Without discipline the Army would just be a bunch of guys wearing the same color clothing.” Frank Burns

Ok, so Sears, the department store chain, recently bought the Licensing rights to the Army's First Infantry Division. I'll let that sink in for a second.

Ready? Ok.

Sears has made plans to sell a line of SPORTSWEAR featuring the logo of the 1st UD, because "strong brand identification through retail sales of products potentially can enhance the Army's recruiting efforts and the public's general goodwill toward the Army and its activities."

Yeah, right.

This is a weak attempt for the Army and Sears to make a quick buck on the American Public's support of the US Armed Forces. Like those inane fucking magnetic" ribbons that people stick to their cars. The men and women of our Army fought and died to wear that logo and indicia. My father was in the 101st airborne attached to the 1st Infantry in Vietnam. He came home with metal pins for shins and a screwed up back from his service to his country and the Army. And THIS is how the Department of the Army repays him and the many thousands of others like him for his sacrifice? By selling his unit name and reputation to the highest bidder so that they can have underpaid Chinese kids make cheap, shoddy activewear to sell to retarded Suburban families that think that they are somehow "SUPPORTING THE TROOPS" by buying army clothes and sticking magnets to their giant gas-gizzling SUV's?! GAH!!

Sears and the Army defends this reprehensible act of selling out our Soldiers by saying, "The licensing fee is to go toward programs that benefit army personnel and their families." Really? Well, what about the thousands of vets that served under the banner of the BIG RED ONE? I guess since the DOA decommissioned the 1UD in 2006, thsoe vets don't see a damned dime, do they? What about the profits from the sales of merchandise? The licensing fee is great, but I think that if the Sears Corporation is going to make money on the backs of our Soldiers, then they should kick into the Army's coffers. Maybe they should use the money to help fund the VA programs that are seriously lacking any financial assistance from the Bush Administration. I know my dad could use some money to help pay for his prescriptions and medical bills (prescriptions that SHOULD be paid by the VA, but for some reason aren't), why doesn't SEARS give him some of the cash they're going to make on this?

Representative John Murtha (D) has come out against this. Many others are sure to as well. This is bottom-line a cheap marketing ploy to raise enlistment numbers, most likely engineered at the highest echelons of the Army, Pentagon and White House. And We must find a way to stop this disgusting example of corruption and keep these people from making more money off our soldier's sacrifice.