Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
of gnawed at me all day.

I hear you. I understand where you're coming from. You're entitled to your opinion and this is not an attempt to argue the point or even discuss the issue in the sense that I have no intent or desire to change your mind. We can disagree with no penalties either way...

I will however suggest that you might give some thought to the facts that what one does and can do is far more important than where one has been and that the Army personnel system does odd and very unfair things to people. Witness the Korea to Iraq trip; not HRC in that case but point is, unfairness goes with the territory.

I learned the hard way not to make hasty judgments about people based on superficialities and I hate to see others have to do that.

That sounds sort of pompous. Not meant that way.
Have to give Steve some backup here. I find it amazing that some people have avoided OIF/OEF for 6-8 years. It's not like there isn't opportunity. Some people can rationalize it, and a few may have done something like Kosovo instead, but if you wanted to be downrange, you could have been by this point. Hell, they give combat patches for Kuwait.

For guys who have three/four/five tours, it's hard to understand.

RE: Leavenworth, agree with Steve (mostly) but I have come to learn many (not all) of the no-patch wearers are mobilized reservists replacing active folks who deployed. Some of the senior MP NCO's (detention ops) have multiple tours to Gitmo but get no patch.

Niel