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As Army shrinks, young officers are being pushed out
AP, via Stars & Stripes ^ | April 21, 2014 | LOLITA C. BALDOR

Posted on 04/21/2014 6:01:42 PM PDT by Timber Rattler

After the 9/11 attacks, tens of thousands of young men and women joined the military, heading for the rugged mountains of Afghanistan and dusty deserts of Iraq.

Many of them now are officers in the Army with multiple combat deployments under their belts. But as the wars wind down and Pentagon budgets shrink, a lot of them are being told they have to leave.

It's painful and frustrating. In quiet conversations at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Eustis in Virginia, captains talk about their new worries after 15-month deployments in which they battled insurgents and saw roadside bombs kill and maim their comrades. They nervously wait as their fates rest in the hands of evaluation boards that may spend only a few minutes reading through service records before making decisions that could end careers.

(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: North Carolina; US: Virginia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; army; fortbragg; forteustis; iraq; northcarolina; officers; rifs; virginia
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And thus the Army tosses away its seed corn...
1 posted on 04/21/2014 6:01:42 PM PDT by Timber Rattler
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To: Timber Rattler

Emperor Zero want to replace them all with his Inner City Private Army members


2 posted on 04/21/2014 6:03:19 PM PDT by MeshugeMikey ( "Never, never, never give up". Winston Churchill)
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To: Timber Rattler

Bet they’re keeping the hunky ones.


3 posted on 04/21/2014 6:03:45 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: Timber Rattler

Exact same thing happened Post Gulf War, right about 1992.


4 posted on 04/21/2014 6:04:59 PM PDT by bigdaddy45
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To: Timber Rattler; blueyon; KitJ; T Minus Four; xzins; CMS; The Sailor; ab01; txradioguy; ...

Active Duty ping.


5 posted on 04/21/2014 6:05:07 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar (Resist in place.)
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To: Timber Rattler

We all knew this was going to happen sooner or later. There is no binding oath. You step in, do the job, maybe they’ll keep you, maybe they won’t.

My loyalty to them is only as deep as theirs is to me.


6 posted on 04/21/2014 6:05:12 PM PDT by Future Snake Eater (CrossFit.com)
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To: Timber Rattler

Aren’t the OLD officers already gone??


7 posted on 04/21/2014 6:14:06 PM PDT by CMailBag
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To: Timber Rattler

They aren’t kicking out gay officers.


8 posted on 04/21/2014 6:14:41 PM PDT by pallis
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To: Future Snake Eater

Exactly, after Vietnam, we were no longer useful, I went to Germany, had a good time , and ETSed, it is what it is, sure loved that German beer :-)


9 posted on 04/21/2014 6:14:46 PM PDT by PROCON (Those who are capable of Tyranny are capable of Deceit to sustain it.)
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To: Timber Rattler

Marines are doing the same thing to their Staff Sgts. The higher rank but closest to the boots. I wonder what their sorting criteria looks like.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/article/20140419/CAREERS02/304190027/Staff-sergeant-rank-due-to-get-culled


10 posted on 04/21/2014 6:17:24 PM PDT by huldah1776
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To: Timber Rattler

Same thing happened when Clintoon was Prez and Les Aspin SecDef.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/04/us/clinton-seeking-14-billion-cut-by-the-military.html


11 posted on 04/21/2014 6:17:59 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: smokingfrog

I can tell you for a fact this happened in earnest when Bush Sr. was President in 1992. It was right after the Gulf War, and post Soviet breakup. Lots of offers got whacked.


12 posted on 04/21/2014 6:21:32 PM PDT by bigdaddy45
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To: Timber Rattler
But as the wars wind down and Pentagon budgets shrink, a lot of them are being told they have to leave.

It’s “Guns or Butter”

As the Social Welfare State grows out of control, as the Government Debt service eats up more and more of the budget something has to give way, something has to shrink.

Obama knew this from the start. One of his first acts as President was to attack NASA. NASA was one of his first priorities in budget cutting.

Considering his animosity to Imperialist America it is hardly surprising that Obama would do whatever he can to reduce the Defense Budget in favor of domestic spending.

So considering that senior officers decide where the budget cutting will be in its hardly surprising that junior officers would be the first to go.

Second will be senior Non-Commissioned officers because they get the bang for the buck in cutting numbers.

Typically they get rid of non-coms by enforcing fitness requirements. A senior non-com has a few extra pounds around the middle. They give him a month or two to lose the weight; he fails he’s out. Saw it happen early in the Clinton administration.

13 posted on 04/21/2014 6:22:46 PM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: Timber Rattler
evaluation boards that may spend only a few minutes reading through service records before making decisions that could end careers.<<

and the ones that made the best decisions in no-win situations will be the 1st to go while the ones that critique them sat on there asses at some safe and remote place making “judgment calls” from hind site on what the book says...Been there done that on the wrong side of the book

14 posted on 04/21/2014 6:25:55 PM PDT by M-cubed
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To: Timber Rattler
And the older experienced officers who have a constitutional basis in life have been purged.

Our president may have been better off keeping them around where he had some control over them. They are out and about in our population now. Someday soon we the people may need their skills and experience.

15 posted on 04/21/2014 6:29:26 PM PDT by oldenuff2no (Citizen.)
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To: Future Snake Eater

its not supposed to be a job you can keep just because you want to keep it.....they want to keep you....otherwise, it’d be just like the teachers union, where nothing you do ever matters because you are tenured....


16 posted on 04/21/2014 6:30:16 PM PDT by cherry
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To: Timber Rattler

Nothing new about the senario. It’s happened before.


17 posted on 04/21/2014 6:30:52 PM PDT by deport
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To: ClearCase_guy

Army is finished. You have women and homosexuals— That’s it. No one in there right mind would put up with that.


18 posted on 04/21/2014 6:36:50 PM PDT by SADMILLIE
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

Got to make room for the LGBT corps.

Thanks Timber Rattler.


19 posted on 04/21/2014 6:36:55 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Timber Rattler

We’ll need them in the militias.


20 posted on 04/21/2014 6:38:55 PM PDT by Old Yeller (In Latin, the word sinister means left. Which is appropriate for left-wingers.)
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