Think this LTE is real?

[MindPilot]

This LTE was in the San Deigo Union-Tribune. It just doesn't sound to me like anything a real soldier would say unless he was so brainwashed as to be braindead. It looks more like some daily talking points from Karl Rove.

I'm wondering if it is one of those thing that is going to show up all over the media in slightly different form over the next few days.


The word from a soldier just back from Iraq
I have been in the Army for the last seven years. I have gone through the good and bad times in the military. It is a lifestyle that if you do not live every day, you cannot even come close to understanding.

I have been to Bosnia, Kosovo, and have just returned from Iraq. I can tell you that no one feels the loss of soldiers more than we do.



I am always concerned with how the Army can be more effective at saving the lives of my fellow soldiers. Armor is not always the answer. In fact, armor can prevent us from being able to do our job. Every pound of armor makes us less effective fighters.

I patrolled the streets of Baghdad in a Humvee that had no doors, let alone armor. This was a decision that I made so that I was a more effective soldier. With better fields of vision, I could respond more effectively to the hazards of a combat zone.

I am an explosive ordnance disposal technician tasked with the removal of the roadside bombs, or IEDs, and unexploded ordnance in Iraq. The IEDs in Iraq often have enough explosives in them that the armor on most trucks proves to be ineffective at close range. Armor is a great asset and improves morale in some cases, but it is not the answer to our problems in Iraq.

There has never been an IED campaign in the history of the world like the one we are living through in Iraq. There is no way the leadership that sent us to war could possibly have known to expect these extreme attacks on its fighting force and the effects on the morale that the Army has suffered during these attacks. What the Army needs is to hunt out and destroy these insurgents, and that, of course, is not an easy task.

Then comes the true kick in the gut. The news media do not report the great things that we have accomplished in this country – the lives we have saved, and freedom that we are providing to a people who do, in fact, want this freedom. Freedom is not won overnight; there are pitfalls that must be overcome, and that takes time.

Instead, the media have decided to attack our morale by attacking our top leadership. There are a lot of things a soldier must deal with in combat; how are we supposed to perform when we have to deal with irrelevant controversy in Washington, D.C., as well?

The truth is that we have excellent leadership that supports us in every mission and provides us top-of-the-line equipment to accomplish our missions. We are at war, and war is not perfect.

I joined the Army because I love my country, a deeper and different love than I think most Americans can understand.



Leave our leadership alone, and we can and will win this war; and frankly, we do not need your selective reporting of how we are doing. We know our mission and objectives; our leadership has and continues to inform us wisely.

DALE MELVILLE
Pine Bluff Arsenal, Ark.
Ramona

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041218/news_lz1e18lets.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. You can just bet...

That this was a planted letter.

[mhr]

2. Clearly Psy Ops From Rumsfeld's Pentagon

We have been deceived so many times by this administration, nothing is believable at face value any more.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. As they say, consider the source

and remember this line:
"I patrolled the streets of Baghdad in a Humvee that had no doors, let alone armor. This was a decision that I made so that I was a more effective soldier"

So this shit for brains soldier thinks he's better off dead. What a stupid thing to say.

[AllegroRondo]

19. I didnt like that line either

If hes a line soldier, he has NO SAY in whether his Humvee is armored or not.

If he's a commander, he should be court martialled if he tells his troops to go in unarmored vehicles.

[The Doctor.]

4. Shame he doesn't know why we're there....

I'm sure it would take quite a long time to explain reserve currency, peak oil production, and the PNAC to him.

But if he understood these things fully and was still proud to serve this Imperial agenda - I could respect that.

He should also be told that roadside jammers have shown to be fairly effective... has his 'competent leadership' provided those?

It might be BS, but it has a ring of truth to it... as all good psy ops should.

(AT)

[bemildred]

5. Public relations 101.

Your basic third party testimonial.

[ragin_acadian]

15. exactly!

establish credibility, become superrepresentative.
present one side of the story (cardstacking)
use inflated language

letter then becomes enthymatic.

yeah, this letter was written by a soldier.....the one guarding carl roves office.

[Old and In the Way]

6. Someone ought to contact Mr. Melville.......

this stinks of RNC damage control....

"Armor is not always the answer. In fact, armor can prevent us from being able to do our job."

Yeah, right.

[bemildred]

7. You have to wonder what "Dale" thinks about Ms McClenny:

What hurts morale the most?
It's mostly knowing that your chain of command doesn't care about you. The
more fuel missions we do, the better it looks on our superiors' records. They
make rank. We weren't even licensed to drive fuel vehicles to begin with. We
have a better commander now.

And how's your armor?
The metal we've welded into our trucks is scrap metal about a quarter of
an inch thick. It's all homemade. But I guess scrap metal is better than
nothing at all.

Would you do it again, refuse that mission?
I wouldn't change a thing. It's time we stood up for ourselves. I think
there have been some good changes because of what we did: I've heard that if
you order armor now, you can get it within 45 days.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1084731

[HawkerHurricane]

8. Why....

is a Army soldier from Arkansas sending letters to the San Diego Union-Tribune?

NO Army Bases in San Diego, so he's not stationed here.

Set up city, right along the lines of the other, similar, letter printed around the country about a year ago.

[ArthurDent]

9. Because he's FROM San Diego

That's what "Ramona" means. He serves on a base out of Arkansas, but lives outside San D.

There are many, many soldiers who believe in this war, for better or for worse. I'm betting this letter is very real.

[davidwhite0570]

14. then they are sheeple.....most do not believe in the war....

they are there out of duty to their friends that would be left there.....

[idiosyncratic]

10. Uh . . . Doh! If they had secured all those explosives this

sentence in his "letter" wouldn't be necessary:

There has never been an IED campaign in the history of the world like the one we are living through in Iraq. There is no way the leadership that sent us to war could possibly have known to expect these extreme attacks on its fighting force and the effects on the morale that the Army has suffered during these attacks.

[Hey Nineteen]

11. Google search for "Dale Melville"...

reveals that someone by that name is the president of a Central Valley engineering firm:

Provost and Pritchard Engineering Group, Inc.

You don't think he'd be that dumb to use his own name to impersonate a soldier, do ya?

[patdem]

13. Welcome to DU, Hey Nineteen!

:bounce: :hi: :bounce:

Nice research!

[Hey Nineteen]

17. Thanks...

I've been lurking here for awhile although I'm active on a couple other boards. But I figured it's time to quit the lurking and start mixing it up. Later!

[newyawker99]

22. Hi Hey Nineteen!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[bobbieinok]

23. no experience from fighting in Germany, in Vietnam???????

[Hey Nineteen]

12. Oooh! Found a Dale Melville close to S.D.

There's a Dale Melville Excavating and Grading in Lakeside, CA, just northeast of San Diego...

[karlrschneider]

16. Horse

shit.

If (IF) it's a 'real' letter, this guy is crazier than a shithouse rat.

[eridani]

18. One way to find out--

--search some keywords to find out if it turns up in different papers across the country with the exact same wording.

[salin]

20. wondered about that as well... remember the astroturf letters

from soldiers, real soldiers that were disclosed about 8 months ago as having been written by pentagon PR folks - and then "signed" by GIs, who when told about the letters said that they had never written them?

This letter could be legit... but given the timing (per the rumsfeld criticisms) and the content, it just begs to ask the question if this is a similar pr ruse by the pentagon.

[Blue_Tires]

21. astroturf

telltale giveaway line:
"The news media do not report the great things that we have accomplished in this country"

[muppet228]

24. Yep he's real!!!

I have to say this because I know the crazy guy! He is for real! He is from CA stationed in AR and he was the one who told me that you all hate him.
To all those who searched his name, have you ever thought that there might be more than one Dale Melville out there?
I call him my friend; he is a Republican, I am a Democrat...we have wonderful debates! I remember when he came home from the war and all he could say was that he can't wait to go back and to this day I tell him that he is a crazy person. Dale has never faultered in what he believes and will fight for those beliefs and for our freedoms. We have to thank the lord for creating such crazy people to fight when we do not want to.
Ok you all think I am a fake now too, don't you? Well I'm not. I am a student at NMSU and that is where I met Dale (he was dating my roommate). It's hard for me to find friends who are Democrats, they are here but we are out numbered! Therefore I get to have wonderful political debates all the time. Anyways, I just thought you all should know he is real and so am I.
*on a side note, I don't agree with this war any more than you*

[Skittles]

25. Dale is very brainwashed

if he thinks Bush Inc gives a damn about the soldiers and if he thinks "attacking leadership" is wrong WHEN THE LEADERSHIP IS VERY, VERY WRONG.

[mediaman007]

27. Wow, what a coincidence for a first post!

What a small world!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

28. No, Muppet, I am very disheartened that

we have people who think that they are
"fighting for those beliefs and for our freedoms."

"We have to thank the lord for creating such crazy people to fight when we do not want to." I'm not thanking the Lord, Muppet. I am praying to the Lord that the American people will stop being so gullible and stop letting greedy, immoral politicians misuse their patriotic feelings to make them support unjust wars.

[Blue_Tires]

26. edit:

oh dear...just gave the exact same response i wrote almost a month ago!

[Dark]

29. 'Freedom is not won overnight'. How about over the course of two years?

But first he says:

'Every pound of armor makes us less effective fighters.'

That's why the soldiers wives are holding bake sales back home to buy armor. And why soldiers are scouring junkyards for extra sheets to weld to their vehicles.

'I patrolled the streets of Baghdad in a Humvee that had no doors, let alone armor.'

Then he later says:

'The truth is that we have excellent leadership that supports us in every mission and provides us top-of-the-line equipment to accomplish our missions. We are at war, and war is not perfect.'

Uh, can you say 'contradiction'?

Dale, please read a little bit, and review your letters.

But, also Dale, thank you for serving our country. God Bless.

[praxiz]

30. Doesn't make any sense.

He's an "explosive ordnance disposal technician", and he's ok with driving around without any doors? Hellooo?

Better field of vision? Are mines dancing around, waving flags now? NO! They're underground! Are potential carbombs hard to spot? NO! They look like cars! The very thought that Humvees without doors are still in service is in itself ludicrous to me.

Oh, and the usual attack on the "Lieberal media" really seals this. This is probably b.s.