AWOL Muslim Arrested: Suspect In Planned Terror Attack at Ft. Hood

Fox News broke a story earlier about a possible planned terrorist attack on Ft. Hood and in the early reporting they stated that three people were under arrest but were withholding the names. Well, the first name has come out and to nobody's surprise he is a Muslim, but he is also a soldier with a long track record in the public eye.



In addition to the CNN report above he also gave interviews to Al-Jazeera and anybody else wishing to listen to this pathetic loser's sob story.

Back in 2010, after serving for over an year, and upon his unit at Ft. Campbell receiving deployment orders to Afghanistan, he got in touch with his inner Muslim and decided to apply for Conscientious Objector status based upon Islam being such a peaceful religion and all. These sort of claims always crack me up, and in this guy's case even more so. You see, the guy is in the Infantry, which are the bomb dodgers, bullet catchers, baby makers and widow makers of the Army. This can be gleaned from the HLN video attached by the blue rope around his right soldier. Only Infantry soldiers are allowed to wear it.

I should know, I wore one for 22 years. I would have thought in a post-9/11 world with the US Military engaged in two active wars in Muslim countries that somewhere during his 15 weeks of training at Ft. Benning that he just might have got a clue that he could be called upon to fight in one of these wars.

Well, anyway, while his CO status case was going through the process he decided to go AWOL and apparently fled to the Ft. Hood area, where he found a sympathetic band of losers who operate a coffee shop just outside the main gate and assist AWOL soldiers in hiding out and provide legal assistance to them. Meanwhile, back at Ft. Campbell, investigators who were going through his computer found some kiddie porn, which of course is perfectly acceptable in the Muslim faith, seeing as their great leader was a pedophile himself.

We will have to see how this story plays out over the next hours and days, and keep in mind there are still two more soldiers who have been arrested in this alleged plot.

UPDATE: Reuters now reports that the FBI say he was arrested with bomb making material.

A missing U.S. Army soldier is expected to face federal charges on Thursday after he was arrested with "bomb-making material" in his hotel room near Fort Hood, Texas, a local FBI agent said.

And You Freak Out Over A Paper Cut

Just watched this interview by John Stewart with the most recent Medal of Honor recipient SFC Leroy Petry and I had to smile. I even laughed. Now normally losing a hand and getting shot in both legs is not a laughing matter, but the sort of matter of fact way and modest manner in which this Ranger explained the actions leading to his being awwarded the Medal of Honor, while not funny to most civilians, and I am not exactly sure how most readers of this blog will take it, but at least to me it was priceless.


To his credit Mr. Stewart parked his partisanship at the door.

C'mon admit it! You smiled a little bit.

Happy 236th Birthday to the Army

Today marks two significant events. The birth of my daughter and the birthday of the US Army. Having served 20+ years in the Army I would be remiss if I let the day pass without giving some sort of mention to this day. A running joke in my family is not only was I so hard core that my child was born on the anniversary of the Army but I then had an unfair advantage on all of those promotion and soldier/NCO boards since if the question ever came up I definitely knew the answer.

So congrats to the Army, and even though my daughter never reads this blog, Happy Birthday honey.

Most Americans Haven't Served In the Military, Either

Tired of all the Wikileaks coverage and I saw a headline that proclaimed that most Americans favor allowing gays to openly serve in the military, and the title of this post is the first thought that hit my mind. For me, this comes under the heading of duh! It is akin to having a group of Americans telling NASA that they favor them hiring gangbangers in order to break the cycle of (fill in the blank).

Look, I don't have a dog in this hunt since I am no longer serving and those are the guys and gals who really need to be heard on this issue. Did I know service members who were gay while I served? You betcha. Did it bother me? As long as they kept to themselves and did their job I could have cared less if they had pointy ears and purple skin. The only thing that matters when your butt is on the pointy end of the spear is whether or not the guy next to you is going to his job. The biggest fear revolving around repealing the Don't Ask - Don't Tell policy is that the gay members will then take it as a license to openly flaunt and pursue gay lifestyle which will undermine unit cohesion.

My belief has always been regardless of what any official policy is regarding gays, in the military they are not going to find a very warm environment, especially in what are known as combat arms units. Those units whose job it is to close with the enemy and kill them. Generally, these types of jobs do not appeal to the gay members anyway just because they are filled with testosterone-laden males. Support jobs who do not endure the same level of intense situations as the combat arms are more receptive.

Honestly, I don't care one way or the other on DADT simply because the reality on the ground will take priority over any touchy-feely social engineering program deemed socially acceptable by some sort of Ivy League academic. Often what looks good in the classroom gets dashed to pieces once exposed to the harsh light of reality.

For the record, approximately 10% of Americans have military experience.

'Runaway' Sci-Fi Now Reality

Back in the mid 80's there was a movie called 'Runaway' which starred Tom Selleck as a cop and Gene Simmons as the evil guy who used technology to kill his victims through the use of smart bullets which could be programmed to seek out specific targets and little killer spider like robots that would attack.



Well sci-fi is now reality.

The US Army is fielding a new weapon in Afghanistan called the XM-25 which can have its munitions programmed to hit a target behind walls.

Crouching behind his own cover, a U.S. soldier armed with the XM-25 can point his weapon at the wall behind which the enemy is hiding to get the precise distance. The rounds, which come four to a magazine plus one in the chamber, can then be programmed to travel just a short distance behind that to explode precisely where the insurgent is believed to be hiding.

With the scope aimed at the top of the wall, the round will fire and explode before impact, at the precise location programmed by the soldier, raining a hail of explosives and fragments on to the enemy.

It all takes mere seconds -- five to program and fire, two for travel.

The rounds also take into account air pressure and temperature to accurately hit their marks.

Army's First Female Bugler Has Passed Away

Being the first at something is always hard. Donna Mae Smith began her career as an Army bugler in 1942, back before women were integrated into the Army as a whole. She was a member of the WAAC, Women's Army Auxillary Corp. She passed away recently at the age of 90, but left behind a profound legacy.

In 1942 while working in a Minnesota plant inspecting .30-caliber cartridges a young 22 year old Donna-Mae Baldenecker –(Burr-Smith) heard the military was accepting recruits for the Woman' Army Auxiliary Corps. She wrote a letter expressing an interest in joining the first W.A.A.C. training center's band. She got a telegram telling her to report for duty as soon as possible!

She was stationed at Des Moines, Iowa and served as both a drum major and the bands only trumpet player for a while. Awakening the troops with reveille and playing taps were an every day duty for the young recruit. Every morning she arose early to start her duty by receiving a wake-up from Cpl. Robert Burr. They were married in 1943.

In those days all of the bugle calls were done by real people, not recordings blared over loudspeakers like they are today.

She continued to play Taps at military funerals until 1996, when health issues forced her to retire. Her life was mixture of tragedy, with her suffering the loss of her 2 sons due to exposure to radiation from the military's bomb testing, back before all of the effects of these type of weapons were known, and triumph.

She and her husband, Robert, had two sons, Craig and Kevin. The family settled in the San Fernando Valley in the 1950's. Tragedy struck while the family was camping in the Utah mountains. They were exposed to a toxic cloud from government bomb testing's. Young Kevin became sick immediately and died within weeks. He was only seven years old. Robert Burr also became sick and later died of cancer in January of 1964.

Rest in peace Donna.

Day is done,
               gone the sun,
               from the lakes
               from the hills
               from the sky,
               all is well,
               safely, rest,
               God is near.

               Fading light,
               Dims the sight,
               And a star gems the sky
               Gleaming bright,
               From afar,
               Drawing, near,
               Falls the night.

               Thanks and praise,
               For our days,
               Neath the sun
               Neath the stars
               Neath the sky,
               As we go,
               This, we, know,
               God is near.

One More Bowl Game To Add To Your Schedule

There is one more bowl game to add to your schedule this year. On January 9 it is the All-American Bowl sponsored by the US Army. If you want a chance to see the faces of some of the heroes from Iraq and Afghanistan this is a must see event. This game is different because instead of involving two separate colleges, this is a game showcasing those high school football players voted to the All-American team.

I came across this because of the involvement of a local man in the ceremonies involved with this bowl game. There is an entire week of activities leading up to the game itself and at one of the events several members of the military who have received either a Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, and/or Silver Star will be honored.

Given the option of returning home to recover from his injuries, Graham chose to remain in Iraq.

“As a leader of soldiers, sometimes it’s not just about you,” he said. “I have soldiers that depend on me. I felt like I needed to stay and I did heal up. Military doctors and the plastic surgeons we have are the best in the world. You can hardly tell now (that I was injured).”

SGT Ben Graham's injuries included a bullet that deflected off his weapon penetrated his face at the corner of his nose where it meets his cheek, entered his nasal cavity and lodged in the roof of his mouth.

Another round went into his ribcage.

SGT Graham's acts of heroism are not merely limited to being the unlucky recipient of ricochet to the face. The sergeant was also awarded a Bronze Star with Valor following his second deployment to Iraq. Graham, who is EMT certified, received the medal for his decision to assist a unit whose tank had been blown up by a road bomb during an ambush in June 2007.

In total he has two deployments to Iraq and one to Afghanistan.

"May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other."

The quote in the title comes from the book of Genesis in the Old Testament of the Christian bible, however it is also the words inscribed on a coin also known as the Mizpah coin, which has it's roots in Judaism.

That brief history is important to put this story in context. The 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division is once again headed overseas. This time they are headed to Afghanistan, but before leaving the unit held a ceremony for the married couples in which they received a Mizpah coin, and reaffirmed their commitment to each other.

It was an emotion intensified by the reality: A week from now, most of the soldiers will be long gone as their deployment clocks start ticking down the next 12 months.

No promise of tomorrow

The symbolism of that simple ceremony with the receipt of one half of that coin for the couples is powerful. I don't know how many couples have ever spent any time away from each other. For most people this may involve that week long business trip or one member of a couple being away to tend to family business, but to those in the military the separation carries the real risk that this may be the last time they are together.

I know I find it pretty funny when I watch some of these reality shows and they have a reunion of family members with the contestants after a couple of weeks of separation. The entire season of Survivor is only 39 days.

Speaking as a guy who spent his fair share of time separated, including an entire year right after my child was born, having something like this is worth it's weight in gold. It is a constant reminder of what is at home. When times get tough it is good to have something to hold that is a tangible reminder of what is important.

So yeah, deep down inside I am old softy, but I know a couple of dozen of young soldiers, who are now old soldiers themselves, that would beg to disagree with you.

REJECTED! Or Birth of a Moonbat

This is not news to me since I did my time in hell known as recruiting back in the 90's, but every time I have brought it up in an argument I have always had to rely on my anecdotal evidence. My personnel experience back then was about 4 out of every 10 would qualify. Now since CBS is giving their seal of approval on it I guess that lends some sort of credibility to my claims. What am I saying? CBS lends credibility? How about this. I can corroborate the assertions put forth in this piece.

Put it another way: Only three out of 10 young people between the ages of 17 and 24 even qualify to serve in the Army, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

The rest are ineligible either because they didn’t graduate from high school, have a police record or are not physically fit.

Besides the physical fitness, which we can actually work with, my experience was that most were disqualified for medical reasons. All those drugs teachers pump into your kids like Ritalin disqualify them. Drugs to handle their other psyche failings like Zoloft also disqualify them.

But it seemed no matter how many times I tried to present these sort of things to moonbats it was poo-pooed. It is also why a draft would never work. I think a lot of these moonbats may in fact be closet wannabee military types that got turned down, and rather then have walk around with the word REJECTED tattooed on their forehead they became anti-war wackos. It gives them cover for not being good enough to join and allows them to strike back at the institution that told them no.

Another myth about the Army shattered

This report comes out the same time as the latest Hollywood antiwar propaganda piece Stop Loss is hitting the theaters.

According to Army statistics obtained exclusively by FOX News, 70 percent of soldiers eligible to re-enlist in 2006 did so — a re-enlistment rate higher than before Sept. 11, 2001. For the past 10 years, the enlisted retention rates of the Army have exceeded 100 percent. As of last Nov. 13, Army re-enlistment was 137 percent of its stated goal.

Let me make a distinction for you. There is enlistment which is new folks signing up and then there is reenlistment, which is the folks currently serving who decide to stay in. Well instead of giving up all of their obscene ammenities, it appears that they are stying in, in record numbers.

So multiple deployments, family separations, and all of the other things that cause stress on military members does not seem to be deterring them from reenlisting. While the experts cite a "Band of Brothers" mentality for this, the need to stay with those with whom you have served, there is another equally powerful and opposite force that keeps folks in uniform.

It is the belief, no, knowledge, that adjusting back to a civilian world whose members have not a clue what being a soldier is all about is more frightening then running a patrol outside of a FOB in Iraq. Those who serve have come to appreciate that they are unique among the citizens of this country, and they relish that uniqueness and have neither the time nor patience to try and explain it to an unbelieving and uncomprehending society at large.