Posted on 10/23/2013 5:45:00 AM PDT by Kaslin
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno revealed this week that just two Army brigades are combat-ready, with budget cuts hampering the military's ability to train its own troops.
The startling comments were made Monday at the Association of the U.S. Army conference. Odierno and Army Secretary John McHugh both addressed the fallout from the budget cuts, as well as the recent partial government shutdown, and appealed to lawmakers to restore some stability to military funding.
"Functioning like this is just dysfunctional," Odierno said.
He said that after the sequester kicked in, "we had to stop training basically" in the last six months of the year. He said the recently passed stopgap funding bill has further reduced the Army's ability to train, and warned that the recurring budget battles in Washington could have serious consequences for America's fighting force.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
It’s all a part of the plan...
What was that book Oliver North put out last year...”Heroes Proved”???
Kinda talks about this...
Lord protect us from evil; in Jesus’ name.
No, not the general.
Stupid craven Republicans stepped right into it.
Obama’s primary job is to protect this country.
He has failed.
Odierno is talking about some boxes on a standard checklist for determining the combat readiness for our troops. Since troops engaged in battle cannot fulfill those checklists, we’d have every army ever fielded call not combat-ready.
However, we’re not fighting a high or medium intensity conflict. We’re not having to prove our capabilities against NBC attacks or air attacks.
What we have is a force that is extremely highly trained to fight in an Afghan like environment.
Odierno is crying over money. And if we had a heavy war start against an opponent who could go equally as heavy, then we’re in trouble because our force size is so small. In any high intensity war with any real opponent, we’d always have to rely on our opponent remembering our nuke capabilities.
even with the sequester and shut down, there is no excuse for the diminishing of combat units. It is a matter of priorities. Cut from the non-essentials. Cut the bloat in the bureaucracy - it is loaded with rot - you know it and we know it - do not cut from the uniformed military and it’s means for readiness.
As an example - in every office in the Pentagon, as well as next tier headquarter palaces; if there are four civilians in an office, cut one and you will find the three doing the same job with greater efficiency. Every mid-manager tries to build an empire, which CEO’s must recognize and halt. They must learn to operate lean and mean!! That was the American way prior to the modern age.
Stage one in budget talks. We need the money, but how about fixing your priorities? The US military is top heavy and bureaucratic. Send in some lean consultants, take a look at the Israelis and keep cutting the budget.
Seems to me that all but two brigade commanders are making excuses for not doing their jobs.
I was an ADA Platoon Leader during the Carter Administration. We weren't given a pass on readiness when training funds weren't there. We were told to figure something out.
It was easy to stay motivated, knowing 50+ Soviet divisions were a couple hundred miles from you.
Obama is shifting to a military able to shoot
US veterans and US citizens and which long ago forgot
911 and the attack on the Pentagon as it
armed al Qaeda for the undocumented Dear Leader.
No consultants! Consultants merely build their own empires to justify and expand their own contracts. Cut all funds by 25% immediately and let the services figure out how to make their own adjustments. Introduce legislation to reduce the number of general/flag officer billets by 25%. This is what the real world does. The same cuts should apply to the entire federal government.
Like all aspects of government, the Department of Defense is awash in money and has grown accustomed to getting everything it has ever wanted, far beyond its actual needs. End these ruinous, perpetual colonial wars are return to the essential mission of national defense and trade-protecting naval projection. If we want to do the right thing for our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, stop wasting their lives for nothing and preserve a free and solvent nation for them to protect and return to live in.
I read a thread yesterday that the DOD is leaving several billion dollars of equipment in Afghanistan...just leaving it. Why don’t they open a bazaar and at least sell it. No money...Meh!
Fine with hussein.
Obvious politically motivated declaration.
What other purpose does this serve, to let our enemies our strength?
OK, that works for me. How do we get it passed?
This means nothing.
The two brigades are on active duty in Afghanistan, which means they do not have to complete their monthly training requirement to maintain their “combat readiness” status.
All of the other units in the Army, unless they complete their mandatory training *each and every month*, have their readiness status downgraded, no matter how good their status is otherwise. It is automatic.
A good example of how dumb this can be was of a unit in Germany, which had top marks in all areas, including training, but was authorized specialized communications equipment that it did not have, and would not be issued, unless war was imminent. The equipment was physically in the United States. So no matter how good they were, they were always given a “2” rating, below combat status.
The irony of this was that if war was imminent, and that equipment was shipped to them (unlikely), that nobody in the unit knew how to use it, and would need schooling for weeks to do so. This is not a luxury you would have if war was imminent. So basically, this equipment was less than useless. They not only couldn’t use it, wouldn’t use it, but because it was on the books for them, crippled their status.
Bottom line: This General is pushing male cow patties.
What really matters is that now we have openly gay soldiers and combat readiness is not a priority.
That’s about it
Odierno’s job is to advocate for the Army. Standing up to say this under the Obama administration takes guts. I’ll start listening to someone talk about cutting the Defense budget after the government collects all those $50,000 checks back from the make-believe pig farmers. The military at least helps produce good citizens. What does paying people to lie about raising pigs produce? And look at Social Security Disability and Food Stamps. Nope, Slick Willy got his peace dividend and used it to buy votes. Did anyone’s taxes go down in the 1990s? Nope. Cut the military and use the money to buy votes. That’s the Democrat party way. Screw them. Cut SSDI and Food Stamps and give the taxpayers a break!
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