Posted on 08/03/2015 2:56:22 PM PDT by GoneSalt
It happened after World War II and it happened after Vietnam. Now, after years of repeated deployments, the Army, as Robert H. Scales writes the U.S. Army is breaking down.
The Obama administration just announced a 40,000 reduction in the Army’s ranks. But the numbers don’t begin to tell the tale. Soldiers stay in the Army because they love to go into the field and train; Defense Secretary Ash Carter recently said that the Army will not have enough money for most soldiers to train above the squad level this year. Soldiers need to fight with new weapons; in the past four years, the Army has canceled 20 major programs, postponed 125 and restructured 124. The Army will not replace its Reagan-era tanks, infantry carriers, artillery and aircraft for at least a generation. Soldiers stay in the ranks because they serve in a unit ready for combat; fewer than a third of the Army’s combat brigades are combat-ready.
Scales knows of what he writes. He is a retired Major General and former commandant of the U.S. Army War College.
(Excerpt) Read more at m.weeklystandard.com ...
"...Prior to the entry of the United States in the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Army had only a few tanks. During the Louisiana Maneuvers in September 1941, it used trucks with the word "tank" painted on their side. Even after Pearl Harbor the 10th Armored Division did not have any tanks, so crews trained by marching down roads in groups and executing orders as if they were in tanks.[4] ..."[4] Kennett, Lee (1985). For the duration... : the United States goes to war, Pearl Harbor-1942. New York: Scribner. pp. 85. ISBN 0-684-18239-4.
Exactly.
I just saw a headline on the Navy Magazine that said new rules for promotion were starting today, whatever day the paper came out. The new rule was no testing for promotion.
I just saw a headline on the Navy Magazine that said new rules for promotion were starting today, whatever day the paper came out. The new rule was no testing for promotion.
“All by design.”....
Making us ripe for attack. Stock up on more ammunition folks. Might even have to use it against odumbo’s brown shirts.
"A Global Force For Good."
“A Global Force For Good.”
Yep. Was that Navy or Air Force?
“Looking for photos on the internet of the US Army training in 1941 using trucks — with the word “tank” painted on them.”
I’ve seen old footage of just what you’re talking about. When Willy Messerschmitt was building Me109s for the Spanish Civil War we were flying biplanes dropping sacks of flour on trucks to simulate bombing runs.
I knew we were in trouble when the memo came down saying that it wasn’t fair to evaluate Soldiers based on their performance in combat.
So, what do you evaluate them on? How many rocks they can paint?
We had a physical fitness test and weigh-in twice a year. That’s what we evaluate them on.
The hope was, and it was just a hope, that people motivated to train to run would be motivated to excell in all areas.
It doesn’t work that way. Every hour a Soldier spends running is an hour he’s not doing something else to prepare himself for battle. We’d be great if war was a cross country race.
We always have the stories about Soldiers dying in Korea because they were out of shape. The fact is, they were retreating and there wasn’t enough transportation. The British Army had serious problems in the Falkland War because their Soldiers were ready to run a couple of miles and not conduct sustained combat. They also had such low body fat that they fell apart if not fed regularly. We don’t talk about that. Task Force Smith wasn’t a debacle because the Soldiers weren’t physically fit. It was a debacle because they didn’t have the proper equipment to stop the North Koreans. The Army has always used physical fitness as being the solution for mobility and firepower when the fact is that they couldn’t get enough transportation or troops.
I thought that the Army should have mandatory IQ testing for the Officers. We test their weight and fitness twice a year. Why not see what they are doing to improve their minds. I was hated for suggesting that. Running shows obedience, IQ tests show.....well.....how smart someone is. That’s not fair!
The Army can recover from poor funding and poor civilian leadership. I don’t know if it can recover from trading a team sports emphasis to an individual cross country runner emphasis.
I give you Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Maybe you should made ‘em smarter instead of faster.” -Gary Busey in the movie soldier.
Proceeding per obama’s plans. There is no part of the U.S. Of A that he is not working to destroy. He was very open about it. Fundamental transformation.
I’ve not been to the Navy base since the Chattanooga shooting, but before it, the security was very lax.
Uhmm...hello? "An Army of One"???
Did your intel really not see this coming?
Three years ago, I sat at a dinner for Cal Maritime in San Francisco, next to a woman Ciast Guard officer, who was leaving that week to run Obama’s program of getting more women into all branches of the military.
Obama had just announced this initiative and had said that he wanted to see women in the Special Forces like the Seals as well. I asked her about it and she was shocked. She said that she wouldn’t do that. She said that she wouldn’t mess with what the Soecial Forces do, that they have worked out a method of building teams that she didn’t think should be changed.
I guess someone changed her mind.
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