No, this isn’t a picture describing Obama’s military budget cuts. I took this picture today here at Ft. Hood because of the absurdity of it! This Soldier is cutting the grass WITH A KEVLAR ON!!
Is the Army afraid that an armed ninja groundhog is going to spring from the grass and open up with a fury never before witnessed on earth? Maybe we’re worried that the sky is going to all on his head. Or, perhaps, he may fall off the lawn mower going around a corner and the impact from falling two and half feet would be too much for his noggin! Yet, we’re forcing him to wear an Advanced Combat Helmet – a piece of equipment worth more than $1,000 – to mow the lawn!
So, that got me to thinking about safety. I mean, if we’re serious about safety, I noticed some glaring violations here:
1. No reflective belt. He could get hit by a semi-truck that just didn’t see him!
2. No steel toed boots. What if he falls off and the mower runs over his toes! Oh the horror!
3. No hearing protection. Yes, it’s a John Deere and probably not that loud, but what if a rocks ricochets off the building and lodges in his inner ear canal?
4. No M9 pistol. How else would he deal with that ninja groundhog?!
5. No IFAK (Improved First Aid Kit). I mean without wearing all the other stuff, he NEEDS this!
6. No gloves. That steering wheel has to be hot in the Texas sun.
7. No knee or elbow pads. In order for him to be able to take out the ninja groundhog, he’ll need to a quick PLF off the mower into a duck and roll fighting position. We don’t need him skinning up vital joints in the process.
8. No NCO. WHY ISN’T THERE A SERGEANT PROTECTING THIS TROOPER AND WATCHING HIS SIX?!
The way the Army has turned into just another politically correct organization, perhaps he was ordered to wear KEVLAR in case there is another rabid Muslim on base? (snark)
My guess is the base in now commanded by a yankee who got a memo about a rabid armadillo sneaking onto the base. Hell, even a girl armadillo could take out that little John Deere.
@retire05: Love it! great humor mixed with a lot of truth! You are right! so right! Officers have become more like a transferred college sorority! Last year they just got through rewriting all of the tech and instruction manuals to a 5th grade education level ! Where are we going? We have to build a military to meet the need regardless of the cost or what we need to pay them!
The military trains by by giving senseless orders that involve demeaning and/or physically demanding action on the recipients part. If you get an order to fall out at 0300 in skivy shorts boots, helmet, and canteen cup you don’t ask why you just do it. If you are ordered to dig a hole and then dig another hole to put the dirt from the first hole in and then use the dirt from the second hole to fill up the first hole you just do it. Periodically during peacetime or stateside you gather up the clerks with packs and rifles and send them on route marches to hell. This is the way it has been for centuries.
If you can’t get use to it you are in the wrong trade. Orders do not have time to be explained they just must be obeyed. Officers and noncoms must face the fact that they will give orders that will result in the deaths of those so ordered. I probably couldn’t stand it myself but given my semesters worth of experience at a military academy bu that’s the way of it, and it is in the literature of you look for it. The soldat on the lawn mower is probably a happy camper because he could be out there with a full pack and a pair of scissors trimming the grass.
@toadold: This is such an ignorant comment. That is not the way the military is now run nor has been run the nearly two decades I’ve been in. We don’t dig holes to fill holes or cut grass with scissors. This is a caricature of the military that I’ve never found accurate.
I’d be lying if I said there aren’t stupid orders, but I’ve learned over time that they are only stupid to the people that have to carry them out. Usually, they are just stupid because the purpose or intent wasn’t properly explained. Other times they’re stupid because of poor leadership decision-making skills.
It is a wrong answer that “if you can’t get used to it (stupid orders) you’re in the wrong trade.” If that is what you are teaching at the military academy, I forcefully ask you to step down immediately because you’re doing our military or its troops any favors.
CJ, THAT’S EAZY FOR YOU TO SAY, BECAUSE YOU’RE THE ONE WHO GAVE the order to that soldier to mould the lawn so you can take the picture for this POST
That’s actually a John Deere Suburban Assault Vehicle, fully capable of throwing a stone at a privacy fence-piercing velocity.
Greg, thank’s for the info,
ah ah CJ, is that also part of the order you gave him?
demolish the commander’s fence. that’s where he is heading, no doubt,
and he is the one that will get the c..p from commander PETRAUS?