When people hear "survivalist," this is what they see...

1st follow up

"Weapons found with body."


"The Seattle Times reports that the Army confirmed Monday that Barnes had been a private first class whose service ended in 2009, when he received a misconduct discharge after being charged with driving under the influence and improperly transporting privately owned weapons.
Maj. Chris Ophardt, an Army spokesman, told The News Tribune that Barnes had been stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, and had served two years and seven months on active duty at the time of his discharge."


A 'misconduct' discharge usually means - out with no support.


Another story, to give you an idea of what is being faced by some with problems...


"After serving two tours in Iraq — tours filled with killing enemy combatants and watching close friends die — Sgt. Adam Boyle, 27, returned home expecting the Army to take care of him.
Instead, service member advocates and Boyle’s mother say his chain of command in the 3rd Psychological Operations Battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C., worked to end his military career at the first sign of weakness.
In October, a medical evaluation board physician at Bragg recommended that Boyle go through the military disability retirement process for chronic post-traumatic stress disorder — which is supposed to automatically earn him at least a 50 percent disability retirement rating — as well as for chronic headaches. The doctor also diagnosed Boyle with alcohol abuse and said he was probably missing formations due to the medications doctors put him on to treat his PTSD.
But in December, Lt. Gen. John Mulholland, commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, signed an order forcing Boyle out on an administrative discharge for a “pattern of misconduct,” and ordering that the soldier pay back his re-enlistment bonus.
Last year, after a number of troops diagnosed with PTSD were administratively forced out for “personality disorders” following combat deployments, the Defense Department changed its rules: The pertinent service surgeon general now must sign off on any personality-disorder discharge if a service member has been diagnosed with PTSD.
“Not even a year later, they’re pushing them out administratively for ‘pattern of misconduct,’ ” said Carissa Picard, an attorney and founder of Military Spouses for Change, a group created in response to the personality-disorder cases. “I’m so angry. We’re seeing it all the time. And it’s for petty stuff.”
In Boyle’s case, according to Picard and Boyle’s mother, Laura Curtiss, the soldier had gotten in trouble for mmissing morning formations and for alcohol-related incidents such as fighting and public drunkenness.
“The whole thing is absurd to me,” Picard said. “They acknowledge that PTSD causes misconduct, and then they boot them out for misconduct.”
Carol Darby, spokeswoman for Special Operations Command, said she could not discuss personnel administrative or medical issues, and that the Army did not have a response to the case as of Tuesday evening.
Doctors first diagnosed Boyle with PTSD after his second deployment ended in 2006, when he moved to a new unit. After he missed his first formation, he said he went in to talk to his first sergeant to explain he was having problems with depression, PTSD and insomnia. But after that, he said, no one ever asked how he was doing.
“They just said, ‘You messed up. Here’s what we’re going to do to you,’ ” Boyle said. “I would have loved it if someone had sat me down and had a heart-to-heart with me. I tried. I stuck with the counseling.”
But counseling at Fort Bragg was also difficult, he said, because there were not enough doctors for more than one counseling session a month, and because he had to explain his story to seven different therapists over two years.
He received two Article 15s, one for not reporting to duty while helping a girlfriend who had been in a car accident, and one for not returning home three days early from leave after drunk-and-disorderly conduct in a bar. Over that time, he said he was also experiencing flashbacks, anger-management and relationship issues, trust issues and guilt.
Picard said she has seen at least a dozen cases of soldiers with PTSD being pushed out for a “pattern of misconduct.”
Chuck Luther, also with Military Spouses for Change, said he’s working on four cases similar to Boyle’s now.
“I’ve seen the office of the surgeon general doing some great things,” Picard said. “But they didn’t intervene in this case. Technically, it’s OK. Morally, is it OK? No. If they’re going to call it a combat injury, they need to treat it, or else people will be afraid to come forward.”
Boyle’s mother gave another reason: “You can hear it in his voice,” Curtiss said. “He can’t believe the Army’s doing this to him. He needs counseling. He needs medication. He needs it even more now because of what they’ve put him through.”
Curtiss contacted Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and a spokesman said the senator has been in contact with the Army several times about the case.
Boyle always wanted to be in the Army, Curtiss said, and served in junior ROTC while in high school. He planned to be an officer, worked as psychological operations sergeant, received a Good Conduct Medal and two Army Commendation medals, and wanted to spend his career in the military. Instead, he was twice diagnosed with PTSD and said he enrolled himself in the Army’s substance abuse program and went to group and individual counseling for his disorder, just as he was supposed to.
The administrative discharge means Boyle will have to prove that his PTSD is service-connected when applying for benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and he’s not eligible to immediately receive the counseling he needs through the transition program for service members moving between the military and VA systems.
“The military is creating a societal issue,” Luther said. “These guys come out with no resources, and they’re angry and feeling betrayed. But commanders are thinking, ‘Do I rehabilitate him or do I get rid of him expeditiously so I can replace him with someone who can deploy?’ ”
Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said the Army should have provided Boyle with legal representation; that Boyle should remain in military therapy until VA processes his claim; that he should get an honorable discharge and go through the disability retirement process; and that the military needs to apply the same rules to “pattern of misconduct” as it does to personality disorders.
“The military should be concerned about the welfare of the soldier,” Sullivan said.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Mike Parker, who has worked as an advocate for service members going through the disability retirement system, said the cases are frustrating because veterans’ groups just fought to get the military to automatically award 50 percent disability ratings for people with PTSD severe enough to force them to leave the service, as is required by law. Many troops with PTSD had been receiving far lower ratings.
“Even though they have this new regulation saying they can’t kick them out for personality disorders, they can still kick them out for misconduct,” he said. “Everything they say, they have an escape clause.”
Boyle received word that Mulholland was standing behind his decision.
That means Boyle must repay the Army $18,500 for his re-enlistment bonus. The Army also withheld 65 days’ worth of leave payments and his final paycheck.
“I have nothing,” Boyle said. “After all I did for the Army, they took my money and kicked me to the curb and said, ‘Don’t let the door hit you in the ass.’ ”



So, yes, the Army is not your friend.... The story above is just one of many, many, many stories you can find on the web - that all sound eerily the same.

More here:
http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,182937,00.html

Seems Ft Lewis has a history of dumping soldiers with problems - with nothing.
YMMV.

http://www.mamc.amedd.army.mil/psychology/Documents/AR635-200Chap14.pdf
See Section III, parar 14-12 for 'the rules'

 

I am a survivalist. I am a prepper. I own guns. I also dont give a flying f*** what some douchebag media outlet thinks of it! I am sick and tired of media outlets attempting to make me feel bad for being a survivalist or gun owner because some nutjob shoots someone up. Whats next, make all men feel bad because of a college campus rape? I mean, we all have the same equipment so we all must be rapists. It defies any and all logic.
If my being prepared to take care of my family is somehow a threat to our country then our country is a threat to my family.
That guy was nothing more than a whacko nutjob druggie......a threat no matter if he were armed with guns or No.2 pencils.

 

I hate to say it.. but I blame hollywood for this misconception of what a survivalist is... ala Rambo.

 

I used to think people were smarter than that. I thought people could tell the difference between movies and real life. Our current administration is living proof that is NOT the case.

 

In one breath they call Him a survivalist.
In the next,they find him face down in a stream,missing his shoes,and dead of exposure.
Dont sound much like He was even an armchair survivalist to me.
Matt

 

Update 2

"A year ago, the military newspaper Star and Stripes rated Lewis-McChord as the most troubled base in the entire U.S. military, with multiple criminal and military investigations under way into troops' behavior and the quality of the medical and mental health care for service members returning from the war.And that was before the base set a record for presumed suicides in 2011, with 12, according to military statistics scheduled to be released this month but obtained by The Tacoma News-Tribune.The Army directed base officials last year to focus specifically on the mental health of members of the 5th Stryker Brigade, which saw heavy action in Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010. Barnes served with a Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade, although officials said they didn't immediately know whether it was the 5th."


and


"Barnes was from Riverside County, Calif., and as a teenager attended a community day school for expelled and troubled students, the Press-Enterprise newspaper reported. A young man who answered the door at the family's home said the family had no comment, the paper said."


IT doesn't appear any further comment on the Ranger (weapon drawn or not, fired or not) will be made any time soon - if ever.

 

It's a sad indictment of the Corps (Psycholgy Corps)

It's a sad indictment of the Corps (Psycholgy Corps) that they can't or won't look after their own.

Kicking vets out the back door by administrative discharge seems to indicate that economic motives and management by KPI is replacing at least in this instance good pastoral care and effective leadership. I dare say that this state of affairs is not confined to the US Armed Forces.