Some of those slides were stupid. I'm an asshole and I even I wouldn't do something that stupid. Lighten the environment? I'm all for it. "Catch yourself a black man?"
It was "Catch yourself a strong one"
That particular slide in question was made by a staff clerk who was black. He thought it was funny and slipped it in there. Otherwise, I too, would have considered it racist. But, it's easy to see why those who were on the outside scope of things, had no idea how tight a group the BCT under Jenio and Puck was, and could perceive these as negatively as they were and exactly why drinkwine pounced when he did.
If it went down like it was expressed in the articles, I think this could have been handled by a simple, "Frank, knock off the dumb shit, I need you in the field but if you can't control the shenanigans in your own TOC, I'm going to fire your ass." Of course if his immediate supervisor wanted to nail him already, this was a golden opportunity...
Bingo.
Previous Discussion
Here's an example of an officer coming forward, but not forward enough
One officer in the brigade with multiple deployments defended the slides, which he said “weren’t anything new.” The officer, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said he considers edgy humor part of the warrior culture and a way for soldiers to bond with each other and vent tension during tough deployments.
“The reason people didn’t find it offensive is that we were above that,” he said. “There was no separation of ethnicity or anything like that because we were a band of brothers, and that was misinterpreted by the investigating officer as a bad climate in the organization.”
He said the perception within the battalion was that strife between the families influenced the decision to remove Jenio and Puckett. “We were just thinking it would be a letter of reprimand, nonjudicial punishment. We were taken by surprise,” he said. “It was disappointing because there was nothing professional about it, it was all personal, a personal vendetta.”
And then, there's my old buddy Flo. Yeah, you needed to retire..........
Richard Flowers, then 4th Brigade’s command sergeant major, now retired, said he believes that although Jenio and Puckett are “great Americans,” their removal was justified by the offensive slides.
Flowers said that amid the Army’s efforts to stamp out domestic violence, sexual harassment and cultural insensitivity, the slides sent troopers a mixed message. “No battalion commander should need to be reminded about maturity, especially about women, especially about Afghanis,” Flowers said. “And racial stuff, we don’t need that.” Though he refused to say what the culturally insensitive slides depicted, Flowers said such images might have fueled violent reprisals against troops. “Every soldier knew, if you disrespect these people, you will pay the price,” Flowers said. “You don’t give ammunition to the enemy.”
So you say. Where was your maturity (Balls) when YOUR CDR needed to have his out of control wife on a fucking leash Mr. Leadership??
Buddy's now only half a word for this guy.
Flowers was so far up drinkwines ass, his peripheral vision was blurred from all the turds floating around his pea brain skull while it was stuck up there.
Bottom line is both Jenio and Puck are and always will be welcomed with open arms in the Ranger community. They were both outstanding leaders and stellar individuals I'd go through a door with anytime and still will. And I can attest so would anyone in their command or those who really know them for whom they truly are.
At least, neither will be stiffed at any future gatherings and needn't worry about ever paying for their drink tab, unlike Flowers, who as far as I'm concerned, should now be PNG'd from the community, but hope he shows up anyway just to receive all the shotgun blasts to his chest he's more than earned and then bounced sideways on out the door afterwards.
They were thrown under a bus for some very childish, immature crap and domineering antics stemming and originating from a power hungry spouse, who, like Leona Helmsley, thought she ruled her little minions with an iron fist, along with her apathetic commander husband, let her not only do that, with impunity, but defended it and her the way he did. Karma's a bitch and yours is all lined up, waiting to greet you and yours with a red fucking carpet all rolled out.
And with the PC level at what it is and climbing ever still, my heart goes out to those still on AD with half a ballsack still intact.
