Naval officer chooses discharge rather than go to Iraq

[Newsjock]

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

EVERETT -- Eleven years ago, Sabrina M. Weiner graduated as a valedictorian at Kamiak High School near Everett. She was a National Merit Scholar, aiming for a bright future after earning a Navy ROTC scholarship to Stanford University.

Two months ago, Weiner, 27, after seven years in the active and reserve duty during which she rose to the rank of lieutenant, forfeited her career.

In a rare instance involving a commissioned officer, Weiner was arrested and given a choice between a court-martial or less-than-honorable discharge after refusing to serve in Iraq.

Speaking publicly for the first time about it, Weiner says she was not against the war but the so-called "individual augmentee" program. In the past several years, that program has sent nearly 60,000 sailors from ships and bases to augment Army and Marine ground forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It is not an against-the-war argument but a people-accountability argument," Weiner says. "I was proud to say I was a Navy officer. My problem is the way they are using us as IAs. It minimizes the job and training we do for the Navy."

... For her convictions, she was thrown in jail, flown across the nation in shackles and threatened with court-martial. Today she is scraping by in Everett, living frugally, tutoring high school kids in math and is enrolled in graduate studies at the Alden March Bioethics Institute based at the Albany Medical College in New York.

... Navy officials declined to discuss Weiner's case, saying they were unfamiliar with it.

Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/359728_navalofficer19.html

[babylonsister]

1. Wow, that's one brave lady with principles. Brava. And 'support the troops'.

:eyes:

[BigDaddy44]

46. mmm... i wouldn't necessarily agree

She didn't want to go to Iraq. Clearly. And she paid the price for not going. But her excuse is lame.

"It is not an against-the-war argument but a people-accountability argument," Weiner says. "I was proud to say I was a Navy officer. My problem is the way they are using us as IAs. It minimizes the job and training we do for the Navy."

She's not against the war. She's offended by "how her skills are being used." If you're in the miliary, you do what they tell you to do. Thats the deal going in. If you oppose the war and pay the price, thats quite admirable. But her excuse is pretty weak. She supports the war, and was in the military, but was afraid to go Iraq. Fine. Just say so. THAT would show courage and moral backbone. Not this pathetic excuse.

[AnneD]

50. I agree with her....

We see this in Nursing all the time. Most folks think a Nurse is a Nurse and are interchangeable widgets. But the truth is things have gotten so specialized that we are not interchangeable. I worked as a med-surg (Medical Surgical) and I would frequently be pulled to be a OB-GYN, labour and delivery and frankly Ms Scarlett-I don't know nuttin about birthin no babies. I would slow the Docs down and felt like I was endangering the mothers and babies. You wouldn't go to a Dermatologist with a cardiac problem.

Warfare is so specialized because the equipment is so specialized. If the Pentagon wants it that way-they need to respect the skills. A soldier is not a soldier, an airman 1st class airplane mechanic is not an infantry man and it is a waste of training and skill to do that.

This falls in the category of stupid fighting the war on the cheap Pentagon moves-like stop lossing guys.

[lovuian]

2. they will be more the rebellion gets bigger and bigger

the point is she isn't going to Iraq
God Bless her

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. She is a true heroine...

And she is paying the price for it.

She has shown real courage by taking this position.

:patriot:

Oh, and I call BULLSHIT on the Navy's statement!

On edit: K&R

[JeanGrey]

40. What in the world makes her a hero?

[Stuart G]

42. She is a hero, because the idiots were going to assign her...

to something that was actually counter-productive. If they had said, "Here is some training, this is what you are going to do."
.. That is another thing. The bosses didn't care what happened to her, or the nature of her mission..that is why she is a hero.


Her words from the link:
"They were going to have me negotiate money transactions with Iraqi warlords. A woman of Jewish and East Asian descent to try to talk to men about money in a country where women aren't always allowed to handle money," Weiner says.

Weiner's record and fitness reports before she was called up to IA duty indicate anything but a shrinking violet. She had earned two overseas service ribbons, commendation and achievement medals and was part of a Meritorious Unit Commendation."

[JeanGrey]

43. She does not get to decide what is "counter productive".

She wasn't being thrust onto the front lines with a rifle. I'm sorry, she isn't a hero and I'm with the group that wants my tax money back for her education.

[hack89]

48. You don't understand an officer's career path

between ship tours it is not uncommon have assignments like this. The navy doesn't want specialists - they want generalists that can lead and function in a wide variety of environments.

What you don't understand that she understood what the ground rules were - navy officers under and accept that assignments like this are expected. She simply thinks she is too good for the rules to apply to her.

[krkaufman]

4. I'm glad she opted for this route. Others have taken less productive actions. n/t

[KeineAhnung]

5. I call BS

Her so called "courage" is crap. She joined the armed forces and that means armed conflict. Just because she hoped to be on a ship somewhere doesnt mean that any time she couldn't be called up to actually go into a "dangerous" area. Air Force AND Navy are just as much, or at least supposed to be, warriors. Check their branch creeds and ethos'

She isn't against the war and would be just fine and dandy to launch missles from the safety of an arm chair a few hundred or thousand miles away. She is against putting her own delicate hind end on the line like the Army and the Marines and the other Navy personnel that came before her.

[krkaufman]

6. Ok. But I'll remain grateful that she didn't opt for a bullet in the brain pan ...

... as her out.

[bonito]

7. Armed conflict doesn't mean Madd conflict

With a neocon placed idiot for a commander and chief carrying out their illegal mob operations.

[Tab]

8. I don't weigh into arguments like this much

I'm of this magic age where I was too young for Vietnam, and too old for the gulf war, so I don't think I have the right to speak about others values.

Nevertheless, I have zero qualms about going into service to protect my country IF IT NEEDS PROTECTING. I have a major problem, though, with manufactured conditions and I'm damned if I'm going to die for some fuckup from Yale. I'll die for my country, but not for a dumb fuck who hasn't accomplished a fraction of what I have in about the same amount of time.

George, you want me to volunteer, send your daughters first.

Then I'll think about it.

[SpiralHawk]

9. "Absolutely." - Commander AWOL

"She should follow the sterling example of military discipline that I, and my cabal of republicon CHICKENHAWKS have established. Smirk.

"As KeineAhnung suggests, the safety of an armchair is the republicon chickenhawk way, as exemplifed by me, Cheney, Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, and other noted republicon, um, armchair warriors. Smirk."

- Commander AWOL

[RedstDem]

10. I second that

i thought the very same thing. Now if she took a stand against an ILLEGAL war she would deserve our respect & backing like Lt. Watabe

He's a true hero.

[madmom]

15. ditto that

[atreides1]

25. What Tripe

"Check their branch creeds and ethos'"

Sorry those creeds and ethos' don't mean squat anymore, or aren't you familiar with names like Abu Ghraib, Mumadiya, or Haditha.

As for the USAF and USN being warriors, that's a pant load. Certain units may be called warriors, like the SEALS or SAR, even fighter and bomber pilots, but it's not a definition that can be applied to all members of those services.

Definition of Warrior:

According to the Random House Dictionary, the term warrior has two meanings. The first literal use refers to "a person engaged or experienced in warfare." The second figurative use refers to "a person who shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness, as in politics or athletics."

[indepat]

33. Achtung, mein herr: if only all those of your reichous conviction were willing to serve in Iraq,

there would be no need to augment the soldiers and marines on the ground with sailors. And incidentally, have you put your own delicate hind end on the line? Just teasing! :D

[JeanGrey]

38. I hate this war but I totally agree. Killing is ok as long as her

butt isn't in danger. Disgusting. What did she think her ROTC and career was for?

[BOHICA06]

11. How about she pays back ....

the Navy her Stanford education? Then she could turn her actions from cowardly to honorable, but I figure it's "all about her" in her well freely educated mind.

[Syntheto]

12. You beat me to it...

"Living frugally" while pursuing an advanced post-graduate degree seems an oxymoron. I think the bill came for her education and benefits, namely being rotated out to an overseas billet, and that's not what she signed up for when she joined the Navy. She sounds like one of those people who judge their worth by the number of degrees or other letters before and after their names and live their entire lives within the wonderful land of Academia.
She had an obligation. As smart as the OP wants to make this woman out to be, and I have no doubt about it, surely she understood what that contract meant when she signed it. This wasn't about protesting a war, this was about not wanting to leave a comfortable stateside billet where she got to be a perpetual student.

[JeanGrey]

39. Bravo. Me too. I want mine back as well.

[gratuitous]

13. More courage than a lot of her comrades

It would please me to see more military officers follow this example.

[hack89]

14. She would have no problem shooting cruise missiles from a ship

she just doesn't want to go ashore. How is she courageous?

[WyldRogue]

16. Let me see if I can make it clearer....

...YOU spend up to 8 years being trained to do battle on a naval ship, then all of a sudden, you're told you must go to the front-lines and do battle on the ground.She HAS no formal training to combat on the ground other than having a gun and pulling the trigger. ANY MILITARY and EDUCATED person would see this right off the bat but obviously, some of you here have NEVER served ANYWHERE militarily.

To ask this Naval Officer to go to the front-line in which she does NOT have the proper training to insure the lives of the GIs as well as her own life is like asking a Plasma welder to splice OC3 cables.

How can some of you people be so callous and daft??

Ugh

[hack89]

19. Did you read what her job was to be?

She was not going to be a front line combat officer.

She says her job in Iraq was to have been commerce officer, providing money to local Iraqi leaders."

The individual augmentee jobs typically include public works and reconstruction; training local forces in Afghanistan; medical care; protecting U.S. bases; interpreting laws, especially concerning contractor obligations; forging closer ties with communities in Afghanistan; handling detainees; and administrative work.

I spent 20 years as a Naval officer - I have no problem with this policy. Talking to friends who are still serving and have been to Iraq, I know very well that not only are the jobs well within their abilities to perform, but none of them involved active combat. They run the same risk as all the non-combat clerks, cooks, medical officers and staff officers.

[WyldRogue]

22. Well then...

...I guess * could send one of his daughters to dole out the money...or perhaps one of the drum-beating Rethugs can send there sons or daughters to go to Iraq to hand out monies in a War Zone where they could possibly come home in a box. I mean, how dangerous is it over there right?? Americans are so well loved in the ME right now, they'll be safe and have nothing to fear.

So it's now turning into 'smear those that refuses to go and die for a lie' now? Our country sure has fallen deep into utter hatred toward ANYONE as of late hasn't it.

Oh well...guess I'll just fade into the woodwork...

[Shipwack]

29. She's -not- refusing to "die for a lie"

I am -not- smearing her, nor is she refusing to "die for a lie".

She has said she's not averse to going to a dangerous place.

She has no compunction about being a crew member of a ship that fires missiles to kill people.

She just doesn't want to do what she is told because it is a "waste of her skills". Poor, poor primadona.

I would consider having a small bit of admiration if she was refusing orders on moral grounds, but she's not. Anyway, the time to do that was when Bush invaded Iraq, not when it becomes inconvenient/dangerous. I am a bit less sympathetic to anyone that is willing to be in the service, get training, collect money, then refuse orders when they might actually have to go into harm's way. Not entirely unsympathetic, just a bit jaundiced.

[lovuian]

26. Whoa wait a minute here What you all forget is that

this war is at a turning point... Bush has brought the Military to a point where people would rather leave alive in disgrace than go fight

this is a moment of rebellion ...yes its ugly yes its a bit scary

there is a point where a person doesn't care about disgrace all they want is their life and they choose to do with it what they want

when you see officers leaving can you imagine the grunts wanting to escape even more

we are talking MASSIVE REBELLION here folks
Civil War is a heart beat away

What we are seeing is 300,000 troops with mental disorders and 300,000 brain injuries
they are tapping into the Navy and the Airforce DESPERATION!!!

making them do jobs that they are clueless at... working them over 12 hour days 5 days a week

I work 12 hours days and its hell ...she was SMART thats all it gets down to
She knows that rape of women is rampant She is SMART

take the disgrace gladly

but the bottom line is she comes out with her brain not raped and a live

She is Smart

the Bristling is the resentment at her getting out while others stay in ...for what??? for being Bush canon fodder
for Being Congress canon fodder

lets get this straight guys and listen well

All Military personal to Bush and Cheney and Congress are canon fodder...slaves... mindless drones


they literally are getting off watching our children die for them
it makes me sick when I see him up giving his speech and these military clap for him because he ORDERS it
but let him throw a baseball out of a stadium with free minded people and he is BOOED

Imagine all of our troops setting their guns down and walking away

we are so there people
just a matter of time

The Rebellion is getting more obvious

Bush & Cheney pretend to care
and
Our military pretend to fight

thats what Vietnam was all about

there is a quiet rebellion
at this point
Its called Survival

She maybe disgraced but she is alive

[hack89]

31. No - the military is not at the point of rebellion

Cases like this are so rare to be almost non-existent.

[retired af major]

30. Commerce Officer?

What kind of bullshit is THAT? Does it take a military officer to hand out money? From what I've seen its just another way for the Bush/Cheney/military to do the mission on the cheap at the expense of the guard and reserve force. I can see her perspective, if you're taking me away from my life make it meaningful.

I was an IMA for for about ten years, after fourteen in the regular reserve. And believe me, being an individual on these assignments is just that. I'M Alone. We joked that's what IMA stood for. Your TDY commander won't give a sh*t about you and will probably f*ck up your career with a marginal performance report, or not putting you in for a decoration. Worse yet, gets ya killed for no good reason, or pins the blame for something on you since you're just a "f*cking reservist".

I don't blame her.

[Shipwack]

21. Not calloused, just experienced.

Well, maybe a bit calloused too, but only from dealing with too many people in my naval career that used their "education" and "importance" to try to get out of doing their duty.

...YOU spend up to 8 years being trained to do battle on a naval ship, then all of a sudden, you're told you must go to the front-lines and do battle on the ground.She HAS no formal training to combat on the ground other than having a gun and pulling the trigger. ANY MILITARY and EDUCATED person would see this right off the bat but obviously, some of you here have NEVER served ANYWHERE militarily.

If you had read the article, she was -not- being asked to go to the front lines (btw, her specialty had nothing to do with shipboard combat systems). She was not going to carry a gun on the front lines. While her safety was not going to be assured, she was not being sent into combat.

Spending years of training and then being asked to do something else? In the Navy we called that... being in the Navy. The most valuable skills we are taught are not how to solder, fire a rifle, or fly a jet. It is discipline, ability to obey orders, and to follow procedure. As an Annapolis grad, you'd think she'd know that (not that I hold ring knockers in high esteem; just the opposite). If she is the moderately competent officer that her performance reviews say she is, she should be able to go out there, look at what procedures are in place, and do her job. If she's lucky (ha!) they'll be someone there to show her what filing cabinet to put the forms in. If not, she has resources she can consult. If resources are unavailable...? Well, she'll have to wing it. That's why officers get payed the big bucks.

The Navy has a proud history of sailors going beyond their training. Look up the Navy's role in the battle of Mexico City...

As for myself, I was trained as a nuclear electronics tech. In my career I:

installed radars
monitored missile tests
fixed computers
wrote procedures and administered my commands IT department
guarded nuclear weapons
plotted ship's position and created charts for the same
fought fires
monitored the air for dangerous contaminants
monitored satellite telemetry
shut down satellite networks
answered phones
filed personnel records
ordered and maintained supplies
sent and received message traffic
cleaned toilets
drove ships and submarines
launched missiles
directed traffic
installed explosives
chopped vegetables
made 3 inch thick data and power cables
waxed floors
helped teach soldiers and marines how to process POWs
QA for submarine construction

Specialization is for insects, not sailors.

[JeanGrey]

41. Nonsense. SHE is a solider. They ALL are. There is no

guarantee that you pick and chose where you serve. None. Everyone knows this.

[AnneD]

52. My Dad was career wingnut...

I was Army-it's apples and oranges and I support her total. I also supported the guy that refused to wear the UN patch in Bosnia on the grounds that he was US Army, not a UN soldier.

People that have convections this strong that they are willing to accept punishment for their ideas are not the mindless cannon fodder the military wants and they are not cowards either. But if I were in a foxhole-those are the kind of folks I'd want beside me.

I was offered a chance to advance to OCS when I was in. This was after VN and they were desperate. I told them that after my service I was going home. When my Capt. asked me why I told him that I was sworn to uphold the Constitution-and I would do that to the death-but I didn't see why I had to give up my Constitutional rights in order to defend it. He pause to think about it. He then laughed and said I was too smart to be in the Army. The hazards of a philosophical bend.

[trthnd4jstc]

17. Our Military since the Korean War, has primarily served the interest of the Rich

I was off the coast of Central America, and loaded bombs onto planes, that illegally dropped them on a country, in which we were not in war with. Go Figure. The military is meant for killing people. Even though we could have been a Nation of Justice, we are a Nation of Corporate Profiteers who get their greedy hands onto the levers of Power, and do not care who gets killed.

Our Government needs to be overhauled. Ms. Weiner got out because of The Individual Augmentee program. I got out because I did not wish to be responsible for killing innocent people.

We should be the good guys.

Good luck, Ms. Weiner!

[peacetalksforall]

20. Our military is used for political coups which take place to ensure the

benefits of resources in the country and subsequent financial rewards for a few.

Until the military is used for defense of the people ONLY Republicans and Republican Democrats are going to continue to divide us. Pretending that we have an honorable military brass leading our kids on defensive missions when it's all about securing earth resources for a few causes continued divisions. Military brass + corporations + the politicos that legislate corporate war are dividing us, not this female former officer and others like her. Yes, we are a divided nation, therefore we divide and take sides on all the issues within a thread like this.

Until the people of this nation can see the corporatism they are going to ask our kids to live lies.

The military involvement in the deaths in Central America is a perfect example. Chile. Venezuela coups using our military. Just in this hemisphere alone with no declared war we concoct a war against the former ruler in Panama which was only an act of revenge for a partnership gone bad and an attack on the little island of Grenada for the glorification of Ronald Reagan - says it all.

Western Hemisphere political and corporate 'wars' - using our military.
Not taking care of the wounded.

Now, wars on Moslems becuase of the riches beneath their feet.

It's hard to say that we MUST live up to the code of the military.

They were the ones who divided us. The military and the people they serve who are NOT the the little people - in the cold reality of their history.

[Shipwack]

18. Sorry, my admiration is muted here...

My background: 20 year enlisted Navy vet, retired in '06, and I participated in the IA program.

The purpose of the IA program is to send sailors that aren't normally assigned to the command to do the day-to-day activities to free up specialized people to do their job. It makes no sense to tie up a demolitions expert answering a phone all day when he/she could be out defusing bombs, etc.

Lieutenant is not complaining that the war is unjust, or that she has family that needs to be taken care of, or that she abhors violence. My understanding is that Ms. Weiner is upset that she would be doing a job that she hadn't trained for. The traditional Navy response to this is...

"Waaaaaah!"*

As in "Oh, you poor baby, life sure is tough...now get back to work." I've met more than my fair share of officers and enlisted who would complain that some job was "beneath" them. Neither I nor my shipmates had time to coddle some freaking butter-bar or zoomie (Academy graduated ensign or nuclear propulsion trained personnel)who didn't want to pull their share of the work because they felt that they were too educated to do what was needed.

The article says that she was to go to Iraq to be a "commerce officer". I don't know what that entails, and I'm willing to bet that she doesn't either. I have a feeling it is neither as important or interactive as she seems to think it is. She is under the impression that it involves negotiating with people and doling out money; it wouldn't surprise me if she was just taking forms and sending them out to others for approval.

All that being said, she does have a point. The IA program is just some spackle to that covers up how stretched are resources are getting. The CO I was assigned to (Fifth Fleet in Bahrain) hated IAs because we were the response to his request for more personnel for his command. Instead of permanently increasing his staff size, the Bureau of Personnel would send him a couple of new 6 months temps twice a year.


*Actually, the traditional response is "Waaaaah, f-ing, waaaaah". Sailors are usually not the most repressed lot... ;)

[KeineAhnung]

23. Wow...

We have the same "Waaaah" response in the Army as well. Who knew? ;)

[Shipwack]

27. We are more alike than different, I bet...

I don't suppose you guys like to drink beer after duty, too? ;)

:toast:

[Bigmack]

24. A friend's son...

got was s Squid helo pilot. They sent him to Infantry school somewhere in the Plains, then to Afghanistan. NOT as a helo pilot. He bitched like crazy but went. He was some kind of liaison officer in the boondocks. His mother was pleased, but I think that sounds dangerous to me... an isolated position with backup miles away in hostile country.

He made it back... this time. I don't know whether he's going to stay in.

I know firsthand that when you sign the contract "Your heart may belong to Momma, your soul may belong to Jesus, but your ass belongs to the Corps", but this is bullshit! My tax money (well, actually it's money borrowed from China) not only being pissed away, but people trained on my dime being thrown around like used Kleenex.

Anybody notice that in any other career, you can just tell the boss to shove it and boogie outa there?... Except the military. Kind of an anachronism, isn't it? "...she was thrown in jail, flown across the nation in shackles and threatened with court-martial".

"Support the Troops"? How about supporting their careers, too. You posters above this who said she knew what she was doing when she signed on. Most of you went in the Navy. One question... why didn't you join the Marines if it's all the same Service?

How about supporting our troops by not making so goddam many of them? Maybe we need to scale back just a taste.

[Shipwack]

28. Well, it's -not- the same service...

I really don't understand your comments.

No one ever said it was "all the same service". I do things better than some Marines. I've had guys with combat experience tell me they'd rather be someplace where someone might be shooting at them than sail under the ocean in excess of 400 feet. I feel the same way in reverse, but... If we were told to switch places, we would. Sure we'd bitch about it the whole way ("a bitching sailor is a happy sailor", and I'm sure the other services have similar sayings), but we'd do it. This isn't a "ours is not to reason why" type of thing. It's about doing what you are told to do because you put your name on the dotted line and swore an oath to do so. She got herself a spot at one of the most highly regarded learning centers in the US, and in return she had a job to do and a debt to pay, which she refused to do, not because she thought war was morally wrong, not because it would be dangerous, but because she thought it wasn't what she trained for.

For what it's worth I joined the Navy over other services because they offered me a better deal. ::shrug::

No, I don't have to support her career, other than her career being what the Navy says it is. The most valuable skills the service taught her were to lead, administer, and learn. Sometimes (if not most) of the time you get in places that don't use your formal schooling. Such is life of an officer (or enlisted person). It works the same way in the civilian world too. Many people don't get jobs based on what they went to college for. My brother spent four years getting a degree in physical therapy; his first jobs were in sales, and now he's head of admissions at a state university. Life's funny like that.

I agree with you, the whole "guns/butter" ratio is way out of whack, but that is an entirely different issue.

[Azazel]

32. They are putting sailors in the infantry???

I knew they were using Air Force people to drive the trucks. But sailors? And this in addition to 150,000 mercenaries? They are absolutely desperate for personnel.

[happyslug]

34. No, probably having her do a Marine Job, that frees that Marine for the Infantry

For example, the Navy have been taking over security in some bases, that had previously been guarded by Marines. This frees up the Marines for Combat units. Similarly various staff positions can be done by a Naval Personnel for a Marine unit, freeing Marines up for Combat units.

Now Navy personnel have been used as Infantry. During the Civil War the Marines were absent from almost all combat, being a very small service and used to protect the White House and other Government buildings. Now the Marines did supply the Five Companies of Regular Infantry commanded by then U.S. Army Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart at Harper's Ferry in 1859 (Marines prior to WWI, always went under Army Officers if used at more than Company levels, Marine Offices above Captain almost NEVER commanded more than 100 men at any one time prior to WWI) and at Fort Fisher in 1865. As to fort Fisher, the Marines provided rifle cover fire for the Naval Personnel used in the first wave of the naval assault on Fort Fisher, then followed behind the sailors, both attacks failed, but the main attack by by US Army troops on the other side of the Fort was successful in talking Fort Fisher and closing Wilmington NC as a source for supplies for the Confederate Army.

The Marines really did not get a name for themselves as an independent Service till the 1890s when the Marines were used in various Latin American Hot Spots (and even in the Spanish-American War, most of the fighting was done by Army and National Guard Units NOT Marines). Thus Naval personnel was often more important source of Infantry then Marines BEFORE about 1890, but after that date the Marines became more and more important. Marines were the main force in the US intervention in Haiti and Nicaragua in the 1920s (US Army units were the main force in the Philippines during the same time period).

In 1942, Naval Personel were used as Infrantry in the Defence of the Philipines Islands.

Just comments, have the US used Naval personel as Infranty? Yes. Are Naval Personel being used as infranty TODAY, No. All that is happening today is Naval Personel is bring used to free up Marines for Combat duties.


For more on Harpers Ferry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpers_Ferry,_West_Virginia

For more on Fort Fisher:
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1865/battle-fort-fisher.htm
http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/HS/fisher/fisher.htm

Haiti Intervention:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/haiti.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._occupation_of_Haiti

Nicaragua:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_history_of_Nicaragua

1942 Philipines:
http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/pi/PI.htm

[hack89]

35. Did you bother to even read the link?

it says what her job was going to be.

[AnneD]

51. They have programs like...

blue to green-USAF magically turned into USA. They are so short for boots on the ground they are stealing them everywhere.

[Stuart G]

36. K and R...and more..

How does one deal with people who do this to their employees?
..and that company is us?

"Speaking publicly for the first time about it, Weiner says she was not against the war but the so-called "individual augmentee" program. In the past several years, that program has sent nearly 60,000 sailors from ships and bases to augment Army and Marine ground forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It is not an against-the-war argument but a people-accountability argument," Weiner says. "I was proud to say I was a Navy officer. My problem is the way they are using us as IAs. It minimizes the job and training we do for the Navy."

... For her convictions, she was thrown in jail, flown across the nation in shackles and threatened with court-martial. Today she is scraping by in Everett, living frugally, tutoring high school kids in math and is enrolled in graduate studies at the Alden March Bioethics Institute based at the Albany Medical College in New York.

... Navy officials declined to discuss Weiner's case, saying they were unfamiliar with it."

You need a reason not to quit......I know this fight is hard...let's not give up...this lady is really something...

[Stuart G]

37. This quote is taken from the link.,,,.please read it...thanks..

Shows what the assholes are really doing..........

"Weiner got a call before Christmas that she would soon be called up. She says her job in Iraq was to have been commerce officer, providing money to local Iraqi leaders.

That gave her pause, not only because she was not trained for the job, but also because she is of Japanese, Korean and Jewish ancestry.

"They were going to have me negotiate money transactions with Iraqi warlords. A woman of Jewish and East Asian descent to try to talk to men about money in a country where women aren't always allowed to handle money," Weiner says.

Weiner's record and fitness reports before she was called up to IA duty indicate anything but a shrinking violet. She had earned two overseas service ribbons, commendation and achievement medals and was part of a Meritorious Unit Commendation."

[KeineAhnung]

44. Can you explain?

I'm not sure what your point is? Should we just not have women in roles that interact with men over there or are you calling her out for the idiocy of the statement?

[Javaman]

45. Blue to Green. nt

[LanternWaste]

47. German and Soviet militaries did the same thing in WW2

By 1943 and into '44, both of the armies were starving for bodies to plug the holes that the dead and wounded left in their wake, so both the German and Soviet military high commands began pulling personnel out of the navies and the air forces to meet the need.

To me, it screams of a military in dire need of more people. I wonder why...?

[Marrah_G]

49. My brother is a Naval Commander - retired

He was reactivated and led a battalion of 450 naval reservists to do customs work in Iraq, on the ground. Fortunately all his sailors came home safe. There is a continuous rotation of 450 naval reservists doing the army's former customs work on the ground at all times now in Iraq.