| I have to share this because it is true and outrageous. My best friend got called up out of the reserves 2 years ago. He has been either active duty or in the reserves since he was 20. He has had several different MOS's and is a former Ranger, his father retired last year as a Command Sgt Major. We talk over some beer for hours whenever we can, mostly for the conversation. He has many stories, many funny, however the latests story I heard from him I would find hard to believe if I was not hearing it from my best friend. Like me he is now 41 and does specialized logistics which is one of two specialized units for the type of job he does. Last time I heard from him he was a first Sgt, but I believe has been promoted by now.
Anyway he got sent to Texas where he was needed along with his team to attempt to efficiently get things going to the right place that come back from Iraq etc. For some reason the Col. that my friend is under decided that he wanted to have his personell wear non military issue hats, they had a strong Texas influence to them. My friend and those he worked with were required to turn in their Army issue hats to ensure that the "cowboy influenced" hats were worn. My friends unit was much more efficient and there was another team doing essentially the same job a 6 hour drive away from where he was at, the idea being one unit helping the other to become more efficient and basically get them up to speed. When my friend arrived at the other location in Texas the Col. at that unit did not have the same "fashion sense" as my friends commander had, and not surprisingly he was taken aback from the hats that my friend and fellow soldiers were required to wear, so he contacted my friends Col. regarding the odd hat deal, well it ended up that the Col. whose soldiers needed help getting things done insisted on the "soldiers on loan" wear their Army issued covers. My friends Col. then said fine you cant borrow my soldiers to help you out and had my friend drive another 6 hours back to where they started from, which meant that my friend and those with him got no work done at either location and drove 12 hours that day for nothing due to the pissing match between the Col.'s. I cant believe that this is the only isolated case of outrageous conduct by a pair of Col.'s that one would expect to act like big boys especially at that rank. I thing that 20% of the Federal budget for the military is appropriate, but I dont think anyone not in a straight jacket would not be a bit upset that this is how are tax dollars are being spent and how two Col.'s in command of logistics manage to FUBAR the logistics of 7 soldiers because of a hat. I think that there is obviously a lot of fat that could be cut and defense spending used much better than this ridiculous situation..... |
