I thought I’d put together a collection of my favorite videos from Soldiers put on Youtube. (Yes I know there not all from actual Soldiers and some are fictional)
Go ahead and link to your favorite military videos.
Sorry, Jerk wouldn’t allow embedding Kiowa Warrior
Is what you would be reading if David Letterman was a member of the United States military. That’s right! For David Letterman this whole ordeal (while raising his ratings) has been just a little embarrassing for him, no biggie. However, in the military such acts are criminal.
But, David Letterman didn’t commit adultery; he isn’t married?
According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 134 – Adultery – he did commit adultery because he had sexual relations with someone who was married. Is this fair? No. The penalty for adultery is Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 1 year. You go to JAIL!
While I do not condone adultery (or marriage for that matter). It’s my opinion that the government has no right to dictate or criminalize unmoral acts. By doing so I think that the government is violating our first amendment right of free expression, and religion. Free expression because sexual intercourse in it self is an expression of intense feeling, love, or lust. Free religion because marriage is a bond between two people and God; or whatever god you believe in or don’t.
If David Letterman was arrested their would be a huge outcry for his release. So why are military service members treated as second class citizens? No where in America is adultery a criminal act for a civilian. So what we have is a set of laws for civilians and a set of laws for the military. Except the laws for the military are in no way similar to the laws for civilians. In it self this is wrong but more over it goes against the constitution itself.
The thing that bothers me the most is that the constitution and the bill of rights are our highest laws. So how can the UCMJ violate the constitution? I’ve heard officers and NCOs try and say that when you join the military you give up some of your rights. WHA!? It was my understanding that you cannot give up your fundamental human rights. When I swore to protect the constitution I never realized I was apparently giving away my constitutional rights, and putting myself under a crappier version of our laws.
I wasn’t stupid. I did know of the UCMJ; but at the time it didn’t bother me because I wasn’t going to commit adultery or some of the other insane crimes that are part of the UCMJ. After spending eight years in the military I’ve heard some pretty messed up things.
Let me tell you a story. I’m going to change the names of everyone involved.
So Private Joe Snuffy, a 21 year old brand new soldier in the United States Army just got out of basic, his job school and is reporting to his first duty station. He arrives finding out that his unit is currently training in the field and will be back in three weeks. So he’s new to the area so he goes to a local club. He meets a older woman named Beth who is treating him really nice; buying him drinks and taking him to other clubs. For the next two weeks they spend a lot of time together; some of it in hotel rooms.
Well his unit comes back and every time the men come back from the field the unit has a unit party where all family members are invited. Pvt. Snuffy gets to meet his new 1st Sergeant. The 1st Sergeant introduces Pvt. Snuffy to his wife. Unfortunately, Pvt. Snuffy already knows the 1st Sergeants wife. It’s Beth!
Pvt. Snuffy feels so confused he tells his squad leader what’s up. He tells him he has been having sex with the first sergeant’s wife for 2 weeks now, and he didn’t know she was married. She never wore a ring, and they never talked about work. She said she was single.
Pvt Snuffy’s squad leader, Sgt. Luke Skywalker tells him; “Don’t say anything, to anyone!”
Well, Pvt. Snuffy couldn’t keep his mouth shut and had to open up to the first sergeant and tell him about what’s been going on. Word gets around the base and the military police show up. They arrest Pvt. Snuffy for adultery. The criminal investigators interview everyone, including Sgt. Skywalker and order them to not talk about it or to speak with Beth.
Now if Pvt. Snuffy didn’t know he was committing adultery; then he didn’t commit it! However, Beth won’t tell the investigators that she lied about being married.
Sgt. Skywalker won’t have his new troop thrown in jail. He goes to Beth and demands that she fess up about lying. It’s no hair off her back, except looking like a liar. Base security finds out that Sgt. Skywalker is at Beth’s house even though he was ordered to stay away from her. They arrest Sgt. Skywalker for disobeying a direct order from an officer. Now Sgt. Skywalker and Pvt. Snuffy are both in jail.
The happy ending of this story is that Beth did fess up to criminal investigators that she was lying about being single. Pvt. Snuffy was set free. Sgt. Skywalker received a reprimand, but the charges against him were dropped.
Does this sound like America? It is, and it makes me sad. If it makes you sad; write your congressman that you don’t think it’s right for service member’s to have laws that don’t exist anywhere in America applied to them.
I’ve actually been getting IP addresses from the Pentagon and Fort Meade… I hope they aren’t going to charge ME with something. Erk!
(Proper English and structure warning: I’m Blogging from my G1 and on the road. God I love technology!)
I was in Oklahoma looking for a new job. I had to take a physical training test to be considered for the job. Luckily the military instilled in me the need for recon. I went to check out the site I was going to take the test at the night before. The instructions to the track were terrible and no address left my GPS useless. I got lost… so I did something I haven’t done since I purchased my GPS… I asked for directions.
To my amazement the airman I asked was more than willing to just give me directions. He jumped in his car and at almost midnight drove me out to the base track. That airman definitely earns some needed kudos.
I should have ordered my hotel room through orbitz like I did my flight and rental car. I was hoping to stay in on-base lodging; which is a hotel service-members can stay in while traveling. It’s very cheap and on-base so I wanted to stay there. Turns out on drill weekends the hotel is always full. I ended up driving around finding all the other hotels outside the base were also full.
I found a motel called the Colonial Motel. Just by the name I knew it was going to be a bad choice. I was tired and they had a vacancy so I got a room for one night. Entering the room I was immediately concerned. It was a dump. I was horrified to find the top blanket full of cigarette holes. The sheets looked like they had been thrown up on and then bleached instead of thrown out.
The lamps above the bed were out of line as someone had grabbed them during sex.
I didn’t even want to know what the bathroom looked like but I had to go. The toilet and shower shared the same fate as my sheets. They had marks all over them as someone put hundreds of cigarettes out on their charred faces.
The other motel guests didn’t give me any reason to feel at ease.
There was only one thing left to do. I sent a txt to my best friend letting him know I might be robbed or murdered during the night. His only response was that he once stayed in a hotel in north Philly that had a bullet hole in the window.
I went to bed in my clothes.
Well I survived the night and headed to the training site. Needless to say I passed all the events easily. Afterward, all the participants got to talking and I shared my motel horror story.
They needed to schedule a rifle firing for the next week but I was on orders. A fellow applicant who was in the Air Force worked at the firing range and went out of his way to get me to shoot that day. He wasn’t successful but I appreciate the attempt.
One of the people I got to meet was a former-Marine from New York. He offered his room for the night. I said, “Hey you’ve got a room and I have a car, its a deal.”
Just meeting each other that day we hit it off pretty well. We went back to the hotel to change and took off to see the sites. The first place we went was the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. I was at the twin towers 2 years after 9/11 but seeing the Oklahoma Memorial was pretty serene. To think an American could do this to his fellow Americans. The museum started off ok; but it ended up being very intense.
We visited Bricktown and got some food and beer.
Our verdict is Oklahoma city is pretty nice.
So is it the military that’s makes us this way or is it a personality type that is willing to help that puts us in the job of defending our beloved country?