The U.S. Army feels and bleeds just like the rest of us. While it may lack the swagger of the Marine Corps, it does more broadly reflect both the glory and the garbage of a country of more than 300 million.
Having covered it for more than 30 years, I could feel its mortification in 1995 after authorities fingered Timothy McVeigh as the perpetrator of the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, including 19 children. McVeigh had served in the Army from 1988 to 1992, and was decorated for his service in 1991’s Gulf War.
The Army convulsed again in 2002, when John Allen Muhammad was arrested and charged, along with a younger accomplice, in a series of sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area that killed 10. He had enlisted in the National Guard in 1978 and joined the Army in 1985. He too served in the Gulf War before hanging up his uniform in 1994.
Both were executed for their crimes. President Clinton signed legislation before the federal government put McVeigh to death to ensure that veterans convicted of such crimes couldn’t be buried in any U.S. military cemetery.
So that wasn’t a tornado that swept across the Potomac River last night. It was a sigh of relief from the Army as it issued the following statement in the wake of the Tucson rampage:
The Army has confirmed that the suspect was never in the Army. He attempted to enlist in the Army but was rejected for service. In accordance with the Privacy Act, we will not discuss why he was rejected.
That should help 1st Sgt. Brian Homme, who oversees 50 Army recruiters in Tucson, when his next evaluation rolls around.