Wow, this thread has turned out to be a lot of fun to read!! All sorts of stuff being thrown back and forth, most of it not even true, but all of it fun to read!!!
As one who has taken on the good Colonel a time or two, disagreed with him almost always, made fun of him a lot, and (to the shock and awe of both of us) even accidentally agreed on an issue... I'd like to chime in here... if I may. ;~D
1st of all, there's nowhere in the UCMJ that says we lose our freedom of speech when we enlist. If every servicemember who ever disagreed with their superiors were court martialed for doing so, the anti military folks in this country wouldn't have anything to be "anti" anymore!
All of us learned really soon that there are two kinds of officers, those who you salute, and those whose ranks you salute. It also didn't take long to figure out which is which. We openly talked about our superior NCOs and Officers, and I can think of more than a few times when I disagreed with superiors and spoke my mind (to various responses, reactions and consequences ;~D) Even a few "thank you for speaking up" type reactions.
George Washington himself is attributed to have said, "When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen."
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When we retire, we are still under many provisions of the UCMJ. We also retain our rank. I'm as guily as the next guy of personal shots at Col Gene (and him wearing his rank on his SN), I do wonder about any retiree that introduces himself with his rank (but then again, I wondered about active servicemembers who did the same thing, while not in uniform). However, fodder for personal shots aside, Col Gene earned the rank, he retired with it, so of course, he has every right to use it anyway he wants.
As for his verbal shots at Prs. Bush. Sure, he is pretty much a "one trick pony" (credit to Gideon), and well, using an archaic term, "sounds like a broken record", but his blog is his pony to ride. Predictable as he may be, with his needle is stuck on the same "Bash Bush, Bash Bush, Bash Bush, Bash Bush", his stuff is usually still worth reading. They may be misguided and brash, but their usually well written at best and wildly funny at worst! ;~D
As I pointed out to Col Gene in the article that inspired this call to court against him, his rant about impeaching Prs. Bush has no Constitution basis or grounds. Well Terp, as much as we usually agree, you rant has no grounds either.
I was a fun read though!! ;~D
