Stupid Rules

Okay, I have to rant a little...

Stupid rules in a combat zone:

1) Wearing reflective PT belts at night with a camouflage uniform. You know a base has "gone garrison" when there are enough underemployed sergeants major that think it's a good idea to have your soldiers wear highly reflective gear at night, even though we're in a combat zone. They should really take away our combat pay when it comes to this rule - or at least that of the sergeants major who made this stupid rule. What's the "reason" for the rule? The vehicle traffic on Disney Drive is very heavy. Yes, but they travel a maximum of 15mph, with a 5mph max around troops! Sorry, but even in camouflage there should be time for either the driver or the pedestrian to figure something out!

2) Saluting along Disney Drive! Okay, with literally thousands of residents on this base, most of whom are in uniform and thus normally salute at home, you might think this is reasonable. HOWEVER, let's remember that Disney Drive is THE route north and south on this base. You can't walk more than a block north-south OFF Disney, so if you're going pretty much anywhere, you're walking Disney. This means a trip to the chow hall could net as many as 20-30 salutes - on average. A lieutenant colonel told me she counted about 90 salutes one day on her way to the gym, about 1/4 mile away - before she stopped counting! Ya think we really need to continue this tradition - again - in a war zone?

3) No bags at all in gyms or dining halls. Okay, this one makes a lot of sense after the Mosul dining hall bombing in Iraq five years ago - or does it? First off, as I recall, it was an Iraqi that wore a suicide vest (he did NOT carry a bag of any sort) into the dining hall there. Second, you can make rules easing this issue, such as allowing ONLY U.S. soldiers to bring small bags into these facilities. You can even require mesh bags only, so the contents are visible. Carrying my Taekwondo gear to the gym is a joke! I carry it in a mesh bag to the gym, then take it out of the bag at the door. I carry it in with the bag in my pocket so I don't break the rule. Then I carry it outside the gym after workout, put the gear back in the bag and go my happy way. I did the same going into the dining hall tonight and they wouldn't let me in because...you guessed it...I had a bag! Nothing in it, but a bag nonetheless. He said the rule wasn't specific about what KIND of bags...to which lunacy I almost suggested that he should've excluded me due to the bags under my eyes from losing sleep over stupid rules!

Okay, time left for one GOOD rule. They don't allow civilians to take food out of the dining facilities anymore! Given that the food is supposed to be for the soldiers, but civilian employees have just sort of glommed on to the whole mission, this is good because at times food gets short at some of the DFACs. And believe me, if you've seen some of the civilians around here, you've got to protect the food!

I'm sorry. I am supposed to be charitable as a chaplain, but it just seems that everywhere you go around here you get bit by really stupid rules. I've just hilighted some of the most obvious and painful rules we deal with daily. There are plenty more that seem to infect this base but that thankfully don't necessarily apply to our outlying bases. I would never wish a rocket attack on us here, but we certainly need something to shake up the bureaucrats that have forgotten we are at war. I thank them for the small reminders we get, such as the Fallen Comrade Ceremonies (of which we just had another last night), but perhaps making this base less like the high-strung, peace-time military back home might make people remember where they really are on a daily basis, instead of waiting for the real soldiers down range to pay the highest price for us all to re-learn this terrible lesson.