Your Tax Dollars At Work: Military Ghost riding and other disturbing pass times on our dollar.

I was looking up videos
and I found these:







I found it pretty Disturbing Some of the things these guys are doing on our dollar...

Aside from the already dangerous things they are doing, imagine they are doing that and hit an IED? BOOM Done
Playing around. That would not be a graceful death nothing heroic about that...

As someone that served for a long time, let me say this... having a sense of humor during a deployment is how many keep thier sanity. We did all sorts of dumb stuff while deployed. No one was ever hurt, and it helped lighten the mood in an otherwise stressfull situation.

We crafted balistically stable Twinkies.

We froze lizards with liquid O2.

We invented a water balloon that shot water straight up on impact, instead of down and out.

All in good fun...

a reply to: starfoxxx

Yes, how dare they cut up and try to have a little fun in a high stress, high risk environment while they earn what amounts to cents per hour

a reply to: starfoxxx

You know the list of waste of tax dollars is SO HUGE and you could make a list literal miles long!

This i don't see it as a tax waste I do think the driver not being in the truck could be really dangerous if they have any at all problem and sometimes these bored guys tired of fear may do some dumb things, but tax waste? Not unless they wreck the truck.

And the VA execs wasted money giving them selves bonuses so don't complain of lack of care. They were just have fun and making their job better.

Swedish Marines take on Grease Lightning in Afghanistan



Swedish Marines making parody of Grease lightning in Afghanistan

You know what is really really wasting tax dollars and stupendously hilariously stupid? The idiots in Washington who send them there.

a reply to: starfoxxx

I think the amount of tax payers dollars spent on career politicians who do nothing but bicker and point fingers at each other is more wasteful than a group of young soldiers trying to have a little fun in a stressful situation.

a reply to: starfoxxx
Having recently been on deployment I can tell you two things.

1. Boredom is powerful
2. Morale is a hard thing to maintain when you're both bored, or fearful that you may not make it out.

a reply to: starfoxxx

Well then, you should go enlist to ensure these types of things stop happening.

Of all the superfluous ways tax dollars are spent, you choose to point out members of the military having a little fun? (Yes, their choice of fun is pretty dumb, but their options are limited)

I think your ire would be more productive directed at Congress or presidential vacations.

War is hell. deployment is stupid and boring and arduous and dangerous. hey dudes - think of this stuff BEFORE you sign up. maybe next time - DONT!

It did seem that some of the stuff was happening on patrol which is a little sketchy but I agree with most here in that it is a rather shifty place over there and very mentally taxing so if they want to have some fun, go ahead.
The waste of the tax dollars is them just being there, not them goofing around while they are there.

So then in your oppinion, these soldiers are nothing more than slaves, that must do nothing but sit still unless ordered to do X?

They are people, every second of their lives belongs to someone else, that sticks them in the worst places imagined.

And your talking sh.t about them having a tiny amount of fun, "on your dime"?

You are either kidding or you need a kick in the balls and a punch in the throat.

In the mid 80's I was at the beach on a Thursday with some friends of mine. While we were goofing around a man came up to us and said "Don't you boys have jobs?" I said "We're in the Navy." He replied "My tax dollars at work." I just walked away without saying anything. We were on a 96 hour liberty, just having come back from a 30 day Detachment where we averaged 18 hour days. So figure it this way. In 30 days, 8 of them would be weekends. Odds are there would be a holiday in there some place. Figure 21 actual work days for a total of 168 work hours. Take our 30 days times 18 hours per day. That works out to 540 hours. I'd say he was getting pretty good value for his "tax dollars". My pay at that time was $810.30 per month. Divide that by 540 and you get $1.51 per hour. Minimum wage at that time was $3.35 per hour.
If I had been paid minimum wage it would have been $1809.00 not including overtime.

a reply to: JIMC5499

I once did the math for a married E3 deployed plus combat pay with the numbers 351 days (-14 days R&R) 24 hours a day (because you are still on duty at all times) and came up with around 29 cents per hour

originally posted by: Mianeye
Swedish Marines take on Grease Lightning in Afghanistan

Swedish Marines making parody of Grease lightning in Afghanistan

Lol they are so cute!

originally posted by: oblvion
So then in your oppinion, these soldiers are nothing more than slaves, that must do nothing but sit still unless ordered to do X?

They are people, every second of their lives belongs to someone else, that sticks them in the worst places imagined.

And your talking sh.t about them having a tiny amount of fun, "on your dime"?

You are either kidding or you need a kick in the balls and a punch in the throat.

People on this board has called them slaves or more usually coined pawns.
I do not believe that since they are voluntary, they want do to this job.
That was of their own free-will.

My concern was more if they were playing around like that on duty and on camera,
someone died because of it. Just to me using a extremely large military vehicle weighing tens of tons possibly
being driven by someone who would jump out of it moving dance around on the hood and jump back in, it's just not smart.
There has to be a better way to have fun or break the stress..

a reply to: starfoxxx

being driven by someone who would jump out of it moving dance around on the hood and jump back in, it's just not smart.

This is certainly true and I know the crashed chopper that happened due to playing was a tax waste, I hate to see the guys risking themselves civilians and the equipment but I understand. My son is an Apache pilot and he has told me he has set some of the younger guys straight on being unsafe. I think some are really young and like everyone said the steady stress and worry about having your legs blown off has to have an outlet.

i notice when people go through horrors, they sometimes will laugh over some little thing, we are made like that we have to break up the stress to not actually have a mental break.