Re: Did Ken Fortenberry actually say this? Or was this forged? Does he admit to writing this and maintain that today he still means it?

On 2009-05-20 18:10:05 -0400, Ken Fortenberry <kenfortenberry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> said:

Sherry in Vermont wrote:
<snip> Though I do not agree with his position at all, obviously. He is entitled to his opinion, however fucked up I think it is - nor how ironic that the ability for him to be free to speak his opinion came largely thru the deaths of the soldiers he abhors.

That's another crock of ***. The last organization on earth
I'd trust to protect my civil liberties is the US military.
The military is subordinate to civilians for a reason. You
want someone killed, call the military. You want someone to
protect your civil liberties, call the ACLU.

I mean really, how free were you to speak your opinion when
you were in the military ?

Quite free. My opinion was asked on quite a few things - largely related to my job, not running the military, of course. I was well-respected for the work I did and when I disagreed about something, I got a chance to say my piece. A lot of changes were made to various things based on MY opinion - a lowly E4... but then, I worked with and under reasonable people, for the most part.

When taking a test to make rank, I was marked wrong on a question I KNEW I had got right. The testers disagreed. I went back to my desk, got the regulation in question, and sure enough, found out that I was indeed correct. I took it to the 1SG and showed him - he tried to laugh it off, claimed I already had a very high score, so no need to correct it... I disagreed. I earned those points, I deserve them on my record. Went up the chain of command, and was awarded the correct number of points.

When the incoming Sergeant-Major tried to force all enlisted to attend a party/ball at the cost of $20 a head - he claimed it was "mandatory attendance" (and for HIM, as SGM, it was) but the regs didn't bear that out. He gave me a hard time, I showed him where the regs said it was NOT required of lower enlisted to attend, he stuck to his theory that he had the power to over-ride the regulations. I went up the chain of command, was stymied by a 1SG afraid of rank, so I called JAG (military law). They told me not only was I correct about it not being mandatory, but that the SGM had to tell each and every person he'd strong-armed into buying tickets that it was NOT mandatory, and return their money. He gave me a dressing-down about "ruining morale" but even the colonel laughed at that.

I have many such stories. If you are someone with a brain, and the ability to speak your ideas with some coherence, many folks in the military are happy to listen to ideas. 'Course, if I'd gone in there with your attitude, why would they even WANT to listen?

My colonel was wonderful - a good man, who really cared about his subordinates. He backed me 100% and listened to what I had to say - not that it was always acted upon, but I most certainly was free to speak my opinon about anything.

Not in an "official" capacity - can't call the President a fucking moron while representing the Army in public, but I certainly did (many times) present my personal opinons as such. Folks in the military ARE entitiled to speak their personal opinions - obviously you have no idea what life in the military is like.

Sherry in Vermont

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