SC Ping
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I wonder just whose fault the lack of active duty troops is????
Could it be...... Slick Willy?
Since Memogate didn't work this appears to be the latest tactic from the left; scare tactics involing the troops and the "draft".
Funny how the MSM's are trying to pick up the Kerry message de jour
I absolutely agree the problem with BJ. But one thing I don't like is sending reserve or NG troops overseas for 1 year tours. Send them for 6 or even 4 months and rotate them more often. Regulars can do the 1 year tour.
These folks weren't prepared for this kind of duty. Financially, physically, mentally. Let them do a 4 month tour, get some R&R at home, and they can go back again.
It's very hard to prepare your family for a 1 year deployment. Most of the reserves and NG have families, mortgages etc.
When someone signs the contract to join the Guard or reserves, they are only fooling themselves if they think that they are not, at some point, going to be mobilized. When reserve troops are used, it isn't an Oh-my-goodness-we-messed-up-so-much-we-have-to-call-up-reservists situation, it is how it is planned. Without the Army Reserves and National Guard, there would be twice as many active soldiers. It would be an impossibility to pay everybody consistently with the pay scale we have now. Also, it would strain communities across the nation to a breaking point.
The whole battalion confined to barracks, the week before deployment, just because 13 went AWOL?? That sounds overly harsh, to me.
"The trouble began Labor Day weekend, when 13 members of the 1st Battalion of the 178th Field Artillery Regiment went AWOL, mainly to see their families again before shipping out. Then there was an ugly confrontation between members of the battalion's Alpha and Charlie batteries -- the term artillery units use instead of "companies" -- that threatened to turn into a brawl involving three dozen soldiers, and required the base police to intervene."
My old unit had some scrapes with Alpha battery of our battalion.
We also had some trouble with Charlie battery too.
There's a bit of sometimes not so friendly competition between the batteries within an artillery unit.
Artilleryman are, I will admit, an odd breed.
They love loud noises and propellant smoke.
The worst punishment one can give them is to order them to sit still and do nothing.
Artillery lives to fire rounds down range.
If they aren't doing that, they feel out of place.
Now, whatever happened with this unit, I cannot say.
But the brawl could've been the interbattery rivalry thing.
Seen those a few times myself.
Twice at Fort Drum during anuual training.
Once down at Camp Blanding in Florida in early 2000 when my unit went down there via C-5.
A Rhode Island unit was there and they started a brawl at the club, got their butts greased too.
Admittedly, I do miss the powder smoke.
It's rumored to be addictive.
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