What I find disturbing, why didn’t his wife mention ANY of this when she was interviewed by the media?  Sounds to me like the Air Force has initiated damage control measures (late) to cover their ass in the face of another public embarrassment.
I sincerly hope that Colton Read gets nothing but top notch care and support for the remainder of his life.  The Air Force is a lesser service without.

The police officer in question, Sgt. James Crowley a 20 plus year veteran of the law enforcement, is being accused of racial profiling.  The claim arose after Henry Gates Jr, a influential black scholar from Harvard University, was arrested at his residence after a neighbor called in a report that two black men were trying to break into the home.  Crowley responded to the call, arrives on scene first and finds persons at that residence matching the ‘profile’ of the description given. According to the police report, the situation took an unfortunate downturn when Gates immediately accused Crowley as a racist after Crowley asked Gates to provide identification.

Based on the official police report, Gates immediately drops the race card when Crowley asked for Gate’s ID and shouted ‘NO, I WILL NOT!’ and go off on a racial tirade while proclaiming ‘THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO BLACK MEN IN AMERICA!”.  Isn’t the current President of the United States black? How about the Governor of Massachusetts, Patrick Deval?  Yep, two perfect examples of what happens to black men in America.  Further agitating the situation, he tells the officer ‘you don’t know who you’re messing with’.  This sounds to me like Gates was either bating the situation or thought he was just too high and mighty to produce some ID. Now imagine what Gates would have said if it were a real breaking and entering situation and the responding officer didn’t bother to verify whether or not they belonged in his house and left. What then? Would Gates still claim racism on the part of the police department for not properly investigating a breaking and entering at a black man residence?  According to the news reports, his house was broken into not long ago.  One would assume that prompt police response would be appreciated.  Instead, Gates acted like a spoiled child who did not get his special toy and became disorderly, after being warned by the officers on the scene (including Hispanic and black officers) to calm down and that is what got him arrested.  His loud mouth (which he is still running). All he had to do was show some ID, keep his mouth shut and the problem would have been resolved without incident.

Let’s take a moment about the credibility of the racist claim against Crowley.  First, he is a career police officer.  I’m sure this is not the first time he has arrested a black person.   We have not heard of any prior incidents of racial bias claims against him. Not only that, he teaches a course to academy students about the negative effects racial profiling can have on a community.   Crowley was handpicked by the former Police Commissioner, also black, for that position.   Or, the fact he did CPR on a fallen Reggie Lewis, the former Boston Celtics basketball player, in 1993 after Lewis suffered a heart attack.  Call me crazy, but these are not the actions of a racist.

Adding to the entire mess, Gates uses the momentum of the arrest and goes out on ‘tour’, seemingly using the incident to further his own personal agenda.   Using phrases like ‘This made me realize how vulnerable all black men are’ and referencing poor people and immigrants to draw more attention to his arrest.  Sounds to me like the spring board for a political campaign.  Then, our very own President Obama decides to publicly bash the police officers involved, saying they ‘acted stupidly’ in the incident of arresting Gates, who is a friend of his, even though he admitted not knowing all the facts of the case.  Whatever happened to Obama’s juris doctorate skills?  Not only did he the take a side without knowing the facts by his own admission, he essentially announced it was open game on police officers across the country by stating racial profiling is ‘just a fact’.  James Preston, President of the Fraternal Order of Police, Florida State Lodge, put it best:

“By reducing all contact between law enforcement and the public to the color of their skin or ethnicity is, in fact, counterproductive to improving relationships.  To make such an off-handed comment about a subject without benefit of the facts, in such a public forum, hurts police/community relations and is a setback to all of the years of progress.”

Gates is all over the TV and news, proclaiming racial bias was the sole reason for his arrest and demanding that Sgt. Crowley apologizes for his actions.  It is not Crowley who should be apologizing, it should be Gates AND President Obama who should be apologizing and offering their sincere appreciation for the thankless job that Crowley does.

I just read an extremely sad story about a young and highly motivated airmen (who are in short supply these days) who lost both his legs . My first thought after reading the headline was ‘must have been an IED or Land Mine’. Image my reaction when I realized the reality. While having ‘routine’ gallbladder removal surgery at the hands of a Military doctor, somehow, this bumbling idiot managed to sever his aortic valve.   To further complicate matters, the guy waits 5 goddamnn hours to send this Airman to another, properly equipped hospital with real doctors who could handle the situation. I’m not a lawyer but that sounds like attempted manslaughter to me. Willingly withholding crucial medical treatment? Hmm…

But that’s the just start of the story and my rant. Apparently in the Air Forces’ grand wisdom, have already decided this Airman’s fate for him…while he is still in recovery. This happened last week between July 13th and 17th according to the news report. In the span of less than a week, ‘they’ have apparently decided to medically discharge him, which would leave him with about ½ of his current pay. Anyone who has even been an E-3 knows that amounts to just about what a guy working at McDonalds makes. Making it even worse, he has a wife, who is standing by her man. But if the Air Force does follow through with the plan to medically discharge him, she is out of a home since they likely live on base. BAH in California is not nearly enough for an E-3 to find decent housing so I’m making that assumption. Basically, she will be without a home, helping her now disabled husband-if he even lives through this whole ordeal-and with no support from the service that did this to him. I don’t know how other service members who are ‘well read’ feel, but I’m ‘omne spe perdita, nonne spes mortis sola reliqua est’ after this one.

Now you might be asking yourself, what about medical malpractice? They can sue the doctor and hospital right? Wrong. Thanks to a wonderful law passed by Congress called the Feres Doctrine- read: Feres v United States, 340 U.S. 135 (1950). Basically, the Supreme Court decision in the original case and enacted into law from Congress that same year, military members could not file a tort claim against the Government in the case of negligence. The Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946 was the first step in this process, but that was only connected to combat related wounds. The Feres Doctrine enacted four years later effectively enacted further restrictions by including ‘incident to military service’. So, under this archaic Federal Law, those who fight for this country cannot sue the Government, which effectively prevents military members the right to collect from damages caused in connection with military service. As a result of this, it gave the military the all-clear signal to provide substandard care to its members without consequence.

Feres states that no service member or their families may take civil action against any government official for any crime “incident to service”. Crimes of murder, rape, torture, assault, perjury, negligence, experimentation, etc., can be prosecuted criminally, but not civilly. The Right to petition the courts of this land to seek redress against the government, as guaranteed by the Constitution of The United States DOES NOT APPLY to those who have sworn to protect and defend the Constitution they have sworn to defend.

Anyone else see the glaring hole with this statement? I can give my life in defense of this country and the Constitution of the United States of America but I do not have the same rights as the rest of the citizens that I fight for? Attempts to repeal this act have been attempted but each has failed every time it has come to vote.  I find this…well…disheartening to say the least.

Another recent case which brought attention to this law involved a TSgt from Virginia who died after another Air Force doctor-who was not even certified or licensed to practice medicine in that state, cut her uterine artery during a cesarean section. In the resulting chaos and confusion, they managed to repair the severed artery but left two surgical sponges inside her body. This incident had a horrible conclusion.  A few hours later after emergency surgery to remove the sponges, she died.

There are NUMEROUS other cases where this has come back to haunt military members, especially involving Carmelo Rodriguez (a quick Google search on his name and H.R. 1478 will give you all the info you need if you wish to read further on the subject)

So, in conclusion to my rant…the Air Force and the military in general preach the benefits of military service to otherwise unsuspecting prospects.  Free medical care is constantly flaunted as a ‘pro’.   So is the alleged promise that the Government will take care of you should something happen. This incident only further exposes that disgusting lie. We messed you up, not some trigger happy insurgent but the ‘quality’ medical staff at Travis Air Force Base. By deciding to medically discharge him that fast, you’re effectively telling him ‘We’re sorry, but go ahead and pack your bags. Maybe you will find help at the local Homeless Shelter’.

Safety — not summer comfort — is the reason the Air Force allows the lighter-weight ABUs. Cotton takes longer to catch fire and doesn’t melt like many man-made fibers do.

So by their idea, the fact nylon uniforms are a fire safety hazard is their rationale behind not allowing cotton uniforms for the whole force? I wonder how many people in the Air Force encounter fire on a regular basis (firefighters don’t count…that’s your job) why not meet at the cross roads and give Airman the choice?  Use the heavy nylon ones in the winter, cotton in the summer.  It makes sense in my eyes.  Could it be that Airmen know whats better for them than some leader who plays the puppet master above them?  Maybe whoever designed this monstrosity of a uniform is still around, flaunting their ‘accomplishment’ and admission that it’s a failure would cost them the next rank?

Besides, with cost cutting measures knocking down the door of every wing commander, would it not make sense to wear a lightweight clothing so the AC would not have to be on full blast to keep us from baking?  Hmm…thoughts to ponder.

But the real problem is the design of this uniform.  It’s made out of Nylon and various other materials to make it more ‘durable’.  Ok, good point…but then again, much of the force sits behind a desk or wear flight suits.  Do we really NEED a heavy duty uniform?  No, we do not.  Especially now that we have finally wised up and moved away from the starch and press uniform ideas like the BDU, even though that uniform was not made for that either, it was done to look ‘professional’. This is exactly what happens when a person who sits behind a desk designs a combat utility uniform.  While those desk jobs are very important, for the Air Force to fail at something like this is inexcusable.

What about field testing? I never even HEARD of this ABU until I returned home from deployment a few years back and found an add for it on the BX announcement board.  I never saw anyone downrange wearing it.  Whatever happened to testing new items before fielding them? And I’m not taking about flying a poster child downrange to test wear it outside for a few minuets at a time or giving it to a Chief to wear.  Your not likely going to get an objective opinion from a situation like that.  I mean handing the whole thing to the young airman that are working on the flight line, maintaining the vehicles and aircraft and working a post for 12 hours in 120 degree heat.  Since they are the backbone of the Air Force, why not let THEM decide on the uniform they will wear?

This blog will primarily be a ‘journal’ of events from daily Air Force Security Forces life as well as yet another forthcoming deployment that is rapidly approaching.

I’d like to start by commenting on another ‘wonderful’ day in the Air Force.

My base had a promotion ceremony yesterday and I have been lucky enough to have missed the last several but yesterday I went and was appalled or amused depending on how you look at it. Instead of congratulating the members who spent time and effort (at least hopefully) on getting promoted, it was all about the units from around the base. By that I mean, when a newly promoted member’s unit was announced, their fellow unit members in attendance would hoot and holler. While enthusiasm is GREAT, what actually happened was beyond acceptable. Some units were banging loudly on drums the whole time (even when members from other units were announced, mocking them), yelling on megaphones, throwing paper air planes, calling out some rather ‘not safe for work’ chants.   The purpose of the ‘noise’ from the crowd was to try to impress the Wing Commander into thinking X Unit was the most motivated.  When did promotions become more about the units level of motivation.  I would think the Wing Commander would be more worried about the promotee’s level of motivation since they are now expected to take a more visible leadership role within their unit.  Maybe I’m just over thinking what a promotion ceremony should be about-which should be the PEOPLE.

While this was more or less a minor annoyance to most members in attendance…the kicker was the Air Force ‘Creed’. At the end, the Wing Commander had the promotee’s recite that god awful piece of Air Force ‘heritage’. It was thoroughly amusing as damn near EVERY person either lip synced or just did not even say a word.  Shows how strongly members believe in the ‘Airmen Creed’.