This whole story is bullshit. When I was in Basic Training and AIT in '93/'94, there were all sorts of events, secular or otherwise, where we had the options of attending or being stuck in the barracks cleaning up. Sounds like a bunch of sniveling entitlement babies. 'America's Best and Brightest' in uniform.
Or, just as likely, some reporter took standard issue griping out of context, blew it out of proportion and decided to make a scandal out of it.
Since the army started an investigation prior to the reporting could we agree that this was more than standard issue griping? Or do you believe the army is blowing it out of proportion?
Griping
itself is standard issue. The Army will investigate
anything for the sheer fact that an investigation, regardless of the outcome, is CYA.
For example, I teach a mandatory (as dictated by the two-star in charge of Drum) 3-day transition class at Fort Drum for those about to leave the service, to teach them the finer points of writing resumes, interviewing and the job search process. Something that 99.9% of private industry would never do, but it's a perk of the service. One time, I had some smartassed 1LT, who thought he knew-it-all, turn in our office to the installation IG's office because he felt it wasn't necessary for
him to go through the class.
In short, an investigation was held, the IG told the junior officer to go suck a fart (because his whining held no real merit), and his sniveling ass went through the mandatory class. Nothing was blown out of proportion except for the story that the crybaby who instigated the investigation told the IG.
Every week I hear of countless soldiers try to sneak, dodge and evade going through this mandatory class, and constantly catch people trying to sneak out of the class in session or forge their attendance on the sign-in roster. Every one of them has some sob-story or excuses, but none of them come close to justifying the practice of lying about being in class when they weren't or evading their place of duty.
I've heard too many lies to think this was 'just' because of some orchestrated event to inflict Christianity upon a few soldiers. But it sounds like a good ginned-up reason to complain or, as G-Man suggests, a reported looking to stir-up another article painting the military in a negative light.
