Tippity Top General attempts to Deceive Congressman (in writing)
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14 February 2012
Happy Valentine’s Day. It isn’t Valentine’s for those who will get hit with bullets or bombs today. And it will happen. So let’s get down to business.
The top officer in the US Military is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Chairman is the principal military advisor to President Obama.
Recently, Congressman Todd Akin from Missouri has taken up the cause of repairing the Army MEDEVAC failures.
Previously, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) provided Congressman Akin with a deceptive, error-filled letter whose content could have been written by Baghdad Bob for Ripley’s Believe it or Not! You have to see it to believe it.
Congressman Akin continued to push, but he was stonewalled. Mr. Akin was undeterred and responded by redoubling his efforts. For example, he marshaled other concerned Members of Congress, and altogether 17 Members sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
The response by Mr. Akin and other Members of Congress is heartening. This is how a democracy should work. We citizens raised valid, important points. It took some time to get their attention, but once we got beyond those hurdles, Members of Congress have taken on the cause by first searching for the truth.
On two occasions, Mr. Panetta did not respond to Mr. Akin. On the second occasion, Mr. Panetta passed the buck back to General Dempsey, the Chairman of the JCS. General Dempsey’s response to Mr. Akin avoided the most important questions. General Dempsey’s response was also demonstrably deceptive. General Dempsey clearly states that he is responding on behalf of Secretary Panetta, meaning that Mr. Panetta endorses the deception.
With that realization, we have exhausted the military chain of command. And so this has finally become a matter for the Commander in Chief: President Obama.
If General Dempsey has provided a briefing to President Obama that parallels what we see below, General Martin Dempsey should be fired. If in good faith President Obama should make the mistake of repeating this from General Dempsey, at best he will look clueless to most combat veterans.
Despite those who wish to politicize this, the MEDEVAC problems did not arise under the watch of President Obama. They’ve been going on for years. I believe that if President Obama is properly informed, he will intervene.
President Obama: Please speak with Congressman Todd Akin in private, and with experienced Army Dustoff and Air Force Pedro pilots, before saying anything on this subject publicly. If you speak to Mr. Akin and to those pilots, you will know the truth.
The duplicitous letter from General Dempsey:
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Comments
Translation: We are trying to find a way to cover our ass.
Further, both Air Force and Marine aircraft used for medevac are currently armed with no visible deleterious effect on their capabilities.
In a theater where we are regaled with $100/gallon gas, that the Army also chooses to send in attack helicopters with every medevac does not reflect well when in fact the other services are operating both more effectively and economically.
I have been thinking this myself as well. It seems to me plausible that given the extent of the injuries, that the Army high ups may be thinking behind closed doors that the outcome in the end was better for all of those directly involved. And that if they just keeping the buck passing along that it will eventually get dropped. Especially because it seems so simple to me to paint over the red crosses in this theater and add weapons to the helos. Why keep the debate going all the way to the President? Are the Taliban signatories to the Geneva Convention?
Weight of 7.65x51mm d. link ammunition: approx 7 lbs per 100 rounds
Typical load for the M240 coax configuration on a tank, 11,500 rounds, weighing approx 805 lbs. This amount of ammunition should be sufficient for two door gunners on an evac.
The Black hawks we use for evac can carry roughly 10,000lbs. With the cabin stuffed with bodies the extra 849lbs would still be insignificant to the weight carrying limit.
While certainly not the capabilities of an Apache, I dare say that the addition of two machine guns to the aircraft would make a significant difference in the hazard level an evac could extract from confidently.
But as Mike, and his congressional and MEDEVAC pilot allies have pointed out, the king is altogether as naked as the day that he was born.
Is anyone in Washington reading these forums? Think Outside the Box!!!! Lets spent some taxpayers money for a change that will actually have a positive impact.
Then I started page 2. Ah, the Geneva Convention defence.
It seems to me that they are slowly manipulating their stance. Given enough time, they will say that RCs were always going to come off and guns were always going to go on.
Unfortunately, time was something Chazray had! Until this BS is sorted, there will be others who run out of time.
Mr Obama, do something good and get this issue sorted from the top. Now! While YOU still have time (I feel I have to add "in office" at the end of that to avoid any mis-interpretation from the CIA)
FYI. Associated Press has picked up your cause, writing a short article by Deb Riechmann, Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan regarding Spec Chazray Clark and his unarmed rescue Army Medevac chopper. My paper the Tacoma News Tribune, has this story on page 12, (back page) Tuesday February 14. Keep up the great work and maybe the results of your efforts will be heard loud and clear and not falling on deaf ears at the Pentagon.
If you're going to call BS here, please show us. Run a side bar to CJCS' letter and point out the BS. I have been following your articles, so I understand. But, without a point by point showing I can't take CJCS' BS letter and prove it to anyone that doesn't have the context that those of us that follow you do.
you can't post a new comment but you can append to an existing comment.
Someone is doing regular post (unknown if it's actually LTG Dempsey).
I'm planning to ask about Army MEDEVAC failures and append it to a random post.
By the way, MEDEVAC birds had Red Crosses on them back then too.
I'm not saying that Republicans want to jump on the military's head for fun, but rather that they're not really better than any other party just because they say so all the time. The old "Democrats want to destroy the military, Republicans love it"-rant is getting old, and it's naive to believe in it.
General Dempsey,
Can you please comment on your letter to Congressman Atkin (7 Feb 2012) specifically about Army MEDEVAC failures in Afghanistan. I have been following this closely reading from several reputable news outlets and online sources which contradict your official response to the Congressman.
The facts reported by one correspondent who was embedded and had video footage to prove that MEDEVAC’s can’t launch with an armed escort. One could easily conclude that this MEDEVAC failure was a factor in the death of Spc Clark and possibly other personnel.
Sir, my question to you is this: when will you address this problem and direct your chain of command to follow a corrected SOP?
Follow-up post to General Dempsey's FB:
to the person monitoring the generals FB. Deleting my post rather than answering my question show again a lack of understanding of how upset the American public is/will be when this issue gathers more momentum.
Thank you for keeping a light shined brightly on this issue.
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