Tag Archives: army

Military Incompetence: Mustard Gas leak at Army facility in Colorado

On Tuesday, August 2, the U.S. Army reported a mustard gas leak at their chemical storage site in Pueblo, Colorado.  They also claim no one has been affected.

Today, August 3, personnel at the site are trying to find out where the leak is coming from.  One official thinks it’s one or two old artillery shells that are leaking.

The Pueblo site is one of five U.S. Army chemical stockpile sites in the United States.  Those sites are in the states of Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Kentucky and Alabama.  A factory designed to destroy the chemical weapons is scheduled for construction in 2013, and it’s hoped it will be ready by 2017.

Korea investigates U.S. Army base for Agent Orange dumping

Korean media reporting the three U.S. Army veterans have testified that they were ordered to dump 250 55-gallon barrels of Agent Orange on a U.S. base in South Korea.

“They just told us it was going to be used for disposal.”-Steve House, veteran

South Korea’s environment ministry will take soil samples at Camp Carroll in Chilgok County, North Gyeongsang.  The local government wants the United States to pay: “If the news report is true, the U.S. military must take responsibility, pay compensation and conduct regular Korea-U.S. joint inspections.”

U.S. Army has evidence of Trophy Killing by U.S. Troops

The German magazine Der Spiegel has published photos that show U.S. troops in Afghanistan taking part in “trophy killing” of Afghans.

“The guys in my group have murdered an innocent Afghan. He was my age. They planned everything out. I knew about it, but didn’t believe that it would actually happen. Almost everyone in the group knows full well what happened, and they think it’s ok. I’m the only one who doesn’t. I want to do something about it, but I don’t have the courage.”  -Facebook posting by alleged whistleblower

Some of the photos show that the victims were handcuffed together. Another photo shows a dead victim with their pants pulled down, and a U.S. soldier grinning.  Kind of like the Abu Ghraib photos from Iraq, but this time people were murdered.

“We apologize for the distress these photos cause. The actions portrayed in these photographs remain under investigation and are now the subject of ongoing U.S. court-martial proceedings.” -U.S. Army

Notice that the U.S. Army apologizes for the photos, not the actions of their troops.  Army officials have stated that the troops violated policies, but there is no apology to the victim’s families.

The U.S. soldiers, part of the Stryker Brigade, are a self described “Kill Team”.  They faked enemy ambushes so they could justify killing unarmed men.

Der Spiegel magazine published only 3 of the 4,000 photos, because most of the photos were too “disgusting”.  The photos are being used in the court martial hearings.

Army Study Reveals more Service Members Dying at Home than in War

Today, November 11, is Veterans Day here in the United States.  If the wikileaks reports didn’t stir Americans then maybe the latest report by their own U.S. Army will, but I doubt it.

The United States Army has released a 350 page study (Army health Promotion Risk Reduction Suicide Prevention Report 2010) on suicide, which reveals a much larger problem within the Department of Defense; slack morale and morals enforcement leading to major problems stateside, besides the record breaking suicide rate.

The report states that more service members die in non-combat incidents, mainly suicide, than in combat.  Both the USA and USMC reported suicide rates of more than 20,000 in 2009 (USA = United States Army, USMC = United States Marine Corps, U.S.A. = United States of America.  Yes the punctuation maters.  In American English only abbreviations of country names and personal names get punctuated, organizations like a company, or the UN, do not.  Pay attention to most U.S. media sources and you’ll see they are using British/Commonwealth English rules, which is a sign that most ‘U.S.’ media are not really American).

“…Soldiers have become transient tenants…”

On pages 36-37 the report cited the need for speed in getting troops mobilized  for tours of duty as overriding the face to face interaction with leadership that “…demand good order and discipline…”, creating an environment of loss of command and control of their own troop’s morals and morale.  The process of constant deployment, and problems at home upon returning, has created the sense for the soldier that they are just a number in the system; “They are no longer linked to garrisons by a chain of command or senior commander but are regulated only by Army policies, programs and processes.” This lack of morale leadership by, ironically, predominantly christian officers (that’s from my personal experience) has also led to across the board increases in various crimes committed by service members.  By the way, a former Army intelligence officer, Richard A. Gabriel, warned of similar issues in his book that was published in 1985: Military Incompetence: Why the American Military Doesn’t Win.

The U.S. Army report is detailed and surprising with some of the stats.  I plan to write more about it as I read it, I doubt the main stream U.S. media will cover it thoroughly.  Do not blame Obama for this, this situation was created under the Bush administration, Obama inherited it (but he isn’t helping to end the situation, so far).  No, I did not vote for Obama, I voted for Ron Paul!