A former US Army Soldier is being ordered to pick up the tab for some Army-issued equipment that he was ordered to leave in Afghanistan, two years ago after the disastrous Afghanistan pullout in 2021. The American withdrawal was one of the worst failures of American foreign policy action since the ending of our involvement in the Vietnam War.
The report excoriates the way the withdrawal was handled, noting that the Biden team did not sufficiently plan or prepare for “worst case scenarios.”
Incredibly, it said it was “unclear” who was in charge at the State Department. They also made the bad mistake of giving up the Bagram airfield to the Afghans, which would have been much easier to defend to get people out, so they were forced to use the Hamid Karzai Airport.
During our withdrawal, tons of American military equipment was left behind in the rush to leave. Vehicles, aircraft, weapons, ammunition, personal equipment, and more, were left for various reasons, none of them rational or logical. When Soldiers and Marines were leaving, they too were forced to leave stuff behind that was deemed unimportant, which some of it was. When it comes to room and weight on aircraft, food, water, personal gear, and other consumables are left because they are just not critical. Other equipment like weapons and ammo are different, and they should never be left behind, or at the very least left behind in a serviceable or usable condition.
The Soldier, who goes by @the.michael.fam on TikTok, explained that he and his unit were loading onto unspecified aircraft and he was ordered to leave some gear behind that was making the aircraft overweight. He tried to keep it because he feared that he would have to pay for it and it was expensive but was told that he would be taken care of when it came time to turn in the remainder of his gear when he left the unit or got out of the Army. Fast forward two years later when he is getting out of the Army, he goes to turn in his gear and gets the bad news. In an X post on the Libs of TikTok page, he explained exactly what happened.
In the video, you can make out a few of the items on the gear list that were missing and they weren’t major items, no weapons, optics, or expensive single pieces of gear. One of the items was an E-tool (entrenching tool), which is basically a compact folding shovel. Those things are arguably one of the best things ever invented and they aren’t expensive either, but I digress. All told he was missing probably a dozen or so pieces of equipment that added up to $500 to $1,000. He was being screwed over for actions he was ordered to do by his superiors and now he’s paying the price for it, literally.
That ladies and gentlemen, is getting what we called in the Marines, screwed by the big green weenie. We actually have an acronym for it, BOHICA. Which stands for Bend Over, Here It Comes Again.
The sad part is that it is a common occurrence, both the green weenie and paying for losses of gear and or other equipment that was lost or destroyed in the course of our duties at no fault of our own. Some examples that I saw of these were both hilarious and infuriating at the same time.
Continued…
Approved ~ MJM
