Posted on 01/20/2005 10:19:34 PM PST by Former Military Chick
WASHINGTON - The third rotation of American soldiers and Marines into Iraq is under way. The Pentagon is doing the old robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul thing to boost total troop strength temporarily to 150,000 for the coming Iraq elections.
What that means is some outfits find themselves on their way back over after only nine months at home since their last combat tour. In other outfits where they were expected home for Christmas, the troops instead got a two-month extension on top of their "standard" 12-month combat tour.
This time around, about 50 percent of the troops going in will be Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers. The burden just gets heavier and heavier, and the Reserve commander has warned his superiors that his force is being broken by poorly thought-out Pentagon policies and overuse.
The Army's response was to propose a change of policy to allow the reserve troops to be called up for 24 months instead of 18 months, and more frequently.
Meanwhile, senior Army leaders say they are thinking of going to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with a request that a temporary three-year increase in regular Army strength of 30,000 be made permanent at a cost of $4 billion a year. That would make permanent Army strength 515,000.
In other news the Army is inviting retired officers and soldiers to volunteer to return to active duty. They picked up 4,000 of them last year and hope to lure back 5,000 volunteers this year. Others will be swept back on duty involuntarily by levies on the pool of inactive reserves -- people who have finished their four-year enlistments but are subject to recall anytime in the four years after they go home. Some of them forgot to read that fine print and have been surprised by the interruption of their new civilian lives.
The Army is beefing up the Recruiting Command with 2,000 more recruiters because they are finding it increasingly difficult to get high schoolers, and their parents, to listen to the pitch, given the casualty rates in Iraq. Re-enlistment and enlistment bonuses are headed much higher in an effort to patch things up.
Reserve and Guard re-enlistment rates are heading south. The number of active-duty soldiers transitioning to Reserve or Guard slots is plummeting. This is the inevitable price of trying to do a 300,000-soldier job with 138,000 soldiers. It is the inevitable result of rosy expectations on the part of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary Rumsfeld of what awaited us after winning the three-week military victory in Iraq. It is precisely what was predicted in this column more than a year ago under the headline "How to Destroy a Great Army."
There are those who say the Army is already broken. Others say the stress cracks will finally widen into open fractures on the fourth Iraq rotation next fall. Either way, both schools of thought are in agreement that, once broken, the process of repairing the institutional damage could take a decade, just as it did in the bleak years after we pulled out of Vietnam.
Lest you think there is no good news whatsoever, let me hasten to tell you that this Army, like the one that was broken in Vietnam, contains within its ranks the NCOs and junior officers who will eventually repair the damage done by arrogant civilian leadership.
In Iraq and Afghanistan the innovation and good tactical thinking is being demonstrated at the lowest levels, by platoon leaders -- young second lieutenants just out of ROTC or Officer Candidate School or West Point. They and their platoon sergeants and the young soldiers they lead have been given responsibility far beyond their years or training.
They are being asked to be diplomats, civil engineers, even politicians in a hostile and dangerous environment and they are finding ways to make their own piece of ground a bit better and safer for the Iraqis who live there and for themselves.
Now the question is how do we keep enough of the good ones in the Army over the long haul so they will be there when the time comes to repair and rebuild from within. When the Army collapsed, post-Vietnam, many promising young officers fled the turmoil. But others, like Gulf War heroes Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf and Gen. Barry McCaffrey and Gen. Fred Franks to name just a few, stuck to their guns -- confident that the Army they loved could be saved.
That time will come again, when the authors of the present disaster are gone. When it does the Army will find what it needs to fix itself within its ranks.
It always has and always will.
I agree with parts of what he said. SO much can be solved by realistically increasing the total number of active duty in the Army, and by more than 30,000. I've seen suggestions of 150,000 bandied about. Takes the strain off the active duty, takes the strain of the reserves/guard.
increase in regular Army strength of 30,000 be made permanent
Galloway isn't far off in his assessment though. An increase of 130,000 would not restore the Army that was in place before Klintoon dessimated it.
The bleeding can be stopped, but they need to act fast.
"of the reserves/guard" should read "off the reserves/guard"
An arrogant civilian leadership? Galloway sounds like a 21 year old boot. The Clinton administration was arrogant.
None of this would have been a problem if Clinton didn't kill the military.
Bump what you said.
After you meet a reservist on their 3rd tour then you'll realize how shallow the pool is for deployable troops.
Galloway is right on with this. Of course there are those on FR who defend against the truth if they have any fear that it makes the administration look less than perfect.
And that arrogant civilian leadership spans the best part of 20 years, no adminstration is exempt.
Well how about a draft?
Another concern is that those who would go into the guard or reserve after serving one or two tours (probably E-4s and E-5s, maybe some E-6s) may hesitate to do so if the guard and reserve are called up repeatedly in a short period of time. Although aware of the chance of being called up, they were probably looking for a bit more stability, so rather than juggle a civilian and a military career, they would rather stay active, or unfortunately get out altogether. That would leave more non-prior service recruits coming in...they are needed, but you really want to get the experienced E-4s through E-6s...
I think it would be a good idea
You hit the nail on the head with that comment.
People seem to think that the draft is a new idea but we have had it in one form or the other from the beginning of this country. If we can't do the job with an all volunteer military then we need to do what it takes to solve the problem.
Im looking for the name or the picture of the white house or state dep rep who used to address press conferances in Iraq - he was a young guy, with very short hair (military looking) and wire rim glasses - any help would be appreciated.
I don't see how. Look, an all volunteer military is great as long as it meets our national security needs but if it doesn't then other options need to be implemented. It needs to be across the board with no exemptions except physical. If this country is really at war and if the volunteer military is under the stress it appears to be suffering then we have no choice but to either withdraw our forces or institute measures to relieve the stresses.
What country has:
709,000 active duty military personnel;
293,000 reservists;
8 standing Army divisions;
20 Air Force and Naval Air Wings,
consisting of 2,000 combat aircraft;
232 strategic bombers;
13 ballistic missile submarines;
4 aircraft carriers;
121 surface combat ships and submarines,
and the bases to support that naval force.
This information represents the American military forces that vanished during the Clinton presidency.
Would you be thinking of Dan Sanor? He was coalition spokesman.
Yes, that is him - thanks ;-)
I was doing a search and not having much luck. Glad you remembered it.
It was recently disclosed he is dating the chick from NBC Weekend Show, Campbell Brown. Just a little trivia.
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