It continues to get uglier and uglier with the people who do not have water. If those of us who do have water admit to so much as washing a dish, we are evil mean people who should burn in hell because we are the reason they don't have water. No, the reason you don't have water is because you live in El Paso, which is a shitty place, and every bit the third world rathole it looks like. You are not without water because I washed diapers yesterday. Blame Uncle Sam for plunking you down here. Blame the city government for being corrupt and haphazard. Blame Mexico for being a drain on this city's resources. Don't blame the people who have water, though. We didn't do it.
Meanwhile, the rumors continue, mostly via text message (This easily spreads rumors citywide in a matter of minutes.) about water outages, power outages, gas outages, citywide, 100%, total outage, for 48 hours, a week, indefinitely.... People are flipping out. They're all lies. The mayor (who, conveniently, is on vacation in Austin, and has been for this entire time) released a statement that mandatory water cutoffs would be imposed on businesses that did not comply with the conservation order, and some say that a second statement was released about imposing these same mandatory cutoffs on citizens who do not comply, but I can't find anything about that. I think it's just another lie. How would they even prove that? Go around and check every person's water meter? But even then, how would they know what it was before to figure out how much they used? It's pretty easy to prove whether a car wash or laundromat is open for business. It's impossible to tell if a household has been following a conservation order. People spread these rumors around just to scare one another. The result, of course, has been that water consumption throughout the city has doubled in the past two days as everyone rushes to get all their laundry and dishes done, because if the water goes away, who knows when they'll be able to do that again?
I think there is a giant leap to be made from where we are now, to realism. It comes down to a few things, really:
-First of all, people, be realistic. If you have water, and you are genuinely trying to conserve, but you totally just flushed your toilet, you probably don't want to tell the person who doesn't have water about that. I understand it's a slippery slope, and that a lot of times, offering help, like a place to shower or do wash, will get your head bitten off by the ones who do not have water, so maybe it's time to stop offering. I think everyone knows someone who's got water if they get that desperate. Let them come to you. Now, as for the people who don't have water, don't act like you wouldn't use it at least a little if you had it. You would NOT refrain from flushing your toilet if you had the ability to do it. Don't lie.
-Secondly, spreading rumors is idiotic. Stop it. Why would you ever want to do that in the first place? Common sense would dictate that real news does not come via text message with the heading FW: FW: FW: and the tag line "Pass this onto everyone you know". If you forward this type of shit, you are an idiot. Seriously. Stop with the rumors. They're not serving any purpose but to make people mad.
-Finally, stop with the panic. We all want to take care of our own. We all want to do laundry, and dishes, and take showers. Now just isn't the time to go overboard on that kind of thing. Have some common sense. If you usually don't do 10 loads of laundry in a day, now is not the time to start. Just keep it to the essential stuff. I don't think anyone in our local government expects us to really actually just stop using water for everything but drinking as the order states. I do, however, think that they believe we are capable of cutting back, so cut back. Less laundry this week, fewer dishes, fewer showers. Cut back and you'll be fine.... and don't rub it into those who do not have water. That's not cool.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Proof Positive: WWIII will be fought over water.
Most of a week out from the worst of the storm, and this place is still chaotic. On post, over 400 houses have severe damage. Off post, there is a lot of damage as well due to burst pipes. Hundreds of thousands of people throughout the metro area are without water. On a good note, the rolling blackouts have stopped, and as far as we know, gas service has returned to everyone, so everyone has heat.... of course, it's nowhere near as cold as it was. Temps are in the 40's now, not single digits anymore.
The post housing contractor has sent in hundreds of people from other states, with semi trucks full of supplies, to fix the houses on post and make them livable again. All housing areas were affected equally. Officers, NCO's, lower-enlisteds.... all are together in this disaster. The lower-enlisted families are still loud, and rude, and can't quite understand why they have to wait a couple weeks to get the water damage in their homes fixed. As always, the Officer and NCO families are stoic, but the fact is, a lot of people lost everything. Many lost not everything, but a lot. There are crews here to manage claims, and as one would expect, there has already been fraud detected. Our Garrison Commander is doing his best to get people to stop trying to defraud the system just to get new stuff, and to only list what was, in fact, destroyed, on their claims. This thing is going to be massively expensive.
The thing that REALLY gets me about it all is the way people are acting. The city implemented a city-wide water conservation order yesterday, effective for 24 hours. They said not to use water for anything other than consumption (oh, and we remain under a boil water notice when it comes to that). They said no washing dishes, no washing clothes, no showers, and some people say they also meant no flushing toilets. The thing is that word of this water conservation order took most of the day to reach a lot of people, so even yesterday evening, there were people who had no idea about it, and were carrying on as usual. If you have water, use it, right? God Forbid anyone mentioned that they did laundry, or flushed their toilet, or took a shower. Those without water more or less grabbed their torches and pitchforks. Those of us who have water are definitely the enemy. Hey, it's not like we wouldn't share....
Seriously, the way people have gotten over water over the past few days is like nothing I have ever seen. I've seen severe weather, even hurricanes, which are way more severe than what this was, but I have NEVER in my life seen people act like this. The problem is that people all want their issues fixed NOW, and things have to be prioritized. It's the lower-enlisteds who are the worst when they're told they're not a priority. They raise hell. The Officers and NCO's who have been told they are not a priority have accepted it, and done what they can to get through until the non-priority cases are addressed. Priority has nothing to do with rank. It has to do with need, extenuating circumstances, and things like that. The lower-enlisteds mostly do not understand this, and are ready to lynch anyone who has water, or who gets it before they do. It's getting ugly.
At this point, I think it's crazy that the brigade who was in the field during the storm, and came home for the weekend (our General doesn't allow training on the weekends) will go back to the field at 0500 hrs tomorrow morning, and be out there for the entire week. I think despite the wives acting stupid, accosting every officer up to, and including, the Garrison Commander, and calling the media about their guys being in the field in this weather, the Brigade Commander should postpone the remainder of the field training for at least a week so that these soldiers don't have to leave their families in disaster, with no cell phones. There is good training, and then there is common sense. In this case, the two are mutually exclusive. I don't think they're going to change it, though. I'm just glad we're not with that unit.
Again, we have been very lucky, but also, this whole thing proves what we've known for a while. Houses that cost a lot for the time they were built (even if they're old now and don't cost much anymore) fare better than economy builds. Our house was built right, even if that was in the 70's, and because it was built right, it stood up to the cold. Those in new neighborhoods, other than the most upscale of them, had massive damage. On post, all housing areas, old and new, were affected equally. All of those houses were built poorly, whether it was in 1950 or last week, the builds were all by the lowest bidder, all super fast and on the cheap, and boy does it show. If there is one lesson that this city, and this post, should take from this, it is to do it right the first time.
The post housing contractor has sent in hundreds of people from other states, with semi trucks full of supplies, to fix the houses on post and make them livable again. All housing areas were affected equally. Officers, NCO's, lower-enlisteds.... all are together in this disaster. The lower-enlisted families are still loud, and rude, and can't quite understand why they have to wait a couple weeks to get the water damage in their homes fixed. As always, the Officer and NCO families are stoic, but the fact is, a lot of people lost everything. Many lost not everything, but a lot. There are crews here to manage claims, and as one would expect, there has already been fraud detected. Our Garrison Commander is doing his best to get people to stop trying to defraud the system just to get new stuff, and to only list what was, in fact, destroyed, on their claims. This thing is going to be massively expensive.
The thing that REALLY gets me about it all is the way people are acting. The city implemented a city-wide water conservation order yesterday, effective for 24 hours. They said not to use water for anything other than consumption (oh, and we remain under a boil water notice when it comes to that). They said no washing dishes, no washing clothes, no showers, and some people say they also meant no flushing toilets. The thing is that word of this water conservation order took most of the day to reach a lot of people, so even yesterday evening, there were people who had no idea about it, and were carrying on as usual. If you have water, use it, right? God Forbid anyone mentioned that they did laundry, or flushed their toilet, or took a shower. Those without water more or less grabbed their torches and pitchforks. Those of us who have water are definitely the enemy. Hey, it's not like we wouldn't share....
Seriously, the way people have gotten over water over the past few days is like nothing I have ever seen. I've seen severe weather, even hurricanes, which are way more severe than what this was, but I have NEVER in my life seen people act like this. The problem is that people all want their issues fixed NOW, and things have to be prioritized. It's the lower-enlisteds who are the worst when they're told they're not a priority. They raise hell. The Officers and NCO's who have been told they are not a priority have accepted it, and done what they can to get through until the non-priority cases are addressed. Priority has nothing to do with rank. It has to do with need, extenuating circumstances, and things like that. The lower-enlisteds mostly do not understand this, and are ready to lynch anyone who has water, or who gets it before they do. It's getting ugly.
At this point, I think it's crazy that the brigade who was in the field during the storm, and came home for the weekend (our General doesn't allow training on the weekends) will go back to the field at 0500 hrs tomorrow morning, and be out there for the entire week. I think despite the wives acting stupid, accosting every officer up to, and including, the Garrison Commander, and calling the media about their guys being in the field in this weather, the Brigade Commander should postpone the remainder of the field training for at least a week so that these soldiers don't have to leave their families in disaster, with no cell phones. There is good training, and then there is common sense. In this case, the two are mutually exclusive. I don't think they're going to change it, though. I'm just glad we're not with that unit.
Again, we have been very lucky, but also, this whole thing proves what we've known for a while. Houses that cost a lot for the time they were built (even if they're old now and don't cost much anymore) fare better than economy builds. Our house was built right, even if that was in the 70's, and because it was built right, it stood up to the cold. Those in new neighborhoods, other than the most upscale of them, had massive damage. On post, all housing areas, old and new, were affected equally. All of those houses were built poorly, whether it was in 1950 or last week, the builds were all by the lowest bidder, all super fast and on the cheap, and boy does it show. If there is one lesson that this city, and this post, should take from this, it is to do it right the first time.
Friday, February 4, 2011
This place is a mess.
El Paso saw a little bit of snow, and a few days of record cold temperatures. This has created more chaos than the average nuclear bomb. There were hundreds of wrecks from ice on the roads. Rolling blackouts continue into their 4th day. Schools have been closed for most of the week. We are on a boil water notice. There have been so many busted pipes that every plumber in the entire metro area is booked solid for weeks. There have been gas and water outages reported all over the place. On post is worse. Whole blocks of housing have flooded due to busted pipes, and are not inhabitable. The post housing contractor has sent personnel from other posts to help deal with the emergency claims. There are water points set up in every housing area. The gyms on post have become shelters. Our tireless Garrison Commander "Colonel Joe" probably hasn't slept in days for dealing with all of this.
Meanwhile, Fox News ran a story about the soldiers who weathered this storm in the field, interviewed our General out there at the field training site, and quoted the "concerned wives" who contacted them, but refused to be identified on TV. Go figure. It was a joke. Those soldiers came in from the field today, right on schedule. Those battalion commanders stood their ground, and I think they made the only right choice there was in that situation. On Monday, they will take their troops back out to the field, this time with a 100% ban on cell phones. It does really suck under the circumstances. Hundreds of these soldiers will leave behind their wives and children to deal with the aftermath of the cold damage, and no way to contact them. Good training for deployment, yes. Completely unnecessary, and should never have gotten to that point, yes again. A fitting outcome after those wives contacted the media, HELL yes. I'm glad Thak isn't in that unit.
As always, there is much flipping out, and senior wives have tried to calm junior wives by helping them out. More apparent than ever is the fact that the new Army is crap. Telling someone who's totally freaking out because she hasn't had a shower in four days, where public shower facilities are on post, is considered judgmental. Telling someone who's crying because she can't wash her husband's uniforms where an open laundromat is, is being on a high horse. If we try to help, they yell at us, but if we don't try to help, that's the wrong answer, too. Like our husbands when it comes to the fact that they have to lead these overly empowered lower-enlisted soldiers, we can't win. That's the hardest part of this whole thing. We're expected to help, but when we try, we get yelled at. I don't know what they want from us. What I do know is that freaking out hasn't gotten anyone anywhere at any point in the history of time or the US Army.
Otherwise, we are ok. Compared to many, we've fared well. That is mostly due to good luck, but a bit to do with good planning and Thak knowing what he's doing when it comes to cold weather. It also doesn't hurt that we haven't flipped out about it. What would that accomplish anyhow? Scaring the kids? Yeah, because the rolling blackouts and jacked up schedule with the entire city shut down haven't done a good enough job of that, right? No. Me and Thak have managed quite well. Minus a small laundry disaster last night due to a partially frozen outgoing pipe, and the fact that we're down to one lantern with batteries that work, we are unscathed so far. We are just hoping that things go back to normal soon, and we can all just move on from this. It has also solidified our decision to get OUT of El Paso after Thak retires from the Reserves and Erin finishes Elementary school. This place is so mismanaged it's not even funny. What we got can hardly even be called severe weather. I've never seen single digit temperatures shut an entire city down like this. It's a mess out there. We're fine, though. Still planning Erin's first sleepover for tomorrow night. Her friend Lilly is coming over. I'm going to get the girls some pink marshmellows to roast in the fireplace.
Meanwhile, Fox News ran a story about the soldiers who weathered this storm in the field, interviewed our General out there at the field training site, and quoted the "concerned wives" who contacted them, but refused to be identified on TV. Go figure. It was a joke. Those soldiers came in from the field today, right on schedule. Those battalion commanders stood their ground, and I think they made the only right choice there was in that situation. On Monday, they will take their troops back out to the field, this time with a 100% ban on cell phones. It does really suck under the circumstances. Hundreds of these soldiers will leave behind their wives and children to deal with the aftermath of the cold damage, and no way to contact them. Good training for deployment, yes. Completely unnecessary, and should never have gotten to that point, yes again. A fitting outcome after those wives contacted the media, HELL yes. I'm glad Thak isn't in that unit.
As always, there is much flipping out, and senior wives have tried to calm junior wives by helping them out. More apparent than ever is the fact that the new Army is crap. Telling someone who's totally freaking out because she hasn't had a shower in four days, where public shower facilities are on post, is considered judgmental. Telling someone who's crying because she can't wash her husband's uniforms where an open laundromat is, is being on a high horse. If we try to help, they yell at us, but if we don't try to help, that's the wrong answer, too. Like our husbands when it comes to the fact that they have to lead these overly empowered lower-enlisted soldiers, we can't win. That's the hardest part of this whole thing. We're expected to help, but when we try, we get yelled at. I don't know what they want from us. What I do know is that freaking out hasn't gotten anyone anywhere at any point in the history of time or the US Army.
Otherwise, we are ok. Compared to many, we've fared well. That is mostly due to good luck, but a bit to do with good planning and Thak knowing what he's doing when it comes to cold weather. It also doesn't hurt that we haven't flipped out about it. What would that accomplish anyhow? Scaring the kids? Yeah, because the rolling blackouts and jacked up schedule with the entire city shut down haven't done a good enough job of that, right? No. Me and Thak have managed quite well. Minus a small laundry disaster last night due to a partially frozen outgoing pipe, and the fact that we're down to one lantern with batteries that work, we are unscathed so far. We are just hoping that things go back to normal soon, and we can all just move on from this. It has also solidified our decision to get OUT of El Paso after Thak retires from the Reserves and Erin finishes Elementary school. This place is so mismanaged it's not even funny. What we got can hardly even be called severe weather. I've never seen single digit temperatures shut an entire city down like this. It's a mess out there. We're fine, though. Still planning Erin's first sleepover for tomorrow night. Her friend Lilly is coming over. I'm going to get the girls some pink marshmellows to roast in the fireplace.
Of not finding out...
The main reason people give for wanting to find out before the baby is born, whether it's a boy or a girl, is so they can buy gender-specific stuff, because a lot of people think that all gender-neutral stuff is just boring, yellow and green, and won't look very cute on any baby. I have been on a quest for the past few days, since we decided not to find out, to dispel that myth, and WOW have I ever succeeded!!
Things I've ordered so far:
Three Minnesota Vikings onesies. (Purple is SO gender-neutral.)
Two Gen-Y diaper covers, one in a beautiful koi fish print, and the other identical to Orren's sushi one, just in a size Small for the baby.
I also made my Cottonbabies.com registry. It hasn't posted yet (they have to create them manually, so they take a week or so to post) but they had some really adorable gender-neutral stuff! I registered for two jammies in various shades of brown, one in a willow branch print, and the others in a leaves and bark print. I found a onesie with alligators on it, and a footie outfit with multi-colored lions, too. These things are adorable!! They are also very gender-neutral! Of course, I also registered for some diaper covers, in green and orange, and some pocket diapers in prints I don't have yet. It's an entire gender-neutral registry, and it's NOT boring in the least.
It's amazing how not hard this is. I thought it was going to be very challenging, but it's not at all. There is so much cute gender-neutral stuff out there for anyone willing to look outside of the typical sources. Sure, the stuff you find at Carters for gender-unknown babies may be very boring, but if you go off the beaten path, there is SO much!! Gender-neutral colors are pretty much everything but pink, so that means the majority of the stuff in the world is, in fact, gender-neutral.
Things I've ordered so far:
Three Minnesota Vikings onesies. (Purple is SO gender-neutral.)
Two Gen-Y diaper covers, one in a beautiful koi fish print, and the other identical to Orren's sushi one, just in a size Small for the baby.
I also made my Cottonbabies.com registry. It hasn't posted yet (they have to create them manually, so they take a week or so to post) but they had some really adorable gender-neutral stuff! I registered for two jammies in various shades of brown, one in a willow branch print, and the others in a leaves and bark print. I found a onesie with alligators on it, and a footie outfit with multi-colored lions, too. These things are adorable!! They are also very gender-neutral! Of course, I also registered for some diaper covers, in green and orange, and some pocket diapers in prints I don't have yet. It's an entire gender-neutral registry, and it's NOT boring in the least.
It's amazing how not hard this is. I thought it was going to be very challenging, but it's not at all. There is so much cute gender-neutral stuff out there for anyone willing to look outside of the typical sources. Sure, the stuff you find at Carters for gender-unknown babies may be very boring, but if you go off the beaten path, there is SO much!! Gender-neutral colors are pretty much everything but pink, so that means the majority of the stuff in the world is, in fact, gender-neutral.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
You can worry. I'm cool with just trusting.
This thing is out of hand. I swear, who knew a couple inches of snow and a few days of single digit temps could put an entire post into such an uproar? I may be from Florida, but I'm a Leonard Wood soldier, so this is strange to me since I have done a lot of training in much worse than anything this place would ever see, and shockingly, lived to tell the tale. I'm not some superhuman entity either. I was a young soldier who was issued the bare minimum, and found a way. If I can do it, anyone can.
The strangest thing is that I was accused of being a bad wife, not caring at all about Thak, because I would not worry about his safety if he were out in this. I didn't worry for his safety any time he was out on some training mission and I doubt if I ever will. I have spent enough time worrying for Thak's safety for one lifetime. When two choppers left Tal Afar, and one went down in a sandstorm, killing everyone aboard, and all I knew was that Thak was on one of them, I worried for his safety until he called me from Baghdad several days later, and let me know he had been on the one that did not go down. When his position was mortared while we were on the phone (on multiple occasions), and I heard the rounds hit, but did not know if he had survived the attack, I worried for his safety until I found out that he did. When he was sent forward early, to look for four soldiers who had gone missing, in a very volatile part of Iraq in 2007, I worried for his safety as he maneuvered through terrain that is the enemy's dream and every American soldier's worst nightmare. I have spent years of my life worrying for Thak's safety, but honestly, after a few years of the enemy trying to kill him, and him somehow coming out of it alive and in one piece, it's a little difficult to conjure up worry for field training on American soil.
Let me also tell you a thing or two about Thak. Thak enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard when he was 17 years old. He was an Infantryman, such a good Infantryman, in fact, that even though he enlisted as an E1, he had attained the rank of Specialist (E4) in just under a year of service, and was a shoe in for the next team leader slot to open up. He was a very good Infantryman. He trained at Camp Ripley, Minnesota and in Hoenfels, Germany. Both of these places are extremely cold. Like, if it rises to 0, that's because it's summer time. These places are where Thak learned to be a soldier. They didn't have things like heaters, or hot meals, or a source of water other than the snow itself. They did things the hard way. They didn't even have tents. Thak can tell you how to stay toasty warm in a snow tunnel, because he spent plenty of time doing just that. Now, over the course of the past 18 years, he has gone from this extreme cold weather Infantryman, to desert soldier, and every other situation you may imagine in between. He was part of the invasion of Iraq, and they didn't have all this safety gear back then. He was part of the Anbar Awakening two years later, and was the crew chief of the plane that caught the #2 Al Quaeda operative in Iraq. Not long after, he was called up again for the Surge on Baghdad, and dodged mortars for 15 months on a FOB that was known to everyone as "The Shooting Gallery" because it was hit so much.
Knowing all this about Thak, what could I have to worry about when he is on US soil? He's been doing this soldier thing for longer than some of the subordinate personnel have been alive. He's seen everything there is to see, just about. Who am I to doubt him, and worry about whether he can hack it in any type of conditions? I know he would rather I just trusted him to do what he's been doing for the past 18 years, over half his life, might I add. He doesn't want me to worry about him. He's given me no reason to. This doesn't make me a bad wife. This makes me the wife of a seasoned ex-grunt who has done more than his share, and knows real danger well enough to recognize when it isn't present, and just go on about his job of taking care of the young soldiers, so that one day, they may, too, be as seasoned and good at what they do, as he is. I'm not worried in the least. I know that Thak is one of the best. If anything, this makes me a good wife because I am well aware of who I married, and what he is capable of. I highly recommend.
The strangest thing is that I was accused of being a bad wife, not caring at all about Thak, because I would not worry about his safety if he were out in this. I didn't worry for his safety any time he was out on some training mission and I doubt if I ever will. I have spent enough time worrying for Thak's safety for one lifetime. When two choppers left Tal Afar, and one went down in a sandstorm, killing everyone aboard, and all I knew was that Thak was on one of them, I worried for his safety until he called me from Baghdad several days later, and let me know he had been on the one that did not go down. When his position was mortared while we were on the phone (on multiple occasions), and I heard the rounds hit, but did not know if he had survived the attack, I worried for his safety until I found out that he did. When he was sent forward early, to look for four soldiers who had gone missing, in a very volatile part of Iraq in 2007, I worried for his safety as he maneuvered through terrain that is the enemy's dream and every American soldier's worst nightmare. I have spent years of my life worrying for Thak's safety, but honestly, after a few years of the enemy trying to kill him, and him somehow coming out of it alive and in one piece, it's a little difficult to conjure up worry for field training on American soil.
Let me also tell you a thing or two about Thak. Thak enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard when he was 17 years old. He was an Infantryman, such a good Infantryman, in fact, that even though he enlisted as an E1, he had attained the rank of Specialist (E4) in just under a year of service, and was a shoe in for the next team leader slot to open up. He was a very good Infantryman. He trained at Camp Ripley, Minnesota and in Hoenfels, Germany. Both of these places are extremely cold. Like, if it rises to 0, that's because it's summer time. These places are where Thak learned to be a soldier. They didn't have things like heaters, or hot meals, or a source of water other than the snow itself. They did things the hard way. They didn't even have tents. Thak can tell you how to stay toasty warm in a snow tunnel, because he spent plenty of time doing just that. Now, over the course of the past 18 years, he has gone from this extreme cold weather Infantryman, to desert soldier, and every other situation you may imagine in between. He was part of the invasion of Iraq, and they didn't have all this safety gear back then. He was part of the Anbar Awakening two years later, and was the crew chief of the plane that caught the #2 Al Quaeda operative in Iraq. Not long after, he was called up again for the Surge on Baghdad, and dodged mortars for 15 months on a FOB that was known to everyone as "The Shooting Gallery" because it was hit so much.
Knowing all this about Thak, what could I have to worry about when he is on US soil? He's been doing this soldier thing for longer than some of the subordinate personnel have been alive. He's seen everything there is to see, just about. Who am I to doubt him, and worry about whether he can hack it in any type of conditions? I know he would rather I just trusted him to do what he's been doing for the past 18 years, over half his life, might I add. He doesn't want me to worry about him. He's given me no reason to. This doesn't make me a bad wife. This makes me the wife of a seasoned ex-grunt who has done more than his share, and knows real danger well enough to recognize when it isn't present, and just go on about his job of taking care of the young soldiers, so that one day, they may, too, be as seasoned and good at what they do, as he is. I'm not worried in the least. I know that Thak is one of the best. If anything, this makes me a good wife because I am well aware of who I married, and what he is capable of. I highly recommend.
When crazy gets REALLY crazy.
The guys who were out in the field stayed in the field. Not one commander brought his soldiers in. They did exactly what they should have done, held the line, and did not cave to pressure. For a brigade that is definitely not the best I've ever seen (far from it, really), they did a great job. They worked with what they had, and continued to train in spite of everything working against them. In fact, they still are. They'll come home in another day or so, as scheduled.
Now, here's where it gets really insane. When a Battalion Commander from one of the units out there released an official statement via our Garrison Commander, a few wives of soldiers in that battalion replied to him with comments such as, "Jesus, man, do you even believe your own bullshit?" and "You're crazy if you think any of that is true. My husband isn't lying to me about what's really going on out there." This to a Lieutenant Colonel!! Their husbands' Battalion Commander!! Who does that?! What's more, every one of these things posts under the person's real name, and these people had very distinctive last names. That LTC won't have a moment's trouble figuring out which of his soldiers these women belong to, and dealing with them accordingly. I do not envy those soldiers for half a second. Being married to someone who talks to a LTC like that is like walking around with a massive dingleberry, only this dingleberry talks trash to your big boss.
That was only a small sample of the insanity to come, though. As soon as darkness set in, blackouts rolled throughout the entire city, and El Paso reached the lowest temperatures in recorded history, boredom set in among the wives of the soldiers who are in the field, and a few of them got the brilliant idea that the news media needed to know how badly the soldiers of this post are mistreated in this cold weather. They alerted our local FOX news station, and this morning, a story aired about the field exercise. I haven't watched it yet. By the time I got wind of most of this, a lot of the stuff had been taken down from the various post discussion boards, Garrison Commander's webpage, and such, but I'm sure the news story is still available on the KFOX site, so I'll have to watch this madness in a minute.
All I can say is, I'm really thankful that I'm not these people. For one, Thak is not in that unit, so I won't have to deal with the fallout from the loud stupidity of several hundred wives, and the severe screw-up of half a dozen (the ones who contacted the media). It won't be Thak who feels the Commander's wrath on that, who ends up working super long hours even when not in the field, doing busy work on weekends, and all the other fun things that Commanders love to hand down when their troops are out of line.
What's more, the very same Battalion Commander who caught hell from those wives, stated that while most of his soldiers have heat in their tents, he and the Command Sergeant Major do not, and that they are doing fine, so he is sure that everyone is fine under the circumstances. Our General even went out there for the day and said the accommodations were sufficient. So basically, what these wives are saying is that something that's good enough for a Lieutenant Colonel, a Command Sergeant Major, and a two-star General, is not good enough for whatever lower-enlisted guy they married? You must be kidding me. If it's good enough for the command group, it's good enough for you. Every soldier learns that pretty fast.
I am also glad that I have more faith in my husband than those wives appear to have in theirs. Maybe it's because I served with him, and KNOW that anyone would be fortunate to be in his charge in any situation, and that he works best when conditions are the worst. I haven't just heard it. I've seen it. When Thak has been out in poor conditions, my first thought is always, "His lucky soldiers. They will fare better than most." followed by, "I'm glad he knows what he's doing." I know there's really no situation Thak can't find his way through. He's done three tours in Iraq, and has never lost a soldier. If he were in the field this week, through this storm, I would not be worried at all for him. I have more faith in him than that. So basically, I guess the question is, why do so many of these wives have so little faith in whatever soldier they married? Why would you marry someone you thought was too weak to stand up to a little bit of cold weather? I wouldn't. I find weakness exceedingly unattractive.
This week has made a lot of people very unimpressed with 4th brigade and wives thereof (no offense to friends who are with that brigade. We all know the good ones from that unit are 10x as embarrassed by this as the rest of us are.) Nothing good is going to come of it. I foresee longer hours, a cell phone ban during field training, and a lot of Commanders trying to restore order to their units. I also do foresee some small amount of fallout to the other units just to try to prevent that kind of thing. I'll be glad to be done with this post for that reason among others. That's one thing about the Army. A few idiots can spoil thousands of people's good time in a hot second if they try hard enough. Well, congrats, people. You obviously tried hard enough. It's going to be an interesting month on this old Army post.
Now, here's where it gets really insane. When a Battalion Commander from one of the units out there released an official statement via our Garrison Commander, a few wives of soldiers in that battalion replied to him with comments such as, "Jesus, man, do you even believe your own bullshit?" and "You're crazy if you think any of that is true. My husband isn't lying to me about what's really going on out there." This to a Lieutenant Colonel!! Their husbands' Battalion Commander!! Who does that?! What's more, every one of these things posts under the person's real name, and these people had very distinctive last names. That LTC won't have a moment's trouble figuring out which of his soldiers these women belong to, and dealing with them accordingly. I do not envy those soldiers for half a second. Being married to someone who talks to a LTC like that is like walking around with a massive dingleberry, only this dingleberry talks trash to your big boss.
That was only a small sample of the insanity to come, though. As soon as darkness set in, blackouts rolled throughout the entire city, and El Paso reached the lowest temperatures in recorded history, boredom set in among the wives of the soldiers who are in the field, and a few of them got the brilliant idea that the news media needed to know how badly the soldiers of this post are mistreated in this cold weather. They alerted our local FOX news station, and this morning, a story aired about the field exercise. I haven't watched it yet. By the time I got wind of most of this, a lot of the stuff had been taken down from the various post discussion boards, Garrison Commander's webpage, and such, but I'm sure the news story is still available on the KFOX site, so I'll have to watch this madness in a minute.
All I can say is, I'm really thankful that I'm not these people. For one, Thak is not in that unit, so I won't have to deal with the fallout from the loud stupidity of several hundred wives, and the severe screw-up of half a dozen (the ones who contacted the media). It won't be Thak who feels the Commander's wrath on that, who ends up working super long hours even when not in the field, doing busy work on weekends, and all the other fun things that Commanders love to hand down when their troops are out of line.
What's more, the very same Battalion Commander who caught hell from those wives, stated that while most of his soldiers have heat in their tents, he and the Command Sergeant Major do not, and that they are doing fine, so he is sure that everyone is fine under the circumstances. Our General even went out there for the day and said the accommodations were sufficient. So basically, what these wives are saying is that something that's good enough for a Lieutenant Colonel, a Command Sergeant Major, and a two-star General, is not good enough for whatever lower-enlisted guy they married? You must be kidding me. If it's good enough for the command group, it's good enough for you. Every soldier learns that pretty fast.
I am also glad that I have more faith in my husband than those wives appear to have in theirs. Maybe it's because I served with him, and KNOW that anyone would be fortunate to be in his charge in any situation, and that he works best when conditions are the worst. I haven't just heard it. I've seen it. When Thak has been out in poor conditions, my first thought is always, "His lucky soldiers. They will fare better than most." followed by, "I'm glad he knows what he's doing." I know there's really no situation Thak can't find his way through. He's done three tours in Iraq, and has never lost a soldier. If he were in the field this week, through this storm, I would not be worried at all for him. I have more faith in him than that. So basically, I guess the question is, why do so many of these wives have so little faith in whatever soldier they married? Why would you marry someone you thought was too weak to stand up to a little bit of cold weather? I wouldn't. I find weakness exceedingly unattractive.
This week has made a lot of people very unimpressed with 4th brigade and wives thereof (no offense to friends who are with that brigade. We all know the good ones from that unit are 10x as embarrassed by this as the rest of us are.) Nothing good is going to come of it. I foresee longer hours, a cell phone ban during field training, and a lot of Commanders trying to restore order to their units. I also do foresee some small amount of fallout to the other units just to try to prevent that kind of thing. I'll be glad to be done with this post for that reason among others. That's one thing about the Army. A few idiots can spoil thousands of people's good time in a hot second if they try hard enough. Well, congrats, people. You obviously tried hard enough. It's going to be an interesting month on this old Army post.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
That's not MY Army.
In my Army, we slept outside in any kind of weather, and learned to build bunkers so that we could keep the snow out as much as possible. We surveyed land for as long as daylight lasted, in subzero temperatures despite the fact that nobody felt the need to issue us cold weather gear. We ruck marched for as much as 25 miles, down icy Ozark foothills, with cold, and frostbite, and broken bones. We did it because we knew we enlisted in the Army, not cheerleading camp, and we knew that if we wanted the privilege of calling ourselves soldiers, this was part of it. We did it because we knew that someday our country might need us to do something 100 times harder than that. And ok, if I'm truly honest, a lot of times, we did it because some scary Drill Sergeant, First Sergeant, or Colonel told us to. The fact is, though, we always did it, and we didn't complain.
Today and yesterday were very cold days here. We have a lot of snow on the ground, and single digit temperatures. It's not going to let up for at least 24 more hours. We have several thousand soldiers in the field. The reaction to this has been surprising to me. Post and Garrison command has delegated these decisions to the unit level commanders out there on the ground, and so far, they've all elected to stay in the field. Post is closed, most of the city is shut down, and the Army is still training. This shouldn't surprise anyone. Yet, I really don't envy those commanders, and not because of the cold weather they're operating in. No, I feel bad for them because they will be lucky not to be met by a massive lynchmob of wives when they finally do come back out of the field. These women have been pitching a huge fit about the fact that their husbands still have to be out there despite the cold. There are rumors swirling about who has what accommodations, how the commanders were hoarding all the heaters for themselves, that people didn't have food.... all total BS. Anyone who's ever been to the field knows it's BS, too.
I just don't know.... it never occurred to me to flip out over people having to train in bad weather. I didn't flip out when I had to do it. I always thought it was part of being a soldier. I wasn't even allowed to call myself a soldier until I had concluded my final day of training, which consisted of the culmination of 3 days out in the field in the Ozarks with no tents, with an ice storm that lasted the entire time, a 25 mile road march in said ice storm, and oh yeah, nobody issued us any cold weather gear. All 240 of us did it without so much as a jacket or a scarf, and you know what? 120 of us made it and became soldiers at the end. The half of us who didn't, didn't die. Most of them just went home and get to live with the rationalization that they did their best and it just wasn't quite enough for the US Army. I firmly believe nobody felt sorry for us when we were out there. We didn't feel sorry for us. We just did the damned thing.
That wasn't the only time I've done extreme cold weather field time either. I just thought it was part of being a soldier. You do hard things in the worst weather imaginable. You work with people you never would have met if you hadn't enlisted. You live in places you never even would have consented to visit. You take orders from dumbasses who have only risen to their positions because they've been there long enough to get enough rank to boss around people like you. You eat shitty food. It's not all bad, of course, but the bad is the price of admission for the good, like the fact that for the rest of your life, you will always know that when 99% of the country cowered in fear, you stood up and said, "Send me. Let me try."
I love my Army. I do not love what it has become. It is very disconcerting to see how it is these days. How can one expect to win a war with an Army that is scared of a few inches of snow?
Today and yesterday were very cold days here. We have a lot of snow on the ground, and single digit temperatures. It's not going to let up for at least 24 more hours. We have several thousand soldiers in the field. The reaction to this has been surprising to me. Post and Garrison command has delegated these decisions to the unit level commanders out there on the ground, and so far, they've all elected to stay in the field. Post is closed, most of the city is shut down, and the Army is still training. This shouldn't surprise anyone. Yet, I really don't envy those commanders, and not because of the cold weather they're operating in. No, I feel bad for them because they will be lucky not to be met by a massive lynchmob of wives when they finally do come back out of the field. These women have been pitching a huge fit about the fact that their husbands still have to be out there despite the cold. There are rumors swirling about who has what accommodations, how the commanders were hoarding all the heaters for themselves, that people didn't have food.... all total BS. Anyone who's ever been to the field knows it's BS, too.
I just don't know.... it never occurred to me to flip out over people having to train in bad weather. I didn't flip out when I had to do it. I always thought it was part of being a soldier. I wasn't even allowed to call myself a soldier until I had concluded my final day of training, which consisted of the culmination of 3 days out in the field in the Ozarks with no tents, with an ice storm that lasted the entire time, a 25 mile road march in said ice storm, and oh yeah, nobody issued us any cold weather gear. All 240 of us did it without so much as a jacket or a scarf, and you know what? 120 of us made it and became soldiers at the end. The half of us who didn't, didn't die. Most of them just went home and get to live with the rationalization that they did their best and it just wasn't quite enough for the US Army. I firmly believe nobody felt sorry for us when we were out there. We didn't feel sorry for us. We just did the damned thing.
That wasn't the only time I've done extreme cold weather field time either. I just thought it was part of being a soldier. You do hard things in the worst weather imaginable. You work with people you never would have met if you hadn't enlisted. You live in places you never even would have consented to visit. You take orders from dumbasses who have only risen to their positions because they've been there long enough to get enough rank to boss around people like you. You eat shitty food. It's not all bad, of course, but the bad is the price of admission for the good, like the fact that for the rest of your life, you will always know that when 99% of the country cowered in fear, you stood up and said, "Send me. Let me try."
I love my Army. I do not love what it has become. It is very disconcerting to see how it is these days. How can one expect to win a war with an Army that is scared of a few inches of snow?
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