No one above E-4 knew it happened. Nothing official happened. We did not view it as anything worthy of getting an NCO or law enforcement involved in.
...
Wait... a man held a knife to another man's throat. Ability, Opportunity, Jeopardy. There was a man, a friend of yours, in imminent danger of losing his life, and you didn't think it was worthy of involving some authority figure?
Da*n. I guess the military IS different from the civilian world.
At least at the time, when hazing was still allowed and even encouraged, there was a lot of leeway in how you dealt with problems in the barracks. Someone with poor hygiene may be forced into a shower and washed with green scrubby pads, for example. In this case, it was talked out. Knife wielder guy had grown up in single mother household with no father figure and not much of a home life. He'd latched on to Mr. Rogers as a positive example and as someone who paid attention to him (through the tv) and loved him. The guy kept pushing, and knife guy snapped. And, you know, we'd been drinking. In our minds, knife guy was fully justified, and the guy he attacked not only asked for it but was a weakling in his response.
I'm sure there are family events that are similar that are never reported to the authorities...and we were sort of a big semi-functional family...with lots of boozing. It never even occurred to me to go outside the barracks to resolve the issue. Nor did it, apparently, occur to anyone else including the victim. They kissed and made up (figuratively, this was don't ask/don't tell days) shortly thereafter and the whole incident was largely forgotten. I didn't think of it in these terms then, but I suppose you could say that unit cohesion was more important than punishing wrong doing. We had one guy who was such a thief that you would make him clap his hands the whole time he was in your room. As far as I know, he was never reported officially, although he was rather clumsy and fell down the stairs on occasion.
While the knife was outside the norm, arguments, posturing, and the occasional fight was not.
Hmmm...and all this time I was under the mistaken belief that this was a pro-gun forum.
For some members the idea of protecting yourself is sort of the good for me but not for thee type axiom.
For some members the idea of protecting yourself is sort of the good for me but not for thee type axiom.
For some members the idea of protecting yourself is sort of the good for me but not for thee type axiom.
I disarm going into a jail setting. Why?
As an 11B E-5 at Ft Bragg 1984-90, I agree with BBI. I don't like that I agree with him, but I do.
I can only speak from my experiences, but people who have never been in the military cannot begin to fathom the debauchery and havoc that a tight knit group of young paratroopers can be involved in when properly fueled on cheap beer from the ClassVI. My platoon lost 2 soldiers who murdered a guy on leave with a knife, and I lost an ATL who was with them... once he came forward all 3 vanished. One of the guys in the PLT put a chip in the linoleum floor of his room with a .45acp that would NOT buff out, and he was afforded many, many, many opportunities to try.
We had to store POW's in the arms room, and get the OIC's (usually our CO) to get them out. If you hadn't wasted your money on a nice car, you had nice guns and up until 86 that meant full auto. Back then, paratroopers were encouraged to drink by their CoC, and the only safety briefing I ever got was about the dangers of swimming as a guy in another PLT had drown. He was, of course, drunk, but swimming was dangerous.... anyway, the point is I've fired a lot of cool machineguns while legally drunk.
DrillSgt says thinks have changed, I believe him. My son (E-7 in the IN Guard) says things have changed, and I believe him too. But my experience says that this will end with a loss of military lives that exceeds those that are saved.
And that may be another cost of freedom.
...Security at military facilities has changed 100 fold since 9-11, compared to when I was in, in the eighties, but I think there should always be armed troops present...
And fighter interceptors, too. We can't just keep those unavailable anymore ...not since 9-11.
And we can't just ever not be at war anymore ... not since 9-11.
I mean, we can't even feel safe that our most resilient buildings won't just demolish themselves to the ground from normal office fires
...not since 9-11.
I was unaware that Nidal Hassan wasn't motivated by Islamism, encouraged by a radical imam.
Thanks for explaining that to all us stupid people.
"Normal office fires?" That's just absurd.