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Originally Posted by Smoke_Jaguar4
Except Reservists are bombarded with USSERA training. We take it at least annually and the JAG and supervisors in our unit must sign off on it when a subordinate deploys. There is no excuse for not knowing.
I'd like to know what the soldier in the story was planning on doing if after he redeployed since he would have still been unemployed. Especially in this slow economy where war vets have some of the highest unemployment rates. As one of my former CO's was fond of saying: "Pi$$-poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part"
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Nothing wrong with wanting to know about that Soldier. You can locate him and find out. As far as not knowing, I do not know who you are refering to, the Soldier or the reporter?
If you mean the Soldier, I will say this. After 32 years of service in the Army ending last year, many Soldier stories end up being wrong. I am not saying the reporter was wrong. Very often the news media do exagerate a story for sensationalism.
As a former senior enlisted that was able to become a Sergeant Major I will tell you that very, and I mean VERY often Soldiers find themselves in difficult situations because they do not pay attention what benefits they have, dismiss a lot of information when their leaders inform them. Later, a lot of them go out there in the community crying the Army does not help them and no one helped them out and no one informed them.
Whenever, someone brought to my attention an issue about a Soldier in the news I ended up finding out his leaders had his signature in the attendance roster he was told to attend.
That reminds me of an experience I had when I was the First Sergeant in Fort Bragg. I got a call from the Battalion Command Sergeant Major. He chewed my butt! He was so upset and did not give me a chance to say anything. The issue was about some information I was supposed to pass down to the Soldiers. Well, it happened that the CSM asked a Soldier about that information. Soldiers are good a playing dumb when they want to. The Soldier told the CSM he never got that information. What I did? I got my platoon sergeants and told them they need to make sure they pass down all information I give them to the Soldiers. The next time I will take whatever corrective action I deem necessary if they did not. I then proceeded to give them some information for the Soldiers. The next day in the morning formation I asked all Soldiers to raise their hand if they got information on X subject. No Soldier raised his hand. One of my platton sergeants turned his head towards his Soldiers and said "You better raise your f...ing hand! I told you that yesterday before COB! I you do not remember and not raise your hand, I will have your F...ing a..s!" The rest of the company Soldiers raised their hands. I asked them about the information and they were able to answer correctly. Very often I had to have an signature sheet for everything I did and told my subordinates after a few time people went to the IG claining they were never informed about things.
When I retired the Army has a program called the Army Alumni Career Programs. You have to attend many mandatory programs for you to transition out of the Army. You get classes from writing a resume, learn to handle interviews, benefits, education, the GI Bill, medical, etc. Many do sign a waver because they do not want to bother with those things. The instructors tell me later the post leadership chew their butts because some Soldiers back in his hometown complained to his senator or congressman for not getting benefits, the Army not helping him before he lest the Army etc.
Often those are the Soldiers that the news media love to show on TV and here in house we know the Soldier simply never paid attention to issues while in the service.
So, many of those stories you need to take with a grain of salt. If you really want to know about that Soldier, find him. I today's world it would not be difficult to do so.
I am not saying there are not stories where Soldiers were ignored either. I also have seen those cases when their chain of command failed them. I have my share of battles with Soldiers leaders when I confronted them and demanded they take care of them.
However, as I said, contact that Soldier. The news media does not have the obligation to follow-up and see what happened. Some do and that is OK too. The bottom line is that if I want to really know more about it then it is I who will do my research, not expect and depend the news media to inform me. They put the news out there and it is up to us to react and do what we think needs to be done. At least that is how I see it. Take care.
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