[NMFXSTC]

(Not directed at anyone in particular...just a response and observation)

I spent a total of 27 years, four in the USN with most of that as a USMC rifle platoon corpsman. I know from whence I speak.

Take a look at some facts...look at a USAF base and the "titles" and "trappings"..."Special Assistant to the Deputy Commander to the Adjudant for Special Programs Resource DeplOyment and Aquisition"...See all of the E-3s running around at all hours of the day in the commissary and BX...note that they have expensive laptops, pagers, two way radios? How important are these guys?

Did you realize that our Navy LEASES Cruise missles? Yep...we lease the damn things and only buy them if we fire them!

At one point in mY career, a Wing Commander decided to do the "real deal"...a "recall" at 13:30 on a weekday (instead of the usual, expected....if not clearly anounced...recall fo all personnel and immediate lauch of all fighter aircraft. In reality, this should be a no brainer reaction and should work! We got 31% of the aircraft in the air in a period of two and a half hours!

This military is full of fat, usless and multiple echelons of paper pushing pencilneck careerists. Physical fitmess is a joke (a stationary bike test???) Ammo is so short that the USAF rarely has any troops on hand who have fired an actual weapon in the past year, and then only with an "adapter" that allows and M-16 to fire .22 cal. rounds! Prego uniforms? "Profiles" to avoid deployment?

The USMC has a ocuple of sayings/logos that make sense and are pretty damn accurate:

"The Change is Forever"; and, "227 years of tradition and effectivess...unhinered by modern progress"!

Once a Marine/Always a Marine...When the balloon goes up, I want a Marine in charge...at least I know there is a warrior at the helm, in the fighting hole, and that the job will get done...without a myriad of "NCOIC of REMF assistants to the comand deputy assistant for the special expeditionary directorate of operations planning and training subdivision"....instead, I'll have a Marine...each one a Devil Dog rifleman who can shoot straight, run hard, and is prepared for war...that is the job of the military!

SEMPER FI!

[Mr Rogers]

I've had dealings with 2 marine squadrons. One was outstanding in its professionalism & tactics. The other failed to meet a scheduled deployment to the Gulf - eventually got there a month late, then couldn't launch more than 25% of its aircraft for a month.

The Army, with its weight, has a purpose. You want to take a huge chunk of land & hold it? Get the Army.

That said, I agree with the assessment that most Army Generals can't see beyond their desks.

[Alas Babylon!]

Well, I'm not sure how to respond to that. I will agree that's there's fat and waste in the USAF, I had to deal with it my whole career. But the Air Force is not the Marine Corps, that's for sure. It's not the Army or the Navy either. It's main mission is AIR combat. Some time ago the Air Corps had enlisted pilots which were every bit as good as the officer ones (which were damn good), but the powers that be decided only officers would "fly and fight". Now a-days, enlisted crew positions don't even exists on any combat aircraft.

The USAF's enlisted force is there to support the pilot warriors, and simply doesn't have the mission (rifleman) that Marine enlisteds do (there is a very small cadre of Air Force enlisted forward air controllers and pararescuemen that do fight with small arms, but very few). We could, of course, hire civilians to support the combat pilots, and move all the Air Force enlisteds into the Marines or Army, I guess. But until and unless some power decides to do so, I'll still be proud of my enlisted service to this country, and those I knew who are still in the Air Force.

i think you did not mean to flame my service, but remember the roles the Air Force and Marine Corps in fighting our country's wars are very different.

Semper Fi to you, too, Mac.