This is posted with the permission of SGM Gibeau

His post was in response to people getting up on their high horses about actions that some member’s of the Service have done or are alleged to  have done.

I share his views, and am a strong supporter of our Military. I feel that they are under paid and over worked, the job they do is no job at all, it’s a duty that they felt called too. I will always back our Armed Forces 110%. I wish every time someone reads, that the people in Washington are about to cut funding for the Military, they would get mad enough to write their elected officials and let them know they disapprove of these actions. Without People like SGM Gibeau this Country would not exist.

The next time you see a person in uniform, thank them for all that you have. Here is another idea, ask them how they are, what they need, how you can help them when they have to deploy, how our Country can help them.

Just thoughts.

I am a Sergeant Major in the United States Army. I have read alot of the things written here about this young man, about his freedom of religion, how he should be jailed, how he should walk, etc etc.

NONE of you are correct. First, NO soldier has the freedom of religion. No soldier has the protection of the US Constitution. Soldiers (I say soldiers, and mean this to include the Air Force, the Navy The Coast Guard and the Marines.) All soldier have the freedom to worship any way they please, up to but not including the infringement of the rights and beliefs of anothers religion. They are protected by one book, and one book only. UCMJ, or the Uniform Code of Military Justice. We are held to a much higher standard than civilians. We are expected to conduct ourselves in a manner that sets us above and apart from civilians. We are expected to have a much higher sense of honor and a much greater sense of dignity and integrity than civilians. Whether or not we believe in this war is irrelevant. We all signed up for a minimum of eight years, and MOST of us have been here (The military) longer than that. Regardless of what the media says, most of us believe in what we are doing here, because we see things that the rest of you do not and will not ever see.

I fought in the first Gulf War, in 90-91. I fought here again in 1998 when President Clinton was trying to turn attention away from his impeachment. I then fought here in this war, as well as Afghanistan. (I have actually fought in every conflict the US has been in since Panama, just to demonstrate that this is not my first rodeo…)

What the “sniper” (I doubt he actually carried the Tango identifier in his MOS, since no Military Sniper School I know of allows someone with that level of emotion and obvious rage slip through the psych evaluation…) did, according to these people was unconscionable. Legally, it falls under the guise of “action unbecoming” and that is punishable. We are not here to feel as they feel, we are here to help rebuild, maintain the peace, and assist in enforcing the law, and help the rule of law take hold. Their laws will not necessarily mirror ours. Defilement of their holiest scripture is a crime here. Therefore, the soldier will be punished. When a Foreigner goes to America, if he breaks the law there, he is punished. It is no different for us as Americans in other countries, especially for our soldiers. That is the long and short of it.

I get real sick sometimes of the things that people say and do on these forums. I read them on ocassion to get an idea of how the mood is back home. Some of you **bleep** need to crawl back under your rock, work on your manners, learn to be a real warrior, and not a keyboard warrior, pick up a rifle, a shovel, or a pen, and do some good rather than lamenting all you see wrong.

SGM Gibeau