Posted on 12/28/2014 11:35:20 AM PST by hcmama
First Sgt. Katrina Moerk, now the first sergeant of Charlie Company, 741st Military Intelligence Battalion, was browsing a social media network's community page earlier this year, when she came upon a video that she found offensive and sexist. When she commented as much, several respondents attacked her with insults. Some of these respondents were wearing uniforms in their profile photos, the first sergeant said, so she wrote to them directly.
"I looked them up, introduced myself and explained to them why they were stupid. And I [copied] the director of the Army SHARP program to help their units improve their SHARP training, because it was obviously lacking. And it's kind of blown up from there," Moerk said.
SHARP is the acronym for the military's Sexual Harassment Assault Response and Prevention program.
Online Backlash
This wasn't the first time Moerk had experienced online harassment, she said, but it was "the first time I've put my foot down, and was very adamant about correcting what was wrong with them."
For her willingness to stand up and defend Army values, Moerk received an Army Commendation Medal from Lt. Gen. James C. McConville, who succeeded Bromberg as the Army's personnel chief, during a ceremony Monday, at the Pentagon.
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
I can only imagine the over dubs done to FULL METAL JACKET.
Yeah, for those still can’t (refuse to?) see it, the only enemy our military will ever be allowed to defeat is us.
No diamond ‘tween the chevron and rocker. She isn’t a First Shirt.
1. It was my opinion based on the dichotomy of what the service was when I was to when my boy was in.
2. It’s no different than a 1st Sgt walking on another base and encountering policy-violating behavior by junior enlisted men (subordinate was the wrong term).
3. The medal was given by the personnel dept that is struggling with a MASSIVE personnel problem borne of bad leadership and this 1st Sgt stepped up to correct un-soldierlike behavior. The medal is unusual (perhaps unprecedented), but considering what she did, from a personnel-management standpoint, I can’t argue against the merit of the award.
4. This is the Army. Soldiers have no privacy rights, no freedom of speech. That the soldiers in question were not cited under UCMJ by their own superiors elaborates on a huge endemic problem. That she got a medal is proof there are some elements that want change. I see no relevance to critique it just because this was a female correcting bad male behavior. Personally, I could not trust the guy next to me that was so juvenile and unprofessional.
5. I agree with the ‘chain of command’ comment, but our military is so far gone that this is but one symptom of bad leadership by the soldiers’ respective commands. What she did took ‘balls’, ironically, and I applaud her for risking her career to make a difference.
6. She has more balls than the Joint Chiefs and their CIC combined.
7. Again, IMO.
And what “bait” was that?
A 1SG visiting another post would take it up with the offending soldiers chain of command instead of sending a whiney letter to some perfumed prince in the Pentagon.
The medal was uncalled for. Its the same as giving bradley manning an ARCOM for giving info to wikileaks. IMO it should have been downgraded to an Order of the Blue Falcon certificate.
It may be the Army, but we still had a limited freedom of speech that was kept within the platoon and or Troop, and that went for every unit I was in... We just couldn’t overtly dis the CiC, or military policy in public.
During the big GoE (Gathering of Eagles) in Washington DC back in ‘06 there were LOTS of active duty military (out of uniform of course) there standing with us to counter the code stink moonbatery.
Fact remains that there are more females in the military who spread their legs to get knocked up to avoid a deployment than there are those who are willing to do their jobs and deploy when ordered.
Its what they do.
Hate the south...the white south
Love Abe.
Deny atrocities.
Love them some black folks.
I never knew conservatives were so PC till I joined here in 2000
You can see where Fox and Beck and Levin and Medved all converge
Is this the best we got when it comes to our current reality?
ARCOM = Army Commendation Medal
The lower level is AAM (Army Achievement Medal). Then there’s a huge gap between AAM, ARCOM, and the next highest—the Meritorious Service Medal (MSM). The ARCOM has been fairly cheapened over the years, so maybe there should be a new award between ARCOM and MSM. Regardless, this really isn’t an ARCOM thing except the general officer here wanted to send a message.
Word around the campfire is that this woman’s battalion commander has issued a gag order on all the Soldiers in the 741st Military Intelligence Battalion not to discuss this case at all. I guess the press hasn’t been so good.
Not arguing your points, except that lack of leadership and other Personnel problems’ do not justify the soldiers’ behavior. Had it been a male 1st Sgt I don’t think this thread would even have been posted.
Had this medal ceremony been at the WH, I would agree with you 100%. But I view the medal as a slap in the face to the Puppet’s policies (which are a FAIL for military structure, discipline, morale and command).
When there is no leadership at the helm of our military and a woman has more balls than the President to address discipline (let alone those soldiers’ own ‘leaders’), then we truly have an endemic problem that will require a REAL leader to change.
IOW, it ain’t gonna change for a LONG time comin’...
“The CSA was already established and had a standing army when THEY initiated hostilities against the Union. Therefore the military at the time wasnt used against US citizens.”
Evidently you disagree with Abe Lincoln who said that there was no CSA. There were only American states in rebellion.
Lincoln called up troops to put down rebellion while Congress was out of session. He would have called Congress into special session to declare war if he had recognized the CSA, which he never did at any point.
The CSA saw things differently. Like you, they believed that they were a separate country. And as such they considered the presence of a rival military power in their territory to be unacceptable.
Lincoln apologists tend to forget that King George III considered the American colonists to be rebels who started a war against the legitimate government, one which incidentally offered freedom to blacks who supported the Crown. That complicates their desire to legitimize both the Founders and the Lincoln regime.
You guys have Fox on?... They found debrie and bodies from plane crash
By her own admission she never contacted the offending soldiers chain of command. She emailed the soldiers directly and CC’d the Army’s SHARP coordinator at the Pentagon.
Because of her actions the Corps command got broadsided without warning, the Division command got broadsided without warning, the Brigade command got broadsided without warning, the Battalion command got broadsided without warning, and finally the Company command got broadsided without warning.
IF it was a male 1SG who went straight to DA instead of proper channels he would have been busted back to E7 and be given an Article 15.
The CSA was formed in February 1861, and were sacking federal garrisons and armories before Lincoln’s inauguration.
Lincoln didn’t call up troops until AFTER Ft Sumter was attacked because he didn’t want a war, but the south forced his hand.
The last part you are comparing apples to oranges.
“The last part you are comparing apples to oranges.”
The Colonies declared their independence of the established government. The Confederacy declared their independence of the established government.
The colonials gathered arms and prepared for war. The confederates gathered arms and prepared for war.
King George didn’t recognize the USA and used his armies to put down the rebellion. Lincoln didn’t recognize the CSA and sent his armies to put down the rebellion.
The Crown offered emancipation as a wartime measure. Lincoln offered emancipation as wartime measure.
Where exactly are you finding a major difference?
I state, again, “I agree with the chain of command comment, but our military is so far gone that this is but one symptom of bad leadership by the soldiers respective commands. “
On the basis of the soldiers’ actions, my own observations and experiences of my boy, the commands deserved to be broadsided. We have a leadership problem resulting in unsoldier-like behavior, loss of discipline & morale. It has obviously spread to command if this garbage is tolerated. There is no ‘respecting command’ if command is derelict.
As stated, I view the medal as a slap in the face to the Pupppet.
I would have relieved command myself had I found what she found. I don’t agree with many of the Pentagon’s moves on women and all the other utter BS (transgender, gays, etc.), but acting like monkeys is but one symptom of much larger personnel problems and, imo, we’re way beyond ‘a fix’; drastic action is a first step. I truly hope this stimulates a nice round of closed-door arguments about the validity of further integration of our armed forces...as well as recruiting monkeys to do a man’s job.
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