Tom Kratman

Retired infantry officer, recovering attorney, defector from the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts, and national bestselling military science fiction author.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

@HorrorsGreeley Worse, actually. Boston streets were initially laid out by cows. This is the sober truth.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

@KenlyFox Could have been worse. Had the men who expanded the city via landfill been men of greater vision they could have turned it easily enough into Venice on Massachusetts Bay. Imagine trying to drive around in THAT?

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

@Zsiljkovic1 @japan_nobunaga Ah, the old tragic boating accident...

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

@MasterMaliq @JustinTWatson I was addressing specifically the question: "Can He permit something immoral?"

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

Contemplate Job. Among all the other things taken from him were his 7 sons and 3 daughters. Now God, when he doubled Job's wealth, after his trials, he gave him 7 sons and 3 daughters. Here's the problem; Job would not be complete merely by getting another 10 children. It was certainly within His power to reincarnate those souls and Job would not be made complete without the return of those ten souls.

And God is not a cheapskate.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

@SMRdeka You kind of have to grow up there, and even that isn't a guarantee.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

I am afraid you are ignorant of how the army works. Do you imagine that the GCM authority will grant the chapter 10 without consultation with and approval from the company commander/JAG/TDS who had an understanding with said company commander? If so, why?

If you had read - assuming you can read - you might have noticed my mention of processing of actual gays. That was medical, so, yes, I know.

And, just out of curiosity, how did you miss that a chapter 10 ultimately is driven by UCMJ?

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

When I was a rifle company commander and later HHC commander I had a policy, no easy early discharges (other than hardship, in one case, which I supported). If a troop wanted out early I made it very explicit: "Do something for which I can send you to a bad conduct discharge special court-martial. Then you can ask for a chapter ten discharge (in lieu of court-martial for the good of the service) and I will probably sign off on that. (JAG and I, you see, had this understanding...)
But troops are creative, to be sure, so it would happen, from time to time, that a troop would claim to be gay, which was a reason for an early discharge. My answer to this, my invariable answer, was, "I want pictures. I want 8x10 color glossies of you blowing somebody. And no fuzziness; I want CLEAR pictures, with your face plainly showing, for Top to put on the company bulletin board..."
Oddly, no one ever took me up on this.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

Not particularly, but I also don't want them getting out with benefits. And they always had the option of doing something for which I could send them to a BCD-Special Court Martial (this is something some of the commenters here seem to be having trouble getting through their neutronium-dense skulls) and then requesting a Chapter 10 discharge. Or they could just fucking man up and do the job, which was vastly more common and, ultimately, better for them.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

@Lijimist174309 Did the CO credibly inform them that the picture was going on the company bulletin board?

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

@thersnoboks @MasterMaliq I suspect otherwise.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

@Coinulaire @cprael The federal government can only pay reparations by taxation of us or inflation inflicted upon us, which amounts to the same thing. So, nonsense; we would still be paying. So, no, not one penny.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

So it occurs to me that any committee or legislative body discussing reparations, which is to say taking money from people who did no wrong / never held a slave to give to people who suffered no wrong / have never been slaves, is just another criminal conspiracy and ought be treated as such.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

I did so deploy. A few times.

Lemme tell ya a story, true story as it happens.

I knew three company commanders that the troops cried over when they left command. I was one of those.

I knew one company commander where the wives also cried when he left command, one where the troops got up a petition to keep him in command past his allotted time, and one where grievance committees - always different men, too - went to the battalion commander every week on his open door time, for months, begging for their commander to be returned to them from the second company he was commanding. I was all three of those.

So contemplate the possibility that you have absolutely zero idea of what goes into, precedes, or motivates a fragging.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

@FireFinder44 Thanks!

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

During the whole affair (the Battle of Lexington and Concord), the rebels attacked us in a very scattered, irregular manner, but with perseverance and resolution, nor did they ever dare to form into a regular body. Indeed they knew too well what was proper, to do so. Whoever looks upon them as an irregular mob, will find himself very much mistaken. They have men amongst them who know very well what they are about, having been employed as rangers against the Indians and Canadians, and this country being very much covered with wood, and hilly, is very advantageous for their method of fighting.
--Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

Maybe somewhat, in terms of distracting Howe from moving his Army from...mmm...I want to say Halifax, to New York. But we couldn't have kept either Quebec or Montreal against that army. So think of it as buying a campaign season's time, which would be worthwhile, but not decisive.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

@JarradTruog @grumpyoldgrunt No. Can't recall Sgt Greer's first name at this point, 40 years later, but it wasn't Dalton. His dad had been a POW in Vietnam for like five years.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

@cprael The theory that you are white, hence evil, I suppose, Charlie.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

@Stavallo11 Except nobody got burnt, moron.

You're too stupid to live, let alone waste more time on here. You go buhbye.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

@JustinTWatson @MasterMaliq Again, I have a way God might have dealt with this.