They Can’t, I Can

They Can’t, I Can

Kevin Bryant 

For 23 years, I loved wearing the uniforms of the Army & Navy. I was proud and honored to be able to help defend this country and the constitution. I had great respect for most of the men and women I served with and when one got a promotion, even if I didn’t, I was happy for them. Many deserved them.

 

I loved almost everything about the military. For the first 17 years, it was fun. It was challenging beyond what most can imagine, but I loved being there. The last 6 years…….. 

The last 6 years of my military service, which ended in 2005, was filled almost daily with me and every other person having to watch what we say, watch what we do. Speaking your mind was a very dangerous thing to do. Political correctness was running rampant through the ranks. Racial and gender divisions had taken the place of unit cohesion. In 2003, I finally had been filled with enough lies and deceit by my department ranking senior enlisted, I went off exposing everything he stated 6 months earlier and how every one of his statements turned out to be false. I even provided specific examples of each. The ONLY reason I didn’t get busted down a rank and lose half a month’s pay for two months was because I never once insulted him or showed direct disrespect to his rank. I did lose the 2 of the 3 leadership positions I held at the time, but at that point, receiving that downgrade was a blessing. It meant I didn’t have to play politics every minute of every day. The two that relieved me and took over those positions, 2 weeks later each was cursing me because of the pressure they now had to deal with daily.  

In the military, people look to those senior to them to provide leadership. They expect them to do their jobs and support those working under them so they can do their job. Today’s military has no leadership. From the Commander-in-Chief down to the full bird colonels and Navy Captains, there is no leadership. There is no more keeping your people first and watching out for them. I have great respect for the O-3’s to the 0-1’s and from E-6 all the way down to the E-1’s of every branch of service. 15% of all the military leadership problems start at the E-7 and O-4 ranks. At this point, it’s no longer doing your job and looking out for those below you as they do theirs. It’s “how can I use these guys and girls to get promoted” and “whose ass do I need to kiss and how best to kiss it so I get my promotion.” 

I wonder how many of you think all this started when Obama took office. I never served under Obama (Thank You God). When I entered the service, Ronald Reagan hadn’t even served out his first year of being President. When I entered the service, those in leadership positions used to black-ball those of equal rank who used their positions and their people for their own personal gain. When I left, those leaders that still believed in working with their people and looking out for them were black-balled and given low marks by their superiors. I got ragged on by my equals and immediate supervisors plenty of times because I would help dust or mop the deck or even take out the trash myself instead of ordering someone else who was already busy to go and do it.  

Leadership at the top ranks is even worse. We no longer have generals and admirals who know what so much as a spine is much less have one. The United States military is being led by nothing more than “yes men” puppets to the administration in office. The Sec of Defense is a joke. He’s for nothing but making the military into the showcase idea of what a utopian socialist society is supposed to look like in the eyes of far left liberals. When I entered the military, the strategy was to be able to win a major war in the pacific and one in the Atlantic. When I left, the strategy was to win one major war and fight another to a draw until we could shift forces to that region. Now, who knows what the real strategy is. I don’t believe there really is one. We are still currently the world’s predominate superpower, but barely. A good example, if we had to fight China in the pacific and lowly wimpy France in Europe and the Atlantic, WE WOULD LOSE. This administration has canned the careers of almost every major ranking officer with combat experience. We have cut the training of our military to less than one third of what it was just 15 years ago. America’s REAL combat readiness is less than 40%. Broken and missing equipment, untrained soldiers and sailors, aircraft & ships awaiting parts, this is the military that is supposed to protect us and defend liberty. I don’t blame the E-1 to the E-6 or the O-1 to the O-3. They do their jobs the best they can and it’s them that catch hell for the failures of those that are supposed to be leading them. Complete Top Down Failure. Why….. 

 Two reasons why our military today is in such bad shape there is no way, given a choice, would I ever give my personal recommendation to anyone to join the armed forces. #1 Political Correctness. The military has completely gone off the charts in implementing regulations that give special treatment to those who are not a Caucasian Christian Male. A Native American can legally smoke pot if observing a tribal ritual. A Muslim has to be allowed to pray to Mecca when not in a combat situation while wearing a form of Muslim headdress in uniform. A Christian is not even allowed to have a bible displayed in the open unless physically reading it. Chaplains can resist performing a same sex marriage but if they do refuse and they are white, their careers are over. If they are of ancestry other than white European, they are verbally reprimanded the first time. From the President down to the vice deputy assistant to the secretary of every branch of service, you have no respect and no support. From the Joint Chiefs down to the O-4’s and E-7’s, you are nothing more than scum, only there to serve and make them look good. 

#2 Reason I have zero faith in military leadership: Loss of All Freedoms & Liberties. When I first joined the military, so long as you were not on a military installation and not in uniform, you could say almost anything to the press or anyone so long as you were not directly commenting about the President or telling national secrets. Now you can’t even say “my shop supervisor is a jerk” anywhere in public or place outside your own home without some form of punishment looming and if your supervisor is anything other than a white male, God Help You because the wrath of Establishment Political Correctness is going to be unleashed upon you. You have no freedom of speech. You do not have the right to carry a weapon on a military installation. You do not have the right to have a firearm in your house if you live in military housing regardless if it is on or off base. These are just a few examples. Prisoners have more rights than soldiers and sailors and it only continues to get worse. 

Congressman Moran from Virginia complained about not being able to live decently on $174,000 dollars base pay before you add in all the benefits that come with the office, yet our government is content to paying a E-3 with 2 years of service less than minimum wage even though he/she puts in easily 60 hours a week EVERY week that person is on the job. 

When it comes to our service men and women, this President and his entire administration from VP down to the lowest ranking appointee and roughly 75% of our congress despise what you do and don’t give a damn about you. You are nothing but a social experiment in their eyes. You are nothing but military medical subjects in their eyes. You are basically low paid slaves to every officer who has scrambled eggs on their cover and nothing but another doormat to be stepped on by the E-7, E-8 or E-9 who is looking to go higher.  

I had a wonderful Commanding Officer at my last command. I had the 3^rd worst Executive officer at my last command. I have worked for some great officers early on in my career and I have worked for complete arrogant idiots who couldn’t wipe their own butts if you gave them a manual with illustrated pictures.  

Those in uniform do not have the right to say anything remotely close to what I have because they have no freedom of speech. On THEIR BEHALF I have the freedom to write this and I did write it because ….. They Can’t, I Can.