ArmyBlood

Today, I got an exception to policy back from CPT Baker at Brigade with this note on it: “Need a memo to explain why the Commander didn’t write a memo for this.” And this conversation occurred during this week’s training meeting: “Now, about this UFL, it is very important” “What is it?” “Ulchi Focus Lens, its secret, and, by the way, your guys were late this week” “I didn’t know I had any guys in it. Who are they? “Its secret. But it is very important. Make sure they are on time next time.” “When do they report next? To the Sim Center?” “Its secret, probably in August.” “Who should I tell? Do they even know?” “I can’t say, all the requirements are secret. We’ll let you know.” “I think you should you keep it a secret.”

Hi. I am a retiring soldier upset about the appropriation of my country for the commercial interests of corporate royalty. I like to play on the web and began maintaining my own version of some of the stories about Bush, the Iraq war and various other nefarious dealings that upset me. I will import the best of my other stuff into here and then maintain it from there. —– EXTENDED BODY: Growing up, I was encouraged to read and know about the world. Although my parents always seemed apolitical to me, we subscribed to the newspaper and watched the evening news every night. Hell, there was only the evening news on in those days – there wasn’t any cable. I remember the Watergate hearings and even advocated a candidate in the sixth grade, but made no substantial contribution to discussion or activism. At 18, I was proud to vote and tended to think of myself as a conservative, since I wanted to take a hard line on the death penalty, strong defense and the like. It was after I joined the Army and was sent to Korea that I began to realize something was up with the big politicians and budgets and stuff. Dick Cheney was the Secretary of Defense and I remembered an Army Times article about his request to skip a pay raise for troops while increasing the overall defense budget. This didn’t play well with me. Although I am a big fan of science fiction, developing technology and the like, the Star Wars program of Reagan really upset me. One, it seemed stupid and wasteful and two, we knew that strong defense is measured in tanks and soldiers, not nukes and crazy schemes. —–