Category: U.S. Army

It is amazing that Army leadership did not foresee how controversial a fitness test that puts females at a great disadvantage would be with Congress:

The defense bill halts the implementation of the Army Combat Fitness Test until a study is complete to assess the test’s impact on recruitment and retention. The study, which has to be conducted by an entity independent of the Pentagon, also has to investigate whether troops in different environments where outdoor activity is hindered are at a disadvantage.

The test has already been on hold. Army leaders have said units can conduct the test now, but will not count on a soldier’s record until 2022. This is to give troops more time to train for the test and as a reaction to the pandemic, which has restricted gym access across the country.

The ACFT replaces the decades-old fitness test with more events aimed to gauge a soldier’s physical fitness for combat. This includes CrossFit-style exercise events, hand release pushups, and leg tucks. The test retains the timed two-mile run.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

You would think of all places that the CSM for Fort Hood would be extremely careful of what he says:

The senior enlisted soldier at Fort Hood was suspended Friday while the Army investigates allegations of unprofessional behavior inconsistent with the values of the service, according to base officials.

Lt. Gen. Pat White, commander of III Corps and Fort Hood, issued the temporary suspension of Command Sgt. Maj. Arthur “Cliff” Burgoyne, the senior noncommissioned officer of III Corps and Fort Hood, according to a news release from Army Forces Command, known as FORSCOM.

FORSCOM will conduct an investigation into the allegations.

“We will wait for a full accounting of the facts and will not presuppose any findings or outcomes,” said Col. Myles B. Caggins III, spokesman for III Corps.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I have seen in the past a First Sergeant relieved for cussing and swearing repeatedly at troops. He was counseled multiple times to use more professional language when addressing troops and was eventually removed. I would not be surprised if this is a similar situation.

Here is what the Army Secretary had to say about the SHARP program:

“My preliminary review of the report, recent cases and recent media coverage, have hardened my belief that the Army’s SHARP program hasn’t achieved its mandate to eliminate sexual assaults and sexual harassment by creating a climate that respects the dignity of every member of the Army family,” McCarthy said in a video statement Wednesday afternoon.

Army leadership intends to also release an action plan to address the review’s recommendations when it’s released next month.

The Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program, or SHARP, has been under scrutiny in recent months following the death of Spc. Vanessa Guillen, a Fort Hood soldier who prosecutors say was murdered in an armory on post by a fellow 3rd Cavalry Regiment trooper.

Guillen’s family said she had been sexually harassed by a fellow soldier prior to her death, but she didn’t report the incident for fear of retribution. Following those allegations, Army Forces Command sent a small team in June to specifically look at the SHARP program on Fort Hood.

Army Times

You can read more at the link, but the problem I see here is setting an unattainable goal. The Army will never eliminate SHARP incidents, just like it will never end theft, murder, assault, and other crimes in the ranks. Everyone who has ever served in the Army has experienced barracks thieves. What makes SHARP different is the politics involved with the issue. When have you ever heard a politician claim theft between soldiers needs to be ended?

What needs to be determined is if the system is allowing soldiers to report and seek investigations and ultimately punishment of those responsible. It is pretty clear that a large number of soldiers are reporting based on the numbers from the Pentagon, what is tricky is the punishment portion when you get into the he said, she said cases particularly when many of them involve alcohol.

This is the same problem that civilian courts have and no one is trying to blow up the civilian court system like politicians want to do with the military justice system.

Here is how the U.S. Army is trying to remain relevant in a near peer conflict with China:

About a year from now, the Army plans to practice rapidly deploying 8,000 to 10,000 soldiers from the mainland through Western Pacific islands and into nations around the East and South China Seas for training that will send a message to China.

The first “Defender Pacific” — the Pentagon’s most significant exercise for the region in 2020 — is expected to be followed by an even bigger version involving more than 10,000 mainland soldiers.

Gen. Robert Brown, who stepped down Friday as commander of U.S. Army Pacific at Fort Shafter, likes to point out that the United States is in a state of strategic “hyper-competition” with China and Russia.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This guy was clearly having a bad day, and the next day was even worse when he was detained by the MP’s for this stupidity:

The soldier was in full uniform when a decidedly civilian conflict unfolded outside a shopping mall in Savannah, Georgia.

But by the end of a shouting match — which lasted at most a couple of minutes — the man had ripped off his camouflage jacket, twisted a woman’s arm behind her back and declared in an expletive-laden tirade that he didn’t care about the Army and he didn’t care about the country its members are sworn to protect.

The dispute apparently began over a parking space in what local media identified as a lot outside the sprawling Oglethorpe Mall, which is less than a mile from Hunter Army Airfield in the coastal Georgia city. Videos of the incident surfaced on social media Monday, quickly racking up tens of thousands of shares and over a million views.

On Tuesday, an Army spokesperson told the TV outlet WSAV that the man pictured was detained by military police in connection with his actions in the parking lot.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but this guy needs to find another profession because the Army does not need people like this around other soldiers.

As I thought this would turn out to be, more fake news:

When the story broke in March, an incident at Fort Carson was portrayed as a clear-cut example of anti-Muslim bigotry.

But a lengthy Army investigation released to The Gazette shows something far more complex: Army regulations clashing with Islamic concepts of modesty and a recent convert to the faith whose religious life conflicted with her military duties.

The Army debunked the discrimination claim, but investigators admit leaders need to learn more about the interaction with a faith that’s unfamiliar to most Americans, and a source of contention for many soldiers.

The Army’s investigation was triggered by a March 6 incident that occurred as soldiers from the post’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team attended a suicide prevention class. Sgt. Cesilia Valdovinos, a cook, was in the class along with one of her bosses, Command Sgt. Maj. Kerstin Montoya.

The sergeant major told investigators she spotted something amiss with Valdovinos’ hair under a hijab, a head covering commonly worn by Muslim women.

“Even though Sgt. Valdovinos was wearing a religious head cover, I could see that the bulk of her hair did not meet regulatory standards,” Montoya wrote, citing an Army rule that requires women to wear long hair in a bun.

Montoya talked to a chaplain and her boss, a female captain, before taking a step that wound up going viral worldwide: She took Valdovinos and the captain outside for a closeup inspection of the sergeant’s hair.

Valdovinos removed her hijab as ordered, but then complained to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and its founder Mikey Weinstein, who launched a media offensive, with the Muslim sergeant as the star of the show. Newspapers as far away as Great Britain picked up the tale, along with television networks and websites by the dozen.

“I felt naked without it,” Valdovinos told the Colorado Springs Independent. “It’s like asking you to take off your blouse. It felt like I was getting raped, in a sense.”When the story broke in March, an incident at Fort Carson was portrayed as a clear-cut example of anti-Muslim bigotry.

But a lengthy Army investigation released to The Gazette shows something far more complex: Army regulations clashing with Islamic concepts of modesty and a recent convert to the faith whose religious life conflicted with her military duties.

The Army debunked the discrimination claim, but investigators admit leaders need to learn more about the interaction with a faith that’s unfamiliar to most Americans, and a source of contention for many soldiers.

The Army’s investigation was triggered by a March 6 incident that occurred as soldiers from the post’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team attended a suicide prevention class. Sgt. Cesilia Valdovinos, a cook, was in the class along with one of her bosses, Command Sgt. Maj. Kerstin Montoya.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but she brought up this hijab-gate controversy after she was facing punishment for an inappropriate relationship which she was eventually found guilty of and demoted for.

Here comes another badge for U.S. Army soldiers to train for:

Soldiers outside the infantry, combat medic and Special Forces fields will soon have the opportunity to earn a badge acknowledging their experience at critical skills, the Army announced Friday on the service’s 244th birthday.

The Army’s Training and Doctrine Command recent approved the long-anticipated Expert Soldier’s Badge, which will be awarded to top performing soldiers who pass a test demonstrating their prowess in physical fitness, marksmanship, land navigation and warfighting, the command said in a statement. The badge will be the equivalent of the Expert Infantryman Badge and the Expert Field Medal Badge, and it is expected to be introduced in early fiscal year 2020, according tothe command.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Congratulations to Command Sergeant Major Grinston:

Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Grinston, who has been in the service for more than 30 years, has been selected to be the 16th sergeant major of the Army, the service announced Tuesday.
Grinston is the senior enlisted leader for U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., and he will be sworn in to his new role at the Pentagon on Aug. 16, according to the Army. Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel Dailey, who has been in his position since 2015, is retiring.
“I look forward to working with Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Grinston,” Army Secretary Mark Esper said in a prepared statement. “The Army is in the midst of a renaissance, and he is a great choice to carry on our readiness, modernization and reform efforts.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This must have been quite a bad work environment to win a settlement from the Army:

An African-American civilian hospital employee “reached a significant settlement agreement” with the Army in late April after a lawsuit filed last year alleging that she was subjected to a racist and sexist command climate while working in South Korea.
Shawlawn Beckford, who served on active duty for 11 years before returning in 2006 as a civilian, had accused the Army of supporting a hostile work environment at Brian Allgood Army Community Hospital at Yongsan, where she was an administrator from 2009 to 2015.
“As a civilian employee it is my duty to represent and uphold the Army’s mission, vision, and leadership philosophy — in or out of uniform,” Beckford said in a May 1 statement from the office of her attorney, Kellogg Hansen in Washington, D.C. “But I am more than a position. I am a person with feelings and emotions, and I was mistreated in a system that failed to protect me.”
Reached for comment by Army Times, Beckford requested to keep the dollar amount of the settlement private.

Army Times

This is something I have seen before, people thinking it is okay to use racial slurs if they are of the race the slur is intended for:

“On a weekly basis during that time period, [the command sergeant major] would visit Ms. Beckford’s office and make belligerent, gendered comments toward her,” according to the lawsuit. “For example, he told her, ‘You’re a single parent. You’re a slut.’ ”
He also made comments about her race, the complaint said, calling her “just a house [N-word],” “dumb [N-word],” “our token Black person” and “ghetto.” (…….)

The 15-6 investigation found that though he used racial slurs in the office, it wasn’t in a discriminatory manner, because he himself is black. Still, he was relieved of his position and barred from leading a command again, according to the complaint, but stayed working within the office and continued to harass Beckford.

You can read more about the poor work environment at the link, but the hospital at Yongsan Garrison seems to have had some highly unprofessional people working there.

A command sergeant major tries to enforce a regulation and now she has to deal with this mess:

A Muslim soldier based in Fort Carson intends to sue the U.S. Army over allegations of discrimination and harassment that began shortly after she started wearing a hijab.

Spc. Cesilia Valdovinos, who has been in the military for seven years and has served in Afghanistan, converted to Islam in 2016. Since she started wearing her hijab, a head cover, at work, she has been subjected to name-calling, increased personal inspections and has been demoted, she and her attorney, Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation said. (……..)

After she returned, a command sergeant major of the 704th Transportation Battalion asked her to take her hijab off in a public place to show that her hair was in a bun underneath the scarf, per Army regulations.

Valdovinos, a culinary specialist, said after she removed the scarf, her hair fell out of the bun, making it appear that it wasn’t following code.
But Valdovinos said she was reprimanded for violating Army regulations for women’s hair even though she was in compliance.
Fort Carson officials declined to discuss whether Valdovinos was punished over her hair, saying it would violate Valdovinos’s right to privacy. But Zinn’s statement said the sergeant major acted appropriately by enforcing regulations for how women should wear the hijab.

Denver Post

You can read more at the link, but is anyone surprised that this hijab-gate controversy is happening after she was facing punishment for an inappropriate relationship which she was eventually found guilty of and demoted?