Posted on 02/04/2017 2:46:56 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee
Secretary of Defense James Mattis has issued his initial campaign plan for rebuilding America's military, pursuant to a presidential directive signed January 27. If Congress provides necessary funding, the Mattis plan would reverse a steady erosion of the joint force's warfighting edge that resulted from caps on military spending during the Obama years. In fact, the plan may usher in a surge of spending on new military technology unlike anything seen since the Reagan years.
All four of the military services General Mattis oversees would get a boost, but the biggest beneficiary during President Trump's tenure will be the service that is currently in the direst straits -- the Army. That's because the fixes the Army needs can be implemented more quickly than expanding the Navy's fleet or fielding a new Air Force bomber. In fact, making the Army healthy again could be largely accomplished during Trump's first term -- which is a good thing since it is pivotal to deterring East-West war in Europe. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
0-6 is full Colonel, correct?
Is there a maximum retirement age for Colonels who know they will not get promoted to General?
It’s focused on Putin because he’s a malevolent force in Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Putin used his political clout to push the US out of Manas Air Force Base complicating our logistics in and out of Afghanistan. He has begun supporting the Taliban whom the US is still fighting in Afghanistan. He provides sophisticated air defense to the mad mullahs running Iran. He invaded a sovereign nation and took a piece of it for the keeping and continues an undeclared war against the people of that nation, Ukraine, leading to about 10,000 people killed and 1.7 million displace. His indiscriminate warfare to protect the Assad hereditary dictatorship has led to massive refugee problems throughout Europe. His planes have buzzed neutral countries like Ireland and his submarines have violated neutral Sweden’s coastal waters. He repeatedly threatens Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland for their membership in NATO. He forces Belorussia to align with his nation despite the lack of support from the people of that nation. He’s used cyber warfare on several countries in Europe. All of this information is available in open sources.
Agreed. The acquisition process currently is designed to field jobs not ststems. It takes too long to get something in the solders hands. Impossible requirements that add little value to the end user.
Cops are people who speak most frankly about these perverts; the stuff they see erases any illusions about “normalcy”...
When the bulk are the dregs of society, your "picky" tends not to be too great. Believe me, in that emergency buildup we did early in the war we let in some real nasty folks--lots of troublemakers. Drugs, sexual assault, gangs, you name it. Conversely, we had some real weird problems with tattoo placement rules eliminating solid people from joining.
Anyway, we don't exactly have a "Starship Troopers" (book, not movie) training philosophy here. Basic training is hard, but it's not that hard, and it's difficult to quit. When someone joins up and they have even a modicum of desire to be there, they'll be in and that's it. If it turns out they're dirtbags, then it's very difficult to get rid of them. It used to be damn near impossible, but the drawdown brought about many self-selecters.
I thought the tattoo issues arose after they no longer needed so many people that they were overlooking felonies; I didn’t think these were simultaneous events. I also remember the “blue to green” program, where it seemed they coerced many long-serving Air Force and Navy personnel into switching to Army and Marine units to get more “boots on the ground”.
No, different tattoo issues.
First: perfectly qualified kids who have tattoos that go up a little high on their necks can't join. Eventually (wisely) the standards were changed.
Later: the Sergeant Major of the Army changed the tattoo rules--you can stay in if you have tattoos on the neck or below the elbow, but you're unable to go to OCS (there were other stupid issues later on due to that idiot and his tattoo policies, but that's the one I remember the clearest).
I gave up any hope of promotion to O-7. I’m not a politician and I speak my mind. Having said that I would happily put the uniform back on to serve my nation and my President Trump.
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