Hello everyone,

I need some advice. My brother is married and he and his wife are stationed overseas. Lately he has been calling me about some issues he/his platoon are encountering. They are on alert for deployment in the relatively near future and are training for this. The basics of what he has been calling about boil down to:

1. Inadequate training (most of their time is spent guarding Ammo, etc.)
2. Inadequate food/sleep ( approx. 2 meals every 48 hours in the field and approx. 4 hours of sleep a night)
3. They are being required to pay for expensive flashlights, weapon slings and sites/scopes for their rifles, all of which costs thousands of dollars.
4. They have been told that seeing their wives/families is not a priority and that their families should just "suck it up."
5. Morale is down, accidents have been occurring (including rollovers) and the entire platoon is demoralized and frustrated.
6. He broke his wrist twice as a child and about 2 weeks ago while doing something (not sure what) he popped it and has gone to sick call where they told him it was fractured but to suck it up, they won't send him to get treatment.

He has called me wanting to know what he should do and can I help. My question is: does anyone have any experience with IG or EO complaints and/or filing a Congressional Inquiry? Can he do anything about the issues mentioned above by any of these means? I'm scared for him because of the tone in his voice and I want to do something but I don't know what. Does anyone have experience with this or advice? Thank you so much!!

~ArmySister26

I was involved in only 1 IG complaint and they (IG) did a deep review and it was resloved with-out any repercussions towards anyone involved. That said has he went through his chain of command? They can't refuse to treat him if he was injured. If the military ever told the troops that their families need to suck it up I have never heard that in my 21 years service. I would tell him this Chain of Command first step, them to go to the IG as a last recource. Good luck

Thank you!

Ditto on what Coachman stated. Chain of command is starting point for any grievences. Tell him to make sure he gets it documented officially via request mast. (thats a Marine path, not sure what the Army calls it) Request mast is Marine version of official open door policy to the Commanding Officer, and if needed, to higher levels up to and including IG.

Have him start with his command Sgt Major. Give him opportunity to look into it first. Remind him to never jump over his chain of command. THings like this should be handled at lowest level. Mishandling situations like this can result in harder times in the near future.


Alerts like these can be really frustrating for all involved. The inadequate food and sleep are a way of preparing one for what can happen to them in combat situations. Rifles come with iron sights and scopes are optional equipment. Rifles are issued with a shoulder sling, combat slings are optional. Flashlights issued are plastic and aluminum MAGLIGHTS are optional.

Elbow and kneepads are optional equipment, but really nice to have.

Notice the trend here with the term optional? All of the above are good things to have in a combat zone, but they cannot make you buy them, it really is an individuals choice to make that purchase.

ArmySister26 -I would proceed with a congressional inquiry very cautiously. From personal experience in the air force, I initiated a congressional inquiry into the length of time investigators were taking to clear my foreign born fiance prior to our getting married. (Marrying a foreign born spouse without military approval can result in loss of security clearance/job) After approx 18 months and no response from the Defense Investigative Agency I sought a congressional inquiry. It resulted in her being cleared but had other consequences. I had a stellar career as a communications officer with maxed out performance ratings as a captain. Coming up for promotion I was passed over. I was approached by the personnel officer who told me that he had never seen a record as good as mine. I then transferred to the Headquarters at Hickam AFB in Hawaii. Upon my arrival when I was asked to meet the unit commanding officer I walked in saluted, and was told," You were not promoted at your last location, so don't expect to me promoted here". I was not promoted, and now have my own practice as an attorney.

From my perspective the air force is the most progressive of the services--I have dealt with the army and have found their willingness to address problems as quite lacking.

Use the chain of command. If that does not work and if it is worth it--then seek the inquiry. Just be advised of the blow-back.

Good luck
aglenn2006@yahoo.com

Really good been there, done that advice. The DIA is outside military chain of commands and is very difficult to influence from within the military. The IG route would have possibly worked and that would have at least given the DOD an option.

One key thing folks need to understand... Congress controls military funding period. This is the main reason why the military leadership reacts to Congressional investigations in the manner they do. Congressional inquiries are career enders for those involved as a result. That ain't written down anywhere, thats just the reality of it all.

Whoa, whoa! It's the Defense Security Service or Office of Personnel Management--

The Defense Security Service (DSS) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense (DoD). Within areas of DoD responsibility, DSS is tasked with facilitating personnel security investigations, supervising industrial security, and performing security education and awareness training. Originally known as the Defense Investigative Service (DIS), DIS was established in 1972[1].

For fiscal year 2008, DSS was authorized 621 civilian employees. Of those, about 350 are Industrial Security Representatives, who will be responsible for about 12,000 industry facilities under DSS jurisdiction.[2]

In November 2004, approximately 1800 investigators from DSS were transferred to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). This move consolidated the vast majority of Federal government personnel background investigations with OPM. DSS still processes industrial clearance requests for the DoD[3], and acts as the liaison to the OPM for the DoD [1].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Security_Service

DIA stands for Defense Intelligence Agency. I'm just trying to keep our acronyms straight.....and making sure the folks I work for aren't blamed for sh!t they ain't responsible for

This message has been edited. Last edited by: patoloco,

Sorry if I took the wrong tact on this one. My ignorance is showing yet again!

The point I was trying to make is that it is well outside the military chain of command and getting them to do thier job, is very difficult to accomplish without damaging one's career.

quote:

Sorry if I took the wrong tact on this one.

Naw, just some misused acronyms! WHAT you said is essentially correct. The creation of OPM made it more so actually.