Reservist humor.
Posted on 07/06/2004 6:28:55 PM PDT by Cannoneer No. 4
Thom Shanker's story in the Sunday New York Times explores how post-9/11 commitments will require a rethink of the National Guard and National Reserves in defese planning:
The National Guard and Reserves must be fundamentally revamped if they are to carry the growing burden placed on them in support of the administration's military strategy, according to many commanders, Pentagon officials and respected national security experts.
With hundreds of thousands of these citizen-soldiers having deployed in the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, and others engaged in missions related to the global campaign against terrorism overseas and here at home, these concerns have broad implications for the Bush administration's plans to protect the United States....
The current Guard and Reserve system was designed after the Vietnam War, a conflict in which neither President Lyndon B. Johnson nor President Richard M. Nixon called up reservists in significant numbers, fearing greater opposition to their policies. In frustration, Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, the Army chief, shaped a post-Vietnam mix of active and reserve forces to ensure that when America went to war with its new all-volunteer force, hometown America would have to go too.
Shanker does a good job of delineating the budgetary and training disparities:
Richard I. Stark, who is analyzing reserve affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington policy research institute, said that the Army traditionally kept about half of its capability in the Guard and Reserves, yet for years devoted only 8 percent of its budget to those units.
"That huge disparity will have to be revisited because we are using them with increasing frequency," Mr. Stark said....
Military commanders in Washington and in the combat zone frequently said in private that a number of reservists arrive for duty ill-prepared for the challenges they face in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, in particular lacking specific combat skills required even of truck drivers in the war zone. They say the reservists also do not have something more intangible but equally important: a warrior ethos, which can hardly be inculcated by training one weekend a month and two weeks a year for service in the most violent places on earth, or in the rapid weeks of accelerated training before deployment....
[N]early two months traveling in Iraq this year disclosed many first-hand examples of the disparity between active-duty troops and their Guard and Reserve comrades.
During the huge troop rotation this spring, in which nearly a quarter-million American military personnel flowed in and out of Iraq, fresh ground forces stopped first at a series of deployment camps in northern Kuwait to acclimate to the hot temperatures and focus on live-fire combat skills.
Despite spring temperatures that already pushed toward 100 degrees, and the relative safety of camps in Kuwait, commanders of active-duty units like the First Infantry Division ordered their soldiers to wear heavy helmets and flak jackets at all times except inside their tents and mess halls or en route to the showers: all part of an effort to get the troops into the combat mind-set.
In contrast, many soldiers who identified themselves as reservists walked the hot and dusty bases in shorts, baseball caps and sandals.
Even inside the war zone of Iraq, the differences were visible.
Col. Dana J. H. Pittard, commander of the First Infantry's Third Brigade, gave voice to worries about the lackadaisical approach to security shown by some reservists not under his command. On a dangerous 34-hour convoy drive north from Kuwait to Camp Warhorse, near Baquba, an insurgents' stronghold, he marched up and down a mile-long row of vehicles belonging to a mix of units, scolding scores of reservists he spotted not wearing body armor.
Read the whole thing -- and be sure to check out Phil Carter's thoughts on the matter once he reads it.
UPDATE: Here's Phil's partial response. Be sure to read the whole thing, but I thought this was a compelling point:
I talked to several Pentagon policy officials and think-tankers last week about this argument, and I am starting to see its credibility. According to this line of thought, the emergency measures cited above are not so much signs of the force breaking, as they are signs of the force working exactly as intended. That is, we are a nation at war. Our military needs extra personnel now to fight this war, and probably for the next few years. Thus, it has called up reservists and used additional temporary measures to make ends meet. But when the crisis passes (assuming it does), the military reservists will be demobilized, and the military will contract. Yes, there is some hardship for the reservists who are called up. But, this argument continues, better to call up these reservists who accept the risk voluntarily, than to conscript mass numbers of citizens and compel them to kill or be killed in combat.
Moreover, Pentagon policymakers say (and I agree) that it would be tremendously inefficient and impractical to start a draft when the personnel needs are in the thousands or tens of thousands. A draft, which traces back to Napoleon's levee en masse, is used when you need to mobilize millions of young Americans for battle. If that cataclysmic day comes, then our Selective Service system stands ready (in mothballs) to swing into action. But until then, the Pentagon argument goes, it is far more efficient and effective to use reservists.
posted by Dan on 07.03.04 at 05:47 PM
(Excerpt) Read more at danieldrezner.com ...
ping
I don't know about other Guard units, but I know in the Arkansas Brigade you get your weapon chained to you with a log chain for a week if you don't practice positive weapon control. I don't imagine leaving your body armor laying around has much better results.
My unit saw our budget cut during Clinton so badly that we had no budget for spare parts.
So if we broke something, we had to 'find' something to replace it with.
I smell a rat. We all know that the good Colonel wants everyone to "play the game" 24/7, but jeeesh!
We neutralized two jihadist countries in 2 years and captured a terrorist enabling thug and the Colonel is bitching about wearing your kevlar. Give me a break.
Don't worry Colonel...give the order and I bet those Reservist and National Guardsman will do what you command.
No doubt there are slackers in the Reserve and Guard...but that's a leadership problem....
I expect when the Defense department takes a good long look at what a bargain the Reserve and Guard are, perhaps they will start to compensate them PROPORTIONATELY for what they do.....
Reservist humor.
What brand of Arkansas Toothpick is most commonly seen hanging from their web gear?
Yep. I was part of a Guard unit once that had enlisted men with MBA'S! I would say that 90% of us had a degree of some sort or was currently in college. It was amazing. Oh yeah, the other 10% were cops (Feds, local LEOs, or state police).
Needless to say they were and are a kickass unit now attached to the 4th Infantry.
That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. It will have exactly the opposite effect:
"We want you to get so used to wearing your 'combat gear' everywhere while you are relaxing and waiting around in the rear that you are no longer automatically alert when you put your gear on for real."
God, the Army is dumb sometimes. Another stupid Colonel who just doesn't understand troops...
1. Promotion.
2. Physical ability and age.
3. Individual Soldier Civilian/Military Interface
I expect when the Defense department takes a good long look at what a bargain the Reserve and Guard are, perhaps they will start to compensate them PROPORTIONATELY for what they do.....
Sorry to burst your bubble, but the guard and reserves ARE compensate proportionately(two days pay for each day of drill) and full pay and benefits for active duty time.
Here are a few things that are broken in the NG. (Perhaps also the reserve.)
1. Promotion.
2. Physical ability and age.
3. Individual Soldier Civilian/Military Interface
And 40% not able to be deployed when called upon.
That's an excellent one....part of it is tied up in my point #2.
That's an excellent one....part of it is tied up in my point #2.
Agree. And pregnancy needs to be added to that.
That's an excellent one....part of it is tied up in my point #2.
I'd be willing to make a sizeable bet that the draft will return(after the election, of course), but it is inevitible with the military so stretched at this point.
HUA !..............Stay safe !
Rethinking the Guard and Reserve missions - ping.
It is a well established fact that the AC130 Reserve Gunship kicked the Active Duty Gunship's ass in head to head shot-offs (Ouch - how terminology has changed over the years - whew!) The Reserves whipped the active duty so soundly that the competition was discontinued. The reason was obvious. The average Reserve gunship pilot had more Vietnam combat time than the average Active Duty pilot had total time. The same was true for the maintenance and munitions support personnel. As the Vietnam Era Reserves retired, they were replaced by the high time active duty pilots and support personnel, who bailed out of slick willy's politically correct Air Force. So, the Reserves kept their experience advantage.
The Reserves were used for initial combat aircrew training of Active Duty Gunship Aircrews, who were stretched thin with global deployment commitments. The Reserve gunships training in Panama were quickly deployed into the fight with Noriega. In the first Gulf War, it was the Reserve AC130 Gunships that left the carnage and destruction known as "the highway of death." The shocking destruction of Iraqi armor was evidenced by hundreds of burned hulks littering the road to Iraq.
It is true that the Reserve AC130 personnel had a swagger not acceptable to the Active Duty mindset - but then, they had a reason to swagger. The talked the talk. Then they walked the walk. They were the best, they knew it and they didn't mind taking on all challengers. At 30% cost of the Active Duty, the Reserve AC130 Gunships were one of the best deals going in the late 1980-90's. The amazing thing is that the Reserves accomplished so much using 1950 era AC130A aircraft.
And they also wait till age 60 to collect retirement while active duty can start collecting retirement pay as early as age 37. Compensated proportionately less of course.
And I doubt there will be a draft unless another part of the world goes to hell.
"I'd be willing to make a sizeable bet that the draft will return(after the election, of course), but it is inevitible with the military so stretched at this point."
I'll take that bet. The Army's problem is that Congress has not authorized enough sodiers for the Army to perform all of the missions it has been tasked to perform. The first thing that has to happen is Congress needs to authorize an expension of the Army. Then you worry about how you fill those slots. I think the Army could easily add 50,000 volunteer soldiers (an additional three divisions) if it begins an intensive recruiting campaign.
Senior Army leadership does not want conscripts. I don't think Congress will force conscripts on them until it is proven that the Army cannot get enough volunteers.
And they also wait till age 60 to collect retirement while active duty can start collecting retirement pay as early as age 37. Compensated proportionately less of course.
And, under what HAD been normal circumstances, they served on "Active Duty" for 36 days per YEAR. If you do the math, 36 days per year is about 10% of the time. Granted, the guard and reverve's mission is quite different in the 21st century(thanks to Hill and Billary).
Ask the average Guardsman or Reservist why they joined and, if they're honest, it'll be for the education benefits. It's like a part-time employee in most any company, they get fewer benefits.
As for the draft, it's only a matter of when, not if. The war on terror is FAR from being over. There are more hotspots out there to deal with and the military is struggling to maintain the current hotspots.
I'd rather go in his place. Heck they'd get a trained officer in exchange for a pfc.
They are already calling the IRR, that is Ready Reeserve(former military rhat are out, but still have a commitment in the reserves. They have maxed the guard and reserves. The economy id good(a big recruitment factor)AND, last but not least, we have a lot of Liberal DIMocrats out there that are demoralizing our volunteer force, thus lowering retention. We also have some A$$ kicking to do in Syria and Iran in the near future.
Senior Army leadership does not want conscripts. I don't think Congress will force conscripts on them until it is proven that the Army cannot get enough volunteers.
Senior leadership will take what they can get. Draftees would likely do mostly stateside duty. It's all in the numbers though.
Personally, I think the draft will be helpful for todays youth. I live in Korea, and EVERY male has a two year commitment to serve and they seem better for it. They make a whopping $15 a month as a conscript here.
Loved that picture! Sent it to my reservist niece who is currently in Kuwait.
I don't know about other branches of the service, but my son is in the Navy and says they are currently over-manned. Also, I read something recently that indicated that other branches were meeting their quotas (Please don't ask for the article, 'cause I can't remember where I read it).
Sorry sir, but that's elitism in spades....."not mine, yours..."
Thanks for your time in the corps (or whatever) but it does not exempt your offspring from similar responsibility. The draft sucks(ed) but in the end, we are all supposed to be equally obligated to participate.
PS: drafted at 23 (how appropriate), after BA degree, passing all exams for foreign service, and watching my 'peers' go north....
Sucks don't it!
"We want you to get so used to wearing your 'combat gear' everywhere while you are relaxing and waiting around in the rear that you are no longer automatically alert when you put your gear on for real."
I wonder what the re-up rate in units where he was CO has been?
The guard and reserve structure need a complete overhall. This will be a difficult task, given the political power of both organizations.
But those support overhall must remember that there is nothing sacred about either structure. As I understand it the current organizational structure dates only from WWI or thereabouts.
Guard and Reserve ping.
Well the three guys that died from my old guard unit last month were all wearing theirs. Apparently they weren't IED proof.
bump
Ain't gonna happen.
The military doesn't want it, and the people don't want it.
The only folks who do want it are the commieRATs and their media.
If Congress truly wants to expand the military they need only fund the
additional billets and purchase the equipment.
Bump!
Not on your life. Not for the first week only. Once in the mix, conscripts would look just like anyone else to the machine.
Please share your experience here.
Problem is that more billets would be unpopular and new equipment is usually a decade out..they need trained troops immediately and functional but obsolescent equipment in short term.
I don't think it is a new problem. [And, yes, I'd vote M113s back into the TOE]
Yep. I have found no exceptions so far to my observation that the only advocates for a draft are: 1)leftists who want to gin up opposition to the war for political purposes, and 2)people who labor under the delusion that the military is an agency for social engineering.
Your group 1 and 2 people are the same induhviduals.
No, they aren’t effective against blasts - but they are good against most bullets and shrapnel.
Lets wait until the military services stop meeting their recruitment goals before we start hyperventilating about the draft. 2004 is met and many branches already met their goal for 2005. So if in 2006 there is a dropoff, maybe in 2007?
With whom?
Other than the commiecRATs who would have their "draft" boogieman
taken away from them, I can't think of anyone who wouldn't prefer increasing the
military via volunteers.
new equipment is usually a decade out
Imnho that 10 years could be considerably shorter.
The need won't go away and the best time to start is now.
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