Posted on 03/29/2002 10:27:59 AM PST by Pancho13
Rumsfeld Blasts Top Brass General, admiral had complained publicly
By RICHARD SISK Daily News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ripped two four-star officers yesterday for saying U.S. service members were tired and running out of a key weapon in the war on terror.
Rumsfeld also announced the death of a Navy SEAL, who stepped on a land mine near Kandahar, Afghanistan.
In a rare public rebuke for the top brass, Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, used a televised Pentagon briefing to criticize Army Gen. William Kernan and Adm. Robert Natter, commander of the Atlantic Fleet.
Rumsfeld said Kernan, chief of the Joint Forces Command, was out of line for telling a House panel two weeks ago that the troops were tired because "we are busier than we have ever been."
Rumsfeld said the 1.4 million men and women on active duty don't "begin to fit that characterization."
Natter came under fire for saying the Navy had run short of joint direct attack munitions, or J-DAMs, and had to borrow some of the satellite-guided bombs from the Air Force.
"We damn near ran out in Afghanistan," Natter said three weeks ago.
"The inventory is not depleted," said Myers, who then got into trouble himself. "Even my wife understood this one."
That drew oohs from the media crowd.
"You're in trouble everywhere now," Rumsfeld said in mock horror. "When you say, 'even my wife' — even I know better than to say that."
Myers sheepishly sought to recover by saying, "Mary Jo, turn off the TV."
Uncertainty Persists
After giving an overview of the war, which they said showed steady progress, Rumsfeld and Myers bristled at questions about the troops' readiness.
But concern is widespread at the Pentagon that U.S. forces may be overextended by worldwide commitments.
Top Pentagon officials also have acknowledged that they are pressing manufacturers to churn out more J-DAMs.
Retired Rear Adm. Eugene Carroll said the rebuke of two top officers was highly unusual.
"Reprimands are usually done in private for going off the reservation," he said.
In other developments:
Chief Petty Officer Matthew Bourgeois, 35, a Navy SEAL from Tallahassee, Fla., was killed when he stepped on a land mine during a training exercise near Kandahar. Another serviceman, who was not identified, was wounded in the blast but was expected to recover. Pakistani police arrested more than 30 Islamic militants, including some alleged members of Al Qaeda, in raids in the cities of Lahore and Faisalbad in Punjab province. One suspect was killed and four wounded in shootouts during the raids, the Interior Ministry said.
Original Publication Date: 3/29/02
The most telling sentence of the article. One does have to consider that Secretary Rumsfeld has proposed further reductions in certain areas of the military that would add to the the military's "per person" workload. Op Tempo/Pers Tempo are too high right now. Do you think they will get any better in the future? I don't. I know of both Officers and Enlisted folks who have had enough of the TDYs and are not re-enlisting in the Guard/Reserve, even when offered much. It will get worse before it gets better.
Not just there, but many other places, remnants/continuations from clinton's nation-building. Hell, we probably still have troops in Haiti.
I'm sure that wherever Sally Struthers has done her latest "feed the children" ads, there are American troops right there.
I think you assume MUCH!
Read "Dereliction of Duty" by HR McMaster before you call for these guys heads.
Because you don't want to tempt the bad guys to push harder by saying that you are low on ammo. It'd be a lot wiser if they could say something like, "We almost ran low on ammo, but we talked in private with some key people in Congress who made sure that we got what we needed."
It's wrong when the truth can get more people killed.
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