Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0529/soldie ... equipment/


I just dont know what to say about this.......


move it to another thread if need be.........


perhaps we could start a new category...."business as usual"....?

Pretty pitiful, indeed. Hopefully, a news report on this will make it to some on-high and they can fix the problem for this guy.

Just as pitiful are the comments on the story and the language that they use. Tells a lot about the "rawstory.com" readership.

This is bureaucracy at it's finest. Forms need filed out and obviously this soldier didn't turn all of his gear. There is no check box for:

Sh*t, I nearly died and who knows where that stuff is because I was bleeding out at the time...probably in some HUMVEE or helicopter where my buddies stripped it off to save my life.

So, since the form only says, all gear returned or not...obviously it wasn't. What's the story about?



/sarcasm

It happens. It doesn't happen often, but it happens. It is even worse when some jack @$$ sends a bill to the family of a deceased Soldier. It is all about accountability of equipment. When a Soldier is MEDEVACed out of theatre, his supervisor and the unit's Supply Sergeant should inventory all of his equipment and account for as much as possible and secure it, so that it can be carried out of theatre when the unit returns home.

When the Unit returns from theatre and all their equipment gets back from overseas, there is an inventory done of all of the unit's equipment and each individual's equipment. Items are considered to be either accountable or expendable, for example, you just wouldn't write off a rifle or pistol, they are accountable, but gloves or boots or scratched up ballistic sunglasses would be expendable. The sensitive items are inventoried immediately, but the uniforms and personal equipment is usually done within the first few months of being home for National Guard units. If somebody is short equipment, they usually conduct a brief investigation into who is at fault for the loss and if the Soldier is responsible, they have to pay for it. If it is determined that it was damaged or lost due to no fault of the Soldier, it is written off and they don't have to pay for it.

If a Soldier has a serious injury they are assigned to a Warrior Transition Unit until they are healthy or discharged. So it is possible that the Specialist in the story never had his equipment inventoried and it was lost. Since he wasn't at the post deployment inventory, they didn't ask him what happened to his equipment. It sounds like his unit let him down big time. Unfortunately nobody was looking out for him. I have seen Soldiers have to pay for equipment and I have seen a thousand dollars worth of equipment written off because it was lost through no fault of the Soldier. I have also known of soldiers having to buy rifles because they leaned them up against the back ramp of an Armored personnel Carrier and then somebody dropped the ramp, snapping them in two. A seriously dumb move on their part. I hope they resolve this Soldier's issue quickly and realize he was separated from his equipment when he was MEDEVACed.

I've heard about this kind of thing happening before.... makes my stomach turn.

No comment either.