CombatCongressman Channel on YouTube - Message to President Obama

THE STIGMA KILLING YOUNG AMERICAN HEROES is based on ignorance and bureaucratic processes that have needed changing for decades, if not centuries. The brave men and women that make up our military are hesitant to seek mental health treatment from military practitioners because they are afraid, and rightly so, that their careers and/or security clearances could be at stake if they did. 

Our young men and women in the military are returning from deployments having experienced horrifying events, either directly or as an observer. Estimates range from 20 to 50 percent of those returning from combat suffer from a mental health issue of one kind or another. The incidence of PTSD has been reported as high as 20 to 30 percent of military returning from recent combat. Yet many, if not most, do not seek treatment because they are afraid they will damage their career. 

This video was made upon request of President Obama in preparation for the 2012 State of the Union address. He had requested videos to be uploaded voicing relevant concerns and there is nothing more important than saving human lives, particularly those of our brave men and women in uniform, so I sent him this message asking him to help end the negative stigmas against PTSD and mental health treatment in the military. He never responded.

Visit http://www.Help4VetsPTSD.org for more information

Tweets by @CombatCongress

Double Standards, Waste, and Favoritism in the Military

Double Standards, Waste, and Favoritism 
In the September 10th, 2012 issue of Air Force Times, a magazine dedicated to news and events related to the United States Air Force (USAF), there were several letters posted condemning the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for applying double standards to retired officers who were publicly supporting political candidates, knowing very well that many well-known flag officers (Colin Powell and Wes Clark among them) have blatantly done the same exact thing, but on a much grander scale.  I agreed with many of the people who wrote to the publication and am not surprised by the double standard imposed by the chairman, because flag officers are routinely held to a different, far more lenient standard than their lower ranking subordinates. Now that is leadership, leadership by example ... or is it?

I was also appalled by another article describing Air Mobility Command's (AMC) "contract" with a Carolina pro hockey team. AMC and the author apparently believed it was "OK" to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to one sports team while ignoring dozens of others in several different sports in the process. Why did AMC, whose headquarters is in Illinois, think they needed to support a team, under the guise of public relations, in another state and a thousand miles away, spending unreported sums on "an 18-person luxury box" among other things? Saint Louis, Missouri has several pro sports teams and is less than 25 miles from Scott Air Force Base, so why did the Saint Louis teams not get the contract or even a chance to bid on it? 

Besides showing favoritism in contracting, WASTE clearly and quickly comes to mind when the Department of Defense (DoD)  in general and the Air Force in particular are cutting people and benefits rather than tightening the belt on such extravagant items as LUXURY SUITES.   We also do not know if the contract was open to bids from other sports teams or if it was a "SOLE SOURCE" contract, one which excludes other bidders normally because what the government is contracting for can ONLY COME FROM ONE SOURCE, the contractee in question, in this case the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team.

Finally, and on a similar note, their was a photo of General Edward Rice, Commander of  Air Education and Training Command (AETC) in San Antonio, Texas, throwing out the first pitch at an August 18th New York Yankees game (published in the September 17th, 2012 issue of Air Force Times) which also seemed inappropriate on more than one level.  I understand that the Air Force has to reach out to the public in terms of positive public relations, but why select the Yankees when General Rice's closest Major League Baseball franchise would be the Houston Astros or Texas Rangers? One would think that General Rice, being commander of AETC, which last time I checked, was located on Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, would support a local team over one thousands of miles away. The Yankees were not even playing a Texas team for crying out loud ... they were playing the Boston Red Sox!

That article and the accompanying photo (similar to the one above) lead me to a couple questions: First, why was General Rice in New York and what genius thought it would be a good idea to show support for a team whose closest Air Force base is in New Jersey?  And second, why was General Rice out of uniform, wearing a NY Yankees hat with his Air Force "blues"? If General Rice saw another airman in uniform at the game wearing a Yankees hat (or any team's hat for that matter), that airman would surely get a good old fashioned butt-chewing AT THE VERY LEAST.

So why, I ask, are there double standards depending on the rank of the individual? Why the "in your face" waste when good, hard working, patriotic airmen are being drummed out in thousands while major commands and generals live the high life? I have not even mentioned Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's $800,000+ bill for government plane rides home every weekend, but that is a different story ... or is it?

Chris Sorrentino, LtCol, USAF (Ret)
CombatCongressman

Copyright 2013 - CombatCongressman, LLC and 3rd Wave Media Group, LLC - All Rights Reserved

You can read the original letter to the editor in The CombatCounselor Chronicle

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Be Careful When Using TweetAdder and Other Time Management Programs ... Your Twitter Account Could Be Suspended!

Already having nearly 550 followers on Twitter @CombatCongressman after only two weeks and thousands more on my alter egos, @CombatCounselor, @CombatCritic, @3rdWaveMediaGroup and others (I am a very busy and diversified guy), I needed a time management tool to help me.  I believe it is important to connect personally with each person who follows me, sending them a personalized tweet or direct message (DM), whenever possible, to thank them for taking the time to listen to what I have to say.  I really appreciate the fact that complete strangers enjoy the things I talk about and take the time to follow me, retweet (RT) my posts, and "favorite" my tweets.

Well, it had become extremely time consuming to send personalized messages to close to 100 new followers, retweeters, and direct messengers each day, so I decided to look for a way to save time.  While doing a search on Google for ways to improve time management, I came along a website called Squidoo, http://www.squidoo.com/twitter-auto-follow-tools, and an article entitled:

7 Auto-follow Tools for Twitter Marketing

I simply wanted to find a way to automatically #followback those who followed me and send them a personal message when they did.  Of the seven tools, a site called TweetAddder seemed like just what I needed, http://www.tweetadder.com/, so I signed up for the FREE service to try it out.  All I did was set it up to auto-follow new followers and send them a DM, thanking them for following me...that was it, or so I thought.

I normally do most of my social media catching-up while on the elliptical at the YMCA and the day after I started TweetAdder, I noticed that when I tried to access my @CombatCongress account, Twitter took me to the sign in screen and would not accept my login information (on my Android phone), something that has never happened before.  I thought it was strange, but went on about my business with my other accounts.  It was not until the following day that I tried to login to my @CombatCongress Twitter account from my computer when I received a message "Your account has been suspended for aggressive following", something apparently against their rules of engagement.  

Twitter never bothered to warn me before taking action, they simply suspended my account, removing all of my 500+ followers and the hundreds I had already followed myself.  I had to check two boxes, promising not to do "IT" again, whatever "IT" was, and the one telling me that if I did it again, my account "COULD BE TERMINATED". If I did something wrong, maybe Twitter should tell me EXACTLY what it was so it will not happen again.  I was smart enough to figure out that the new program I installed two days before was generating problems that Twitter did not like, so I shut it down immediately.

As a word of caution to other unsuspecting Twitter users and computer users in general, be very careful about what you load on your computer and which permissions you allow the program to access, including performing processes that you did not intend to permit.

I know Twitter's basic following and unfollowing, spam, and other user rules, but many do not. So be very careful or you could have your account "SUSPENDED" without notice.  Mine is a new account, established on February 1st, 2013 and I already have 544 followers.  I was averaging around 35 followers each day before the suspension, when Twitter took all of my privileges, followers, and the people I was following away.  In the two plus days it took to figure out, then have Twitter reinstate my account and replace my data, a process they said would take an hour but took well over one day, I gained only four (4) followers.

I am a candidate for US Congress in Missouri's 6th Congressional District and one vote could make or break my chance at election.  Did Twitter's over aggressive policies hurt my ultimate chances?  Did Twitter irritate some of my followers who had no idea what was going on and sway them to look elsewhere or unfollow me for not responding to a comment or question submitted during my account's suspension?  That my friends we will never know.

No Drones Over Missouri?

On his blog, No Drones Over Missouri, a gentleman named Brian Terrell, I will assume he is a gentleman because he cares about trimming goat's hooves and taking care of his plants and crops, is apparently going to jail for six months because he protested, illegally, about drones in the skies of Missouri.

Granted, I do not know much about this particular issue at this point, but I will edumacate myself very soon. I heard about it in the TV news and on blog, and found it interesting and curious enough to write about it.

What exactly is the point here? Drones have saved thousands of American and ally lives since their inception. The first drones I recall in battle were the US "Predators" and German "Hunter" drones used by NATO forces in Kosovo. Drones are used extensively for surveillance and intelligence gathering, but in recent years have been heavily weaponized and utilized to attack enemies at a fraction of the cost of an F-16 Falcon, saving lives because the pilot is sitting behind a console, likely at a small base outside Las Vegas, Nevada, and not in the cockpit.

Now there are some very valid concerns about the accuracy of weapons and target identification when operating an oversized model plane, with deadly missiles attached, from behind a monitor at a remote operating location thousands of miles form the targets. There have reportedly been many civilian casualties, how many exactly has been a point of contention based on political agendas and the source of the intelligence. Civilian casualties, which the military sometimes refers to as "collateral damage", should always be minimized. Unfortunately, many times our cowardly opponents take a tactical advantage by using innocent civilians as human shields, so who is really at fault when that happens? The fog of war many times makes it difficult to know who the bad guy is and who the good guy is, particularly in the urban warfare environment we have been exposed to over the past 20+ years.

But what do all of the pros and cons about drones, better known as "remotely piloted aerial vehicles", really have to do with drones over Missouri? Do people really think the government is spying on their cows or plotting to assassinate our own citizens? If anything, the drones over Missouri are being used for training or, even better, for protecting citizens from terrorists or drug cartels importing illegal substances across our borders.

Maybe the people complaining about drones over Missouri actually have something to hide...meth labs?...marijuana fields?...child porn or other abuse/illegal activities? What is suddenly the big concern?

When I was a squadron commander in the desert from 2001 to 2002, the drones we used provided valuable intelligence for piloted F-15s, F-16s, French Mirage, and other coalition aircraft, identifying surface-to-air (SAM) missile sites and saving the lives of real live pilots, ones with families waiting for them back home, as well as piloted aircraft valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.

In my humble opinion, I would say that drones over Missouri, or any other state for that matter, PROBABLY IS A GOOD THING AND NOT REALLY WORTH GOING TO JAIL OVER. But that is just my opinion.

Another explanation could be simple paranoia, schizophrenic, a personality disorder, or drug induced variety, found in small percentages of the population and leading the sufferer to believe people (or the government, aliens, etc.) are "out to get them" when it is really not the case. We would call this type of paranoia a " delusion".

I am not making inferences about Mr. Terrell's or anybody else's mental stability because to do so would be pure speculation and completely unnecessary. He is obviously a man of strong conviction, a quality I admire very much, and very clear about his values if he is willing to be arrested and spend six-months in jail as a result of his beliefs regarding these "DRONES OVER MISSOURI".

Let us keep this conversation open until we, I rather, can gather more information. There are usually several sides to the story and I am afraid we have not heard them all, and may never will, but let's be patient and avoid having anyone else sent to jail, leaving their families to fend for themselves for six months or more. If you have anything to add in terms of background on this story or have a string opinion of your own one way or the other, please let me hear them. As always, please treat yourself and others with DIGNITY AND RESPECT when posting comments to this and other blog posts.

Thank you!

Best wishes Mr. Terrell ... You will be in our prayers!

CombatCongressman ... OUT!

T.C Sorrentino - CombatCongressman - Exploratory Committe: Draft 2014 Platform for United States Representative - Missouri's 6th Congressional District

As a potential candidate for United States Representative in Missouri's 6th Congressional District, if I receive the required support my platform shall be based on the following eight (8) principles:

1. Gather information about constituent priorities by effectively and efficiently utilizing technology (email, websites, Survey Monkey, pollsters), social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogger), telephone, and good old-fashioned leadership by walking around.

2. Dedicate my tenure strictly to constituents, ensuring Kansas City's Northland thrives economically, physically, politically, and emotionally, becoming a leader in benchmarking programs and fostering equality, diversity, compassion, dignity, and respect among constituents and between political parties.

3. Focus on attracting customer-friendly businesses and rewarding those who procure and hire locally, with proportional inclusion of Veteran-owned businesses as well as a focus on hiring Veterans, the disabled, and older workers. Caucasian males will have equal treatment commensurate with those benefits enjoyed by any and all EQUAL U.S. CITIZENS, no more, no less.

4. Create a team with enough resources to address bullying, harassment, abuse, discrimination, and retaliation in our homes, schools (pre-school through university), and workplace with a focus on prevention (proactive), not penalties (reactive). Make the Northland the kind of place where family members, neighbors, co-workers, and even complete strangers can live without fear and are able to thrive in a community that pulls together to defend our own and DOES NOT TOLERATE hurtful acts against our brothers and sisters. Criminalization of acts of abuse (bullying), discrimination (regardless of race, religion, sex, national origin, sexual preference, disability, veteran status, or other category currently protected by law), and retaliation while continuing to allow "civil" claims and legal pursuits against the perpetrators, "criminals", in order for victims to be "made whole", an nearly impossible task for someone who has experienced such evil, hostility, and ignorance at home, in school, or in the workplace.

5. Donate AT LEAST half of my government salary to charity and support deserving non-profits through the creation of an office offering education on "best practices" from skilled experts in the non-profit community, helping organizations thrive in their quest to help others.

6. Make myself available to constituents both in Washington D.C. and in Kansas City's Northland where I will maintain an office with an "open door" policy and helpful, respectful, constituent (customer) friendly staff where the words "no", "I can't", or "I don't know" are not in our vocabulary.

7. Protect the interests of our district to the maximum extent allowed by law while fostering teamwork and esprit de corps among fellow elected officials and government employees, working together, democrat - republican - independent alike, for the betterment of mankind, the Earth we live and depend on, and our district ... a place we are proud to call home and a community others admire and aspire to join.

8. I will accomplish these simple objectives through adherence to and a continuous focus on my personal CORE VALUES (in no particular order):

   SELFLESSNESS
   LOYALTY
   INTEGRITY
   COMPASSION
   EXCELLENCE
   DIGNITY AND RESPECT

If you have questions, opinions, constructive criticism, concerns, or ideas, feel free to contact me at CombatCongressman@gmail.com or write to:

Thomas C. Sorrentino
aka CombatCongressman
105 East Street, Suite 14011
Kansas City, MO 64152


Subscribe to my blog: CombatCongressman Connection

Follow me on Twitter: @CombatCongressman

Visit my website: http://www.CombatCongressman.com

Bless you all and thank you for your support!

Please join me "ON THE FRONT LINES IN THE BATTLE AGAINST CORRUPTION, INSTITUTIONAL TERRORISM, APATHY, INDIGNITY AND DISRESPECT, THE STATUS QUO, POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE, HATRED, AND INEFFICIENT BUREAUCRACIES" ... FOLLOW ME TO POTENTIAL VICTORY IN 2014!

Chris Sorrentino, LtCol, USAF (Ret)
aka CombatCongressman
"Integrity First, Honor Always!" - T.C. Sorrentino


Major Awards:

2011 – Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society Inductee for Academic Achievement at the University of Missouri – Kansas City (Life Member)

2005 – Colonel F. Badger Johnson III Air Force Logistics Staff Senior Officer of the Year (Air Force Space Command)

2002 – Commander, National Defense Transportation Association Military Unit of the Year (US Air Force - Best Transportation Squadron), 363d Air Expeditionary Wing, Prince Sultan Air Base, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

2001 – Commander, Best Transportation Squadron in Air Combat Command (ACC), 363d Air Expeditionary Wing, Prince Sultan Air Base, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

1997 – Commander, US Air Forces Europe (USAFE) Special Transportation Unit of the Year, RAF Alconbury, England

1996 – US Air Forces Europe Rawlings Award for environmental compliance and innovation 

1995 – US Air Forces Europe (USAFE) Transportation Junior Officer of the Year, RAF Alconbury, England

1995 – Best Ground Safety Program in US Air Forces Europe

1995 – US Air Forces Europe Transportation Junior Officer of the Year, Alconbury, England

1995 – Awarded the “Ancient Order of the Chamorri”, Guam’s highest honor to a non-native; presented in by the Governor of Guam and the Guam Legislature

1994 – Resource Advisor of the Quarter, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam

1993 – Distinguished Graduate, Air Force Transportation Officer Course, Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas

1987 – Commander‘s Award, Air Force Human Resource Laboratory, San Antonio, Texas

Military Decorations:

2005 – Meritorious Service Medal
2005 – Longevity Ribbon
2002 – Meritorious Service Medal
2002 – Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Valor
2002 – Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
2001 – Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal
2002 – Air Force Overseas Ribbon-Short
2001 – Defense Meritorious Service Medal
2001 – Air Force Overseas Ribbon-Long
2001 – Longevity Ribbon
2000 – Defense Meritorious Service Medal
2001 – Afghanistan Campaign Medal (2 Stars)
2001 – Navy Expert (Sharpshooter) Pistol Medal
2000 – NATO Medal
2000 – Kosovo Campaign Medal
1999 – Joint Service Commendation Medal
1999 – Joint Meritorious Unit Award
1998 – Air Force Commendation Medal
1998 – Kosovo Campaign Medal
1998 – Air Force Overseas Ribbon-Long
1997 – National Defense Service Medal
1997 – Longevity Ribbon
1996 – Joint Service Commendation Medal
1996 – Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Valor
1996 – NATO Medal
1995 – Air Force Commendation Medal
1995 – Air Force Overseas Ribbon-Short
1993 – Meritorious Service Medal
1993 – Longevity Ribbon
1992 – AF Organizational Excellence Award
1998 – Air Force Overseas Ribbon-Long
1989 – Armed Forces Service Medal
1989 – Longevity Ribbon
1988 – Air Force Commendation Medal
1987 – AF Organizational Excellence Award
1985 – AF Training Ribbon

Copyright 2013 - 3rd Wave Media Group, LLC  - All Rights Reserved