Guard survey hints at exodus

USA Today ^ | January 23, 2004 | Dave Moniz,

[2banana]

WASHINGTON

[2banana]

All right - two sides to the argument.

The National Guard and Reserves (just like the active component) is a volunteer force. As such, people can come and go as long as they fulfill their contractual obligations (unless affected by stop-loss).

1. Why join the National Guard if you are going to be deployed as much as active duty units but get less in benefits, pay and get all the old equipment? If people wanted to join the active duty, they would have.

2. Some joined the National Guard as a way to pay off college loans and make some money on a weekend a month. Maybe even get a very small pension after 20 years in and after you turn 65. Some never expected to be deployed in a war for over a year. However, since 9/11, anyone who joins the Guard and Reserves know there is a good chance to be deployed.

My thoughts are that the active duty component is too small, stretched too thin and the pentagon is trying to make up the short fall using the reserve components. It is a short-sighted strategy that will negatively affect the reserves.

A big help would be treating the reserves more like the active duty in the "good" ways. The same pensions, same use of medical facilities, same pay (believe it or not, there are differences) and the same equipment and access to training would go a long way...

[2banana]

In case you didn't know, Guard and Reserve forces were activated for the Vietnam War.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Thye made their entry with both eyes wide open, if they expected all for them and naught for the country, cry me a river.

[2banana]

Well, he could have always took other routes and said he had a bad back (but not quite so bad as to keep off the ski slopes) or used his political connections to get out of the draft (ie - have someone else serve in his place) and go lead anti-American demonstrations in England and Moscow...

And BTW, I know more than a few pilots who have died just in training accidents. It is a dangerous business even in peacetime. That is the thing about being in the reserves, you still can be called up at any time or die in a training accident just like the active duty...

[dakine]

Here ya' go, want to try again...hahahaha

[DMZFrank]

GWB was flying a very tempremental hi performance fighter aircraft, the F-102 interceptor. It had a disturbingly high accident rate. The odds of W being injured or killed in a training accident were probably higher than REMF Al Gore's of being hurt or killed in combat.

[Loc123]

Do you even have a point? Pres Bush is not responsible for assessing troop levels, the Pentagon is. What relevance does his past performance have on his current position?

[Ramius]

Yes it is absolutely relevant to those of us that trashed Clinton for 8 years.

One of them served, one of them didn't. In fact the one that didn't serve took the additional action of demonstrating against his own government on a foreign shore during a time of war, then had the gall to actually return.

Yup. It's relevant alright.

[Ramius]

Have you ever been in harm's way? Let's get clear on this first.