Posted on 02/19/2014 10:44:44 AM PST by Impala64ssa
Wisconsin soldier pulled from military funeral duties
A National Guard soldier has been suspended indefinitely from military funeral duties after a picture of her and other soldiers clowning around a training casket surfaced on social media. "We put the FUN in funeral," read the caption on the photo posted on the Instagram account of Spc. Terry Harrison, Fox 47 reports. The Wisconsin National Guard member has been shifted to other duties pending an investigation and the Guard says it has taken steps to ensure her safety after death threats, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Another photo to spark outrage shows Harrison in a car, with a comment complaining about the cold and saying, "Somebody's getting a jacked up flag." The photos and comments drew condemnation from the soldier's superiors all the way up to the Pentagon, where the chief of the National Guard Bureau called them "deplorable," Stars and Stripes reports. "These duties are sacred. America’s fallen deserve nothing less than our deepest respect," he said.
A coffin with a United States flag draped on it, is representative of every single brave soldier that gave his fullest for our freedom - it matters not whether it be for training purposes or not. This is a travesty - far worse that the Abu Gharib photos.
A less than honorable discharge is what they all deserve.
Why am I surprised Freepers aren’t reading the article. There was no one dead there people!!
Just some soldiers being stupid. Happens all the time. People really are on a hair trigger these days.
I read the article. Even though this was a training casket, it shows a certain lack of respect and decorum for those who are part of a funeral detail. If you don't see this as a big deal, then you just don't get it.
Pathetic at best and getting by with just a death threat he may be lucky. Every damn one of them in the photo should be court martial-ed and discharged.
Do you know what a psyop is? The point of the behavior was the photograph. The point of the photograph was its publication. The point of the publication was to create disdain for military sacrifice. The point of creating that disdain in the public mind is foment REBELLION.
Too farfetched? Then you're going to have to come up with a "reasonable" explanation for National Guard soldiers mocking the scaredness of their own work - a sacredness they are acknowledged for throughout the military, and which is the most pervasive part of their training and operations. This whole thing screams psyop, as it is utterly inconceivable that these soldiers would even remotely think of this as a "prank."
It’s one thing to engage in gallows’ humor. People who deal with dead and dying people, no matter how well-adjusted they are need some kind of outlet from time to time to keep from going crazy. But these Guardsmen should have been much more discreet about it instead of taking pics of each other acting like classless idiots.
hurry up and wait* in the regular army, in the National Guard multiply the bureaucratic effect by 1.5 to 2.5 and you're probably in the right ballpark.
* Kind of like pre-pre-pre-formation formation; where the commander puts out that formation is at 0700, the CSM says 0630, the 1SG says 0600, the platoon leader says 5030, the squad leader says 0500… because the formation is at 0700. … What are you going to do when you're required to be there for 2 hours, with absolutely nothing else as a purpose?
I think because she had to suffer standing in the cold, she would express her discomfort and displeasure by doing a poor job folding the flag. Posting pix with such captions on the Internet is dumb.
This behavior is stupid but not as stupid as the morons making death threats or how about the Secretary of State that lied to parents at a real funeral!!!
Sorry, you can’t normalize what they did. It’s like saying a crew chief got bored waiting for the pilot to show up, so he wrote anti-american graffiti all over the plane and posted a photo of himself doing it online. NOT going to happen!
Except it's not like that -- they didn't destroy or deface anything, nor did they do anything criminal.
It's a stupid picture of people acting stupid, but nothing in any way dangerous or destructive.
It's not even an occupied coffin.
I was willing (as a vet) to allow for a certain level of gallows humor and youthful stupidity with the inappropriate publication with a slap on the wrist, until I saw: “Another photo to spark outrage shows Harrison in a car, with a comment complaining about the cold and saying, “Somebody’s getting a jacked up flag.””
After that I decided that she doesn’t have the demeanor or required respect to be in the role. It’s an honor to stand in the rain or any weather to acknowledge our dead. If she can’t understand that then she shouldn’t be performing the service.
“After that I decided that she doesn’t have the demeanor or required respect to be in the role.”
I am not a member of the military, but I agree with you.
I am in the Patriot Guard, not ONE us of have EVER complained about standing in the cold for our Fallen.
This.
I'm in the navy and work with a lot of late teens and 20-somethings, much younger than me, and I'll never understand this need that young people have today to document EVERYTHING they do on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, whatever, even to the point where it jeopardizes their careers. It's just mind-boggling. It's like it never happened until it's been posted on the internet.
You are certainly right, and there can be no such excuse for the Wisconsin NGs.
If you have to ask, it ain’t worth explaining to you.
Earlier today Rush remarked that we don’t need the NSA snooping around. So many people have this obsession with plastering their life story, with intimate if not lurid details all over Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Lots of disrespect reported in last few days.....
Sad.... A little wall to wall counseling is in order in both of these incidents IMO.
“This is a travesty - far worse that the Abu Gharib photos.”
Ridiculous
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