Managing People Who Manage Machines
Verified: ✅MamaSaysI'mBonaFide

Military behaving badly

#63

Post by Ben-Prime »

Maybenaut wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 6:57 pm
tek wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 6:39 pm
a remarkable typical outcome for the Navy, which found widespread command failures contributed to the blaze yet sought to prosecute a single, low-ranking crew member.
Huh.
Shit does indeed flow downhill. :smokeears:
Fixed it. There is nothing at all remarkable about this. It happens all the time.
I think what's remarkable is that they got stopped, reversed, or otherwise blasted publicly for it this time. So, you know, the outcome truly was remarkable.
But the sunshine aye shall light the sky,
As round and round we run;
And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
And justice shall be done.

- Charles Mackay, "Eternal Justice"
User avatar
Maybenaut
Posts: 2579
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:07 am
Location: Maybelot
Verified: ✅✅

Military behaving badly

#64

Post by Maybenaut »

I’ll buy that.
"Hey! We left this England place because it was bogus, and if we don't get some cool rules ourselves, pronto, we'll just be bogus too!" -- Thomas Jefferson
User avatar
raison de arizona
Posts: 17654
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:21 am
Location: Nothing, Arizona
Occupation: bit twiddler
Verified: ✔️ he/him/his

Military behaving badly

#65

Post by raison de arizona »

Not badly, but humorously at least. Kudos to this SSG for the snappy comeback.
Image
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
User avatar
Kriselda Gray
Posts: 3125
Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2021 10:48 pm
Location: Asgard
Occupation: Aspiring Novelist
Verified:
Contact:

Military behaving badly

#66

Post by Kriselda Gray »

:rotflmao:
User avatar
RTH10260
Posts: 14351
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:16 am
Location: Switzerland, near the Alps
Verified: ✔️ Eurobot

Military behaving badly

#67

Post by RTH10260 »

Military Acknowledges More Sexual Abuse in J.R.O.T.C. Programs
Lawmakers criticized oversight by the military, which reported dozens of additional cases of abuse of high school students by J.R.O.T.C. instructors.

By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Mike Baker
Nov. 16, 2022, 3:23 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon received documented reports of at least 58 instances in the last five years in which high school military instructors who led Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps classes sexually abused or harassed students, military officials told a congressional subcommittee on Wednesday in response to criticism that they had failed to properly oversee the program.

Assistant secretaries from the Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as the Department of Defense, testified before a House national security subcommittee, whose members grilled them about procedures for vetting instructors and rooting out abuse in the program, known as J.R.O.T.C. Hundreds of thousands of high school students are enrolled in the program in 3,500 high schools across the country. One congresswoman has floated the idea of temporarily shutting the program down.

The hearing followed a New York Times investigation in July that found that 33 instructors had been criminally charged with sexual misconduct involving student victims over five years. The Pentagon’s higher number of substantiated allegations appeared to include additional instances in which the abuse or misconduct had not resulted in criminal charges. All 58 of those instructors had been decertified, the military officials reported, except for two who had killed themselves.

The military officials expressed their outrage at the abuse and said they had begun reviewing policies regarding J.R.O.T.C., which provides students with training in leadership, civic values, weapons handling and other skills.



https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/16/us/j ... sight.html
User avatar
Maybenaut
Posts: 2579
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:07 am
Location: Maybelot
Verified: ✅✅

Military behaving badly

#68

Post by Maybenaut »

Maybesons 1.0 and 2.0 were in JROTC in high school. They’d come home and tell us all about the racist and sexist things their instructors said and we’d cringe. And we’d tell them how the real, actual, military would (in an ideal world) deal with people like that.

They both went into the military. Son one did four years and got out. Son two just got selected for Colonel.
"Hey! We left this England place because it was bogus, and if we don't get some cool rules ourselves, pronto, we'll just be bogus too!" -- Thomas Jefferson
User avatar
Phoenix520
Posts: 4149
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 1:20 pm
Verified:

Military behaving badly

#69

Post by Phoenix520 »

Congratulations to Col Maybeson 2.0!!
User avatar
Tiredretiredlawyer
Posts: 7541
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2021 10:07 pm
Location: Rescue Pets Land
Occupation: 21st Century Suffragist
Verified: ✅🐴🐎🦄🌻5000 posts and counting

Military behaving badly

#70

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

:clap: :clap: :clap:
"Mickey Mouse and I grew up together." - Ruthie Tompson, Disney animation checker and scene planner and one of the first women to become a member of the International Photographers Union in 1952.
User avatar
pipistrelle
Posts: 6691
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:27 am

Military behaving badly

#71

Post by pipistrelle »

I didn't see a mention of this case here. I came across the wife's tweets today. She posted wedding photos, then photos taken three weeks later of herself covered in bruises. Her husband, an army captain, was honorably discharged while charges were pending if I understand correctly.

https://www.audacy.com/connectingvets/n ... use-charge
The charges stem from an altercation between Cpt. Thwaites and his wife, Joanna, on the evening of May 25th, 2021, in which a neighbor called 911 after seeing Joanna thrown from a moving vehicle that was being driven by her husband. Connecting Vets reported on the incident and the alleged events that led up to it last year.

The Army, particularly, at Fort Hood has come under increased scrutiny due to issues involving sexual harassment, sexual assault, and murder in recent years.

Col. Owen Ray was permitted to quietly retire while pending criminal charges for holding his teenage daughter hostage while having an armed stand off with police officer. Cpt. Billy Crosby was also permitted to quietly retire after "motor boating" a female soldier during a promotion ceremony.
User avatar
RTH10260
Posts: 14351
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:16 am
Location: Switzerland, near the Alps
Verified: ✔️ Eurobot

Military behaving badly

#72

Post by RTH10260 »

ex-US citizen, now Australian, in a military setting


User avatar
Maybenaut
Posts: 2579
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:07 am
Location: Maybelot
Verified: ✅✅

Military behaving badly

#73

Post by Maybenaut »

RTH10260 wrote: Mon Dec 26, 2022 8:16 pm ex-US citizen, now Australian, in a military setting
If you’re like me and you’d prefer not to watch youtube videos because your internet service is really crappy, it’s helpful to provide a link to a text version of the story.

I watched the first few minutes of the video to find out what the story is about, and found this link:

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/12/13/aust ... index.html
Former US Marine pilot Daniel Duggan, who was arrested earlier this year in Australia, is accused of breaking US arms control law by training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers, according to an indictment unsealed by a US court.

The 2017 indictment, released Friday by the District of Columbia court, said "Duggan provided military training to PRC (People's Republic of China) pilots" through a South African flight school on three occasions in 2010 and 2012.

It lists unnamed co-conspirators including one South African and one British national who were executives of "a test flying academy based in South Africa with a presence in the PRC," and a Chinese national who acquired military information for the Chinese military.


Britain announced a crackdown on its former military pilots working to train Chinese military fliers the same week Duggan was arrested in Australia.

Australian police provisionally arrested Duggan in the rural town of Orange at the request of the US government in October, pending a likely extradition request by the United States.
"Hey! We left this England place because it was bogus, and if we don't get some cool rules ourselves, pronto, we'll just be bogus too!" -- Thomas Jefferson
User avatar
pipistrelle
Posts: 6691
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:27 am

Military behaving badly

#74

Post by pipistrelle »

Maybenaut wrote: Mon Dec 26, 2022 10:18 pm
RTH10260 wrote: Mon Dec 26, 2022 8:16 pm If you’re like me and you’d prefer not to watch youtube videos because your internet service is really crappy, it’s helpful to provide a link to a text version of the story.

I watched the first few minutes of the video to find out what the story is about, and found this link:

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/12/13/aust ... index.html
I have fabulous internet but I prefer a text version because my hearing isn't great but more than that I can read faster than I can sit through a video.
User avatar
Maybenaut
Posts: 2579
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:07 am
Location: Maybelot
Verified: ✅✅

Military behaving badly

#75

Post by Maybenaut »

pipistrelle wrote: Mon Dec 26, 2022 10:26 pm
Maybenaut wrote: Mon Dec 26, 2022 10:18 pm
RTH10260 wrote: Mon Dec 26, 2022 8:16 pm If you’re like me and you’d prefer not to watch youtube videos because your internet service is really crappy, it’s helpful to provide a link to a text version of the story.

I watched the first few minutes of the video to find out what the story is about, and found this link:

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/12/13/aust ... index.html
I have fabulous internet but I prefer a text version because my hearing isn't great but more than that I can read faster than I can sit through a video.
Yeah, I don’t *mind* if someone posts a youtube, but I’d also like a text because I almost never watch the youtube videos. But this topic is my wheelhouse so I needed to watch it (it took forever to load, and kept hanging up).
"Hey! We left this England place because it was bogus, and if we don't get some cool rules ourselves, pronto, we'll just be bogus too!" -- Thomas Jefferson
Post Reply

Return to “Earthlings Behaving”