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

I'm going to be frank and say this sounds like BS.

I have never seen or heard of Christians being persecuted in the US Army. In fact I would say based on my experiences, that much of the US Army is pro Christian.

When I was in basic training at Fort Knox in 1999, there was a Mormon guy who caught alot of flack from other soldiers. The drill sergeants picked on him quite abit, but he was never denied anything.

At Fort Hood we had a guy in our company who was Wiccan and he caught alot of flack for dressing goth. We had another guy in our barracks from B. Company who said he was a Satanist. He got beat up in our barracks by a group of Catholic Latino immigrant soldiers and later that evening got into a fight with his 1SG. He was discharged not long afterwards for mental problems. I can't say he was persecuted, he just said the wrong things at the wrong time to a group of Cubans and Mexicans who had been drinking.

Our unit had numerous prayer breakfasts. I was given the opportunity to read from the Bible before our battalion at NTC. The verses read were a motivational reading involving the part where Joshua is commanded to go into Canaan and annihilate the wicked. This was done just before we went into the "box" to conduct simulated missions against OPFOR.

We had two Muslims in my platoon in Iraq and no one ever harassed them.

Years later in Germany at a different unit, we had some more Pagans and again other soldiers liked to mess with them due to their beliefs. It was always joking and frat like behavior.

Every unit I have been in has been predominantly Christian. We have always had unit prayers. I always openly prayed before we rolled out of FOBs on mssions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I have never seen or heard any Christian harassed in the army. Even in Afghanistan, when we had this Apostolic guy who was always trying to convert everyone he talked to, we put up with him.

Another reason I call BS, is the German hospital bits. My company in Germany had platoons spread out all over, Bamburg, Schweinfurt, Kitizingen. The main hospital for personnel that served in those caserns was in Wurzberg. We never ever sent personnel to a German hospital for a psych eval.

I don't know what your agenda is here, but the image you are presenting of the US military is a false one.


COBRA SIX

I would urge people- including those who have served, to take care in their judgements of Polling. My father-in-law was in Army intelligence (entering Intelligence/ MP school in Obermaggau at the end of WW2 right out of boot camp and was in Viet Nam in the late 50s to when he retired in 1963). This is an unfathomably screwed up, sick situation. I found out about it because my husband was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder in 2007. We found out about FIL's military history by accident (found the telegram to his dad from his grandmother on the day DH was born. I forget the acronym for the school- UAEUR or something). This mind# went on way into adulthood. (my sister-in-law is even worse) This whole thing started because we thought DH might be narcoleptic & were trying to get that straightened out. One thing led to another.
One of the things that rings true to me about Polling's story is the anti-religion aspect. DH was a devout Catholic (MIL was Catholic, FIL was Scottish Rite. disclaimer: I am Protestant) In the last years FIL was alive, DH just abruptly stopped going to church one day. Now, no one can even talk about God or religion around him- he trances right out, even if he's standing up in a room full of people. This is only one of his triggers.
I don't think the situation with DH/ SIL necessarily has anything to do with the military, directly. We still don't know at this point. My point is that it looks like FIL learned his "techniques" in the Army.

If Polling's captain was involved in intelligence, all the lawyers (or laws) in the world couldn't/wouldn't and won't make one bit of difference. None of this stuff would be known to regular personnel- even officers, unless they were in intelligence & possibly, not even all of those.

reply to post by DogsDogsDogs


The captain was the commander of a Maintenance company, 317th Wolfpack, who are mechanics, the guys work on vehicles.

Quite far from anything dealing with intel.

That is a serious EO complaint, you should have gone to your EO NCO and reported his ass for discriminating against your religion.

Last time I checked the correct abrieviation for Captain is CPT not CAP lol, and was your NCO your squadleader or what?

I am in the Army right now and I never heard of such rediculous behavior by a company commander and I as well find it hard to swallow.

I'm normally not one to call BS on anything, as I believe most anything is possible, however I have to think this here is BS. I can not speak for all of the military, but from my time in it and the places it took me, speaks in direct conflict of everything the op said. Everywhere you go, every base, even boot camp, offers some form of religion outlet. Heck, they even issue crosses(on a chain) in boot camp(or they use to in the 90's).

Everywhere the military took me there was a place and avenue for worship. And there may have been some quiet resistance here and there, nothing of what the op said could possibly be tolerated anywhere I have ever been.

Now, as I said, anything is possible, and it's possible the capt'n had doubts about this guy's mental stability and 'tested' him with this kind of harsh treatment, but aside from that, I do not see the possability of truth in any of this.

If I were the op, I would take up the offer of getting a lawyer and making some serious coin off of this, and bring this capt'n to justice. But I digress to my origonal opinion that it's BS...

bp... :/

[edit on 12-10-2009 by HomeBrew]

tp... :/

[edit on 12-10-2009 by HomeBrew]

reply to post by SaturnFX


God hates violence? I don't want to turn this into a religion bashing thread, but the God in the christian bible does not hate violence. He's killed plenty of people.

reply to post by poling2482


I guess you are stating you were treated terrible because you are a Christian?

That is strange, considering a three star general made headlines speaking while in uniform stating his Christian god was much stronger than the Muslim god. Then there is the recent report of fundamentalist Christian activities at the Air Force Academy.

It seems those who aren't Christian may actually be denied promotions if their religious preferences are known.

links

www.huffingtonpost.com...

www.command-post.org...

They do this because they want to know if you are going to go along with their agenda.

If they had not taken this action, then by your marks you would have been promoted into some situations that you would have not wanted to take part in, that would have compromised your beliefs.

I'm sorry that you had to go thru what you did, but it ended up sparing you a lot more trouble than if they had let you move on thru....

Originally posted by JayinAR
reply to post by poling2482

 

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."

That is exactly what I would have said, my God would not ask such things of me. If that happened to me, I would have went over his head and complained to his superiors. What a clown.

Only tonight (before I had read this) I had told my wife about the abuse that happend to me whilst I was serving 33 years ago.

reply to post by poling2482


As I skimmed through the replies I found some calling BS and some supportive. I don't know one way or the other. I do know that from my experience in the Army I believe that the man is telling the truth. The different units in the Army are as diverse as different communities. Each one has a different make up and it's own set of dynamics. The unit that I was in was a high speed/priority unit in Germany that suddenly found itself without a mission. The morale went straight to hell. I saw first sergeants with the maturity of teenagers. Officers that behaved like spoiled brats.
The other thing that was prevelant, at least in my unit, was that if you showed any signs of having a heart, or compassion, you were considered weak, and religion certainly would have been included in that list.
In the unit that I was in you had to walk around with your chest out and be chomping at the bit to kill something to be accepted.
Yeah, I saw some very mean, cruel officers and nco's while I was in and this captain could have made this guy disappear.
Seeashrink

I was in the US Army as well. The only time I saw anything slanted toward Christians was right up front in basic. This guy had brought his bible with him in his luggage, which had a tear in the side. When the Drill Sergeants saw the bible hanging out they yelled at him for a good 15 minutes calling him a concientious objector and just giving him a hard time. That was the end of it too. I am a Christian, but never had any problems nor heard of any other than what I just stated. It sounds like one man, the Captain, was just abusing his authority which happens from time to time with individuals who are given authority. Being that it was midnight, I would wonder if he hadn't had a few and made a mistake and went through with it to just intimate to the OP to keep a lid on it. It is an individual problem in my opinion and not a policy by any means if it happened like that. Bottom line, don't ever tell an officer you would bust him in the mouth for any reason! You are going to get grief for sure.

[edit on 12/10/09 by spirit_horse]

reply to post by poling2482


All I want to know is......what has prompted you to invent this amazing tale? I don't care a whit about your "ordeal"....I want to know what motivates a person to spin this kind of yarn and attempt to pass it off as a real experience.

Please, get comfortable on the couch and we'll talk about it.

Funny how Poling has now gone AWOL. Better off. Maybe it´s time a few stories be told about the all but ignored daily heroics being performed by the true warrior soldiers of the US and other NATO armies.

Let me just make one thing clear, mistakes happen within the military. It isn´t a coincidence that the infamous words SNAFU and FUBAR was born within the US military. But the particular story that started this thread is a crock, and amounts to little more than a half baked attempt to slander the US Army.

[edit on 12-10-2009 by fockewulf190]

reply to post by hoghead cheese


You know, the more I think about this story, the more I flat out don't buy it.
That's right, I'm calling the OP a liar.

ANY Captain in command of any company in any branch of service would be a fool to try such a thing in some sort of atheistic crusade against believers. Why? Because he would be in the minority in these regards. I would say that 70% of the people that I served with in the Army were Christians... and that number is most likely very conservative. The rest were also theists, save maybe a few.

I just don't buy it. The Captain would be absolutely insane to try such a thing and the NCO would have done his duty and stood up for the private in this case.

My Story:
I stood toe-to-toe with all SIX of my superiors once while in service. My team leader, my squad leader, my platoon sergeant, my platoon leader, my first sergeant and my captain. I threatened to beat the piss out of each and every one of them. I pointed my finger at each of them one at a time as I did so. The only one of them that even acted like he was game was my first sergeant (man he would have kicked my ass, too. He was a bad man.)

Guess what happened? Absolutely nothing other than what I TOLD them would happen. "You are NOT calling me off of Doctor's leave to send me to the field for two weeks without consulting my doctor first and allowing me to, at the very least, renew my prescriptions for medication that I REQUIRE to get over my pneumonia that I am suffering due to a totally collapsed lung. In fact, after I kick your asses, I will leave this company. Nay, this entire batallion and there won't be a damned thing you can do about it."

They talked tough for a bit and I excused myself and walked straight towards the Brigade Chaplain's office. He called the CO on the phone. Told me everything would be fine and the next day I was moved to Brigade Headquarters where I went on to be awarded two AAM medals and was nominated for the ARCOM, within the span of two months. Upon leaving the military I found a nice hand-written letter in my mailbox from my congressional representative congratulating me on being inducted into the Fayetteville, Arkansas Hall of Honors. Weird, I still don't know what that one was for...

Point being, if you are in the right, and you take the proper channels at your disposal, shatbags like this will be circumvented.

reply to post by poling2482


Hold on, man. You had blood taken from you three times, the military lied about your whereabouts, and the mental hospital staff tried to convince you that religion was fake?? That's the last thing they do "over here".

That sounds more like an alien abduction than a trip to the mental ward!

Did you notice anything "peculiar" during your experience?

Originally posted by poling2482
I arrived in Germany and was there about 2 weeks and then left for Kosovo for a few months.

You stated you were in Germany for "about 2 weeks", then in your story you claim you were shuffled around mental hospitals in Germany for a month.

Can you please clear up this glaring inconsistancy?

[edit on 12-10-2009 by craig732]

reply to post by craig732


Germany is like rear-command for everything in that region.
I don't really see any inconsistency there.

Troops are staged in Germany and also go back into Germany for medical issues.

Another point worth noting, I think, is that if the military were going to send you to a "mental ward" and you were stationed overseas, they wouldn't send you to a "foreign" mental ward.
It would be a US Government run facility.

Not to sound like I am defending the OP, because as I have made it clear, I think the story is utter crap.