The commander of a Vermont-based Army recruiting station issued a public apology this afternoon for the remarks made by a soldier there on an inflammatory, viral blog post written by that soldier’s wife that sent the online spouse community into a whirlwind.
“You are correct about wives not being under the prevue of the command. I assure you that the Soldier in question is,” Cpt. Allan-Jay Catindig, commander of the Burlington, Vt. based recruiting station wrote in a message on Facebook. “There has been a face to face counseling session with this Soldier as to the responsibilities of the freedoms and rights that our Constitution has so given to this Nation.”
The blog post, which appeared on the blog “Army Wife, Army Life,” gave a list of reasons why National Guardsmen are not real soldiers and why their spouses are not real Army wives. Her reasons, which we detailed and discussed here and here, included her perceptions of the Guards’ deployment tempo and claims of PTSD issues. She has since edited her blog to remove some of her previous claims as well as all past posts and photos of herself and her family.
Update: Since this post went live the blogger appears to have completely killed her site.
The problem with the soldier, however, started when he responded publically on the post to the spouse community’s lash back. The 417 word comment, which has since been removed from the post, both defended her right to say what she wants as a private citizen and her opinions on the Guard verses Active Army distinctions.
“What most of you don't understand, since you are National Guard, related to one, or married to one, is that it really bothers any active duty, full time, regular Army soldier to be compared to National Guard,” he wrote. “Most people do not know who we are, or what the Regular Army is about. A lot of people actually believe the National Guard is the one and only army for the U.S. This is a huge pet peeve of mine and I make sure to educate people who think this. My wife was doing the same thing by writing the blog, in a ranting kind of way.”
While the soldier was correct that his spouse has the freedom to say what she wants, he misunderstood his right to do the same, Catindig wrote. Catindig assured Guard members that the opinions on the blog were not the opinions of the recruiting station.
“In response to your concern, I would truly like to say this is not the command climate that we pursue nor agree with. We respect and honor all military personnel with whom we serve that has stood and swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We are all brothers and sisters in arms,” he wrote. “We apologize for the actions that one person has brought it up on himself, and we want to ensure you that this is NOT the actions or the climate of this command.”
