[Arktwo] Get Your Money Now
Bruce Beach
language@webpal.org
Fri, 3 Aug 2007 10:29:08 -0400
The government is offering
$20,000 CASH
to those willing to join the Army
to serve overseas.
http://tinyurl.com/378668
You have to be willing
to ship out in 30 days.
In fact -
if you have the right skills
you can get two or three times that amount.
I might add -
that you shouldn't count on it.
The US government also has
a long established tradition
of not paying -
and of reneging on agreements.
The young guys who will go for the money -
of course don't know about that.
You have to be a REALLY old guy
to remember when in 1894 the first Coxey's Army
marched to the US Capitol
in search for food and relief.
But - history repeated itself
in 1932
http://tinyurl.com/3yk5re
when another Cox led 100,000
WW1 veterans
in the midst of the Great Depression
to camp there
to ask for the bonuses Congress
had promised them.
They were dispersed
by guns and bayonets under the command
of General Douglas MacArthur -
later of WW2 fame.
Tis a story oft repeated,
from long battles by Vietnam Veterans
to present day troops serving in Iraq -
who have had to -
or will have to -
fight battles longer than their wars
if they are to finally win in the courts
what they had been promised.
I know from personal experience -
and have heard from many other veterans -
that the government is a particularly poor
promise keeper.
A contract that you make with the government -
often means absolutely nothing.
It is like the story -
of St. Peter complaining to the Devil -
that the Devil wasn't keeping up his part
in mending the fence between heaven and hell.
"Well", said the Devil -
"I will freely admit that,
but I am not going to change."
"Well then",
said St. Peter,
"I am going to sue you in court."
"Ah - hah!", said the devil -
"that is where I have got you".
"What do you mean?", said St. Peter.
"Now, you just tell me
where you are going to find a lawyer?",
said the Devil.
That is also your problem
with suing the government -
they own and pay the courts.
>From day one
going into the service -
the military
(as it is said in the style
of Victorian novels)
had its way with me.
On signing my enlistment contract
I was promised because of my score
on the entrance exam
that I could have any specialty that I desired.
I designated a half dozen alternates.
Didn't get one of them.
At induction -
I was made troop movement commander
since I had the highest IQ
of the hundreds being inducted that day -
and was told that taking the responsibility
would give me benefits later.
The reverse was what happened.
Twice I was told that the Honor Student
in the schools to which I was assigned
would receive a promotion.
I was the honor student -
but each time the promotion didn't happen.
Being that this was just my first year
in the service -
I therefore came to recognize that
this was a pattern.
Mind you -
I am not complaining
about how the service worked out
for ME.
I did very well.
Went in with 3 years of high school,
and came out with 3 years of college -
along with the GI Bill
then providing for additional years of study.
I received very beneficial assignments
while in the service -
and ended up with more income as a result
than those in higher ranks above me -
but it was just that I had to learn
that one had to gain their benefits
through weird and wonderful manoeuvres
and not through the declared offerings
of the service.
The thing that irritated me the most
was that after I was in -
having signed a four year contract -
the government extended it on its own
to eight years.
The government is doing the same thing
with current enlistees.
It is so terrible for them
that I don't see how the troops stand it.
I have often thought
that those who serve in the submarines -
and who spend weeks beneath the sea -
away from their families
bear a greater burden than I can imagine.
A year in the arctic was tough enough for me -
but I will admit
that a year in the desert would be worse.
And then to have someone show up and say -
"You have just been extended to 15 months",
and after that you can go home for 12 months
and come right back
for another 15 months,
some having done that three or four times.
Wow! No wonder they can't find
enough people willing to do that -
and no wonder the suicide rate is so great.
In the arctic I often thought -
I would have preferred to spend the year
in the Atlanta Federal Prison -
and then my wife who lived in Atlanta
could have at least come and visited me
once a month.
My perspective on this may be all wrong -
because I was this week
telling a native friend
(who was bragging about a killing exploit)
about an arctic native story.
There were three gentlemen
whom we at the time called Eskimos
(no longer politically correct)
that were building an Igloo
for a winter camp.
Two were working inside
and one had climbed up on the outside
and was lying over the top -
with his stomach protruding into the inside -
and the two on the inside
took their knives and slashed his stomach
and killed him.
When asked "Why?",
they simply replied -
"It was a good stomach".
Okay, so I don't understand -
but then -
they didn't understand how
because of this
they were taken to a dry warm place
and fed three meals a day.
They certainly didn't consider that
as being punishment.
Nope,
some of my readers assure me -
and have sent me testimonials -
(in fact some personal testimonials -
that if not many -
then at least some)
of the troops are eager to get back
to Iraq -
even after having been wounded -
so that they can support their buddies.
One has to either admire that -
or think it is nuts,
so I prefer the former -
but I still think it is rare -
and that is why the big bonuses
are being offered now.
I can see how this is happening.
Some higher up in the Pentagon says -
"These are the troop levels that we want
in September",
and that is the order given to
the individuals responsible
for manpower.
"Do whatever you have to do -",
and since they are not permitted to draft -
or "Shanghai" people off the streets -
(I won't explain the source of that term)
as they did in the old days -
this is what they have come up with.
So the offer is made -
and although you may accept it -
it doesn't mean
that you will actually get the money.
In the first place -
even the first half of it
isn't paid until the first payday
after you actually get overseas -
and even if you do get the first half -
the second half gets spread out
in monthly payments over your enlistment -
which if you don't fulfill -
say six years -
because you get shot or something -
then you don't get it.
I swear -
I would rather believe my son
the used car salesman -
more than my son-in-law
who is the top Army Recruiter in his Division -
although I love them both dearly.
I don't care what you are told about
by either of them
about what the contracts say -
I think in the world of experience
you will find that things
often work out differently.
Now then,
if you were Brown and Root,
or Exxon,
or any of the big Defense Contractors
you could earn billions -
or even steal them -
and you would get away with it.
But for the black kid just out of high school
somewhere like Detroit -
who can't find a job -
well that is a different matter -
and it burns me
that sometimes
they don't have the promises
kept to them.
I am definitely not bitter
about my own situation -
because as I said -
thing worked out marvellously well for me.
I saw others die -
and talked to them as they did -
but I came through without a scratch.
Their lives were short -
but mine has been long.
I thought then -
if I was killed I had learned it all anyway -
but now -
I know that then -
I knew nothing -
and maybe even less today.
I just wish
that the others had the chance
that I did.
-------------
Could all this recruiting activity
be in preparation for something
in September or October?
People ask me if it is too late to move.
For the last fifty years -
if you had asked -
I would have told you
that it was too late.
The nature of my expectation
has always been that it is immediate -
and I have always been wrong.
Sometimes, during that period
I have felt much more strongly
about the immediacy,
but of late it has become almost constant.
Last month I thought
there were major indications
for the 9th of AV.
This month I thought there were going to be
more carriers in the Gulf -
but word is that two have supposedly sailed
for home.
Next month will be better weather for war.
And so it goes.
Obviously -
I don't know.
---------
Lots of talk about Tillman,
in the news.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072907E.shtml
So, the generals lied.
So what's new.
Story is that as he lay there dying
he said to his buddy, Sgt. Bryan O'Neal,
who was praying next to him -
something like,
'Hey, O'Neal, why are you praying?
God can't help us now,'"
I thought -
"Ouch!"
We must always put our trust in God.
But this has set me to thinking about this
for hours.
God is Infinite -
but we are finite -
so our trust / faith will always be finite.
Such capacity as we have
to know God
and to have faith in Him
are those that God has created in us -
and we can never exceed the limits
that He has imposed.
Still,
God has given us a large dose of free will -
and I suspect capacities for love and wisdom
beyond anything that we suspect.
I just feel certain that I am not doing anywhere
near as well as I could be -
so I won't judge Tillman either.
All of us in this life feel very tested.
That is God’s purpose –
to purify us through tests.
To separate the gold from the dross.
God is the Tester
and we are the testees.
It takes a lot of balls
to be the testees.
This latest attempt at humour
has not been approved by my wife -
but since I felt that it was one
of the more humorous lines
that I have ever written -
I have included it.
The next is not original with me -
but one of the best statements that I have seen
and which I keep on top of my computer:
GOD ALWAYS GIVES HIS BEST TO THOSE
who leave the choice with Him.
Peace and love,
Bruce
DawnSayer@webpal.org