The good folks at the Leavenworth VA cemetery are probably out on the grounds right now wondering just what caused a grave to explode.
It was the spinning of the occupant.
Said occupant being the Auld Soldier.
No, really.
Why would the Auld Soldier be spinning in his too-recently occupied grave?
Simple.
Click.here.and.read.this.
Two Navy middies do something venal and stupid, and the Army ROTC cadets decide to not wear their uniforms...
So many things wrong with that.
Leave aside the Navy did the proper thing and wore their uniforms - because the actions in question are the actions of two individuals who happen to be middies - not the sanctioned actions of persons acting as students in Navy ROTC.
Leave aside the logical fallacy that would seem to be that the cadets have the idea that if a cop is caught being bad, all cops should take a day off of wearing their uniforms on duty? I understand that conducting close-order drill in front of the Black Culture Center in the wake of the incident might be a touch inflammatory and a bad idea.
But to not wear your uniform? Per usual for your normally scheduled classes, being conducted at the normal place?
Heh. It's tantamount to accepting collective responsibility for the actions of individuals - individuals who acted contrary to the goals and ideals of the institution. Oh, wait - it wasn't even your institution...
That itself is enough to have caused the spinning in several graves of former Professors of Military Science. I suspect that Colonel Donovan was joined in his spinning by Colonel Skelly, too. And LTC O'Brien.
Better still, apparently when the Cadets make bad decisions, as long as they do it as a group, the Cadre vets the decision.
This is a teachable moment. But possibly not with this cadre.
Heh. I'm a Distinguished Military Graduate of this same ROTC program, and I know I'm embarrassed. I can only imagine the Auld Soldier's level of annoyance.
It was the spinning of the occupant.
Said occupant being the Auld Soldier.
No, really.
Why would the Auld Soldier be spinning in his too-recently occupied grave?
Simple.
Click.here.and.read.this.
"On any other Thursday, freshman Army ROTC member Ryan Drago would be wearing his uniform in class, but not this Thursday, two days after two members of the Navy ROTC were arrested on suspicion of hate crimes and tampering for allegedly dropping cotton balls Feb. 26 outside the Black Culture Center."
Two Navy middies do something venal and stupid, and the Army ROTC cadets decide to not wear their uniforms...
So many things wrong with that.
Leave aside the Navy did the proper thing and wore their uniforms - because the actions in question are the actions of two individuals who happen to be middies - not the sanctioned actions of persons acting as students in Navy ROTC.
Leave aside the logical fallacy that would seem to be that the cadets have the idea that if a cop is caught being bad, all cops should take a day off of wearing their uniforms on duty? I understand that conducting close-order drill in front of the Black Culture Center in the wake of the incident might be a touch inflammatory and a bad idea.
But to not wear your uniform? Per usual for your normally scheduled classes, being conducted at the normal place?
Heh. It's tantamount to accepting collective responsibility for the actions of individuals - individuals who acted contrary to the goals and ideals of the institution. Oh, wait - it wasn't even your institution...
That itself is enough to have caused the spinning in several graves of former Professors of Military Science. I suspect that Colonel Donovan was joined in his spinning by Colonel Skelly, too. And LTC O'Brien.
Better still, apparently when the Cadets make bad decisions, as long as they do it as a group, the Cadre vets the decision.
"Drago said the decision not to wear uniforms Thursday was one made by the Army ROTC as a whole.
"Not wearing uniforms today was a personal decision for all of us," Drago said. "But what we do, we do together."
This is a teachable moment. But possibly not with this cadre.
Heh. I'm a Distinguished Military Graduate of this same ROTC program, and I know I'm embarrassed. I can only imagine the Auld Soldier's level of annoyance.
To prove what? That the Army kaydets have sympathy and solidarity with the stunt's target? Afraid that the sight of the uniform will be a "provocation"?
What peabrain decided *that* was a mature response, and what peabrain on the cadre thinks "When we do something, we all do it together" is any kind of rationale for it?
PC idiots.
Dad said, "When you think you're a smart ass
and you go out and act like a bad ass.
Everybody looks at you like you're a dumb ass,
but what you really are is a garden variety asshole."
It's been quite a few years, but the older I get, the more true it gets.
Armorer, in Memory of Dads
I wonder how many Major Nidal Hassans there will be in their futures.
The Vietnam thing was going on at the time, and we had some lively discussions in AFROTC class about it, but to say again, this kind of silliness would not have crossed our minds.
Of course Ga. Tech was out of the mainstream of teh crazy then. I recall one Thursday when my German prof was on vacation and we had a substitute from Massachusetts or someplace. I think 80% of the people in the room were wearing a uniform. He looked at us and said something like, "What are all these fascists doing here?" He may have meant it as a joke, but we were not amused.
Because.it's.poorly.written!
8^ )
John, somebody should keep a list of candidates to assist in this "Radical Attitude Adjustment."
Avoid conflict via what? Being invisible? Nihilism? Do they really think no one else in class knows they are in ROTC because they are wearing different clothes for one day?
There is a sense this uniform act negates the negativity of the cotton ball event. So this means the army ROTC is responsible for the Navy ROTC who are responsible for the actions of two members? How? And not wearing uniforms for one day makes it all better? And this decision makes better Army leaders? How?
Then there this one;
And that underlines to me one of the core wierdness aspects of this. Two (cotton ballers) is Many (NROTC) is All (Army ROTC). Then One (personal decision) is All (we do together). Do they know the difference between a group and an individual?
This doesn't feel Army at all. And I'm not even in it.
Just to be clear.
I'm *really* annoyed with the commissioned officers of the United States Army who allowed this.
Feh.
Warning! Pedant Alert!
Patchwork Girl. Gil the Arm. Great story.
/Pedant Alert
My company commander and first sergeant told me I'd never be NCO material, so they sent to the next OCS class. I had a BA and most of an MA when I enlisted in 1976. Guess they were right.
We never did dumb shit like that. We never had time.
More often than not, however, being PMS (especially at the Colonel level, now *very* rare) is a retirement job.
For the Majors and Lieutenant Colonels in those positions, not as bad, but very dependent on the school.
But it all depends on where the current emphasis of the Army is. Right now, I'm thinking PMS might not be a retirement job, but it's at best career-neutral.
They made a short, silent, but clear statement that they had nothing to do with this, and then got back to business. Meanwhile, everybody else around them was going nuts -- including, unfortunately, all the adults. Had there been one adult in the vicinity to call these fools on the carpet, ream them out in style, and require them for apologize for any offense and clean up the mess, this entire incident would have been a non-event.
From here it looks like the only people demonstrating maturity and restraint are the ROTC students.
If anything, they called more attention to it.
*sigh* We are a nation of wimps.
The issue is this, these individuals are all members of The US Military, therefore are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Yes, they can and should be put through a Court-Martial. The real issue with the Uniform, is in the battle-space, they can be executed without question.
To the leaders, two letters, actually the same, one sent first class mail and the second sent certified mail with return receipt requested.
The body of the letter would read something like this. "You are *ordered* to attend a conference to discuss this situation. We will also discuss your assets, rank, pensions or benefits or lack, thereof. The conference will be held at....."
@BloodSpite, I see somebody has let you out of your cage. I agree with your views. I've seen my share of "90-Day Wonders". After 90 Days, everybody wondered if they knew what they were doing.