Posted on 07/06/2004 5:55:51 AM PDT by Key West Girl
Thank you for your service Ronnie.
I guess I'm going to do some research on the nickel O nasty boys. You got my curiousity up.
Anyone know how many US serviceman have been injured since the handover June 28th?
Until my Son-in-Law was deployed, as a member of the Old Guard (Ft. Myer) he was often involved with war games where he participated as "the enemy". They'd generally send him to Ft. Polk or to AP Hill.
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.."WE WERE SOLDIERS"..MOORE & GALLOWAY / JW Radio Guests
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1164717/posts
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I was in the AF too. Being a microwave radio tech, I was always on mountain tops, the small AF stations are a little different than most chowhalls. They only have cooks make one meal a day. The rest of the time, you just sign your name, go into the kitchen and make whatever you want to. If I recall, they usually locked up the steaks though. LOL
I hope someone else notices that this is robbing the training component of an extremely valuable asset and putting them out of commission for 2 years.
Two companies rotating into The Box is a good thing - the Geronimoes will pick up a few real-time things to augment their role-play at JRTC, and with two National Guard companies rotating in to take their place, the guard comes out of it with two school-trainers, that they go back to THEIR training sites and spread the gospel.
Clinton broke the army when he cut it to 10 divisions. There's no way that a 10 division army can fight 2 simultaneous wars.
Oh, there's no arguement with that first part from me! But two "major conflicts" isn't quite the rule anymore; it's more like one major plus two minors. Now with OIF handed over, Big Army has almost rotated all their formations out, and the Guard/Reserve formations have the ball. The Bosnia and MFO missions are also almost all Guard, too. So, some of the pressure is off Big Army, for now.
If they are robbing entire training units, and especially at the major training centers of JRTC & NTC, then they are admitting that the army is big time broke.
Sorry, Sir, but that's not quite in the ten-ring. 11 ACR at Irwin hasn't been touched, and only two companies of 1/509 are in rotation; and they're getting Guardsmen as backfill. And that's only the Big Army schools; the various Reserve training centers are still hopping - like at Fort McCoy, where I'm writing from tonight; a Mobilization base that preps the kids for the trip. Plus we've got the train-ups once boots hit the dirt in theater.
Please belive me, there's no slack in the training of the gangs going out. What you see as a broke battalion, I see as two companies of big Army troops with sharper skills, and two more companies of Guardsmen who will know better how to work the kids over back home. Winners all around!
The 11th ACR at NTC will shortly be touched. A little bird told me. (Solid info.)
Sarge, no one is saying that the army cannot do it, nor that everyone concerned won't learn a lot....they will.
What I'm saying is that they're deploying units from the training base. I've been around the army since 1970, and it hasn't happened in all that period.
It's a testimony to the army being TOO small. (2 regional wars at the same time has long been the standard, although I agree that there was some discussion about one major and a few skirmishes.)
Hm. If that's the case, then it's the first deployment for the Blackhorse in a long time.
I rode with them last June, on a rotation against a Guard unit that's already in The Box. They did fine.
The two-region war is a throwback from our time: two-front war against the Great Red Hordes. We did the same thing, when I wore a younger man's uniform in the early 80's. But we're finding the multi-conflict works real well. And with the new Brigade Combat Team structure, it means less tail, more teeth.
Believe me I noticed. We were always told that if they deplopyed this unit things were getting mighty tight for deployable troops.
Sec. Rumsfeld intends to do so by civilianizing a number of positions.....I guess from cooks to transporters.
This leads to the obvious question: what are the advantages of having the cooks be military members rather than civilians?
Easy: civilians might not always be found who want to go to a combat zone.
Tax dollars get saved, too, I imagine...
I've eaten an MRE, and I choked it down to the amusement of my brother. He reminds about it all the time to keep those those care packages coming. I'd really like to buy one or two and put them in the next package - I think that would get a laugh or two from the boys!
They pay the civilians enormous upfront money to go to a combat zone. But, I don't see what they can do if the civilian decides it's too hot and just hops a plane back home. They don't have the problem of benefits, training, retirement, in the out years.
It still seems to me, though, that if we have 10 soldiers we have to pay and one of them is a cook, then we have 9 fighers. If we replace the cook with a fighter we have 10 fighers....all of whom we still have to pay.
When we hire a cook, it would seem that the defense budget would go up, not down. Same number of soldiers PLUS civilian help.
It's the old "which pot of money" game.
Actually, they sent two out of THREE. There is only A, B and D. It really crippled the JRTC and there were MANY rotations that went through while the G-men were gone. A national guard unit came in to replace them, and the training was nothing of the caliber of the real thing. The schedule was not open as you suggested. It did give them some real world experience that will be valuable to the group, but being so unexpected it left a tremendous burden on their families. They only had a few weeks notice!
"Awesome way to train,,,why don't the marines train like that? Even the air force, navy has top gun schools with skilled warriors in the role of the enemy.."
When my son was in Ramadi, the Army was responsible for conveying out hot meals to the Marines. Some days, the convoy would arrive, some days not, depending on how dangerous the Army assessed the situation to be.
Maybe the Marines have a better way of training so they can get the job done.
(I have not served. My byline honors my son and all U.S. Marines.)
"the history of the marines for hundreds of years is one of having the ARMY bail them out of situations where they need rescuing... not the other way around..LOL:"
Actually, the history of the Marines is going in first. Also LOL.
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