Curmudgeon's Corner

Where Are the Right-Minded People?

Posted by Al Campbell on June 11, 2010

People Making A Difference, Political, Quality of Life, U.S., Wisconsin

How many times have we seen the news coverage of our soldiers returning to Wisconsin landing at Volk Field and being welcomed by their family members before traveling to Ft. McCoy for the out-processing that happens?

The rhetorical question’s answer is many times…unfortunately but that is the way we’ve been going in recent years with foreign battlefronts needing to be fed with troops.  Our active forces are too thin to handle the totality of needs and the reserves and guards are the second line that has to be pulled back onto active duty from time-to-time.

There is something going on now that reeks in that the families of this returning group were forbidden from arriving at Volk Field to see their deplaning family members for a few minutes before they are bussed to Ft. McCoy.  That was the first of those bans that I can ever recall.  The unit is the 452^nd Combat Support Hospital, an Army reserve unit that had been deployed overseas.

This brouhaha emerged in a newspaper article earlier this week and was somewhat mitigated and reported in this morning’s Journal Sentinel.  “Somewhat” is the operative word in that last sentence.  The families were originally forbidden from even trying to get through the gates at Volk Field. Now they are being told they will not be banned from the viewing area, but that they will not be able to greet their family members up close and personal.  No hugs and kisses; just stand there and watch as they deplane and then move to their buses for the ride to Ft. McCoy.

In return for this ‘grand conciliatory gesture’ to the troops and their families, the military, either at this unit level or higher, has decided it will extract payback for being embarrassed.  It is canceling the picnic that has become part of the return process.  All other homecoming activities have been cancelled.  The troops are left to fend for themselves so far as returning to their homes in the Twin Cities, Menasha and Milwaukee areas.

This crass display demeans those troops and all the other members of the guard and reserves in this country.  What are these people thinking?  Where is the state Adjutant General and the Governor?  Where are the elected members of Congress from Wisconsin and Minnesota?  The Defense Department ought to be feeling the hot breath of every Congressperson and every Senator.  Unless, of course, those people don’t appreciate what our troops do for us.  Unless, of course, they don’t think these people and their immediate and extended families vote.  Finally where is the outrage of the commanders at every level from that unit commander on up the ladder?  I have been a small unit commander and I have bucked the higher ups at risk to my promotions, but that was what was required if I was to be the type of commander my troops deserved, and if I was to be an effective leader.  Just because one is out-ranked does not mean that the junior officer cannot be right.

I am totally ‘bummed’ by this rotten display of small-mindedness and ineptitude and the “I’ll show them” mentalities that fly in the faces of every member of that outfit, and of every guard and reserve outfit in the country.