Two of the main ways our troops get the news over here is "Stars and Stripes" newspaper, a semi-independant newspaper published by the military and Armed Force Radio and Television Sevice, AFRTS. I read and watched both hungrily when I was stationed on Okinawa many years ago which was well before the internets but these two are still fairly prevalant news outlets over here, Stars and Stripes is what I call "yesterdays news tomorow" because it seems to take forever to get published and distributed. It's essentially a bunch of reprinted articles from major news sources and occasional feature stories, almost always some negative horror piece about the military. This past week, they printed a piece of garbage by an LA Times stringer and I won't further comment except to link over to my brothers at Blackfive who are all over the case. Please read to find out what some of our "intelligentsia" really thinks of our military leaders, in this case, General Petraus and his uniform.
On AFRTS, they show normal US TV programming and now have at least 3 channels, a news, a movie, and a sports channel and instead of commercials, feature some little short segment, ostensibly to improve us, but they are often so laughably funny that you just shake your head. There is the usual Vote! piece, the Invest and buy Savings Bonds types of things, and lots of preachy don't do this and you must do that. One of the ones playing is called "Don't be that guy" and I've never actually heard what they are saying, but it appears to be interviews with pretty gals commenting on a guy acting stupid while drunk. I overheard a GI the other day say "let me see, you get to drink and meet women, I want to be THAT guy!" OK, he said a more informative action word, but you get the message.
Yesterday, one of the stories was about Balad Air Base and a volunteer group of folks that helps unload the wounded from arriving helicopters to move them into the operating rooms of the hospital. They interviewed troops who were very proud to come over after their normal shift of doing their job to spend a couple of hours waiting for incoming wounded, and after they have been trained to handle casualties, are the ones that move them via a wheeled stretcher to the OR. It struck me this would be a perfect way for a celibrity criminal to work off their sentance.
Imagine if some overpaid, privelaged, never worked a day in their life celebrity from Santa Monica, or Manhatten, or Miami, or any other town in America was accused/convicted of the umpteenth time of DUI, speeding, drug use, assault, you name it. And imagine if a judge looked them in the eye and said, "you have two options, you can take the full sentance in a county jail, or I will allow you to go to Iraq or Afghanstan and volunteer to work with the USO or another volunteer organization. You can't drink or do drugs, you won't be bothered by papparazzi, you will eat the same food as GI's, you'll sleep in the same type of room, and you'll either volunteer giving out coffee or you'll work in the "Heroes' Highway" (which is the name of the Balad hallway). You do this, I'll wipe your slate clean but, you can't profit from your experience, you do your time and come home." Now THAT would be a story!
Or what about all of these folks that check themselves into detox? Here's better way, do as I described. Come over with the USO, and leave all the crap behind, the magazines, the photographers, the pressures, come work here, and I guarentee you'll get a perspective you can't get by going to any voluntary event in America. When you see the best America has to offer, and you look into their eyes and there's no entourage around you, no sycophants, no paparazzi, just you and a wounded troop clinging to life, you'll be changed, and for the better. Don't worry, I won't be holding my breath. But I will look forward to the next troop bashing movie from Hollywood, coming to a theater near you.