Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
In 1992, Christine Mason was a twenty two year old woman who had joined a hospital unit of the US Army Reserve. She had been slotted as a medical technologist. Christine had been going to college, was living alone and had a son. She was doing pretty well for herself but wanted to see another side of life, and/or see the world.
At 22 yrs of age, she had to get through basic training (IET) and advanced training (AIT). Her assigned training base for IET was Fort Leonard Wood, MO. Her father was the first African-American Command Sergeant Major of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He had also been “on the trail” (a Drill Sergeant) at Fort Leonard Wood. Surely, this soldier, a fast-tracker, had a bright future in the Army. He still had contacts at Fort Leonard Wood and the contacts seemed to know she was going to be a soldier-in-training at the base.
Christine already knew the things that would be required of new soldiers. She knew how to “spit shine” boots, how to display your uniforms, how to maintain a professional military bearing, what the schedule was, and how to be a leader. And at this particular time at Fort Leonard Wood, Christine was part of the last company of new soldiers to go through non-integrated training. Her training group was made up of all females. They were still referred to as “rocks”.
During IET, Christine knew that she was not from an impoverished background. Not all the new soldiers could say that. She volunteered for lots of SLJ details. No one else volunteered for anything, so she was picked. The training cadre didn’t care much for that after a while. They created ways of toning her down. An issue with that was that the other soldiers in training thought she was getting special treatment. Best of all was that her attitude carried the day. She always had a smile and a “can do” way of getting things done.
Christine graduated from IET and was sent on to Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at Fort Sam Houston, a base inside San Antonio, TX. The training was for her to be a lab tech. Christine was four to five years older than her peers and at age 22, can have a social life outside the military area. She had wheels and took advantage of her situation. Her roommates were young and a little resentful of what was going on. During all this, Christine never missed an assignment or a formation.
Christine graduated from AIT. She returned home and drilled with the 325th Hospital unit. He drilled one weekend a month and two weeks every year for annual training. During this time, the unit needed someone who could help moving equipment and inventory from one place to another. Christine soon found another niche as a unit supply specialist. She had to report to Fort Lee, VA for more training.
She was assigned to the 64th Military Police (MP) Company of the 4th Infantry Division. These were combat MPs. The location was Fort Hood, TX. Her assignment as a supply specialist was not a good placement for her. Before the unit deployed to Bosnia, there was a required inventory of equipment and necessary supplies. Christine was doing all the things required of her. She was an active soldier, doing the physical training, making all formations, playing the game.
The Sergeant First Class, who supervised her, had health issues and filed the paperwork to be un-deployable. That meant the unit’s property was going to be the responsibility of the new soldier, that being Christine.
Christine began going over the Property Book. It contains the required regulations but also is THE primary, by-the-numbers, accounting of what the unit has on hand. It lists vehicles and the tools that come with the vehicles, tentage and the requisite parts, right down to the canteens issued to the soldiers.
Christine found that when she counted the items on hand, plus the items signed for, the numbers didn’t come out right. In checking further, there were lots of shortfalls. There was quite a bit of missing equipment. She knew that the Unit Commander was going to ask her to sign her name to the statement that all of the items were there. But the stuff wasn’t there… should she “go along to get along” or go with the truth.
She consulted her father – again. He advised her to become very familiar with the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) because this could get ugly. He also told her to sign nothing.
The Company Commander and First Sergeant met with Christine. She presented the information to them – that there was quite a bit of stuff missing. They told her to find the stuff. She got to be a problem in the Command. There was all this missing stuff and the Command was demanding that she – a newly arrived soldier – sign for inventory that was clearly not there.
Once again, Christine sought counsel from her father. He told her the truth. If she signed for what wasn’t there, she assumed the financial liability for the missing items. If she stood up for herself, it would not be pretty, but she should do that. One additional avenue to seek help would be to write her Congress person and explain what was going on.
Christine had few options. She wrote her Congressman, who turned out to be Senator Robert Dole. His office immediately began correspondence with her. Although she wrote a detailed letter, they had more advice. On the other side, the Command was notified that they were under review because of a Congressional complaint. The Command was not pleased… and demonstrated as such in their comments to Christine. The Command leadership was livid. The problem was that they were telling a junior NCO to lie about what they had and didn’t have.
Christine was pulled from her assignment and put on an extra duty roster. They were going to show her who was in control and who was not. She was banned from the library, and banned from any resource she could use to protect herself, including computer access. Every time an act was done toward her, she made a record of it. She was made a truck driver. Huh? She had no training. She drove.
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