Time to talk about it. My experience in the Army.

I mean no offense, but as an Army vet myself I have to call BS.
Christianity is the dominant faith in the American military, every unit has it's own chaplain. I highly doubt you were shipped to a mental hospital over it.
Don't know what you hope to accomplish by such a tale, but there's no way I buy it.

Originally posted by poling2482
reply to post by Longtimegone

 

Its not fake. I cant understand why you would say that. It took a lot for me to tell that story.

Don't worry about that guy, he's the fake and you'd never want someone like that to take your back.

I was in the Navy back in the 60's and I worked with two nutjobs like that, I never had a run in with them because I knew ahead of time to stay away from them. Both were WWII combat vets, one did the Bataan Death March and I respect him for what he went through but he treated all the enlisted personnel like dirt, you stayed out of his way or you were going to get wrote on some fictitious charge, the e second guy was a class A nutjob and should have been discharged long ago, he was a big Samoan, married, beat his kid all the time so they told me and I saw the bruises on the kid on one occasion. They would tell me this guy would would get boozed up on the weekend, put on some sort of Samoan hula skirt or whatever and start twirling and juggling machetes. They put this guy in charge of the wood hobby shop because nobody went down there anyway, they well knew this guy had "toys in his head" but were trying to keep him in until he got his 20 years in. One morning just before a division meeting he just snapped for no reason at all and slammed another sailor against a wall and it took three of us to get him off the guy. I know what your sayin, you got nutjobs in the military just like you have them on the street, back then you didn't dare file any complaints against a superior unless you wanted spend time in the brig.

I just got home and I havnt got a chance to read all the post but I read the first couple of pages. I know im not the best speller, thanks for pointing that out. Yes I did wait this long becaue I was ashamed at first, I felt like I did something wrong. The captains name is Eric Schwartz and im sure he is a little higher up by now. I dont know the name of the German hospital, I just know its about a 3 hour ride or so from Bamberg. Im not making this up. I couldnt beleive they got away with it either. Even when I called Senator Sessions and the captain came and asked me about it he made it clear that if I were to pursue it then it would only cause trouble for myself. And to the poster that had something to say about the barracks. They were old ww2 barracks and yes I had my own room there. I started off as a 63-w but like I said it didnt take long for our current captain to realize I was a little to smart to be a grease junkie. I was moved into the captains building and did her QTB reports. When captain Schwartz arrived she even told him I was the best QTB soldier around. I dont know what captain Schwartz had against me. My renlistment code is E3. I would be happy to answer any questions. Ill even look around and see if i can find more documents about the hospital. But beleive me when I say its all true. Im not here to become famous or make friends I just wanted to tell some people outside my world here in Daphne, AL.

To the poster who said I went awol. I just work during the day and I get on this time of night. The reason I knew the hospital was German is because all the nurses there spoker German. The only english speaking person was what appeared to be some kind of psyc doctor who came in and asked questions. It still is amazing me that some of you dont beleive me. Try to find Eric Schwartz yourself. If I knew then what I know now then yes I would have fought it and been on every news channel I could find but I was a very very young man who just thought that was the power the military had over me.

Sounds utterly ridiculous and quite fake.

My two most interesting stories from the Army were:

1. Having to do detail trying to catch the arsons burning down the childcare centers at night, after the satan-worshiping colonel was being tried for child abuse.

And..

2. A CSM who was determined to get his barracks repainted and repaired by issuing flimsy article 15s. I did though, paint the curb yellow where his car was parked, and the MPs slapped him with a parking ticket, so it was kind of worth it.

But I've never heard anything like this when I served... sounds completely ludicrous. Nor has my brother, who also served over 10 years, heard such rubbish.

reply to post by poling2482


Little mistakes you make in telling your story makes me believe you are lying.

Anyone that has or is in the military never puts a - in their MOS code. So a red flag raises when you say you was a 63-w. Its not natural to type it that way and I find it hard to believe that it was a typo.

Its also rare for anyone to have a barracks room to themselves in Bamberg. As space is limited, Single soldier rooms are given out by date of rank. So I really doubt you had a room to yourself.

But lets say you did have a room to yourself. Provide me the name of the soldier who was performing CQ in your barracks that night. I will contact him through AKO.

See one thing that really stands out is that the German Hospital had to get paid for their services. Since all payments of that type go through Tricare there will be a paper trail of your stay.

Big red flags would then go off as soldiers aren't authorized to be admitted to a German Hospital if they can be moved and you being a psych patient you are very ambulatory.

No sir, you would be taken to the psych ward on the second floor in Landstuhl Hospital (Army ran). That is if you was held in a psych ward in Germany, which you wasn't.

That's a good point.. I never used a dash in telling anyone my MOS in type.

So.. yes, another strike.. aside from it being utterly ridiculous.

Question, if you were a 63W which is now 91B. How long was your ait? Where did you go to basic and what was the unit name? I can tell you I have been in 6 years active duty and I can tell you I attended ait for 31E with 787D co fort lenordwood Missouri. In fact look at what I can do.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/074b5cb81100.jpg[/atsimg]

This is my erb you should have one to with your dd214
I challenge you to scan it and post it. To end this debacle and here is my reserve record.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2ac693a57c8f.jpg[/atsimg]
and here are the links incase they don't transfer right.

Reserve
active erb

And here is the other side of my reserve record.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2019812f0fed.jpg[/atsimg]

[edit on 13-10-2009 by ashnomadonte]

[edit on 13-10-2009 by ashnomadonte]

reply to post by ashnomadonte


This should be interesting.

The gauntlet has been thrown down.

the army unquestionably has a list of things wrong with it . . . however, persecution of christians will NOT be found on that list. just the opposite seems the case. i saw nothing that would qualify as disfavoring the christian faith while i was serving, and see nothing now that my wife is serving.

now if you want to craft some tale of an anti-christian CO dropping article 15's on you and in general making your life hell because you believe in jesus, then ok, sure, i could see that . . . a problem that would be far-fetched but NOT outside the realm of being possible.

but your story, being whisked away in the middle of the night to a several german facilities, is simly ridiculous on a number of levels. on a most basic level, a company commander just doesn't have that kind of juice, period, end of story. outside of issues specific to the company chain of command, he/she has very little in the way of authority at all. my wife is a capain, and like most other captains, is basically treated like a private with silver bars. i won't even bother to get into the tri-care part of why your story makes no sense.

now i'm not flat out saying this DIDN'T happen to you . . . oh wait a minute, actually i am.

my bad.

please at least take the time to put a bit of research into your next story.

reply to post by SecretGoldfish


Could not agree more with you gold fish of the secret! I am still waiting on op to produce anything proving he was in the army for 8 years or at all.

don't hold your breath ash. i'm sure this captain also had enough juice to make sure this guy's service records were jumbled up as well . . .

a 'captains assistant' . . . ha! what's that? you mean a company clerk?

that job was never just dished out to some newbie. all the clerks in any of my companies were always very squared away SPCs or maybe a PFC who had been in for a few years.

reply to post by SecretGoldfish


Indeed I have in my few years in the army my erb is all messed up it is an amalgamation of my guard reserve and active duty time. so the dates are all wrong than my education is all wrong and I know it is a simple fix you know ag and bring in my college transcripts and the bachelors degree. And my cls and what not but I am not really looking to get promoted any time soon. As you can see from my flag which is pt related. And is in the process of being fixed. I suppose I can blame the Jesus freak of a CO I had 4 years ago I am after all Jewish and we all know my people killed Jesus or so I hear, however I know these discrepancies are mine.
But any way this guys story does not add up at all on any level.

EDIT TO ADD

a 'captains assistant'

=42A


[edit on 13-10-2009 by ashnomadonte]

heck, i was BS-ing w/ a few new CO's last week (almost all companies reshuffled after the last deployment) . . . and these captains were complaining about not even being able to have MPs search the rooms of guys they pretty much know are dealing drugs because of not being able to deliver any probable cause . . .

it was comical. some E1 or E2 MP has the juice to pretty much stop and search anyone . . . but a CO has to basically grovel to JAG to pre-approve a room search, otherwise any evidence would likely get tossed. unless every room in the B was being searched, and the CO could show that the search wasn't just pretextual (wasn't *really* aimed at searching this one guy's room) the search was pointless.

these guys were frustrated at their lack of power as CO . . . quite the opposite of the OP's captain schwartz who seems exceptionally powerful. heck, i bet he can change the channel on his TV just by thinking about it hard enough.

Putting some random military records on a thread?? Wow. that's weird.. I mean what does it really prove? That you can get your hands on someone's records? If either of you really want to prove it, post a picture of yourself holding your DL and DD214. Also any question he or you ask each other could EASILY be answered by someone who isn't them..

If someone asked me to put up my "records" on some website I'd laugh.. I could careless if they didn't believe me..

reply to post by poling2482


This is a horrible story - I have been online tonight protesting about treatment of soldiers in America.

This is abuse. And you should complain. To a lawyer.

i would love to be in your shoes, i would have said the same thing, i would love to stand up to my God and there is nothing they can do to think otherwise

i am sorry to point out a few slightly inconsistent things in his story also, not to say the story isnt true but i am also in the army and these things really grabbed my attention. the biggest and i know it sounds small is his abbrv. of captain (CAP) these things are drilled into us for example if he was indeed the cpt aid then he was likely to have done a great deal of typing, memos and all sorts of things that had the cpt's signature block and typing cpt would have had to have been muscle memory, i mean i do these type of memos all the time and just seeing it makes me feel like correcting it because it is so rudimentary to me. its like seeing someone say 2+2=5 . you just wouldnt be able to help but to correct that person. there are other things that caught my eye and it in general seems to me like he is talking more like a person from maybe the airforce or something. the army is just too how would you say..... well all i can say is it is like the army suffers from OCD. he at least got sgt right though but everyone except navy uses that one.

Originally posted by poling2482
Hello all, my name is Matt. I have been out of the Army for about 8 years now and feel I need to get this off my chest. I have great respect for the young men and women serving but the leadership is questionable. I joined the military 3 days before my 18th bday and spent 10 weeks in Fort Jackson for bootcamp. After all my training I left for Bamberg, Germany. I arrived in Germany and was there about 2 weeks and then left for Kosovo for a few months. All was well and even though I missed the states I was enjoying my life.

Well soon my company had a new captian, his name was Cap. Schwartz. I dont consider myself a extreme christian but I do beleive in Jesus and his resurection. I dont go preaching door to door and all that. Well my job in the Army was to be the cap. assistant. I helped him with reports and paperwork. He asked me about my religion within his first week of being our new captian. I told him what I beleived and he went on his way. Well I noticed he started acting a little funny around me. Before I go any farther let me state that I was an above average soldier. I competed in warrior challenge, always scored above 275 on PT test, and never had never been in any trouble. One night around midnight someone knocked on my door. I lived in the barracks by myself. I saw it was my sgt and he looked upset. I ansewered and he instructed my to get dressed in uniform and to come with him. I did so and on the way down the barracks he expressed to me the captain wanted to see me.

The look on his face was disturbing. He pleaded with me to just answer the questions and dont say anything negative. I trusted him and I was starting to get a little scared. First of all I had never been woke up at midnight to see the captain before. I was escorted into the captians office with my sgt. Captian Schwartz asked me one question. He asked "If God were to come down to earth and tell you to punch me in the face would you?". I looked back at my sgt and didnt know what to say. He asked again and I said, well If i knew it was God then I would have to punch you. I said it laughing cause of how ridiculous the question was. As soon as I said it my sgt shook his head and you could tell that was not the answer he wanted to hear. They handcuffed me and took me to a white van and put me in the back. About 15 min later my sgt tossed me a bag with some clothes in it. I didnt reconize the driver of the van. The first three stops were all German hospitals. At each one they took blood from the same arm. After the third one my arm turned a nasty yellow and black color. Around 5 am we arrived at a German mental hospital. They registered me and escorted me to my room. Everyday they questioned me about christianity and why I beleived. They also gave me about 2 shots a day. I was not told what they were nor given a choice to take them. I have to admit the room was decent and the food was good.

The workers were not mean but seemed bent on trying to convince me that religion is fake, christianity in general. Like I said im not some bible belt crazy who caries a bible everywhere and spends hours preaching, im just a regular guy like most of you. Finally after a month I was released and the Army was there to pick me up. Also I wasnt allowed internet access or phone calls the entire time I was there. I arrived back at the base and captian Schwartz was standing right there. He asked if I was better, I laughed and said yes sir. The soldiers on base asked if I had fun back in the states? They were told I was on leave. The tough part for me was I had to tell them yes because my sgt told me that if I went around telling everyone what happened that the captian would send me away for a long time. Now the whole time my sgt was on my side so I took his word and didnt say anything. My parents told me they called and my sgt told them I was in the field for a few weeks. I was discharged a year later and to this day my parents still dont konw. Thank you for listenting.

This seems highly irregular. I am a veteran, and also a Christian, as were many I was in basic training with. No one thought it was some mental illness. Same with AIT and my permanent duty station. I have, since then, been married to a soldier for 17 years now, and have never, ever, heard of anything like this happening. Heck, we recently attended a movie night with many from his unit, hosted by the chaplain. For something like what you describe to occur, you would have to have a very messed up Captain. Even if that's the case, the medical personnel would have questioned you, if they thought you had some mental issue. Being a Christian isn't considered a mental illness in Germany. Plus, I have lived in Bamberg, and don't even know of three different German hospitals there. The one I do know of has a mental ward, and would not transfer someone once, much less three times, for a suspected mental issue. Where did they take you? Where are the records? Did you ever do anything about this blatant abuse? If such a thing as this occurs, then you should have gone to the next person in the chain of command, and reported this abuse of your rights. Any officer acting in such a fashion would most likely lose their rank and commission. So, what action did you take?

I really hate to sound so skeptical, but I see a lot of holes in this story.