Brother is called BACK to Iraq for the 6th time at least.

[LincolnMcGrath]

He was to be spending a 3-4 year deployment in HI. Nah, EIGHTEEN MONTHS from now he and maybe wife will both be going back to the desert.

He went once before Desert Shield. Twice during Desert Storm, and Twice during the current resource grab.


Thats right kiddies! I said he KNOWS he will be going back EIGHTEEN months from now! Good thing the 'wartime prez' knew enough to hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis.

[Blue Wally]

1. My son-in-law.....

Is in the Navy. He was a Navy medic with the Marines in ODS (90-91), was on the ship that fired the Christmas barrage into Baghdad in 98, made Kosovo in 99, and OIF in 2003. As long as you accept the "three hots and a cot" from Sam, you go where you are told. Just the nature of the beast.

[LincolnMcGrath]

2. He was also in Bosnia

He was also in Kosovo
He was also in Somalia/Africa

Peacekeeping missions are something I support. Bush Crime Family 'wars' are not!

P.S. He ain't had a free meal in years.

[Blue Wally]

7. He has had "free meals"

The military provide the enlisted men with free meals. Should the enlsited member choose to live off base, he may be provided with a payment for "commuted rations". Then when he does eat a meal in the mess hall, he is charged for it and screams to high heavens about it.

[LincolnMcGrath]

8. My brother is an officer!

Nice to see how you support the troops though. Most enlisted folks live in poverty! I guess you never heard they were charging for meals to injured soldiers in the hospital.

[Blue Wally]

11. And?

I was an officer for 28 years (I guess I saved 14 guys from getting drafted). I was never in the hospital, but my wife and kids were several times and I always had to pay for hospital meals for them.

Somewheres along the line, someone fogured that the "subsistence allowance" was a part of their pay and not just commuted rations. Used to be when you went to the field or went afloat, the ration allowance was stopped for that period. In Vietnam, the officers signed for their meals (even if they were C-rats) and there was a payroll deduction taken. The enlisted just lost their separate rats (even if they didn't eat a meal).

[LincolnMcGrath]

14. INJURED TROOPS PAYING FOR MEALS!

Why would anyone think your family could eat for free?

[Blue Wally]

17. Injured troops only pay for meals if they are drawing sep rats.

[LincolnMcGrath]

18. wrong

ARLINGTON, Va. — Pentagon officials issued a clarification Wednesday, saying that troops wounded in combat have been exempted permanently from paying for their meals when staying in military hospitals.

Officials acknowledged they misunderstood the November legislation that made the change permanent.

[Blue Wally]

23. OK

I didn't know they had changed the policy (gotten a bit noncurrent in retirement). So what you have been bitching about has been fixed.

[LincolnMcGrath]

24. I beleive you must be refering to blue wally

I was he who thought my brother owed something for his years of 'three hots and a cot'.

[Eloriel]

39. What exactly are you doing here, Wally?

Here at DU, I mean.

[LincolnMcGrath]

41. I thought the same thing

:shrug:

[Blue Wally]

43. Mostly........

Trying to restore some historical sanity to some of the more "tinfoil hat" posts. I guess that JFK Democrats (1st president I voted for) aren't welcome in this brave new world of McGovernites/Deaniacs.

I was posting on a military technology site when i saw a reference to this place and thought I would come over and see what was going on.

[LincolnMcGrath]

45. Where is the Tin Foil in any of my posts

Come Strong or stay on the couch!

[sandnsea]

38. oh come on

Subsistence isn't enough to cover food for the troop and family and it never has been. I don't mind that I had to pay for food when I had a child on base in the military, but to make a troop pay when he's been wounded??? Ridiculous. Did they not issue you a real world heart?

[LincolnMcGrath]

40. good one

"Did they not issue you a real world heart?"

[Kanary]

31. wadda sweetie........

Dang good thing at least we liberals care about the troops........

Kanary

[LincolnMcGrath]

32. Hey Kanary!

:hug: :hug: :hug:

[merh]

28. I had not heard that. You mean the guys that are at

Walter Reed going through PT to learn how to walk on the prosethetic leg they now have to wear are charged for their food? Does Uncle Sam charge for the prosethetic too?

I am amazed, I knew the military benefits and vets benefits had gotten bad, but I never imagined....

My prayers for you and your brother and his family. Please give him a big hug from a DUer and tell him thanks.

[LincolnMcGrath]

29. Thank You

The uproar from us on the left caused the bastards to change the policy.

Once again pointing out the insanity of Privatizing everything! (see Haliburton)

[Kanary]

33. Yup, the heavy lifting is up to the craaaazzzy leftists.........

maybe someday the bulk of the military will get the memo on that.......

Thanks, Lincoln!

:toast:

Kanary

[LincolnMcGrath]

36. My bro has no use for the right

What with the benefit cuts and there horrible track record.


(See: Cheney and 41 bragging about defense cuts)

[Kanary]

37. Does he mention what other soldiers are saying?

He's intelligent, and I hope it's spreading.

Tell him I send my greetings.......

:hi:

Kanary

[LincolnMcGrath]

42. The truth is getting out to the troops

about benefit cuts.

According to him, No one bought the Iraq/WMD horseshit either.

[leesa]

10. What's a peacekeeping military mission? Have we ever had one?

More double-speak.

[LincolnMcGrath]

12. Stopping the Slaughter in Somalia?

Ending the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo?


I got your double speak right here!

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Not welcome news, LM -- and very interesting re. the 18-month

projection.

[Mari333]

4. Im so damned sorry ((((((((hug))))))))))

Now I guess I can look "forward" to Michael coming back in February and being sent right back into that hellhole...when will this ever f*cking end!!!!????????????? I cant take much more.
http://www.bringthemhomenow.com

[LincolnMcGrath]

5. 14 permenent bases

We will be there for decades.




Just remember, they hate us for our freedoms! :eyes:

[Mari333]

19. Im leaving, I wont be part and parcel of this country anymore

Its gone too far. Ive been through enough. F*ck it.Im sick of it, Im sick of watching , for the last 50 years of my life, a military industrial complex of brutish adolescents destroying people around them, greed, avarice, meanness, cruelty that knows no bounds..Im sick to death of it..I cant bear it anymore. My heart is on the ground. It has literally destroyed my family too many times. I wont let it destroy us anymore.

[LincolnMcGrath]

20. a video from frontline

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/truth/view/

[slackmaster]

6. Damn, that sucks

My brother just got out of there once and for all.

[LincolnMcGrath]

9. Out of the service?

Or just out of Iraq?

[slackmaster]

13. Out of the Persian Gulf, into Colorado, still in the Navy

He's a Commander now. Just finished 2 years running a mine sweeper in the gulf. Did a lot of real live combat duty. Was commander of one of the first two ships (the other being a British mine sweeper) to enter the harbor at Basra. He's now been there, got the medal, and got out intact.

He's moving his family to not far from CO Liberal's digs. Maybe I can arrange for a cup of coffee with him some day soon.

:D

[LincolnMcGrath]

15. My bro was supposed to spend a few years in HI.

So much for that!

Thats great news for you though!

[slackmaster]

16. Our mom is very relieved

The grandkidlets are out of harm's way.

[LincolnMcGrath]

21. kick

[LincolnMcGrath]

22. bump

[GreenPartyVoter]

25. I am so sorry about that. :^(

[LincolnMcGrath]

26. PM DUcrew kick

[shance]

27. Im sorry to read that Lincoln. I appreciated you mentioning it here on DU

We can hope and pray that perhaps between now and the eighteen month time span, some positive shifts will have ocurred in leadership and policy** Hopefully he will not have to return, and/or if he is still called back, that his mission will be to provide aid, healing and peaceful transitioning to help a very despirited/beleaguered country that only wants to live in peace at some point again.

Again, Im so sorry.

So many of us feel powerless like you. A friend of mine told me today she is going to see her nephew off because he too is being deployed back to Iraq this week.

My heart goes out to you and all the families and troops dealing with this right now.

[LincolnMcGrath]

30. Thank you

Give your friend a hug from me!

[DrWeird]

34. You know...

Canada is a beautiful place.

[LincolnMcGrath]

35. NOT ANY MORE

* got Canada to agree to send them back. Early in his pResidency.

[Solly Mack]

44. Yep. My husband's company got the18 month warning the other day

and some idiots volunteered to go back by Julys end (attached to another company)- which means they'll come back and redeploy again (w/ original company) within 3 months.

[LincolnMcGrath]

46. Hugs from all of us.

:hug:

:hug:

:hug:

[Solly Mack]

47. awww...Thanks!!

Luckily, we'll be spared the deployment. We move to Germany in September. Course, he'll eventually go back.