Denisha Montgomery Smith – Discussion with Colonel Wes Martin

This show is about Denisha Montgomery Smith from a larger viewpoint. I have been struggling with questions about why these kinds of situations are tolerated in the military. Especially when a recruiter will tell someone and their family that the military will “take care of them”. Only to experience the worst kind of betrayal when a soldier like Denisha Montgomery Smith dies in a manner that is suspect at best.

Colonel Wesley Martin is U.S. Army Ret. and served our country for over 30 years. He acted several times in his career to punish those who hurt other soldiers in the Army. This continued when he retired from the Army in 2010. He has been involved with Denisha’s case and answered questions I think many people have.

Colonel Martin said this boils down to people who see and know something is wrong and then choose to not do anything about it. As long as people willingly turn the other way when situations like Denisha’s arise, this will continue. It was hard to hear because I want to continue believing that those officers leading us to conduct themselves to a higher standard. Sadly, that is not the case which made talking with Colonel Martin a lesson in where we came from and why history is repeating itself.

He talked about Denisha and her family warmly and when I asked him about apparent failures in the system there was an undercurrent of anger in his responses. It seemed he took the failures of senior leadership in Denisha’s case personally and it drove him to seek justice for her and her family.

I asked Colonel Martin about Senator Grassley’s involvement in this case. He told me of instances where Senator Grassley got involved in previous cases and what happened when he was lied to about misconduct. Someone listened to many voices asking for help, and now a louder voice is demanding justice for Denisha.

As Colonel Martin said, we as Americans need to write our Elected Representatives and Senators about this and let them know we do not accept what happened and want change. I believe this is something that many Americans forget. Senators and Representatives are elected. These people work for us and have a duty to listen to our voices. If we can spend time on social media, watching sporting events, and going to concerts, we can take ten minutes and demand change for those with no voice.

Go to https://www.colonelwesmartin.com/ and https://neveraloneadvocacy.org/ to learn more about the people demanding accountability and change so what happened to Denisha never happens again.

Thank you for being one of those who won’t look away, Colonel. You are someone we can all follow.

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