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'We Are Trained to Kill, so Civilian Life Is Tough'
In a remarkable and brave interview, Johnson Beharry reveals the daily torment he faces after fighting for his country – and explains why he is still fighting for his Army comrades
Two young men stood nose to nose on a south London street a few months ago, in a furious argument over a minor car accident so heated it had to be broken up by police.
Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry: 'If I fall asleep, I relive all the battles. I start sweating' (Teri Pengilley) The scene would have been utterly common place, banal even, had one of the young men involved not been the country's greatest living war hero - Victoria Cross recipient Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry.
"I actually wanted to kill the person. The police had to come," explained the 29-year-old, who is one of only 10 living VC holders. "It was not about the car, it was not about the accident. I have been told that because of what happened to me [in Iraq] all my body can remember is defence. Any time something happens I go into a defence mode."
Cpl Beharry's gentle face is now familiar across the country. He is the quiet, solemn figure who stood behind 110-year-old veteran Harry Patch on Armistice Day. Since becoming the first living recipient of a VC for 40 years for "repeated extreme gallantry and unquestioned valour", the young Grenadian has been portrayed, somewhat patronisingly, as a humble, almost docile Caribbean soldier.
Cpl Beharry is a confident, self-possessed, yet modest, man, driven to make something of his life and help others. But he is also a soldier tortured by mental and physical wounds, who has had to learn to live with constant pain, nightmares, mood swings and unexplained rages. He has decided to speak out for the first time on behalf of the thousands of servicemen and women suffering in the UK, who are forced to turn to charities for help because the Government is failing them.
The soldier cannot remember the last time he had a good night's sleep. Almost five years after he saved the lives of 30 comrades in Iraq by driving through a series of ambushes - his head sticking out of the burning Warrior armoured vehicle "despite a harrowing weight of incoming fire" - he can get no rest.
"If I fall asleep, I relive all the contacts [battles]. I start sweating. Even thinking about it now I am beginning to sweat," he explained. "Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Iraq, training - it all blends into one. One minute, I will be in Iraq on top of a building and the next thing I am in Grenada with my friends during the same contact. I have been told I kick in my sleep and worse. I used to get a couple of hours a night but recently, I can't sleep again. I lie there at night, tossing and turning. I put on the TV. I try to read to get tired but I can't. You think the next night you are so tired you will sleep but you don't."
The rocket-propelled grenade that tore open his skull put him in a coma for eight days but, Cpl Beharry explained in an unemotional tone, he survived because his head was so smashed up that it allowed room for his swelling brain. Today, his hair has largely grown over the scar which extends from one ear to the other. But the pain persists, jumping from his back to his shoulder and bouncing around in his head. He likened it to an agonising toothache but he refuses to take painkillers for fear of becoming dependent.
"No one expected me to walk or talk or even be alive. My mind is telling me everything is fine and my body is reminding me it is not. I have been told it is memory pain, the body catching up. My psychotherapist explained that the body could only deal with a certain amount of pain at a time so it comes out later. When I get those moments, I get angry."
Ironically, he chose to endure more pain when he decided to have the Victoria Cross tattooed across his entire back. It is a reminder that he his not just a man who will go down in history for his bravery but an ordinary young soldier with the customary penchant for the artist's needle.
On his uninjured shoulder is a tattoo of his late grandmother, to whom he would run as a child when his father was violently abusive, and who instilled in him values, aspirations, and a respect for religion. The body art represents the most important things in his life alongside his fiancée, Tamara Vincent.
The boy who walked to school barefoot speaks with informal ease of meeting royalty and heads of state. When he was presented to the then US President, George Bush, before the election, he boldly asked him who he thought would win. Bush replied "Obama". When Cpl Beharry met the Queen on his investiture at the Palace, she said to him that it was the injuries people could not see that would take the longest to heal. The combination of brain injuries and combat stress has made an angry young man of him at times, often completely irrational, he said. During his time in Amarah with the 1st Battalion, The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, his battle group came under attack more than 800 times.
"People don't realise how hard it is for soldiers. You spend six months on the battlefield and you have to defend yourself every day and then you come back to normal life and go to Tesco's and someone runs into your trolley. You have to stop and think it is only a trolley, you are not on the battlefield. We are trained to be angry. We are trained to kill and then at five o'clock you have to go home, adjust, change completely to a different person. You can't react the same way." He continued: "The only people who can relate to it is other soldiers or ex-soldiers who have been through the same. I find it difficult to talk to normal civilians."
The wail of a siren, the bang of a door, any loud noise, reminds him of the RPGs that blasted into the Warrior armoured vehicle he was driving, of the day he repeatedly leapt on to the burning vehicle to drag injured colleagues to safety, or the moment six weeks later when he was injured again, this time almost fatally. "It brings me back into the killing zone, to the explosion. When you hear a bang in Iraq, you know it is going to be followed by something and back home you still feel the same. You go tense, waiting. I go into that defence mode. Everyone experiences combat stress differently. But we are all linked.
"The guys are dealing with it in their own way," he added. "A lot of soldiers who were there in Telic 4 [the Iraq campaign of summer 2004] have left the Army. Those who are still serving get some form of help for combat stress, but not enough."
War veterans are supposed to get priority treatment in the health system for conditions resulting from military service but many complain that the reality is very different. "It is disgraceful that an ex-serviceman or woman has to go to the NHS. The Government should have something in place," he said. "I don't think the Government is doing enough for soldiers, personally. That is why you have all these different organisations like Help for Heroes."
The burden of the VC has placed incredible pressure to be a "superman". "I am no different to anyone else. I did something out of the ordinary but I hope that someone else would have done the same thing in my position. There is a lot of stress. The hardest part of it is so much is expected of me. I now have to carry myself in a certain manner and it is hard work."
His brain injury has also left him with a terrible short-term memory. "If people can see the problem, maybe they can sympathise, but when they can't it is very difficult. People see me acting normally but inside I am dealing with the pain of the injury." But he added: "I worry something is going to happen to me, that one day my injury is going to creep up on me and I will be in bed all the time."
While he is grateful for all the care he has received, he worries for others. "Two years ago, I went to King's College Hospital because I was in so much pain. I sat in the waiting room for three hours before I could see a doctor. It was ridiculous. It is not because of who I am that I should be treated first. I think all soldiers should be treated equally.
"Ex-servicemen and women should get the treatment but they don't get it. We need to raise awareness in the NHS. These are people who have served this country. Why can't they get treatment?"
Sitting in a smart London hotel, he is all too aware that many of his regiment are in Iraq and Afghanistan and, like VC recipients before him, he will never return to the frontline. He is deeply frustrated by the enforced inactivity, unable to join his regiment and desperate for the Army to find him a role. "I don't regret anything that happened to me but I feel like I am 60 years old because I don't have a job. I am employed but I don't feel employed. I want to achieve something in life."
Four years after being awarded the VC, he lives in a small house on a quiet south London street, living off a Lance Corporal's salary, boosted by a reported £1m book deal. He is sanguine about the press coverage which followed his split from his wife, Lynthia, days after the investiture. "Everything about me is in the open. I have nothing to hide," he said. He spends his time promoting his book, Barefoot Soldier, which describes his early days growing up in an impoverished Caribbean family, his move to the UK at 19 and decision to join the Army - and pursuing his passion to inspire children from difficult backgrounds. "Because I was involved in drink and smoking weed, I can say I was there and look at how my life turned around, tell them they have a choice: a job or prison."
He also helps out with countless charities, including Combat Stress, which offers a lifeline to thousands of servicemen dealing with mental health problems. The charity has experienced a 53 per cent increase in the past three years in veterans presenting with post-traumatic stress or complications brought on by combat. A £4m grant from the Ministry of Defence covers less than half its costs, and it must rely on other donations. A portrait of Cpl Beharry is among items being auctioned at Combat Stress's 90th anniversary ball, organised by another decorated former soldier, Kevin Godlington, in London on 11 June.
But while Cpl Beharry is happy to put himself in the public eye to help such causes, he finds attention difficult and rarely takes public transport.
With a wistful grin he explained: "Eric Wilson [the country's oldest VC holder, who died last year aged 96] said to me 'Young man, your life will never be the same again.' At the time, I thought it was just a saying but, trust me, it is not."
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Show AllBring America Back !!!!.............By all means let us praise and commend and empathize with the service and sacrifice of CPL Beharry ! Many years ago, the term Post-traumatic Stress Disorder was coined to describe what took place at CPL Beharry's traffic accident !! Flashback Recall !! Road Rage !!
****Let us all recall and remember well the true cause, the root reason the Corporal suffered his pain and anguish, that being a man named President George W. Bush, USA, who dragged our UK allies into Iraq...Tony Blair swearing to the same lies, falsifications and treasonous behaviours in the run-up to the so called cover fantasy--War on Terror !! Let us put the blood, carnage, and traumatic injuries in the right hands=====Bush and Blair, war monger chums to the end.
Remember 9/11 !! Wake up America, Wake Up, England, 'We Will Never Forget' !
"Let us all recall and remember well the true cause, the root reason the Corporal suffered his pain and anguish, that being a man named:"
Ralph Nader, the man who elected Bush.
Now that was as trollish as it gets. So you are here to split the opposition with lies about Ralph Nader. Any port in a storm I guess. I wish football would come back sooner than August we need to have these trolls move on to a more satisfying blood sport.
michael jordan
http://sites.google.com/site/apolloguide/
What lies?
Nader split the democratic vote in 2000 and we got stuck with Bush.
Do you remember all the Naderites were saying that Al Gore was as bad as Bush? Do you see what these fools cost us?
If the country had a large democratic majority and we lost voters to Nader (but we could still defeat the republicans) that would be one thing. But the country is split 50/50, so when third parties run, they cost the Democrats votes, but not the Republicans.
More democrats in Florida voted for George W. Bush than voted for Nader. Period. ... You illustrate exactly why there cannot be a 'viable' third party-- because anyone disagreeing with the two parties is seen as 'splitting' them.
People voted for Nader BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT HE WAS THE BETTER CANDIDATE. As they very well should have. Period.
Newsflash America... that's you joehope-- THIS is not the way it HAS to be-- People like yourselves perpetuate this system. Either start thinking or stop breeding (preferably both).
Just ignore JoeHope...
His modus operandi, consciously or not, is to hijack comment threads and steer them away from the topic of the article or conversation...
By tossing out albatrosses and red herrings and straw man arguements... He is a reactionary Dem party apologist who is stuck on blaming one of several third party candidates for being a spoiler in a rigged election... Despite the overwhelming abundance of information, explanation, and links and references to the contrary, Joe Hope maintains the Dem party line that Nader equals Bush/Palin...
If that is the face of a gentle man I hope never to see the face of a killer. The tragedy of soldiery is that soldiers are not bad people, they are ruined people. The best purpose this guy's life might serve at this point is to dissuade future children from being enticed into the military, though given that he is still caught up in the perverse romance of it all I don't think that is what he is up to.
The psychology of soldiery has long been understood. Aggression toward an enemy, the willingness to slaughter others without mercy, goes back to back with protectiveness and loyalty to ones comrades in arms. Love based on hate, or hate based on love. Training these people requires nothing more than tweaking some basic and universal Freudian psychology. Unfortunately after the mission, after the hit squads have returned from procuring whatever loot or respect the fatherland requires, they don't have a science for making them normal again.
I don't go near ex-soldiers, especially the recently returned. I don't want them close to my home or my family. I feel terrible about what has happened to them. I wish there were some place we could send them, muscles, guns, medals, tattoos and all, where they could remain happily at war without menacing society. Unfortunately they don't even make good cops. The lucky ones, I suppose, cripple along through their lives without hurting anybody but themselves.
difficult to read these articles. they use painful biographical details to efface other details.
like, is there a connection b/n PTSD and the utter dishonesty w/which war (certainly the GWOT) is sold? you hear all about the honorable & heroic in this piece, saving your buddies and all that and all the accolades and awards, but what about the shameful, criminal, and monstrous, endemic in any war zone? does that have any effect on PTSD?
(recommended reading: Achilles in Vietnam).
I only wish young adults like CPL Beharry could find different careers besides the killing trades. He who lives by the sword dies by the sword, and those who carry and use guns must realize the inherent risks. I have long since lost any confidence in my Canadian government to lead our service personnel into worthy battles. As a public school teacher I try to do my best not to teach my students to trust their federal politicians, nor for that matter to trust the taser-happy national police force, the RCMP.
This is the type of guy returning to the USA from Iraq and Afghanistan. He is going to hurt you.
What are you going to do to him, for him?
Other civilizations de-program their returning warriors. It takes time and compassion.
The gangsters that are running America just dump their trained killers on our streets.
It's too bad those like Beharry can't somehow be deprogrammed, but since they're considered the disposable ones by the governments of their countries, and forgotten once they're no longer on the battlefields, I don't suppose anyone has ever given deprogramming a thought.
Unfortunately these young people signing up for war don't have a clue what their future holds if they are lucky enough to survive that war. But even if no one signed up for it, those warmongers who lead the governments would just draft them anyway.
You join for the excitement, the patriotism, the adventure, the job, the college funds, the discipline, the travel, to be like a movie hero, the uniform and the girls, etc. and all too often you end up living under a bridge.
I find some of what is posted above a hackneyed admixture of supposition, hyperbole and ,while I believe it may be well meaning, very insulting to thousands upon thousands of people who cope with a war scenario and lead rather normal lives.
World War II saw an entire generation thrown into the brutality of war and those folks went on to build a great nation. This is as far from an endorsement of war as one may get, and those familiar with my posts know that full well. But I find, perhaps because I am one who saw the elephant, as have some poster's here as well, Thomas More being one in particular, I think the posts above paint with far too broad a brush.
Our troops are treated badly by our policies to be certain, and there are a few, like the one pictured in the above article, who are damaged by that experience. But seeking to put every soldier, sailor or marine who served in a war zone as a potential psychopath, and some efforts above unthinkingly do exactly that, is about as dumb as it gets, almost Bushian in stupidity, sorry to say.
I deplore our new president's stated intention of throwing even more of our boys and girls into the cauldron of war but I honor those who see military duty as an obligation of a citizen, and many in our nation hold to that tradition. Even more of late are entering the military because the economy offers them nothing at all.
I am about as far to the left as one sees on this forum, I deplore capitalism, hate war, despise privilege and eliteism but one must focus ones criticism where it will do the most good and not dishonor an entire movement, on the politicians that order war not upon the young people who fight them. The son of a dear friend has served three tours, two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, as a US Marine. He was and is a gentle kid, a good husband, good father and decent person. He is mirrored thosuands of times around our nation and in Britain as well I am certain.
I am sorry for the problems this young man in the article is going through, and I wish him a speedy and complete recovery, but I speak out against the unthinking generalizations so far expressed here, one of the serious problems progressives encounter and one which keeps them in the minority. Use this person as another reasont o abhor and fear war, but do not lump all within his category.
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
Red Rick - thank you for your common sense, objectivity and compassion. I am a Vietnam vet; was troubled for many, many years. Many of my brethren came back whole, mentally and physically. The point is the war - the leadership - not those the system implants to do its dirty business.
Again, thank you.
What you are missing "odoco" is that when you(?) and I (actually) were in the Viet Nam War there were IQ standards which were much much higher then they are now. The guys who are being sent to war now don't even have to be US citizens. Many of the immigrants at the Mexico border being caught by Joe Arpiao are being told that it is either prison or the US Army. They are being placed into special units of Spanish speakers to go to Iraq and kill. When these mercenaries are returned home finally, they take up residence in the US they become police officers whose only qualification is that they know how to shoot. They won't even be able to understand you when you say you are a Vet. They won't understand when you say the password when they draw down on you. You are just the target. You need to wise up quickly because the problem is here now and we don't have any more time for you to get smart.
michael jordan
http://sites.google.com/site/apolloguide/
Pop Quiz!!
What was the name of the last great world spanning empire that started using foriegn auxiallries and mercenaries in place of it's own army, promising the provincials full staus as citizens?
And I am pretty sure that the government of this empire had grown lax and incredibly corrupt, while the economy collapsed, due in no small part to a massive trade imbalance with another empire called 'China', and wars in Asia Minor and Judea that flared out of control, all during a period of religeous upheaval caused by some minor upstart monothesim from the sands of a desert.
This same empire had gone from having roads and water delivery systems that linked almost every part of the empire to it's capital, but the roads and water systems had collapsed and been caniballized due to disrepair and neglect.
And all this during a time of ecological upheaval and rampant plague.
What was the name of that empire?...
Oh yeah... Rome.
And which empire was used as the blueprint for the foundation of the US empire?
Oh yeah...Rome.
Those who will not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.
Times up, kiddies. Time to put away your toys.
Walk in peace.
Siderealm - evidently you know everything there is to know on the subject of vets. I live in the midwest - not on the border - and we have lots of kids - high school graduates - who join the Guard as a way of getting money for college. Many, many of these kids, my former students, have been to Iraq, some on multiple tours. I don't doubt what you say about mercenaries from foreign lands, I understand that, but they do not comprise the entire military force as you would lead one to think. Take a look at the membership of Iraq Vets Against the War - think they were all foreign mercenaries?
Odoco: If the same children decided to start dealing a little heroin in order to make some money for college I just bet you would object. But if they decide to go off to war to kill people,... you are OK with that?
What kind of values do you folks have out there in the midwest?
And you are teaching these kids in a public school or is it a Bible School? How could you do such a thing?
They would be better off dealing heroin in Kansas City than killing people in the Middle East. Sending them off to war is the worst thing you could do. In other words the point is not the mercenaries it is the process of softening up the population through your privileged position as a teacher and fighting the infiltration of the military into the schools through ROTC and the National Guard or recruiting officers roaming the campus and lying to youngsters about the glories of war. Have you organized any boycotts or demonstrations of the local recruiters or do you tacitly allow them "their space". Do you know of the Womem in Black or Code Pink? Do you need information about resistance? Your students need this information before they make the biggest mistake of their life.
michael jordan
http://sites.google.com/site/apolloguide/
It is rather difficult to treat you with any sort of respect. Your opinion of our enlisted troops, and those who joined the National Guard for monthly meetings and two weeks in the summer is so distorted as to reflect badly, not on them but on you.
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
I keep a sort of collection of Joe Arpaio atrocities, including the use of torture at the Maricopa County jail. I haven't heard about this one before. I wouldn't think it would be legal to impress border crossers into our army. Do you have a source for this?
WWII veterans came back to a GI bill which provided education for employment and time to reintegrate into society. additionally WWII was a total mobilization.
"Gentle face"??? Did you post the right photo? He looks like a gangbanger to me.
That is a racist remark.
---USAn---
More ageist I suspect.
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
It should be remembered that one of the worst serial killer/rapists in the history of the US was former US Marine Charles Ng.
Because he was of Viatmanese descent, he was used to infiltrate and assasinate many VietNamese leaders and innocent civillians.
When he was eventually returned home to the US, he had NO psychological evaluation or councilling, and was simply discharged into the larger population.
Part of past and present (and ongoing) US military training is to instill the equation of violence and death = sexual pleasure.
When Charles Ng came home, he still had this programming intact, but no longer had the release of targeted assasination. So he and Leonard Lake, another US veteran of Viet Nam, teamed up to kidnap, rape, torture and kill innocent women along the US west coast.
He was identified by a handful of women who survived his attacks or who managed to escape. A manhunt (not very effective) was launched, but it was a mall security guard in Calgary, Alberta, Canada who recognised and arrested Mr. Ng in the end.
It was later theorised by psychologists that Charles Ng selected white women to feel the brunt of his attacks because of the rage he felt at having to obey orders to kill people from his parent culture.
Now multiply that level of nightmare walking around on the streets of every US city when the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan finally come home.
That's a form of blowback, I suppose.
Are you certain of what you post?
http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=11735781
Charles Ng Biography (1961-)
Serial killer. Born Charles Chitat Ng on December 24th, 1961, in Hong Kong, China. The son of a wealthy businessman, Ng was a rebellious teenager who was frequently caught stealing and was expelled from several schools. At 18, Ng obtained a student visa to study in the United States, where he briefly attended the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, California, before dropping out. After being charged in relation to a hit-and-run offense, Ng lied about his birthplace and joined the Marines. Once again he was caught stealing, this time military weapons, and he served three years in Leavenworth Prison.
Upon his release, Ng moved in with Leonard Lake, a deviant whom he had met prior to serving at Leavenworth. He and Lake began a campaign of abduction, rape and murder based from Lake's remote cabin. Altogether, the bodies of seven men, three women, two baby boys and forty-five pounds of bone fragments would be recovered from the cabin site.
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
Not blowback, erroneous commentary. Ng was born in Hong Kong and I guess never spoke Vietnamese. He served less than a year in the Marines. He had a troubled youth.
Galen, I don't know where you got this story but it looks totally false based on what I've seen.
EDIT: Posted before I saw RR's comment.
These soldiers are never too bright to begin with, in fact they are in the 55-75 IQ range as set by the continually lowered recruiting standards of the US and British governments. Normal IQ is 100 and people like Biden and Obama are in the 130 to 160 range. In another era they would have been placed in a bag with rocks and thrown over the side of the boat. But because we have wars which are fought by immigrants officered by white southern trash educated in "Military Schools" we have a problem. These are exceedingly stupid and desperate humans who are taught to muscle up and kill, kill, kill and NEVER to ask questions of their leaders or (God forbid) themselves.
Look at the Israelis who kill Palestinians at the rates of 150 to 200 to one after their two year indoctrination into the Israeli Army and you may see in their faces the sadly impaired genetic mistakes who will never be dentists or doctors or investment bankers or the makers of atomic bombs like Oppenheimer or theorist Einstein but who were sent instead by their US parents to Israel to defend the Israeli Zone of occupied Palestine. The truly evil in the world do kill their young and simple in this way.
The peaceful and intelligent will continually be threatened and betrayed by the mentally lame who are always ready to go for the bait of proving themselves even if it means placing themselves and their countrymen into harms way so through their "heroic sacrifice" they will be able to grasp something that could only be achieved by proper special education and disabled care and treatment at an early age. Of course it is easier for elites to offer them up for cannon fodder rather than to provide a proper therapeutic environment when they are young and able to be treated. Instead they go to "war" and come back ready and armed and trained to play "DOOM" in real life in their homeland with liberals as the targets. As Reverend White said, "God Damn America" and the racist rednecks who run it from the NY corporate suites of the elites and their barbecues in Texas and Kennebunkport, and Antigua.
michael jordan
http://sites.google.com/site/apolloguide/
I wonder if you are as offensive in person as this post would indicate?
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joiningthemilitary/a/enlstandards_4.htm
Education
For enlistment purposes, the military breaks education into three overall categories: Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3:
Tier 1 - High School Graduate
This means a diploma, not a GED. It also includes those who have completed at least one semester of full-time college (defined as 15 semester credit hours or more). The vast majority of enlistees (well over 90 percent) fall into this category.
High School Diploma: Based on attendance and completion of a 12 year or grade day program of classroom instruction; issued from the school where the individual completed all the program requirements.
Adult Education Diploma: Secondary school diploma awarded on the basis of attending and completing an adult education or diploma "external" program, regardless of whether the diploma was issued by a state or by a secondary or post-secondary educational institution. For adult education diploma holders to be categorized Tier I high school graduates, their educational program must include attendance which is comparable to that of traditional high schools. Diploma holders possessing attendance not deemed comparable, and/or have been credited attendance based on some form of test-based credential, are usually classified as Tier II status.
The Army allows applicants who is currently enrolled in an adult education or college program, and who further is expected to graduate or attain the required credits within 365 days may to enlist in the Delayed Enlistment Program (DEP).
Completed One Semester of College: A person who attends a college or university and successfully completes at least 15 semester or 20 quarter hours of college-level credit. "Successfully completed" means that the individual earned college-level credits (level 100 or higher) toward a degree in higher education from an institution listed in the degree granting section of the current version of the Accredited Institutions of Post-secondary Education (AIPE), published by the American Council on Education for the Council of Post Secondary Accreditation. NOT all institutions listed in the current AIPE are considered as offering college-level credits. The credits must have been earned through actual classroom participation at the institution awarding the credits.
Note: For the Army, completion of college courses below the 100 level will be accepted for enlistment if the course is clearly identified as a college level course and credit will be recognized by the college towards graduation and degree completion requirements. An original letter on the college letterhead stationary is required to verify the status of courses completed.
Note: Under a special test program, the Army is treating home school graduates as Tier I. See Home School Program article for more details.
Tier 2 - Alternative Credential Holder
The services limit the number of Tier II candidates it will allow to enlist each year. In the Air Force, the limit is less than one percent each year. In such cases, the applicant must score a minimum of 50 on the AFQT to qualify (Note: The "AFQT" is the overall ASVAB score).
The Army will allow up to 10 percent each year to be Tier II candidates, but they must score a minimum of 50 on the AFQT.
The Marines will only allow about 5 percent each year to be Tier II, and the Navy about 10 percent. Like the Army and Air Force, Tier II recruits must score a minimum of 50 on the AFQT to qualify.
The Coast Guard only accepts Tier 2 candidates if they have prior military service, and even then requires them to score higher on the AFQT (50 for prior Coast Guard Service, 65 for prior service in other branches).
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
The soldiers don't deserve this type of contempt. If we are so smart, we would be providing peaceful and productive pathways for people who don't score well on an IQ test. An IQ score is not a complete measure of intelligence. Compassion and common sense count too.
Joe
Maybe rather than fearing people who came from war, we should help and heal them? Indirectly, fellow citizens, they did fight for your countries.
Judah - One fights FOR his country when it is attacked.
To do otherwise is to be a tool of the oppressor.
These young men and women join the military because they think it is a way out, of whatever their problem is: poverty, low self esteem, their parents disapproval, etc.
And most of the 'democracies' of the world know this, and use this deperation/poverty draft to thier advantage.
This is why soldiers and civillians alike are dying for NOTHING in Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and dozens of other regions around the world.
It has nothing to do with defending their country.
It has everything to do with protecting the bottom line.
Walk in peace.
And for them, it is a way out, a way into a better life. Punishing people for choices they have no control over (like how they are deployed) is more wrong than calling them 'tools of the oppressor' and writing them off as human beings.
If progressive organizations were smart about recruiting, they would be actively courting ex-military who have been forcibly disillusioned in war zones. The majority of Americans are proud of having family members in military service, and attacking heroes is never a smart political move.
It's because of reactions like yours that I can't take the current progressive movement seriously. You come off as wanting to eat the cake (a prosperous society) and have it too (no dirty hands, military spending, or weapons industries). It may surprise you, but in America, military contracting is big business. Rather than bemoan how that has no place in your ideal society, you must work with what is there.
If you want to change that 'terrible' military society, you should be helping mentally scarred soldiers, publicizing their problems, calling for national debate over the secondary costs. You shouldn't be calling them uneducated human trash, because not only is it not true, but people may believe you and ignore 'veterans for change' movements based on irrational prejudice.
You need to get out more and read a book. Fully 70% of us Americans are putridly sick of the military killers who call themselves peacemakers and wear the American flag on their arm. I can walk for days and not find a single American who is happy about the death that the lies of the Bush Administration brought about. But we are really mad at American boys and girls who shame us by not standing up to those lies and instead enlisted in an all volunteer army so they could go abroad and kill. No, we are horrified at that.
During the Civil War we were horrified at their great grandfathers who thought they could enslave Blacks. We are not in any way proud of military killers. The stain of blood of these military killers will never wash out. It continues instead to embarrass and shame. Abu Ghriab, and the carpet bombings of Faluja stand out as monumental war crimes right alongside the Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon. The American Army is just as disgusting as the Israeli Army. And this comes from one who was in the Six Day War of 1967. If you think the American Army is doing the work of Americans then you might leave for Iraq and stay there. No slack for murderers even if they once played quarterback on your high school football team. Be a man and stand up to war and the senseless slaughter of the innocent civilians of Iraq, Afghanistan, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos, Grenada, etc.etc.etc. Don't throw your life away just because you are having trouble figuring out what to do with yourself. Be a MAN. Climb out of that cave struggle toward the light.
michael jordan
http://sites.google.com/site/apolloguide/
You are certainly a troll. Take your feeble attempt to enlist a progressive web site into agreeing with your sick and untruthful rant and go back to whatever place you usually infest. You have been corrected on your stupid lies about Charles Ng and, without missing a beat you continue to post assumptions and hyperbolic nonsense about the opinions of people you obviously do not know...I would believe that 70% of Americans are sick of war,but certainly are smart enough to distinguish between those who make war and those who are trapped within it. I for one am certainly sick of you too.
In the immortal words of that wise and philosophic creature, Bugs Bunny, "what a maroon!!"
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
A made up statistic followed by straw-manning the hated Bush administration and some incorrect history. Concluding with an emotional appeal based on incorrect assumptions about me.
I can't argue with people who aren't in my reality. Too much of the progressive movement is like that, ignoring both history and political reality. By that I don't mean sacrificing principles for expediency, but refusing to understand the social/political/economic position our country is in.
Go read "The New Left, The Anti-Industrial Revolution" by Ayn Rand. That's a book you could use, I think. It makes the distinction between wanting to destroy a society and wanting to change a society.
Judah,
Ayn Rand, wow! It's like hearing Charlton Heston braying from the grave. Ah! To return to yesteryear with the metallic rutting of Hank Reardon and Dagney Taggart on a speed date. What deathless prose. Did you read the Reader's Digest condensation or did you plod through the paperback original? Now that I think of it there was a Cliff's Notes version or was it Classics Comics? I haven't had a thrill like that since my first Jeffery Archer, "Cain and Abel". Good fiction style for a quick read on the shuttle flight but this is not the kind of thing you want to base your life view upon unless you plan to assist Rush Limbaugh in his increasing senility. He will love you for being able to quote these line by line so maybe you are on to something. You appear to be a nit in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is a really progressive and liberal blog. People like you who read Rand generally hang out at GOP places. You are just needlessly muddying the waters here and should probably move on.
michael jordan
http://sites.google.com/site/apolloguide/
I don't see any contradiction between much of what Rand advocates and a sensible progressive agenda. Obviously you haven't read her, or even understood the 'cliff notes' version.
I'll give you a quick version: see reality, deal with it, fight against those seeking to loot the country and corruption based on the 'power of pull' (i.e. nepotism, 'knowing people' rather than 'being competent'). I really view much of the progressive agenda as fighting against people who loot the government and people who use the government as a shell to loot the commons.
The GOP are hardcore looters with their obvious agenda of class warfare by stealing from the poor and giving tax breaks to the rich. I want the American Dream to exist. Why would I side with them?
The one who should 'move on' is you, since one of the most insidious ways of undermining a cause is defending it with false and stupid arguments. Are you sure aren't a Limbaugh fan in disguise?
Excuse-me, the U.S. mercenaries that are occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and bullying Pakistan are not doing anything positive for me, and they are wasting my tax moneys. I did not and still do not want them there. They are not defending me from these peoples, and I don't feel threatened by these peoples. The Iraqi military never set foot on U.S. soil, as far as I am aware. Even if it ever wanted to do such, it does not have the means to do so.
As for the so-called terrorists, it has never been established conclusively that Al Qaeda did 9/11: where is the white paper promised by Colin Powell establishing Al Qaeda's guilt beyond reasoable doubt, and why isn't the FBI holding Osama bin Laden responsible for 9/11 (see the FBI's most wanted list online)?
Furthermore, the attacks of 9/11, in my view, ought to be treated like a criminal matter, as these sorts of crimes have been and are treated in other countries (Spain, India, etc.). The very fact that BushCo considered these to be acts of war and turned them into an opportunity for waging war indefinitely, and refused to investigate them and botched up whatever investigation was finally set into place after the 9/11 families intervened, is already extremely suspicious.
You and Rick and the rest of the republican trolls might want to re-enlist but don't expect any of my money or treasure when and if you return. Only the dead have seen the end of the war. I find that paid killers are thoroughly disgusting no matter who they work for. You cannot bomb your way to peace. I would not hire a killer and neither of you should hire yourselves out to kill with your toxic rhetoric. Wake UP!!!!!!!!!!!
The previous administration made up an excuse for killing for oil and you support that when you do not speak out against it. The 911 bombers were Saudi. There were no WMD. It was just another bad Republican joke and it was on you and all of those who support the war. Saddam told the truth. Scott Ritter told the truth. Hans Blick told the truth. Rumsfeld lied. Powell lied. Bush lied. Millions died. Making you happy to be a Newt Gingrich clone. How proud you must be. Nearly human I would suggest...
michael jordan
http://sites.google.com/site/apolloguide/
I apologize if you are, as you appear to be, slow witted and in a special education class. It doesnt take a genius to see the difference between supporting our troops and working against those who send them into needless wars. I think you are either a fool or have some dull witted agenda to think you can find support here for your silly rants.
To call those here republican trolls says volumes about you and nothing at all about reality. Please go away, you are certainly boring and a rather disturbing individual..No further responses from me will be forthcoming to such as you.
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
This has been going on for so long.
----------------------------------
His Last Question
I answered my country’s call
And blitzkrieged across Iraq.
The stench of burning flesh
Is seared into my brain.
We were liberators, I was told,
And would be greeted with joy!
The misery and hate in their eyes
Is burned into my memory.
The children sometimes smile,
But are quickly hurried away.
Weapons fire rips through the street,
My reflexes drop me to the dirt.
Ambulances, bodies, civilians, children,
And sometimes a buddy of mine.
Automatic weapons and RPG’s
Do not pick and choose.
Explosions far and near disturb my rest.
The pervading heat dehydrates me.
Every man’s hand is turned against me here,
And I’m to continue “liberating.”
It’s tough at home, the President says,
They’ve got to cut my pay.
My tour’s extended to a year,
I’ve never seen my son.
I’ve seen a lot of babies die
And heard the women cry
And seen my buddies blown apart
by “liberated” men.
I’ve tried to do my duty
But, Lord, it’s getting hard.
The war is over, the Prez has said.
Does he tell that to the body bags?
I joined to get an education,
Agreed to do what I was told.
Was assured I’d be greeted with flowers,
And cheers, and tears of joy.
What I’ve seen smacks of madness,
I’ll never be the same.
My life is one last question,
May I go home, now? Please?
31 August 2003
Steve Osborn
-----------------------------------
Thank you minitrue and Abendland!!!!!!
Thank you minitrue and Abendland!!!!!!
Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry, I salute you.
You are a hero and an inspiration to us all.
Thank you.
Lance Corp. Beharry, I feel sorry for you. I do not consider you to be either a hero, or an inspiration. At best, you offer a good example of how not to conduct one's life.
Once we stop showing reverence for these killers, maybe they'll think twice before enlisting in the military.
"Almost five years after he saved the lives of 30 comrades in Iraq by driving through a series of ambushes - his head sticking out of the burning Warrior armoured vehicle "despite a harrowing weight of incoming fire" - he can get no rest."
How dare you! If he is not a hero, do you wish he hadn't have saved those people's lives?
Lance Corp. Beharry is the living embodiment of heroism and bravery.
It's one thing to oppose the war, it's quite another to oppose the brave men and women who are willing to fight and die for YOUR freedom.
They are not killers, they are our sons and daughters, our friends and neighbors. It''s not their fault that Bush created a mess in Iraq and left our soldiers to be sitting ducks with an impossible mission. They have no choice but to follow orders. Have you no decency?
I do believe thousands of Iraqi mothers/fathers/grandmothers/grandfathers would disagree with your "they are not killers". They have killed hundreds of thousands of people. Killed. ...but you tell yourselves these things so you can sleep at night.
"they have no choice but to follow orders." Oh boy. Thank you for illustrating how completely braindead one would have to be to join such an organization. Brilliant. "They have no choice." .... So did the Nazis have a choice. No. Okay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No worries guys!!!!! They were just following orders!!! Everybody mind your business.... (insert concentration camp photo here). Idiot.