[joesnuffy]

No doubt Hack is a shameless self promoter at times...but he does give a sh*t about the troops..and thats the bottom line here....nothing else- imo

[r9etb]

but he does give a sh*t about the troops..and thats the bottom line here....nothing else- imo

I disagree. He gives a sh*t about Hackworth, and makes his living by appearing to be for the troops.

[dixierat22]

I "trained" some NG types back in the '70s and was NOT impressed. They were sloppy with their weapons and discipline was really poor. Sounds as tho things haven't changed much.

[2banana]

Hackworth better watch it, he is walking a fine line. The stories I could tell (and what he could tell) of what I have seen on active duty would make your head spin. Also, many NG units are performing at levels at or above active duty units (for example, Special Forces, MP and air force units in Afghanistan).

Also, if every NG guard performed as good as their active counterparts, would Hackworth be writing a column about disbanding the active duty military? Of course not - they both have different roles to fill.

[RebelBanker]

Typical active-army rant against the National Guard and Army Reserve. In the Pentagon, there are truly vicious fights for money between active and reserve component units. As part of this, there are constant criticisms against RC units that they are "not ready." My old National Guard light infantry battalion went to the Joint Readiness Training Center and placed in the top third in its evaluations - better than many active Army units.

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

I remember being in the Guard back in 90-91 and being called up for Desert Storm. All of this is familiar. Lower level officers and higher ranking NCOs got sacked weekly. The war was three weeks over before we were declared ready to deploy overseas, and then after another two months of equipment maintenance, we were deactivated.

Hack is kind of loopy and loves to promote himself, but on this matter, he's right, there's no way a Reserve or Guard combat unit can deploy overseas without at least a few months of real training(and weeding out the deadweight) before deploying for a warzone. Non-combat units are different, but trying to put a bunch of part-time grunts or tankers in the frontline without refresher training is asking for a lot of body bags.

[BCrago66]

Hack is emulating his hero Lord Haw-Haw.

[91B]

There are two other NG brigades deploying to theater (30th from NC and one from Arkansas). 30th brigade is supposed to be going up into the Sunni Triangle arond Kirkuk or Tikrit. Hack may be right about this particular unit (IIRC they were supposed to go to Baghdad), but critics should be careful not to paint all NG units with too broad a brush.

[Khurkris]

Filter Hack by about 40% and you'll come close to the truth.

"No Inspection ready unit ever passed in combat, No combat ready unit ever passed an inspection"...or something like that.

[mfulstone]

Hack has a case of the redass against this war. Probably because he wasn't invited...