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Categories - Shopping - Free Online Business Help - Telecommunications Services - Copywriting Articles: Children - Losing a Soldier I am a former SSGT with the USAF and my Father served in the Army Air Corp in the Pacific and receiving 2 Gold Stars and three Purple Hearts. My family is related to General Patton and 13 members of the Revolutionary Army. One of our other family members, Mial Scurlock, died at the Alamo. We have served during every war that the United State has waged. We are members of the DAR, SAR, and VFW. Our family heritage is deep in military service.
My son, Christopher Adam Smith, serving in the family tradition, also entered the Air Force at a time that he was already able to exceed all of the physical requirements that he would be faced with while in basic training. He could already run faster, do more push-ups, and more set-ups than the Air Force would ask. While in basic, he was asked to set up a tent and had to pound stakes into very hard ground. The sledgehammer that he was given to use had a broken handle and he had to hold the hammer with his hand touching the head. There was no other hammer available and he had to hit the stake hard to get the stake to penetrate the hard ground. On one of his strikes, the head slipped off of the stake and his finger struck the stake’ being powered by the force from the hammerhead’ breaking it in eight places. Prior to breaking his finger, he was doing very well in basic and his Training Instructor liked him. During his time in basic, even though he was told that his pay had been deposited, he learned that the Air Force was actually depositing his check into another Chris Smith’s account after he was notified that his account had been overdrawn for $10 worth of soft drinks out of machines and he was charged $300 in overdraft fees.
Chris was sent to a medical squadron while his hand healed and, despite his injury, he did well in his limited assignment and was well liked by the people in charge. He was put in charge of various details and made responsible for seating 300 people at the dining facility. He was also asked to escort other patients to the mental facilities when they became unruly. His finger was not properly repaired and now, as a result of being forced to use defective tools, he is unable to close his hand completely and his finger remains deformed. After his finger healed, he was sent back to finish basic and completed it with no incidents. His first TI recommended him to his new TI.
Chris was then sent to Sheppard Air Force Base to undergo training as an aircraft refueler. In addition to technical training classes, Sheppard assigns increasing amounts of liberties to its trainees in phases 1, 2, and 3. Trainees are also required to carry documents called 341s with them to give to other Air Force personnel who see them violating rules. The 341s are turned into the squadron by the person writing the trainee up and every permanent party junior airman and on up can ask a trainee for a 341. NCOs that the trainees report to then have the option of converting the 341s in to much more serious Letters of Reprimand (LORs).
When Chris first started his training at Sheppard, he initially had some trouble with the high-paced academic setting, but through his own initiative, he was able to develop a study routine that eliminated his academic problems. He was cruising though his last week in his final block, in Phase 3, had received orders to go to England, had been through processing, and his belongings had been shipped. He was doing well in his studies and spent his evenings running, lifting weights, and playing handball to keep in shape and watching movies and playing video games in his dorm room. He does not drink or do drugs and has never stolen anything. His Military Training Leader liked him and his MSGT had checked him out in the refueling truck and said that he knew what he was doing. In spite of what had happened, with his pay and hand, he still liked the Air Force and was looking forward to his tour of duty in England. Then the following unfortunate series of events occurred.
He was going over his class notes while eating at the dining facility and left his notebook on the chair next to him when he left. The notebook contained all of his work for his final block 4, which he had already completed even though he had a week left. He discovered this when he arrived at his classroom the next morning, Friday the 13th, and reported it to his Military Training Leader. Chris was given a LOR when he reported to his MSGT. He took the initiative to redo all of the work in Block 4 over the next 3 days during his off-duty time.
In the meantime, Chris had also noticed additional strange activity with his bank account. $400 had been deducted from his account and his pay was not being deposited at his new B of A account. He was at payroll trying to get things squared away and called me on his cell phone to log into his bank account and collect information. Denver had deposited pay in his B of A account belonging to a Chris Andrew Smith and had taken it out about three weeks later, but my son's pay was still being deposited in his USBank account. Chris was well aware of the rules concerning using electronic devices while in uniform and was obeying them, but for some reason did not consider a cell phone an electronic device. A woman in accounting asked for his 341 and he was given another LOR.
For his punishment for the two LORs, he was set back in class two weeks and busted to phase 1 for a week.
Some airmen are given ropes to wear on their shoulders and given the task of marching formations to school. While standing at attention in formation the next morning, airmen around him were talking. The rope in charge looked over, did not see who was talking, but issued Chris a 341 because he said that his hat was too small. This was the same hat that he was measured for and issued in basic training. For getting the 341, Chris was issued another LOR and busted back to phase 1 for another week when talking to his new MTL, SSGT Smith, and his new MSGT Taylor. MSGT Taylor told Chris to type up reports on the rulebook and a response as to why his hat was too small. The rope that issued the 341 did not make it through rope school and was relieved of his duty.
The following Friday, he checked the weekend detail roster after work and his name was not on it. That evening around 23:30, he was awakened by pounding on his dorm room door and yelling that the detail roster was being created. Early Saturday morning, there was again pounding and yelling on his door saying that he was on detail and that he had better get down stairs. Chris jumped up and rushed down but was 5 minutes late. Chris was put in charge of four Airmen and managed to type his reports for MSGT Taylor during lunchtime on Sunday. Even though the NCO in charge of the detail gave Chris a Letter of Achievement (LOA) as a result of his good work on the weekend detail, he was given another LOR for being late. SSGT Smith and MSGT Taylor then said that they were going to throw Chris out of the Air Force.
That evening, SSGT Smith pulled a surprise inspection on Chris's dorm room. Chris was in his room and with his locker door unlocked and a bag of trash that he was getting ready to take down to the garbage. SSGT Smith said that the unlocked locker door was a security violation and wrote him up for that and the bag of trash. Chris's roommate was not there but had also left his locker door unopened. SSGT Smith accused Chris of breaking into it. A short while after SSGT Smith left, two more NCOs came into Chris's room and searched his locker. There was no contraband or anything in the locker that was not supposed to be there.
MSGT Taylor told Chris that he was going to be sent to another squadron and to pack up his belongings. Chris was called downstairs at about 22:30 that night and told to report to Lt. Col. Neil the next day. Lt. Col. Neil told him that he was going to be processed out of the Air Force. Chris was supposed to re-enter Block 4 the next day and had already done all of his work for the entire 2-week class and planned to do it an additional number of times to make sure that he did well.
After reporting to Lt. Col. Neil, Chris developed a severe headache and went to the hospital for treatment. He had been accidentally tripped by another airman in basic training while going down some stairs and fallen and struck his head hard enough to temporarily make him briefly lose consciousness. He did not report to the hospital at the time because he thought that, having already been injured due to faulty equipment, he would get in trouble and he had been dazed previously from hard hits when he was playing hockey to no ones great concern. He now has a dent in his skull and had suffered increasingly painful headaches and felt constant pressure. Chris thought that if he was going to be thrown out that he should get his head looked at first. Instead of being processed out, he was put on medical status in his dorm room and told to report to his NCO every hour to make sure that he is OK. He was scheduled for various medical tests.
On 4/27, while leaving his dorm room to report for his hourly check in, he forgot to sign out and was given another LOR.
On 4/30, he was told to pull Road Guard duty in his Physical Training clothes and given no instruction. While moving a few steps to tell a driver that she was not going to be able to get out if she parked in a location, he was moving his hands around as he was explaining. Someone was watching him and issued him a 341, which was transferred into another LOR.
On 4/30, a note was posted on the bulletin board informing Airmen to wear their sleeves rolled up. Chris did not know if he was supposed to wear them rolled up in the dining facility so he did not go to eat to avoid more trouble.
One evening while talking to him, he seemed very depressed about the situation and as he hung up I was concerned about the way he said good-bye. I tried calling him back a few times, but could not reach him. I called the medical clinic on base and expressed my concern. I was told that a nurse would call me back shortly. In the meantime I kept trying to call Chris and finally got a hold of him and he had settled down. No nurse ever did call me, but I learned later that they had left a message with Chris’s squadron that I had called saying that Chris was depressed. The squadron did not pick up the message until the next day, which might have been too late.
Later the following week, another Airman flung the door open from the bathroom hitting Chris’s big toe and apparently breaking it. Chris went to the medical clinic and was told that his toe was in fact broken and it was simply bandaged up. Later, when Chris reported to the hospital off base for a cat scan, a doctor looked at his toe and said it was simply dislocated and popped it back into place relieving Chris of the pain that he had been suffering. Chris had played hockey for 10 years, driven forklift at Home Depot for a year handling tons of construction supplies, and worked on construction sites without suffering a smashed finger.
During a period of 2-3 weeks while Chris was on medical status, he was assigned to wash windows everyday and he did this for the entire time without complaining. He was also told during this time that he was going to be put back into Block 4 so that he could finish his training and go on to his permanent assignment. All of Chris’s medical tests came back negative and he was released to active duty expecting to go back into training. He was immediately told to report for his discharge physical because he was going to be discharged. He reported to his commander on May 5th and was told that he would be discharged in one week.
A TSGT in the sqradron and Area Defense Counsel have told Chris that his mistakes are not the types of things that people are discharged for. I have found the number for the Area Defense Counsel for members of the Air Force, who get into this type of situation, but they refuse to talk to me and Chris’s morale and attitude have been destroyed and he refuses to call them again to learn about his rights and make sure that he is protected. He says that the rules are not being enforced for everyone and that some people are breaking actual laws for things like underage drinking and being allowed to stay in. He just wants out of the Air Force now and is very depressed. This is, no doubt, exactly what SSGT Smith and MSGT Taylor wanted.
The thing that most likely bothers the people involved in this is that, while Chris is respectful and makes every attempt to obey his orders, he will not cower and he will not be broken. His conversation and answers tend to be abrupt and truthful. "Yes sir. I made a mistake." "No sir. I did not do that." These individuals are trying to lead by making the people reporting to them afraid instead of earning their respect. Chris is not afraid and they know it.
The Air Force is obviously in need of some leadership training for its NCOs to prevent this type of thing from happening in the future and Sheppard needs to revise its 341 and LOR process to make sure that the careers of otherwise good soldiers are not destroyed by unqualified immature incompetents who do not understand the consequences of their actions.
As you can see, a number of unfortunate, but harmless events and mistakes snowballed on Chris at a time when he was doing very well, had performed above standards, and was on his way to having a successful career in the Air Force and making a contribution to his country. Without any prior knowledge of Chris or the skills to do their jobs, these NCOs allowed their attitudes towards Chris to be affected and they mounted a campaign to force Chris out of the Air Force. Even Chris's attitude, which had been unbending, was affected. He says that he has come fully loaded every single time, ready to do their bidding, but they don’t respect him. He is not insubordinate. The Air Force is going to lose a very good soldier and Chris will have his future severely damaged.
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