An Army of 1 in 10

I know it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything, so I thought I’d pop back in to let everyone know that I’m doing fine. Now for some updates.

Time passes very quickly here in Iraq, which is a factor in my not having posted anything since 3 Oct 07. My day consists of a twelve-hour shift, after which I’m tired and not in much of a mood for doing anything beyond chatting with friends and family. It’s been nearly 7 months since we deployed and there are still 8 more to go. The upshot of that is that my bank account is very happy.

Big Update!!
I made cut-off this month, so I will be promoted on 1 Mar 08. It’s been a long time coming and I’m looking forward to it. Saturday just can’t get here soon enough for my taste.

Politics:
I’m very disappointed in this year’s crop of candidates. McCain is going to be the Republican nominee. Ugh. We may as well have a Democrat in the White House if, God forbid, he gets elected. The only one of the three that I would rather have in the White House is — brace yourselves — Hillary.

Here’s why: McCain is a Democrat in Republican’s clothing. McCain-Feingold (assault on freedom of speech), opposed President Bush’s tax cuts, will take us into Iran… I could go on.

Obama: Socialist. Need I say more?

Hillary is a devil, yes. But I say, “the devil you know…” I no longer believe that she will win the nomination, which will leave the race between McCain and Obama. I will vote for neither man. I think I’m going to write in Condi on my ballot.

Security:
As I’ve noted before, I’m fortunate to be in a relatively peaceful area. We’ve lost only a few Soldiers (last time the brigade was in Iraq, it lost many) since September. The security situation here is stable and improving. Improving slowly, but still improving.

The locals are wonderful people. My interactions with them have only been positive, and they genuinely want a better life for themselves. They disagree amongst themselves how to go about that, of course; but then again, so do we. It’s the terrorists that are making life miserable for the Iraqi people.

Miscellaneous
I had a Soldier talk to me about an issue regarding his orientation this evening. I had no idea that he was queer as well, but I think I allayed his concerns. I also passed him the link to here, so he might show up. Show him a warm welcome if he does.

The writers strike is finally over and now I’m finally able to get season 2 of Jericho from iTunes. It’s two episodes into the season, and so far it’s an interesting turn of events; although I wish they had concluded the battle between Jericho and New Bern rather than start the season off the way they did. Oh well.

I’ve been very busy this past month and haven’t had much energy to post anything here. I’ve mainly been keeping up with email and chatting with friends and family. Things are going well here in Iraq, though my brigade has already lost four Soldiers. May they rest in peace.

This is my favorite song from John Michael Montgomery:

My Dear Son, it is almost June,
I hope this letter catches up to you, and finds you well
Its been dry but they’re calling for rain,
And everything’s the same ol’ same in Johnsonville
Your stubborn ‘ol Daddy ain’t said too much,
But I’m sure you know he sends his love,
And she goes on,
In a letter from home

I hold it up and show my buddies,
Like we ain’t scared and our boots ain’t muddy, and they all laugh,
Like there’s something funny bout’ the way I talk,
When I say: “Mama sends her best y’all”
I fold it up an’ put it in my shirt,
Pick up my gun an’ get back to work
An’ it keeps me driving me on,
Waiting on letters from home

My Dearest Love, its almost dawn
I’ve been lying here all night long wondering where you might be
I saw your Mama and I showed her the ring
Man on the television said something so I couldn’t sleep
But I’ll be all right, I’m just missing you
An’ this is me kissing you
XX’s and OO’s,
In a letter from home

I hold it up and show my buddies,
Like we ain’t scared and our boots ain’t muddy, and they all laugh,
‘Cause she calls me “Honey”, but they take it hard,
‘Cause I don’t read the good parts
I fold it up an’ put it in my shirt,
Pick up my gun an’ get back to work
An’ it keeps me driving me on,
Waiting on letters from home

Dear Son, I know I ain’t written,
But sittin’ here tonight, alone in the kitchen, it occurs to me,
I might not have said, so I’ll say it now
Son, you make me proud

I hold it up and show my buddies,
Like we ain’t scared and our boots ain’t muddy, but no one laughs,
‘Cause there ain’t nothing funny when a soldier cries
An’ I just wipe me eyes
I fold it up an’ put it in my shirt,
Pick up my gun an’ get back to work
An’ it keeps me driving me on,
Waiting on letters from home

I’m now in Iraq (actually, I’ve been here for coming up on two weeks now), and I’ve been getting settled in. I’m located in a relatively peaceful area (for the time being, anyway) that hasn’t had any major incidents in several months. The internet situation is such that I’ll be able to make regular postings without the concerns I had before.

So, stay tuned — I’m back!

Well, it’s getting time for me to deploy. I will be leaving very soon, and I’m not sure how often I’m going to be able to post to A1in10 considering the policy of registering blogs (obviously not something I’m going to do!). I’ll post when I can, but it’s likely to be less often than lately.

Before I leave, however, I will ensure that I have a copy of Unsilence’s source code so that I can update the site and fix the blog registration bug. I haven’t been able to do that due to how extremely busy I’ve been, but I will fix it before the year is out. I’m probably going to have to have someone else upload the new code, but it’ll be in place so that we can start accepting registrations again.

I will be in Iraq for the next 15 months and while I do know where I’m headed, I’m not going to say. One, because that would violate OPSEC; and two, because that would be giving too much personal information. By the end of the month, I’ll be in Iraq; and the next time I post will be from Iraq. I plan on posting as often as I can without getting caught with an unregistered blog, but I first have to see what the network situation is down there. I may end up having a trusted person do the actual posting for me if it seems that I could get into trouble for not registering An Army of 1 in 10.

See you guys on the flip side!

 July 14, 2007:  an American hero was killed in action.  His name was Specialist Christopher D. Kube, and he was only 18 years old.

SPC Kube was killed by a roadside bomb as he manned the gunner’s turret in a humvee on its way to a meeting between religious rivals.  His platoon sergeant, SSG Byron-Griffin remembers him, “What are you doing here? You’re a baby.’ He looked me straight in my eye, with his chest poked out like he does, and he said, `I’m 17, and I ain’t no baby. I’m a man.”‘

May this young hero rest in peace.

Christopher D. Kube:  b. September 7, 1988  d. July 14, 2007

This past month has been very busy for me. The brigade’s battalions rotated in and out of the field for their Mission Readiness Exercises, we’re packing things up, I finished up my SRP this week, got my immunizations (yay anthrax and smallpox vaccinations… ugh), I’m getting more gear issued to me this week, and I’ve got my property being picked up for storage this week as well. The next week, I’ve got to go to the range to qualify on my weapon again and get my wisdom teeth yanked out the week after. It’s a good thing that I’ll be going on leave real soon because I definitely need the break.

I still need to update the site’s codebase to fix the registration issue, and I will get that done before the end of July. I plan on leaving the site in a self-managing state before I deploy in case I’m not able to do so downrange. Once I deploy, I’m probably not going to be able to do any updates or add any new features, so if there are any wordpress plugins you would like to see on the site, now is the time to get your suggestions/requests submitted.

Oh yeah, I’m still looking for a webcomic viewer — anyone know of any?

Jack Army writes:

While folks were thinking hard about the implications of Saddam’s verdict, this little Kurdish boy was trying to poke me in the eye!

Read more… (Jack Army)

President Bush announced on Friday that the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration, will be awarded posthumously to Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham. In April 2004, Dunham was leading a patrol in an Iraqi town near the Syrian border when the patrol stopped a convoy of cars leaving the scene of an attack on a Marine convoy, according to military and media accounts of the action. Read more… (CNN)

Every year at this time, the nation honors the brave men and women who have placed their lives on the line or given their lives to defend our great nation. This holiday began as Armistice Day, observed by several countries to remember the end of the Great War, but soon evolved into its present form here in the United States. While I absolutely do not wish to diminish the sacrifices my forebears made, today I would like to use the day to recognize a few vets who were caught up in the gears of the military’s anti-gay stance.

Jeff Howe¹
Specialist Jeff Howe joined the Army at the age of 29 after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and a lot of thought. Deciding that he could sacrifice being out of the closet in order to serve his country, he enlisted and went to basic training at Fort Sill. After his training was complete, he PCS’d to Fort Riley where he found out that his unit was deploying to Iraq in only three days. He served there until the spring of 2004, and then returned to Fort Riley. As he was preparing to ETS, he was stop-lossed and was redeployed to Iraq.

After arriving back in Iraq, he began blogging about his experiences in that country with the approval and encouragement from his company commander. The fateful day came that July when a convoy was attacked by enemy RPG’s and his commander instructed him to post photos of the attack on his blog. However, the brigade commander ordered the photos and blog removed when he found out about them. He even went further and ordered a 15-6 investigation to find out whether or not SPC Howe had any ties to terrorists. It was during the course of this investigation that it was discovered that he had a profile on a gay site (I’m assuming Gay.com). SPC Howe was then immediately processed for separation from the U.S. Army.

Austin Rook¹
Captain Austin Rooke is another Iraq vet who is no longer in the military because of DADT. The difference between him and SPC Howe, is that he chose to leave the Army after his service obligation ended. CPT Rooke was an intelligence officer who didn’t experience as much homophobia as many other Soldiers until he deployed to Qatar. When he arrived, he was in for a bit of some culture shock: as an intelligence officer, he was able to enjoy a lack of ignorance in his branch and even engage in conversations on gays in the military; in Qatar, things were vastly different. His brigade commander was a homophobe, he didn’t have a support structure that he could turn to, and was far from home in a war zone.

“Homophobia is part of the culture—and it’s part of the culture because it’s the law,” he says. It was due to this rampant homophobia in the unit he was assigned to that he really had to keep his orientation a secret in order to ensure his safety.

Barry Winchell²
Private First Class Barry Winchell is more well-known than SPC Howe and CPT Rooke. That’s because he was brutally slain by two members of his platoon at Fort Campbell in the early morning of 5 Jul 99. While he wasn’t necessarily gay, he was perceived to be due to his relationship with Calpernia Addams, a MtF showgirl he met at a club. Interestingly enough, it was his roommate, Specialist Justin Fisher who took him to the club in the first place.

Several months after PFC Winchell and Calpernia began dating, SPC Fisher and another buddy, Private Calvin Glover attacked Winchell as he slept in his bed with baseball bats. PFC Winchell died of blunt force trauma and massive internal injuries the next day. PVT Glover is currently serving a life sentence, but Fisher has recently been released from prison.

Allen Schindler³
Radioman Third Class Allen Schindler was a sailor assigned to the USS Belleau Wood in 1992. Like PFC Winchell after him, ET3 Schindler was brutally murdered by two fellow sailors. Terry Helvey and Charles Vins attacked him in a public restroom in Sasebo, Japan and beat and stomped him to death. The attack was so brutal that they destroyed every internal organ in Schindler’s body, and the only way he could be identified was through tattoos on his arms. The medical examiner who conducted the autopsy stated that the injuries were similar to those caused by an airplane crash or a high-speed car accident. ET3 Schindler’s penis bore cut marks, all but two of his ribs were broken, and his liver even had holes large enough to see through.

During the interrogation, Helvey stated that he hated homosexuals and that he was disgusted by them. A part of that statement also included the following words: I don’t regret it. I’d do it again. … He deserved it.

Sources:
¹ Jeff Howe and Austin Rooke

² Wikipedia SLDN

³ Allen Schindler Memorial

Yesterday, John Kerry issued the following statement he characterizes as an “apology.”

I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member or American who was offended.

This man must really think we are stupid if he thinks we won’t see right through this “apology.” First off, it took him two days to issue it. Before this, he blamed the GOP and the “vast right-wing conspiracy” for mischaracterizing his words. Now, he’s blaming the American public for “misinterpreting” what he said.

Let’s analyze what he said again, shall we? This is his original statement:

You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.

No matter how you read that, it can only be interpreted the way it was meant: American Soldiers are poor, uneducated, and are somehow forced into military service. Compare that with his statement from 1972:

I am convinced a volunteer army would be an army of the poor and the black and the brown. We must not repeat the travesty of the inequities present during Vietnam. I also fear having a professional army that views the perpetuation of war crimes as simply ‘doing its job

So there we are. Despite the fact that our all-volunteer army has become the most powerful military force this world has ever known, he despises the fact that there’s no longer a draft. What he said 34 years ago mirrors his slur against the troops earlier this week and offers an insight into the voice behind the words.

Don’t be fooled. His “apology” is nothing more than an attempt at covering his ass and appeasing his liberal base who are outraged that he had the gall to voice their beliefs this close to an election (liberalism doesn’t win elections). Reading his words exposes the contempt he feels toward the average American. If he were truly sorry for what he said, he would have said something more along the lines of “I’m sorry I insulted the brave Soldiers who place their lives in danger every day for our freedom, as well as the freedom of foreign peoples who have endured tyranny.” He’ll never say anything like that though.

Make no mistake: his message is that if you were offended by what he said, it’s your fault because you didn’t have the educational background to comprehend that he was really making a joke against the President. Never mind the fact that his slur was crystal clear and was definitely directed at the American Soldier. Never mind the fact that even if it were somehow a “botched joke,” using the imminent danger my comrades face daily in Iraq is absolutely inappropriate background material for a joke.

John Kerry is a disgrace to the uniform he once wore, to this great nation we serve, and to the people of Massachusetts. I don’t accept his apology because his apology is the joke — not his insult against my comrades who are defending the liberty of millions of Iraqis.