Military Wife Scolded After Mass E-Mail

[Rose Siding]

Military Wife Scolded After Mass E-Mail
Spouses Told to Stifle Information Quests




Susan Peacock thought that the 400th Military Police Battalion Family Readiness Group was there to provide solace and support for spouses of soldiers shipped to Iraq.

But when she opened her e-mail on July 15, she was appalled at what she saw. The group leaders were playing what one later called "hardball" with the Columbia mother of two and other 400th family members.

"OK this has gone far enough!" they wrote. The message said that "certain people are getting their soldiers in trouble," and that the unit's e-mail list has been sent to the Pentagon "for possible security violations and will be closely monitored."

A few days earlier, Peacock had heard a news report about an explosion outside Baghdad, near where the 400th, her husband's unit, was based. Since he'd left this spring, she'd grown skeptical of the military's unfailingly rosy accounts of the 400th's status.

more..................

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51277-2003Jul26.html

[DemoTex]

1. The general's wife has spoken (Anita Blount)!

All of the rest of you Army wives: Fall in!, Dress-right-DRESS!, and Quitcherbitchin'!!

Snarf, snarf. I love this! It will backfire SO big on the regime that Rummy will not know whether to shit or go blind! Rummy is too stupid to look back to November 1965 at what happened when the Cav wives in Columbus, Georgia (Ft. Benning) were being notified of combat deaths from the bloody Ia Drang fighting by Yellow Cab drivers. These assholes never learn. Of course, since Rummy doesn't do quagmires, he probably skipped the entire chapter on Vietnam. Where is Pogo when we really need him?

[markses]

2. Interesting how Gibson shuts off the action at LZ X-Ray

in We were Soldiers, whereas Moore and Galloway devote more space in the book to the march to LZ Albany, which was where the real slaughter of the Cav occurred in the Valley of the Drang...

But yes. Yes indeed.

[DemoTex]

4. I have met Hal Moore. He is awesome.

I had some friends at X-Ray and Albany. Had being the operative word in that sentence. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway did the world a service by writing We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young. I wish the world knew how the events of 11/65 shook Robert McNamara to the very core.

First, on 11/5/65, a Quaker named Norman Morrison doused himself with kerosene on the steps of the Pentagon - within sight of McNamara's office (McNamara saw it happen) - and set himself afire. Suicide in protest of Vietnam, like Trich Quang Duc in Saigon in 1963.


One day in early June, 1963, a 73 year old Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc stopped in a busy street in Saigon, the Capital City of South Vietnam, and, after having been soaked with gasoline by a fellow monk, sat down cross-legged; thereupon, having calmly struck a match, he burned himself to death.

Then, less than two weeks later, the shit hits the fan in the Ia Drang. McNamara almost cracked.

I have read that McNamara decided to quit, and began grooming his #2, John McNaughton, to take over as SecDef. In July 1966 McNaughton and his family were killed when the Piedmont 727 on which they were passengers collided with a twin-Cessna, shortly after departing Asheville, NC. McNamara stayed on and the rest is a sad chapter in history. Which, obviously, Bu$h and Rumsfeld have not read.

[DemBones DemBones]

5. Cab drivers were notifying wives in Ft. Benning of combat deaths?

Now that sounds like a real SNAFU! You must tell us more. . .

The Bushista's problems with military families are quite interesting, considering that this is the much-touted Volunteer Military. As the leader of the group said, even reservists knew there was a chance of having to serve in combat when they signed on the dotted line. Imagine what the level of bitching would be if we had draftees in Iraq.

:wow:

[DemoTex]

7. It was so bad that when a Yellow Cab turned up a street with a fare ...

... the military wives, watching cautiously from behind cheap curtains, whould go bananas. Understandably. It was a chapter in Moore & Galloway's book. It was treated to a lesser extent in the film "We were Soldiers".

Total SNAFU, yes. The Army quickly re-wrote the book on NOK (next-of-kin) notification.

[TacticalPeek]

8. F***ing A...

Poor Darth Rummy.

"Anybody got a service secretary?"

"How about a JCS chairman? Anybody. Step right up."

"Well dammit, am I gonna have to privatize to get a service chief? I'm running out of retirees."


Plus, no more CINC's. At least a 60+ year tradition, IIRC.

"I only need one CINC, my AWOL Jody, that's all it takes."


Burn in hell.

[DemoTex]

9. AWOL Jody! LOL!

Oh that damn Jody! Thing was, Jody would get your girl. Bu$h has to stuff a sock in a flight suit to augment his pitiful cock. Bu$h never gets the girl. Never! Think about it. He is the quintessential loser!

[saigon68]

16. E-MAIL MAKES THIS WAR DIFFERENT.

In the NAM it took months to get a story told. Many were never told. It took a lot of money to mail thousands of people and tell them various leaders were DICKHEADS. It took the anti-war movement years to organize. The net changed all this. The truth will comeout much faster now.

Just remember that 19 months after a 90% approval rating, the father of the CHMPANZEE went down in flames in the election of Nov 1992. It too is going to happen at the ballot box to his equally useless offsring in Nov 2004. Have faith.

Mail these lies, articles and death notices to everyone you know. Sooner or later the public will get it.
And when they do, this gang of thugs and hoodlums will slink back in their holes to write their memoires.

[finecraft]

3. I'm confused.....

<snip> " Lisa Torey, the family program coordinator for the 220th Military Police Brigade, which oversees the 400th, said in an interview that there were no injuries in the blast Peacock was asking about. .....<snip> "She added that there had been several other "violations" regarding use of the e-mail chain. Torey, a civilian volunteer whose husband is deployed in Iraq, wouldn't specify what those were, but she said she had to put a stop to them".......<snip> "Finally, she added: "You also have to remember that your loved ones volunteered to do this, they may have done it with the impression that they would never go anywhere because they are 'Reservists,' but they knew that was a possibility when they signed that dotted line."

Is Lisa's Torey's husband military or not? It says that she is a civilian volunteer whose husband is deployed in Iraq. If he is military (even a reservist,now considered active duty military), why would they refer to her as a civilian? My husband retired after 20 years from the Navy, and I was always a "military wife", not a civilian, even when he was an active reservist. Is her husband an employee of a DOD contractor, like Halliburton? If that is the case, and I would have a received an email like Mrs. Torey's, I would have been highly pissed off...How Dare her lecture to military spouses on the reasons why their "loved ones volunteered to do this"....

[DemBones DemBones]

6. Maybe it was intended to make clear that Mrs. Torey is not in the

military herself. That is my guess as what it means, anyway. But it would have been a bit clearer to say that her husband is a soldier (or Marine or sailor) deployed in Iraq. I'll bet her e-mail did piss off a lot of the wives, no matter who she's married to. They were probably still angry about the one that said they were being reported to the Pentagon.

Dem Bones (19 years of service as a Navy brat )

[jamesinca]

11. We need to send the Bush lied, people died to these people

I know it is low and dirty to hack an e-mail and to prey on their fears, but it will turn these people. It will make the likes of Lisa Torey and her ilk pitiful. It will put this administration into focus for the people back here at home. War is hell on the home front!!!

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

10. *

[0007]

12. The soup is heating up!

....when the female is thrown in the pot the soup will begin to boil.

Watch Out!!

The protest and outrage that is on the way will be enough to scare the living shit out of anyone......

[Solly Mack]

13. I'm a FRG Leader

And we allow news articles on our company's FRG web site. We also allow spouses to post "what they've heard"....what we don't allow..and have way too much of now as it is... is "personal attacks" against each other.

Now, we do draw the line at troop movement, etc. We do have to be mindful of what is considered a security breach by the command....but once something is public domain, it's public domain and we post it.

We also don't advertise our site outside the circle of family.

Military spouses can be some of the most gawd-awful battleaxes on the planet. I say that as a military spouse. In fact, some days I'd just like to slap the everloving shit out of some of them for just being plain stupid. Whine about the war...but still think Shrub is great. Actually believe Iraq attacked the WTC...things like that. It's enough to make ya want to just shake them to see if anything rattles in their head.

[UpInArms]

15. well - they act like that because

Lisa Torey, the family program coordinator for the 220th Military Police Brigade, which oversees the 400th, said in an interview that there were no injuries in the blast Peacock was asking about. Peacock's e-mail, she said, was distressing to many families who don't watch the news and don't want bits of information dripping in from unofficial sources. They have a right, she said, not to be disturbed with troubling news.

when they refuse to even know what is happening - "just git me a gun and let me kill some Eye-rack-ees" and they carry a picture of the WTC and say stupid things like "it's payback time", these people are not defending liberty and America - they are just mercenaries getting their rocks off.

I have the utmost respect for the military, but I wish they would respect the truth more than they were willing to "follow orders" from Dumsfeld and AWOL-boy.

[Solly Mack]

17. Our spouses are fairly big on watching the news

or surfng the net for news. Problem is, they watch Faux Snooze or surf reichwing and patriot-rich web sites.

We have several soldiers up on investigation for war crimes..not yet charged..NO, these aren't the others in the news that are actually charged.....but yesterday, wives called me constantly wanting to know "are these our troops?"...Fortunately, I could say NO...but I couldn't tell them about the actual investigations within our company....Even if I could, they would deny the wrong committed or try to explain it away with "so?", "it's wrong to charge our troops no matter what", or "who cares about Iraqis?"....and this is what I live with on a daily basis. It's as if right from wrong doesn't play into their thinking....unless it's a wrong they agree with (such as being a democrat-my soldier hubby recently got berated for being a democrat..he laughed at the person)


I pass out info on benefit cuts. I pass out info on pay cuts. I pass out info on the lies about this "war".. and they don't care...they KNOW how low morale is...they just refuse to accept it. Refuse to entertain the notion that troops are dying for nothing. Not for freedom. Not for liberty. Not for democracy.

They fight with each other over the most petty of things and write hateful letters to other spouses soldiers, often filled with pernicious lies. Instead of focusing their anger where it needs to be, they turn on each other.

You bet there are some truly wonderful military spouses...but the bad far outweigh the good.

When I agreed to take this position I didn't realise I would end up being playground monitor to a bunch of mental midgets in the sandbox.

[Tinoire]

18. I'm glad you posted that

On edit: Thanks for the work you do with them!

I lurk on a few military boards and am shocked by the discognant reasoning though I have noticed that there are a few who speak up and refuse to back down. Most of the rage seems to be directed at Rumsfeld for poor logistical planning and not at Bush, his lies, or the illegality of the war itself.

They just want THEIR loved ones to come home and replaced by SOMEONE ELSE's loved ones. It doesn't seem to matter to them if the replacements come from another US unit and NATO is often mentioned as a first choice. This is the same height of selfishness that got us in this ugly situation.

When Sadaam's sons were killed they were jumping and whooping for joy seemingly unable to see that that type of monstrosity only increases the chances that their loved ones could get killed. The whole thing is depressing.

What I like about these ladies though is that they are pissed and refused to be shut up. Occasionally some lieutenant or captain's wif shows up with that ridiculous "we are giving aid and comfort to the enemy" speech and gets told to back off and leave them to their freedom of speech. Reads like DU in certain parts.

If we could only expose FOX news, run that Rumsfeld mouth-piece out of town, there would be hope but right now most of them are still totally brain-washed. In a few years, when they finally figure out why so many of the soldiers returning still have that "vacant stare" in their eyes, they might figure out how used and lied to they've been by this whole administration. Some seem to be already, slowly catching on but you're right, the addiction to FOX news is not helping.
My observation of military families is that, while extremely kind and sharing people, they hadn't a clue of what was really going on in the world around them. Sadly, that comment applies to most Americans.

[dbt]

14. Has nobody ever learned

that you don't piss off the Women?

:evilgrin:
dbt

"The one thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history." --George Bernard Shaw