Pulling their fat from the fire…again
So while the country is going into melt down over the whole Ebola thing, the Pentagon is doing what they do best – sending the troops in to pull the administration’s fat from the fire, according to the Associated Press;
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered the military to prepare and train a 30-member medical support team that could provide short-term help to civilian health professionals if there are more Ebola cases in the United States.
His spokesman, Rear Adm. John Kirby, says the team drawn from across the military services will include 20 critical care nurses, five doctors trained in infectious diseases and five trainers in infectious disease protocols.
Apparently, this government can’t do anything without using the military, probably ebcause they’re the only government entity that the public trusts. All the while, military folks are the only government employees whose bosses are cutting their pay raises, raising their health care costs, slicing up their retirement package, sending them pink slips while someone is shooting at them.
The article continues to say that these 30 folks are not going to West Africa;
Kirby…says members will be called up for service in the U.S. only if needed by public health officials.
F*** you very much.
Category: Military issues
I’m SO glad I’m retired. And I will gladly discourage any youth from joining the military at this time.
Me too…..
I concur
Didn’t retire military, but I’ve been quietly doing the discourage thing since it became obvious that we, as a nation and a people, no longer even understand the value of actually winning a war, let alone how to fight to win one.
I retired none too soon.
I have a logical question about this.
My niece was a surgical nurse when she was in the Army. She left the Army and now has two kids. Her husband is in the Air Force.
Is she likely to be recalled for something like this if personnel run short?
blockquote Originally posted by Ex-PH2:
I have a logical question about this.
My niece was a surgical nurse when she was in the Army. She left the Army and now has two kids. Her husband is in the Air Force.
Is she likely to be recalled for something like this if personnel run short?
That depends. If she’s completely out… as in she’s not in the IRR, she resigned her commission, she’s not in the standby reserves, etc… If she has no ready reserve or retired reserve type affiliation, she doesn’t have anything to worry about.
If she’s in the IRR, standby reserves, or retired, then she’d be in a group that’s in a waiting line to provide bodies for involuntary recall to active duty.
I didn’t mention drilling, as you talk about “being out.” Many people think that someone is out of the military when that someone is a first termer and still has an IRR obligation.
This should hopefully be a better read:
blockquote Originally posted by Ex-PH2:
I have a logical question about this.
My niece was a surgical nurse when she was in the Army. She left the Army and now has two kids. Her husband is in the Air Force.
Is she likely to be recalled for something like this if personnel run short? blockquote
That depends. If she’s completely out… as in she’s not in the IRR, she resigned her commission, she’s not in the standby reserves, etc… If she has no ready reserve or retired reserve type affiliation, she doesn’t have anything to worry about.
If she’s in the IRR, standby reserves, or retired, then she’d be in a group that’s in a waiting line to provide bodies for involuntary recall to active duty.
I didn’t mention drilling, as you talk about “being out.” Many people think that someone is out of the military when that someone is a first termer and still has an IRR obligation.
That depends. If she’s completely out… as in she’s not in the IRR, she resigned her commission, she’s not in the standby reserves, etc… If she has no ready reserve or retired reserve type affiliation, she doesn’t have anything to worry about.
If she’s in the IRR, standby reserves, or retired, then she’d be in a group that’s in a waiting line to provide bodies for involuntary recall to active duty.
I didn’t mention drilling, as you talk about “being out.” Many people think that someone is out of the military when that someone is a first termer and still has an IRR obligation.
IRR or resigned her commission – that part I don’t know about with her. I do know that she plans to go back to nursing when her kids are old enough for her to return to work, but nothing else.
Was she an officer or enlisted? Was that her first enlistment? Was she active or reserve? How long ago did she get out?
If she was enlisted, and that was her first enlistment, and we’re beyond the 8 year anniversary of when her initial contract began (assuming that was her first enlistment), she’s probably in the clear.
If she was commissioned, and she never gave up her commission, then that’s a loophole that could impact her and put her in line for potential call up should bodies fall short.
There is a question of whether regular military can be legally used for this purpose. However, as no one has been activated but only training authorized, it’s a non-issue at this point. It is amazing to me that 30 of anything military is useful, given the massive number of civilian healthcare pros in the country. Maybe some can be reassigned from Queen Michele’s anti-obesity program. Yeah, this is bullshit, probably just a PR (Looky! We ARE doing something!) stunt.
The US Army already has specialty teams just for this. They work at USAMIID (US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.)
Combatting Ebola and the spread of Ebola is part of their mission, as stated on their website.
— Mission —
To protect the Warfighter from biological threats and to be prepared
to investigate disease outbreaks or threats to public health.
http://www.usamriid.army.mil/aboutpage.cfm
Why in the hell we’re activating and sending National Guard units with a grand total of 4 hours of training to go to Africa is beyond belief. We have teams trained, headed by doctors with years of experience, whose mission it is to do just these kinds of things. Whether it be on foreign or US soil.
MY VENT Ah, the obama voters. They loved him. He was going to pay their car loans and electric bills. He was going to right the wrongs of racial injustice. He was going to be the UN personified, the internationalist who would heal wounds and mend broken relationships among countries. He would get US troops out of Iraq and leave that nation to stand on its own. He had such promise (“Yes we can!”) that he won the Nobel Peace Prize for doing absolutely nothing. Women (and some gay males, presumably) swooned over him. A couple of them fainted just eyeing his personage. Famously, a TV talking head felt a leg tingle just listening to him. He was The One. He had a plan, he assured the country. He would not rest until America was back to work, until every American who wanted a job had a job. He would not rest until the economy was revived, until there were no homeless Veterans, until al-Qaeda was defeated, until, well, you name it, he was never going to rest. Gosh. What a guy! They loved him, loved him so much that when he said he needed four more years, they gave him four more years. And now, many of those voters are uneasy, and some are disappointed in The One. Why? Because the economy remains screwed up? Because what was to be his great legacy, the Affordable Health Care Act, is in a shambles? Because of Benghazi or the silly, meaningless red lines he drew and redrew? Because he has torn our military to shreds and has used them as his personal playthings? Because he traded five terrorists for one American whose allegiance remains in question? No, none of those things. They would still love him for those failures and the many others he has on his record. No, they are upset with The One because of Ebola. For the first time in his presidency, The One’s actions and inactions are seen as a potential threat to them and theirs! When it’s embassy staff, troops, Border Patrol, and others whose lives… Read more »
Wow, 2/17 on target, fire for effect.
That’s fairly common in today’s society. “Well, it won’t really effect me, it’ll effect someone else. So, who cares.”
It goes back to even the fact that generally no matter what, the country is fairly well split down the middle. Even one of the recent polls say that people still like the democratic party. why? “well, I’m a democrat and I’ve voted democrat for 50 years and I will until I die.” They are so stupid that they’ll vote for a party, rather than for the right guy for the job, democrat or republican.
At the same time, some people still probably believe that if they disagree with Obama then they might be racist. Because they are stupid.
Just like you said though, “wait, Ebola might end up in my neighborhood? That piece of shit needs to protect me. Fuck everyone else!”
No argument with any of your points, AC, but honestly – all I remember was his pledge to “fundamentally transform America.”
2/17 Air Cav…You’re suppose to give us forward guys a radio heads up on incoming going over. But since you hit and destroyed the enemy threatening us, it is Medal Time for you for calling the coordinates and laying in the artillery! Thanks brother and well said.
Obama, all promises, no deliveries. The One, The Only, The…Nothing. In the ens he has messed up this nation beyond all recognition. It’s too bad we’ll have to wait until revisionist history is kind to him for years and the true untainted historians begin to call him what he was. A coward, a possible traitor who aided and abetted out enemies, a Constitutional Destructionist and in pedestrian terms, THE ass hole politician among ass hole politicians.
Oh, you mean the military has use again? How odd.
Just the same as Odierno telling Congress “oh, you know when we said to cut the military? Well, you can’t really do that now because we’re getting busy again. Yeah, we need to bail you dumbass politicians out before this is another disaster that keeps you from being reelected. So, we’ll need to stop cutting troops and get our budget back.”
Oh, don’t forget to have those representatives of Al Qaeda in Africa get trained up too so they can lead from the front when “we” go to West Africa. They need to do some hugging and kissing and “direct contact” after all.
Where the hell is the Public Health Service in all this? They’ve already got those snazzy naval style uniforms, so there’s that.
http://www.usphs.gov/aboutus/mission.aspx
I guess it’s one of the nicer things about having a son who’s 11-B that he doesn’t have to fix the CDC failures.
This admin is so cluster-f’d that they don’t know where their own heads are.
With my 25+ years of nursing I cared for many people in serious isolation precautions.
In all my years,The best I had to worry about was an AIDS patient that bled out. I was able to handle that.
I seriously do not think I could handle an Ebola Pt. nor would I want to…
I could not imagine what in the hell they will be used for in this, emergency situation…
This sucks, all the way around, this sucks and stinks like an Iowa hog waller on a hot August afternoon…
Thunderstixx…Thanks for your service. I feel very bad for these troops being sent to Africa and this “team” on military medical folks who will be ordered into harms way to deal with emergencies we have local, county, state and federal agencies in place to deal with already. Agencies which should be gearing up NOW for a potential case in their area. But no, mums the word from Obama, don’t worry folks it’s all okay…until it isn’t. In which case we’ll throw this military medical crew under the bus and possible end their lives because we didn’t have the guts to warn the rest of the nation to prepare now. But, this is your President speaking and as usual, it’s all about me folks…not YOU. So as long as I, Michelle and the kids are safe, the rest of you keep Tweeting, Facebooking and keep watching reality TV. Until reality TV becomes, “This week, on Keeping Up With The Kardashians…Kim has Ebola!!! ALL the dozens of guys she’s screwed are scared shitless now since she did them ALL in the last week! Watch as Bruce Jenner and the rest of the family cope.”
Pinto Nag sent me this link to a story about a woman who cared for her entire family and did not get the disease.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/25/health/ebola-fatu-family/
Read it carefully. She used trash bags, which are plastic and impermeable, wore rubber boots, also impermeable, over trash bags and which she covered with more trash bags.
I noticed in videos from the ebola areas in Africa that they are using duct tape as a sealant. That makes sense, and likewise, using electric tape, which is waterproof, also makes sense. If you are going to use trash bags as Fatu did, contractor’s bags are the right size to start with.
Very smart woman. Read the article thoroughly.
Ex-PH2…Thank you m’lady for the article. She’s a smart, dedicated, brave and common sense woman for sure. It sort of amazes me that the “low tech” approach she took was so effective. Shows what intelligence, absent superstition can achieve.
Need someone with some good legal-fu to look something up for us.
I seem to recall that US Army personnel can’t be committed to action without the congress doing the war dec thing?
Only USN and USMC personnel can be so committed by POTUS for emergency reasons, but also only for a set number of days?
I’ve probably got that wrong, but…
We’ve been subjected to lawfare by those supposedly on our own side who were doing whatever they could get away with to aid and abet the enemy, whether they understood themselves to be doing that or not. Why not start shooting back in the same theater?
I believer your thinking of the War Powers Act of 1973. If memory serves, it specifically states that POTUS can only use this act if a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories, possessions or its armed forces. POTUS then has 48 hrs to notify Congress and only 60 days before the troops must be withdrawn or Congress approves/extends. I have no idea WTH authority he’s using for this action, but wouldn’t be surprised if he thinks he has the authority – like those recess appointments to fill 15 administration posts without Senate confirmation. SCOTUS confirmed he was full of excrement. Funny we are not hearing about the fall out from those appointees (and the illegal decisions they made while at their new positions)…