Sad day for FT Bliss

[teraph]

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_1944 ... ost_viewed

Quick rundown from everything I have read and the command has said:

SFC goes over to 1SG's house, knocks on door
husband opens door, gets shot in the face
SFC goes upstairs and shoots 1SG several times (killing her)
upon leaving SFC is fired upon by injured husband who shoots SFC in the leg
1SG's son gets out of house calls 911
SFC goes home intent on family homicide/suicide
wife argues with him and shoots him once in the chest
all due to disciplinary action against SFC

goes to show you that even the most trustworthy people can do stupid/crazy things. my heart goes out to both families for this stupid waste of life.

This We'll Defend

[v-rog]

Just Tragic!

[stroguy]

You don't want to think this happens in the military but I knew several strange ducks when I was in. Sad. Prayers to the families.

[Ameer]

all due to disciplinary action against SFC

goes to show you that even the most trustworthy people can do stupid/crazy things.

What makes you say the alleged murderer is the most trustworthy? The disciplinary action makes me say maybe not.

[teraph]

I say trustworthy because us NCO's are generally (bout 60-70% initially) trustworthy people and that number tends to go up as you go up in rank. Not to mention disciplinary action at those ranks can be anything from traffic tickets, to false allegations (seen it happen, happy that it was found to be false. and yes it happens a lot and ruins ppls careers) and all the way up to murder. This includes things that are sometimes outside of our control. Heck, one of my senior NCOs almost got in serious trouble due to a private being extremely stupid (the private wasn't even part of our unit). We have a saying "perception is reality" and the higher ranking you are the more truthful it gets

[saltydog452]

I can't imagine an occupation that requires as much dicipline and is under review by so many layers of oversight. Some of that oversight is practical, a lot of it is political. Strings and rubber bands snap. Especially when motivated by a system where everyone over the rank of E-4/O-1 considers that they are a re-birth of Geo. Patton.

Just a guess, but I suspect that there will be more instances of this behavior. The problems aren't going away by after the fact regret.

salty

[Heartland Patriot]

I can't imagine an occupation that requires as much dicipline and is under review by so many layers of oversight. Some of that oversight is practical, a lot of it is political. Strings and rubber bands snap. Especially when motivated by a system where everyone over the rank of E-4/O-1 considers that they are a re-birth of Geo. Patton.

Just a guess, but I suspect that there will be more instances of this behavior. The problems aren't going away by after the fact regret.

salty

That's pretty harsh. I can't speak for the US Army, since I was in the Air Force, but not all NCOs or officers are like that. I served with many great people. SOME were like you say and used their people to climb the rank ladder, but it was easy to tell the jerks from the good folks. I like to think that I did my best to both get the mission done and take care of the people that worked for me. This was indeed a tragic incident and I feel for the folks who have suffered the horror of it. We don't know the details that led up to this but making blanket statements slamming NCOs and officers in general just seems way over the top.

[teraph]

salty,

mind if i take a shot in the dark and say that u r/were navy? not to offend obviously, just curious. i know of the type of ppl you were talking about. matter of fact i just managed to get rid of one and the army as a whole is trying to get rid of them (toxic leadership). A lot of the newer E4/O1< are from the new generation think they are just entitled to everything. not many want to work and theres the prob that we have (yes i am part of the generation but i was raised in the old military)

and i am very inclined to agree with you that there will be rise in these instances. everything from what i said ^ to returning deployments could very well cause these things to happen more frequently. i just hope they dont happen

[saltydog452]

Wierd stuff. Blame it of computers.

One of my kiddos had orders that included shipment of HHG and POV. The vehicle was shipped, but after the POV arrived at the receiving depot, the 1st Sgt of that unit claimed that the orders did not include the vehicle, so the POV sat in place for 5 months. The issue was eventually resolved when the 1st Sarge was promoted/re-posted. Maybe it was the Guardsman didn't like sand or her new job. Dunno. This was some time ago post Desert Storm, but, from what I can understand, is a fairly good picture of 'Today's Army'.

Going to the equivelent of JA for a resulotion will wreck a career. 1st Sgt has the ear of the Cmdr, so the soldier really doesn't have much of a recourse but accept the judgements of the immediate decision maker.

'Back In My Time', EMs had access to ascending layers of decision makers. Those decisions were in hard copy, filed in triplicate some-damn-where, not just a conversation or e-mail that vanishes and no one seems accountable.

Paper trails aren't fast, but they can be used to hold decision makers accountable.

rant off.

sd.