Anyone that is a regular visitor of this site has notice a severe lack of any changes recently. I have also somewhat hinted to the fact that something has happened that I can’t talk about. Well, now I can talk about it. So those of you that aren’t regulars or the regulars that just don’t have a clue I am going to start from the beginning and explain everything.

Back in late September my entire platoon was deployed to the field at a location called TV hill. Its called this because there is a 100 meter TV antenna on the top of this hill. The majority of my platoon rappelled off this tower, cut down some trees, and severely mocked our Lieutenant.

The LT found out, an investigation was started, and charges were filed. This is my story….,

This site is somewhat remote where we don’t have anyone come and bother us. But also because we are constantly in the field, have almost no down time, and no time off, we are often forced to make up for it in the field. The field is usually very relaxed and we have lots of time to relax, catch up on sleep and socialize. Ironically this is the opposite with the rest of the Army, but with my job when we are not in the field we loose weekends, work late, and try to make up for lost time because we were in the field. Signal soldiers are the first ones in the field, and the last ones out. We support everyone, so when anyone goes to the field, we go to support.

This particular field problem there was a steep hill which we were suppose to run cable down but they canceled it because of how steep the hill was. Or this is what our LT told the LT COL so we didn’t have to run the cable. There was already a rope in place to assist anyone that would need to climb up or down the hill. Several of us in need to stretch our legs decided to see what was down the hill and go for a walk. After having some fun and finding one area in which I was able to use as a zip line with a carabineer and a rigger’s belt that I coincidently had on me the first time we went down the hill. (I was wearing the belt, as a belt and the carabineer was on my keys) The carabineer was one that is used for climbing, except it wasn’t the locking kind so I was able to have a little bit of fun with it for a while.

After all that, the next day we went on a shower run to the gym on a nearby post. The gym has a sporting good store next too it and in there they had everything I needed to rappel. I bought two harnesses, 5 locking carabineer’s, and 60 meters of rope. The rope alone cost me $250, and all together I spent around $400. My initial intention, was to rappel down the hill that we were climbing down and in hopes it would be a little more fun that the 15 feet of rope we were using at the bottom for a zip line. The hill was steep and difficult to climb but it wasn’t very amusing with the harnesses and all the other equipment. It was around a 45 degree angle, with loose dirt, rocks, and trees along the way.

Later the same night that I bought all this equipment the entire site agreed that we should make a zip line across the site with the rope. They also agreed that they should cut the $250 rope. So a zip line it was…, however this rope has some elasticity to it and we could not get it tight enough so that it would support someone’s weight without stretching even more so the person was laying on the ground. We even hooked it up to the HMWVV to tighten it and that didn’t work. So the rope got put up for a couple days.

I continuously made the joke to my section sergeant about rappelling off the radio tower and he would say “fuck no” every time. After several days of me harassing him about it, and it turning into a joke I grabbed someone else and went up the tower on my own. I had looked up the Army Field Manual (FM 3-97.61 Military Mountaineering) and practiced tying knots and learning everything I needed in order to rappel safely. I had remembered some of the stuff from basic but didn’t have to tie any knots then so had to look that information up. I had taken every precaution and even went back to the sporting store and bought more things and bigger better carabineer’s. My SGT isn’t dumb, he may act it but not dumb. He noticed that I had quietly disappeared and noticed that I had gone to the other side of the hill where the only thing there is the TV antenna.

He caught me getting ready to climb the antenna with all my equipment and failed to stop me knowing that I hadn’t listened too well so far. I climbed up the tower and made my knot that I had pre-tied prior to me climbing with enough slack to make a couple extra knots just so I knew that no matter what the rope wasn’t coming untied.

After double checking everything 100 times, smoked a couple cigarette’s, and swallowed my heart about a dozen times, I rappelled off the side of this TV tower…

A mountain or tower specifically designed for rappelling is quite different than a TV tower. It’s angled out slightly, and full of holes so you have to bound (or jump) just right so when you come back in you can plant your feet and bound again. Bound wrong and you go inside the antenna and slam into the ladder in the center. You would slam into the ladder because your feet would be reaching for the missed truss on the antenna that you intended and you would spin around and head in back first. This would also happen when the person on belay pulled on the rope because he thought you were a little out of control, or he didn’t give enough slack and you made a large bound and it pulled the rope tight stalling you in the middle of a bound.

I made about 6-7 rappels off this tower, and three other people did it once. We had all the safety equipment that was required in accordance with the FM we had on hand. No one wore a helmet because we all made a mutual decision that it wasn’t needed based on the fact that half of us didn’t wear one when we learned to rappel in basic. The new helmets the army issues was also inconvenient for this situation because it needed to stay tight on your head to prevent from sliding down and hitting the bridge of your nose and covering your eyes. So with that assessment, everything was done 100% to the FM and was perfectly safe.

The tree incident is a little simpler. The LT decided that we needed to do some site fortification 2 weeks into the field problem and long well after we had already done so. She got in a nasty mood and actual acted like an LT and jumped down our throats and told us not to argue with her and just do it. We explained nicely what that meant (clearing a lane of fire) and she told us to do it. We chopped down a few trees that were in the way of the first fox hole on the site. After a couple hours, our KATUSA arrived back on the site and informed us that this was illegal. I have been in Korea well over 3 years, I am married to a Korean national, and have never heard anything like this. I have always been told mission first and have cut down a lot of trees in Korea. If I have to put an antenna in a certain place but a tree is blocking it or causing interference, the tree is coming down. No one has said anything against that ideal until this KATUSA said it is illegal. After we heard this we stopped and told the LT that the KATUSA said its illegal and we are not going to do anymore site fortification, she acknowledged and never again mentioned it for the remainder of the field problem.

The one thing that started all of this was my section sergeant brought out his guitar and we started to write a song about our LT. The LT had left the site every morning and returned around 9-10pm every night. Her boyfriend was stationed on the post nearby where we were in the field and she spent nearly 100% of her time awake with him. This song we wrote was making jokes about her left and right and we made all sorts of jokes about her.

We had a video camera the entire time and taped all of this. The videos were kept on a government computer that I was issued and was using in the field. The LT was going around and stealing MP3’s from everyone out in the field. I told her repeatedly throughout the field problem that I did not have any on the military computer. After several days she made it an order and threatened to take the computer seeing it didn’t belong to myself and she was the one who hand receipted it to me. I didn’t have a problem I just watched her very closely. She took a lot of the information that I had. Even stuff I didn’t want her to take, including my counsellings that I had written for other soldiers. When she went for the one folder that had the videos I tried pushing her off and closing everything out. I informed her that the one folder was personal and she wasn’t allowed into it. After her not respecting the fact that I do have personal information on the computer I turned it off and left the tent. Everyone else knowing what I was hiding left shortly after me and asked if she got the videos. I said no and continued to talk to them when the LT came out and informed me she had the computer and was going to take it to S6 (the computer repair office) and have the files taken off of the laptop.

I am not so much worried about her seeing the majority of the files, but knowing the nature of this LT I don’t really want her to own a copy of them because I am afraid she may try and blackmail us. At this point I am more concerned with her seeing the video of the song we wrote that slammed and made fun of her. This one video is my main concern. So I pull her to the side and talk to her and explain that they are videos in the folder and that I don’t feel comfortable with anyone having them. She explains that she will not do anything that will affect us in anyway, and I go into the fact that she was not there for parts of the video and there may of been one or two things said that might be offensive about her. Going into even more details that everyone has grown accustomed to the camera cause I always have it and will record anything. That seeing she may not of been there someone may have said something about her. She understood but at the same time this grew her curiosity even more. Seeing she had the laptop and was giving me an ultimatum saying that the only way I can get the laptop back which has lots of other things that I need off of it, is to surrender the videos. So I surrender everything and get nothing, or surrender a little and get to keep my files off the laptop. Seeing she promised me several times she will not use anything against us I take her word in confidence and surrender the files. Minus the one about her which I hid in my counseling folder cause I figured she wouldn’t want or need it, knowing it was private and privileged information. I copied the videos and she saw the copy go which took several minutes cause they were several gig. I turned around and she was going through my other files again. Thinking there was nothing more she needed and believing that she wasn’t going into my counsellings I simply sat back and watched. The computer started to have some issue so we decided to turn it off and she said she was done. I never saw her take the counsellings folder but it must of had been the first thing she took when she sat down at it.

We left the field the next day. She leaves the site as we are about to leave and goes hang out with her boyfriend. We have to call her back and have her come back with us because of certain regulations. She comes back with her boyfriend and gets in my face cause I am in the first truck waiting to drive away, and starts grilling me about the regulation that states that she has to be there. Asking if I have physically seen the paper or if its a rumor. I have to explain that if it is a rumor its a very old one that no one has every challenged or questioned in my 3 years with the unit. She pouts a grunt and unintentionally sprays me in the face with spit as she walks off.

I live off post with my wife, while everyone else in my platoon all live in the same building and just doors away from each other I am usually left out of the loop until we come back to work on the next business day. That next morning I find out that she called certain people over the weekend, just to inform them that she say the video we made about her. She then explains that we are going to do exactly what she wants for PT (which was combatives) as our punishment. We go to the platoon sergeant who previously knew nothing about anything that happened on the site cause he was called back a lot to play the role of first sergeant cause the official 1SG was on leave. We are instructed to ignore her and let her try and blackmail us. She blackmails us some more by threatening to go to J.A.G. and file charges. The next thing we know the entire company knows and an investigation has started.

The rappelling we thought might be a big deal but weren’t sure how big. It wasn’t until the battalion got involved that we found out that the biggest deal was us chopping down the trees. The one thing we thought was a minor infraction happens to be the biggest deal, and an international incident.

Later we find out that she never went to J.A.G. she went to the division chaplain, who is obligated to report any crime past or present. She even came up to me at one point and told me that some Captian at JAG has ordered her to collect my laptop, camera, and all the video tapes. This guy also supposedly told her that I am forbidden to inform anyone about this conversation and that I have to give them to her directly and can’t go directly to JAG and turn them in myself. Um…, yeah, that’s not a red flag.

I run and tell my section sergeant who tells the platoon sergeant who tells the first sergeant who escorts us into the company commanders office. They try to contact her and she is on her way in the office, while the commander doesn’t say anything too us we step outside and she goes in to talk with him. He starts to question her on why she isn’t using her chain of command, and why she is just going directly to JAG. Her response… “I don’t have too use my chain of command, cause I know I’m right”.

After that day the investigation started, and the entire platoon was interviewed. Then interviewed again once they found out she was never at her place of duty. Its been back and forth like this for 3 months. My section sergeant was suppose to leave towards the end of October he is now leaving just in time to spend Christmas with his family, one pay grade lower than he was when he got here. Technically the date he lost rank is his date of rank, meaning I out rank him.

The LT supposedly started her own investigation behind the battalion, corrupting their investigation. She visited TV hill alone after the field to take pictures of the trees. Trying to get statements from the lower enlisted in the platoon. Tried to convince others to turn on the rest of the platoon. The videos were held on her external hard drive, and she dropped it and lost all the data that was on it. She paid someone to recover the information on the drive and get the videos off. Which went from about 5 videos to 50 which the quality is very poor. Not a single one has even the briefest clip of the little song we wrote either. Either way the Army doesn’t work like the rest of the world. Evidence is evidence, and nothing is admissible.

Before anyone got read their Article 15 we decided to re-write the song that we started in the field. It was originally to the sound of Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow’s song “Picture”. However in the re-mixing phase another song popped out and their are two songs now. I did my thing with the video and made a nice music video for the rap song. Spent more time on it than any other video I have ever made. As of writing this right now, about half of the division has seen this video. I don’t know how, but I gave copies to those that helped me make it and they have given out a couple and now just about everyone has it or has seen it. I have random people coming up to me every other day now telling me I did a good job on it, while I try to play dumb like I don’t know what they are talking about. It never works.

They even did a live performance at the local club on post where we are stationed. I have all of this on video and don’t intent to post it until all those involved in the video have left the country. Now that I am staying in the country longer than expected I don’t know when I will release it, but it will be released shortly after I leave.

**This is a blog, some things meantioned are over exagerated and possibly made up. Nothing in this entry is to be considered viable or a true statement of the story. This is only a post in my blog**