Mark Kelly has no Respect for Active Duty Personnel

Mark Kelly
Veterans are not the same. We are varied. We join for different reasons, have different experiences, get out for different reasons, stay in for different reasons, have different careers, and vote differently. Some combat veterans get out and never want to touch a gun again in their lives. Others can’t imagine walking out of the house without one. We are men and women, tall and short, every race imaginable, run the gamut from extremely intelligent to extremely not (sorry Marines), and are in no way some monolithic group. Most of us grudgingly accept the thanks and expressions of gratitude that the country lavishes on us. Others, like Mark Kelly, John Kerry, and their ilk, like to use those sentiments to manipulate public opinion. Most of us frown upon this behavior.
So, Mark, you don’t get to use my DD214 or even hint at that in your politics. One way or another. You had YOUR Navy career and have parlayed that into a Senate seat. Guys like you and Kenzinger as so freaking desperate to get the military and veterans to publicly join your side of the aisle it’s just nauseating.
I don’t know how it is now, but when I was in we didn’t give a crap about politics onboard ship. Not at all. The president was the president and he was cool, whoever he was. If I voted in 96, it would have been for Bill Clinton. Because he repealed the 55 mph speed limit. That’s how 20-somethings think, people. They don’t think like 60 year old former astronauts who loathe republicans, they think like testosterone fueled, invincibles, who are in incredible shape and are jonesing for some excitement, hence they joined the military.
Mark Kelly just did something awful. But we can tell what kind of veteran he is just by his Twitter handle. He was an astronaut for goodness sakes but he still has Captain in his Twitter handle. He wants the attention. He needs the attention. He wants unearned credibility. He wants his military resume to make people take his words seriously without checking them out. Well, unless we veterans are talking about the actual stuff we did in the military, then we’re just like everyone else. We’re not super-citizens because we took the oath. We’re not experts on patriotism or something else because we spent 4 years or 30 years in uniform and know how to fold a flag. We might be experts in organization, trades, flying planes, shooting, or other stuff that you can also become expert in outside the military. In which case, we need to debate. Like when it comes to politics. Every US citizen gets a vote so every US citizen’s opinion matters in politics. You got that, Mark? And trying to use your cred and current office to foment dissent in the ranks is really, really low. Which shows you might have had a successful military career but it didn’t include leadership or personnel management. Because you don’t respect the men and women wearing the uniform right now. You think they need to be told how to think and what to do, which is not how it works, Mark. We’re all taught not to obey unlawful orders because we’re all capable of identifying them as intelligent people.
The picture on the right is me on board a merchant vessel in the Persian Gulf or thereabouts in the mid 90s. I was on a team to enforce sanctions on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to make sure they could not export things under the ban put in place by the UN. We searched the ships that looked suspect. If they were found to be afoul of whatever law was governing those seas, the ships got impounded. While Mark Kelly has an illustrious Navy career, this is something he didn’t do. Others did. Those operations were very similar to the LEO ops that are done to keep drugs out of the US. I’m lost how it’s legal to blow boats up instead of boarding them and arresting people, but I’m not doing it now. That’s on the active duty personnel doing it presently and those giving the orders. And you can bet they have a pile of legal opinions backing their moves.
Something we do learn in the military is to defer to those on the front lines. Firing munitions on the open ocean is not something that can be done willy-nilly. And the men and women undertaking these operations do not need politicians telling them it’s against the UCMJ to follow unlawful orders. Because we were all taught that very early in boot camp, OCS, or whatever path officers take. As individuals. Who can think for ourselves. May God bless and protect those serving now.