That Hansen woman was a real piece of work. She spent her whole young life antagonizing those around her - wherever she was - complaining about the negative reaction she was literally causing, then fighting the whole system over the very mess that she created. A true common denominator. And her mom was supporting it the entire way. Quite a family...
BS,Like you were there and knew that, your most likely a perf just like the man who sexually harassed her, it’s people like you that’s the problem not the woman
"That Hansen woman"... to pas judgment like that... did you know her personally... or is your opinion just based on hearsay? Me... this was good entertainment by PBS... nothing more.
Hey Einstein, I'm "passing judgement" based on the information provided in the documentary. You see, I've got two eyes, two ears, and a functioning brain. I also have a bunch of years of experience on this planet, and I know exactly what I was looking at with "that Hansen woman", so I don't consider that "hearsay" at all. You must be related to her, to defend her like that.@@DawgPro
the Chief of Naval Operations was part of her chain of command, and was a veteran Naval Aviator, of course he would be in a position to know whether she could handle the responsibilities as a Naval Aviatior.
Exactly. I’m a 46 year old female from the Scottish highlands and our Royal Navy had issues when females were sent to sea. Thankfully, our Navy didn’t pander to media pressure to allow women in even though they were clearly unsuitable for the position they wanted. Hansen was a shitty student and her whole entitled, narcissistic attitude would’ve done nothing to help her career. I’m disgusted at her attitude - she did so much harm to females who were actually doing ok in their training. They were viewed with suspicion because of the bullshit stirred up by her. She just loves to play the victim.
As a woman I find it disgusting that the woman blames failing two classes on misogyny. She’s clearly trying to distract from her own failures and low performance by falsely claiming misogyny when it was because she sucked as an individual. I hate it when other women use me as a human shield to protect themselves from accountability.
Whether or not she was truly passing her classes, would anyone find it easy to learn after your instructor is constant making sexual passes on you day in and day out and embarrassing you in front of you classmates with sexual pranks? I think that once a whistleblower has made a complaint that you can't really trust any official performance reviews after the fact. Thats why whistleblower protection had to become a thing. As a former flight school instructor I can tell you many people get stuck on certain aviation topics in school, who go on to master them and become fine pilots.
I was open minded with her at first but it did not take long to realize she should have never been in the Navy at all. You have to have standards and when you don't meet them you are out, she even admits she wasn't very good. So So does not cut it in aviation especially at sea.
I was in the Navy (enlisted) when he was the CNO, enlisted men such as myself loved him, finally one of our own and not some nose high in the sky Grad who think all enlisted men are dumb and second class humans.
there is a good chance Hansen was alive to participate in this documentary because Admiral Author ended her flying career before she killed herself and someone else in a Helo.
I served as the Commanding Officer of a unit that supported naval aircraft. When I assumed command I noticed that I had a female P-3 Orion pilot, a Lieutenant in the unit. As a support unit I had no reason to have a pilot on the staff. She had been decertified from flight status for having poor flight skills and was "stashed" at my unit. She flew light civil aircraft on the weekends towing banners along the San Diego beaches and sporting events, building hours to hopefully become an airline pilot in the future. She accidentally killed herself when she stalled her aircraft and crashed nose first into the runway while attempting to pick up an advertising banner. Aviators like Vice Admiral Arthur know what they are doing when they make the decision to remove aviators from flight status. The Navy had been correct in this Lieutenants as and probably saved countless Navy lives by clipping her wings.
The destruction Rebecca Hanson left in her wake wherever she visited says it all, someone who was overpromoted cause she 'complained".... we're lucky she's out of the Navy, but we lost Great people until that happened. For her and Mommy, it's always someone else's fault.
90% of my military flight training class washed out because we just were not good enough! So we just sucked it up and chose other careers. Military flying is extremely unforgiving. The Navy might have just stopped her from killing herself & her crew.
I did as well, I even have a VHS copy of this from PBS Frontline. Now, it is recognized that the death of the pilot was a accident, very possible pilot error. At least she was not experienced enough for the situation she found herself in. Sad thing is, tis happens to men every day and if she had the chance to get more experience, she might be alive today. She was pushed into sea deployment when she should have had more time in the cockpit.
Sure she was, if you daughter was in her shoes you would fight for her, or not by how you replied. Guess you dont remember tail hook or served during that time.
Did Hansen really pretend that she shouldnt have to know who the leadeeship chain of command is? And that she didnt know who Admiral Arthur was? Proves right there that she had a different set of rules for herself.
LOL Right? That Hansen b***h was a real piece of work. When I was a freshman in ROTC we had to be able to recite the entire chain of command- from cadet leadership all the way to POTUS.
@@jebb125 Sure they didnt .... this probably one of the dumbest comments i have ever wasted time on. Hansen was out of her league ...got multiple chances when others didnt ...and this is what u come back with? Sounds like you and Hansen feel like you should only answer to yours selves. As opposed to following the same rules as the rest of the military.
Dumb?? coming from a guy that does not have a DD214 and designated as a aviator, you sound real smart, how about letting the grown ups and instructors at TW5 talk @@jeremyfisher8782
It was a bad event, and people needed to be reprimanded. But these scrag women, and some men, politicians saw a ball to roll and they rolled it over as many people as possible. This was like a feather in their hat to get reelected or a better committee assignment. Those are the real criminals. I’m a graduate of the Army flight school and was an Instructor/ Flight Examiner, and Hanson is a typical one for a student not accepting their fate. Some people can fly, some can’t. She’s the latter. If you can’t keep up with proficiency levels, and are falling behind, at some point you can’t catch up. You’re out
I'm just incredibly proud as an American at Stan Arthur's level-headed & humble perspective on our principle of civilian leadership of the military, his dilemma, and ultimately his decision to retire. America is almost unworthy of the type of honor he brought to his leadership role in the US Navy.
After over 30 years of flying professionally, i've seen so many pilots in the seat who got there because of what they are not who they are....just like Hansen who are professional victims
I find it suspect that wherever Hansen has gone she has filed some kind of grievance. Starting in high school with litigating high school bullies. With her first job and than the Navy. Has she been a constant victim her entire life? It seems to me she was a subpar aviator who unfortunately had a assh#le of a instructor. Her way of dealing with it much like many other instances in her life is to leave a wake of career destruction. It's shameful and a terrible example for future woman aviators.
I was thinking exactly the same thing while listening to her telling her background...... No responsibility what-so-ever! Never HER fault!! Just keep those complaints/law cases coming.......!!
I was an active duty female HM during all this stationed in GTMO. I can say things do gradually change over my 20 years for females in the Navy. I can only speak on my experiences not as a whole.
38:12: Yes, Ms. Hansen, in fact, "the average Ensign" should know who the Vice Chief of Naval Operations is. It's required knowledge for all members of the Navy, regardless of rank.
Unfortunately for the Hansen girl. The same type of person that can never take responsibility for anything. Aka blames others for what they screwed up. is the same type of person that constantly fails academically!. Why? Because in order to pass test you have to be responsible and put in the time studying! It appears the navy didn’t hold her to the same standard. For those unaware, flight school is very simple if you study and put in the time!. That tells me, she just showed up unprepared, day after day! She was banking on preferential treatment simply because she’s a female. -- I have 5 daughters and 1 son all race and my oldest two are in aviation and medicine. So it pisses me off when irresponsible females/males go make all females/males look bad.
Ensign Hanson would not have been a good fit for any branch of the military. She wants to fight authority at every turn, which is fine for an attorney or a political activist but not a naval officer and aviator.
I have much respect for the military training culture The most experienced in the world. USA was always my traditional role model. Been here since I first arrived at 4 years old except for 3 years between 1977 - 1980 where I was doing specialized training as an aspiring vehicle designer. I'm recommending Senator Kerrry as someone you may want to consult with regarding some special and unique programs we bith belueve in. Since 1987. Thank you for your time.
It was a disgusting investigation based on the accusations of a jaded female LtCmdr who was having her muff shaved the night before in a squadron Barber chair. Paula, if you can read this post 🖕🏻
Thank God above that those men were shit-canned. Sure, they were hot-shot pilots, but they held back the nation, keeping 51 percent of our population from competing for the top jobs in Naval Aviation. --from a 20-year veteran and Navy flyer.
@@TomSwift-wy1gx negative, those policies were made way before those guys were born, nor did they have any authority or ability to keep those policies in place.
@@brady3474 The admirals at the party allowed the sexual assaults to continue year after year, promoting a toxic workplace for women and retarding the progress of our national defense.
@@gabriellamar2683It might not have anything to do with sexual harassment. She could have been great and it still would have happened to her. The guys, the "boys" who did that to her, they didn't care how good she was. They were just trying to have fun at her expense.
So do you think people show up at flight school already knowing how to do everything or do they have to learn from their instructors. What happens if your instructor is more concerned with getting laid than seeing that you learn things.
@@PilotLifeNet I don't know if it has anything to do with being brought up in a religious family, but for a long time, I've had a feeling of distaste for sex-obsessed guys who think or talk about sex in places where it doesn't belong, whether it's in school or the workplace. What you do with your body in your private life is your business. Keep it out of the workplace. If the instructor was doing that kind of thing . . . he was literally a "dickhead" (pardon the language). For a long time, gay men have been persecuted for being homosexual, but somehow sex-obsessed flight instructors who want to "get laid" have had it easy. Which form of "sexual deviancy" and "perversion" is worse? Flight instructors like that should be deported to Iran.
People have to understand context. The military is majority 18-25yr olds. Not the most mature age group. I remember a story where the base commander gets a late night phone call from local EMS. Some E-1, E-2s and Ensign got hit by a train after they tried to race/beat the train! So that’s the level of maturity your dealing with in a lot of cases.
I was onboard the carrier when Hultgren was first trying to bring her tomcat aboard the ship. The Navy gives you three chances to bring the ship aboard before being sent back for remedial training. She had her three chances and she never made it onboard the ship. They announced this over the 5MC when she was on approach every time. The 5MC is loud speaker system on the flightdeck that you can hesr over the engines, very loud. They announced that they were sending her up to tank and get fuel while they had a meeting. They came back on the 5MC and said they were going to give her one more try of landing the plane. Any male would have been sent back to land, but because it was a big push on getting women fighter pilots they slide the training instructions in trying to get women in the planes flying. They should have sent her back to Miramar for remedial training. This was the starting of the death of Hultgren, the Navy didn't care but to appease the civilians in congress.
I am a retired sailor and my opinion with things like this “too old fashioned.” But I still think that men and women have two different roles in life. And to me men are cut out to do things that women aren’t and visa/versa. And when politics come into play, it seems to open up doors that don’t need to be opened. Whether it’s military life or civilian. You can disagree with me but, here in America, we all can have our say.
I met Admiral Boorda when I was sent TAD to Washington to be a Coxswain on a barge. He was a great man and the only man to ever rise from E-1 to Admiral in the history of the Navy, and he was a fraudulent enlistment, he lied about his age when he enlisted. It's infuriating what Hackworth did to him.
Yeah, stolen valor just screams great navy officer. Sad he killed himself rather than cope with it. But hardly someone I’ll ever admire. Why did he need to lie like that?
@@animula6908 He did not lie, Zumwalt told men that they were authorized to wear the V device. But Boorda had stopped wearing them 2 years before Hackworth shot off his mouth. You get a Valor device for any award that was earned in combat. Hackworth was himself found to be not authorized to wear the Ranger tab he wore because though he was assigned to a Ranger BN when he earned the awards, he was not a Ranger.
I’m an active duty naval aviator here with over 30 years of experience. I know Paula Caughlin personally. She is a fantastic person, was a solid aviator and a professional naval officer. The fact that Hultgreeb was a woman has no bearing on her mishap. There’s been hundreds of mishaps since hers. I doubt any of them scrutinized the sex of the pilot. Mishaps occur; it’s a reality of the job. Hansen’s issue highlights two things. There was legit harassment, and she was a horrible aviator. Both of these are hard facts. There’s physical proof of both. One had nothing to do with the other. The service is better with her out of it.
hultgreen being a woman might not have had a bearing on her mishap, but her being pushed through to carrier service on one of the navy's most tempermental aircraft on final approach ( the tomcat) when some believed she wasn't ready for it definitely contributed. Qualifications matter, and the people higher up who put PR/Optics above merit are indirectly responsible for what happened.
Qualifications DO matter. And you either have them, or you don’t. The CO signs their name on that designation. Ultimately, it’s on them. If someone isn’t ready, don’t sign the designation. And if what you say is true, that CO didn’t have to guts to refuse to sign it until she was ready.
@@SAVY_JAX Damn right, no disagreements there. the fear of looking misogynistic overcame the guts to do what was right, and the navy lost a pilot because of it.
'Hulk" Hultegreen should have NEVER been driving an F-14-was she a capable pilot-yes. But not in the Tomcat. She was pushed there by higher ups playing the game & it cost her life. BTW-an interesting sidenote-all ejection seats have a weight limitation. ALL. Her callsign "Hulk" came from she was of large stature & was most likely outside of the high end weight for that Martin Baker seat. The Navy also spent a LARGE sum of money diving down to recover her remains-the Pacific out there off of California in W-291 is pretty deep. From a former Jarhead & 30+ year aircraft mechanic that got his start way back in 1980-have a bit of experience with Naval Aviation & it still sickens me about what happened to Hultgreen.
there was no way she weighed as much as me, and I was never outside of the weight limits of any seat. And I have always heard from people who knew her her call sign was Revlon.
@@brady3474I had heard of that callsign many moons ago-as far as the seat quote I read that sometime back in the late 90's & stand corrected. The Tomcat was a LOT of aircraft-had a friend who was in the RAG in the early 80's-Vince was a hell of a stick & he commented on many occasions about what a handfull it was.
Yeah, having a machine propel you into a surface is probably fatal even if it’s water. Ward Carroll did an excellent breakdown of the accident from a technical perspective more than a cultural/political perspective.
I was stationed in NAS Pensacola when this all happened. I knew then, that was the end of the great Navy! So many great careers ruined, because Of a few people.
In early 80's I took my GT test and most of the soldiers there were doing the same thing of trying to better their score to qualify and go to flight school or other MOS qualifications needed. I studied and took a refresher course for the GT. I even took the practice test and scored a 125 GT. The day I took the test I felt that I scored over 110. I had finished the exam ahead of time and went over some of questions to check. As I went down the short hallway, I can hear two of the examiners chatting with one another. I overheard one saying to the other that minorities and women should not be pilots. I stood at the door, and it was like a pin drop, and they knew I heard them talking. At the time I never thought anything about it until later when I got my results in the mail that I only scored a 109 on the test. I was so disappointed!! When you took the test, you were not shown where you made the mistakes, just the overall scores in the mail. I really wished I could have seen my mistakes to be satisfied. I honestly felt I did so well... :'( I was young then and just recently got married. I started to take flight lessons on base just to be a pilot and fly like I always wanted to do. I could not finish because I realized that a lower enlisted salary was not going to cut it and let alone support my family. So, I had to stop flying. :'( Going through flight school through the military was the affordable way. I am older now and retired... I sometimes think I am too old now and should not attempt and waste my time and money. My daughter was trying to convince me that I can do it as a hobby since I am retired. Who knows, I might just try after all these years!! lol It is sad to hear of the females and what they had to endure trying to make it in a man's military then. The ranks still do the same thing making the decisions because they can and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Today allot has change and really glad because it sucks when the highest ranking makes a call, and his call is GOD! Hah ha ha! :D
Now there are minorities and women flying different aircrafts and fighters for the military. I can understand it being a white male dominating career field in the military and it must have been difficult for them and their ego to allow minorities and women into their career fields.
I don't know what Hansen was complaining about. She had two failures at AOCS. That is the standard for elimination. She never should have even been commissioned.
Sad and wrong on so many levels and from so many different angles. This is what happens when politicians stick their noses too deeply into where they don’t belong. People get hurt, lives get ruined, and just about everything they touch turns to a stinking pile of 💩 The side-story of the Hansen(sp?) case is particularly mind-numbing.
And Hansen got her disability retirement from the military for a non duty related skiing accident. She should have been charged with damaging government property!
With respect to McCain, and I mean that, I guarantee he was present at similar parties during his career. Obviously he famously spent a large part of his career in the Hanoi Hilton, but earlier he was present. We all were. It may not have been stateside and that might be an important distinction, but we all have spent time at those sort of parties with the top brass. Regarding Hansen, she was probably sub standard, many were before her who were all men. The plane doesn't care if you are male or female, it just cares if you handle situations appropriately. Even if she wasn't, she came along at a time that it would have been impossible to put her in the fleet flying with her baggage. Right or wrong, she wasn't a good fit for the USN at that time whether she was a pilot or not. Today would be very different namely in the treatment from flight instructors. Good pilots graduate, poor ones wash out. Gender is not an issue.
Did any of your flight instructors grab your head, hold it to their crotch and laugh about it in front of the rest of your class? Did you all do that, too??
Hansen got an experienced combat pilot with multiple DFCs forced out because she could do no wrong; like fail an arduous pilots’ program. Ridiculous PC. More prevalent than ever today but I’m almost glad to see its nothing new.
Hultgreen died because she didn't follow her training and because the Navy pushed her forward when they knew her training wasn't an par with the men. The jet doesn't care what genitalia you have. You better know how to operate it. Sadly the Navy failed Hultgreen by giving her "special" treatment and treating her with kid gloves.
In Revlon's "mishap" and same-same the 14,000 hr pilot of the 757 that literally lost his entire Left engine on take-off, power MUST be Reduced on the remaining engine and sufficient rudder applied to counter-act the roll....unfortunately the LSO was repeating the very dangerous Mantra ""Power, Power, Power"" and that input was just the opposite of what she needed to do.
You ARE staying up late....and you left a word out......listen Binki Boy, the next time you are in a Tomcat, and one of the jets fails, YOU pull the power BACK and input Sufficient Rudder to stop the roll, then EJECT. Don't let some dumbass LSO get your Dumb Butt killed......Judas, I just saved your life, no need to thank me. Have you ever flown an airplane?? I owned and flew my sweet little Smith DSA (poor man's Pitts). My boss in the Crop Duster biz I worked for , way way back in the ancient day, had a 1928 & a 1929 Travelaire....I flew one of those and soloed a 1938 J-5 when I was 18. Go fly a broomstick, but when the left engine fails on that broomstick, you do what Revlon did .......Power up and Die. I don't know anyone buried @ the NatCem, but I know several people killed in our sandpile wars and Vietnam buried in Texas---I was in Charlie Company, 4th RECON, 4th MarDiv Draft Dodger. Get off my back X Gen.@@williamcoe9200
You need full MRT power for a wave off. You need proper rudder input to counteract the effect of that full power on the one good engine. I have never heard an LSO call, “Rudder… rudder… rudder!” So what’s your point, again?
@@Johnoftheshire Johan des die Shire:: this is not a normal wave-off--If the LSO is Really sharp he WOULD say something like Reduce Power...hold rudder INTO the good engine....your not doing a wave-off to go around again, she needed to get into a configuration for a safe Eject....the RIO got out, but she had rolled too far and was shot into the water, while the LSO was saying "" Power, Power, Power"" ....exactly the Wrong thing to deal with the mishap----I saw one of these power out situations with a 737 crew, and there was NO problem because the Co-pilot was holding rudder into the working engine AND they had Reduced power---ergo, the plane was not rolling....with the 14000 hr 757 pilot, the pic showed him at about 500 feet, no doubt still @ Full T.O. power, A/C rolled to about 90 degrees, teeth gritted, saying ""oh my God we're going to die" and a few seconds later they all did. (( His engine had actuallly fallen off the aircraft.))
Admiral Boorda was not a casualty of a culture war, or a clash between men and women. He made a mistake on his awards and decorations and was called out for it publicly but a sociopath named David Hackworth. He was so ashamed of the mistake, and was made to look like a criminal by Hackworth and the national news, and took his own life. Noteworthy is the fact that Hackworth wore a Ranger tab for years that he was not authorized to wear. Boorda was a very impressive individual. Culture war did not cause him to take his own life.
@turbo 6 - The PBS production was impressive. I had not seen it since it originally aired in 1996-97. Better is the Peter Boyer piece in The New Yorker, on which the program was based. If you can find it and read it, you will see that there were many forces bearing down on Boorda relentlessly during this timeframe that became too much for him to bear. Each and all were intertwined with the culture war set off by Tailhook.
Hackworth wasn't a sociopath - loudmouth (probably, yes), but he showed how to fight guerilla's - making (too) many enemies in the US Army... The people that didn't want to win the war, like the politicians they sycophanted to. The same ones that destroy institutions, as they are the 'best and brightest'... We can all witness how that has been working out, for the last 60 years... (this story being a prime example - and Boorda working with degenerate Clinton, was part of that problem).
I was in the Navy for 6 years (1991 - 1997) served on a guided missile cruiser and a guided missiel frigate. I was single and if you was single in th Navy at that time you pretty much lived on the ship both import and sea. If you was married and your wife was there yoou got paid you extra money to live out in town, if you was single the ship was your home all the time. If you was in the shipyard you either lived on a birthing barge next the ship, which was sometimes worse conditions than the ship or you stayed on the ship while shipyward work went on 24 hours a day. i could leave the ship in port unless it was my duty day but unless I had GF and lived with her or stayed a hotel say on a staurday night. I went back to the ship.
@@Fred-vy1hm lol, I was in military for 13 years and am still working on bases around in 5th and 7th fleet. So yes, I know what I’m talking about and am witness how this current administration is pushing unqualified members into positions of leadership pre-maturely due to their gender
@@Fred-vy1hm don’t get me wrong Freddy, I’m not against women serving our country in leadership billets and or in aviation but you can’t cut corners because you want a percentage outcome of females in certain positions, no pun intended. The nature of combat arms and aviation adhere to more of a man’s man world. Like the Royal Marine say, “99% need not apply” because most men shouldn’t be able do what top level combat units do so if a woman can make it at the same standards then I will salute them for their effects and tenacity but not when I’ve seen them fall out runs or not meeting any specific standards and then watch them get a pass while men would be dropped from training for the same deficiency.
The footage of that crash was awful to watch, yet it's also fascinating to consider the engineering. When they say the engine stalled, what actually does that mean. Normally with airplanes i thought a stall was due to windspeed at the wing. Regardless, it's amazing to think that when aircraft carriers were first deployed fast naval planes were about 400 mph top speed. Now they are four times that, yet they can still fly slow enough to make a tailhook landing.
I don't know the particulars of Hultgren's accident, but in genreal terms, a jet engine can suffer what's called a compressor stall - a disruption to the airflow that causes an imbalance between airflow supply and airflow demand. Basically, the engine quits and needs to be restarted. Hope this helps.
If the airflow is disturbed through a jet engine due a number of reasons it can basically ‘cough’ and cease producing thrust - sometimes momentarily and sometimes permanently until the engine can be shutdown and relit. This would have left Hultgreen with insufficient thrust in that position in the pattern. Apparently the early Turkey (F-14) was susceptible to engine stall (portrayed well in Top Gun).
I read someswhere that she had been warned about that a couple of time and the F14 NATOPS had a bold black warning about excessive yaw causing a compressor stall. Don't know it's just what I read.
Hultgreen was a below average jet pilot. She had 2 years flying the A-6E Intruder and should have done very well in VF-124, the F-14 RAG/FRS training squadron. She failed three flights. Any male would have been attrited. Kicked out. She was known for turning late and tight on final to land. You could do this in the A-6 and maybe salvage your approach..Watch again the video. At 29:43 Hultgreen is told to wave off because her line up to bad. But as she does, she stalls the left engine because the F-14 nose is long and the TF-30 engines were sensitive to smooth airflow. She stalled the left engine and that quickly became a stalled wing. Listen to the LSO trying to walk her through a wave off. The LSO is trying to hold her hand through the steps of a wave off. She never even got the gear up..Do you really have to tell a Carrier pilot to add power and get the gear up on a wave off? No....She never should have been flying F-14's
I’m sure Admiral Arthur was a sexist dinosaur, but I think he was probably right in this instance about Hansen. People wanted her to do well. But you’ve got to be a great pilot, and she was at best average.
The f14 had chronic engine issues. Exploding during mach and stalling due to airflow issues at low speeds. Those engines where designed to go fast not idle or slow like race car that carberator was tuned to max speed and it stalls easlily at idle.. The woman pilot wasnt told that im betting she learned hard way.
Boorda was not "stealing valor". His time on destroyers off Vietnam providing naval gunfire support put him in battle to the same degree that would warrant "combat V"s on their medals. The Surface Warfare community is very different from Air in that they are very shy about awarding medals and indicating warfare. It was common for officers in Boorda's situation to wear "Vs" though their awards didn't specify them.
If the "V for valor" box isn't checked on the NAM/NCM input, it wouldn't be considered. Surface rarely checked this box. "Days in combat" box was rarely >0 as well.@@ruturajshiralkar5566
he took his life over a mistake. adm.zumwalt was CNO at the time and said he authorized the ribbon with the v. although he was in combat there are other qualifications that go along with the award that he did't meet. they audited the person complaining about him wearing the ribbon and lost a lot of his awards as well.@@tommym321
Try to find the original article from The New Yorker by Peter Boyer in their archives, or somewhere. It will explain so much more, and it will be worth it. Trust me.
The heavy part: up to the pont of putting women into combat, and other politically expedient stuff, the voluntary military DID NOT ACCEPT POLITICAL STUFF. I know of some blacks who went political in the US Air Force who were almost discharged with a Dishonorable Discharge for going black power in 1964. One went down two pay grades, was removed from his status as a Sergeant, and sent away from the combat unit. In the era of around 1967, nobody in the US Navy was encouraged to register to vote, and we were to fit standards of performance and merit. We were there to provide naval gunfire and be ready in the Cold War. No politics. The Hansen thing was an echo of our putting a certain color, sex/gender and such, into places where they are not qualified. Ens. Hansen got the equivalent of shooting herself in the foot. She was not qualified.
I remember those days, and I am glad I am retired... it was the begining of the end for the old Navy, they lowered the standards of a lot of sections of the Navy, so more women could make it... and the consequences are that if we go into a world war we are going to be in deep crap... the military standards were stablished after lessons learned from WW2, Korea, etc... politics have NO place in there, but they went ahead and lowered them so more women could make it...
I think that we are getting confused. Committing suicide is not a badge of honor in our culture. The Japanese culture, yes. Patton said it many years ago: "No man ever won a war by dying for his country". @@chrisgrantham8442
This story is so one sided, I was so sick of all the crap by 1995 that I took orders to the Japan Based Carrier in Yokosuka. I was a FRS instructor 1992-1995 and I had a front seat view of all this garbage.
