Time to call in the world
Huntsville received some press in the current issue of the Military Times (Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times, and Marine Times). Normally, being part of a story read by more than 300,000 military people would be a good thing for the City. However, this story is partly about the Huntsville City Schools and the Board of Education – and their foul treatment of Master Sergeant CJ Grisham.
Bouhammer’s Afghanistan Blog posted the Army Times article “The Rise and Fall of a Military Blogger”:
…he (CJ Grisham) is an unabashed conservative with razor-wire wit who has cast stones at what he calls “Repugnicans” and “Dumbocrats” alike but has also been to the White House twice — invited first by President George W. Bush, and more recently by President Barack Obama — for roundtable discussions on military outreach.
All this while remaining a toprated senior noncommissioned officer, a troop-leading first sergeant and an active counterintelligence agent, according to his fitness reports. “A true Soldiers’ Soldier. Promote to SGM immediately,” gushed his senior rater in Grisham’s most recent evaluation in June…
Grisham’s most recent battle with his superiors grew out of his blogging about disagreements he had with the local school board after they decided to implement a student uniform policy halfway into the year without input from parents.
Grisham, who had two kids in the school, posted unflattering video he shot of school officials fumbling through a meeting. School officials called the Army to complain. His company commander, Capt. Brian Hawkins, called Grisham in to talk about it. “I felt like this was a matter between him and the school,” Hawkins said. “They were concerned about him being a threat. I can tell you he’s not a threat. I read what he wrote. I didn’t take it as threatening.” Hawkins’ message to the school: “If you feel threatened by him, if you feel threatened by anyone, you should call the police.” School officials instead took their complaints up the chain of command.
In the weeks that followed, Grisham says, Redstone Arsenal garrison commander Col. Robert Pastorelli and Command Sgt.
Maj. Rickey Cooper repeatedly called him on the carpet, ordering him to remove posts.
Grisham said he was ordered to see investigators at Criminal Investigation Command to determine whether he’d broken any laws.
“They said the only threat I made was to threaten a lawsuit and, of course, that’s not illegal,” Grisham said…
“It’s not a lawful order and it goes to the heart of free expression,” said Capt. Mike Lebowitz, an Army lawyer for the Virginia National Guard who regularly lectures at Yale University on military free speech issues. “Filming anyone at a public meeting is fair game.” “I don’t know how he disgraced the NCO Corps,” said Sgt. 1st Class Chad Vervaet, an instructor at the NCO Academy, who has moved his son out of the same school because of problems there.
“This never should have been a military issue in the first place. I was at all the same meetings at the school with C.J. and he never once threatened anyone.” “This is a failure of leadership on the Army’s side,” said Dale Jackson, a former soldier and local radio journalist who has been covering the controversy. “Instead of the commanders protecting their soldier, they just tried to make the problem go away by telling C.J. to shut up. Except C.J. stood his ground. He’s not one to be bullied.”
Blackfive posted “Military Times covers CJ Grisham”:
Now, pray that there is not yet more retaliation against him for defending himself. Given all that has gone on, I have no faith or confidence that he will not face official, or more likely unofficial and potentially illegal, retribution for standing up for himself.
Frankly, I still hope that Congress or others might like to look into all that has happened, from the initial IG investigation and ruling on same, and have already suggested same to some members of Congress. Yes, I really do think it has reached such a point as what has happened smells to high heaven, from the school system on to command functions.
Mayor Battle – I know you don’t like this kind of negative publicity – can you and Chief Reyes please review HPD’s involvement in this?
Huntsville Board of Education – this is not over, you will not be able to avoid it, just make it right.
Dr. Robinson – you said “I absolutely believe that Dr. Moore is telling the truth…If I didn’t have faith in her to that extent (telling the truth), I’d be asking for her resignation”. At the last School Board meeting, you said you had “since learned that her comments weren’t accurate”. Follow through with your promise.
And to the guy who accused CJ of bringing the spirit of terror into the school, read this:
Grisham took down a squad of Iraqis when his counterintelligence detachment got pinned down in an ambush.
He earned the Bronze Star with “V” after rushing through the gunfire by himself with just a 9mm pistol and a hand grenade.
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I am so embarrassed for HSV City right now for their degrading treatment of Master Sergeant CJ Grisham. HSV needs to get more attention on this issue because still not everyone knows about it — some of those liberal media won’t cover this story so forget about CNN, CBS, NBC, but where’s Foxnews? Please don’t forget that HSV is what it is today because of U.S. Military.
I commend MSG Grisham for standing up for himself, his family, and soldiers. I hope Huntsville schools learn from this. If they treat a senior NCO this way I wish not to think of how they might be treating everyone else.
anyone who has been in an infantry unit knows the value of good non-coms. my time goes back to the “old” army — korean war years. i was commissioned aug 29, ‘52, reported to Fort Jackson 2 sept 52. i was Scabbard and Blade, honorary ROTC fraternity, but i quickly found out i didnt know much. It coincided with my first assignment — teach the recoilless rifle, take the trainees to the firing range where each one fired two rounds, and teach the bazooka to the same group. I had never fired one. didnt know how it worked. so i memorized the lesson plan, memorized hours of lesson plan, and i got away with it because non-coms assigned to me helped me learn what i was supposed to already know. i ended up as a first lt basic training company commander — not many first lts with less than 2 years in the army get to be company commander even in a basic training unit. my success was in no small part due to good non-commissioned officers who taught me more in hours than i learned in weeks of ROTC. Master Sgt. Grisham reminds me of those professional soldiers. Colonel Pastorelli reminds of officers whose judgement most fellow officers didn’t trust.
Don’t know Pastorelli from Adam, but his behavior indicates that he is one of those Col. David Hackworth referred to as a “perfumed prince.” In other words, a gutless, promotable, PC adherent. What a disgrace!
And just so he doesn’t feel left out, Command Sgt. Maj. Rickey Cooper is obviously a boot-licking punk as well.
It’s guys like these that make me remember, “Oh yeah, that’s why I got out.”
Instead of bickering about/with the board of education and name calling, did anybody think to ask the Garrison Commander who called him and what was said?
Being “a former soldier and local radio journalist”, I would have thought Dale Jackson would have the insight to cut right through the crap and go straight to the Colonel for the truth on this. Being, a O-6, he is probably the only one is all this with any authority to make things happen or the integrity to believe what he says.
“Being, a O-6, he is probably the only one is all this with any authority to make things happen or the integrity to believe what he says.”
You don’t get it do you? Read the posts and the AT article. The Garrison CO is PART OF THE PROBLEM! He, the CSM, and the Hsv education establishment colluded to shut up CJ. He stood his ground and now they are ALL in CYA mode.
Just an FYI: I don’t consider myself to be a journalist.
I am not an unbiased observer, I am a talk show host, I didn’t write those words.
We reached out to the post and they would not call us back.
The military isn’t the problem here, all though they behaved in a cowardly way.
The issue is and has been an inappropriate attempt to silence a soldier by using his service and PTSD against him. They would not do this with any other parents employer.
Does it reflect badly on the Colonel and CSM? Yes.
Are they the cause of this? No, they wanted to squash it and when CJ didn’t back down, they dug in.
Ms. Williams and Dr. Moore knew that they would tell CJ, it’s what they wanted.
Dale,
You are right! A nice story for a change:
The public school my son attends invited a military family to use the schools VTC equipment to allow the family to talk and see their Father in (I believe) Iraq. The family’s home webcam just was not getting it done. WAFF did a nice story on this. Of couse this is NOT a HSV City School. This is how things are supposed to go down.
CJ seems, from what I have read , to be very outspoken and maybe rubbed some people the wrong way. Whatever. His right. His opinion. This school and and school board is just a joke. A really bad joke.
This story is going viral. Now picked up by World Net Daily
i’m glad attention is on this because it might, in some small way, change a really crappy system of doing things in huntsville — a principal trying to shut up a parent the way it occured in this situation is a good example. but, dont ask me to accept worldnetdaily as a reliable info disseminator. once it gets into an issue, the crap it has spread on so many other issues pervades whatever it gets into. i was hoping major media would pick up on the sergeant’s case.
Care to expand on the “crap (WND) has spread?” Please cite any specific instances of untruths or misinformation.
The issue is that this reflects poorly on the school system and the city while Redstone and the city are courting BRAC transfers. Redstone, the Chamber of Commerce, the HSV school board, and the Mayor’s office (of both cities) have a lot riding on BRAC, especially since missile defense and Ares (don’t believe the Congressional appropriations) are taking hits. If this were to become a story on Fox News (O’Reilly, On-the-Record, or Hannity), then this would shine on HSV very badly. The “Power Brokers” do not want anything “rocking-the-boat” during the BRAC.
PS: if CJ can show damages (loss of income perhaps via a non-promotion) then he may get a lawyer if he does not have one.
Its not just the school board now. The garrison command at Redstone have overstepped their authority. Both the commander and the CSM should be fired. No doubt about it, they have failed thier soldier big time. For now I will no longer shop in Huntsville until the school board pulls thier head out of thier 5th point of contact and start firing some petty bureaucrates and liars.
Responding to the request for “specific instances of untruths or misinformation” from worldnetdaily, maybe the best one of many is its plea in its al gore libel case. it admitted the claims made against it — basically totally false reporting. for those interested in the details on that one plus more google has an acre of them.
nutsfortennis, he has receipts for moving his family hundreds of miles away to get his children out of the school district to protect them. He has also set up a legal defense fund. CJ has and always will stand up for what’s right, regardless of the cost to him. He is truly a patriot who believes in his country, his rights, and his freedom.
Since Michelle Malkin has picked up the story and she occasionally fills in for O’Reilly, this may go even bigger.
do people trying to help sergeant grisham want this to become a malkin-O’Reilly “cause.” that puts a curse on it from a lot of independent (a pox on both parties) independent viewpoint holders? Grisham would be helped more, and better served, by coverage of this from a liberal washington post columnist than by fulminating fury cookers.
I can only speak for myself, but I think the point of doing the blogging blackout (all milblogs went silent yesterday) is to show support for CJ. No higher purpose but to let him know we support him in his fight to be heard as a parent, his fight to NOT have his PTSD used against him by the school district, and his right as a US citizen, NOT representing the Army, to have free speech. Almost all regulations I’ve seen have to do with speaking and political activity in a non-representative way. CJ never wore his uniform for any of the previous clashes with the school district and on his blog (before he sold it) he had a disclaimer that specifically says he is speaking for himself, his own personal opinions, and in no way are his words a reflection of the Army, the DoD, etc. Whether Malkin, O’Reilly, or anyone else chooses to shine the light on this situation doesn’t matter. What matters is a man who has committed most of his life to defending our country and defending the rights we enjoy and he should not be punished because of a vindictive principal/school board/PTA/military command.
i totally agree that sgt grisham (or anyone else in similar circumstances) “should not be punished because of a ….” — we can each fill in the blanks from our own perspective, but this is obviously an ACLU type case and i’m going to refer it to ACLU unless i hear that is not what Sgt. grisham wants. i hope he checks this blog and lets us know. if anyone reading it is in contact with him please raise the aclu aspect. this is what aclu does. actually, i dont know how to refer it by computer so if he wants its help i need help. i want to point out to LL that tactics and strategy in cases like this do matter and that i was trying to point out that malkin, oreilly et al are hot button people that immediately turn off a segment of the active population that could help in this case.
From what I understand, CJ has an attorney. I don’t know if he contacted the ACLU or not. There are 2 intertwined issues. One is his problem with the school district and the other is his command. He cannot sue the Army for violation of 1st amendment rights. He can defend himself against any disciplinary action. So I’m not sure the ACLU could help, to be honest.
i’m told by an Alabama ACLU board member if sgt grisham requests alabama aclu to write a letter to the school board condemning its actions in his case it’s likely he would get it. if he does, let us know and i’ll give him an e mail address to contact.
Ivan, thank you. I’ve forwarded your offer to CJ. He will be interviewed by his cohost & producer of his podcast this evening if you have any additional questions. You can call in. It’s on Blogtalkradio.com/youserved
Ivan, I would be interested in that email address. Could you send it to me at cj[at]soldiersperspective[dot]us? Thanks.
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