Posted on 11/14/2004 6:43:21 PM PST by Buckeye Battle Cry
KINGSPORT -- One of the fundamentals of life as combat soldiers is the buddy system. When one rests, the other is alert. It's a guarantee that someone is watching out for you.
While the war on terrorism has changed many things, it hasn't altered the Army's buddy system. But have you ever heard of a soldier whose combat buddy is his grandpa?
Sgt. Larry Bledsoe, 51, and his grandson Pfc. Richard Rutherford, 19, are ready to fight side by side along the Iraq/Iran border as members of Kingsport's Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 2nd Squadron, 278th Regimental Combat Team.
On Thursday, the two marched in a parade and took part in a send-off ceremony at Camp Shelby, Miss., where the 278th has trained since June.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailytimes.com ...
Yes, Godspeed (I may be joining them soon enough), but where the hell are the lines snaking out of the recruitment office? Folks, this is very heartwarming that a grandfather and his grandson are going into the bloody fray, but where are the rest of the 20-somethings?
I'm having a little trouble with the math here. But I know I admire these patriots for their service to the country.
After reading this I had some reservations about this. But after some thought I can think of NO place gramps would rather be than next to his grandson and watching over him as much as he can.
Are you saying we're not recruiting enough young people these days? That's the first I've heard of that -- I've heard that recruiting for active duty forces is strong, and that Guard recruiting is running at least about 90% of its goal. The Air Force and Navy are actually cutting back on personnel.
LOL......math....Im having the same problem.....he had to have been 32 when his grandson was born........maybe it is a step-grandfather...
The math works like that. I'm close to that with the ones I call "bonus" granchildren.
Here's some of my evidence (not an anecdote). It's from late 2003 -- if the picture has changed since then I'm not aware of it, and you can be sure we'd be hearing about recruiting problems from the MSM:
Recruiting is robust, recruit quality is high (Army Times)
Recruiting is robust, recruit quality is high
By Jim Tice
Times staff writer
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Army is coming off a robust year for recruiting and retention, but nobody here at the annual Personnel Leaders Meeting was cocky about those accomplishments.
“The force is in the best shape in 10 years, but it also is being highly stressed,” said Lt. Gen. John M. Le Moyne, the personnel chief. Army G1.
The Army ended fiscal 2003 with 503,000 soldiers, Le Moyne said, but the total probably will fall to 490,000 in the next few months as soldiers barred from separating and retiring during the stop-loss program leave active duty. The Army’s budgeted end strength for 2003 was 480,000, but Congress allows the service to exceed that by 2 percent because of the fighting in southwest Asia.
Lt. Gen. Dennis Cavin, who oversees all accession programs and initial entry training, said Recruiting Command made its Regular Army goal of signing up 73,800 new soldiers for the fiscal year and is off to a good start for fiscal 2004, which began Oct. 1. The Delayed Entry Program is running particularly well, “so much so, that we have made our [recruiting] mission for the first quarter of 2004 through the DEP alone,” Cavin said.
Under the Program, recruits can delay entry on active duty by up to 12 months. Attrition in the DEP is running about 19 percent. Sources said the projected DEP population for the coming year is 26,400. That compares to 22,600 at this time last year.
Perhaps most striking about the past year’s recruiting efforts is the quality of young people entering the Army.
Cavin said 95 percent of the new soldiers have traditional high school diplomas; 71 percent scored in the top half of the armed forces entrance exam. Nearly 24 percent of the recruits have at least one year of college, bettering last year’s record-setting mark of 21 percent.
Recruiting Command not only delivered the right amount of soldiers, but 99.9 percent were enlisted for specialties requested by the Human Resources Command and the Training and Doctrine Command. Only 12 training seats went unfilled in 2003 because of a recruiting shortfall. That compares to nearly 17,000 seats in 2000.
Because precision recruiting contributes to the overall personnel readiness of military occupational specialties, the number of MOSs staffed at 95 percent or greater has increased from 122 to 179 since 2000, according to the Human Resources Command. Over that same period, the number of specialties below 90 percent strength has declined from 48 to 12. All but 5 percent of the Army’s enlisted soldiers are in MOSs that are staffed at 95 percent or better.
Specialties staffed at less than 90 percent include Special Forces medics and assistant operations and intelligence sergeants; explosive ordnance disposal specialists; certain aviation maintenance specialists; respiratory specialists; human intelligence collectors; and several musical MOSs.
For the first time in 10 years, Cadet Command, which runs the Reserve Officer Training Corps, made its production mission for lieutenants.
Cavin said 3,918 lieutenants were commissioned through ROTC in 2003, which is 18 more than the mission of 3,900. Just three years ago, only 3,180 lieutenants were commissioned through this program.
While September re-enlistment statistics were not available at press time, it appears commanders will achieve their overall mission of 51,000 for 2003.
As of late August, the re-enlistment of initial term soldiers was running at 102 percent of mission; mid-career at 99 percent; and career soldiers at 98 percent. A special category for soldiers whose enlistments expired in 2003 generated nearly 15,200 re-ups, about 5,000 more than the mission.
While these statistics are promising, officials cautioned that the Army may be facing retention challenges in the future because of the high operating tempo that requires repetitive deployments.
“We’re doing some research on multiple deployments and the effect on retention, and we should have the results soon,” Le Moyne said.
During the final week of September, the Army offered a $5,000 lump sum re-up bonus to soldiers in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, and to soldiers in South Korea who re-upped and extended their tour in Korea by six months. Such bonuses are tax-free to soldiers in combat zones, and may be a precursor of the type of retention incentives to be offered in the future.
As a matter of equity, personnel officials are exploring the possibility of making the $5,000 bonus retroactive for soldiers who have re-enlisted in Korea and the combat zones since July 1. Funding could be a stumbling block, with analysts projecting that such an action will cost $6 million to $7 million.
“It’s the Army’s intent to go ahead on this. We just have to figure out how to do it,” said Ron Canada, chief of enlisted retention management for the Human Resources Command.
We need a picture of them!
Yes, God bless them both! And all our other people over there. But I wish to heck they would split Grandpa and grandson into separate units. Hasn't anyone ever heard of the Pals battalions in WWI? Whole towns full of young Englishmen were put in the same battalions, with the idea that they were already "pals" and so would be less homesick or something. But it was such a bloodbath there that whole battalions would get wiped out, and the little towns were bereft of all of their young men. Awful.
We did the same thing in the Civil War.
Hi yes I know the math is a common issue for many forums I've seen this article on, Just to make things clear, YES He is his step-grandfather, but that doesn't make him less of a grandfather. They are both doing what they signed up for and after 30 years in the service and having been on alert for deployment during the Gulf War, I know My uncle is Honored to be serving with his "grandson". We pray for a safe return home for both of them . Penny Proud Niece in Illinois
Hi Yes he is his step-grandpa,and very proud to have him with him . GodSpeed to them for a safe journey home. His Very Proud Niece in Illinois
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