Posted on 10/23/2013 5:45:00 AM PDT by Kaslin
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno revealed this week that just two Army brigades are combat-ready, with budget cuts hampering the military's ability to train its own troops.
The startling comments were made Monday at the Association of the U.S. Army conference. Odierno and Army Secretary John McHugh both addressed the fallout from the budget cuts, as well as the recent partial government shutdown, and appealed to lawmakers to restore some stability to military funding.
"Functioning like this is just dysfunctional," Odierno said.
He said that after the sequester kicked in, "we had to stop training basically" in the last six months of the year. He said the recently passed stopgap funding bill has further reduced the Army's ability to train, and warned that the recurring budget battles in Washington could have serious consequences for America's fighting force.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
If Odierno is such the bastion of moral courage over readiness, he should resign in protest, disclaiming his support for women to serve in infantry units and participating in Ranger training.
If Odierno is so passionate concerning readiness then he should shout from the rooftops that sequestration is the spawn of Obama and his treasury secretary designed as a political wedge to wage class warfare, not to bring about cost efficiencies in the DoD.
If only...
“...Obama’s primary job is to protect this country.
He has failed....”
Depends on how you look at it.
As a President, yes. As an American, yes.
But as the radical socialist sock puppet that he is, as “The One” that Dems have been having wet dreams over for decades, he’s been a smashing success.
i was a tank platoon leader and mortar platoon leader in BRD in 1975-78. we would do dry fire exercises in the motor pool, use board wargames and miniature terrain tables and field phones to practice fo and fdc procedures, etc. if the majority of the bde combat troops are grunts they can do almost everything walking w/o using fuel, vehicles, MILES gear or even ammo or blanks.
wonder what the combat ready criteria is? my csc cdr got annoyed when i left a gun track in the motor pool during a rollout. “why is it there?” “it’s esc red” “why?” “missing rubber on over half of 2 road wheels” “can it drive? can it shoot?” “yes” “you made your point. GO GET IT!”
Revealing America’s military weaknesses is a MAJOR security violation and Odierno is a DUMBAZZ for revealing this and should be IMMEDIATELY removed from his post. IDIOT.
You think the world does not know this? You sure are naive. that arrogant pos occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave has made this great country into a laughingstock
I remember trying to encapsulize what was wrong with one of our jeeps. It had so many things wrong with it, in frustration I entered an acronym that got me in a lot of hot water at Battalion, especially after they figured it out: MFB.
Mother F---er's Broke.
Oh, how I remember the good old days! lol
We were able to do a lot of drills without leaving the tac park, such as missile reloading drills on the Chaparrals, aircraft recognition, to name just two. I had a Vulcan platoon with 3 acting jack squad leaders, so constant training was a must.
Ohhh, muh bad...I just got through reading it on my Kindle Fiyahhh...
I thought it was pretty good...Kind of a mix between Tom Clancey and Matt Bracken, with a little Dale Brown mixed in for the techy stuff...
No combat ready unit ever passed inspection.
No inspection ready unit ever passed combat.
The purpose of the standing army is to not lose the war before the militia can be mobilized to win it.
Vulcans were mondo cool. Our Infantry battalion ‘accidentally’ got some of the flotation panels for the sides of a Vulcan. We fixed them to our scout platoon M-113s so they could scout better across rivers and lakes.
I was a mech. infantry platoon leader from 77 to 80, in 3rd Armored Division. Much the same story from here. Our 81mm platoon got tapped to shoot illum for the tankers night gunnery course, but got no illum to support night fire for the Infantry.
Signing for M16 firing pins to go to the range to qualify.
Training/qualifying with sub cal ammo (.22) for the 81mm mortars and 90mm recoiless.
"Controlled Cannibalization" for vehicle parts was the norm.
Counting expendable items, sheets and pillow cases for change of command inventories.
Etc....
Somehow, we always managed to be combat ready by USR standards.
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