The commander walks out to the front of the formation. The unit comes to attention. First SGT hands over control to the commander and walks to the rear of the formation
Commander: <cover formalities of shit that they decide is important enough to cover for the week, Motorpool shit, upcoming range days/training/missions, whatever>… Now that we got that out of the way, President Trump is coming to Ft Bragg for an event. Battalion says we have 15 slots to the event. Those who are interested in going, come see me in my office after formation or talk to your platoon Sergeant. For everyone else… Go home, don’t beat your kids, wife, car, or each other. For the new guy that showed up… Get a battle buddy. I’m heading out to the officers lounge. If you see me at the bar this weekend… leave me the fuck alone. Dismissed.
Commander walks away
Only people who want to go will sign up for it. And most of those people will go because it’s during duty hours and they don’t want to get picked for some random other duty (like CQ, or cutting lawns). And if they go and end up making their commander look like shit, they’ll be reprimanded.
Nothing about this was “vetting”. I’ve seen this type of shit dozens of times, even while deployed in Afghanistan (Who wants to go see this random senator who’s coming out here on a guided tour to make themselves feel better!).
Now here’s the kicker… The article COULD be correct. I COULD be wrong. But since they fucked up and lied about one thing that I know for a fact happens for a completely different reason, I MUST discount the other things they say because I know that it’s more likely to have happened the way I’ve seen it happen before.
And lastly, I REALLY believe my concept is what happened… Simply because in the military.com article…
“If soldiers have political views that are in opposition to the current administration and they don’t want to be in the audience then they need to speak with their leadership and get swapped out,”
Meaning that if someone got voluntold to show up (a unit didn’t get enough volunteers but the commander sent the full amount regardless), get those soldiers swapped out with standbys from units that had more people who wanted to go than the allotted slots for the unit (usually from battalion [HHC/HHB (Arty!)] itself).
It’s funny because writing this paints me as someone who backs Trump. I do not agree at all that the speech should have happened on a post at all based on what I’ve heard about it (I haven’t watched it yet). Post commander should have shut that shit down, or minimized the event as much as possible. But the claims at the face, from what I’ve seen are just absurd. They fly in the face of my lived experience for 7 years, the dozens of events that I marched in. The information that I have first hand knowledge of that happened the majority under Obama… literally the same shit was happening then. Claiming that now it’s a problem because it’s Orange man… leads me to outright throw away these stories as garbage. You’re losing a population of voters who know that this shit is a norm in that specific circle, as stupid as it may be or as much as you don’t understand it happening.
You know what that equates to?
At COB on a random friday…
The commander walks out to the front of the formation. The unit comes to attention. First SGT hands over control to the commander and walks to the rear of the formation
Commander: <cover formalities of shit that they decide is important enough to cover for the week, Motorpool shit, upcoming range days/training/missions, whatever>… Now that we got that out of the way, President Trump is coming to Ft Bragg for an event. Battalion says we have 15 slots to the event. Those who are interested in going, come see me in my office after formation or talk to your platoon Sergeant. For everyone else… Go home, don’t beat your kids, wife, car, or each other. For the new guy that showed up… Get a battle buddy. I’m heading out to the officers lounge. If you see me at the bar this weekend… leave me the fuck alone. Dismissed.
Commander walks away
Only people who want to go will sign up for it. And most of those people will go because it’s during duty hours and they don’t want to get picked for some random other duty (like CQ, or cutting lawns). And if they go and end up making their commander look like shit, they’ll be reprimanded.
Nothing about this was “vetting”. I’ve seen this type of shit dozens of times, even while deployed in Afghanistan (Who wants to go see this random senator who’s coming out here on a guided tour to make themselves feel better!).
Now here’s the kicker… The article COULD be correct. I COULD be wrong. But since they fucked up and lied about one thing that I know for a fact happens for a completely different reason, I MUST discount the other things they say because I know that it’s more likely to have happened the way I’ve seen it happen before.
And lastly, I REALLY believe my concept is what happened… Simply because in the military.com article…
Meaning that if someone got voluntold to show up (a unit didn’t get enough volunteers but the commander sent the full amount regardless), get those soldiers swapped out with standbys from units that had more people who wanted to go than the allotted slots for the unit (usually from battalion [HHC/HHB (Arty!)] itself).
It’s funny because writing this paints me as someone who backs Trump. I do not agree at all that the speech should have happened on a post at all based on what I’ve heard about it (I haven’t watched it yet). Post commander should have shut that shit down, or minimized the event as much as possible. But the claims at the face, from what I’ve seen are just absurd. They fly in the face of my lived experience for 7 years, the dozens of events that I marched in. The information that I have first hand knowledge of that happened the majority under Obama… literally the same shit was happening then. Claiming that now it’s a problem because it’s Orange man… leads me to outright throw away these stories as garbage. You’re losing a population of voters who know that this shit is a norm in that specific circle, as stupid as it may be or as much as you don’t understand it happening.
Thank you for your perspective and your service.