There are those reading this blog that will ask and the question has been brought fourth, exactly what did SSG Banales and his fellow NCO's do to take corrective action. The answer is all that we could,but to no avail.

When MSG Morrill went on leave in July of 2005 we held an NCO meeting.and did what NCO's are supposed to do, duscussed collectvly what we could to to help the soldiers and complete the mission. We knew that the lead NCO would never have called a meeting that did not revolve around him. One of the things we decided was needed was a "Day Off" for a least one soldier at a time. This would just be a 24hr emotional break for men risking their lives for their country. We also made sure that the completion of our mission was always the first order of duty, nothing would be done to sacrafice mission ability. After we drafted a proposal and all signed of on ( literally ) we sent it to the commander to be signed off on also, we never even got a response. this showed all of us just how much regard the commander had for his NCO's as a group.

We held several meetings revolving around issues such as mission readiness and soldier welfare, they were very well recieved but dicontinued as soon as Morrill returned. It is important to note that any lead NCO worth his salt has regular meetings with his fellow NCO's, this is the way the U.S. Army wants it. But remember it is the duty of the leadership and individuals to ensure these things are done, we never had a single meeting for NCO's that was called by Morrill, this is a contemptable act and shows little regard for the " Backbone of the Army ". As a matter of fact Morrill had a habit of calling every singe person not an NCO Seargeant, this is again disrepectful to the NCO Corps, the title "Seargeant" should come with respect.

When Specialist Hall was killed back by an suicide attack on FOB O'Ryan Morrill kept referring to him as Seargeant Hall, Please tell me how not properly referring to a man that has been killed by his proper title is anything less then incensitve and distasteful. But morrill plain and simple did not repect the NCO Corps, It's about power and ego for people like this and these are the people in posistion to get our loved ones killed and maimed.

Now to the recent comments on releasing the names of the officers that allowed this, the names of all the officers in Task Force Konohiki by doing a "Google " search or looking up the "Honolulu Advertisor" there are plenty of article there about them. I will not name them simply because they really don't matter. Good men have been killed on battlefields through out history as a rsult of arrogence and the right of officers, and that's just the way it is. Most of the officers there were very good and I respected each and everyone, their officers, but I don't have to like it. And I stated once before that only one officer is in command.

I have seen good officers and bad ones and they are generally so because of the NCO's they served with. I can recall vividly the day I reported to the 82d Airborne division as a nineteen year old paratrooper. The commanding General showed up to greet us, Major General James Lindsey, and the meat of what he said was this " Troopers, this is the most feared and respected division in the world today and has a history of high Honor. It is so not because of the officers, we come and go, it is because we have the finest NCO's in the Army and you will soon meet and be trained by the very best. I hope that some day each of you will earn the title and strpes of the Seargeant.!".

Furthermore I want to say that the exection of the orders off officers generally cover two things COMMAND and CONTROL. The planinng and general idea is handled by the officers and is called Command. The actual physical exection of the orders from A to Z to handle by the NCO's and this is called Control. The Army will always have officers in Command but the NCO's will always Control the Army, that's the way the Army wants it. For this reason I hold Morrill accountable for his lack of performance as a basic NCO and have no problem naming him. I will also say that he has published sevral articles about the TF revolving around himself. One of the first was with the picture of him with an Iraqi woman whos child was dying.

I want to close by reinding the readers that this blog was started by me out of concern for my last days on earth. If I was killed over there I wanted my loved ones to know what was in my heart and soul and understand the life I had lived. Now I want people to know that the quality of the people I had the HONOR of serving with was remarkable and some of them were put in situations a competent leader would not have done. Plain and simple we have got some pretty sad individuals in posistions they shouldn't be in. But because of BS politcs and head games they are, I just giving factual examples, Morrill was there because the system broke down and individuals lacked the integrity to fix it.

One last thing when I discussed the situation with our commander one on one I was threatened with a court martial. I'll share this story at a later time.

Thank God the men of TF Konohiki all came home alive..