the shootings in Hamdania, Haditha and Salahuddin.
I am heartsick that a Hospital Corpsman is among the accused in the Hamdania murder. I am sickened that any eight guys would engage in what was - apparently - a lynching, but for a Corpsman to be involved is a blow. I hope against hope that he, at least, will be exonerated... not an Ollie North slide on a technicality but exonerated.
There was probably a Corpsman with my great-uncle when he fell at Belleau Wood... there is a Corpsman depicted in the Marine Corps Memorial... there was a Corpsman on the roof with the Marines in Khafji in '91. I don't even want to think about a Corpsman complicit in a murder dishonoring both the Marine Corps and the Hospital Corps. I hope it ain't so.
Unconventional warfare eats at the soul. Thinking about it, it's like the Katrina of war... totally disruptive. You can do absolutely everything right and still get blown up, and it makes people nuts.
That's why the military has NCOs. When the folks start getting a little squirrely, someone is supposed to tell them to get back into their HMMWVs and carry on with the mission. The expectation is that the man in charge will be in charge, and keep his people on task. There are... to all appearances... three NCOs who were at least seriously derelict in their duties.
I don't really have a point to make here. I'm just sick that a Corpsman has been charged, and I'm ticked at the senior NCOs who failed their troops, their service and their country.
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