Posted on 12/14/2002 9:35:12 AM PST by blam
US Tells 27,000 Reserve Troops to Prepare for Duty
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a fresh sign of preparation for possible war with Iraq, the United States has ordered another 27,000 Reserve and National Guard troops to prepare for active duty, defense officials said on Saturday.
They said the alert was issued by the Pentagon on Friday night and that the services were identifying units ranging from Navy port workers to Army engineers to be prepared for a likely call to active duty early in the new year.
"Defense Secretary (Donald) Rumsfeld has not given a final call-up order, but the troops are being alerted to get ready," one of the officials, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. They said the new call-up could go as high as 30,000 troops.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Army units would include military police, engineers and supply specialists and that the Navy was planning to notify at least 1,000 ship cargo specialists and other port workers.
There are already more than 50,000 part-time U.S. reservists on active duty from all U.S. services, part of a call-up sparked by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The defense officials spoke after the military on Friday began giving mandatory smallpox vaccinations to the first of 500,000 U.S. troops, including medical response teams and key units that might go to war or support combat against Baghdad over weapons of mass destruction. That inoculation effort was ordered by President Bush
If Bush orders an attack against Iraq, the Pentagon is expected to activate up to 200,000 reservists to fill key posts in the military from piloting warplanes to shipping arms. Many of them would also guard bases and key civilian facilities at home and replace regular Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force troops sent off to battle.
A total of 265,000 National Guard and Reserve members were called to duty during the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites).
In addition to the nearly 30,000 to be alerted under Friday night's order, defense officials said last week that the Army was preparing to call up 8,000 or more of its National Guard and Reserve troops to help provide security at American air bases.
Those troops would likely replace Air Force Guard and Reserve people who have been already on active duty for nearly a year.
NEW MOON FIRST QUARTER FULL MOON LAST QUARTER
d h m d h m d h m d h m
JAN. 2 20 23 JAN. 10 13 15 JAN. 18 10 48 JAN. 25 8 33
FEB. 1 10 48 FEB. 9 11 11 FEB. 16 23 51 FEB. 23 16 46
Just like everybody else in the military. It comes with the job.
We're dealing with North Korea as we speak. Syria is not a more serious threat to us than Saddam. China... Well, sorting China out is going to be an awfully big job. I don't see how waiting till we sort out Iraq before we get to China is going to hurt anything. Once we get Iraq, we'll be able to sort out our real target in the Middle East anyway- Saudi Arabia. It's all going to fall into place, don't worry.
This is far more serious and complicated, hunkering down will not work.
Well, tell 'em not to join the military if you're that worried. Nobody's going to force them. I personally didn't care if my folks worried about me or not when I was in. It was what I wanted to do with my life. If I got killed- oh well. That's seriously how I felt about it, my life, my decision. I can certainly understand if some people don't want to get involved in the military, but then- they don't have to.
Red Storm Rising was a good book. But I recall it being about World War Three. There's no more Soviet invasion of Europe to worry about. It was fiction anyway. You want an outstanding book that chronicles how real citizen soldiers served and felt about serving- and not just serving but knowing they would likely be killed? Read "Band of Brothers" by Stephen Ambrose. I think that book should be required reading in High School. America lost something when that generation passed the mantle on to the baby boomers.
These are the guys that will move the bombs, bullets and beans for the larger group of troops to be called up later. It's sign that things are starting to happen.In Dessert Storm I, some of the first call ups were of just these sorts of folks.
Oh, I didn't forget it- it's just irrelevent now. We no longer have the draft. Haven't had it for quite some time. Nobody is going to get drafted to go and depose Saddam. Don't worry about it. If your sons don't sign on the dotted line, they're not going to be involved in it. Even if they did sign on the dotted line right now, the war would likely be over before they ever got out of basic trainin.
PS "Red Storm Rising" was about WWII.
Uhh, no. It was about WWIII. There were Stealth Fighters, B52s, Abrams battle tanks, helicopters in the battle. We didn't have all that back then. But don't take my word for it, here's part of a review of the book at Amazon.com
Red Storm Rising is Clancy's second book and also on of the best. Even thought it was the second book he published, it is the last book in the series I have read. The main plot concerns World War Three...
If memory serves, the war got kicked off because of fuel/oil crisis in the Soviet Union. The American Army who were already in Germany (meaning it had to be post WWII) took a pretty good beating in their efforts to hold off the Red Army. Towards the end, the Generals were considering whether or not to use tactical nukes. We didn't have tactical nukes in WWII. It was definitely about the Third World War.
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