Page 90 - Cityview Jan-Feb 2017

VETERAN SPOTLIGHTa disease which typically occurs in pregnant women and young children. After a month’s worth of extreme doses of prednisone, which canhave serious side-effects, Harstook was doing no better. “My bodydidn’t recognize the blood, so it was dumping it quicker than I could make it.” The doctors were then forced to take out his spleen, but he says, “My blood is still weird.”BLAZING HIS OWN PATHIn 1991 the Department of Defense authorized direct military support to the Joint Drug Task Force. Military policy at the time required Hartsook to take on roles in other commands and branches to continue on his career path. In the early 90’s hewas sent to Fort Gillem in Atlanta to become First Counterdrug Officer for Second Army Headquarters. Having been in the Special Forces his entire military career, he was sheltered from the changes occurring in the “regular” Army. “When I walkedin there they were having bake sales. They were having town hall meetings. I didn’t even know what that was.” The base also offered daycare services. “It was just fully civilianized. There was no sense of urgency anywhere on anything.”Hartsook was put in charge of Counterdrug Operations for the Southeastern United States, Puerto Rico and Central and South America.They hid deep in the Everglades for days on end, gathering intelligenceon every boat and plane in the area. “To me that was fun; it was like movie stu ,” says Hartsook. But not all movies have happy endings. He attendedthe bond hearing of a drug lord in a Miami court where the bail was set at $2 million. “The prosecutor said ‘No, you don’t understand, your honor! He’ll skip.’ They opened a suitcase in court and paid the $2 million. And by that a ernoon he was back in South America. You can’t ght that.”Moments like this and his experience in Nicaragua cut him deep. “That gives you a rather jaded look. When I retired, I had a two or three-year period that I felt like I had totally wasted my life, and I was a fool. That was my retirement present to me. And it took some timeto get over that. It’s not good to go inas an Army private and come out as a Lieutenant Colonel and feel that you were an idiot, and you wasted yourlife. During my career I found out a lot of things about our government thatI didn’t like,” says Hartsook. But he’s never let go of what counts:“I would tell my superiors whatI thought, not what they wanted to hear. The majority of them were good with that. A few of them did not like that. My dad was my best mentor. He raised me, above all else, to keep my integrity; and that no one can take it, only you can give it away. And when you do, it’s gone forever.”LIFE AFTER RETIREMENT“This year is my 20th Anniversary fighting the VA,” laments Harstook. For a year and a half after Harstook retired, the VA denied he’d beenat Chernobyl. “I’ve still got their paperwork saying I was never there, that I was on vacation—that I wasn’t even in the Army then. That’s asinine to even think; when you’re in the Army, you’re in the Army.” But one should know better than to back a Green Beret into a corner. Harstook gave them an ultimatum, saying, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. If you don’t get this resolved, I’m calling CNN. You’ve got four hours.’ I got a call back in 45 minutes. They said that they had found my records and they had me scheduled for a review.” And the Army finally admitted in writing that he had in fact been stationedin the vicinity of Chernobyl when it melted down.But his heart still bleeds thinking about it. “It’s a shame. I’ve persevered. I don’t mind digging deep and spending the time. But I think of those thousands of soldiers that either don’t have the capability, the time, or the knowledge to be able to fight them.” He hopes for the day that a private company will take over the agency. “Their charter is supposed to be to serve the veteran. Their real charter is to deny the veteran. It’s just wrong.”Harstook is still fighting terrorists as well. His company, Global Integrated Security Solutions, developed an Antiterrorism Program that won the Department of the Army’s Innovation Award in 2005. He also developedthe Master Security Plan for the new World Trade Center—Freedom Tower. And in a book released this year, Radical Islam: Understand, Prepare, Defend, he details for the layperson what specific steps to takehow to protect oneself in an increasingly terrorized country. He’s now at work on another book on the subject.Jon Hersey is a student of philosophy at the Uni- versity of Tennessee, a graduate of the Objectivist Academic Center in Irvine, CA, and has written for the Objective Standard.88JANUARY FEBRUARY 2017