MSgt Charles Burks

Air National Guard | Personnel Supervisor

Dates of Service: Apr 1983 - May 2000

RETIRED

75% Complete

3 Endorsements

7 Contacts

Influence Score: 4,278
11,073 out of 866,664 Veterans

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Commissioning Source: OCS, Jun 1965

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Bio

A man who loves his country. Seen a lot of corruption during my time in the military and ended up paying a price for reporting it, while no one was held accountable. End result, PTSD along with lost of dignity! Lessons from my life in the Military (Army 1960-1968) & Air Force (1982-2000) From my time as a Combat Engineer and Artillery Officer I came to realize that Rank (Income), Race, Religion, Gender, Education or Politics did not matter when the bullets, shells, and bombs started flying. We are brothers in arms, our lives depend on putting those things on the back burner. We are American soldiers, PERIOD! If you didn’t want to do that, your odds of coming back home were at risk! I cried when a soldier was wounded or killed, all I saw was the blood was red and they died fighting for each other! I cry when I see a soldier come home with an American flag draped coffin and feel the pain of the family that has sacrificed a loved one for this Country. It hurts to watch people kneel or burn the very flag they died for. I remember the pride I felted during a parade formation and hearing the National Anthem. I loved my country and still do, with all its faults and was willing to risk everything for it! I remember the treatment we got during the Vietnam Era when coming home, regardless which coast. I remember the spitting and name calling that greeted us. It hurt then, hurts now and is a scar that will go away when I die! It didn’t matter if you serve in Vietnam, it was the uniform they attacked! Sad part is, they didn’t seem to realize they elected the politicians that send us into these wars! We lost in Vietnam because the politicians ran the war from Washington. We lost because we are a nation of different values and can’t understand those who would wrap their own children in explosives and send them into a group of GIs’ to blow them up, just like I’m seeing our voters do today. What would you do? tell them to halt (stop) when you see them coming and hear their parents tell them to go ahead! Do you shoot them or let them come over and watch your fellow soldiers blown to hell! Makes me think about America today, you’re willing to allow people with this mentality come to your country, infiltrate your government and destroy the country from within. I have respect for Lt. Audie Murphy because he was the most decorated man in WWII who didn’t have a PhD and very little education but had common sense. I met highly educated Officers who couldn’t figure out how to turn on a military radio without reading the manual! I watched Officers play ball with the corruption in government to retire to a civil service job! Common sense makes a difference. Example, going through Officer Candidate School we had a college grad who, during a compass course came to a pond and lead the men through it. Which does damage to our equipment and the soldier as well based on the weather and time before you can change your cloths and clean your equipment? Once we got to the other side, the instructor asked why he didn’t shoot a reading to a point on the other side and a reference point on the point of entry side of the pond and just walk around the pond! Education doesn’t necessarily make you a good combat leader, but it can make them great planners and tacticians! After going into the Air Force, I was assigned as a liaison to a government operated database operation. Here, I learned just how corrupt our government (politicians & employees) can be. I realized how deep state corruption worked. I found that they use statistics to their advantage to sway voters. Look at it this way, if I told you your favorite NBA team was racist for playing all white players, you would hear Racism. If players were all black, you won’t hear that. But, from a fan’s perspective, I want to see the best players on the court, the color of their skin doesn’t matter, the talent does. The government (politicians) would give you those same stats and leave out the number of players on the team who are of those same races. It’s a mind game with politicians and it works! They use this bait and switch at re-election time. Did you ever notice how much these career politicians claim they have been fighting for you their entire career, yet nothing has changed other than getting worse for the people and them getting rich? I met ladies who told me they used sex to get promotions and some who didn’t, they experienced sexual harassment but were afraid to report it! I watched members of the military come in and play ball with what was going on to get a civil service job after retirement. They have rules that require a six-month break after retirement before you could be hired as a civil servant at the same agency where you were a liaison, however, if you were a good old boy, they got you a waiver as mission essential! They get around regulations by simply getting a waiver to allow them to do whatever they want. I realized you had to be part of the system if you were going to advance or keep your mouth shut and get by. If you wanted to report the truth, even if it’s you job. Then, you became the target. They would go after the whistle blowers to destroy their characters and make sure if you were on active duty, you would not be reenlisted at the end of your tour and if you had a promotion coming, that was gone too! I’m seeing the same thing going on with President Trump and I know the reason is that the corruption must go on at all costs! Ever wonder how they can come up with all the money for a special council but can’t find enough to increase your social security! I heard programmers telling the top (SES) government official that what they were doing violated the agreement with the reporting agency, only to be told go ahead, I’ll take care of it! Privacy really doesn’t matter because we were told that if you had a social security number, the government is entitled to your information. I had to be there when President Clinton was visiting to give a speech about how wonderful the closing of Fort Ord, California was for the people. As he spoke about the savings to the people, I wanted to know why the truth wasn’t being told! Fort Ord hasn’t saved a dime from what I could tell. First, the University of California, Monterey Bay is funded by taxpayers. The Army Reserve unit on Fort Ord is taxpayer funded. Defense Manpower Data Center, which has DEERS, DFS and DMDC are taxpayer funded. It still has a Commissary and Exchange which is taxpayer funded. It has military housing which is taxpayer funded. In 1987, taxpayers where still funding five million a year for base clean up. Politicians brag about things but don’t give you the facts about things. They don’t make decisions on anything unless it’s you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. Bottom line for me was that I came to realize that politicians only work for Parties, Special Interests and Donors, not the people! The real problems come from voters who either don’t pay attention, don’t care, hate the country or can’t see the truth! They continue to send the same bunch of politicians back year after year and then wonder why the government is so screwed up! They have no accountability in the government simply because voters never hold their politicians accountable! I wish we still had the draft to require military service. It could be the answer for some of the problems we have today! It helps to realize that your life depends on one another regardless of race, income or politics! If I learned anything at all it shows this country needs TERM LIMITS to get rid of corrupt politicians. We desperately need accountability in government which includes government employees. Corruption in our government is deep! Those states that hold their politicians accountable by voting them out are at the mercy of the liberal states who continue to send their liberal people back to Washington. It’s sad to watch the greatest country I’ve ever seen or visited being destroyed, from within and if you’re paying attention, you know it’s happening!