muddysmind.com

Correction. She's not a reservist, she's an undertrained Army dog. Also, being in the military I can say this with confidence: the military didn't overplay her rescue, the media did. The rescue WAS a big deal, she wasn't. She actually helped prove how horrible the Army's non-infantry combat training is (since it doesn't exist) the only thing the Army really did wrong in my opinion is use her rescue to overshadow that fact. She shouldn't have received any medal other than the purple heart (she was wounded afterall.) Shoshanna (sic?) Johnson, on the other hand, she have been given at least a bronze star if not a distinguished service cross. She was beaten, probably raped (though we were never told so), she had to witness other soldiers being treated in similar or worse manner, and she STILL got in front of a camera, looked her captors dead in the eye and said "F--- you!" Now, that, to me is a hero.

Lynch, however, is alot easier on the eyes, mix that with the immediate media portrayal of her actions which DIDN'T happen the way the media said they did. An E-7 (Sergeant First Class I believe?) was leading her section, couldn't read a map, and turned when he shouldn't have. Then, instead of getting the heck out of there, they bed down for the night, and THEN in stead of setting up a defensive perimeter which any grunt in the Army, or any Marine would have known to do, they piled into one truck and went to sleep in a COMBAT zone! After being attacked, her weapon jammed, probably because she didn't know how to clean it, nor take care of it in the desert. To make this worse, she didn't know how to clear a jam. Hero? In my service, she would have been discharged with a general discharge.

Well I must agree about the lack of basic warrior training that individual non-infantry soldiers get. After all they preach the 'Army of one' creed. This itself lends to an individualistic approach to combat which goes against everything that you need to survive in a combat situation. Now the Army is changing its training to make (tell me if this sounds familure, skywalker) every soldier a basic rifleman. I wonder where they got that?

Oooraahhh!

http://www.techcentralstation.com/102103C.html

Something to keep in mind when you play the media card is that the media wouldn't have the tape if the government hadn't given it to them.

very true. However I don't believe it was the military who said she's some type of Hero. I believe all they were looking to do was give some positive news for us back here.

ditto mud man

The military's role in giving that tape to the media was throwing gas on the fire. Sure, the media was already running with it, but until they had something from the military it was just the talking heads spouting off.

Once the military handed a tape over of the rescue of the person everyone was talking about, it didn't matter what they called, or didn't, call her.

Anyway, "hero" is so overused anymore that the word has about the same impact on me as "diva". Let me check the latest memo for the count:

Everyone in the service is a hero - but only if they are deployed. Exception - those killed in training accidents domestically also get hero status for what they may have done in the future.

Every cop everywhere. Period.

Every fireman.

Pending: teachers and doctors, with doctors next in the lead because ER is so much more bitchin' than that Boston show on Fox.

Baker:
"...'hero' is so overused anymore that the word has about the same impact on me as 'diva'"

I see your point and you've got a good one at that. To me, though ( as I'm sure to alot of others) a 'hero' is someone who goes above and beyond the call of "duty" (whatever their "duty" may be) putting their neck or life (or both) on the line so that it might benefit or save others. It's true...the word is WAY overused and just because you wear a uniform doesn't classify you as a "hero" ...sadly, some people in uniform (as we all have seen from time to time) whether it be soldier, police, fireman, have totally abused their authority once the uniform is on. Really, anyone CAN be a "hero" no matter what your line of "work" is. Maybe that's just my opinion though.

As far as "diva" goes (and I know you were just doing a compairison and it wasn't your point but I'm just doing this one for the heck of it) the word still means "b**ch" to me. But it does prove your point (I believe) to the extent that once everyone gets stuck on a word they use it like it's going out of style.

I'll agree the army threw gas ont he fire by giving the media the tape, but the army aren't the ones who have lied every step of the way about how she was captured.

As far as only military who are deployed being heroes...eh i'll disagree. It isn't everyone's choice. My girlfriend's dad was a reservist for 27 years, and was never once activated - and he enlisted in 1971! More than once he requested active duty, including for gulf war 1. Is he less of a hero because the marine corps told him no?

I'm waiting right now to find out if i am going to be deployed to Afghanistan when i am supposed to be getting discharged from active duty in a few weeks. If i get deployed all I'll do over there is fix helo-choppers...the same thing i'll be doing as a reservist if i don't get deployed.

My friend was an army ranger and has been deployed to places he can't even tell me about. His SRB says he's never left the country, is he any less of a hero?

And cwilli: hmm yeah i seem to remember seeing that "rifleman saying" somewhere...i think it was on the bottom of a signt hat said "Welcome to the School of Infantry, Camp San Onofre" :-)

to me hero status is gained from people who look up to you. So to me, police and firefighters and our military forces (those abroad and those even doing paper work back home) are heros. They went into a career where they knew their life could be put on the line at any point. And as acurrent administrative justice student, anyone willing to do that is a "hero" including skywalker, his girlfriends dad, and people in my family who served in WWII like my Grandpa, and my father/uncle/grandpa who are sheriff officers.

so before we all assume the word "hero" is overused, remember that it's alla bout your personal heros.

as for the word "diva" yea ms. spears and j-lo aint diva's......

My best friend came home in a box after being shot while giving medical aid to a child. He didn't get no god damn parade

No, but if that's the case he deserved one and more. Thank the media Mike, they decide who deserves a parade and who doesn't apparently.

Well Skywalker, I agree with the fact that the non infantry is undertrained...all i'll say bout that one, and I will say it was all over done, but Im not so loyal to our government as to say, that it wasnt our government doin it. Hell man, The army through the media a bone, I dont think its Lynchs fault, while I agree with ya bout her not bein some kind of superhero, I think she deserves respect for bein in the army and puttin up with all this puppet minded bullshit, but I dont think its her fault, Hell man, thats the nature of the world, lets take a hot blonde and make her americas sweetheart. Its because america desperately needs a hero, hell wed have one if we werent so screwed in the government department. And I dont blame bush solely, I blame the whole damn mix. Go Army....what the hell ever