In the Navy, they go to the other extreme of anyone being accused will see their career pretty much ended at a minimum.
that's the problem though. No one is accused and it's being whitewashed as a suicide. is there still a rape subculture in the military?
I think it honestly depends on the branch. For all my other complaints about the Navy, I've heard of very few recent incidents of shit being covered up. On my last ship, a warrent officer had been harrassing and coming on to a few girls that worked under him in Engineering. The CO told him to cut the shit out or he'd be gone, and then he went showing his ass within the hour of leaving his office. He was off the boat six hours later. But the Navy is a bit more progressive in a lot of respects. The Marines....yeah, let's just say I'm not going anywhere alone with that lot.
Personally, I do not think women should serve in the U.S. Army anyway. but of course that in no way excuses either the murder or the cover up.
The Air Force is about as bad as the Army as far as I can tell. And they even seem to get an early start on it, with plenty of rapes and assaults being covered up at the Academy. Nothing quite like starting your career with rape.
A fellow NCO (now an officer) I served with in Iraq told me that as repulsive as it sounds there is sort of. This NCO happens to be black. He said it's "common knowledge" that among his black buddies if a female got into a vehicle alone with one of them on one of our frequent trips between bases she was obligated to "give it up" or get kicked out and left in the middle of the desert. Sort of an "unwritten rule" you could say. Okay, back to bullshitting officers. Try to visualize as I tell you this. We were in Kuwait 2003 getting ready for the initial Iraq invasion. We were getting an intel briefing from some young luitenant. He said that Saddam killed some of his own soldiers (not hard to believe) but here's the twist: To see how effective they would be in the face of an enemy invasion Saddam painted a big American flag on one of their helicopters. Then Saddam + the pilots put on long blond wigs and flew into one of their air bases. In other words they wanted there to be no doubt they were American. When his soldiers/guards didn't open fire on the helicopter, he had them all executed. Yep. This stupid ass intel officer must have brainwashed himself before going to different companies telling this bullshit story. How did he do it with a straight face? I don't know. But the mental image of Saddam in a long blonde wig yelling "are these fuckers BLIND? They will DO NOTHING when the Americans invade us? " still haunts me. Anyway, I personally have seen The Army FUBAR many investigations due either to incompetence, apathy, or spite. Barney Fife on his worst day could solve more cases than most CID agents or MP's.
I've told the story before here but I will mention it again. When I was in Baghdad the Army covered up a Sgt 1st Class who was caught spying on the women in their shower area. He was caught dead to rights and they did nothing about it. They reassigned the 2 females who caught him because they were only E4's and he still got his Bronze Star. It was complete bullshit. I know it's not the same as a rape but its not acceptable behavior from someone in a leadership position and its certainly not alright to pressure those young women into silence then ship them off somewhere else to try and keep everything quiet.
Military justice is to justice as military music is to music. Who said that? Whoever it was, I agree.
While the opinion piece author is playing the race card, I find myself wondering if it doesn't have more to do with the Army protecting the perpetrators - either someone high-ranking, or a relative of someone high-ranking, or something to do with one of the mercenary groups they hired.
It could be more about the Army fearing the bad press and how it would effect recruiting. The racism isn't on the part of the Army, its on the part of the media. It's no secret they focus on crimes against pretty blonde white women and routinely don't report on horrific crimes when the female victims are minorities. But the opposite is true with white on black violence so I guess it kind of balances out.
I wonder how many people outside of America read articles like this and automatically assume all Americans are savages....?
This sort of abuse of authority is exactly the kind of thing that makes me think fondly of boiling oil, tar and feathers, drawing and quartering, all ye good-olde-fashioned punishments that got the message across that THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE TOLERATED BY CIVILIZED PEOPLE AND . . . ugh. Get to the bottom of it, clear it out, dishonorable discharges with public shaming and neither pension nor benefits for anyone caught sweeping this kind of thing under the rug.
Wouldn't surprise me. As we've learned since the Bradley/Chelsea Manning case, the military is willing to turn a blind eye on all kinds of shit if they think you're valuable to them for some reason. Those in the Nuclear ratings of the Navy seldom get kicked out, since each one costs 250K to put through the training. One such guy my brother met on his last ship was so fat he had to wear two belts with his uniform (and uncut Navy issue belt is about 45" long )and even then, the largest size of coveralls was still two sizes too small. But he had some certificate for some part and the Navy needed him until this part was removed--then separated his ass with six months before retirement for being a lard ass.
where the fuck is the race card played? there isn't a single mention of this being about her skin colour being a motive for the cover up.
I think he was talking about the article I linked that specifically said it was playing the race card.
As someone who....um, has no plans to make the military a career (and that's the nicest thing I can say without inadvertently insulting those amoung us that made it a career)...this sort of blatant cover up is not everyone, or even most in leadership position. Yes, it happens, but I honestly think that most people that joined up are just more pre-occupied with being able to feed their families and such. With that out the way, I'm also over the military worship in our culture. It's a difficult job for those who actually give a fuck--which is very few people after they've been dumped on over and over and over again by those above them. That whole "Not everyone can do this" bullshit is just that. I've met far too many that should've been shown the door at their recruiter's office, much waste taxpayers' dollars to provide them a job.
HA! Small world. In Bosnia we had an E-5 who got caught doing the same thing. He spent 6 months in Mannheim Germany lock-up, busted down to E-2 and kicked out. But you know the drill! Senior NCO's get away with everything.
Marines don't do this kind of shit. Pee on dead terrorists maybe. But not rape. And really, what else are you going to do with dead terrorists?
...you're kidding, right? Also, all of this This shit goes on in every branch of the military, sadly. The Navy takes it more seriously that the others from what I've seen, but even now, hearing of alleged victims being accused of calling rape to cover their own ass (especially in cases involving a senior enlisted or officer) aren't that rare.
I don't worship the military, though I do respect those who have managed to either successfully make it a career, have served honorably, or who have served in wartime. I do have to say I find pleasure in watching an ignorant-ass politician call another politician a coward afraid of war, only to find that politician has served in wartime and has been decorated for it, if for no other reason than I dislike ignorant-ass politicians. Well, I just dislike ignorant-asses. As a side note, and regardless of her politics, that whole Tammy Duckworth thing where she fried the shit out of that weasel contractor was fucking hilarious to watch.
That's just the big elaborate ad campaign to sell the next war. That's all that is. That shit goes all the way back to Rome.
Well to be honest Marines do this kind of shit. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...0213_1_marines-camp-pendleton-military-police But all branches have their moments. At Fort Carson we had a gay dentist Lt. Colonel who dressed up like Diana Ross and performed at a gay bar.
