I do not know exactly what to think of this letter. I am not one to deny a man his feeling of duty or the opportunity to fulfill said duty. Someone I didn't know at the rally on Saturday handed this to me. It was filled with many misspellings and grammatical and punctual errors and, at first, I took it to be some sort of joke letter (IMC propaganda, angry ex-wife of an SF member, etc). I have corrected the obvious ones, but left the letter 99% intact.
Please give it a read and let me know what you think. If you think it is real, let me know. If you don't, also let me know.
"I write this letter with hope that someone in a position of authority will get wind of this. Many people do not know about the morale problem in Special Forces. Mainly because we are such a small part of the big Army. The morale problem stems from many small issues within the unit. Every unit in the Army has some sort of issue. Ours are different. You see, our sister SF groups have been fighting this war on terror since the beginning. And doing a job, if I may add. They are tired. Many haven't seen their families in months. Many are choosing to get out after their time is served. These are seasoned soldiers, professionals, and we're losing them because someone up top isn't taking care of his men. OK, here's the other side of the story coming from another side of Special Forces. 1st Special Forces. Here at Ft. Lewis, has done absolutely nothing since Vietnam. You've got so much anger, piss and vinegar over in that compound you can smell it. Angry that they are being left out. Angry that they are not being allowed to go help their brothers. The chain of command will boast the Philippines, but they did nothing down there either. Just ask one of them. They are beginning to wonder if the Army and the President is even aware that they exist. Are they just a forgotten unit shoved away up in the corner of the country? Commanders will say that the reason we are not there is because it is not 1st groups are of operations. Well, 7th group was in Afghanistan, their AO is South America. 3rd group was there. Theirs is Africa. 10th group AO is Europe. An even bigger slap in the face is that there are two SF National Guard, the 19th and 20th groups. They have been involved in everything. These guys have full time jobs back here, and they are being sent while active duty SF guys are watching them on CNN. Does this make any sense? Please get the word out. These guys are getting out by the dozens and we can’t afford that. They just want to do their job. Fly some banners where Colonel Smith will see them. Maybe he'll understand why he's losing so many soldiers."
What do you think?
Posted by AnalogKid at November 18, 2003 01:00 AM | TrackBackNot certain, but I'm leaning towards not real for several reasons. One, special forces people are among the most highly educated and trained professionals in the Army, it's unlikely that one of them would be married to someone so illiterate. Next "ex-wife" gives me pause. Do ex's keep so close after the devorce that she would have a clue as to what's going on in his unit? Another thing as well, I never disscussed unit issues with ANYONE outside my Flight. I mean nobody, true I wasn't married or attached at the time, but the mantra of what you see here, hear here, say here,.....stays here, is set pretty deep. I doubt the Green Beret's are more lose lipped than we were.
Now if this letter came from a current wife of a say,....Humvee mechanic just bitching the usual bitchs of military life I would accept it at face value. But I just don't get the vibe that it's genuine.
Now, are the SF guys starting to burn out? Some of them are no doubt, that's the cost of such a high tempo in operations and long hardship assignments. But if we could see the figures I will bet you a weeks pay that the list of volunteers to join have expanded emensely from prewar levels. Highly elite units use up people fast AK, that's just the fact of it, I hate to see anyone burn out and not re-enlist because of it. But if they do it's better to retire before problems arise from it.
Lastly, the means of diseminating the letter rings hollow, if it were genuine writing your congressman or the local paper would get far better results because they could verify you are who you say. This floats about more like urban legend than fact, it could be real..........but that's not my feeling.
Posted by: Mark (puggs) on November 18, 2003 02:16 AMI don't think it's real; SF guys aren't the types to go whining about having to do their jobs since they volunteer for it.
There is the chance that it's real, but I seriously doubt it.
Posted by: Mad Mikey on November 18, 2003 08:59 AMYeah Mikey, they don't whine about doing their jobs. But this is a whine about NOT doing their jobs. Mispellings and grammatical errors aside, this is a compelling argument to get into the fight, from (supposedly) a resource that remains untapped. Has anyone verified the stated deployments? If they all jibe, I'd tend to believe that this was written by somebody who wants in on the action and has given up bitching through the regular channels. SF guys are hard-corps type-A's who want to get into the fight, especially when they see that their comrades need help. This letter smacks heavily of that type of attitude.
Posted by: Mike the Marine on November 18, 2003 02:10 PM