At Ft. Jackson, South Carolina new recruit "Janet awaited an Entry Level Separation (ELS) with bandages on her wrists while the military command debated releasing her. Janet should never have been talked into joining the military. Before signing up, the psychologically fragile 20-year-old told her recruiter " over an alcohol beverage in a Texas bar -- that she'd attempted suicide at least once before. The recruiter told her that "all that stuff didn't matter, that the military would "get her head right, that she'd "have a ball, that she'd "get a life. It took just three days in boot camp for Janet to realize it was not the life she wanted. She tried to leave quietly, without a fuss, without the military spending any more tax-payer money transforming her into a "FS (Future Soldier). But she was nabbed by her drill sergeant and verbally abused. She slit her wrists and, as her wounds were bandaged she was told that, if she tried "this stunt again, she'd be deployed to Iraq without training. After that, and until she was released, two drill sergeants slept in a front office with her to keep an eye on her at night.
Janet just wanted out of a situation for which she was manifestly unfitted. I worked for her release and, after encountering Drill Sergeant R. on the phone, I emailed Ft. Jackson's Public Affairs Officer stating: "As a counselor I try to communicate professionally with members of Ft. Jackson. In return, I expect, and often received, similar professional communication from Ft. Jackson personnel". On January 29, 2007 at 2:15pm PST [I spoke to] Drill Sergeant R. of Platoon Charlie 120, Unit 24, [and] found him rude, unhelpful, discourteous, and disrespectful. He also successfully blocked my talking to any other, more courteous personnel. " DS R. falls woefully short of decent communication skills and shows no respect when talking to the civilians who pay his salary.
I received a return email: "We appreciate your concern with the Solider in question [Janet]. I want to ensure [sic] you that we take the utmost care of each and every Solider -- including this Solider and the other 42,000 plus that pass through our portals. " I am very sorry for the incident concerning DS R. You can be assured that this matter has been addressed. It took over three weeks to obtain Janet's release from Ft. Jackson, actually very fast for the military.
Some believe "hazing is a normal initiation rite in organizations that engage in standardizing behavior. But when does hazing turn into abuse? Is hazing still hazing when the hazed consider suicide the only way out? Are the "few bad apples that we see on the evening news blossoming in the orchards of our taxpayer-supported military? Should those who volunteer to serve in our military -- reported even by top brass to be "at the breaking point -- be abused with impunity in a taxpayer supported institution that espouse values of patriotism, valor, honor, and courage " yet apparently enacts the opposite?
Meanwhile, Tom and Mohammed are AWOL pending discharge. Both find that the normal discharge process is delayed. Tom has been waiting nine months and Mohammed over 50 days just for their federal warrants to be issued, a process that usually takes 30 days. Sadly, in the richest, the most democratic, the most diverse country in the world, Tom and Mohammed offered their bodies, their blood, their mental health, and their lives"for an affordable education, for economic opportunities, for better lives. Now both look forward to the issuance of their federal warrants -- even if this means jail time. Each says, "I just want to get this over so that I can get on with my life.
Tom asks, "What would American parents say if they could see what was happening to their kids in the military that they pay taxes to support?
As we condemn Hasan to death it behooves us, the people of the United States, to engage the complexities of interdependence. What happened at Ft. Hood didn't start in Ft. Hood. It started in a system and a way of being that cannot always be measured with numbers and legal jargon. Often it cannot even be articulated clearly with words. But if each of us stops for a quiet moment to dwell on the complexity of horrors that truly accompany war " not matter where that war is " we will understand a little more about human beings like Major Nidal Hasan.
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