I posted his article about the boy being cooked AND OH THE HUMANITY.. All the scoffers had their fun. I should summon them.
A couple weeks ago, LTC Fred Johnson told me a story about General Petraeus. Back when LTC Johnson was Captain Johnson, and General Petraeus was Colonel Petraeus, Colonel Petraeus was Captain Johnson’s new commander. They were doing a live-fire exercise at a range at Fort Campbell when a young soldier named Specialist Terrence Jones tripped and accidentally fired his weapon while conducting a live-fire assault. The bullet from Specialist Jones’ weapon struck Colonel Petraeus, slamming through his chest and taking a piece of his back on the way out. Petraeus fell to the ground, bleeding out of his mouth. He nearly died. We could have lost one of the most important and influential military leaders in generations to a mistake. To a professional misstep.
The best that Captain Johnson and Specialist Jones might have hoped for was a painless end to their military service. I asked LTC Fred Johnson about the story of his own soldier shooting David Petraeus, and I asked how it could be that Johnson was still in the military. Johnson looked me in the eye and said something like, “Mike. You know what Petraeus did?”
“What?” I asked.
“He gave me a second chance.”
Fred Johnson actually got picked up for promotion early.
“But what happened to the young soldier?” I asked, thinking surely there had to be a consequence. Conventional wisdom stipulates that for balance to be restored after accidentally shooting and nearly killing a superior officer, a sacrifice of some magnitude is necessary. A soldier just can’t shoot a commander in the chest and walk away. There is no such thing as an “accidental discharge.” Unplanned bullet launches are called “negligent discharges.” As in negligent homicide.
LTC Johnson answered something like, “Mike, you won’t believe how Jones was punished. Petraeus sent Jones to Ranger School.”
I couldn’t believe my ears! That’s a punishment that a lot of young soldiers dream about, even though Ranger School is a very difficult course. But after thinking on it awhile, I realized it probably explains why LTC Johnson sometimes says, “I believe in second chances.”
Fred Johnson said it just the other day. He said it to me, “When someone gives you a second chance, you should pass it along.”
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/second-chances.htm
Follow up story to the one I posted about the boys being cooked in Iraq.
Bump for second chances...
Thanks, bfl
I’ve been following Yon and this story for awhile now and there is one thing about AQ that is crystal clear to me...
Al-Qaida is setting the All Time World Gold Standard for UTTERLY INSANE SAVAGERY. They make clinically insane people look ‘quirky’. They make Nazi’s look like school boys. They are a textbook example of how religious extremeism can lead to the most unholy behavior imaginable.
This is going to get worse before it gets better.
Michael Yon is a great writer...you read his stuff and you’re right there with him. I get paid this week, so will send support...he deserves every penny and more.
Michael Yon’s update ....on skeptics of last dispatch.
I sent Yon the $30.00 for his autobiography to help support his work; it is a pretty hefty hardcover. It took two days of reading and was very interesting. This guy has lived some hard days; I have no doubt about the honesty of his reporting or his willingness to be in harm’s way.
Quadrant, I understood what you said.....and then I read this. Just in case you missed this....enjoy!
This is one of Micheal Yon’s best. I just wish we had the same leadership in the Senate that we find in General Patreus. Hopefully you won’t mind that I pinged you.
I think Ernie Pile was reincarnated as Micheal Yon. This is a most excellent dispatch!
Micheal Yon is at his very best. Please find some time to read this latest dispatch. I found it interesting and then very moving. Leadership, it seems, we have in spades in the Military and lack so dreadfully in the Senate. MSM is too stupid and traitorous to even mention, yet I just did.
ping
And that, my friends, is why we have to prevail.
And this is precisely what the liberal left fails to understand.