Posted on 11/26/2008 6:08:12 PM PST by BGHater
Citizen Soldiers May Need More Training On Homeland Operations, Defense Secretary Says
Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday ordered his top department leaders to conduct a broad review to determine whether the military, National Guard and Reserve can adequately deal with domestic disasters and whether they have the training and equipment to defend the homeland.
The 41-page memo signaled an acknowledgment that the military must better recognize the critical role of the National Guard and Reserves in homeland defense, but stopped short of requiring many specific policy changes.
His memo comes in the wake of a stinging 400-page independent commission report that concluded the military isn't ready for a catastrophic attack on the country, and that National Guard forces don't have the equipment or training they need for the job.
That report, released early this year by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, said the Pentagon must use the nation's citizen soldiers to create an operational force that would be fully trained, equipped and ready to defend the nation, respond to crises and supplement the active duty troops in combat.
In response, Gates said that indeed the Guard and Reserves are an integral part of the force and have assumed a greater role in military operations. And he pressed his top leaders to review the training that active duty and reserve troops receive for homeland defense and civil support missions, as opposed to the warfighting now consuming them.
He gave them 25 days to submit their proposed changes, along with any budget impact they might have, in connection with 53 separate recommendations. He said another 29 recommendations are under way or finished.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Why?
The military hasn’t spent a bunch of time training on how to operate within the lower 48? For some odd reason, I’m not too torn up about that...
Would it pay to start relocating some NG and Reserve units such as NBC and civil units to less vulnerable ares of the nation.
Haven’t the feds been moving many of their buildings to areas uo to 70 miles from their previous locations in Washington DC?
I thought that Obamessiah’s brownshirt “Security Force” was going to handle the domestic thing.
So riddle me this, what Army is going to show up off the shore of the USA that needs to be taken down? The China-men going to swim the Pacific? The Mexicans have already invaded ...
Show me the army, the threat ... I’m listening.
At least I have no worries about my library card.
martial law?
http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/fema-sources-confirm-coming-martial-law-says-wayne-madsen/
beware of the red dot!
http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/beware-of-the-red-dot-by-alan-stang/
Ummmm - NONE. Because our Los Angeles class submarines would take them ALL out in about 30 seconds. The ones that actually made it here would just be an afternoon's redneck target practice.
Sounds to me like SecDef Gates has received instructions from the Office of the President Elect to investigate how a military Brown Shirt force could be set up.
Now we have a debate, two sparring partners ... But the problem is you are exactly right, there is no army, no nation that is a threat to America. Ergo, no debate.
Nor is there any natural disaster that is too big for Americans to handle. Katrina proved that point, dumb people, mostly gubbermint people, caused most of the problem in the first place.
So what the hell is going on???
It’s quite possible that the U.S. government is aware of internal al Qaeda terror operations about to take shape ... That’s all I can come up with.
But that’s is what the citizen militia is all about ...
pandemic
I thought that we had a thread on FR about the feds spreading out newer buildings to areas farther away from DC.
Done right, a country like China could have 100,000+ troops stepping off container ships with heavy weapons without us knowing it. Granted, the secrecy aspect would be daunting, but they could probably infiltrate the majority of an initial force in civilian garb over a period of time and and have the heavy stuff show up later. When the “surprise” was broached, major navy units could be tied up at the time by incidents in the ME.
They wouldn’t even necessarily have to have any objective here, merely to tie up ports and west coast military facilities while the real target is Taiwan with the US contingent being essentially a suicide mission...
With all eyes on Obama, Port of Los Angeles security under control of Chinese President’s son!
Maybe they're afraid of an armed citizenry. That tells me we should buy more guns and ammo.
Why? Because President-Elect Obama has said that he wants a “civilian domestic security force” to meet “internal security needs” that’s as large as, as powerful as, and as well funded as the military.
Rahm has seconded this, and has hinted at a three, maybe four or six month mandatory training period for all between 18 and 24 including “jumping jacks”, civil defense training, and community activist training.
Now Gates has been tasked with setting the mechanisms up, what do we need, how do we do it, where will the camps be, what will the training entail.
So that trained community activists will know how to handle themselves when their activism takes them to your neighborhood, and mine.
That’s why. Change!
When was the last time anyone ever heard a civil defense test alert?
Kinda what I thought when I read it.
I hear them on radio all the time. Plus, the FD tests their siren every day.
Once when I was staying in the Tornado Belt the rental-car radio started The Tone and told me to look out, there was a tornado watch (not an alert or warning) until 7 PM. Then it went back to music.
“When was the last time anyone ever heard a civil defense test alert?”
In San Diego county they have started calling us.
INTREP
I wonder how many people know where the nearest Civil Defense fallout shelter is? I wonder if said shelters are properly equipped?
“I wonder how many people know where the nearest Civil Defense fallout shelter is? I wonder if said shelters are properly equipped? “
Some of this might be regional, in my area escaping fast moving, direction changing fires means phone calls, while people in other areas may know where a tornado shelter is.
Like you I really don’t know what the current big picture status is, but I do know that they still do a lot of testing, including TV and radio.
“I wonder how many people know where the nearest Civil Defense fallout shelter is?”
They were shut down/dismantled as part of the Cuban Missile Crisis deal, back in the 60’s. There are no more fallout shelters, but the Peaceniks were successful in teaching elementary school teachers that any bomb anywhere kills everyone anywhere.
Khrushchev thought our CD plans were warmongering so Kennedy agreed to shut them down.
That’s why there are so many CDV 17 Radiation Monitors on Ebay.
I got a lot of 30 gallon water drums long ago when the shelter project was shut down, and a partner got several tons of survival crackers, which he used to feed his animals with.
I don’t know about that little history. In the eighties when I was going to various county buildings to get platts, I would also ask to visit their shelters where I would take pamphlets for my collection.
They may not have been well maintained but I did get pamphlets from the early 1960s and the early 1980s.
What stood out to me was how “man to man” the old information was, it was matter of fact, informative, detailed, and helpful, the newer stuff was of the “try to keep everyone calm and wait for help” type, it was useless.
A counterforce to Obama’s armed civilian forces?
OK, guys!! I know everyone is kinda freaked out right now, but NOW your freaking me out!! My husband has done a lot of work with DOD in the last few years and he has been in some of these Security Briefings. He says this is about terrorist attacks. If you remember after 9-11, there were threats of attacks on oil refineries, ports, and pipelines. I think there is growing concern, and today is evidence after what happened in India. It could very easily happen to us. Look, our borders have been basically open for years. I wouldn’t say we have the greatest security on the whole because we haven’t had to. I think that is about to change. Anyway, just thought I would share this with you. I wouldn’t get too worried about this...
What does that have to do with the current status of fallout shelters? Have they mostly disappeared, or are they no longer maintained?
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