Thursday, August 13, 2009

I always thought "Army Of One" was a bad slogan.

The U.S. military requires service members to have the approval of their commanding officer for any part time jobs they do on the side. I'm having a hard time imagining a duck hunter O-3 signing off on one of his privates doing a little hitman work on the weekends.

13 comments:

Revolver Rob said...

What's pretty scary is the gangs here in the U.S. got the idea somewhere around the turn of this century. They began sending their youngest members off to the military to train and come back and train the gangs.

Picture, a street gang moving in military formation, using hand signals, and covering all angles with fire, to conduct a home invasion or robbery. We already know that many gang members train more and harder than many members of law enforcement. Imagine how you would handle a home invasion, by a gang that functioned like a paramilitary group.

It's a scary thought and what do you do to prevent it?

-Rob

perlhaqr said...

The three arrested men's phone records showed their approximate locations on the night of the killing

See! Leave your fucking cell phone at home, or at least buy a prepaid one. With cash. Ah, delicious, anonymous cash.

staghounds said...

Wait, no fooling, isn't this NCIS season 3, episode 19?

No, those were Salvadoran drug gangsters and Marines...

B Smith said...

Great. 11th ADA BDE is MY old unit. Glad I ain't down there anymore.

Drang said...

We knew in the early nineties that gang-bangers were joining for the training. The senior NCO conversation at the gym after PT often centered around what and how to carry in BDUs, and what the Army could do with it's prohibition on concealed carry...

Tam said...

I'm not sure how much application a Patriot crewman MOS has in South Central...

Tom Stone said...

The Army at least has been accepting known gang members for some time.Google is your friend

Tam said...

[snark]Gosh, I'd never heard that. What's this "Google"? Tell me more.[/snark]

;)

staghounds said...

There's a school of thought in the Army that enlisting gangsters is not a problem. The thinking goes that whatever attracted the gangster to his gang, the army has more and better of and that the army will get his loyalty.

Makes some sense in some cases, but not in all.

Somerled said...

If I ran a Mexican drug cartel, I'd like to have people on the inside at Fort Bliss. I wonder if the Army keeps track of its weapons inventory any better than the FBI or BATF.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...MS-13 with a couple of Bradleys, a couple dozen TOW missiles...yeah, that'll settle some turf wars..

Give a whole new perspective on "home invasion" as well...

Old Squid.

Bram said...

I knew plenty of guys who claimed to be gangbangers as I was going through training in the Marines 20 years ago. Most turned out fine - the Corps is the best gang in the world.

George Hedgepeth said...

"They began sending their youngest members off to the military to train and come back and train the gangs. "

I work with kids in gangs regularly. I also have kids join the armed forces every year. They are rarely the same people. Most little "gangstas" have records that keep them out.