It is. I provide funeral honors as a real mission as a reservist. My next one is scheduled for Saturday, so reading this pains me.
How the dead are treated, that is a fundamental concern. Especially those in combat. This episode strikes me as the kind of bureaucratic midwittery the should cause the law to change and jobs lost.
As a country Veterans, and, especially wounded Veterans are just another interest group among many. I am cynical as hell right now. We have a government that treats Veterans as the enemy. They are against what the military stands for and makes it plain every damn day.
I would like to see all of the details on this before rendering judgement. $60,000 to ship a body seems very, very, very high. I have had to do it and my recollection was it was less than the cost of a first class ticket. Maybe that is the the entire costs of shipping the body and all of the travel expenses for the extended family? But it does not seem right for the government not to get the body to Arlington along with an escort.
Shame on the DOD, Congress and the President for this shameful failure in taking care of your people and their families. And they wonder why they have an armed forces recruiting crisis?
Rightly or wrongly, I expect some GOP news hound Congressperson(I say that as somebody who is not a FJB fan), to try and make a juxtaposition between this story and DoD paying expenses for members and dependents to travel for abortions. ugh...
DOD absolutely should have provided the transportation waiver. All stories today must be viewed in the broader lens of social media including GoFundMe. What happened to the $203,000 raised by her best friend? So while not ok with this, my other lens tells me there is much more to the story of her journey to ANC where my own parents and sister are. I am more than sympathetic to this overall cause, but I am concerned when a family or an individual builds a prominent social media presence; it adds to screwing things up. I just finished driving 8400 miles carrying my wife to Washington Crossing National Cemetery because I chose to not put her remains int he belly of a plane. Electing to secure a private charter was a choice, one of many.
Think about the value our nation places on those we send to carry out missions ordered by politicians for nebulous purposes, driven by noble or venal motives. Foreign entanglements come with a price, written in blood, as well as treasure, the final amount unknown when the mission is ordered.
SGT Gee is the face of a single casualty of that one event which killed thirteen Americans in the final hours of a seemingly endless and pointless mission with uncertain purpose, no clear definition of victory and no viable plan to achieve it. More importantly, there was only a very tenuous pretext that the entire mission was a vital U.S. national interest.
Borders on maps shift and change over history as cultures and nations rise and ebb in power and their ability to dominate their neighbors. We must pick our wars wisely, not declare our children and borrowed money to be guarantors of every national border and enforcer of "civilization" upon barbarians.
Think about that as politicians and diplomats bluster about the necessity for American kids to be sacrificed on the altar of preserving borders of foreign nations, especially Taiwan/China, or Ukraine/Russia.
Meanwhile, our politicians so eager to meddle in the affairs of other countries have decided that our own borders are meaningless and refuse to stop the invasion by millions of foreigners. Some of the invaders are almost certainly malevolent actors sent by foreign interests with hostile intent. Some are acting only in their personal economic interest, willing to work hard at "jobs Americans won't do." Others are opportunistic criminals or in cahoots with drug distributing cartels poisoning our citizens.
Our kids deserve better than to die needlessly, and even more they and their families must be treated with dignity, respect and appreciation.
It is. I provide funeral honors as a real mission as a reservist. My next one is scheduled for Saturday, so reading this pains me.
How the dead are treated, that is a fundamental concern. Especially those in combat. This episode strikes me as the kind of bureaucratic midwittery the should cause the law to change and jobs lost.
As a country Veterans, and, especially wounded Veterans are just another interest group among many. I am cynical as hell right now. We have a government that treats Veterans as the enemy. They are against what the military stands for and makes it plain every damn day.
The Manchurian Candidate won the election.
I would like to see all of the details on this before rendering judgement. $60,000 to ship a body seems very, very, very high. I have had to do it and my recollection was it was less than the cost of a first class ticket. Maybe that is the the entire costs of shipping the body and all of the travel expenses for the extended family? But it does not seem right for the government not to get the body to Arlington along with an escort.
Was anyone ever held responsible for the fiasco in Afghanistan to make sure we don't have more arguments about paying for funeral costs?
Of course not.
Worse, we are sending or considering sending forces to Eastern Europe to do exactly what? Make the world safe for democracy yet again?
SecArmy, SecNavy, SecAF….and you wonder why recruiting has been tanking?
beyond sad and infuriating. this sits at Biden's doorstep.
Egregious.
This interpretation of policy was, I suspect, made by some civilian twerp who has never served much less been in harm's way.
It seems our current government will do whatever it can to discredit, and disrespect, the people who defend them.
Tommy Atkins shakes his head.
Shame on the DOD, Congress and the President for this shameful failure in taking care of your people and their families. And they wonder why they have an armed forces recruiting crisis?
Rightly or wrongly, I expect some GOP news hound Congressperson(I say that as somebody who is not a FJB fan), to try and make a juxtaposition between this story and DoD paying expenses for members and dependents to travel for abortions. ugh...
Yet another reason Biden & Co. will find the afterlife unpleasantly warm.
DOD absolutely should have provided the transportation waiver. All stories today must be viewed in the broader lens of social media including GoFundMe. What happened to the $203,000 raised by her best friend? So while not ok with this, my other lens tells me there is much more to the story of her journey to ANC where my own parents and sister are. I am more than sympathetic to this overall cause, but I am concerned when a family or an individual builds a prominent social media presence; it adds to screwing things up. I just finished driving 8400 miles carrying my wife to Washington Crossing National Cemetery because I chose to not put her remains int he belly of a plane. Electing to secure a private charter was a choice, one of many.
If there weren’t any better reason (and there are zillions) Austin and Miley should be sharing the same cell for this.
Think about the value our nation places on those we send to carry out missions ordered by politicians for nebulous purposes, driven by noble or venal motives. Foreign entanglements come with a price, written in blood, as well as treasure, the final amount unknown when the mission is ordered.
SGT Gee is the face of a single casualty of that one event which killed thirteen Americans in the final hours of a seemingly endless and pointless mission with uncertain purpose, no clear definition of victory and no viable plan to achieve it. More importantly, there was only a very tenuous pretext that the entire mission was a vital U.S. national interest.
Borders on maps shift and change over history as cultures and nations rise and ebb in power and their ability to dominate their neighbors. We must pick our wars wisely, not declare our children and borrowed money to be guarantors of every national border and enforcer of "civilization" upon barbarians.
Think about that as politicians and diplomats bluster about the necessity for American kids to be sacrificed on the altar of preserving borders of foreign nations, especially Taiwan/China, or Ukraine/Russia.
Meanwhile, our politicians so eager to meddle in the affairs of other countries have decided that our own borders are meaningless and refuse to stop the invasion by millions of foreigners. Some of the invaders are almost certainly malevolent actors sent by foreign interests with hostile intent. Some are acting only in their personal economic interest, willing to work hard at "jobs Americans won't do." Others are opportunistic criminals or in cahoots with drug distributing cartels poisoning our citizens.
Our kids deserve better than to die needlessly, and even more they and their families must be treated with dignity, respect and appreciation.