Déjà vu all over again at the Pentagon
The Stars & Stripes reports that the Pentagon has forgotten all of the lessons that they should have learned after every war of the twentieth century. They think they can cut troops and buy more technology to replace those boots that should be on the ground in the next war;
In a speech at a Washington security forum sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Hagel signaled that one of the hard questions facing military leaders at a time of plummeting military spending — whether to retain a hefty active-duty military with older equipment and technology, or cut troop numbers and focus on modernization — has largely been answered.
The future of the U.S. military won’t be one in which large numbers of troops grow accustomed to garrison life on major bases, he told the audience.
Instead, to prepare for a chaotic and “historically unpredictable” future global security environment, the military must focus future spending on beefing up advanced capabilities like cyberwar, special operations, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, Hagel said.
It’s the same policy that the Defense Department touted after WWI, WWII, Vietnam and the Gulf War and each time there was a price to paid for trying to save money by not investing in the troops and depending on technology. The price was paid in blood at Kasserine Pass and in the Pusan Perimeter. In Iraq and Afghanistan, troops transitioned under fire from the “Meals on Wheels” missions of the 90s to actual combat operations. Nothing replaces Joe Snuffy defending the ground he stands on with his battle rifle firmly held and pointed at the enemy.
In another Stars & Stripes article, “the experts” are drawing down the pool of youngsters from which they can recruit future soldiers by slashing benefits;
In testimony Tuesday, David Chu, former undersecretary for defense personnel, told the panel that studies have repeatedly shown that younger troops prefer bigger pay raises now to costly pension promises later. Changing those benefits could save the department billions annually.
But he also acknowledged that’s a difficult sell.
“Just mentioning retirement has poisoned the discussion,” he said. “Even the (troops) who likely won’t reach the 20-year retirement are worried that we’re breaking faith with them, that we’re breaking promises.”
David Chu has been trying to slash troops’ pay and benefits since he served in the Pentagon under the Bush Administration, so I’m not surprised that he’s on a panel that plans on hacking up pay and benefits for a more receptive administration that thinks that recruiting will remain constant while they slash compensation.
I predict that troops will soon be training with 2x4s for rifles and jeeps with “Tank” signs hanging off the sides like they did before World War II. I remember driving down Sicily Drop Zone at Fort Bragg, jumping off the back of duece-and-a-halfs to practice assembly on the drop zone because there was no money for aircraft during the Carter years.
Still, Commission Chairman Alphonso Maldon Jr. told members Tuesday that he’s confident they can spark an important rethinking of how to better compensate troops while reigning in personnel costs.
“We have to get this right,” he said. “We may not have another chance like this.”
Translation: We might not get another administration willing to screw national security to the wall.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Big Army
It is Deja Vu all over again. I enlisted in the 1990’s, things were awesome, lots of money for training, the army was riding high from Desert Storm, we had a Reagan (military anyway) Republican in office.
Then, we (the people) elected a Democrat in the mold of Jimmy Carter with the sexual morals of a child molester. I got out, after training went from actually blowing shit up (12B) to sitting in bays watching power point slide after power point slide about how things should be done. Gothic Serpent didn’t encourage me to want to stay either.
In 2007, I re-enlisted. We had another Republican in office and were kicking ass the world over. Training was realistic and based on current events, lessons learned, and the army struggled to make it as “real” as possible.
Then we elected another Democrat, [redacted because good soldiers don’t criticize the commander in chief], and once again the shift is going from real world standards based training to paper pushing, and ‘simulation’.
And I have to make a decision. Do I re-enlist and finish the time I need for retirement, or do I walk away proud of what I’ve done, and content with my memories of the way things used (should) be?
“Then we elected another Democrat, [redacted because good soldiers don’t criticize the commander in chief]….
Allow me: “Then we elected another Democrat, a piece of shit, son of a bitch named Barack Hussein Obama.”
Aaah, the Carter years.
Good times, good times.
Qualified with my rifle once after basic due to funding cuts.
The barracks on Onslow beach were single floor TC buildings that were quite adequate other than the broken windows and heat going out once a week. Open stud interiors and raw concrete floors so no insulation. I was quite surprised to find NC got so cold.
The people selling the Pentagon all that new tech have lobbyists stuffing fat wads of cash in politicians’ pockets. Soldiers, not so much. The fact that the financial payoff coincides with the administration’s ideology is just icing on the cake for them.
And as much as soldiers would prefer to get compensated adequately, the economy is in such disarray that they’ll have no trouble hitting their recruiting numbers regardless of what they do with pay increases and retirement.
the military must focus future spending on beefing up advanced capabilities like cyberwar, special operations, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
OK, then who supports the special operations people? Who is going to provide technical assistance in the cyberwar hubs? Who is going to provide logistical support for the intel and reconnaissance people?
So glad I’m out.
A small piece of advice, SGT Kane: bite your tongue. Unless you have more than 10 years to go, stick it out.
Zip your lip. Just suck it up and put in the rest of your 20, and when you’re done with it, go home and take our your frustrations on the shooting range with gunpowder therapy.
Because if you don’t stick it out (no matter how un(fkking)ing dimwitted it is, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.
Besides, you’ll still have the mmeories of the good times and you can take LOTS of pictures of how utterly stupid things become while you’re waiting to retire.
Geez, I need more caffeine. That should be ‘memories’, not ‘mmeories’. My bad. Sorry.
Ex-PH2 is correct.
Another COA is the Reserves.
Start another career and have two when your eventually retire.
We have our own bag of challenges but you do get to hang with the troops, which is a plus.
I bailed active duty during the 90’s drawdown.
Took the VSI and said “enough”.
All done forev’s.
But, got talked into a Reserve Drill Sergeant Company Command that was inspirational.
Those folks were as good or better than the DS I worked with while stationed at FLW as an OSUT XO.
And, it was fun to get back into the banter game.
DS don’t give slack.
Even ran into one former DS much later in career who became our EN BN CSM.
She had been the DS of the year for the other unit.
All of this, while Obama aparatchniks and lackeys such as Dempsey, Odierno and Chandler do the dirty work for Dear Leader. It is bad enough that the military is being turned into one big experiment in social engineering, once again troops will pay with their blood. I came into the army at the tail end of the Carter years and weathered the Clinton years. So glad I retired…
What H1 said: Start another career. Yes, do that. Get something going that will keep you busy AFTER you retire, like running a cigar shop and shooting range that Lilyea can visit. Just something that you like to do besides soldiering.
If you don’t do that, then you’ll turn into my last, and most useless, male companion, who retired from his state job as a welfare worker and had no hobbies to keep him busy. And things just went sour from there. So I kicked his sorry ass out of my life.
I should be clear, both my enlistements are with the USAR, and right now I have 11 years in, and with two deployments (Iraq 14 months, Afghanistan six) and varioius stateside mobilizations (teaching at Ft Bragg, Ft Knox, and Ft Dix) my retirement points aren’t horrible.
I just see everything happening again, good soldiers getting out because of teh stupid. Bad soldiers staying in and being rewarded for going along with the stupid.
Thing is, if I knew Tricare was going to be around twenty years from now, the question would be a no brainer.
SGT Kane,
You are in a unique position.
Serving in both a previously deployable and now garrison military is a spectrum not many get to view.
My DI’s in PI were all former Vietnam vets and they didn’t play. Boot camp had more than a few similarities to FMJ except we had M16A1’s. The barracks looked alot like 1st BN.
The current transition will not be pleasant and probably done poorly but it give you an opportunity to shape junior soldiers with the experience gained from deployments. Over time that skillset will again fade and need to be painfully relearned.
I would take a lean, well trained, well equipped, well funded military any day over the current bloated staff-centric dysfunctional wasteful mess we have now. I have been in the Army since 1991 and I have never seen less training money, less repair of worn out weapons, and more obsolete equipment than now.
It’s a sad state of our nation when you can walk into a gun show and buy better weapons, optics, body armor, kit, and NODs than the front line grunt is issued now.
SGT Kane: my advice would be to stick around. At age 60 (reduced by whatever qualifying contingency service you have), you’ll be damned glad you did.
You also might actually be able to make a difference.
And Ex-PH2 is IMO right. If you’re ambivalent and leave now, at times you’ll regret having done so for the rest of your life.
Yes, at other times you’ll probably regret staying, albeit temporarily. But I’ve always found it’s far better to regret something you did – rather than something you failed to do.
Went through Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama. Same shit different day.
Except, this time we haven’t won a war. We are just running away with our fingers in our ears shouting, “LALALALALALA”.
My (step)Grandpa told me once about the price the he and his buddies paid in Korea in 1950 for a similar attitude held by the powers-that-be after WWII. The “experts” had decreed that atomic bombs had rendered infantry obsolete, thus infantry training was an unnecessary waste of money. He didn’t even go through boot camp, but was instead enrolled in what he called “military summer camp” that saved the Truman Administration lots of money, and definitely didn’t include anything that would actually prepare him for combat. He said if it wasn’t for their NCOs all being WWII vets, they would’ve all been wiped out the first time they ran into the Norks. And when the Chinese decided to join the party…
But at least they got to buy lots if extra B-36s…that they refused to actually use where they could do any good, never mind that there was a war going on. Not saying they would have been a game changer per se, but when Americans were dying on the ground and in the air, and a ginormous fucking bomber with stars on the wings could have rained God’s own wrath anywhere that 3 or more Chinamen grouped together…and yet they never fired a shot in anger. I admit I’m no expert, but doesn’t that defeat the purpose of buying the damn thing in the first place?
I never once saw that wonderful old man lose his temper, and rarely heard him swear. But something tells me if he were still around today, he would say something along the lines of, “What the Goddamn fucking shit is wrong with you fucking idiots? Don’t you shitheads ever fucking pay attention? Why do you have such a fucking hardon for sending American boys to war unprepared? Eat a dick, fuck off and die.”
It seems an awful lot like our next major conflict will be the same, just switch the B-36 with the F-35 or LCS or Zumwalt-class and the Chinese with…probably more Chinese. Anybody here watch “Battlestar Galactica?”
“All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.”
I remember the 90’s where we would drive to the center of a LZ and “truck assault” because we couldn’t afford to use actual Blackhawks. I’m so glad I just dropped my retirement packet.
dutch508: be glad you missed Carter. Be very glad.
Late 1970s and the first couple of years of the 1980s were truly bad news. It took a few years into the Reagan administration for the military to really recover substantially.
I would like to point out that Norkland has restarted its previously closed reactor, rehabbed it, and has it up and running, and is also working on its long-range missile program. As much as I pity the North Koreans who do not benefit from being in Norkland’s military, the current posturing peacock Kim Jong-Un is as willing to engage in bellicose activities as Daddy Kim and Grandpa Kim. The Norks bear close watching.
Likewise, there are anti-USA protests going on in Iran now, and Iran is NOT dropping its nuke program, nor is it slowing down on producing military hardware such as helicopters (factories are near Esfahan) and warships. They may be trading info with the Norks, for all we know.
Anyone who is naive enough to think that those people won’t see this drawdown, cutback, and conversion to software from hardware and in-the-field experience as a weakening of the USA is dumber than a sack of used corncobs. I see nothing wrong being tech-savvy, because it’s a skill. But it does NOT replace hands-on, real-time, in-the-field experience.
Excuse me, Twist — truck assault? Oh, dear God! Yeah, I do believe that.
@17 The Other Whitey
My dad (Pacific WWII, Korea-Plt Sgt) has said exactly the same thing. He said Eisenhower went right along with the “Infantry is obsolete now” BS. And kids with nearly zero training got tossed into the meat grinder.
God, I despise politicians.
Sgt Kane – I think you’ll get sound advice on TAH. Stay tuned.
Considering you have 11 years in, consider this (as with any assignment) – if things are unbearable, you can wait it out with hopes (a) whoever sits in the WH will be replaced with an improvement or (b) the whole country shifts in a different direction. Only you can make that choice. I enlisted while Reagan was around, then Bush – held out during the Clinton years, then Bush II was elected. Once I saw the direction the military was headed, coupled with the CinC and having 20+ years, I punched.
Before I dropped papers I made sure I was competitive and finished my education, just shy of a MS, which I’m currently finishing up. If you elect to stay in, use the benefits to that regard if you aren’t already. Needless to say, my ACDU and your Reserve status differ, but you likely have some added value to your branch of service due to experience, tenure, etc.
I could go on, but will go out on a limb and say others will chime in and offer similar perspectives that will be useful to you.
Concur with both 22 (finished my degree before an untimely medical out) and Hondo – I entered active duty the same day Carter did and SWORE one of us was not going on in government service – waited till after the election to re-enlist. He’s right about the chaotic state of the Army… was in Germany in the late ’70s and it was a thoroughgoing mess. Think it was 5 years after BCT before I fired a weapon again.
@ 19 HONDO … concur. I joined in 1979 … Just after the 15 OCT 1981 Reagan – Weinberger pay raise of 10 – 17 % for enlisted and flat 14.7 % for officers and ZERO for flags (because they were already maxed out) … things got better fairly quick. Billions was poured into new generation equipment, tools, and systems. But most importantly, billions into training, education, and military family programs. Post war years of military decay and reduced readiness posture was finally gone.
Came in during the Reagan years, saw the “peace dividend” and the Clinton “work smarter, not harder” (HA!) drawdown. When the CPO selection rate for my NEC went from the usual 25-30 percent per year to under 2 percent (8 out of over 200 in 1998) I knew it was time to take my chances in CIVLANT.
Never regretted it. Put Navy Nuke and my current experience on a resume, LinkedIn, etc., and I get calls/e-mails nearly weekly at this point.
I can’t help but feel that this is also rooted in the leftist belief that all soldiers are welfare queens who sit around doing nothing in their barracks all day.
Also @3
“Qualified with my rifle once after basic due to funding cuts.”
Holy shit.
#16 I’m in the same boat as you. SGT Kane, the cuts actually started during the last year of the Bush administration – after Desert Storm ended they couldn’t plan fast enough for force cuts (I’m no fan of the Clintons). The thing that gets me about these panels is that sure, 20 year old PFC Snuffy loves a pay increase over benefits (gotta pay those high interest car loans off post), but when they get to SFC-CSM Snuffy and have a family the benefits start to look a lot more appealing. DA found that out after Desert Storm when they realized how much experience they lost when they booted so many mid grade Officers and NCOs. History indeed repeats itself.
Oh, but there’s plenty of money for 680 ‘green military’ projects!
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/06/obama-admin-has-680-green-military-projects-underway-despite-slashing-budgets/
These are the same types of geniuses in the 50s & 60s who said our air superiority fighters wouldn’t need guns anymore. Until they did. When and where will the Task Force Smith event take place due to these idiots?
@29
Just that, has been a concern of mine ever since it became incontrovertible that the current POTUS is either a Manchurian Candidate of an utter buffoon – both of which could easily yield a RCT 31 event in A-stan, IMO.