#1 - he did serve, and there is honor in that, but you can never, ever, never disobey a lawful order. It negates whatever honor you had gained.
#2 - one of his "Deployments" was for 15 days. That isn't a "Deployment" - it is what is know in the military as a TDY - the equivilent of a business trip.
#3 - while he has served a 7 month tour, the total time he has been gone in almost 5 years is about 11 months and change. I bet he would not wish to compare that record to a lot of active duty soldiers, marines, sailors, and airman. He would hang his head in shame after about 3 minutes of comparative stories.
I will make two additional points:
-- The cost of war to a nation's citizens is great. Today, very, very few of American contribute to the "War on Terror" (it is really a war against Islamic Fascism, but that is for another thread). Americans go shopping while military members and their families deal with stress that most people cannot imagine.
-- The soldier who had himself shot by a hitman to avoid another tour is in another category entirely in my book. If I had been his commander, I would have sent him to the doctors. He is suffering from PTSD - period. I'll let the people who have never served a day in uniform or in combat to make light of that condition, or the reality of it.
As far as this Reservist goes, he went to the MSM, and they spun his tale for the Democratic-Liberal cause. He wants to be a "Defense Contractor" now? Good luck with that.
In fact, good luck to him, period.
“TDY”
Temporary Duty Yonder?
There are times when branch assignments can be ridiculous. Often they are determined by one or just a few people at the branch HQ. They get assignments and issue them in an almost haphazard way, often indifferent to previous assignment.
I remember the tale of an Engineer Major, many years ago, with a new wife and child, who was pitched a “great resume builder” assignment constructing a road through the Amazon. The branch officer puffed it up as a choice assignment with lots of perks for his family.
Then the Major stopped by his current “O” club, and got quite a shock. There was a disheveled, sickly looking Major at the bar, who turned out to be the guy he was supposed to replace.
Turned out that the “choice” assignment was not only in filthy, disease-ridden swamp, but was deadly opposed by the local tribes, who killed road workers at intervals. The old guy had picked up half a dozen diseases and was soon to leave the Army for good on 100% disability.
Needless to say, the Major was not thrilled with whoever had offered him that “choice” job. Fortunately he could still turn it down and did, but since that time had kept his eye out for the branch officer who had tried to stick it to him.
As far as this five-timer, he probably has a lot of peers in the ranks who are also pretty much at the end of their string.
This is inevitable in a long war, and they are still trying very hard to come up with a rotation policy that is less stressful to personnel. On the plus side, the current rotation is a lot less grueling than it was in Vietnam.
For some problems there is no ready solution.
Yet he wants to work as a Defense contractor... (shakes head).
As far as the guy here who paid the guy $500 to shoot him in the leg (on the day of his deployment mind you), he stated he would be happy to work stateside. There’s a lot of details that don’t make sense, but someone’s finding out for me who’s acquainted with the family.
There was another guy and a lady last week, all said they would be willing to work inside CONUS but just couldn’t go back to Iraq.
I don’t know about you, but i’m seeing a pattern here.
Either way, they need to get therapy sessions and help.
Last year the dems started making commercials outside of their Vets for Peace ads (we kinda outed a few of them)... they were actively searching for disgrunted troops... as were the press. As you know earlier some were groomed to fill previous republican offices.
As I said previously about this guy: Call the Waaaahmbulance....