Posted on 08/23/2011 5:05:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway
“Check #10 for an assumption that he was the only guy supposed to be awake in his whole platoon. That’s your buddy from the Red Army, Pvt Miller.”
Please everybody check my post 10. It proves moooyah to be a liar, since the post has nothing to do with what he is claiming.
You live in a fantasy world and take cause with the Marine who fell asleep multiple times in a combat zone.
I’m not surprised that you relate to the sleeper.
I'm having a difficult time imagining guarding anything as a one man show. Totally bizarre.
Think about ~ guarding atomic munitions (which I've done) ~ not at all a one man deal, and the various guard posts around my own neighborhood (near Fort Belvoir, et al) ~ never just one guy there.
Duty with the West German Border Patrol was certainly a team effort ~ one guy shows up missing for less than a minute and somebody had to answer for that.
The guys on the other side were less disciplined but there were no one man posts, or even two man posts. They had their machineguns, their spotters, their feeders ~ all up there ~ watching, waiting, tossing empty vodka bottles ~
They even used infrared all night long ~ take a dump in the woods, they were watching.
You people are amateurs.
I saw a guy with near 4.0's quarterly evals go to NJP several times in a few months. Today after some life experiences I now realize the poor guy had Manic Depression. The fact his brother had it and had killed himself was my clue. He needed help, he deserved help, the military he served owed him that help the same as if he had gotten his leg shot off. He didn't deserve going from E-4to E-1. He would go into uncontrolled rages at any little thing and all the lifers would do was fill out a report chit and sit and badger him so they could fill out another.
I have no use for dirt bags who on purpose screw up and endanger troops. I also have no use for NCO's and Oficer's who know a man under them needs help and just doesn't give a rats ass because he had s some idiotic prejudice about mental or neurologails illnesses that endangers his men as much as the person with those conditions, Maybe more so because it was his job to get the man out of the unit.
BTW sleep related disorders in some services will get you an honorable medical boot out like sleep walking on a ship. Everyone accepts sleepwalking though.
Narcolepsy sure sounds like the culprit and NCO's and Officers these days should be able to catch it and combat fatigue. Ever see anyone with Narcolepsy? I have the guy could fall asleep talking to you. Wake him up and two minutes later back asleep. BTW the guy was an Army vet Narcolepsy hit him after service.
Our troops thanks too the ongoing gross incompetence in congress and the Oval Office for the past 22 years are on eternal over deployment, being over extended, and under wind down time. Vets of NAM got far better roataions and unless they reenlisted only saw Nam once. Some troops on first enlistment are seeing Iraq and other war zones 4-5 times first enlistment.
IOW some bad stuff related to combat fatigue is very likely to happen even more so than all wars previous because there is no light at the end of the tunnel as far as military goals. The only thing surprising me is there isn't more break downs. There likely are but we likely aren't hearing about it.
I understand what going long periods without sleep does to the mind. I used to drive a rig. I know truckers who have seen kids riding tricycles down interstates from lack of sleep. Do you want someone in that state on guard? Talk about a sitiuation that could take out our own troops. After over 20 something hours with a few breaks along the way I'd pull over to cop some Z's a few minutes and do so in my seat. The second I woke up my right hand went down on the brakes in a cold sweat thinking I had fallen asleep driving.
Why not use you outrage to condemn the ongoing conditions our troop's now face which create these conditions too start with? Those conditions being too few troops are doing too much for too long a time. Look at the current End Troop Strengths and do the Math.
Miller, ~ that’s not your real name, right? just the one they gave you in Detroit ~ that’s why you hate the post office ~ that’s where we send the defectors who have little to give us ~ your experiences in the REd Army are irrelevant to doing a professional job, or staying awake.
By the time I was in Afghanistan, I was a 49 year old, bifocal wearing O-5, and about 99% REMF. However, I had enough experience and sense to KNOW I was 99% REMF.
I was the oldest guy on the FOB, though...
You are probably missing my issue ~ that is that some officer dumba$$ didn't believe he should take care of this problem and left it to his apparently untrained, inexperienced NCO, and he the riflemen.
That's a breakdown of discipline far more serious than one guy nodding off.
Red Army LOL
82nd Airborne Division
2/508 Parachute Inf Reg.
Interesting you relate to the sleeper in a combat zone.
There are no inexperienced NCOs. period
There are some stupid ones, mostly in the Army. :)
If we KNOW the guy did not have a sleep or other disorder then we can call him lazy. If we don't know it, to call him lazy is unreasonable and immoral.
I don't care how strong and principled one's character is. Will cannot override narcolepsy.
But still, your position regarding relationships between the ranks tells me you are pure Soviet ~ not American, not even NATO.
“But still, your position regarding relationships between the ranks tells me you are pure Soviet ~ not American, not even NATO. “
Seriously, you relate to the sleeper in a combat zone...
You’re gay right?
MD, the overwhelming majority of guys who fall asleep on guard duty do NOT have brain tumors.
Some of them DO have lumps on their noggins from being butt-stroked with a rifle when found sleeping...my son-in-law, USMC, said that in his experience, it cured guys of sleeping on guard duty 100% of the time.
My daughter is visiting, and I just asked her if her husband got 12 hours of rest in combat. “Yes”, she replied, “12 hours every month!” He is 6’2” and was 135 lbs after his first tour in Iraq, and weighted 145 after his second. His normal weight is 190. Oh, and he is now 6’zero!
99% chance it was laziness
1% it was some rare disease
I know where I’d risk my life
What makes you think the guy was gay?
“You people are amateurs”
No, we know what we are talking about...and the subject is NOT guarding nukes or Fort Belvoir!
YGBSM!
“If we KNOW the guy did not have a sleep or other disorder then we can call him lazy. If we don’t know it, to call him lazy is unreasonable and immoral.”
I understand your empathy for the guy, you were a chaplain in the military. That was your job. But the NCOs and Officers on the line have to think of the other guys that he potentially endangered, four times. I really don’t care about why he fell asleep. He fell asleep in a combat zone. he was a danger to his unit. He should have been shipped out asap.
“I don’t care how strong and principled one’s character is. Will cannot override narcolepsy.”
He didn’t have narcolepsy. It’s also immoral and unreasonable to deflect responsibility from a soldier for no proven reason. Unless you, of course, no he had narcolepsy.
When I'm sleep deprived, a little white cat darts across the room in front of me. I've seen ghost-cat in night clubs, at work, at home... It's freaky.
“No, we know what we are talking about...and the subject is NOT guarding nukes or Fort Belvoir!”
LOL...don’t even bother with him, he is clueless and doesn’t know the difference.
Guarding nukes within about 35 miles of a Soviet Armored Division. The real deal ~
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