Tag: Gary Mason
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Will Congress Finally Take Action on Military Sexual Assault?
by Sharon Rondeau (Oct. 9, 2023) — Our late-August interview with former U.S. Army Captain, Reverend Dr. Gary Mason, II, was prompted by a CNN article of August 8, 2023 regarding the U.S. Coast Guard’s concealment of a lengthy string of sexual assault reports within its ranks dating back to the 1980s. CNN has been…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 47
by Sharon Rondeau (Dec. 17, 2020) — Continuing from Part 46, former U.S. Army Capt. Gary Mason elaborated on the Army’s efforts to demonstrate that he was unfit for duty after more than a decade of exemplary service, invoking the specter of mental illness or suicidal “ideation” as justification. Enlisting in 2000 in the infantry,…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 45
“STAY HERE AND WAIT” by Sharon Rondeau (Aug. 31, 2020) — This part of former U.S. Army Capt. Gary Mason’s story unfolds as he was awaiting a response from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department and the office of Maryland U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin regarding complaints he filed against his command in…
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Former U.S. Army Soldier’s Wife Invited, then Disinvited to Accompany Michelle Obama on Overseas Trip
“WE HAD A TARGET ON OUR BACKS” by Sharon Rondeau (May 18, 2020) — Less than a year after former Capt. Gary Mason received a “medical” discharge from the Army under duress, his wife, Shahnaaz, also an Army veteran, was informed she had been selected for consideration to join then-First Lady Michelle Obama on a…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 38
“PEOPLE ARE THREATENING YOU” by Sharon Rondeau (Jan. 4, 2020) — In the following section, former U.S. Army Capt. Gary Mason further details the fallout he experienced after filing an Equal Opportunity (EO) complaint and request for a congressional inquiry into a 2008 assault against his person in Iraq on the part of an enlisted…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 36
“SOMEONE GOT MAD” by Sharon Rondeau (Dec. 9, 2019) — Part 35 of our series described the building tension among former U.S. Army Captain Gary Mason; his unit in Hawaii, the 8th Theater Sustainment Command; and the 130th Engineer Brigade to which he was temporarily assigned after returning in 2011 from his second deployment to…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 33
“JUST IN CASE SOMETHING ELSE HAPPENED” by Sharon Rondeau (Sep. 1, 2019) — The following is former Army Captain Gary Mason’s continued narrative from Part 32. I went to Afghanistan again; I hooked up with task forces, all of the elite Special Forces units from NATO. I worked with Italy, France, Australia, New Zealand, Croatia,…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 32
“I DECIDED TO GO” by Sharon Rondeau (Aug. 21, 2019) — In Part 31, former U.S. Army Captain Gary Mason told of his return to Hawaii at the end of 2010 from an individual assignment to Afghanistan which was cut short due to an allergic reaction and medivac back to the U.S. Mason experienced a…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 30
“YOU WEREN’T ON ANYBODY’S RADAR” by Sharon Rondeau (Jul. 14, 2019) — In our last segment, Capt. Gary Mason told of how he was returned to the United States for the second time as a result of having suffered an allergic reaction from exposure to a burn pit, this time in Afghanistan. After his face…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 29
“THESE ORDERS WERE NOT APPROVED” by Sharon Rondeau (Jul. 5, 2019) — Our previous installment in this series detailed former U.S. Army Capt. Gary Mason’s successful ordination as a military chaplain, obtained after more than seven years of combined full- and part-time study amidst overseas deployments, Public Affairs school, and full-time service in Public Affairs…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 28
“IF ANYONE CAN MESS WITH YOUR EMOTIONS, JOIN THE ARMY!” by Sharon Rondeau (Jun. 21, 2019) — Continuing from Part 27 of our series, U.S. Army Captain Gary Mason found himself on a huge Army base in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, where he was sent to acquire his ordination into the military Chaplain Corps. Encountering a…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 26
ON TO ORDINATION by Sharon Rondeau (Jun. 10, 2019) — This part of former U.S. Army Captain Gary Mason’s journey takes the reader through the perils of service in Afghanistan during time of war. While Mason mentored and taught others in the field of Public Affairs, he continued to work toward completing the ordination…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 24
WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE “LEADER?” by Sharon Rondeau (Apr. 14, 2019) — In Part 23 of our series, former Army Captain Gary Mason told of his 2010 deployment to Afghanistan, independent of his unit in Hawaii, while working in the field of Public Affairs for the 8th Theater Sustainment Command. Mason’s military career began in…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 23
“THOSE ORDERS WERE NOT LEGITIMATE” by Sharon Rondeau (Mar. 19, 2019) — Part 22 of our series about the military experiences of former Capt. Gary Mason concluded with Mason’s having returned to Hawaii from a strange temporary assignment in South Korea, where his accommodations, to his surprise, proved to be “a Korean whorehouse” rather than…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 22
“WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE?” by Sharon Rondeau (Feb. 8, 2019) — In our last segment, former U.S. Army Captain Gary Mason described a surprise assignment to South Korea and again to Japan shortly after he completed Public Affairs school in May 2010. While he expected to be leaving for the Defense Information School in…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 20
“IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN THAT WAY” by Sharon Rondeau (Jan. 10, 2019) — This section of the military story of former Army Captain Gary Mason expounds on the dilemma he faced after members of his former combat unit, 3/4 Cav., told him upon their return from Iraq to Hawaii that pressure was placed on…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 19
“MAN, WE CAN’T TALK WITH YOU” by Sharon Rondeau (Jan. 5, 2019) — This chapter of the story of former U.S. Army Captain Gary Mason details his transition from the bad experiences he had in the Infantry’s 3/4 Cav. Unit in Iraq to his position as a public affairs officer with the 8th Theater Sustainment…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 16
“THAT’S NOT THE BATTLE YOU WANT TO FIGHT” by Sharon Rondeau (Oct. 15, 2018) — In the last installment of the story of former Army Capt. Gary Mason’s military experience, gleaned between 2000 and 2015 in the U.S. Army, he described officers in his command unit within the Iraq Sunni Triangle war zone as having…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 13
“IT WAS GOING TO BE ME OR THEM” by Sharon Rondeau (Aug. 14, 2018) — This part of former Army chaplain and Capt. Gary Mason’s story focuses on his sense of frustration, anger, despair, and fear of persecution from within after he filed a formal complaint against an enlisted soldier who physically assaulted him at…
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U.S. Army Veteran Shares Painful Experiences of Military Racism, Part 12
“A REFLECTION OF YOUR LEADERSHIP” by Sharon Rondeau (Aug. 3, 2018) — In the last installment in this series, former U.S. Army Captain and chaplain Gary Mason described how a physical assault by an enlisted soldier at FOB Paliwoda in Iraq went unaddressed and his subsequent discovery that the command in the 3/4 Cav unit…