From the Ranch

From the Ranch
Showing posts with label United States Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United States Army. Show all posts

Friday, January 30, 2015

The Question Keeps Nagging at Me...

So... that protective order was in a "rescinded state" at the time when the tazer incident occurred... So... why would any reasonable person... make that commander... after learning that the Soldier had approached his wife and a German neighbor with a tazer and billy club, (in Germany where the military is here by invitation,) why would that commander then refuse to reinstate another protective order...  For those that are unfamiliar with protective orders, a protective order requires that the individual who is determined as a threat maintain a certain distance from the person who feels threatened, and not contact the person who feels threatened by any means.

That sounds reasonable to me...  I hear, third party, that the rationale was words to the effect, "they are now getting a divorce, so there is no need for a protective order."  Two incidents happened to the person being protected for which no consideration has to my knowledge ever been given.  Of course no proof or evidence of who the perpetrator of these incidents was can be found, but on two occasions, the protected's car was disabled.  Once the fuel pump was manipulated, she has a statement from the mechanic who made the repairs that the fuel pump was deliberately manipulated, apparently to him, in order to disable her car.  I am not sure when that incident occurred, but after the tazing incident, the tires were slashed on her car.  One of her children had a medical emergency during one of those incidents.  Since her car was disabled, she had to run to her neighbors for transportation to the hospital.  With each violent and destructive event, the MPs and the German Police were called, as they should have been.

Now a protective order is in place again, because I have done everything I can think of to shake up the command which is involved. I really don't think that it would have happened had I not began writing generals.  I am old, and I resent having to write generals, I have better, more constructive things to do. Undertaking to write to generals is never in one's best interest, and without personal risk.  I have paid a price many times for doing so.  I have paid a price this time.  The DOD is in my estimation the most powerful organization on planet earth, and they crush people at will.  A new protective order seems to me to be a much more responsible command decision, but what would I know, I've never served.

Of course I am the grand-daughter of a WWI Veteran, who left this world long ago, when the mustard gas exposure on the battlefield in France finally claimed his life.  I remember being twelve years old and watching him struggle for air as he lay on the couch, and we waited for the ambulance.  My father was holding his hand, and praying for him, as he slipped into eternity.

I remember too when I was a child and my dad had a relapse from the hepatitis he developed while serving in the Philippines after contracting  malaria.  He was part of the occupation forces after WWII.  Once he woke to a Catholic priest administering last rights, and whispered, "I'm Baptist, and I'm not gone yet!"  There were times in my childhood when I would hide my eyes while sitting at the end of our sidewalk and tell myself, "when I uncover my eyes, Daddy will be coming down the street, coming home from drill."  For a few years of my childhood, my dad served in the Texas National Guard as well.  In my memory also is the pride I felt as my daughter graduated from NCO training, and the respect I hold for my two sons-in-law, who have served so honorably.  One son-in-law can no longer serve, he was wounded severely in Iraq in 2003.  Then there is the 30 years of service of my dear husband, who spent his last two years of service in Afghanistan and Iraq, plus an additional three and a half years serving in Iraq with the State Department after retiring from the military.  I could more easily than not let this all go... but you see I have one more personal interest here...  I have a beautiful, highly intelligent grand-daughter who is so full of honorable character, and she is a freshmen in high school.  She loves being in the JROTC unit she is in, and is looking toward West Point.  I know well what honor and responsibility requires of me.

I feel that when the honor of the organization where so many of my dearest loved ones have served with honor, and given so much, is tarnished by a few, I must act.  In whatever power I have, which isn't much, I must act.



No one consults you or me when leadership sends our loved ones, our sons and daughters into harm's way.  Those of my family who are left behind always do everything we can to support their service and the United States Military.  If I do not point out to leadership that they have the responsibility to lead well, with due diligence, honor, and devotion to sacred duty... who will...


My question is this: Is administrative discipline as clearly due to the command as I see it due, which failed to protect, and allowed an individual Soldier to repeatedly tarnish the reputation of all who honorably serve in Germany and the world over? 

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

What Happens When a Person is Riddled by the Army?

Someone shows up in their home with a tazer and a billy club....  No matter how much the person screams, "what are you doing here?" or their neighbor shouts, "you cannot be here!," the person's lack of knowledge that the "protective order has been rescinded," is nothing more than a source of amusement for their abuser.  The abuser CAN be there, he CAN threaten the person and their German neighbor with a tazer and a billy club... the Army says so... it isn't a crime unless he actually touches the person with the tazer, or he swings the billy club at the person...  Threatening the person, firing the tazer in the air, holding the billy club up, filming the person's terror, that's amusement for the person's abuser which the Army won't do anything about.  The fact that the behavior is in front of two small children, who are also terrified is not a factor either. This behavior does not meet the criteria for the commission of a crime, according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and the Army will take no action.  A two star general will put that in writing... Want to see proof of that?  I have a copy of the letter...



Riddle Me This...

When is a protective order issued by a commander in the United States Army not worth the paper it is printed on???  When it is "rescinded" by the issuing command but the "protected" person is not informed that the "protective order" has been "rescinded."

Friday, January 23, 2015

I Don't Know Why Every Time I Am So Disappointed

I am an older person, I've been around the block a time or two, and one would think I would have grown accustomed to, accepted that, military commands often fail to act honorably.  You would think that I would have come to the place where I could acknowledge within myself that my illusion of honorable leadership does not consistently exist in the United States Army.  I see it all the time within the lower ranks.  Many of the most honorable and courageous people I have ever been privileged to know, make up the ranks on the officer and non commissioned officer side. Somewhere around the rank of lieutenant colonel, those I can respect begins to diminish rapidly in numbers.  Something about climbing that career ladder seems to subtly begin to corrupt, or as in the case of some who have always been corrupt, rear confidently a defiance of "honor at all costs."

 
I have long been involved in the work toward eradicating the injustices routinely committed toward those who find themselves the victims of Military Sexual Trauma.  I have worked in Washington, written on the subject, and I never miss the opportunity to stand united with the victims of this life devastating crime.  I have seen their sad eyes...



I Saw the Sad Eyes 

I saw the sad eyes of women who had been betrayed,
By those who from honor, never should have strayed.

They could not have known what would come to them,
 Integrity was pledged and they believed without a whim.


In a dark hour their faith and loyalty was shattered. 
Their lives, without regard, left broken and tattered.

 

Time seemed strangled and unable their injuries to mend.
To go on with life seemed to have nowhere to begin.

Then in chorus the sad eyes looked around in panic and pain,
In a moment they knew other eyes revealed the same stain.





                                                                    
 Hearts united and power and change came with more ease,      
 The weakest were lifted first by the women from their knees.





Words and tears were shared and brought balm to their soul wounds.

Slowly in unity they overcame, and the living of lives resumed.





 I saw the sad eyes of women who had been betrayed. 
By those who from honor, never should have strayed.


     

Now I have stumbled upon a new kind of victim of the defiance of justice within the military.  It is the military spouse who finds themselves the victim of domestic violence perpetrated by someone serving in the military, in the midst of a command which can care less.  I am going to be writing extensively on the situation as it continues, while offering all the support that I can to my new friend.  She has suffered much, but the German government is becoming involved, and as I watch that process, I am much encouraged.  At the same time, I find myself dismally disappointed, once again, in the attention and accountability displayed by the United States Army toward this matter.  I will keep the names and identities of those involved confidential, but they will each recognize themselves.  Stay tuned, I am once again writing generals...  Tomorrow, disappearing reports...

 The woman next to me really liked what I said...

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

I Am Attending a Conference on Military Sexual Violence in April

On April 17th, I will attend a conference in Washington D.C. that is so important to many women who have served our country.  We failed to protect them from the enemy within.  The difficulty of overcoming this betrayal is unimaginable to those of us who have never known it.  The complexities of the unseen wounds haunt these women, taking a toil long after they returned from war.  Often they were not heard when they made an outcry.  Even worse, often they were heard, and then crimes committed against them were hidden, and they went unpunished.

 
I am so looking forward to this conference, I believe that when people gather together, look into each others faces, share a time of learning, and collect resource contacts so that we may join our "woman power," great power is generated. It is generated to reach out in help to those who have things to overcome. I am the wife of a Soldier, the mother of a Soldier, (a daughter,) the daughter of a Soldier, and my grand-father served in WWI. I also have two son-in-laws who have served, one who was seriously wounded in 2003, and can no longer serve. This cause is very dear to my heart, those of you who have sustained injury are dear to my heart. There is healing, there is strength and confidence, there is justice to be had, and change which the power of our collective efforts will bring. 
 www.truthandjusticesummit.org

In honor of the brave women who have endured the unthinkable, I offer words to honor the progress they have made, and the progress they will continue to attain.
 

I See the Sad Eyes 

I see the sad eyes of women who have been betrayed,
By those who from honor should never have strayed.

They could not have known what would come to them,
      Integrity was pledged and they believed without whim.

In a dark hour their faith and loyalty was shattered.
Their lives, without regard, left broken and tattered.

Time seems strangled and unable their injuries to mend.
To go on with life seems to have nowhere to begin.

Then in chorus the sad eyes look around in panic and pain,
In a moment they know other eyes reveal the same stain.

Hearts unite, and power and change come with more ease,
The weakest are lifted first by the women from their knees.

Words and tears are shared and bring balm to soul wounds.
Slowly in unity they overcome, and the living of lives resumes.

I saw the sad eyes of women who had been betrayed.
By those who from honor should never have strayed.



Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Mr. Rube Waddell and Old Broken Down Things


 I love a bargain, especially the kind where I find something old and make it attractive and purposeful  again.  Right around Christmas I hit the mother load when I found a baby grand piano for fifty dollars on Ebay.  While Randy and Brian were home for the holidays we loaded up in the pick-up and made the trip to San Antonio to pick up the piano.  I could tell the gentleman I bought the piano from thought we would never get the piano moved.  I had taken some 2x12s and bought some industrial size swiveling wheels, screwed them to the bottom of the support I built, and after taking the legs and the pedals off, we loaded it up with the ramps we had brought, and used ratchet straps to secure it in the truck.  We were on our way home in less than an hour.  I've always wanted a baby grand piano... and no one even needed to go to the emergency room!


 I have enjoyed playing piano all my life.  When I was a little girl my dad found an old upright piano, bought it for fifty dollars, and brought it home to me.  The old piano had ugly yellow keys, some of the tops of the "white" keys were missing.  The "black" keys were worn on the edges, and the wood peeked through.  A couple of the keys made no sound when I hit them, and one key sat a little lower than all the rest, but I was overjoyed when the piano entered my life.  I immediately began trying to play something, but the sound wasn't quite right, even just a single note didn't sound right due to the old piano being terribly out of tune.

 Mr.Rube Waddell was called to come and tune the "new" piano.  That whole process fascinated me.  Mr Waddell was born in 1900 in Sweetwater, Texas, and he passed away in 1993,  He was an amazing musician and craftsman, and a genuine gentlemen and a scholar.  For many years he tuned and restored pianos. When he arrived he took out his velvet cloth, laid out his mysterious tools, and began to work.  He used a tuning fork and soon the old piano was making beautiful mellow sounds.  Mr. Waddell was always such a dapper gentleman, cheerful, and there was always a twinkle in his eye. 


 When Mr. Waddell, or Rube as my daddy called him, left, he told my dad he would be happy to refurbish the old piano for him if he would like, and several years later when I was still taking lessons, and sticking faithfully with it, my dad called, and Rube came and picked up my piano.  When he came back, the white keys had been replaced with shiny new plastic covers, and the black keys were a dark glossy black all over, and it played like a dream...

I bought a book, it's all about refurbishing pianos.  I have experienced in my life being an old broken down thing... but  I have been refurbished too...  I keep the following poem hanging by my front door, it is one of my favorites, because I know first hand of it's truth.  Watch my blog, I will post pictures of my progress as I attempt to restore my "new" fifty dollar baby grand.

 
The Touch of the Master's Hand
by Myra Welch

Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it was scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin, but held it up with a smile.
"What am I bidden, good folks, " he cried,  "Who'll start the 
bidding for me?"  "A dollar, a dollar," then, two!  Only two?
"Two dollars, and who'll make it three?
Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;  Going for three..."
But no,   From the room,  far back a grey-haired man 
came forward and picked up the bow;
Then, wiping the dust from the old violin, and tightening the loose strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet, as a caroling angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low,
Said: "What am I bid for the old violin?' and he held it up with the bow.
"A thousand  dollars, and who'll make it two?
Two thousand!  And who'll make it three?
Three thousand, once; three thousand, twice; and going and gone," said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried,  "We do not quite understand
What changed its worth?"  Swift came the reply:
"The Touch of a Master's Hand."
  And many a man with life out of tune, and battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin.
A "mess of pottage," a glass of wine: a game - and he travels on.
He is "going" one, and "going" twice, He's going" and almost "gone."
But the Master comes and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul and the change that's wrought
By the touch of the Master's Hand.