+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know about it.
__________________________________
My last post caused quite a stir. Talking about suicide is not an easy thing to do, but when 22 veterans take their own lives EACH day then we need to reach out.
__________________________________
Military news…
Hazing is always terrible, especially when it involves being tied up to a target. Hazing is always terrible, especially when it involves being tied up to a target on a live-fire range while fighter planes drop ordnance near you for 20 minutes. But that’s what one French Air Force pilot said his fellow aviators put him through in March 2019. The pilot recently filed a criminal complaint because he felt the French military was not taking the matter seriously enough.
‘Wait, they just now started doing this?’ is a perfectly reasonable reaction that the 18th Airborne Corps wants anyone found guilty of sexual assault or harassment to be immediately separated from the Army. But it’s true: the new policy marks a major departure from how such crimes are handled elsewhere in the service, and it’s a direct result of soldier feedback to their leadership.
Remember that scene from The Matrix where Neo orders up a big honkin’ arsenal of virtual guns? Well that’s what the deck of the USS Monterey looked like last week. After the Navy ship stopped a small boat in the North Arabian Sea that was chock full of Type 56 assault rifles, PKM machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket propelled grenades and kaboodles of other kinds of firepower. In fact, the cache was so large it took the crew 36 hours to unload all of it.
___________________________________
One of the many things that sticks out in my mind about my time in the military was the loss of lives during peacetime.
In my book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life, I wrote about two buddies I lost while in Korea. Neither one of them were in combat.
The first one was a buddy that I signed up with to get into the military. We went through basic together. We went through MOS training together, and was sent to Korea together.
When we got there, he was sent to another part of Korea. Things went Ok for a few months until I was notified that he had died from some kind of crud he caught there.
I couldn’t believe it. He died from an illness? I found out it happens a lot in foreign countries. I still think about him to this day.
The second incident was right in my own company at Camp Red Cloud, outside of Uijeongbu, Korea.
A close buddy had been drinking heavily, and went out into the village to be with a girl. He was coming back to the Camp, and he was staggering very badly. He could hardly walk.
As he was walking he fell into a “honey bucket.” A honey bucket is where the locals keep their human waste for fertilizer. It is about seven feet across. My buddy actually suffocated.
We had no idea it had happened until our morning formation the next morning. I noticed a gap where he was suppose to be in the ranks. I didn’t think much about it. However, the company commander came out and announced that he had died the night before.
We all were in shock. He was a good guy that everyone liked.
___________________________________
These and many other stories like them will be in the book that will come out this fall. Be sure to follow this site to see the latest on the book.
Better yet, subscribe now by clicking on the subscribe button at the top of this page. You won’t have to come back here to find out more. It will be sent straight to your inbox each time I post.
___________________________________
How are you doing? Did you lose a buddy while in the military? It is hard at best to even think about it.
FEAR NOT!!
There are more than 11,800 fellow veterans subscribed to this site who have your back.
BUT! If you heart is broken, and you need further assistance, GET HELP!
Here is a toll free number you can call 24/7.
There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until they know you are OK. AND IT IS FREE!
Never face another day that causes you to hurt.
1-800-273-8255 Option # 1
___________________________________
Remember:
You are never alone.
You are never forsaken.
You are never unloved.
And above all…never, ever, give up!
___________________________________
+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know about it.