A three-star U.S. Army lieutenant general caught some attention over the weekend when she referred to British troops as Americans.
In a now-deleted tweet on Saturday, Lt. Gen. Maria Gervais tweeted a photo of dozens of troops crammed together while sleeping in tight confines. “This picture is worth 1000 words—thanks to these American hero’s #Grateful.”
Gervais’ tweet quickly caught attention from social media commentators who soon noticed that the troops crammed together in the picture were not in fact Americans. Instead, the troops pictured were British.
Gervais deleted the erroneous tweet, but not before it was archived and the post garnered hundreds of comments and was liked and retweeted thousands of times on Twitter.
Several of the troops in the photo could be seen with the British Army’s iconic SA80 rifles slung across their laps. The rifles are distinct in design from the M4 and M16 models used by U.S. troops. The U.K.’s Daily Express reported British combat fatigues are also visually distinct from those used by American soldiers. The British Army currently wears Multi-Terrain Pattern (MTP) camouflage, while the U.S. Army its own Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP).
Gervais is the deputy commanding general and chief of staff for the Army’s Training and Doctrine (TRADOC) Command. TRADOC Command oversees the development and implementation of Army training and operational doctrine.
Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy and editor of the Long War Journal, linked directly to Gervais’ now-deleted tweet. “Why would @TradocDCG post this? Contrast this to the images of the Taliban’s victory coming out of Kabul and elsewhere. Sometimes silence is golden,” he tweeted.
Another Twitter user posted, “Not every day you correct a 3 Star. . .”
New York Post op-ed editor Sohrab Ahmari tweeted, “This is an incredible own. This is your military brass, America: illiterate and unable to tell US from UK troops.”
Former British paratrooper Alfie Usher told the Daily Express, “They’re both premium fighting forces. But the inability to identify your own soldiers is a little bizarre. Especially considering we use the highly regarded SA80 as seen in the images.”
Retired Marine Jessie Jane Duff, who is a Newsmax contributor and the co-chair of Veterans for Trump also tweeted, “Yikes. A 3 star general at that. My Marines woulda’ submitted my retirement papers for me if I did that. Maybe that’s why the military left so many Americans behind – the generals didn’t recognize them.”
