What the.. Aetheist sent home from Iraq...

[RetiredGySgt]

There were plenty of gay men in the Marines when I served. They didn't go out of their way to make a big deal of it, but it wasn't a secret either. They were honorable Marines who did their duty.

As to this story?

We're not being given enough data to really understand what this guy's problem was.

He needed a body guard just because he didn't believe in God, and therefore Christians wanted to hurt him?

I rather doubt that.

That is because it is an OLD story, they covered it months ago and now think they can just provide a cut and paste comment on it. There is an Agenda here and the Press is being none to subtley about it.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

And there were no gay men when I was in. None that were even suspected of being Gay. We did have one gay sailor, his room mate woke up with him giving him head. Turned out the Navy already knew and had moved him from his last command for the same problem. This time the 2 Star Marine General got involved and he got shit canned.

How do I know? I was in charge of all unaccompanied Housing aboard Camp Courtney at the time. The Navy came to me trying to find him another room. They wanted to give him a SNCO room so he wouldn't have to share with his fellow enlisted troops. Which meant they had to explain to ME why they wanted a Petty Officer 3rd class to have a Petty Officer 1st class's room.

He did not get the room. I recommended against it , the Base Commander was against it and the Civilian that ran all Billeting on Okinawa said NO.

We did have one Marine with a fatal disease, I suspect it was AIDS, but he got it from a woman. He was trying to get permission to marry before they discharged him.

 

[Doug]

This is just an example of the assault on common sense that started about thirty years ago.

Many questions of public policy that inflame people today are bogus issues that have been deliberately stirred up by people who have an agenda.

There have always been atheists, homosexuals, vegetarians, loony religious cultists, end-of-the-world kooks, God-knows-what.

By and large, in civilized countries, they lived the same sorts of lives as everyone else. They knew when not to arouse, or how to bypass, popular prejudices against them.

Most people have common sense. If a kid refuses to salute the flag because it is against his religious beliefs, don't make an issue of it. If other kids wonder why he is opting out from the Pledge, expain that his religion interprets the Bible in a certain way that prevents him from doing this, but that he is a nice person and it's no big deal.

The first homosexual I ever met had served in the Army, after going to the Language School at Monterrey. (He learned Russian and did his time listening to Russian tank-crew chatter on the other side of the German border.) The unit he served with, I think, just viewed his lack of interest in girls as an eccentricity. It would have been different in a rifle company, I expect.

People have customs, traditions, prejudices which date back centuries, or millenia. Most are harmless. Learning to negotiate those which are not your own is part of becoming an adult.

 

[manifold]

I don't know the details of this story and I don't care. IMO, any effective armed services branch must necessarily retain the right to kick anyone out for any reason whatsoever. If it does not retain this right, it is less effective, and that's not a good thing considering their purpose. The "justification" should only come into play with respect to benefits owed for service.

 

[editec]

And there were no gay men when I was in. None that were even suspected of being Gay. We did have one gay sailor, his room mate woke up with him giving him head. Turned out the Navy already knew and had moved him from his last command for the same problem. This time the 2 Star Marine General got involved and he got shit canned.

How do I know? I was in charge of all unaccompanied Housing aboard Camp Courtney at the time. The Navy came to me trying to find him another room. They wanted to give him a SNCO room so he wouldn't have to share with his fellow enlisted troops. Which meant they had to explain to ME why they wanted a Petty Officer 3rd class to have a Petty Officer 1st class's room.

He did not get the room. I recommended against it , the Base Commander was against it and the Civilian that ran all Billeting on Okinawa said NO.

We did have one Marine with a fatal disease, I suspect it was AIDS, but he got it from a woman. He was trying to get permission to marry before they discharged him.

We must have served in different Corps, then.

I served in the " Don't ask, don't tell, don't really give a shit" Green Machine, I guess.

The major qualification one needed to serve in those days was the ability to stop a bullet.

We were an equal opportunity cannon fodder Corps, I guess.

 

[Jeepers]

Even if this story were true with no little hidden extra facts, this guy is an idiot.

In the military, and especially in a combat zone, people are tolerant of all kinds of idiosyncrasies among those they share danger with, provided you are a team player. Only someone who wanted to make trouble would ostentatiously disrupt something like a harmless prayer by demonstratively refusing to take part. It costs nothing to act respectful while others are, as they see it, communing with their Maker.

If you mock someone's deeply-held beliefs, you can expect an angry reaction. If you respectfully disagree, you will usually find your own beliefs are respected. Among civilized people, that is.

Which brings us to the last thought: in the war we are now in, which side treats avowed atheists better? How would Muslim fighters respond if one of their number announced he thought that Allah was a load of codswallop?

Is it me or do christians have the ability to actually read beyond the words of an article.. Does the almighty himself actually enlighten you with mental footnotes as you read stories.... Where in this article does he call jesus or his father a load of codswallop whateverthehell that is...

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Is it me or do christians have the ability to actually read beyond the words of an article.. Does the almighty himself actually enlighten you with mental footnotes as you read stories.... Where in this article does he call jesus or his father a load of codswallop whateverthehell that is...

Just because you are a mental midget does not mean the rest of us that have seen this story before are.