Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: SunTracker on December 31, 2003, 03:13:51 AM
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3840267/
Soldier charged with cowardice.
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Hmmm
So let me get this right. If ya ask for counseling to deal with issues so you can continue then you will be ????
Noticed the reference to the use of military issued drugs as well.
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My non-military opinion is as follows:
The soldier was in the Special Forces, and should have been able to handle stress. There comes a time when if, a soldier becomes burned out and over stressed, over a long period of time, this should be taken as combat fatigue rather than cowardice.
That's the charge, and though it's a hard one to live down, the Army did reduce the charge and seemingly no longer thinks the soldier is a coward. It's his friends he has to convince, who are probably pissed off about the whole thing. That someone in their unit is a coward. The soldier may have lost it all and endangered the entire squad. He was returned use of his firearm and secret clearance status. I could understand where men under his command would shy away from him, if he was an officer.
I guess the only ones who know are the witnesses to alleged act of cowardice. For anyone else besides Special Forces or otherwise trained personel, freaking out after seeing such carnage, would not be considered cowardice.
The military's definition of cowardice may be different from the average guy's definition.
I'm thinking about in one of the Black Sheep Squadron's episodes, where Boyington bails out and is rescued by the Australian, and they don't get along all that well at first...and the Aussie thinks Boyington regards him as a coward, and then later saves Boyington from the Japanese. On the flight home, after they are rescued, Boyington says "What's wrong with cowards? If it wasn't for cowards there would be no heroes."
Les