Category: Army News

Just three years ago, we talked about the last US tanks leaving Germany for the first time since they rolled over the bridges into Germany in 1945. Yesterday, General Curtis Scaparrotti, this administration’s nominee to be NATO commander, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the US needed a permanent armored brigade to properly meet our commitments to our allies in Europe in the face of a Russian threat, according to Reuters.

Scaparrotti told lawmakers a resurgent Russia was displaying “increasingly aggressive behavior that challenges the international norms, often in violation of international law.”

Asked about U.S. forces in Europe, he said a permanent U.S. armored brigade would be better at deterring Russia than the current rotational presence.

The United States began reducing its presence in the region several years ago due to big cuts in defense spending, replacing permanent units with rotations of troops that traveled to Europe for training.

Army forces will rotating into Eastern Europe for nine months at a time leaving the equipment for the unit that rotates behind them. That’s supposed to save money somehow. An armored brigade would be little more than a speed bump for the Russians – but it’s the best idea that we can afford at the moment.

This has been going around social media circles for a day or so, so I brought it over here for the sociopaths. It’s a parachute drop of HMMVs for the 173rd Airborne Brigade at the US Army Garrison – Hohenfels, Germany posted to US Army WTF Moments. Gravity always wins (Language warning);

Foxtrot Alpha posts the end results;

A sobering thought; the same guys who rigged the equipment drop, also packed your parachute.

According to Reuters, the Army has approved 22 women who applied to become armor and infantry officers. Those women are still in their training and not yet commissioned;

Thirteen have been approved to enter the Army as armor officers and nine have been approved for the infantry. All 22 must complete their remaining training before fully qualifying as infantry or armor officers, the statement said.

The women currently are in school at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, taking reserve officer training at universities or are in officer candidate school in the military.

After they are commissioned, the women will have to undergo armor- or infantry-specific training at Fort Benning, Georgia, before being assigned as officers in charge of armor or infantry platoons.

Infantry and armor positions are among the most prized assignments for new officers, you know, before they also became political prizes. When I was involved in the ROTC program, most of the male cadets applied for those career fields, but relatively few were accepted. The way it worked back then, West Pointers got first picks, ROTC cadets picked up the slots that were left over and OCS grads got the scraps. Many ROTC cadets picked up infantry or armor branch selections as “branch detail” – in other words, they began their careers as infantry officers, but a few years later they were forced to go other branches like engineer or military intelligence where more slots were traditionally available at the higher ranks.

So, I really hope that these ladies are prepared to become real combat arms officers for the right reasons, otherwise, they’re taking up slots that are highly-prized, highly-competitive positions and very necessary in The Big Scheme of Things.

A few months ago, TSO did a fund raiser here for challenge coins for the Caisson Platoon of the 3rd Infantry Regiment at Fort Myers, Virginia. The American Legion reports on that event;

“When I was going through training with many of you, I kept a little green book where I would write down things I wanted to do differently for the organization, and one of those things was the Caisson Platoon coin” said Lt. Dan Nicolosi, the platoon commander for the Caisson Platoon. Little did he know at the time that Leta Carruth, a long-time civilian supporter of the platoon, was working on getting those very coins. Carruth had previously arranged with The American Legion to provide Carhartt cold weather gear to the Caisson platoon, and once again turned to OCW to aid her in this initiative.

Military challenge coins are usually a coin or medallion bearing the units crest of insignia and are collected by members of the unit and others who provide some service or deserve some special merit. The Caisson Coin developed by Carruth and paid for with funds raised under a special fundraiser done by the military blog “This Ain’t Hell” featured a roughly 5-inch long horseshoe with a horse in the middle. This coin also has etchings along the shoe that have “The Old Guard” written on one side and “United States Army Caisson Platoon” on the obverse.

I’ve tried to avoid writing about young Tammy Grace Barnett from Robeline, Louisiana only because I don’t want to jinx her chances to be one of the first infantry-persons in the Army. She took the oath last week, according to the Army Times;

Barnett initially visited Army recruiters in November, she said in an Army news release. She told TV station KSLA that she’d planned to enter the military police ranks, “but infantry is similar, and they are more on the front lines, like law enforcement here, and I said that’s what I want to do.”

Well, I’ve never seen MPs road march 25 miles to the scene of a crime carrying on their backs enough equipment to sustain them for a week and then engage with the perps for however long it takes to subdue them. But, I guess Tammy will learn that there is a difference. She’s a former police officer, so I’m sure she knows how to motivate herself enough to graduate, I just hope her body holds up.

Me, personally, I wish her a lot of luck and good health. I was a 128 pound private when I went through, so i know how tough it will be for her.