‘I’m not going to be quiet anymore’ — A senior NCO at Fort Hood is taking brutal allegations of...

That's one way of looking at it Kelly. But another way is unless it put his troops into physical Danger he should have just retired and taking his pension. If he goes to courts-martial they're going to bust him down, probably give him a bad conduct discharge, and they may take his pension. If they don't take his pension it will be based on his new rank. I understand what it's like to bite your tongue before you finally buy it all the way through. I really do. I work for some real but heads in the Army as well as in my civilian career. I'd like to say that sometimes you just have to suck it up. Other times you just got to go.

My brother was a squid. When he was a teenager his freshman year of high school he has attended a whopping four days. The rest of the time he was smoking weed and drinking beer and breaking into houses. The church shipped him off to Cal Farley's Boys Ranch in Texas. He learns 3 professional trades and got his high school diploma. He joined the Navy and in under 10 years he made E6 and came in first place sailor of the year CONUS. He came in third place worldwide. So he decided he was going to become a warrant officer. I told him he was an idiot but the small pay raise was attractive to him. One day he lost it just before hitting his 20. Even worse is he mouths off to somebody who outranked him but only because he was a warrant and its commanding officer was an actual officer. He flagged him and that ended his career at 20. An excellent career up to that point but he just couldn't keep his damn mouth shut.

As I have always tried to teach my children, we can do anything in life that we want as long as we are prepared to accept the consequences whether they be good or bad. I hope it's some point it kicks in with him. They're good kids. They really are but they're going to make stupid mistakes. 3 year and their mid-20s in the fourth will turn 19 in December.