commentator who has written many books including the bestseller, it would be so nice if you weren t here. joining us now is charles grodin, author of humorous observations on life in america. good morning to you. thank you. i d like to make an opening statement. i didn t realize when i came in that this is the army s birthday. and it reminded me of a story years ago. this is a true story. i was on larry king and he asked if i had been in the military. and i deliberately ducked the question. then he asked me a second time. again i evaded the question. he asked me a third time. and i said i was in the navy. he said why were you being so evasive? i said i wasn t on our side. luckily people knew that was a joke. wasn t on our snide you ve got to be careful wasn t on our side? you ve got to be careful with jokes. steve: your new book is great. you ve got a great eye for the small detail.
retired army lieutenant. just the thought basically of someone stepping in between the chaplin and his congregation at a mass and saying excuse me, we are going to pull that letter from the mass, we don t want you to read that le letter to the people. how can they do that. they can t. the catholic priests were having problems with don t ask don t tell. i really see this as not an army issue. i don t think this is the army s doing. one ever the seven values in the army is respect. so this is one of those things that i think the army is trying its best but i do believe there is outside influence coming down hard on it. and frankly, let me be blunt here, this is socialism. this is where you have the state inch seeding in such a way that they don t want a certain doctrine within its religion
give me and my four children back the benefits that my husband died for, but i would also like them to change the language so that no one else has to go through this again. guest: she was assigned a casualty assistance officer after his death for three weeks that officer was with them and suddenly he was pull off the case and she was told that she did not qualify for benefits. again, this is a technicality, and she is fighting it. shepard: show is the army responding? guest: well, they are sticking very closely to a very strict legal interpretation of the code. this is the army s response when we wrote to them. payment is only authorized for reserve soldier whose die during inactive duty training or while traveling tell to or from such training. arc senator proposes an amendment to the defense
public services, so it s not a surprise that there will be a long term cost. and if you look at the second world war and the first world war, there were similar challenges then. they were the last two big, very big episodes in pushing government spending, taxpayer spending to very high levels. mps have described as wholly inadequate the complaints process for women in the armed forces who are sexually assaulted or harassed at work. the defence select committee found that 60% of female personnel had faced bullying, harassment and discrimination during their careers. the ministry of defence says many improvements have been made, but admits women s experience isn t yet equal to men s. jonathan beale reports. what s it like being a female soldier, i m often asked. this is the army s latest recruitment campaign, aimed at women. i m the one stitching them up! i m not a miss or a mrs, i m a sergeant.