Posted on 10/15/2001 7:41:45 AM PDT by 2banana
Dear Editor,
Over the past several weeks, a huge number of National Guard troops have been "called up" to be used as "Homeland Defense" through out America. What Homeland defense means is that these troops will be mostly guarding economic targets (airports, train stations, oil refineries, etc.) for up to two years.
This is a wrong policy for several reasons:
1. This is not what they volunteered to do. The men and women who have volunteered to join the National Guard understand that they may be called up in times of war or national/state crisis. The infantry expected to called up to fight as infantry. The armor expect to be called up to fight in tanks. No one joined to be called up as a long term glorified security guard.
2. This is not what they have been trained to do. Using troops who have been trained to kill and destroy the enemy to protect an airport may lead to unintentional consequences. Yes, they may be "retrained" but this in not why they volunteered nor why they joined particular units.
2. Pay. Most National Guard troops make a significant higher salary in their civilian jobs than in their National Guard jobs. Most soldiers will take a large pay cut in this call up (50-70% being the average). Add on top of this, many will lose their excellent company health plans and replace it the terrible military health care system. Guard soldiers understand that in times of war they would need to sacrifice, but in a few months we are going to have many soldiers and their families losing their houses and literally being forced on welfare and food stamps in order to protect what is essentially private property.
3. Using these soldiers to fight this war "on the cheap". All of these economic targets that the Guard is protecting could hire their own comparable civilian security in a relatively short time. However, this would cost money. Civilian guards and police get benefits like decent pay, overtime, 401k plans, time off to see their family, etc. Active and Guard soldiers get none of this plus the taxpayer is picking up the tab. Is there anything wrong with having the airlines, airports and the people who fly pay for their own security?
4. The lose of discipline. All these factors will destroy the discipline of many units. A private (E-3) makes about $1,800 a month in pay (with family dependents). The cop and security guard right next to him (doing the same job) are making double this salary with better benefits (plus they get to see their family every night). Now imagine this soldier puts up with this for a year, losing his house, not seeing his family (now in a cheap apartment in a bad section of town), wondering if his daughter didn't suffer much in the two hour drive and three hour wait to see an army doctor for her medical treatments. Do you think he may be tempted to go AWOL, take bribes, steal, turn to alcohol, etc? Would you?
We should use the National Guard for its intended purpose. Guarding private property is not that purpose. This should be a short term mission until civilian security is brought up to speed.
Regards,
"One of the bravest men I ever saw in the African campaign was the fellow I saw on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of furious fire while we were plowing toward Tunis. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at that time. He answered, "Fixing the wire, sir." "Isn't it a little unhealthy right now?," I asked. "Yes sir, but this goddamn wire's got to be fixed." There was a real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how great the odds, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time.
Priority One: Accomplish the assigned mission.
Priority Two: Look after the welfare of those in your charge.
Priority Three: Try not to go bonkers accomplishing the Priorty One and Two tasks.
If this really keeps up for 10 years, the NG/Reserves are probably going to have an increasingly difficult time meeting quotas, unless they can issue "stop-loss" orders, too.
Of course, if the economy got bad enough, they might be able to get thousands of new recruits that way. A friend of mine told me he was in the Army when WW II broke out, mainly because there were very few jobs in the civilian sector at that time.
That bears repeating. Now is a good time to be extra deferential to all our soldiers regardless of branch or duty.
I do not believe that you are a member of any kind of Nat. Guard unit.
I have pulled these guard duty missions and I find it an extraordinary honor to perform the sacred duty of safeguarding the lives of the fellow citizens of my state, military and country. I can think of almost no better way of serving my country than volunteering to directly engage those who would do harm to the people of my country where they gather for travel, work or sport. I don't safeguard property, I safeguard the people in it.
The airports, facilities and stadiums of this country are frontlines of this 'new kind of war' and by guarding the people who gather there, I am a frontline soldier. I am proud to stand between Americans and those who would kill them. I will serve this duty in airports, office buildings, government offices, state armories or gas stations if need be.
If you cannot see the justness and rightness of this mission, you either have some weird agenda or you are just yeller.
We can only hope you are correct. I had my suspicions about this poster.
This doesn't pass the common sense test. If the property of the citizens of the state are at risk for more than 90 days from enemies of our country, the soldiers should be sent home? That is absurd.
Besides, the terrorists were perfectly valid passengers, not criminals that could have been caught walking an airport.
To suggest that the terrorists were "perfectly valid passengers" and not criminals is the most moronic thing I have seen here for some time. Unless you are defending them of course. Hell, that could have been uttered by a spokesman for Bin Laden.
It is a nice thought but when your unit strength drops to 10% (due to the reasons I stated in the letter), what will you/we do then?
Bullshit! They aren't whiney malcontents like you are. They are in it for the long run, as am I.
As far as what I will do?--I guess I'll be pulling more guard duty shifts....
What is your beef with the guard anyhow?
I cannot express how completely wrong you are on this issue.
What is your real beef?
This will become a major problem and super human efforts by ones like yourself will not solve it. It will either lead to a draft to fill out the units or to an end of this mission. If neither happen, NG units will exist on paper only.
This isn't a war on terrorism, it's a war for globalism.
Yes, of course it is.
/sarcasm
We have police for that. Besides, as I mentioned above, the threat is not present. No damage has been done by militant groups at airports. No terrorist has committed any crime within any building.
Your assumption that there is a threat needing a martial law state does not make sense. There is no clear and present danger that warrants military presence in our airports, nor could have any of these military stopped the previous attacks.
To suggest that the terrorists were "perfectly valid passengers" and not criminals is the most moronic thing I have seen here for some time.
Are you saying that they hijacked their way onto the aircraft? They had perfectly valid boarding passes and carried nothing on board that was illegal, they made damned sure of that. I never said that they were not criminals, so stop putting words in my mouth. Such a statement is yours, not mine.
To repeat myself as the previous post was lost on you, the military could not have stopped these guys. They have valid boarding passes and did nothing illegal until their acts in flight. No amount of military in our airports could have prevented these attacks. You can run and hide screaming that the sky is falling, but your are no safer.
Before you run around yelling "moron", you might want to understand what you are screaming about.
I made no such assumption. The Governors did when they called up the guard. Their call not mine or yours. BTW, no one has declared martial law that I know of. If you do please back it up with proof.
Are you saying that they hijacked their way onto the aircraft? They had perfectly valid boarding passes and carried nothing on board that was illegal, they made damned sure of that.
Carrying weapons of any type onto an airliner is illegal.
I never said that they were not criminals, so stop putting words in my mouth. Such a statement is yours, not mine.
These are your exact words, the bold is mine. So much for putting words into your mouth.
Besides, the terrorists were perfectly valid passengers, not criminals that could have been caught walking an airport.
People who board airliners in order to hijack and kill everyone on board and thousands on the ground are not "valid" passengers. That is moronic.
Look at a flag lately? What do you think the gold fringe is for? Notice the NG at airports? They aren't the police are they? You think that Bush would announce martial law? Doubtful, especially considering we've been under martial law since WW2 or earlier. Why state the obvious.
Yes, of course it is.
/sarcasm
Does your sarcasm have a point, or are you merely disagreeing?
Nobody thought that, but they didn't sign up to do something that private security should be doing anyways.
Also, they will become very bitter very fast that they could lose a lot of money and perhaps even their jobs in some cases doing the same job that somebody else should be doing. (not to mention employers in the future are not going to want to hire people who are going to end up guarding the local airport full-time).
Then there is the whole Feinstein Factor.
I highly suggest you go to posts #21 and #38 and read them several times.
When you are finished, I suggest you read all of the posts by RussianBear716, Flint, Ditto, Thomas Jefferson, Deport, and Chookter. I think they pretty much summed it up.
If you are enlisted, STOP WHINING and FOLLOW YOUR ORDERS!!!!!!
If you can't do that, you are a disgrace to the uniform and had no business enlisting in the first place.
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