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LTC Stephen F.
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Edited 7 y ago
Thanks for sharing an opinion PO1 Tony Holland of task and Purposes authors. He seems to have completed basic training but never completed AIT.
Since he spent at least 90 days on active duty I think it is dubious to claim that he was not a veteran.
"The 20-year-old Kentucky native was booked and charged on Aug. 12 with one count of second-degree murder and three counts of malicious wounding, among others, after allegedly targeted protesters with his car amid violent clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, VA that day, the Washington Post reports. The attack left one dead and 19 injured, five critically; video shows a 2010 Dodge Challenger, later identified as registered to Fields, accelerating into a crowd of bystanders on a pedestrian mall.

Shortly after the incident, as media outlets rushed to piece together whatever they could on the hit-and-run, Mediaite reported that Fields had served in the Army for less than four months, from August 18th to December 11th, 2015 (a Facebook post from his mother marks his arrival at boot camp).
“The Army can confirm that James Alex Fields reported for basic military training in August of 2015,” Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jennifer Johnson told Task & Purpose in a statement. “He was, however, released from active duty due to a failure to meet training standards in December of 2015. As a result, he was never awarded a military occupational skill nor was he assigned to a unit outside of basic training.”
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SSgt Copyright Specialist
SSgt (Join to see)
7 y
If he was discharged for failing to meet training standards I doubt that he completed basic training. Most likely he was just stuck on some sort of medical or legal hold that kept him there past the 90 day mark. I have trouble calling anyone who did not make it through basic a veteran. That is not to say that everyone that doesn't make it is a nutbag like this guy apparently is but if they never made it to a active unit they can't really comprehend military service.
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LTC Trent Klug
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I just love how the press gloms on to him being a former soldier. So what? The Army does not offer an MOS in running people over and then backing up over them again.

This POS is just that, a POS!
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SPC Erich Guenther
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Not mentioned in the article Micah Johnson was supposed to be a Chapter case but the Army Reserve screwed up his case and they let him ETS instead.
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