From the Ranch

From the Ranch

Sunday, March 29, 2015

I Miss a Little Friend From Home

I miss our little goat named Rocket who lives at Soldier's Heart Ranch, she is such a card.  She loves to follow me around the yard, and when I was taking hay back to the horses last spring, she hopped in the wagon for a little goat snack!



I let her out of her pen often to play, but I feel sorry for her when she is alone
 in her pen, so one Easter I let her try making friends with the rabbits!
She can be so charming, ... and not so charming!


Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Chance is Having Such a Wonderful Time in Germany!




He travels the highways and byways... always having a great time!

There Are Beautiful Places in the World


Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The Trap

This reminds me of how Satan works in the lives of people. He sets out bait and a trap. It doesn't matter that all the pigs are doing it, or that it is only food, and everyone needs food. It doesn't matter that the food in and of itself is good and healthy for the pigs, nor does it matter that they have to have food to live... when Satan takes something and warps it... and uses it... and preys upon our human weaknesses and thinking... better watch out... The end result is fear, confusion, pain, and ... eventually, death.

The BoarBuster feral pig trap in action. To learn more about this trap, go to www.boarbuster.com

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

I Have to Make Public This Failure


This is our little goat Rocket, who was allowed out of her pen to graze peacefully in the grass at the ranch one summer day.  Instead, she chose to climb the stairs to the porch, climb on one of the outdoor tables at the back of the house and gaze through the kitchen window to poke her nose into the business going on in the kitchen.  I guess she felt a compulsion to leave the pleasure of grazing, because of what was going on in the hot kitchen that day.

I too am aware of something going on, and I can't keep my nose out of it either, I am tired of such goings on.  I am tired of empty promises to those who serve and their families.  It is my belief that every promise made to Soldiers and their families should be honored, and honored in a timely way.  On that note I am publishing an email I sent to a Family Advocacy Office somewhere out there, and purposely protecting the names of the innocent, and reluctantly hiding the names of the guilty.

Dear Ms. Somebody:

I'll get right to the point.  Why do the two boys of MAJ XXXX not have an appointed military attorney to represent their rights?  Forgive me, I know how correspondence should be written to your office, and that this email and my previous emails have certainly not been diplomatic nor professional prose. In fact they aren't even polite, but I am old, tired, and quite disillusioned. The welfare of my friend, YYYYY, and her two little boys is not my paid, professional employment responsibility.  I resent having to spend hours taking care of business that is the responsibility of your office.  Therefore I reserve the right to speak frankly, and hope and pray my mother, who raised me better, never sees this correspondence.
Have you made contact, significant personal contact, with YYYYY in order to reimburse her for all the times she had to arrange sitters for her children, and rent a car to travel to meet with the MPs or CID?  Her financial needs are significant.  She lost her job due to her inability to function as she always had before meeting MAJ XXXX in her professional position.  Her soon to be ex-husband demanded the car she was using for transportation for herself and the boys.  Otherwise, he was willing to let her have the car in exchange for dropping all claims for back alimony and child support, plus complete ownership of their two homes, and all the furniture they have accumulated since their eight year marriage began.

Have you offered to help her through the paperwork with the IG to hold this employee of the United State Army responsible for the needs of his family?  Since I am privileged to know as life long friends enumerable honorable Soldiers and their families, I refuse to acknowledge him as a Soldier.  He is daily dishonoring the reputation of the United States Army.  Have you asked why XXXX is being afforded base housing, but he refuses to let his wife and children live in, or even visit the home he and  Ms. YYYYY jointly own.  Have you counseled her concerning all the legal ins and outs of her having to pay for the boys and her a home to live in, in the absence of XXXX adequately making provision for his wife and children?

Are you aware of the latest developments concerning those children still being alone with this obvious maniac.  They are seven and four years old, and defenseless before what I believe to be a monster.  (I have a long background with Child Protective Services, for 12 years I raised on 35 foster children, and I have seen the life long effects that men like XXXX have on their children.  I think XXXX himself is a poster child exemplifying those life long effects of an abusive childhood.)  Have you been made aware of the accusations against XXXX concerning inappropriate touching of AAA and BBB during their bi-weekly weekend visitations?  I have observed the classic signs of their abuse on many occasions.  I was a nurse for many years as well, and my professional training in that field gives me a certain amount of knowledge.  That coupled with my first hand experience with foster children, and the required 50 contact hours each year of training in child abuse for the 12 years I served as a foster parent, gives me some expertise in this area.

Have you picked up a phone and called to ask if there is anything you can do for YYYYY or her boys?   Have you availed yourself of the most current information concerning this case? 
I have ridden in a rental car with YYYYY driving lost on German highways until 0200, after CID kept her at an interview until 2100.  We had to drive to two different residences to pick up her two boys, gas the car, stop to get take out, because neither of us had eaten since breakfast and leaving for the CID appointment at 1000 that morning.  We nearly died many times before we reached my home, where we all could rest.  I sang, rubbed her neck, and did everything I could to keep her awake as she repeatedly fell asleep at the wheel.  I have yet to see any relief for YYYYY or the boys since that grueling ordeal.  In my opinion, not one single thing has changed.  Not one single bit of protection has truly been afforded for YYYYY and the boys.  XXXX continues just as he has, telling YYYYY she cannot go into her own house, threatening her about visitation, visitation where he sexually molests two little boys, drinks himself into a stupor, and feeds them junk food and allows a four year old to watch "killer zombie" movies at 2300, telling his seven year old son who is protesting this activity for his brother, "This is my house, and my rules, and BBB can watch whatever I say he can watch."  When BBB wakes up in terror every night thereafter, where is XXXX's accountability?  It is non-existent as far as the United States Army is concerned.

Still when XXXX returned the children to YYYYY on last Sunday night, he pulled out a video camera and began filming her.  He has threatened her with a tazer and billy club in front of her children and a very credible German citizen, apparently without any trepidation.  There are so many other acts of instability I could once again go over, but this delight in torturing YYYYY in this manner, this act of preserving for later consumption, her fear, sends cold chills down my spine more than any other of his activities.  I have had enough psychology classes to know that this man is seriously imbalanced, and he has no fear of the United States Army.  The United States Army had better wake up to the threat that smolders in this man before something tragic happens. 

I am going to forward emails to you, and everyone else I believe needs to be copied, which convey to me the continued suffering of this gentle woman and her two children at the hands of XXXX.  I would like to know as a tax paying American citizen, who has born the burdens of a military family in service for the last 13 years, what you are going to do about the above mentioned instances of behavior unbecoming an officer, which constitute clear evidence of a threat toward this military spouse and her children?  Not only is XXXX and those two boys due an answer.  So am I.  I don't have much to do right now but write to you folks, because once again the skills and integrity of my husband are required in Baghdad, Iraq, so I am home alone.  As you know, he no longer serves in the military, but the debt the country owes to me and every family member of an American military family who has sacrificed during the last 13 years, is still outstanding.  Therefore I am requesting, as tactfully as I am at the moment capable of, that you do your job.

I have a quote to that effect.  "The US Army Family Advocacy Program is dedicated to the prevention, education, prompt reporting, investigation, intervention and treatment of spouse and child abuse."  United States Army

YYYYY has made an outcry on three separate military installations to the Family Advocacy Office.  Her very real suffering still continues...

Please pass this correspondence on to the hot shot at CID, and ask him the status of Ms. YYYYY possessions still being held in Kansas.  He will know what I am talking about.  One last quote...

Never before in the history of our Army have we asked so much of our Families. They are serving side-by-side with our Soldiers, enduring their hardships and providing the unconditional love and support that truly make our Army strong. The Army Family Covenant pledges our commitment to support Soldiers and their Families and resource programs to provide them a quality of life commensurate with their service.

- Former Army Chief of Staff, Gen. George W. Casey
Sir, I regret to inform you... your Army Family Covenant is little more than a bureaucratic band-aide for a huge hemorrhaging wound in this particular case... and many, many, more cases.
 
Sincerely,
Debra LeCompte