Big Red Car here.  Hey, it’s cold and gray and a bit wet here in the ATX.   But, guess what?  We still love it.  We love it in the ATX when Mother Nature comes calling and gives us a bit of a respite from those monotonous clear sunny and wonderful days.  Plus now everybody gets to wear their sweaters.  And, that’s a good thing, no?

So The Boss was up early and was reading some stuff and he came upon this article about the Army and a new concern that Christians might be doing some proselytizing.

Proselytizing — WTF?

Hey, the Big Red Car is not doing any proselytizing.  No proselytizing going on here.  Nothing to see here.  Run along, ya’ll.

Read this article here.  <<< click on link

Mikey Weinstein is President of something called The Military Religious Freedom Foundation and has made the following utterances:

1.  Christians, including specifically military Chaplains, are guilty of “treason” if they share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

2.  He suggests this offense is as serious as “sexual assault” and constitutes “spiritual rape”.

3.  Christians sharing their faith are “enemies of the Constitution”.

4.  He further suggests that soldiers should be court martialed for such conduct.

This seems to the Big Red Car as being a very weird view of things.

The Pentagoons

The Pentagon is apparently involved with this effort and is actively considering making some of these behaviors court martialable offenses.

That’s right, all you proselytizers and Chaplains, ya’ll are going to get court martialed for engaging in spiritual rape.  You crazy people.

It is very difficult to believe that the Pentagon at the highest level would be feeling some threat to unit cohesion or effectiveness from Christ followers or other religious practitioners.  Really?

Have you ever actually been in the Army?

The military is a funny organization.  Everyone thinks they know something about it but unless you have actually served, it is hard to know what is really going on.

The military is high on organization, roles, rules, regulations, standard operating procedures and, oh yeah, fighting America’s enemies and sometimes killing them.

The most basic fighting unit of the Army — an Infantry company — consists of about 180 soldiers subdivided into four platoons each  led by a young 22-24 year old Lieutenant and commanded by a 24-28 year old Captain.

Likely these young officers have been trained at places like West Point or Virginia Military Institute or Texas A & M.  Not too many from Columbia or Harvard.  A damn good bunch of patriotic Americans.

This is not the cutting edge of society.  These are some pretty damn conservative young fellows who are like a college football team.  But with guns.

Chaplains

The Army provides Chaplains to minister to the spiritual needs of the soldiers in much the same way that they provide medical support to minister to their bodies.

In the difficult business that soldiering can be, the Chaplains are a welcome safe harbor from the storm.

The Boss was a professional soldier, a Regular, for almost six years.  He met a lot of Chaplains.

When The Boss was overseas, in particular, he used to like to know the Chaplains.  One, in particular, was a hardy and rugged fellow and a Catholic priest.  The Boss was posing as a Catholic in those days.  He had, after all, been an altar boy in his youth.  He liked being an altar boy for some odd reason.  Must have liked the smell of incense.

Incense smells a lot like gunpowder and The Boss loved the smell of gunpowder.  Haha, Big Red Car, you crack yourself up.

This particular Chaplain was also a paratrooper and The Boss often used to joke that the Chaplain would reason with you and, if unable to carry the day intellectually, would just whip your ass.  The Chaplain used to get a kick out of that banter.  It was some paratrooper nonsense.  Jumping out of airplanes warps your sense of humor.  The hard landings.

The Chaplain was a damn good man and would help a soldier who was having problems which required a bit of counseling.  The Boss was not reluctant to send a soldier who was wandering a bit off the gameboard to the Chaplain.  This particular Chaplain was doling out a pretty stiff cup of tough love.  You have to remember The Boss was only a kid himself in his mid-20s and the Chaplain was about ten years older.

The Boss does not remember any proslytizing going on but he does remember the Chaplain drinking a beer with him once or twice and inquiring as to the status of The Boss’s young Lieutenant soul.  Did The Boss a bit of good, I am sure.  Probably got him inside a church a few times that he might not otherwise have visited.  That’s good for a young man.

Social engineering

It has become fashionable for some considerable time to visit upon the military the latest fads of social engineering.  The Big Red Car is saying this with a bit of a sneer in his voice because the Big Red Car thinks that soldiers should not be the pawns of the latest elements of political correctness.

The Boss never encountered any soldiers who were gay in the combat engineers.  In those days, The Boss would not likely have given a hoot as he was just interested in his soldiers doing their jobs.

He never met any women who wanted to be in combat units.  He did meet a lot of nurses who did not want anything to do with combat units.  The type of units the Boss served in you had to be able to drag a 250 lbs wounded man to safety.  It was part of the training.  The Boss never met a woman who could actually do this.

The Boss never experienced an Army that was not integrated and most of the NCOs in his units were black men and quite a few of the soldiers also.  It was totally unremarkable in the units and places in which he served.  The Boss does know authoritatively that black men and white men all bleed red for their country.  Of that, he is absolutely certain.

The Boss never saw a Chaplain spiritually rape a soldier and never met a Chaplain who was not a man of God.

This is all nonsense

So, let’s say what is already on your mind.  This is all a bunch of politically incorrect nonsense.

No Chaplain can influence a soldier who does not want to come into contact with the Chaplain.  The Army does not force soldiers to go to church.  Wouldn’t hurt, but they do not do this and have not for a long, long, long time.

So, let’s just cut the crap and get back to fundamental soldiering and stop worrying about such nonsense.

An interesting factoid

Most folks think that President Truman integrated the Army.  Let’s be clear here — the Army had a fair number of black units which were commanded in the main by white officers in World War II.  Many of these units performed with distinction when led by black NCOs and white officers.  That was the norm.  A norm that even in the Army of the 1960s would have struck a discordant note.

In fact, the first American army — the Continental Army of George Washington — had integrated combat units which fought throughout the Revolutionary War.  One of the most famous was the Marblehead Regiment which pulled the Americans’ chestnuts out of the fire on more than one occasion.

Commanded by a John Glover who rose finally to the rank of Major General of the Continental Army, the Marbleheaders included among their ranks merchant seaman of African ancestry making them the very first black soldiers in the US Army.

But, hey, what the Hell do I know anyway?  I’m just a Big Red Car.