This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Army News

  • Army leaders want tougher basic combat training

    Fox News says that the Army is contemplating a longer basic combat training (BCT) for recruits because the pool of recruits is out-of-shape physically and mentally.

    The new BCT will place an added focus on strict discipline and esprit de corps through a greater emphasis on drills and ceremony, inspections and military history. It will also concentrate heavily on crucial battlefield skills such as marksmanship, physical fitness, first aid and communications.

    Along with the new BCT regimen, U.S. Army brass is considering a tougher Combat Readiness Test, which would replace the current three-event APFT with a six-event test Army leaders believe better prepares recruits for the physical challenges of the service’s Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills – the key skills soldiers use to help them survive in combat.

    “There’s going to be a much greater emphasis on fitness,” Volkin said. “Throughout the history of basic training, it’s always been about push-ups, sit-ups and the two-mile run, and that’s not a true test of fitness. This six-point test focuses more on core strength and cardio.”

    Yeah, they have to do something with the generation that eat Tide Pods and snorts condoms. The generation that thinks their schools are prisons because they have to use clear backpacks.

    The Army has to overcome the results of the draw down they experienced over the past several years and rebuild the force quickly and the best place to get new soldiers ready for war is in a longer more focused basic training.

  • AAFES brings back magazine sales

    AAFES brings back magazine sales

    AW1Ed sends us a link to Military Times which reports that the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, the PX system, will begin selling ammunition magazines which hold more than 10 rounds after announcing recently that they would not stock those items. Complaints from their customers influenced the decision;

    Troops use these magazines, sold separately from firearms, to supplement the magazines they are issued. In addition, Guard and Reserve members said they need the magazines for training while they are not on active duty.

    “I’m currently deployed with 30-round PMAGs that I purchased at the PX, why don’t you trust us anymore?” one customer wrote on Facebook.

    Yeah, no shit. I mean, whose clientele has more actual need for those magazines than AAFEES? They want to be like Dick’s or WalMart, but they really can’t. The Marine Corps Exchange stopped selling the magazines in 2013, so AAFEES thought they should, too. Gumballs.

  • Army: Savannah, stop kissing soldiers

    Army: Savannah, stop kissing soldiers

    According to the Associated Press, the Army wants the women of Savannah, Georgia to stop rushing into the street to kiss soldiers while they march in the St Patrick’s Day parade;

    Roughly 200 soldiers from nearby Fort Stewart are expected to march in the coastal Georgia city’s sprawling St. Patrick’s Day parade March 17. Traditionally, women wearing bright lipstick dart from the crowd to plant kisses on the faces of passing troops.

    A Fort Stewart spokesman and the parade’s chief organizer said Thursday the Army wants the soldier smooching stopped.

    Somehow, I think that if the tradition involved transgender women kissing soldiers on the street, the Army wouldn’t say anything.

  • Staff Sergeant Adams saving the world

    Staff Sergeant Adams saving the world

    Stars & Stripes tells the story of Staff Sergeant Adams, a member of 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, who, along with his wife witnessed an automobile accident. They leaped into action;

    One passenger, 26-year-old Brittany Goodman of Salisbury, was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.

    A child, 12-year-old Colby Springle of Angier, was trapped in the vehicle and died shortly after being extracted.

    Springle was the son of [Lillie] Mingin, who survived the wreck alongside another of her sons, 7-year-old Eric Mason Mingin of Fuquay-Varina.

    Army officials said the pair likely would not have lived were it not for Adams, who pulled them from the vehicle before a fire could start and provided lifesaving medical care.

    Speaking about his actions two years later, Adams said there was no time to wait for emergency personnel or to see if others on the highway would stop.

    “We were the first there,” he said. “It was my responsibility.”

    As his wife called 9-1-1, Adams ran to the wreckage and went to work.

    “I just did all I could do,” he said.

    SSG Adams was awarded the Soldiers Medal for his efforts.

  • Jump pay changes insures continuity

    Jump pay changes insures continuity

    Stars & Stripes reports that the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, Maj. Gen. Erik Kurilla, recommended changes to jump pay regs to insure that paratroopers can rely on their hazardous duty pay when they can’t jump due to conditions beyond their control;

    Paratroopers are required to jump once every three months as a standard for remaining proficient on airborne operations…Now, paratroopers can jump twice during a six-month period, including two jumps within the same month to keep pay for two consecutive, three-month periods if there are waivers for nonavailability of aircraft, adverse weather, absence for military training or education for less than 179 days, combat operations or a deployment. In lieu of jumping, paratroopers must attend airborne refresher training during the waived period to maintain proficiency.

    I remember during those wonderous Carter years when we would jump three times in one day (once for the previous three month periods, once for the current period and one for the next period) in order to stay proficient in the days lacking money for aircraft. That was for a measly $55/month.

  • Specialist Travis Reynolds and family found

    Specialist Travis Reynolds and family found

    Last week, the Utica, New York family of Deanna Reynolds reported her missing along with her son and her husband, Travis Reynolds, an Army Specialist assigned as a 35F intelligence analyst with the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade at Fort Bragg, NC. According to the Fayetteville Observer, the family has been found alive and well in a campground in Tennessee, but Travis has been AWOL from the Army for almost a month;

    Reynolds left voluntarily and has been marked AWOL since Jan. 17, a Fort Bragg official said Monday.

    The Rhea County Sheriff’s Office in Tennessee found the family at a campsite, according Lt. Bryan Coromato of the Utica Police Department.

    Reynolds, 25; his wife, Deanna; and their 19-month-old son, Cooper, were last seen by Deanna Reynolds’ family on Feb. 5 in Utica, WTVD reported.

    Utica police said Deanna Reynolds’ family had not heard from her since Feb. 6. Her family filed missing persons reports for her and her son.

    The part that really pissed me off about the story is this line (emphasis mine);

    …the Utica Police Department in New York confirmed that the Reynoldses were found in Tennessee early Monday and are in “good health.”

    I thought the Fayetteville Observer was better than that.

  • SMA Dailey takes Pinks & Greens to Capitol Hill

    According to the Army Times, Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey took some models to Capitol Hill while they were wearing various versions of the Pinks & Green uniforms “to show lawmakers what he’s been working on.” I would hope that he’s working on more than the continued employment of uniform fashionistas.

    The latest models included an enlisted male uniform and an enlisted female uniform with pencil skirt, as well as an officer’s maternity uniform worn with pants, according to tweeted photos from the event.

    The soldiers also modeled two styles of cover, which are both under consideration.

    The SMA is looking for approval of the new uniform in December. I’m wondering what the cost will be to the soldiers so that some bureaucrats get to keep their jobs.

  • Unnamed US soldier saving the world

    According to Stars & Stripes, an unnamed US soldier working at a casino near Wuerzburg, Germany, took on an armed thief, also unnamed, when the thief tried to rob that casino;

    Neither the veteran nor the robber were identified, in keeping with German privacy laws.

    The former soldier told the court that the situation reminded him of his experiences serving in Iraq.

    When the robber turned away for a moment, the ex-servicemember slammed him to the ground, striking him so hard that he broke one of the robber’s cheekbones, the Main Post said.

    On the night of the robbery, the veteran was filling in for his wife, who was also employed at the casino, the newspaper said. He testified that his wife had quit her job because she feared another robbery.

    So Herr Thief is safely behind bars thanks to the former soldier and his testimony in court. Germany is just a little bit safer today.