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Now, having said what I said in the post below...

By The Armorer on July 13, 2007 | | Comments (1)

I'll get on my soapbox, and suggest to my Codel that they "jerk around some sub-group of society that now has more paperwork to do, reports to submit, checks to write, at the behest of some other sub-group of society."

In this case, Army/military bureaucrats, in support of certain servicemembers.

We've mentioned "The Curious Case of Specialist Town" before.

Trias sent me a note this morning with a link to this ABC News report, where Specialist Town is again in the news.

My fundamental opinion on the subject hasn't really changed - vice Russel Terry's hinting at conspiracies to force people out of the service to save money, I see it more as a train wreck of the application of a peacetime force management tool to expedite a heavy workload, in other words benignly malign, rather than truly malevolent.

But all the pressures that make using this pressure relief valve the path of least resistance still exist, and, absent external pressure, the Army is going to by nature prefer to deal with the eaches by exception through the appeals process, which really won't produce much action on changing the process front. And certainly not any time soon.

So I've been doing the letter writing and phone calling stuff (along with many others who have far more influence than I, make no mistake) which has resulted in some action in the Senate, with Senate bill S.1271: To provide for a comprehensive national research effort on the physical and mental health and other readjustment needs of the members of the Armed Forces and veterans who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom and their families. and the amendment attached to the Defense authorization bill directing the Army to quit using the Chapter 13 discharge until the process has been reviewed.

Lemme be clear - I'm just one of the many voices, *not* a mover and shaker like IAVA, on this issue.

But I think that this should be a bi-partisan issue, and while I think Congress is a blunt instrument - they are responsible for raising and maintaining the Army, and this *is* an appropriate area for them to insert themselves.

And I'd like to see some Kansas names, Republican and Democrat, involved in this process. The soldiers at Forts Riley and Leavenworth, and their families, deserve it. We've already seen Missouri's senators, Bond and McCaskill, involved.

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By Trias on July 13, 2007 12:35 PM
I was not aware how long this has been on the boil. When i read the ABC news (well US one) article suggested by a mate i was a bit alarmed and thought of bloging it. It was doing the neutral thing but hints at deliberate cost saving malice were certainly there. Of course I prefer to be yesterday's fool yesterday so i sent it to the Master (bows steals a cheeto) and he's cleared the info up a bit. The central issue is still important tho. Cost saving malice or bureaucratic bungling this issue needs to be resolved. Appeals are all very nice but they are not supposed to be a processing norm. Dare i say it's a duty of the power structure to deal with it. How many good soldiers that gained a mental illness aren't fronting the appeals, for example? That's a travesty right there. I know politics is ugly but a cleanup here could do more good than a dozen soldiers angels and that would be a lot of good hmm?