Guard and Reserves can’t account for their troops
Chief Tango sends a link from Stars & Stripes which reports that the Government Accountability Office has determined that the National Guard and the Reserves have no idea how many of their soldiers are ready to deploy. You might remember that is important because the Pentagon and the White House are expecting the gaps in staffing and manning in the active force left by sequestration are supposed to filled by the part-time services.
The nonpartisan GAO also determined that hundreds of soldiers who were reported as ready to to serve were actually ineligible to mobilize and deploy under Army guidance.
The inconsistencies suggest the components’ overall nonavailability rates as of January — 22 percent in the Reserve and 21 percent in the National Guard — could be even higher.
[…]
Without quality data that is readily available to leaders at all levels … the Army and its Reserve component leaders will not be able to adequately monitor and manage the availability of soldiers who make up over half of the total Army force,” the GAO said.
The GAO blames the inconsistencies on the inability of some data systems to interface. Gee, where have we heard that before? Also, that personnel clerks are improperly trained and units have staffing shortages.
So basically, the Pentagon cobbled together a plan to deal with personnel cuts and presented it to the White House, but they didn’t have a way to implement that plan. That’s the first time that’s ever happened.
Category: National Guard, Reserve Issues
They’ll just do like they have for the past 14 years – move companies/personnel between states to fill out battalions. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Look at how many in the guard never deployed and how many had 3 or 4 rotations.
A force the bulk of which is only obligated to a couple of days a month, most of which is spent being indoctrinated with stuff having nothing to do with killings folks and breaking stuff all while the force itself is being reduced in number. Naw, no way anything could possibly go wrong in that scenario. Nope, no way that war readiness could suffer.
Yeah, well, sure, like that was some sarc.
Maybe said with sarcasm, but it’s true nonetheless.
From my time being stuck as a company commander due to the shortage of junior officers in the USAR, this is no surprise. Soldiers would appear on my books who we had never met, had no contact info for, and no clue who/where they were. And from that point forward I was accountable for the mystery person. Often it was the stupid retention NCO’s. They would pull any and all kinds of crap to make mission. I had on troop one time show up on my books only to find out she was an IRR soldier who had been recalled to deploy with a different unit, and the retention person there promised her all kinds of stuff like a promotion if she signed up to be a drilling reservist instead of IRR. So she did, he slotted her in my company, and I had zero control over her. Another time a retention NCO brought a troop out of the IRR and put him in my company- and the dude was on house arrest with an ankle bracelet. They expected me to go work with his probation officer to beg them to let him drill. And when you do have a Soldier you have to get rid of, its a long hassle. They have to miss 3 months worth of drills before you start the paperwork- then you must notify them you plan to separate them and wait for the registered letter to come back delivered or undelivered. Then your full time admin people (usually at 50% strength and overtasked) work to put together the ridiculous amount of paperwork to make a packet. Then they send it up to various levels, and 30% of the time you get orders separating them 1-3 months later. 70% of the time the packet gets lost, or gets returned because sometime between when it was submitted and when someone is reviewing it the checklist for what should be in it changed, or they sent a retention guy out and the troop who hasn’t shown up in 6 months now says they want to stay in… Read more »
I told my Platoon Commander that if he wanted me to stay a few extra months after I checked out, he could give me a van, a partner and the authority to drag the shitbirds who stopped showing up back to the unit. Sadly, he didn’t take me up on the offer.
We were mandated to do that for a while- and it was just a worse clusterfuck. If the soldier can’t do the minimum or coming to drill, dragging them in just prolongs the inevitable. Better to just cut them loose.
I had the exact same experience as a detachment commander when I was a CPT. System is broken.
This problem plagues the active army as well. The USR just doesn’t have enough categories for the various reasons a soldier is unavailable for deployment. A soldier has a wife about to give birth? Technically deployable, but most commanders today will likely let the soldier stay back. A soldier has multiple family problems or is going through a divorce? Again, technically deployable but most likely will remain in garrison. Commanders will also conduct “trades,” otherwise known as intrapost transfers to move the underperforming soldiers in exchange for better, more deployable soldiers. These shell games are rarely captured in studies.
I was going to say something similar, but I think you’ve hit the high points. How many of the soldiers mentioned were somewhere in the training cycle (i.e. not yet MOSQ)? The story doesn’t tell us, and I’m not sure if this is a problem that big Army has to deal with or not in figuring out if one of their units is ready to deploy.
Having said that, we managed to meet our deployment obligations during the course of the war and often had to turn people away for deployments because there was no way to fit them into the unit. I myself have been denied requests to deploy more than once since 2003.
Have seen the shell game go the other way? When your First Sargent trades a good troop for multiple dirt bags just to keep the numbers up.
Those would be called leaders doing what has to happen to get shit done. That rarely becomes a matter of record.
A lot of these Soldiers being “non-deployable” comes from the knee jerk policies from the pentagon that gets the ball rolling in one direction, and then a completel reversal of that policy. A troop is non-deployable and then he is. My state was kicking out Soldiers like never before up until a couple of months ago, ( good Soldiers too) then realized that we were about to become NMC and slammed on the brakes. Now I can’t kick one out if they were the worst troop to ever wear a uniform. I hope that when the next admin takes over, there is a military left to fix.
Up here in Vermont we had/have duds with rank staying in until mandatory retirement. soldiers that have been in full time high rank/pay positions for well over 20 years. Most have permanently non deployable by way of medical profiles that are older than 9/11/01. But nobody gets rid of them so nobody can get prompted to that position. I used to enjoy asking so when is the last time you deployed or earned an overseas service ribbon for somewhere other than Canada for two weeks of annual training.
I have 2 soldiers that pissed hot over a year ago, and I still can’t get them off my books. Both pissed hot TWICE!
My first assignment after OCS in Sep 1967 was to the 5th Mech at Fort Carson. Early in 68 the division was tasked to ready one brigade for deployment to Viet Nam in July. To get one full brigade of qualified, deployable soldiers, the entire division was raided and the stockade doors were opened. In May 1968 the 69th Infantry brigade from the Kansas Guard was activated and moved to Fort Carson. They began training and then integrating into the deploying brigade, filling key shortages. The same thing happened with vehicles and other equipment, robbed from non-deploying units to fill one brigade. The 1st Bde, 5th Mechanized Infantry Division deployed in July but a monthly levy was continued, and more 5th Mech and 69th Infantry soldiers continued to deploy from Carson to Viet Nam. I saw, as a young 2LT, how much the US Army was not ready. Similar experiences continued like a roller coaster ride during my entire active duty career, until I retired in June, 1993. Not much new is happening. Here is a link to the history of the 69th Infantry, a National Guard unit sent to prop up an active unit. http://www.kansasguardmuseum.org/dispunit.php?id=39
I was at Carson in ’68 as well. Maj. Gen Roland Gleszer took over from Maj. Gen. Corcoran. When they opened up the new officer’s club, and the pilots from the 20th Aviation Bn landed on the lawn!
I was medically Retierd in May of 2013 from injuries in Iraq as a RE4. 100 % Army 100% VA, but I’m still getting letters from the VA saying I’m deployed in Germany and I need to repay money to them, I’ve tried every thing I can do to fix it but every other month I get a letter from them and then I get a letter from the guard saying I’m AWOL I make a few calls I think it’s fixed and then low and behold I get another letter with the same BS… SOME ONE PLEASE HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!
Get all your copy’s of your paper work and go see a VSO weather its from the VFW,DAV our whoever you have in your area. People tend to pat attention to them when the legal paper work it dropped on them.
Do not go a lawyer if they are named Bernasty. EVER.
thank you sapper the VSO Route way a No-Go I’ve already tried, I thought we fixed it then got another letter from VA, A OIF/OEF Rep at the VA hospital Called the Guard people from the state I severed with and we thought we had it fixed again and then Boon got another letter
Contact your federal elected representative-my experience is that they tend to get the best results.
this is what my wife’s wants me to do so this may be the next move
thank you 68W
Keep a record of the names and dates of the folks you have worked with to get this fixed.
Helps the representative back track.
Skippy,
You have 2 Senators and 1 Rep. In addition, in your state you have equal representation.
Write a letter as simply as you stated above and send to all. Make sure they all see they were cc’d.
Send a few good documents including you DD-214’s, Discharge Certificate and your retired identification card.
Respectfully DEMAND that any and all actions immediately stop now … Because you are RETIRED.
Most im$portantly is your rep from House of Representatives … Request an Inquiry.
Hope this helps!
The letter is what I call a “6 pack and a keg”. It will take about 2 hours to write the letter (6 pack), but the results is a keg (you will never drink that)!
🙂 MCPO. This is the way I’m taking it my wife has nagged me to go this way and I’m trying to not ROCK the boat but if they want to play stupid games I’ll help them Winn stupid fame LMAO. Thank You for the advice and how to info…
When I first got out of BCT, the other Supply Puppy in my unit was doing everything he could do to get out. Finally, they had to release him after he pissed so how it about melted the bottle. Even then, they only dropped him to IRR.
My Infantry Battalion was terrible with retention of non 11-series. There was active bias against anyone who were never Infantry. It got so bad that the unit was denying me my 5’s because I couldn’t pass an APFT. However, they neglected to note that I was on profile from having been injured during deployment.
I still keep in touch with most of my friends in the Guard, and it’s getting worse for them. When the units were on deployment rotation, they’d do everything shot of tossing hookers at people to keep them in. Now, it’s gotten to the point where the smallest infraction results in discharge.
The actual combat vets are being let go for the piddly-shit reasons, but the douchebags who “play the game” are kept in.
I’m sorry to say, but the damage might be beyond repair. Too many good soldiers are being released to have a good knowledge base within the NCO ranks. The next conflict will be bad, regardless of what the politicians say.
Put me in charge of dental readiness and I will have thsoe numbers at 95 %.
The is a chicken shit issue.
The readiness #’s game in the Reserves and Guard absorbed more man hours imaginable.
The check list for readniness for a Reservist or Guradsman is way to long and bogged in regualtion and law.
The readiness check list at command level should look like this:
Memeber Name (insert name like Dumbfukski):
Ready – Check One
YES or NO
If I had a nickel for every readiness email I had to answer as a Senior Enlisted … I would be as rich as the the blood loving Trump!
Dental is the one I could not figure out. All the soldier had to do was get validated from their own dentist or call LHI and get free dental. And, you got an MRMA if you used your own dentist. Too easy and get paid!
Always had a hard core 10% that could not get it done.
Part time help is always hard to find.