Time to talk about it. My experience in the Army.

Hello all, my name is Matt. I have been out of the Army for about 8 years now and feel I need to get this off my chest. I have great respect for the young men and women serving but the leadership is questionable. I joined the military 3 days before my 18th bday and spent 10 weeks in Fort Jackson for bootcamp. After all my training I left for Bamberg, Germany. I arrived in Germany and was there about 2 weeks and then left for Kosovo for a few months. All was well and even though I missed the states I was enjoying my life.

Well soon my company had a new captian, his name was Cap. Schwartz. I dont consider myself a extreme christian but I do beleive in Jesus and his resurection. I dont go preaching door to door and all that. Well my job in the Army was to be the cap. assistant. I helped him with reports and paperwork. He asked me about my religion within his first week of being our new captian. I told him what I beleived and he went on his way. Well I noticed he started acting a little funny around me. Before I go any farther let me state that I was an above average soldier. I competed in warrior challenge, always scored above 275 on PT test, and never had never been in any trouble. One night around midnight someone knocked on my door. I lived in the barracks by myself. I saw it was my sgt and he looked upset. I ansewered and he instructed my to get dressed in uniform and to come with him. I did so and on the way down the barracks he expressed to me the captain wanted to see me.

The look on his face was disturbing. He pleaded with me to just answer the questions and dont say anything negative. I trusted him and I was starting to get a little scared. First of all I had never been woke up at midnight to see the captain before. I was escorted into the captians office with my sgt. Captian Schwartz asked me one question. He asked "If God were to come down to earth and tell you to punch me in the face would you?". I looked back at my sgt and didnt know what to say. He asked again and I said, well If i knew it was God then I would have to punch you. I said it laughing cause of how ridiculous the question was. As soon as I said it my sgt shook his head and you could tell that was not the answer he wanted to hear. They handcuffed me and took me to a white van and put me in the back. About 15 min later my sgt tossed me a bag with some clothes in it. I didnt reconize the driver of the van. The first three stops were all German hospitals. At each one they took blood from the same arm. After the third one my arm turned a nasty yellow and black color. Around 5 am we arrived at a German mental hospital. They registered me and escorted me to my room. Everyday they questioned me about christianity and why I beleived. They also gave me about 2 shots a day. I was not told what they were nor given a choice to take them. I have to admit the room was decent and the food was good.

The workers were not mean but seemed bent on trying to convince me that religion is fake, christianity in general. Like I said im not some bible belt crazy who caries a bible everywhere and spends hours preaching, im just a regular guy like most of you. Finally after a month I was released and the Army was there to pick me up. Also I wasnt allowed internet access or phone calls the entire time I was there. I arrived back at the base and captian Schwartz was standing right there. He asked if I was better, I laughed and said yes sir. The soldiers on base asked if I had fun back in the states? They were told I was on leave. The tough part for me was I had to tell them yes because my sgt told me that if I went around telling everyone what happened that the captian would send me away for a long time. Now the whole time my sgt was on my side so I took his word and didnt say anything. My parents told me they called and my sgt told them I was in the field for a few weeks. I was discharged a year later and to this day my parents still dont konw. Thank you for listenting.

reply to post by poling2482

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your Captain was some kind of nut job, and HE'S the one who should have been locked in a ward.

There's this trick about the Army.

If the NCO's tell you to bark at the moon if an officer asks a question, the best thing is to bark at the moon.

Honesty in moderation.

Just like drinking.

That is the most bizarre thing I've ever heard of, and I can tell you, I have seen some mighty bizarre things.

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reply to post by poling2482

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Mmm, seems like your Captain was a bit of a strange fellow, and people like that just paints us atheists in a bad light.

I think you should have played the game and said the opposite of your heart but you did what you thought was right and you saw it through.

I once threatened to shoot my adjutant and all they did was throw me in jail with my ears ringing. Maybe I should have threatened him with religious quotations instead.

Welcome to ATS

This is not a joke. Im 27 years old and just felt it was time to tell my story. The other poster was right about not being able to do anything. If your superior says something you have to do it. I couldnt beleive they did that to me. I even contacted my senator Jeff Sessions about it.

First of all, welcome to ATS.
Glad you decided to share your story.

Although, I must say, it is a little hard to swallow.
I agree with dooper that your story is the most bizarre I have ever heard in regards to how screwed up and warped a Captain in the US Army is.

I mean, surely this dude has been kicked out of the service by now. Or at least I would hope he has been.

In regards to the leadership in the military, it was my experience that there were a lot of good leaders. But they were overshadowed by the bad leaders. The bad leaders tend to be SO bad that they simply ruin the morale of everyone around them. And it is probably meant to be that way, to an extent anyhow.

[edit on 11-10-2009 by JayinAR]

reply to post by SmokeJaguar67

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To this day I wonder what would have happened if i were to have said that I didnt beleive in God. My unit was 317th in Bamberg, Germany from 2000 till 2002 if anyone doesnt beleive me or wants to look the ole captian up.

reply to post by poling2482

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Man that's pretty hardcore.

Sure your captain wasn't named Kurtz? J/K

Good thing is you got out of the Metal Ward and aren't still locked up drooling on yourself with a straight jacket on.

reply to post by poling2482

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Heh, depends on the Captain's motivations. If he wanted to screw with you, he would have screwed with you no matter WHAT you said.

I probably would have hit him with "My God would never request me to strike a commanding officer, sir."

reply to post by JayinAR

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Your right. It is sad because my sgt was such a great help and he honestly tried to do the right thing but I understand his career came first. The stories I have heard from ex military just makes me wonder. My friends that have come back from Iraq just have some of the most crazy stories I have heard.

reply to post by lucentenigma

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Trust me I worried about that because of the shots I was getting. I had already told myself that an escape plan was in the works if I was still in that place come next month.

FAKE! Good story though.

That's pretty trippy.

Welcome aboard. Did you have your religious preference on your dog tags? Did they still do that them?

reply to post by Longtimegone

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Its not fake. I cant understand why you would say that. It took a lot for me to tell that story.

reply to post by KSPigpen

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They still do that yes. I had my dog tags on but they never checked them for the religous pref. I just hope Schwartz is out of the military by now.

Care to share any?

Would be interested to hear them.

reply to post by lifecitizen

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Both friends were Marines and both went over there when the war started. Brandon came back after a year and never went back to the Marines. I asked him about being awol and he said after what happened over there he was never going back to the Marines. I worried about him being arrested for a while until my Paul came back. He said that Brandons squad got in a fire fight and thats all he knew but he also said the Marines told him that he was discharged and didnt have to finish his time! Paul told me the worst thing he witnessed was a Marine sgt shooting a little girl in the streets who didnt pose any threat. He also said they would go around killing all the stray dogs just for fun. He also told me that any iraqies they arrested they would beat. He told me that he would take his rifle and break there jaws with the butt of the weapon. You can tell he regrets it and it hurts him to talk about it.

wow,

you dont happen to have any of this in your service record do you?

whan you were discharges, was it honorably? what was your RE code?

i understand the whole newbie ignorance (im navy avaiation, so we call it airman syndrome, when the e-1 through e-3 just dont get the system or how things work) but with something like that i probably would have attempted some sort of greivance, or formal complaint through a different CoC.

also i would be interested to know what your MOS was, were you like a chaplains assistant? i dont understand the religious kick.

also, for your own closure, look up your old seargant and ask him what his official take on it is. if you need help i can probably get his @army.mil e-mail through NKO or AKO.

Welcome to ATS. Your faith will reassure you that God will see to the justice this man deserves.

Whether to proceed in getting this guy to be held accountable is your call. On one hand, you may be able to prevent this from happening to someone else. On the other hand, your might find yourself recalled to active duty in Afghanistan.

Personally, I do not trust the government.

Thank you for sharing and making others aware of this BS. You have my empathy.

At first I was wondering whether your story was a fake, but after thinking about it for a while, I'm thinking it's possible.

When I was in college I was seriously stressed, especially when my girlfriend broke up with me. I went to a therapist seeking help. One of the first things she asked me was whether I believed in God. I said I did. She spent every session harping on that one thing, trying to talk me out of believing in God. We never got to the stress or the girlfriend. Just talked about my belief in God - and I'm not even a Christian, not evangelical at all. I just believe.

Many people in psychology think that if you believe in God, you have psychiatric problems. After all, you believe in an invisible entity; you talk, and maybe hear from, something that no one can see. Must be crazy, right?

I imagine that in the Army, they take a dim view of people who express a relationship with God. They want to be your commanding officers, not God. Guys who do wind up blowing people away sometimes claim God told them to do it; so I could see where Captain Schwartz might have been a bit worried. In the Army, commanding officers are a popular target.

I don't think his response was appropriate. In fact, as far as I know, it's none of his business what your religious beliefs are. I know, have fun refusing to talk about it to your commanding officer, but still, he was out of line.

The way I look at such a question, if "God" told me to shoot someone, I'd have to have some mighty convincing proof that it was God, and not me going crazy. I mean, He's almighty. If he wants to take someone out, He doesn't need me to do it.