Fw: Conduct Unbecoming (Most thorough and accurate report I've seen)

["Don Greenlaw" <dgreenlaw@cox.net>]

Forwarded. I don't know who
Jimmy is or if he even exists.
However, he makes some
excellent points.

Semper fi,
Don Greenlaw
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Dave Hollenbeck
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2012 11:47 AM
Subject: RE: Conduct Unbecoming (Most thorough and accurate report I've 
seen)


by  Spoo, James F



               You know that I like a good ‘debate’ and ‘discussion’ among 
friends.   I don’t care what you think as long as you express your opinion. 
I think it’s great to have a good ‘go-around’ in these e-mails.  It’s also 
good for our country, and I wish the news media and our political parties 
would have more ‘open’ discussions and not/not get so upset over minor 
points of view.

               This exchange of e-mails over the ‘pissing incident’ sure 
has gotten a lot of good responses.

               I was surprised that some were so emotional or it caused 
some to become angry.

               Hell, I never said that the Marines ever did anything wrong 
or that they should be punished.   I just thought you should never put 
anything on the internet or have a news crew cover what you’re doing unless 
you want the ‘whole world’ to know.

               However, now that Congressman West, yourself, and a number 
of others have given their opinions I seem to see a lack of support or a 
strong response from these Marines’  ‘chain-of-command’.

               Once the SecDef had the ‘ass’ and made his feelings known, I’ve 
only been hearing the ‘chirp’ of crickets when it comes to the Commandant of 
the Marine Corps or their Division, Regimental or Battalion Commanders.

               Does this surprise me???

               Hell no.

               They have a career to protect, an OER to get, and a 
promotion in their future.

               They aren’t going to ‘take care of the troops’ or ‘fall on 
their sword’ for their men.

               They’re going to follow the ‘party line’ and then fall 
in-line with the SecDef and others senior to them.

               This has nothing to do with the “PC” world.

               This has been going on for some time.

               I did my 30+ years on active duty beginning in 1965, and I 
had a rather ‘colorful’ career.  As you know, I served in Viet Nam 
1966-1969.  I also served in Desert Storm and a few ‘shoot outs’ in between.



               I have a lot of experience with the Non-Judicial Punishment 
system, was the proud recipient of Letters of Reprimand, and received world 
class ‘ass chewings’ from SGMs to General Officers.

               The SGMs were usually pissed off and angry because I got 
‘caught’.

               The senior officers didn’t like the fact that I may have 
created an incident on their ‘watch’.



               In one of my most ‘famous’ incidents, I did something ‘minor’ 
while attending a senior Infantry Leadership Course at Fort Benning.

               I was the Distinguished Honor Graduate and recipient of the 
Physical Training (PT) Award.

               After the letters of commendation and other awards were 
presented to me at the graduation ceremony, I simply walked off the stage 
without shaking hands with the senior Fort Benning officials.  I was hoping 
that they’d call me into the General’s office and ask me to explain my 
actions (I wanted to tell them about the graduate in our class that had a 
profile against ‘going to the field’, a graduate had a profile against 
‘camouflaged face paint’, one flunked the ‘Land Nav’ Course, and another 
graduate who was 100 pounds overweight took a minute to do the ‘inverted 
crawl’).   I just thought that such soldiers should be ‘weeded out’ of the 
Infantry and placed in another MOS since they were only in the Infantry in 
order to enjoy the accelerated promotions given to Infantry soldiers.

               Nothing happened and I went home.

               In the meantime, the folks at Fort Benning called Fort 
Bragg, NC.  The CSM for Special Forces called my Group SGM and told him that 
I was a disgrace to Special Forces and I should be ‘thrown out’.

               The best part is, Fort Benning sent me an “Adverse Academic 
Report” (AER).   I had a 98% grade point average and I scored 500 on the PT 
Test.   However, I received a report that when filed on my ‘microfiche’ (DA 
record), it was preceded by a piece of paper that all but ‘glowed in the 
dark’ and had ‘flashing lights’ warning the world that an adverse report 
followed.

               Before it was all over, I received some ‘first class’ ass 
chewings, and I was on everyone’s ‘LIST’.



               The other time, I was on a combined operation (a split SF 
Team and six members of a foreign army’s SF team).   We jumped in, conducted 
our mission, and then ‘exfilled’.   We moved to the coast where we got our 
‘small boat’ from a cache site.  We moved off shore to a “Mother Ship” and 
linked up.  The Mother Ship transported us to a remote island where we were 
dropped off without food and water and asked to ‘survive’.  There was a hill 
with a lighthouse on our island.  We moved up the hill and set up shop in 
the light house.  We immediately heard noises from the second floor where 
our counterparts were living.  We lived on the first floor where the 
‘cupboards’ were bare.  We could smell food cooking from the second floor. 
It turned out, the host nation forces were given a ‘stocked’ safe house and 
we had to survive.

               The first two days we dove for fish and scallops and 
searched for leaves to make a ‘salad’.  We did everything by the book and 
got some good training.  Then, off on the horizon a small boat approached 
our island.  It was three members of the SEAL Team that was on another 
island with their ‘split team’ of host country forces.  They said their 
counterparts had food and water and they wanted to go somewhere to buy some 
‘groceries’.  They asked if any of us wanted to come along.  Since I spoke 
the local language, I went along.  We went to a large island with a port 
facility.  We pulled our rubber ‘motorboat’ into the pier and docked between 
two ‘million dollar’ yachts.  We went grocery shopping and gained rapport 
with the locals.

               We got back on the boat and they took me back to my island. 
I’d learned that the senior US and host country leaders had been to our 
island to ‘inspect’ while I was gone.  When our Commander asked for me, they 
told him I was up in the lighthouse sleeping since I pulled the last watch 
on ‘guard duty’.

               However, when the VIPs got to the SEAL’s island the boat and 
three SEALs were missing.   Most of all, the 0-3 (team leader) SEAL was 
missing.

               We got ‘caught’.

               The SEAL Team Leader was relieved and sent back to his 
Command.   When asked how he thought he could pull such a stunt when he didn’t 
even know how to speak the local language – what on earth was he thinking. 
He simply said, “the Special Forces guy spoke the language”.

               Now my ‘ass was grass’.

               When we exfilled and returned to our FOB , a ‘kangaroo court’ 
was assembled.  I receive a multi-level Field Grade ass chewing.

               Once we returned to our ‘home station’, I was asked to meet 
with the Battalion Commander who presented me with a well written, glowing 
“Letter of Reprimand”.

               When I took my ‘letter’ back to my Company Commander I was 
chewed out one more time and informed that he would throw my MSM (award for 
8 years of service in the Battalion – I was PCSing to my assignment with Det 
“A” in one month) in the trash and that I was a ‘disgrace’.    Booooo Hoooo 
(ha, ha).  He felt that Det “A” deserved me since that organization probably 
liked ‘trouble makers’.

               So, when you’re wearing those ‘green leadership tabs’ and 
you want to protect your career, it may be easier to ‘pile on’ and punish a 
trooper than ‘look the other way’.

               It just made me a better person, and caused me to work 
harder at not/not getting ‘caught’.



               However, once I became an Officer the punishment and 
‘support’ from my leaders didn’t change.  Just the words.

               Instead of being a ‘dumb ass’ or a ‘dip shit’, as an 
officer, the ass chewing became laced with – your conduct is unbecoming an 
officer, or you used poor judgment.

               Then, there was the ‘hidden punishment’.  Instead of any 
outward punishment, they simply gave you a ‘glowing’ OER and then they didn’t 
‘top block’ you.  I guess that’s why I never made General (ha, ha).



               So, I’m not/not against what the Marines did.  I just 
suggested that they should not/not have ‘publicized’ their actions for fear 
that when the ‘system’ gets them, they’ll be what my old SGM used to tell 
me, “boy, your ass is grass and I’m the lawnmower”!!!

               Unless, their ‘chain-of-command’ proves me wrong and comes 
to their defense, I’m guessing they’ll be punished.

               A good ass chewing will simply make them better Marines. 
Besides, it was always said that Chesty Puller once said, a ‘real’ Marine 
did ‘Brig Time’, was busted once in his career, and had a case of the ‘clap’.

Jimmy





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