UNNAMED officials and OPTIONS stir a reaction among the FR generals.
Posted on 12/14/2005 12:37:27 AM PST by jmc1969
The Air Force has been taking it in the shorts lately. If they are going to eliminate 40K positions, then Congress needs to get a pair and close some bases.
UNNAMED officials and OPTIONS stir a reaction among the FR generals.
I wouold recommend eliminating all Numbered Air Forces (they serve no useful function and are only kept to keep GO billets up).
"On Dec 7, 1941, the island of Guam had 128 Marines with one 50 cal machine gun, rifles and sidearms, to protect the island against 5000 invading Japanese."
There it is.
Kimmel had actually dispatched some reinforcements, but when he was relieved, his successor had them turn around and head back to Pearl. He was afraid to lose any more ships.
Rummy's "transformational Military" that means more cuts in spending and forces just makes me nuts.
He's undoing everything that had been done under Reagon and taking up where Clinton left off in terms of hampering the Military.
I also think as a Navy man that he has a pathological dislike of the Air Force. Cut 60,000 Air Force? I sure hope not. That's just crazy.
And the National Guard do the Communications jobs. Cut them and who do you send overseas to keep the guys with the guns informed on where the enemy is?
How about we get Congress to cut the "earmarks" - their oh-so-treasured pork-barrel spending. Where's Pence when you need him?
That was due to Fletcher bugging out.
Rummy was at least in part responsible for the Carter years military woes. The military was already on a bad down turn when Carter took office. Not that Carter helped matters until he absolutely had to {Iranian Crisis} as he and Ford were more or less one & the same. I enlisted under Rummy's first miserable tenure as Sec of Defense under Ford. Rummy was in charge of the 30 day UA walk away & become an instant civilian military. Why anyone thought he would be the man for the job 25 years later is beyond me.
Myself I'm wondering if the new carrier USS POPPY will automatically prematurely decommission itself after 20 years as part of an automatic defense spending cut?
The smart guy would pull the chief of each service into a room, and just tell them...cut 30 percent of your pentagon staff over 3 years...and no contractors to replace them. It'll take them five years to just determine how the new structure will look like...and then they would actually start the cuts.
Poppy Bush/Cheney and congress actually started that disaster. Interesting enough while we were headed to Desert Storm Poppy was already at work gutting the Reagan military. Keep this in mind that for Gulf War 1 reserve troops were being activated.
And the National Guard do the Communications jobs. Cut them and who do you send overseas to keep the guys with the guns informed on where the enemy is?
If that's all they did it might not be as dangerous. Many are actually Field Artillery units. I'm ex-carrier Navy but I'm also ex Army NG as well. My Army MOS was 13-B which means Cannon Infantry. Most Army NG units are at the most 50% manned with prior combat service trained vets. The rest are former Navy & Air Force vets or Army vets from non Combat jobs. In reality it would be easier & likely quicker to take green recruits to do the job. The NG's primary mission should be domestic defense and fill ins for foreign deployed troops as well as by tradition serve under their home state governors.
How about we get Congress to cut the "earmarks" - their oh-so-treasured pork-barrel spending. Where's Pence when you need him?
I Agree 100%.
I went into the Army one week before Carter became President. I had a chance to see his full term and the full terms of RR. God bless Ronald Reagan, the man who saved our country and our military!
There will still be too many bases. Have you heard of the Warfighting HQ concept? Some of the NAFS have gone away to staff these standing warfigthing HQs.
I went through basic and post basic under Rummy and served till October 80. Morale in early 77 was a joke as was discipline. No doubt things were a mess. Some not much but some positive changes started occurring in early 80. But I can say one thing no carrier or ship for that matter during that time that I know of flunked INSURV, P.E.B. or light offs. Despite the problems we remained mission capable and there were problems indeed.
In this era there is no need for a separate Air Force.
All it adds is a haven for a very over staffed, top heavy , officer corp.
"That was due to Fletcher bugging out."
Yes, that's true, but it can be argued that he hiked up his skirts and fled because he did not feel strong enough to face the Japanese fleet, which takes us back to my original point.
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