Thank goodness there’s direct deposit
According to Stars & Stripes, the Defense Department reports that there are 44,000 uniformed DoD personnel that are “unknown” as far as their location in the world is concerned.
The murkiness of the posted numbers of personnel in locations across the world follows a congressional outcry over lack of knowledge of how many soldiers are stationed in Niger, where four Special Forces soldiers were killed Oct. 4 in an attack by militants thought to be associated with radical Islamists.
Prominent members of Congress, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.-S.C., claimed they had no idea that so many soldiers — about 800, according to Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — were deployed to Niger. The United States has maintained troops there since 2013 and has been involved on and off in the country for decades, Dunford said.
Pentagon officials say “accounting procedures” make knowing actual end strength difficult to determine.
I find that hard to believe in the age of computers, all they have to do is add a block for a country code, and you would have instant access to an accurate number in a specific place. If the Department of Defense dosn’t want to give Congress and the media an accurate number, they should just say that instead of looking like incompetent boobs.
Or, they could ask banks where the troops are spending their paychecks.
Category: Big Pentagon
“If the loose-lipped blabbermouths in Congress weren’t such an easy channel to military information” may be better phrasing. I wouldn’t tell a Congressman which PLANET troops were on.
If they found out about our off-planet troops, it would blow fuses at NASA.
Hey, Hey, HEY HEY!!!!
SUSH IT. ZIP.
NADA.
BBBZZZTTTTT!!!!!
Bro, Stargate SG1 was my favor TV show back when I was a kid!
I was awesomeness.
Dang it, David! You didn’t keep OpSec on that.
Just hope no Congress-critter or associated parasites happen on this and find out.
And they think the movie “The Martian” was filmed in Hollywood… so little do they know!
According to a video of WWII submarine veterans*, the Japanese were setting their depth charges too shallow (150 ft) until some Congressman’s aide told the newspapers that the US subs weren’t getting touched. “Turns out the Japanese can read too,” the man off the USS Tuligee said.
Funny thing is I thought I’d read same thing that in a novel, “Run Silent, Run Deep,” except maybe in the novel it was a Congressman, not an aide who blabbed.
*I think it was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8DxhS8wpoI. It’s an hour and a half long.
That was also mentioned in “The Bravest Man” By William Tuohy.
Hey, some deployments like that one to LV246 are best kept as secrets. You never know when it’s going to be a standup fight or a bug hunt.
Acheron is one of my favor moons. Too bad only Marines deploy there.
Seriously, I be surprised if that information was not stored somewhere in the database.
Accessing said information accurately is a different challenge altogether, and not as easy as non-geeks seem to think.
What if one is stationed in country X, operating in countries Y and Z, or floating around in ocean P. How does one “count” those folks?
Plus the fact that any such report is no more than a frame-capture on a high-speed camera and out of date when you see it.
Just ’cause it is “there on the computer” does not mean that you can report on it in a meaningful manner.
This. I work with data and databases on a daily baises.
And I would be suprised if the “unknown” count is only 44,000.
Senator Graham is apparently not very well informed. The majority of the 800 personnel in Niger are involved in building a drone base at Agadez. Such a project would likely mean temporary duty.
The Special Forces team ambushed in Tongo Tongo, according to some reports, was actually stationed in neighboring Nigeria.
The Stars and Stripes story makes it sound like the military has somehow lost 44,000 people. What’s more likely is that, unless someone is AWOL or a deserter, everybody is pretty much somehow accounted for all the time. Just because some Pentagon computer dork might be unhappy playing Where In The World Is Sgt. Sandiego? doesn’t mean there’s a systemic failure.
Maybe we could TAD Graham somewhere and loose him.
Don’t toy with me, FG.
Or tighten him…
Or torque him
Ghost soldiers or ghost pay checks take your pick. Somebody getting paid somewhere.
Adding a block for a country code would be too easy for the puzzle palace.
I once suggested members should initial a certain form before it was entered into their records. The ass-chewing I got was legendary, “How dare I tell the deities at the what-a-gon how a form should be handled and they were not going to change it after so many years of work and worry to get it to the perfection they ordained it to be and I should shut my face and I knew where the door was if I didn’t like it”, exhale.
A new box on a computer form might cause a coronary.
After their 15 month in Afghanistan back in 2007/2008 one of the 173rd paratroopers who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross received an email asking where the medal could be mailed. He was freakin’ ON POST in Vicenza, Italy
Two other of the guys who were awarded Silver Stars, one still in Vicenza and the other at Walter Reed received emails asking where to mail their awards.
I went ballistic (shocking, I know). All were awarded their medals appropriately. According to the emails they received the idiots sending them out had no idea where these Soldiers were located.
I know this has happened MANY MANY times. Morons.
To this old IT guy, that sounds like an ID-10-T error.
AKA a stupid user error.
The stories you can hear from the help-desk folks leave one wondering how some of these folks remember to breath.
On the other hand, what if there are not missing troops..just someone at finance scamming the system with fake military. Pocketing paychecks for people that don’t exist.. It has been done before…
I hope not, that’s about three divisions … that would be a lot of shekels.
Well, yeah, in Iraq, by Iraqis!
In the US Army???
Normally, I would agree.
Lately however,so much corruption is being revealed that I’m starting to wonder when America became a banana republic …
The proud but humble woman owned business that Hack works For has a “Got Your 6” program to support veterans. In fact while the President of the company, Elaine Ricci, has been on extended active duty since shortly after the 2014 midterm elections, she continues to draw her full salary, placed in an escrow account managed by the Vice President.
During my last tour in Germany, I was about a month away from scheduled DEROS and still hadn’t received any levy announcement, orders, nothing. I called my branch manager (back in the days when it was an actual NCO and not a civilian). I inquired as to when I might be receiving orders. He asked where I was and when I told him I was sitting in Bamberg Germany he said “No. You’re in Ft. Irwin. Have been for 3 months.”
Nice to see that apparently some things never change…
Did he think you were blowing smoke at him?
After spending 27 years in the Washington (State) Air National Guard, having the same HOR the entire time, then retire and see some GS-5 twit input some address in Wisconsin where my retirement documents were to be sent, no, I’m not really shocked. Then have them act like it was MY fault they sent them to someone else, and ask me if I had moved.
One Annual Training (Reserves, two week training) a few years ago, I was in the HHC and responsible for personal stats. It should be simple, the company reports the number of noses (separated by enlisted, warrant and officer) and I would enter the number in the spreadsheet.
Out of six companies, one (1) was able to report accurately how many soldiers were on the ground with the BN.
I sat down with each company and went over their manifest and rosters to get an accurate count. And they still turned in wrong numbers.
I was complaining to a buddy who worked in Afghanistan doing the same thing. He said it was ten times worse there and their counts were “best guesses”.
Even CACing in and out has not helped that much.
Did anyone tell them where Bernath and Dullass were ???
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I can believe. Big Army would lead you to believe that Shane Ladner was in High School during December 1989, when actually he was participating and getting wounded in Operation Just Cause.