Lioness Parcell

04 December 2016 // Public Intel

While it was just recently that the Ground Combat Exclusion Policy, which bared women from direct combat roles in the military, was lifted and now women can serve in the same combat roles as men, this is just the final step in a long chain of events that started in 1948.

Before World War II, women did not serve in the military, or if they did, it was in a clerical role or as nurses, but as World War II disrupted traditional roles in the civilian work force, it disrupted traditional roles in the military as well. Women served as pilots, officers, mechanics, and other roles and while they were kept in female only units during the war, women were eventually integrated into the military in the 1948.

Fast forward to the post 9/11 global war on terror with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Lioness program, the forerunner to the Female Engagement Teams (FET). This is an attempt by the Marine Corp to solve a specific problem. How do you search a possibly hostile local female in a culture that prohibits cross gender contact, by an all-male combat team? By asking for female volunteers to go out with them.

The Lioness program was a massive success and served as a temple for the current Female Engagement Teams (FET) in Afghanistan. Below is the story of Lioness Cpl. Jennifer Parcell, who died on February 7 2007 when a local female she was searching detonated a suicide vest.

-Public Intel

Battle of the Bulge

03 December 2016 // Public Intel

It is the holiday season again and I want to address another problem many veterans face as they leave military service. Unemployment and medical issues are serious problems, but something that can be serious for some but is often overlooked is weight gain.

Each branch of the military has established height and weight standards and for some veterans it was a challenge to stay within those standards while they were in the service. Now that they have left the military, and the forced discipline it provided, most veterans put on some weight. This could be because they are not working out anymore or they continue to eat the same amount of calories while they do less. It happens to the best of us, and with the holiday season and the increased emphasis on family meals, and big meals at that, this problem will on get worse over the next few months.

I look at back at some of my active duty pictures and cannot believe that I was that skinny, and it mostly just has to do with setting priorities. In the military, we made exercise a priority, so now that we are in the civilian world we need to reestablish that priority. Sure, it is easy to make excuses of work, school, and family, and that is not to say these things are not important, but veterans shouldn’t have to look back on their military time as their “glory days.”

Make an effort today to get back into that shape you were in while in the military, it doesn’t need to be overnight but a shift in perspective makes all the difference.

Here is an easy workout I like:

-Public Intel

Work your resume or there will be no work for you

03 December 2016 // Public Intel

Looking for a new job can be a stressful time for anybody, especially when the job you currently have is ending. If you are a civilian, finding a new job means building a resume of all the work you have done up until now and sending it out to perspective employers. Of course, there are the situations where people change career fields and such but the majority of people do not do that without first having a list of relevant skills or qualifications.

That is where many veterans, both newly separated and those who served long ago, have problems when they try to find employment. How do they go about describing their military experience into terms that are truthful and understandable by civilians? Take my military occupational specialty (MOS) for example. While I was in the Marines I was a 1371, Combat Engineer. This is what the Navy says I do:

• conduct engineer reconnaissance
• emplace obstacle systems
• conduct breaching operations, to include reducing explosive hazards
• conduct mine/countermine operations
• employ demolitions and military explosives
• conduct urban breaching
• conduct route clearance
• provide assault bridging, tactical bridging and non-standard bridging/repair
• construct and maintain combat roads and trails
• construct expedient roads and airfield/ landing zones
• design and construct survivability positions
• perform expedient vertical and horizontal construction
• design, construct and maintain base camps/forward operating bases and combat outposts
• fight as provisional infantry

I loved working with explosives while I was in the Marines. However, there are not many jobs in the area where I live that call for people with a background in explosives. That is a problem with many of the skills I learned in the military, and a problem for many veterans. With a few exceptions, most of the hard skills that veterans learn in the military do not translate into civilian employment. For myself, I am ok with this because I would not have wanted a different job while I was in the Marines, I loved being a Combat Engineer.

For most veterans this means translating the soft skills we learn into terms that civilians can understand. As a Noncommissioned officer, I was in charge of my own team of Marines, then a squad until finally as the platoon guide. When you build a resume, you need to tailor the list of skills you put done towards the position anyway, so I might speak to how I was a successful team leader that completed difficult projects on time and under pressure. None of this is false, but in terms that civilians will understand.

I am not inventing a new concept, I have personally have been through several transition programs that have helped me better understand how to translate my military experience into civilian speak.

As to the exceptions when I talked about hard skills above, there are civilian jobs that are similar to military jobs, such as law enforcement or private security, or military jobs that are similar to civilian jobs, such as mechanics for heavy equipment or military lawyers, but not everyone is in a situation that they can go from something similar to something similar.

For a small treat, here is a video I found of a course that I personally did, although it is of a class that went to course after me.

-Public Intel

Hampshire College Pt 2: The Flag flies High

03 December 2016 // Public Intel

In a follow up to an earlier blog post, Hampshire College is once again flying the American flag on its campus. This decision came less than a week after a protest by a thousand veterans against the college president’s decision to remove the American flag to facilitate discussion on the campus over the meaning of the American flag.

Hampshire College is a small liberal arts college and while it is easy to continue to shame the college president on his decision to lower the flag in the first place, I want to reach out and thank Hampshire College’s president Jonathan Lash. He listened to the concerns of the veterans that protested his college and recognized them by restoring the American flag to its proper place. This action has not closed the discussion on campus over the meaning of the American flag, and nor should it. This discussion can take place with or without the presence of the American flag.

What caught the attention of veterans was that the American flag was at half-mast the day before Veterans Day, normally a symbol of mourning, and had been that way since the day after the national election. Before the American flag could be flow at full-mast again, someone burn the flag and instead of replacing the flag for Veterans Day, the College decided to have no flags on the college. Perhaps the college had not intended this as an insult to veterans, but veterans saw it that way. This certainly created a discussion about the meaning of the American flag but perhaps not in the way the college president intended.

-Public Intel

Veterans as Pawns

03 December 2016 // Public Intel

On December 4th, somewhere between several hundred to a couple thousand veterans will head to Standing Stone Sioux Reservation in North Dakota to start the next chapter in the Dakota oil pipeline protest. For those who haven’t followed what has been happening at the Dakota oil pipeline protest, there is plenty of enough information out there to muddle the issue enough to make either side seem the villain.

From what I can tell, there are four actors in the pipeline protest. On one side, there are the locals who live at the Standing Stone Sioux Reservation and their supporters that come from all around the country. On the other side, there is the company Energy Transfer, the company building the oil pipeline, and the Army Corp of Engineers. Each of these actors have been using different strategies to achieve their goals, which are not all the same, even when they are on the same side.

The Standing Stone Sioux Reservation wants to have greater control over their own affairs and respect for their cultural history, which I completely understand. Their fear of environmental damage from the pipeline is understandable and needs to be taken into account, and they should also be properly compensated for the damages to their lands. The Standing Stone Sioux Reservation has been using social media and the court system to block the construction of the pipeline in their lands. Energy Transfer has gone through all the proper government regulation and already invest a billion dollars into this project, with over ninety percent of this project completed. Their position is understandable in wanting to complete the project as quickly as possible so they can start to recoup their investment. Energy Transfer has mostly used the legal system, the court system and local police, and private security in an attempt to intimidate protesters away from construction sites.

The Army Corp of Engineers is a government agency that is caught in the middle of this protest that in all likelihood just wants to be ignored. Government agencies don’t’ want negative public attention, and as long as they followed proper policy I don’t know how they did anything wrong. The Army Corp or Engineers is mostly staying silent during the protest in an effort to be overlooked by public opinion Then we have the final group, the Standing Stone supporters and protesters.

Of all the actors in the pipeline protest, this is the group most difficult to pin down the motivation. While the end result of the protesters aligns with the Standing Stone Sioux Reservation’s goal of blocking the oil pipeline, motivation for each individual can vary, and that is where I fear these hundreds of veterans will get lost into. This “deployment” of hundreds of veterans to Standing Stone is yet another use of veterans as pawns in a power play between two uncaring factions that at the end of the day will do more harm to these veterans than good for them.

This notion of “deployment” of veterans is a new idea, but the use of veterans for a protest isn’t new. Politicians have used veterans for their elections as validation of their military policies, anti-war groups have used them as validation of their slogans, and nationalist have used them as validation of their expansion.

When these veterans get to Standing Stone, they are going to build barracks against the frigid winter cold and chow halls, so when the cameras and protesters are all gone, at least something will remain showing they were there.

-Public Intel

EX 6: Letter to Editor

28 November 2016 // Public Intel

A larger Mishawaka VA clinic should not come with fewer who have access to the services.

When the Veterans Administration announced the new location for the outpatient clinic in Mishawaka, like many veterans in the area I was excited. The current facility in South Bend is small and unable to handle the area’s veteran population. This new clinic promises reduced wait times for area veterans while adding services that were previously not available before, so what is not to love about the project?

For the vast majority of veterans who will use the new clinic, this new location will be an improvement. However, for some veterans, they are going to lose access to the one place where they can receive health care because Transpo still has not reached an agreement to extend the bus line to the new location.

I applaud Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood who said in a recent South Bend Tribune article that the hospital would provide transportation if the Transpo line was not extended. Our homeless and low-income veterans are the ones in most need of this new VA clinic and I encourage the administrators to keep them in their plans.

 

-Public Intel

EX5: Op-Ed Slow Burn

28 November 2016 // Public Intel

The American flag flies again over Hampshire College after nearly a month of constant discussion in the media, the local communities and veteran communities of what removing the flag from the campus means. The discussion began on the evening of November 9th when students lowered the flag to half-mast because of the “toxic tone of the months-long election”, and then on the following evening someone burned the flag. For Veterans Day, Hampshire College flew the flag but the days that followed had the flag again at half-mast until finally the College president removed the flag from the campus completely. So if this premier liberal arts college wants to discuss what the American flag means, then let me tell you what it means to me.

I love the American flag. Not only is it a symbol of this country, but of its people, past, present, and future. It represents all our greatness, but also our problems. It represents our dark and sometimes unpleasant history that we do not like to talk about, like slavery and racism. However, slavery and racism are not uniquely American problems, and both problems are as relevant around the world as they ever have been. While our country has done many bad things, our country has been a greater force for good. Just look at our Constitution, which has inspired other nations around the world for the past 226 years to become better democracies to their people.

Congress has passed several laws over time making the act of burning the American flag a punishable offense, and every time the Supreme Court has decided that the act of burning the flag is covered under the First Amendment of the Constitution. I am of mixed feelings when it comes to the burning of the flag. I agree with the Supreme Court that Congress should not make the act illegal; the government should not silence free speech just because it makes someone unhappy. However, I am not the government. If I come across someone burning the flag, I am going to do everything in my power to stop them from burning that flag.

For example, the local VFW chapter close to Hampshire College organized a protest and engaged in a dialogue with the college president and on December 2nd the college flew the flag again. The discussion on the college continues as to what the flag means, as it should, and the students there have now learned from a local community what the flag means to them. Symbols are powerful things, including flag poles with no flags.

-Public Intel

 

EX4: Simple Questions

28 November 2016 // Public Intel

Would I do it again?

Like most veterans, I’ve been asked this simple question time after time. However, as the answer changes with each asking of the question, I’ve found the question not to be as simple as I initially thought. Lately I’ve been thinking about this question and the people who have asked, and I think I’ve stumbled across a problem, which is that this isn’t a single question, but two.

Let me explain. When the question is asked, would I do it again, I think there is a spark of interest in my experiences. However, I’ve come to realize that the asker of the question is more interested in how my experience impacts them. Typically when I’m asked this question I’m in a social gathering filled with people I don’t know, so I smile, nod my head and say something to the affirmative so that this stranger who I’ve just meet, and most likely will never talk to ever again, will feel like their tax money was well spent.

Cynical, I know, but this stranger does not what to hear of the times that were spent waiting due to some paperwork foul-up, or the fields of broken equipment due to lack of spare parts or trained technicians. They want to hear about the helicopter rides across the North Carolina coastlines or the exotic places I’ve been that help teach Americans geography.

Less often I’ve been asked by someone interested in joining the military, would I do it again, and that is a tougher answer to give. Often it is a teenager, or someone in their twenties looking for an alternative to their civilian life. What do you tell a young person, who has their entire life head of them, should they join the military? The military isn’t for everybody; one of the great tragedies of modern society has been how the military has been forgotten as a valid career path, even as the military has been forced to adapt to modern society. So I tell them a story. I give the good times, and the bad. All the fun stuff, and the not so fun. I recall the things I wish I could do again, and talk about the things I wish I could do over.

There are many veterans, and even some non-veterans, who believe that everyone should spend some time in the military, like it is some cure-all for turning misfits into adults. However, just being in the military doesn’t make you a better person, a sociopath isn’t going to be fixed by the military, and to be honest the vast majority of people are just not suited for the military for a multitude of reasons.I’m not someone who believes that the military is right for everyone, and there are people who regret their military service. Some keep silent about their regret and you would never know they were ever in the military, or while others are passionately anti-military.

Before I started my graduate program at Indiana University, I told myself that I was going to go back into the military to serve again. So when I asked myself, would I do it again, the question changed to, can I do it again? I’m not as young as I once was, this year the body hurts a little more than it did last year. Should I do it again?

When I told my wife of eighteen years my plans to go back into the Marines she just hugged me and didn’t bother to ask anymore.

Not so simple a question.

-Public Intel

EX3:The simple math of why the VHA needs to change.

20 November 2016 // Public Intel

The Veterans Heath Administration (VHA), the actual part of the VA that administrates the 152 medical centers and between 800 and 1400 outpatient locations, needs to be reformed. While a simple google search of VA problems will provide enough reading material to pass a long evening that will make most sane people demand change, but the VHA will eventually have to change for another reason.

The problem isn’t entirely the VHA’s fault, although their long wait times at hospitals are not helping the situation, the simple math is that veterans are getting older. The VA provides a varieties of functions and one of these is that they track the veteran population. During a 2014 report the VA showed that there are five distinct population bubbles, with the current younger generation of Gulf War veterans being the largest population group. The next largest groups are Vietnam War veterans and Peacetime veterans, which along with World War II and Korea War veterans, are the oldest veterans. Over the next thirty years, the current veteran population of 21.3 million veteran is going to crash to near 14.5 million.

With the veteran population shrinking, and the population as a whole increasing, it makes little sense to continue with the old, outdated service models that continue to fail our veterans. The VHA needs to adapt so that instead of providing direct care for veterans, they should instead administer a government health insurance program that lets veterans see their own doctors. Other government organizations have heath insurance programs, such as Medicare, which is for people on Social Security retirement or disability,  and Tricare, which is a military health insurance program for reservist, dependents, and retirees.

As more veterans pass away, and the ratio of veterans to total population decrease, the VHA will eventually be forced to close facilities, which will harm veterans. It is better to put the programs in place now while there is the political will to do so than when then inevitable roadblocks become insurmountable.

-Public Intel