One of the old milblog crew came up with this. This is a challenge coin made up by our Mr. Walz with a Command Sergeant Major insignia on it.
His former battalion commander put out a statement affirming that "he did not earn the rank or successfully complete any assignment as an E-9. It is an affront to the Noncommissioned Officers Corps that he continues to glom onto the rank." He does express satisfaction with his performance at lower ranks, so it's not like he's 'denigrating military service' per se. Just this one little aspect of evading an assignment and yet pretending to the rank he didn't earn because of that evasion.
But remember, these claims are made "without evidence," a term of art meaning that there is clear evidence but we're all supposed to pretend otherwise. It's very important that we all make-believe very hard in cases of these claims made "without evidence."
How bad do you have to be to have the battalion chaplain bust on you? Incredible as well, all the people who never served that are suddenly experts on ARNG personnel policies.
ReplyDeleteThat’s what I thought! I’ve never heard of a chaplain publicly shaming a soldier, in the press no less.
DeleteI taught Math at a middle school one year. A fellow math teacher was a retired Air Force officer. He was quite open about his reasons for retirement after 18 years in the Air Force: the prospect of going to war in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny, because the USAF deployed to Iraq for only 4.5 months even during the Surge.
ReplyDeleteDeciding he was too old for a 22-month deployment with 16-months in county, in combat, was not unreasonable. If he'd just retired as an E-8, not tried to scam the promotion while secretly pushing his paperwork so that his unit thought he was committed until the last minute, not claimed the rank he hadn't earned, not claimed war experience he didn't have... all those things are the problem. Deciding he didn't have another rodeo in him isn't.