Varus from a Liberal on Cuts to Military Spending.Follow

While I hate the waste and abuse of contractors for the Defense Dept, I for one am glad that we are willing to spend enough for the men and women who serve our country.

What is worst is when we send them off to war without proper equipment and they die because someone doesn't want to spend money for a bullet proof jacket or armor on a Humvee.

So lets hope that in trying to control costs for 2 wars, those we send to the battlefields won't find they don't have the equipment they need, while Gates has the bureaucrats in Washington looking for ways to save billions from the Defense Budget.

Edited, Jun 3rd 2010 9:42pm by ElneClare

Fewer bean counters, you syphilitic wastrel.

Anyone promising you "efficiency savings" is probably lying through their teeth.

They can stop doing no-bid contracts with companies that do inferior work, like Haliburton.

?

I'm not down with your fancy marine lingo.

Ain't that a *****, when they actually go by what they're authorized to do in the UCMJ? I hate it when cops enforce civilian laws.

Just demand a court-martial every time they bring you up for NJP. Its your right, they can't turn you down. They either go to the expense of a trial in which they have to prove the charges (and for which they have to provide you an attorney), or they drop the charges. Unless its actually serious, they'll drop the charges.

If you're a gutless ***** that won't stand up for his rights they do.

Sure, go ahead. Ask.

Well, I won't keep you in suspense any longer.

Yes, I spent six years in the Navy. Was brought up on charges four times. Two were righteous and I took my lumps at NJP, and two were bogus and I demanded, received and was acquitted at, two courts martial. When two more instances of being threatened with NJP arose, I assured the command that I would be demanding a court martial in both instances, and in both cases they never bothered to proceed.

The people I worked for sure thought I was. I was highly recommended for promotion and retention with every eval, and was promoted five times. I was also the only electrician to qualify as engineering officer of the watch, and the youngest, most junior man aboard to qualify as OOD. My evals were consistently 3.8 or 4.0 in every category except Military Bearing, in which they were 3.6 - 3.8, and the only comment that anyone ever posted about that was "fails to utilize a certain amount of tact at times".

Doing what I was told without knowing why was never my strong suit. Nor was taking **** from people who outranked me and were giving me **** simply because they did not like me. None of the charges against me ever originated with people with or for whom I worked. In addition. All four of the charges that were either dropped or of which I was exonerated came while under the command of a man who embezzled the crew's welfare and recreation fund money (and possibly other moneys as well), failed to follow certain required engineering practices regarding the ship's reduction gear (which was not owned by the USN, but was leased from General Electric, hence the very strict requirements), and then falsified logs about the reduction gear and ordered others to do so as well. He did everything he could to make the lives of those who refused to sign the fake logs miserable. I was one of them.

Both of the righteous NJPs centered on fighting. In the first, the other guy was the aggressor and received a far more severe punishment than I did. He received a reduction in rate, loss of a half month's pay for two months and was restricted to the ship for 30 days. I got extra duty for two weeks (ie: I had to work an extra two hours every day).

In the second, I went after a guy that was messing with my food. My punishment was to become his boss for six months. Which pretty much endorses my actions without condoning them. They knew they guy was a complete douche, and were not exactly upset with me for kicking his ***.

I asked a friend of mine about your claims and he suggested there's a reason you say what you do. It has nothing to do with the Corp and everything to do with you. Mostly learn to take a hint with a little bit of this guys just a little bitter about something mixed in.

He's a 17 year First Sergeant. Got on his bus 3 days after we graduated and is a lifer. You're right though. He has a spot free record for his entire service.

So, your complaint is what, that the Corps. has changed, he's changed with it and doesn't have any patience for new guys with attitude problems? If "Old Corps" was more permissive it should be the old guys who have the beef.