Cold War era barracks in the USMC. Nothing fancy, but kept clean. There was a respect for government property and troop welfare. OOD would make a tour to check on things. There was a First Sergeant around somewhere who expected a standard to be maintained. Field day once a week. Maintenance issues were reported. It all seemed to work out OK.
“The GAO concluded that leaders at the Pentagon are not only failing to provide oversight — instead choosing to largely punt the issue to the branches — but they also don’t consider it a priority. The result has been bureaucratic finger-pointing, with no one office or leader willing to own the issue.”
This story has been posted by several sources. See them here.
Many of us were spending our first Christmas away from home. In those days, If you were old enough to be in the Marines, you were old enough to drink on or off base. We had a shop Christmas party where people wrapped and exchanged bottles of booze.
A guy from California received a small Christmas tree from his Mom back home. The tree came with real pinecones and lights. After unpacking the box and putting the tree together, the lights were plugged in. Now it was time to look sad and lonely and pose for the photo I took. Then off to something else besides thinking of Christmas.
Hey Uncle Sam- know that information suppression will kill enthusiasm related to enlisting in the US Armed Forces.
People want to live in a free and honest society.
Also-
This video:
From comments:
“LET’S CONSIDER MILITARY RECRUITING AND RETENTION PROBLEMS.You may have heard something about the problems the military is having with recruiting and retention. Well, part of that problem is most Americans don’t know anything about it ….. or care.First, let’s establish that this is a serious issue. Our military needs the appropriate numbers and types of people to do its job protecting the rest of us. The wrong numbers and types of people means we will loose the next war. Additionally, other nations will see our weakness and decide to be extra aggressive, increasing the chance of war.WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CAUSES OF OUR CURRENT PROBLEMS?Some say it’s because about 75% of America’s youth are not qualified to enter the services. Left unexamined is the fact that this is not a new condition which has never before had a serious effect on recruitment.Some say it’s because the military has gone Woke, and that repels recruits and those already in the services. Military leadership rejects this. But, there is ample proof of its truth. And, it’s military leadership that has caused it. Some say it the economy. Conditions are so good that recruits and existing military are drawn to the civilian market. But, given the state of the current economy, that is a questionable belief….. at best.HOW IS THE MILITARY LEADERSHIP ADDRESSING THE PROBLEM?Standards are being lowered….. Regardless of lowering the ability to fight, current leadership is desperate not to look bad. It seems they would rather loose the next war instead.Bribes are being paid….. Payments of up to $100,000 are being offered to attract recruits and keep existing military.There is an increased reliance on women to fill combat slots….. This may decrease our combat effectiveness. But, it will temporally stop the leadership from looking bad.It is interesting to look at the environment in which the recruitment and retention problems exist.FOR MOST OF THE PAST 75 YEARS, WE HAVE BEEN AT WAR (although congress has not declared war as required ……even once).AND, WE HAVEN’T WON ANY OF THEM. All of these conflicts were against inferior adversaries that posed no chance of large scale war that would threaten the continental United States. We went to their countries…..they won…..and we left. Recently, 3 big things have happened. First…. After fighting for 20 years in the middle east, we were kicked out of Afghanistan looking unprofessional and like a bunch of losers. Second….. the US blundered into a proxy war with Russia….. Third, China is becoming more and more aggressive. A war involving Russia and/or China would most likely be similar to WW 2 (at best) and could easily go nuclear and end mankind…..That means all of us would be dead.Many Americans have determined that military leadership, both uniformed and, mostly civilian, has not been up to the task since WW 2. Some even believe the Deep State is pushing us to war for the benefit of the military/industrial complex. PERHAPS OUR MILITARY HISTORY IS CAUSING THE PROBLEMS IN RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION?What are our leaders NOT doing to address the problem?THEY ARE NOT CONSIDERING A DRAFTWhile a draft would solve a number of problems, politicians will never vote for it. The 25% of Americas youth who would be susceptible do not want to die and would vote the politicians out of office. Also, the parents and families of the 25% would likewise vote against these politicians. But, the biggest reason the politicians would not bring back the draft is they know a large portion of Americans would then become interested in our foreign affairs and that would drastically limit the politicians ability to send our military into conflicts. This would dry-up the money and influence politicians now have access to.THEY ARE NOT CHANGING HOW WE ADDRESS FOREIGN AFFAIRSOur leaders are also not considering changing our approach of engaging in military interventions around the world. Our history of deciding where to get involved, our goals, our definition of victory, our strategy and tactics have a 75 year record of failure. We don’t seem to know what we are doing ( This is not an opinion. this is historical FACT ).Yet, there is no call to examine what we did and how we can avoid the continuation of our record of failure. Nobody has been held responsible. NOTHING !Perhaps the gen-Z generation has recognized this and has acted to try and stay alive. WE GET WHAT WE VOTE FOR”
Some truly excellent points here. Well done.
The press, politicians, and some Americans will avoid pointing out the reality of this situation.
The US should maintain strong and ready military forces. The Cold War ended in the early 90s. The Pentagon was happy with the All Volunteer Force.
Look what they did with it.
Decades after the lessons of Vietnam, it feels like the people who run the Pentagon specialize in undeclared/unwon wars.
Understandable why young people and their parents and grandparents would take a dim view on all this.
Will an older generation encourage a younger generation to do time in the US Armed Forces in the years ahead?
Question For The Uniparty Press:
Currently serving four-star officers and high level DOD civilians have been associated with what wars won by the US?
“The GAO concluded that leaders at the Pentagon are not only failing to provide oversight — instead choosing to largely punt the issue to the branches — but they also don’t consider it a priority. The result has been bureaucratic finger-pointing, with no one office or leader willing to own the issue.”
“Sending soldiers to war based on lies and then treating them like shit when they return hurts recruitment.”
“You wanna know why people don’t enlist? Drive through the city and tell me how many signs you see that say “homeless vet, please help.” Tell me how many pharmacies stopped accepting Tricare. Tell me how often uncle Jim can’t be with the family for the 4th of July because fireworks make him freak out. And they pay you worse than a janitor! To guard a parking lot for a government that hates you! It’s not worth it!”
“I was a Marine for nearly a decade. I would never have joined if I knew what the country would turn into. The US is no longer worth defending. I moved out of the US permanently for an Asian country that has some dignity and self-respect.
Edit: BTW, I don’t believe it is the problems you’ve stated. People want to fight for things they believe in, and, like me, they’ve lost faith in the country and have no desire to join”
“I currently serve right now as a reservist. They are throwing money at new recruits, but for people who are already in, and for veterans, there is very little being done to keep us. Reenlistment bonuses are not great unless you have special forces or other high profile experience, and all veterans and currently serving know how difficult it is to get the benefits we are promised. I’ve been in for sixteen years and if it weren’t for being close to retirement pension eligibility in a few years, I would get out.”
“one of the biggest issues imo is the fact that people who get out tell their friends and family to never join, word of mouth is much more powerful than any marketing campaign”
“I was going to enlist in the army after high school. My parents, uncle and grandpa recommended me not to go in the army, yet, go into the airforce. They also said that they already fought so we won’t have to fight. They advised if I were to join the military that it should be in the purpose of defending our homeland, instead of some other crappy country that can care less about the US.”
“Growing up at the height of 9/11 and the Early War years as a kid right outside Fort Hood Army base. Patriotic fervor was in full swing. “Support The Troops” ribbons. Endless School art projects that entailed making American flags for newspaper stories. We wrote letters and sent mail to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, they would write back etc. I used to think Military Service was of the highest honor. But over the years the disturbing stories kept filtering in. Soldiers that had deployed to combat 5 times. Soldiers that got “Stop-Lossed” (Forcefully having their contract extended after trying to process out) An epidemic of suicide and nightmare disability process. The Iraq-Afghanistan Wars have truly decimated the prestige and image of the Service. The new generation has spent their entire lives seeing a generation of service men and women get brutalized by two wars and an indifferent government. I understand that on some level this has always been the case. But the “War On Terror” has been a unique beast entirely in screw-ups.”
There are more than 1,800 comments posted with the video above. I’ll stop here.
PBS NewsHour:
“Comments are turned off.”
Hey Uncle Sam- know that information suppression will kill enthusiasm related to enlisting in the US Armed Forces.
Here at Oak Bay Starfish, we believe that a return to the draft is total political fantasy. Below, we will go into some of the reasons why, but not much is new if you’re one of the many readers who have been closely following the blog at any time since the catastrophic military failure of 911. Still wondering if anyone was fired over that.
National Guard
Thousands of men and women who signed up for the National Guard in the past 25 years did tours in places like Syria, Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo.
These families have stories to tell and they’re not all positive. Will their stories support a draft?
The Times describes an early melt of winter snowpack, hyped reservoirs that are less than 30% of capacity, talking about a “dwindling” water supply, and OF COURSE, blamed ‘”climate change, caused by burning fossil fuels, is making these types of hot and dry summers more frequent and making droughts more severe.”
Love to see the mainstream press get out and interview people on various sides of any issue.
Nice example here –
0:41 in the video below:
If ethanol made a lot of sense we wouldn’t have to subsidize it or mandate its consumption:
I want to know what various people are thinking on various issues.
“The ferry Walla Walla, which had been sailing between Seattle and Bremerton, will be out of service for at least four weeks as crews repair a propeller that broke near Rich Passage last week.”
The companies with fleets of merchant ships serving the ports of Seattle and Tacoma are moving cargo all over the world every day. Are they converting to hybrid-electric?
How about the companies that move cargo on an ongoing basis from Seattle to Alaska. Are they converting to hybrid-electric? How about the trucking companies that move shipments of cargo from the port of Tacoma to Denver. Are they converting to hybrid-electric?
Love to see the press interview the owners of these companies to learn more.
The mainstream press provides news coverage that favors government agencies, departments and policies.
The press release style of news reporting means that a statement is prepared by whatever agency was involved in the latest policy update, drug bust/federal grant money award, etc.
Newspeople post this statement as is.
A 5th grade book report would require more in the way of asking questions.
Love to see the mainstream press get out and interview people on various sides of any issue.
Nice example here –
0:41 in the video below:
If ethanol made a lot of sense we wouldn’t have to subsidize it or mandate its consumption:
I want to know what various people are thinking on various issues.
Here at Oak Bay Starfish, we have been posting Re: WA State Ferries for years. A favorite story was the auto tollbooth upgrade at Mukilteo. Here is what we found on the web:
Will it take 18 months to find out what really happened? People will say that national security is a factor in releasing information. This is an important point.
The Uvalde, Texas shooting took place well over a year ago and it appears that information may still be developing. The Uvalde story is not connected to national security concerns. Calls for more gun control will develop. Here in the Seattle area, newspeople refuse to report on results of past gun control measures.
Zero questions from small or large newspapers. Zero questions from TV newspeople.
The small papers will say they need more support from subscribers and advertising dollars or cash from the federal government to stay alive. All this because COVID or the internet or lack of newspaper sales, or a free and independent press that needs taxpayer support.
People who take no public funds, private donations or advertising dollars are free to ask questions at any time. Why not the press? Call for unpaid volunteers and you’d get better news coverage than what we have now.
I’d be more interested in paying (again) for a local paper subscription if there was more in the way of newspeople asking questions.
No sense in subscribing to newspapers that do not ask public policy-related questions.
JFK speaks about the role of the press in a free society:
Sports Culture Tends To Be More Honest
Think of an NFL game. Coaches and quarterbacks face the press after every game and answer questions, win or lose.
No press secretary. No public relations spokesperson. No freedom of information act requests. No classified documents.
Instant replays, commentary in the broadcast booth, analysis from network studios, sports talk radio, etc. Fans get tons of info all of the time. No chance for conspiracy theories to develop. Missed calls by NFL officials may be discussed for weeks on end. No such thing as: “We can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.” Instant replay is for all to see. Sports writers are OK with being critical of coaches, teams, players, the rule book, the league, referees, team owners, when the season starts and ends, etc. This is what a free and independent press looks like.
US Armed Forces – Less Honest
In sports, coaches get fired for poor play. Not so much in the US Armed Forces.
If DOD was an NFL team, sports talk radio would feature comments like:
The Dept. of Defense was nowhere to be found on 911. We haven’t won a war since.
Any college or pro football coach would have been fired a dozen times over for what DOD has done with the US Armed Forces during the fake GWOT era.
The US should maintain strong and ready military forces. The Cold War ended in the early 90s. The Pentagon was happy with the All Volunteer Force.
Look what they did with it.
Decades after the lessons of Vietnam, it feels like the people who run the Pentagon specialize in undeclared/unwon wars.
Understandable why young people and their parents and grandparents would take a dim view on all this.
“Brown pelicans are common to abundant in Washington’s outer coastal waters from spring through autumn. Up to 16,000 have been reported roosting at East Sand Island in the Columbia River estuary. These birds nest in the Gulf of California and along the coast of Baja California in Mexico north to Channel Islands in southern California.”
Where were you? along with a photo of a peaceful/standing twin towers.
My response:
With my GF in Kingston. Had already done some time in uniform. Took me several years to become skeptical and see that the federal government and the press had lost credibility.
Today:
My feeling is that a man on the moon in 1969 was a proud American moment. That was maybe the best of America in my lifetime.
“What I remember most about 9/11 is the way America was unified the day after. During uncontrollable times we controlled our response. Race, Gender and Political Party were equally irrelevant.”
“We focused on loving each other, how did we get so segregated? We never would have made it this far if we embraced division on September the 12th. We are where we are because we got here TOGETHER let’s embrace love yet again.”
“God Bless The USA.”
My response:
Good Stuff
Let’s keep that and add a free and independent press that will ask questions/rock the boat, no matter who is in office.
The mainstream press provides news coverage that favors government agencies, departments and policies.
Photo above: USMC Okinawa 1980
