U.S. Army Faces Broken Force through Drug and sexual abuse

Mon Jul 25, 2011 4:04 am » by **Domdabears**

A stupid blogger posted this back in 2010.
A BLOGGER!

Mon Jul 25, 2011 4:25 am » by **Middleman**

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trktYbbFFTA

Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:19 pm » by **Clarkness**

I myself am in the Navy. Over the 5 years I have been in, I have personally know 6 people who have taken their lives. Most of the people I have served with have had some sort of alcoholism or drug abuse. The military might advertise that they have all of these services, but what they don't tell the public but is a well known fact that if you ask for help, your career is done. I was lucky enough to not fall into alcohol or drugs, but I still wound up suffering from an intense depressive episode that I had to be put on medication.

There are stresses in the military on so many different levels that people don't understand. The wars are just one facet of the stress. A lot of stress just comes from the fact that the majority of don't know why we are fighting anymore. On top of that, due to the downsizing that is happening, we're all in danger of losing our jobs. And whether or not we are outstanding at our job does not matter. To make yourself look good to the command, you have to take up meaningless collateral duties in which your job becomes that collateral duty and you do not even perform that job. It is said that "you shouldn't let your career get in the way of your advancement".

If you have ideas on how to solve problems in the Navy or to create efficiency, you are shot down for "not falling in line" or "conforming". Enlisted are treated like absolute trash, senior enlisted have been neutered, and officers are mostly arrogant pieces of trash who think they are better than everyone because they have a piece of paper that may or may not prove that they can regurgitate some meaningless words onto paper.

I understand that when I signed on the dotted line, I gave up some of my rights. I accept that. What I don't accept is that I see little yellow ribbons on everyone's vehicles and getting an occasional thank you from a civilian which most people say for the sake of saying. Most of us in the military are not proud of our career. We do not feel likes heroes.

If you truly want to thank us, get politically involved. Elect officials who have integrity and are for the people. I know I am preaching to the choir on a site like this, but everyone can do more. I have conversations and debates with people are around me on these matters to gather different opinions on politics, world events, and society. I don't doubt that a lot of you that read these forums just sit back and post your complaint, then go on your merry day talking about meaningless things such as movies, music, sports, general entertainment, and other mind numbing and distracting materials.

I wish I could get more politically involved, but I cannot for now because I have done all I could to fight the broken system in the military and I will admit that I have been defeated for now. But those of you are civilians or have been upgraded to civilians after military service should strive to at least talk to one person a day to spread information and ideals. You don't have to convince Americans to do the right thing much of the time. I firmly believe that the majority of us are truly good people who have the right idea, but believe that if they speak out, that they will be alone, labeled crazy or fanatical, or even fail miserably. Sometimes the point of the conversations is to let that other person know that you feel the same way or that you are aware.

When you see a military person, don't think they are some evil person or some naive person overloaded on video games. They broken from the start during boot camp. They keep us busy enough to where we don't have time to think about our effect on the world. Remember that a lot of us haven't seen our family for a long time. I have not had a chance to back home to Illinois since 2009. Its funny that we supposedly get 30 days of leave every year, but what they don't tell you is that even if your undermanned squad or division can possibly support you being on leave, even if you are caught up with all work, even if you have submitted the retardedly obscene amount of paperwork, if you're lucky enough that the paperwork does not get lost on the way up the chain of command, you just hope you have enough time and money to get to where you want to go.

We don't have true friends in the military a lot of the time. We usually only serve with people a year at most a lot of times. We don't bother getting that close. We hang out with people who least annoy us or piss us off. It is far from what I can call a brotherhood. If people protect someone from wrong doing, its usually because they don't want to feel the punishment because usually punishment are handed to a command, squad, or division for one person's mistake.

If you want to show your appreciation, use your rights. Convince others to use their rights. Educate your children. Get out of your material world and help create a better society so that Americans can stand together on a united front and show what makes this country great.

I'm not saying that all of the military members are angels, but there are some hardworking souls that wish they could do more. We only make up roughly 10% of the population. If we could strike together without being shot or jailed for treason, I am sure a lot of us would. In the grand scheme of things, a majority of Americans want the same thing but no one wants to run for officer and/or get involved directly in their government affairs.

Wed Jul 27, 2011 11:18 pm » by **Sentientseed**

Well here is several angles here to look at. One being asking if his is an intended result or just happenstance from being exposed to such things. Wh y train new segments for homeland security? Do the need to in order to combat trained soldiers who might take up arms against a gov that has used hem and let them down and fucked em over? these sorta reports make i even more easier for people to accept ha he troops are all nus and crazy people now whom we need further protection from. Just ponderings and nothing more.

My wife is Navy. E-5. in her 3rd year in. clarkness makes some good poins. No so sure bou he boo camp poin as far as phsicall breaking someone because nav boo camp is a joke nowadas. Bu I do wonder if he are no broken somewha on a subconscouis level. M wife is no he same person she was before boocamp and miliar. I'd like to elaborate more and discuss this topic some myself but the letter y & t are screwed up on m keyboard and am having to cop and paste the letters in. tis why i haven' been posing in a while. Lucky break for everyone I suppose.

Thu Jul 28, 2011 1:20 am » by **Clarkness**

Although I do agree that boot camp is easier now at days than 10 years ago, they still achieve the goals of boot camp a lot of the time. Conformity is usually #1 goal. Second, it puts out there that if one of your division screws up, you all get punished, or at least someone else will. Third, you'll learn very quickly that there must be only one solution to every problem, which is what the military wants me to say.

Right off the bat, the military uses boot camps to test out new ideas much of the time whether it be new uniform items to, to new training techniques, and unfortunately some not so ethical like drug and vaccine trials.