SHAME, SHAME on the 345th Training Command
The photo at the Fort Lee Air Transport Apprentice School was taken Aug. 23
Lackland AFB said Wednesday it's investigating an incident in which 15 airmen posed for a photo next to a metal transfer case, the kind used to carry dead U.S. servicemen home from the war zone. A bespectacled airman is inside the open case, eyes open and staring blankly in the distance. His head is tilted to the side, a white noose and black chain around his neck. "a Dumpt, Da Dumpt” the photo caption states. “Sucks 2 Be U!” The airmen — part of an air transportation training unit at Fort Lee, Va., that's under the 37th Training Group at Lackland — are in camouflage uniforms. Most of the airmen outside the case are standing, unsmiling, their arms crossed. The photo at the Fort Lee Air Transport Apprentice School was taken Aug. 23 and posted in October on Facebook. It went viral this week, prompting startled Air Force officials to launch a noncriminal investigation. The Air Education and Training Command at Randolph AFB ordered the probe Monday afternoon, and sent a lieutenant colonel assigned to Lackland's training group to Fort Lee the next day.
What possessed these students to even consider such a photo? My first question upon seeing this was who is the senior NCO in this group? Perhaps many of the students--training for Air Mobility command assignments were recruits fresh out of high school or perhaps even drop-outs from school. Young people need guidance and a role model to perform in a disciplined work center in the service. Often the USN will assign a "buddy" to recruits in a training atmosphere. The buddy provides the personal guidance to the younger recruit in order to establish their career values and proper training. It would appear here, that the AFB does not adhere to that or a similar practice.
These are the personnel that Air Mobility command will assign to the task of bringing home our fallen warriors and heroes aboard transport aircraft. Can you imagine the respect they would show a body container aboard one of their flights they were responsible for loading? Would they stack tires and engine parts on top of the case? Their attitude here indicates that the transfer case would be positioned in the cargo area along with the returned equipment destined for a surplus sale.
Compare these calous cold hearts with the honorable men and women that are tasked with guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier in Arlington. These people are so disaplined and respectful of their job and rsponsibility that they dedicate their lives 24/7 to honoring our fallen. They are sharp, intelligent youth of america that have chosen to compete for this prestigious duty night and day, clod weather, sunshine or hail, they perform their ceremony on time, on schedule and in a very detailed military ritual that they honor and respect. It is an honor to serve this duty for the limited part of their service and they , the Honor guard at Arlington command the respect of the families of the fallen they guard.
These students, considering that fact that they had to think or have some presence of mind in what they were posing for, especially the fact that it was going out on you tube and FB, should be given a detail that would make them consider honoring their assigned duties. It goes like this; In combat areas where troops were quartered as in Viet Nam, sanitation required that the waste from latrines be mixed with diesel and burned. It was burned usually in a steel drum cut in half and required the assigned regimental gold brick to stir the contents often.
Perhaps the AF needs to institute their own "buddy system" here and find two drums, some contaminated fuel and assign these students to the detail for six months. That includes the NCO that permitted them to even consider this photograph IMHO.