tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post2473178901561463101..comments2024-03-20T12:34:55.100-05:00Comments on Stonekettle Station: Captain DishonorJim Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11259550121437562338noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-56059263757259165082011-01-09T06:09:59.028-06:002011-01-09T06:09:59.028-06:00Love how you express yourself with humor that make...Love how you express yourself with humor that makes me LOL. (Yes, I wrote LOL just for you because I know how <i>much</i> you like to see it posted.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-4017999781505997982011-01-07T16:00:37.356-06:002011-01-07T16:00:37.356-06:00@Jim,
Good points. Can't really disagree with...@Jim,<br /><br />Good points. Can't really disagree with what you're saying. That said, there's more to the story that we'll probably never hear about.<br /><br />RPRetired Patriothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10653011328780251842noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-8003525375184499092011-01-06T18:07:10.576-06:002011-01-06T18:07:10.576-06:00You were probably loopy from the bad car meat you ...You were probably loopy from the bad car meat you ate today. mmmmm car meat.Jim Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11259550121437562338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-354402073474432862011-01-06T17:47:11.657-06:002011-01-06T17:47:11.657-06:00Sorry for the quadruple post. Google kept telling ...Sorry for the quadruple post. Google kept telling me it wasn't being accepted. Please delete a few of them, Jim.<br /><br />ThanksNathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00648438549121320566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-5117029726678185542011-01-06T17:44:50.591-06:002011-01-06T17:44:50.591-06:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Nathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00648438549121320566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-6093354036788864882011-01-06T17:41:56.960-06:002011-01-06T17:41:56.960-06:00It's not political correctness. It's the ...It's not political correctness. It's the ongoing effort to rid the military of a mindset that allows anyone's service to be denigrated, not based on their performance but based on societal blinders.<br /><br />I'm not sure if anyone else saw this, but there was<br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/us/24bcjames.html?partner=rss&emc=rss" rel="nofollow">a story in the NY Times</a> recently about a WWII sailor who is being considered for the Medal of Honor. <br /><br />Part of the article reads:<br /><br /><em>On May 3, 1945, the destroyer U.S.S. Aaron Ward was on “picket duty” to warn the fleet in Okinawa of impending Japanese attacks. At sunset, a kamikaze plane hit the deck in an explosion of fire. Five more planes followed in the next 51 minutes, killing dozens.<br /><br />Yet the ship did not sink. As the planes struck, Mr. Clark, despite a broken collarbone, raced into the mayhem and manned a fire hose, one so powerful it usually took four men to control it, to douse flames headed for an ammunition locker, which would have exploded and split the ship.<br /><br />Mr. Clark was a steward in a racially segregated Navy. His job was to serve, clean and shine shoes — and endure daily slurs from white enlisted men and officers. That he saved those same lives was omitted from the battle report, while white shipmates received the Bronze Star.<br /><br />“If you put in your battle report that a black man saved the ship, that would be pretty embarrassing,” Mr. Clark said.<br /><br />To provide for his family, he stayed in the Navy as it integrated, serving for 22 years and rising to the rank of chief petty officer. Racism still ran deep — on his final day, in 1958, a white clerk called him “boy.”</em><br /><br />So, yeah, by all means we should make sure we don't have any Broads or Niggers or Fairies serving with <em>normal</em> honorable people.Nathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00648438549121320566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-84653827688455828122011-01-06T17:38:24.922-06:002011-01-06T17:38:24.922-06:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Nathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00648438549121320566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-1835959943586396952011-01-06T12:32:34.848-06:002011-01-06T12:32:34.848-06:00I didn't ask what you thought- I figured I kne...I didn't ask what you thought- I figured I knew(and was right!). At least one newspaper article that I read said that higher-ups knew about the videos. <br /><br />I've been rereading some of Daniel Gallery's work. It's weird to see them talking about 'boys,' the black servicemen who couldn't do anything more to serve their country than shine officer's shoes. On the plus side, he's pretty clear- if you allow your people to mess up, it's on you as a captain or officer.Pamelahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14984600539171463313noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-64517919744613020022011-01-06T11:24:49.503-06:002011-01-06T11:24:49.503-06:00I am actually a bit shocked by how many members of...I am actually a bit shocked by how many members of his crew think what happened is just a-okay and that he should not have been relieved. Crew members that I know personally. <br /><br />Has I really changed that much?Janiecehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14190655869710465713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-19143782363172530462011-01-06T09:31:26.583-06:002011-01-06T09:31:26.583-06:00SP, your first point is something that, I think, b...SP, your first point is something that, I think, bothers a lot of people, i.e. why now?<br /><br />I don't know the answer to that. It may have just taken this long to show up. It may have floated around the ship's computer system for this long and just now offended somebody. Hell, it might not have offended anybody on board at all, they just thought it was funny and posted it to youtube so everybody could enjoy it - do a search on YouTube for navy videos, there are thousands of clips of sailors on deployment hamming it up for the camera. Or it could be, as you suggest, delayed revenge. The simple solution for an XO or CO (or any other officer for that matter) is this: don't do stupid shit, and if you must do stupid shit, don't do it on video. Honors made the tapes, and he let them out into the wild, he has to now live with the consequences. Too bad for him. It's sort of like those folks who were separated from the navy for videos of them at a Gay Pride parade or a party or other event, something harmless, something where they were just being themselves and living their lives, that suddenly surfaced and destroy their career. Frankly I just don't have a lot of sympathy for Captain Honors and I just don't care why the videos showed up now.<br /><br />Your second point, that Honors didn't immediately step up: Carrier skippers are hardly shy. But Honors wasn't authorized to talk to the press without permission of 2nd Fleet. 2nd Fleet very likely told him to be quiet, stay at his post, and not make things worse. Using one of the examples from the article above, remember what happened when they let Patton speak to the press after he slapped that particular soldier? The Navy predictably hunkered down and hoped the hoopla would blow over. Senior navy folks also have a tendency to immediately distance themselves from any senior officer who gets bitten by the zombies: you do something stupid in public and suddenly you have no friends at all. Because at that level, it's hasta lasagna don't get any on ya. Any taint of association is a career ender. That's the politics of the paygrade.Jim Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11259550121437562338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-1818104297867659702011-01-06T07:39:49.075-06:002011-01-06T07:39:49.075-06:00Retired Patriot, you bring up what bothers me too;...Retired Patriot, you bring up what bothers me too; why are these people not owing up? You can explain without making excuses and take your lumps. I guess there's no reward for that. If you lie low the teapartiers will make you a hero (or martyr) and keep paying you.Cass Morrisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04562393261839375741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-45430515488828512862011-01-06T06:35:01.737-06:002011-01-06T06:35:01.737-06:00Jim,
You're right. He did break the cardinal...Jim,<br /><br />You're right. He did break the cardinal rule and for that, he was sacked. <br /><br />One has to wonder though, why now? And cui bono? It's been a while since the actual events and they were supposedly addressed at the time. So why now? I smell the stink of rotting, latent vindictiveness, selling newspapers on a very slow holiday, and/or the ever present fight among internal factions (who is Honor's rabbi?).<br /><br />I guess what disappoints me most is that Honors did not immediately (and publicly) tender his job but instead, like McCrystal, pulled into the tortoise shell hoping to ride out the storm. But, that's how we seem to make them these days. Do something questionable and get caught? Don't man up and lay the gauntlet but hide out and hope it blows over - or that some new shiny attractive object floats by to divert attention away from yourself. It seems a bit incongruent with honor, courage and commitment. (Then again, so are the videos...)<br /><br />Anyways, thanks for the fine post.<br /><br />RPRetired Patriothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10653011328780251842noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-38049055284391734362011-01-06T06:34:14.408-06:002011-01-06T06:34:14.408-06:00Post it on Whatever, I'll even go back there t...Post it on Whatever, I'll even go back there to watch. <br /><br />My father in law retired as a full Commander, he wasn't a hateful man but did a lot of both black and gay bashing. It was 'humor'. He also bashed women.<br /><br />He is buried in Arlington. The Chaplin was gay and the E-6 leading the burial detail was a black female. My wife figures he is still spinning in his grave.Warner (aka ntsc)https://www.blogger.com/profile/12924176333302007261noreply@blogger.com