How a Few Lucky Civil War Soldiers Started Glowing and Healed Faster
June 29, 2018
Written byReuben Westmaas
Imagine you are a Civil War soldier with a mid-19th-century layman’s understanding of medicine. Good news: you helped drive the Confederates back and survived the Battle of Shiloh. Bad news: you’re wounded, and you’ve been waiting for a medic for two days on a rainy battlefield. Worse news: to your horror, that wound has started to … glow. Never mind that archaic understanding of medicine — we’re still freaked out 156 years later.
The Battle of Shiloh was one of the first major battles of the American Civil War, and one of the first bloodbaths as well. Although the Union was victorious, both sides suffered heavy losses, and neither was truly prepared for the scope of the conflict. All told, the Battle of Shiloh left more than 3,000 dead and 16,000 wounded, and like many Civil War battles, the deadliest risk came after the bullets stopped flying and the wounds started festering. To make matters worse, the wounded that were unable to carry themselves from the fray were left to suffer for two days in the mud and the rain before medical help (such as it was at the time) arrived. That can’t be good for preventing an infection. Fortunately, those soldiers had angels looking out for them.
At least, that’s what it looked like. In an astonishing, and frankly spooky, turn of events, as night fell, many of those wounded soldiers began to see a strange glow emanating from their wounds.
They called it “Angel’s Glow” and it lived up to its nickname. When they were eventually recovered and moved to the field hospital, the soldiers whose wounds had been so blessed ended up recovering better and faster, with cleaner wounds and a better survival rate than the un-glowing.
This really would sound downright impossible if it weren’t for the fact that it’s so well documented.
When P. Luminescens Comes Marching Home
In 2001, an answer finally came to the supernatural mystery, and it came from an unlikely source: a 17-year-old high school student. Bill Martin was visiting the battlefield of Shiloh with his mother Phyllis Martin, a microbiologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service. Hearing the story of the glowing soldiers, he thought about another story his mother had told him: the story of the bioluminescent bacteria Photorhabdus luminescens, which glows with a pale blue light. He and his friend John Curtis decided to conduct an experiment to find out if that little critter could be the culprit.
The students found that P. luminescens would indeed have been well-suited to surviving in the mud at Shiloh, but that the inside of the human body was probably too hot. However, they realized that since the soldiers would have been experiencing the cool Tennessee nights from the bottom of a mud puddle in the pouring rain, they may well have been experiencing hypothermia, which would lower their temperatures enough for the bacteria to thrive.
P. luminescens normally survives by hitching a ride on a parasitic nematode and chowing down on the insects that nematode infects. It’s a complicated and somewhat nauseating life cycle that starts up again by creating a glowing insect corpse that attracts more insects to infect. A crucial part of that process is when P. luminescens makes room for itself and for its parasitic host by cleaning up all of the other bacteria in its way. If this glowing duo happened to find its way into a human wound instead of the insects it normally hunts, it’d clean that wound right up. And since it’s not especially infectious to humans (although it certainly can be), P. luminescens is usually no match for our immune systems. There you have it: we wouldn’t recommend introducing a new parasite to fight your infections today, but as Civil War medicine goes, it’s certainly preferable to a field amputation. There might not be any images of the glowing soldiers on that bizarre battlefield, but the American Civil War is still one of the first wars to be documented with the exactness of photography. Flip through “The Civil War: A Visual History” (put out by the Smithsonian) to see exactly what the brave soldiers of the Union went through. We handpick reading recommendations we think you may like. If you choose to make a purchase through that link, Curiosity will get a share of the sale.
By Michael O’Donnell
It was philosopher and theologian Plato who once said, “A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.†We all know heroes of the past, Alvin York of World War I and Audie Murphy of World War II, but what about the heroes of Vietnam? Among the veterans of Vietnam, there are countless stories of valor, yet they have been largely ignored or forgotten over time. For the 543,400 Americans on the ground at the height of the Vietnam War, the 58,226 who were killed or missing in action, the 211,529 who were wounded, and the 4 million total who served in the Vietnam “theater,†there was one who stood out among all the rest. His name is Staff Sergeant Joe Ronnie Hooper, and not only was he a hero in the Vietnam War; he is also the most decorated soldier in American international combat, even eclipsing both York and Murphy.
Joe Ronnie Hooper was born on August 8th, 1938 in Piedmont, South Carolina. His family moved when he was a child to Moses Lake, Washington, where he attended high school. Hooper grew up a tough kid who knew how to scrap and take care of himself, and would even on some occasions go looking for a fight. This mentality would find itself of use when Hooper enlisted in the Navy at the age of 17 in the summer of 1955. There he served until 1961 when he left for the Army. Joe served multiple tours of duty in Vietnam, one from 1966-67 and another from 1967-68, with D company, 2nd Battalion, 501st Airborne Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. He would return to action in 1969 with special permission from the president. It was while serving in Vietnam that Hooper proved why he would later become the most decorated American soldier of all time.
One of the most noteworthy of all of Hooper’s battles took place on February 21st, 1968, in Hue, South Vietnam. For his actions on this day, Hooper would receive the military’s highest award for valor: the Medal of Honor.
It was dawn on the morning of the 21st. The sun rose over the fields of Hue and painted the sky red, an eerie sight during these bloody days of the Tet Offensive. D Company, 2/501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division”the Delta Raiders”were assaulting a strong enemy position when they began to receive heavy fire from the Viet Cong.
Rockets blazed through the jungle, and the sound of machine guns and other automatic weapons filled the air. Company D’s advance on the enemy was halted by their squad leader, then”Sgt. Hooper, in front of a stream approximately 20 feet-wide.
Hooper gathered a few of his men and dashed across the stream, up into the face of the enemy fire. Although the enemy was firing from a protected bunker on the opposite side of the stream, it was quickly taken by Sgt. Hooper and the men that fearlessly followed him.
Soon, the rest of Company D began to follow Sgt. Hooper’s example, taking the fight to the enemy. A couple of men were wounded, leaving them exposed to the wrath of enemy fire. Without a second thought, Sgt. Hooper braved the crossfire and went out after his wounded brothers.
Hooper helped one man back to safety, then returned for the second man. He got to the wounded soldier, but in the process was wounded himself. Still, he brought the man to safety, saving him from certain death.
Returning to the fight, Hooper found SSG Thomas pinned down by enemy fire. Trying to decipher where the shots were coming from, Hooper called through the rattle of gunfire and explosions to SP4 Mount, who was up ahead, to see if there was room to maneuver between two small houses in the direction of the fire. Joe Ronnie Hooper (August 8, 1938 – May 6, 1979) was an American who served in both the United States Navy and United States Army where he finished his career there as a captain. He was awarded the Medal of Honor while serving as an army staff sergeant on February 21, 1968 during the Vietnam War. He was one of the most decorated U.S. soldiers of the war and was wounded in action eight times.
Hooper enlisted in the United States Army in May 1960 as a private first class, and attended Basic Training at Fort Ord, California. After graduation, he volunteered for Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia and then was assigned to Company C, 1st Airborne Battle Group, 325th Infantry,[1]82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and was promoted to corporal during his assignment. He then served a tour of duty in South Korea with the 20th Infantry in October 1961 and shortly after arriving he was promoted to sergeant and was made a squad leader. He left Korea in November 1963 and was assigned to the 2nd Armored Division at Fort Hood, Texas for a year as a squad leader and then became a squad leader with Company D, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 502nd Infantry, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He was promoted to staff sergeant in September 1966 and volunteered for service in South Vietnam. Instead he was assigned as a platoon sergeant in Panama with the 3rd Battalion (Airborne), 508th Infantry, first with HQ Company and later with Company B.
Hooper couldn’t stay out of trouble and suffered several Article 15 hearings, being reduced to the rank of corporal in July 1967. He was promoted once again to sergeant in October 1967, and was assigned to Company D, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell and deployed with the division to Vietnam in December as a squad leader. During his tour of duty with Delta Company (Delta Raiders), 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 501st Airborne Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, he was recommended for the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on February 21, 1968 outside of Hue.
He returned from Vietnam and was discharged in June 1968. He reenlisted in the Army the following September, and served as a public relations specialist. On March 7, 1969, he was presented the Medal of Honor by President Richard Nixon during a ceremony in the White House. From July 1969 to August 1970, he served as a platoon sergeant with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Infantry in Panama. He managed to finagle a second tour in Vietnam; from April to June 1970, he served as a pathfinder with the 101st Aviation Group, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile), and from June to December 1970, he served as a platoon sergeant with Company A, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile). In December 1970, he received a direct commission to second lieutenant and served as a platoon leader with Company A, 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) until April 1971.
Upon his return to the United States, he attended the Infantry Officer Basic Course at Fort Benning and was then assigned as an instructor at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Despite wanting to serve twenty years in the Army, Hooper was made to retire in February 1974 as a first lieutenant, mainly because he had only completed a handful of college courses beyond his GED. As soon as he was released from active duty, he joined a unit of the Army Reserve’s 12th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Washington as a Company Executive Officer. In February 1976, he transferred to the 104th Division (Training), also based in Washington. He was promoted to captain in March 1977. He attended drills only intermittently and was separated from the service in September 1978.
For his service in Vietnam, the U.S. Army also awarded Hooper two Silver Stars, six Bronze Stars, eight Purple Hearts, the Presidential Unit Citation, the Vietnam Service Medal with six campaign stars, and the Combat Infantryman Badge. He is credited with 115 enemy killed in ground combat, 22 of which occurred on February 21, 1968. He became one of the most decorated soldiers in the Vietnam War, and was one of three soldiers who were wounded in action eight times in the war.
Rumors persist that he became distressed by the anti-war politics of the time and took to excessive drinking which contributed to his death.[2] He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Louisville, Kentucky on May 6, 1979, at the age of 40.
Hooper is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 46, adjacent to the Memorial Amphitheater.
Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company D, 2d Battalion (Airborne), 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. Place and date: Near Hue, Republic of Vietnam, February 21, 1968. Entered service at: Los Angeles, Calif. Born: August 8, 1938, Piedmont, S.C.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Staff Sergeant (then Sgt.) Hooper, U.S. Army, distinguished himself while serving as squad leader with Company D. Company D was assaulting a heavily defended enemy position along a river bank when it encountered a withering hail of fire from rockets, machine guns and automatic weapons. S/Sgt. Hooper rallied several men and stormed across the river, overrunning several bunkers on the opposite shore. Thus inspired, the rest of the company moved to the attack. With utter disregard for his own safety, he moved out under the intense fire again and pulled back the wounded, moving them to safety. During this act S/Sgt. Hooper was seriously wounded, but he refused medical aid and returned to his men. With the relentless enemy fire disrupting the attack, he single-handedly stormed 3 enemy bunkers, destroying them with hand grenade and rifle fire, and shot 2 enemy soldiers who had attacked and wounded the Chaplain. Leading his men forward in a sweep of the area, S/Sgt. Hooper destroyed 3 buildings housing enemy riflemen. At this point he was attacked by a North Vietnamese officer whom he fatally wounded with his bayonet. Finding his men under heavy fire from a house to the front, he proceeded alone to the building, killing its occupants with rifle fire and grenades. By now his initial body wound had been compounded by grenade fragments, yet despite the multiple wounds and loss of blood, he continued to lead his men against the intense enemy fire. As his squad reached the final line of enemy resistance, it received devastating fire from 4 bunkers in line on its left flank. S/Sgt. Hooper gathered several hand grenades and raced down a small trench which ran the length of the bunker line, tossing grenades into each bunker as he passed by, killing all but 2 of the occupants. With these positions destroyed, he concentrated on the last bunkers facing his men, destroying the first with an incendiary grenade and neutralizing 2 more by rifle fire. He then raced across an open field, still under enemy fire, to rescue a wounded man who was trapped in a trench. Upon reaching the man, he was faced by an armed enemy soldier whom he killed with a pistol. Moving his comrade to safety and returning to his men, he neutralized the final pocket of enemy resistance by fatally wounding 3 North Vietnamese officers with rifle fire. S/Sgt. Hooper then established a final line and reorganized his men, not accepting treatment until this was accomplished and not consenting to evacuation until the following morning. His supreme valor, inspiring leadership and heroic self-sacrifice were directly responsible for the company’s success and provided a lasting example in personal courage for every man on the field. S/Sgt. Hooper’s actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the U.S. Army.[3]
Private comes out of the box at at NTC with necklace of Donovian ears
FORT IRWIN, Calif. — Pfc. Amanda Richards surprised peers and superiors alike when she emerged from six weeks “in the box” at the National Training Center with an eerie hollowness in her eyes and a necklace of Donovian ears, sources confirmed today.
“Here at the National Training Center, we provide America’s soldiers with the highest quality, most realistic training available,” said Brig. Gen. Geoffrey Broadway, NTC Commander. “As they use the newest technologies to face the intense challenges of the profession of arms, they emerge as better fighters, better teams, and better prepared for complex…what the fuck? She did what? God almighty. How did she even do that? God help us all.”
National Training Center Rotations are designed to place soldiers in austere environment where they can develop new techniques, tactics, and procedures, while honing strengths and identifying weaknesses. Soldiers assigned to play opposing forces, or OPFOR, use tactics of notional countries such as Atropia or Donovia.
In the case of Pfc. Richards, who previously expressed little interest in basic soldier skills, the NTC experiment revealed she had always been three weeks of intensity away from being an elite killing machine, and six weeks of intensity away from being a war criminal, according to defense officials.
“We encourage the most realistic scenarios possible at the National Training Center,” Broadway added. “But not like that. Fuck me. Those men had families. The more you sweat in peace the less you bleed in war, but, for the love of God, we don’t mean real blood.”
Richards, a dental hygienist assigned to Charlie Company, 3834th Combat Hospital, was nervous about “time in the box,” but came to thrive in the intense environment.
“On day one at the RUBA, Amanda couldn’t shut up about not having her cell phone,” said Spc. Kelsey Appleton, Richards’ former roommate. “She’d been texting a guy who had a car and we were all pretty upset about the timing. But by day six, she was really getting into it, yelling at us when we went to the wag bag without our MILES gear on. By week two, she’d pulled all the aces out of a deck of cards ‘for her kills,’ By week four she walked out of the battalion fighting position shirtless with nothing but a DAGR and a dagger, challenging anyone to quench her thirst for blood and vengeance.”
Richards, after a thorough after-action report, will return to her duties as the records clerk at the Raymond Bliss Dental clinic until such time as an investigating board can determine if she is, as she states, the surviving embodiment of Tiger Force.
“I blame myself. When I put that bumper sticker on my Ram that said, ‘kill ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out,’ a couple of the PC types asked me if I was setting a good example for my soldiers,” said Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth Rainier, Richards’ platoon sergeant.
“I said, ‘we’re all POGs, I don’t think anyone is taking this seriously. But then…sweet Jesus. Amanda just had to exact vengeance after the first harassing small arms fire. Men. Women. Some of those men weren’t even Donovian. I think they were OCs. Sometimes, as I drift off to sleep, I still hear them choking on their own blood as they futilely yell ‘ENDEX.’”
The following was kindly provided by Captain T.W. Forrest of the D.C. Army National Guard.
Suggestions for
Professional Officer Development Readings
Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.
As soldiers it is our duty to continue are professional development by reading. General George S. Patton, Jr. (1885-1945), was known for his study and reading of military history.
In 1952, his widow, Beatrice Patton, provided a list of his favorite books for an issue of Armor magazine (Patton, Beatrice Ayer, “A Soldier’s Reading,” Armor 61 (November-December 1952, pp. 10-11). I provide it to you for your professional development:
Maxims of Frederick the Great
Maxims of Napoleon, and all the authoritative military biographies of Napoleon
LT. GEN. KURT SONNTAG LOWERS ARMY TRAINING STANDARDS TO RAISE GRADUATION RATES – SOCIETAL DECLINE INSIDIOUSLY LEAKS INTO MILITARY, WHICH COVERTLY WEAKENS AMERICAN MILITARY POWER
Kurt L. Sonntag (now an Army Lt. General) who doesn’t know the first thing about managing people or building a lethal special forces unit.
PROLOGUE:
Since the beginning of the Republic, the American people have frequently made the mistake of voting for people that tell them what they WANT to hear, and not what they NEED to hear. It’s been a problem for a very long time.
Dr. Benjamin Franklin
There is a story, often told, that upon exiting the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had finally created. His answer was prophetic: “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
The brevity of that response should not cause us to under-value its essential meaning: democratic republics are not merely founded upon the consent of the people; they also depend upon the active and informed involvement of the people for their continued good health.
And that’s the core of the problem, most Americans are too involved with their own lives to research issues in order to become a fully INFORMED VOTER. Sadly, many people rather believe the news media’s narrative that tells them what to think and who to hate. That’s much easier than doing all the work of searching for facts and listening to opposing sides in order to make up their own minds.
It first starts at home with dubious parenting techniques. The old adage of “spare the rod, spoil the child” is tossed out in favor “negotiating.” Parents do everything possible to make sure their child DOES NOT FAIL, not recognizing that failure has value of its own. As we know from the recent college admissions scandal, some parents pay literally millions to get their child in a prestigious school, most of which are laden heavily with Marxist professors.
America’s schools have become nationwide brainwashing factories to sell socialism. Frequently these young adults graduate but can barely read or write, and have very little knowledge of history and the monetary forces that have made American the greatest economic power on earth. Even though capitalism has its drawbacks, world history has proven time and again, that capitalism is frequently superior to any socialist model past and present. THE LIBERAL CONCEPT THAT NO ONE IS A FAILURE
HAS INFECTED MILITARY LEADERSHIP
Did the Obama-Era school discipline policy (and mentality) also infect military policies and Pentagon leadership? Remember the horrific mass shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in February 2018? The school district was one of the first to embrace what’s known as “restorative justice” that removes accountability for breaking the law.
Restorative Justice became one of the Obama administration’s darlings for its alleged effectiveness to focus on disciplinary equity. The theory was that if you forgive young people early in their lives, they will realize the error of their ways and become responsible citizens.
So-called “adults in the room” pointed to it’s success because it dramatically reduced arrests. But, they won’t talk about the sky-rocking recidivism rates and how many of those youngsters ended up as career criminals because they thought that crime does pay.
The new superintendent of the Broward County school system, Robert Runcie previously worked hand-in-hand with Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan to screw up the Chicago Public School system. Robert Runcie was the leading force behind instituting new practices within the district for handling illegal misconduct by students without resorting to law enforcement involvement.
In other words, students could violate the law with impunity just like those folks in Washington. Example; little Johnny stole someone purse, and the angry woman wanted to press charges, but a new program intervened and prevented an legal accountability. Then little Johnny went on a stealing spree and ended up with a bedroom full of stolen purses.
Runcie’s new program quickly became a national model for ending zero-tolerance policies in schools. The Broward school district decided to hire Robert Runcie as their new superintendent to implement his new “restorative justice” program down in warm sunny Florida.
Shortly after assuming the job as school superintendent in Broward County, student-related arrests plummeted down by 65 percent and people applauded the new “positive numbers.”
This new “restorative justice” program stopped authorities from arresting or even investigating former high school student Nikolas Cruz who walked into school one day and murdered 17 people. It was all about numbers. In the liberal mind, arrests were down which meant hope was on the rise.
So-called school leaders didn’t want to hold anyone accountable for their illegal behavior, so Nikolas Cruz was given a pass and went on a horrific murder spree. If people want gun dealers arrested for murder for selling the gun, how about arresting the stupid people who created policies that protected the murderer. LOWERING STANDARDS TO IMPROVE GRADUATION NUMBERS
The military noticed the high dropout / failure rate of those attempting to graduate from the Army’s Special Warfare School and Center (SWCS) where Green Berets are selected, trained and graduated. They put Lt. General Kurt Sonntag in charge and everything went to hell.
Soldiers are fearful of retribution for speaking out, which resulted in a total breakdown of unit morale. Standards at the school’s prestigious Qualification Course (Q-course), where Green Berets are graduated, began to dramatically slide after Sonntag took command in May 2017.
Breitbart.com did a great job exposing the Army’s attempt to lower standards when no one was watching. They listed the specific instances where Lt. Gen. Sonntag was lowering standards and destroying unit morale. Here’s his playbook to increase the number of graduates for the Army’s elite Green Beret fighting force…
A student could no longer fail the course for not passing any physical standard or test. Before, failing to pass two separate times would have resulted in being kicked out of the course. Now, students are increasingly being passed by a relief board or the training group commander.
Land navigation required students to navigate open terrain and find set points using a map and compass is no longer a “pass or fail” event. It was turned into a “practical exercise.”
Students had to pass the language portion before receiving their Green Beret. Now, students can receive their Green Beret before passing it on a “conditional” basis and are allowed to retake the language portion as many times as they need in order to pass it.
Ethical standards have become increasingly lax. At a 2017 party, a student pulled a knife on someone. Despite the incident being reported to higher command, it was dismissed as merely a “personal” incident, and the student was allowed to continue the course. Before Sonntag, the student would have been tossed out on his ear.
The GT score, which determines eligibility for specific jobs in the Army, has also been recently lowered from 110 to 107 for aspiring Green Berets.
The ability to discipline students by instructors was also dramatically reduced. One of the most important things in this type of intensive training is for instructors to have the authority commensurate with their responsibility.
Students leaving the course voluntarily or involuntarily are being personally called and asked if they would like to come back and finish. Past policy required them to be sent on an overseas assignment or to the 82nd Airborne.
Lt. Gen Sonntag initiated an “open door” policy, so students can walk into Sonntag’s office and appeal to him directly to be able to continue the course even if they fail.
After Sonntag arrived, students who had either repeatedly failed phases of the course or failed the course were being recycled back over their recommendations and rules that dictated how soon a student could be put back in.
Lt. Gen Sonntag punished instructors whose students would fail, or were seen as too tough on their students. In October 2017, one instructor asked his students to show up for physical training the Thursday before a four-day weekend. When only three students showed up out of 40, he called another mandatory training session that weekend. Two hours later, he was fired.
Kurt L. Sonntag as a Major General.
Unit morale had plummeted to a point where Sonntag had to do something to make everyone think he really cared about them. Lt. Gen. Sonntag decided to hold a “town hall” meeting. He declared the meeting was “classified” and prohibited anyone from recording it.
But according to several witnesses, Sonntag told the roomful of about 150 instructors, “I have a client. I have a customer — the first Special Forces Command. They have a number set of missions, and I have to provide a specific number” of graduates.”
One instructor decided the general was just pandering and wrote a scathing 6,399-word anonymous email detailing everything happening at SWCS. He blasted it out to more than 2,000 members of the Army special operations community worldwide. It became known as the “night letter” among Green Berets. One called it the “email heard around the world.”
This is when the general popped his cork. Several days after the email was sent, Sonntag called a formation of instructors, both civilian and military. According to several witnesses, he took off his Army combat uniform top and challenged those who disagreed with him to step forward and fight him.
“He took his top off,” one witness said. “He said, ‘If anybody had any problem with me … my rank just came off, I will fight you guys one-on-one.’” According to another witness, Sonntag also said the email author could be punishable by “death.” The general was losing it and people were worried about his sanity.
Sonntag narrowed down his “hit list” to seven suspects who might have sent the email that exposed how he was gutting the special warfare school. He was like a bull in a china closet, suspending security clearances,and using a slew of administrative, non-judicial punishments that included firing, reassignment, negative evaluation reports, and other actions. He was doing everything he could to find the evil bastard(s) that sent out the “night letter.”
By June of 2018, Sonntag’s witch hunt narrowed down the email suspects to three instructors at the Green Beret school. He issued them all a non-judicial punishment under Article 15, alleging that they were likely behind the email as well as other things. He didn’t need proof. The military doesn’t need proof to convict anyone of anything… We keep telling you the system is rigged in favor of the system and generals who are part of the military swamp.
The author of the email — who was one of the three suspects — admitted to writing the email and accepted the punishment. He was stripped of his Special Forces tab and returned to the conventional Army, which is the biggest disgrace to befall any Green Beret.
The two other suspects (instructors Robertson and Squires) said they had nothing to do with the email, but Sonntag accused them of using their work computers to develop and launch an online application and using their positions as instructors to have students sign up for it. The general didn’t give a shit… he just wanted hides to nail to the wall.
Robertson and Squires decided to fight the accusations by requesting a court-martial where they could plead their case in front of a military judge. It was a risky move, because who do you think picks the jury and writes their career propelling (or ending) efficiency reports, the convening authority which would be Lt. Gen. Sonntag. IF YOU CANT COURT-MARTIAL, THEN ATTACK WITH THE POWERS OF A GENERAL OFFICER
Sometimes our special warfare soldiers are all smiles, but thanks to Lt. Gen Sonntag, many are not smiling.
Sonntag was probably worried that even more truth would leak out and withdrew the Article 15 non-judicial punishments which denied any request for a court-martial.
Instead, he used his power as general in the Army to administratively attack them by issuing them both a permanent General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand (GOMOR). A GOMOR is a letter of reprimand that can be a career-ender, and cannot be fought.
A GOMOR is a non-rebuttable presumption of guilt that cannot be challenged. Sonntag GOMORs triggered discharges for both instructors from the Army. And that my friends, is how the United States Military treats their elite soldiers.
To make it look like they care about justice and fairness, the Pentagon’s inspector general is allegedly investigating Lt. Gen. Sonntag. The military will circle the wagons for about a year pretending to investigate one of their card-carrying members of the original good-old-boy club.
That elite club is the flag-ranking members of the United States military who enjoy many perks, but the most important perk is being allowed to retire to avoid any accountability.
In about a year, after everything has died down, Sonntag will be transferred to another job or allowed to retire. Our brave fighting men and women will be cast aside to protect the general and all will be forgotten. But MCC won’t forget, we guarantee it.
We have seen this before… Years ago, a commanding officer and five of his staff officers in the naval reserves were trying to artificially prop up their reserve retention numbers by paying reservists for work they never did. Chief Petty Officer Michael Tufariello reported their massive payroll fraud scheme, and they had him imprisoned in a military mental hospital on a trumped up charge.
More recently, the superintendent of the Broward school system wanted better numbers, so they quit holding people accountable which ended up causing the deaths of 17 people.
And now, Lt. Gen. Sonntag wanted to increase the number of graduates from SWCS, so he initiated measures to quit holding people accountable which produced some graduates with dubious skills. How many lives that will cost in the future, no one knows. Sadly, the only people he held accountable were the Green Beret instructors who spoke truth to power. They were ultimately ruined.
Folks, if you are on active duty and someone says, “Tell me what’s on your mind, you can trust me. I won’t tell anyone.” Are you really going to fall for it? If you want to keep your military career, you had better go along to get along.
Make no mistake; the military brass in the Pentagon knew exactly what Sonntag was doing because it was the Pentagon that ordered him to do it. Now, they are pretending to investigate Sonntag…. Give me a fricking break.
Until real reforms are made that actually hold the admirals and generals accountable, you had better get out of the service as soon as you possibly can. We say this because we love you.
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I always liked the Medics when I was in!
