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Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 07:30 PM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

When Nidal Malik Hassan, Army psychiatrist, committed the worst terrorist attack on American soil since Nine-Eleven, this writer took it very personally. To me, the troops and civilians at Fort Hood, Texas, were almost family. They were at least neighbors. You see, my family, wife, children and I, are former residents of Fort Hood. We were housed about two blocks from the three-star Corps Commander. For two years, from sunset until sunrise, an armed helicopter circled his residence and the surrounding golf course. The commander was under constant death threats from troops and transient hippies incited by visits to a local coffeehouse by Jane Fonda. I had returned from Vietnam to Fort Hood in the summer of 1969 and was transferred from there to the Pentagon two years later.

By 1969, the leadership in Washington had decided to round up all the misfits, arsonists, thieves and other young criminals from the riot torn streets of Los Angeles, Chicago and New York and, by lowering standards, make them eligible for the draft. I had a couple of hundred of these “jewels” in my 1,050 man battalion. The other units on post, including two armored divisions, had the same problems. Stockade space was rationed. I was allocated only 2 small cells. Many of these misfits did not want to be in the Army and commanders had a legal remedy for such people. It was called a “General Discharge.” If the individual who committed a minor crime or other infraction would sign a form stating he wanted out of the Army, the commander could grant the discharge with a minimum of paperwork. Individuals receiving a General Discharge avoid a court-martial, a possible dishonorable discharge, but get no veteran benefits. It is as if they never served, but it does not hurt them outside the Army as a Dishonorable Discharge would.

 

The problem with General Discharges came a few years later when the American people in their “wisdom” elected a man President of the United States whose son had received a General Discharge from the United States Marines. The young marine had allegedly committed a serious crime, but his father was Governor of Georgia with connections to President Lyndon Johnson’s administration. On his first day in office, President Jimmy Carter pardoned all Vietnam era draft dodgers who went to Canada and upgraded all General Discharges to Honorable. These upgrades contribute to the current backlog of VA claims.

Of all the scandals perpetrated by the Obama Administration, the handling of the Fort Hood terrorist attack on unarmed soldiers and civilians by a self-described “Soldier of Allah” wearing a U. S. Army uniform yelling “Allahu Akbar” and carrying a grade of Major is the most disgusting, and someone in the administration should eventually be held criminally accountable.

The Obama Administration used political correctness to label the terrorist attack “workplace violence.”

Amber Gadlin, one of the wounded survivors of the terrorist attack at Fort Hood, had this to say about that: “The classification of workplace violence is the biggest slap in the face we can get as victims. Had it been classified as a terrorist attack we would be getting more benefits and pay. If we do not change the classification the shooting will be downplayed.”

In an interview with Elise Cooper, Amber Gadlin said she was waiting for a friend at the processing center where the shooting took place. Her first impression was that this must be a training drill when she heard shots ring out and the words “Allahu Akbar.”

“I knew it was not a drill when I saw a laser on the chest of someone sitting across from me. As the shooting continued I dragged and pushed people out the door, but unfortunately tripped and then was shot. I did not know I was shot four times in the back until I tried to sit down in the hospital.

“It’s hard for me to trust anyone, which is a big factor as to why I got out. The violation of trust includes my Commander in Chief President Obama, who personally told me at the Fort Hood Memorial Service we would be taken care of.”

The trust destroyed by Obama is tearing the army apart and destroying the greatest fighting force in  the world. The President and his wife and Mrs. Byden can make photo ops with troops and their families for propaganda and fool the liberal media and low information Americans, but they are not fooling the troops, retirees and other veterans they are betraying.

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