Posted on 01/05/2015 4:25:42 AM PST by Kaslin
It’s fitting that 27 plus years of active and reserve service in the United States Army ended with a piece of paper, but those of us who had the chance to serve understand that the military runs on paper. A paper enlisted me on May 20, 1987, and another paper, Order No. 297-1088, transferred me to the retired reserve on January 2, 2015.
Not 2 JAN 15, mind you. January 2, 2015. I’m retired, so now I get to write dates like a normal person. Though, when people on the other end of the phone want me to spell out words, I’ll still say, “Alpha, Bravo, Charlie.”
People ask me how I feel about leaving what has been such a huge part of the majority of my life. I usually answer that I don’t have feelings – I’m infantry. But that’s not quite so – military people are the most sentimental people there are even if they don’t show it by blubbering. I guess you have to spend some time with warriors to really see that, and to see the other characteristics of this most unique breed. Man for man, and woman for woman, military are the funniest people you’ll ever meet. Contrary to what smug elitists presume, our warriors are the most knowledgeable of all Americans when it comes to our history and the Constitution. And in my biased view, they are simply the best of all Americans.
All decent Americans talk about supporting the troops, and they are absolutely right to do so. If you could see what I’ve seen of these young Americans it would validate what you already know – our young warriors are every bit the equal of the warriors who came before them. They live the Army values every day. People would thank me for my service, but I am a colonel – I just tried to look oriented to my surroundings. The troops and the sergeants/petty officers make it happen. They deserve your appreciation, and I only accepted your thanks on their behalf.
But, as amazing as the troops are, I leave an Army that is in crisis. Yes, some of it has to do with poor civilian leadership and strategic ineptitude, as well as budgets that prioritize passing out freebies to slugs at the expense of ensuring that our military can perform our government’s most vital function – defending our nation. Yet none of that explains the institutional sickness infecting the Army – and the other services.
Throughout my time, I served under great senior leaders, but today we see colonels and generals being court martialed for using their commands as their personal harems and private piggy banks – and getting slapped on the wrist where junior soldiers would find themselves locked up. Senior commanders who nearly lost the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were promoted while enlisted warfighters found themselves roasted over the coals by office-dwelling weasels for decisions made in the heat of battle. There’s a saying you sometimes hear – lose a rifle and lose a rank, but lose a war and win another star. Sadly, there’s a great deal of truth to it. The bad apples are the exception, not the rule, but allowing them to escape nearly unscathed sets a new, and lower, standard.
As the wars come to a close, a chickenstuff garrison mentality has started to creep back into the force. Look at its new priorities. The Army cries about being overworked and out of cash, but it chooses to spend precious training time and taxpayer money photographing its soldiers’ tattoos so they can’t get new ones because, well, damned if I know. This kind of degrading, foolish waste sends morale plummeting. So those guys with tatts were heroes when we needed them on the battlefield, but they came home and somehow morphed into dirtbags? Give me a break.
You read about generals bemoaning how the American people are removed and remote from their military, the proverbial civil/military divide, but then these same generals turn around and ensure that during the one time American citizens used to get to interact with our young troops they now can’t. I would fly in my camo uniform up to drill in Sacramento every month – yeah, being a reservist cost me about $600 a month for flights, a car and a room, which is surprisingly common among our dedicated citizen-soldiers. But then last March, the geniuses at the Pentagon decided that flying in ACUs didn’t look pretty and changed the uniform regulation to prohibit it with limited exceptions. Remember how troopers used to walk through airports and feel the appreciation of the American people? That’s mostly over. Maybe the brass was afraid that – God forbid – a civilian might buy one of our warfighters a Coors. There’s your peacetime Army mentality – it’s easier to ban the whole thing than risk a minor “incident.”
Pathetic. During my last few months, I had to fly in civvies and then change into my United States Army uniform in a damn toilet like it was something to be ashamed of. Are you kidding me?
It’s petty nonsense like that which drives our experienced combat vets off of active duty. I would like to tell you we are preserving their invaluable battlefield experience in the reserves, but the active component is doing everything it can to scoop up the reserve components’ resources. For example, the active duty force recently tried to take the National Guard’s Apache helicopters. Now, it takes millions to train each pilot. Reserve helicopter units allow the country to preserve that training and the combat experience earned post-9/11 in case we need it again. But because the active force was more interested in empire-building than combat effectiveness, it was willing to dump all those veteran aviators and instead spend millions training a bunch of new flyers who had no time under fire just so it could have those toys for itself. What a Charlie Foxtrot.
There is good news that conservatives need to hear. The end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has generally been a success. Many conservatives feared that the change would dramatically weaken the force, but that hasn’t happened. Here’s a little secret for you – who was and wasn’t gay was never a secret among us. You can’t work that closely and not know; if people are professionals, you have no reason to care.
I have personally seen no problems. Frankly, gay soldiers would have to work like hell to cause me more consternation than my straight ones did. The success of the change is a tribute not to posturing civilians but to our troops. The order came down to make it work, and they did. Period.
Sure, it was still a bit odd for us old timers. I was at one change of command ceremony where the strac incoming commander introduced her partner, and I turned to another bird colonel and said, “Well, I guess she and I have something in common – we both like hot Latin women.” Personally, I’m glad the gay soldiers I worked with over the years don’t have to worry about being hassled anymore and can focus on continuing to serve.
It’s that I won’t be continuing to serve that gets me. I loved being part of history. I listened to radio calls that I would later read about in books while in the VII Corps main command post during Desert Storm. I was in the first combat battalion on the streets in L.A. during the riots. I rolled after the Northridge earthquake and led my reinforced cavalry squadron to San Diego in record time when the city was in flames in 2007. I trained with Ukrainian soldiers who are now defending their country, and I walked through blasted villages in Kosovo and helped build that new nation.
I won’t miss the nonsense, but I’ll miss the people. I’ll miss the troops who never give up and always find a way. I’ll miss the NCOs, who taught me how to be an officer when I was an O1 and kept on teaching me until my last day on duty as an O6. I’ll miss the officer corps and its dedication to the men and the mission. Our warriors are the best, but now it’s time for me to cross the line of departure into retirement.
I took an oath when I enlisted as a delayed-entry private on May 20, 1987. I took another one when I became an officer. My Dad, a Navy lieutenant commander, swore me in when I was commissioned out of the Fort Benning Officer Candidate School (Company A, 3-11 Infantry) on March 26, 1988:
I, Kurt Andrew Schlichter, having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of second lieutenant, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.
I’ve tried to fulfill that oath ever since. My country’s confidence in me to lead American soldiers has been the greatest honor I will ever have. I leave with a profound sense of gratitude to my country, and with the knowledge that what I gained serving her far exceeded whatever I contributed as a soldier.
And there’s one more thing. Do you notice something about the oath? Something that’s not there?
Like so many others, just because I’m retired doesn’t mean I’m done. Two of the colonels I worked for came back after retirement and did at least six tours in Afghanistan and Iraq between them. That’s the standard. So if my country needs me again, I’m going to be just a high and tight haircut away from ready.
After all, that oath I took has no expiration date.
thanx for posting
I’ll share with you what a retired Army Four Star told a group one day. He was driving along and saw a convoy going too fast on the Interstate. He pulled up next to the lead vehicle and motioned with his hand for them to slow down. The driver looked over at him and gave him a less than appropriate single finger salute. He said that’s when he realized he was no longer a four star general.
Good stuff ping.
A success for whom?
I’m grateful for his service. But I notice how he is not happy with changes now. I was not happy with changes that were standard to him.
When I was in the Navy in the early 70s a tattoo was a courtmartial offense. I never new anyone who was courtmartialed but the threat was there. I also never knew anyone of my peers who had a tattoo.
Soldiers and Sailors and Airmen today travel in their camos, or utilities as we called them in the Bees. We flew in dress uniforms or civilian clothes. And if we drove to work we could wear our dungarees but we were not allowed to get out of the car on the way to or from “the office”.
Just little things that I don’t like. I also don’t like to see Waves that aren’t in dress uniforms. I think those are the sexiest uniforms in the military. I started to say I don’t like to see Waves out of their dress uniforms. But that would be wrong.
The professional warriors that will not let any indignity interfere with their desire to kill the enemy and keep us free. They got spit on and were called baby-killers after returning from Nam and kept on plugging. They will function despite the assault on them and their comrades by those who endeavor to debilitate them by making them a big social experiment. Their hearts and minds stay true and they will not falter. Their success is derived from God and their Hearts which will not be dominated.
I with you Sarge. Success for whom? Too many stories of the LGBT crowd using their new status to bully and cripple the carreers of non LGBTs. It has never been about equality - it is about getting even.
“Do you notice something about the oath? Something that’s not there?”...........
“So help me GOD”! I took such an oath myself and the words WERE included at that time.
That oath I took has no expiration date.
...and there you have it.
Be an oath keeper.
They were on mine, on 19 MAY 1984.
And yes, I still write my dates that way, and screw the civilians.
When did the practice of wearing ACUs off base start? Back in the day, that was prohibited except for work parties. Uniform of the day off base was either winter greens or summer tropicals (not khakis!). Dress blues were for ceremonial purposes.
One - the best supervisor I ever had in my time in the Navy was an Army SSGT back when I worked for a NATO command in Naples, Italy.
Two - I liked mostly what the newly retired COL wrote but I have always considered this the most important part of the oath - ...I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic... He is correct though that there is no expiration date and just because you retire or discharge does'nt mean you are no longer bound to it.
Thank you for your service, Sarge.
Thank you for posting this article.
The reason is that we are importing millions of muslim immigrants into America who feel they can attack those in uniform as part of their region - you f*cking O-6 idiot.
And gays in the infantry did hurt readiness and combat efficiency? Double f*cking O-6 idiot.
The same who alter the ROE to not attack the enemy?
The same who award themselves ARCOM's for trolling Facebook for politically-incorrect speech?
Who openly recruit for the Crips and Bloods in the barracks?
The same who allow bull-queers in the ranks and dare anyone who defies them?
Once again, as in the days of the Hollow Army in the 70's, to the Reign of Terror from '93-'00, my service is being socially engineered to death. They're not concerned with killing the enemy (unless the enemy is their fellow American citizens...)
He's got his pension, his healthcare-for-life, and his dacha by the lake - like a good Party man.
Accept Caesar's coin, do Caesar's bidding.
Yep.
5.56mm
Colonel;
Thanks for your service from one OCS source officer to another. B 3/11, ‘93. Enlisted DEC ‘83, served as 11B3P, commissioned 21B retired DEC 2006.
A few notes- an OCS enlistment option type, you really never were an enlisted man. 26.5 years as an officer, plus 6 months, then some snowbird time waiting for OCS (14 weeks) to start. Just to clarify for the readers.
As for the DADT comments, you surely are insulated from what the effects have been. The open season on straights who have those standards you mention, by those at every level, command to peer, who would and are forcing acceptance of behaviors that are, well, perverse and un-Soldierly. Net result of that policy change (not a law change) is the very erosion of discipline you allude to.
Your comment about the Lesbian who likes hot Latinas bespeaks of your loss of cardinal direction and an institutionalized azimuth error. So called “tolerance” is the last virtue of a dying culture.
What happened to your attention to the officers code of “not lying, cheating, or stealing or tolerating anyone who does”?
Good on ya for extolling the virtues of the Private and his NCOs as being the real heavy lifters in any armed service. They truly are and more!
I see newly enlisted Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen daily at Fort L Wood, and I can attest to their mettle and potential. Our nation is in good hands provided they are enabled and guided with good strong moral leadership. Also, they are not so blessed as you and I were in the Army of the ‘80-10’s. We are losing the culture war on the home front, while winning foreign campaigns with aplomb (although unless we conquer those lands, we lose them in the long run as the populations of those countries hate or at least dislike our freedoms as much as they enjoy our sacrifice to free them- a true conundrum for certain-and no longer worth an ounce of American blood or treasure to me).
Our Oath of office- Yeah, forgot the key words- “So Help me God”.
Note that there is no oath of fealty or allegiance to any government-only to the US Constitution so much a key in these times. We must remind our Warriors and Sailors of this critical aspect of allegiance- to none, not a single or collective person is our faith pledged, but to the Constitution its principles a guiding light of freedom and equality under law, before God and the His providence; especially in this time of lawless behavior by those charged or appointed or elected to the highest positions among us.
Again, Thanks for your service.
Duty, Honor, Country; This We’ll Defend!
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