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

Category: Military issues

  • DoD Ignoring history

    The Military Times reports that the Defense Department is preparing to send a report to Congress that was two years in the writing. According to Military Times the report touts Reserve Forces as more cost effective than a large active duty fighting force;

    According to a draft copy of the report obtained by Military Times, the Pentagon analysis concludes that Guard and Reserve troops not only are cheaper when in drilling status but also when fully mobilized, in part because their overall compensation is lower when taking into account noncash benefits such as retirement accrual and health care.

    Moreover, the overall costs for outfitting units with reservists are lower because part-time troops do not tap many military perks such as family housing, DoD schools, installation-based family support and the moving stipends that active-duty troops get every few years when they are reassigned, according to the draft report.

    Yeah, it’s as if Task Force Smith, Kaserine Pass and the First Battle of Bull Run never happened. I have nothing against the Reserves, but even they’ll admit their training is lacking compared to the active duty force.

    During Desert Storm, reservist combat units were called up in case war went on longer than it did and in the months during the train up, none of the reserve units, as far as I know met the standard required before they were certified for combat. There was a buttload of reservists who went AWOL at Fort Hood during their training. I’m sure with the current crop that wouldn’t happen. I have more confidence in reservists today than I did the reservists of my days – but so much has changed since then. And this is a return to those old days.

    It appears that the only thing the Defense Department is defending these days are their jobs in the Pentagon. They’re certainly not defending this nation in any recognizable form;

    The Pentagon disavowed the draft copy obtained by Military Times, dated April 26, 2013.

    “The draft report was released prematurely and there are some inaccuracies; the department does not stand by it,” said DoD spokeswoman Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins. “We cannot comment on the report prior to the final version being completed and sent to Congress.”

    But a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the data appear finalized even if the language that fleshes out the 34-page report may undergo further revisions. Congress passed a law in 2011 requiring DoD to draw up the analysis, but it remains unclear when an official version will be finalized and released publicly.

    Remember when they were talking about drawing down the active force before Desert Storm, and some units had to be reconstituted in the midst of their deactivation to respond to Saddam Hussein, but at least they had a large, trained active force to deploy and the only reservists were support units. How are we going to respond to threats in 2016?

  • There’s an app for that

    parachute tree

    Pictured above is a young Fallschirmjäger who couldn’t find the drop zone during a recent joint military exercise near the town of Dueren in Germany. Subsequently, he had to be rescued by the local firefighters before he could finish his part of the exercise. Take it from one who has had his share of tree landings, we have a way of overcoming this obstacle – we merely deploy our reserve parachutes and climb down the outside (climbing down the inside of the reserve has it’s own shortfalls) of the parachute. The reserve provides a thirty-foot avenue of escape from your leafy prison. And usually much more preferred than ending up in the pages of the UK’s Daily Mail.

    Thanks to COB6 for the link.

  • #@!&^%$ $#!*

    Excuse my language, but it looks like the guy who manages the sexual assault response program at Fort Campbell has turned himself in to the police for violating an order of protection, according to the Washington Post in an Associated Press story;

    Lt. Col. Darin Haas (HAHZ’) turned himself in to police in Clarksville, Tenn., late Wednesday on charges of violating an order of protection, and stalking. Master Sgt. Pete Mayes, a spokesman for the Army post on the Tennessee-Kentucky line, said Haas was immediately removed as manager of a program meant to prevent sexual harassment and assault and encourage equal opportunity.

    Haas and his ex-wife have orders of protection against each other, Mayes said. The two are involved in a child custody fight, Clarksville Police Sgt. Chuck Gill said.

    The article also says that Haas was due to retire soon, so I guess he couldn’t wait to embarrass the Army, especially this week. Haas was an AG branch officer.

    Maybe the Defense Department needs to just fire all of their counselors and shut down their sexual assault and response program. But I guess that would be punishing the innocent like making everyone sit through an 8-hour mandatory training class. I’m thinking that this wouldn’t raise an eyebrow at the Washington Post if the president wasn’t wading through of his own shit at the moment and they need a distraction.

    Thanks to Andy (I think) for the link.

  • Military sexual assault moves to the front burner

    Every email inbox I have got an email from the Army Chief of Staff, General Ray Odierno, today in regards to military sexual assault;

    Our profession is built on the bedrock of trust; sexual assault and sexual harassment betray that trust. They have a corrosive effect on our unit readiness, team cohesion, good order and discipline. We are entrusted with ensuring the health and welfare of America’s sons and daughters. There are no bystanders in this effort. Our Soldiers, their families, and the American people are counting on us to lead the way in solving this problem within our ranks.

    Well, of course, I agree. Completely. And while there have been a few high profile cases recently, I don’t think it deserves the attention that it’s getting. The Stars & Stripes reports that Congress is calling for new legislation to deal with the problem – I guess it’s not illegal now, so they’re going to move to correct that (yes, I’m being sarcastic).

    The latest proposal, from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., would take most sexual assault prosecutions out of a servicemember’s chain of command, handing those duties to more impartial military officials.

    “It’s time to change a system that is clearly not working,” said Gillibrand, who argued that rape victims too often see their legal cases ignored or undermined by commanders more interested in protecting their subordinates than fixing problems. “We need to give victims the basic confidence that justice will be had.”

    Aside from ending her sentence with a preposition, Gillibrand is just wrong because she’s undermining the confidence that troops have in their leaders by declaring them untrustworthy in legal matters. I would have loved to see Congress get this upset in regards to giving the troops the stuff they need for dealing with the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan – you know – their jobs.

    I feel that every incident of military sexual trauma is serious and should be dealt with immediately and harshly when a service member is found guilty, I kind of think that all Congress can contribute to the problem is a lot of screeching and arm waving.

  • Hagel says you need more training on sexual harassment – yep that’s the ticket

    The Washington Post reports that after ruminating on the subject of sexual harassment for an entire day, Chuck Hagel has arrived at the totally unique conclusion that you need more training. Anyone who didn’t see that coming, raise your hand. Yeah, me, too.

    Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday evening ordered the armed services to immediately “re-train, re-credential and re-screen” tens of thousands of military recruiters and sexual-assault prevention officers as the revelation of another sex-crime scandal rocked the Pentagon.

    […]

    “He is going to spare no effort to address this problem,” George Little, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters Wednesday. Little said the public, lawmakers and military personnel “have the right to be outraged” about the Fort Hood investigation.

    Oddly enough, in a link sent to us by Jerry920, NBC reports that a woman who has been charged with sexual harassment at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX pleaded guilty;

    Staff Sergeant Emily Allen admitted to having a sexual relationship with a male technical trainee, attempting to have a sexual relationship with another man, and having or trying to develop social relationships with two female and one male technical trainees.

    “She pleaded guilty to having a relationships with all four of the technical school Airmen,” Lackland spokesman Brent Boller said.

    I honestly don’t understand the problem, really, I don’t. But, I’m pretty sure that taking time from training to teach hand and arm signals isn’t the answer. Like someone said in the comments in the other post, the training is already eight hours long. If a lieutenant colonel, a sergeant first class and an Air Force sergeant don’t understand that grabbing various women by the ass, turning your subordinates into prostitutes, and boinking your trainees is against DoD policy, I don’t think more training will fix that. Honestly.

    Ok, everyone who thinks any of that is acceptable behavior, raise your hand. Nope, me neither. And I’ve never had a sexual harassment slide show presentation. Never. I don’t think that the military needs to waste a minute on training people not to be perverts. Maybe they should keep them in the field five days a week like they did to us. Or separate the sexes, like they did to us.

    But training is exactly the solution employed by people with no leadership experience, so I guess we’ll go with that one instead of using some common sense.

  • Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps Anniversary

    WAAC

    MCPO Ret. in TN reminds us that today is the 72d anniversary of the birth of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps says the Army;

    In May 1941, the Honorable Edith Nourse Rogers, Congresswoman from Massachusetts, introduced a bill for the creation of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). Spurred on by the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, Congress approved the creation of the WAAC on May 14, 1942. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill into law on May 15, and on May 16 Oveta Culp Hobby was sworn in as the first Director.

    Says the Center for Military History of women’s service in World War II;

    Over 150,000 American women served in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) during World War 11. Members of the WAC were the first women other than nurses to serve within the ranks of the United States Army. Both the Army and the American public initially had difficulty accepting the concept of women in uniform. However, political and military leaders, faced with fighting a two-front war and supplying men and materiel for that war while continuing to send lend-lease material to the Allies, realized that women could supply the additional resources so desperately needed in the military and industrial sectors. Given the opportunity to make a major contribution to the national war effort, women seized it. By the end of the war their contributions would be widely heralded.

    soldier_640_02

  • SECDEF to DoD Civilians: You’re Getting 11 Unpaid Days Off

    The SECDEF has announced DoD’s decision on civilian furloughs this afternoon.  That announcement directs a total of 11 unpaid days off for most of the DoD civilian workforce (650,000 of 750,000 civilian employees will be affected) between now and 30 September 2013.  Furloughs will begin the week of 8 July 2013, with one unpaid day off per week.  They may end earlier than the end of September if financial conditions allow.

    Sequestration, of course, is the reason.

    The financial savings will not be inconsequential.  The exact dollar amount isn’t easy to calculate quickly.  But making an assumption or two, we can come up with what should be a reasonable, “ballpark” estimate.

    Eleven workdays equates to 88 paid hours per employee.  Since the furloughs will affect 650,000 civilian employees, that will save salary and benefits costs associated with 57,200,000 staff-hours.

    Benefits costs typically add between 1/3 and 1/2 to the cost of hourly wages.  Let’s be conservative and use 1/2 to get a “worst case” number.

    Determining the average hourly wage across all affected DoD employees would be difficult.  So let’s assume that averages out to an hourly rate of somewhere in the mid-GS12 ramge.  This is probably too high – but we need to use something.  It will at least be “in the ballpark”.

    Doing the math, that works out to a savings of about $3,260,400,000

    No, that’s not chump change.  But to put it in perspective:  that’s also not much over 0.6% of this year’s DoD 2013 base budget – and less than 0.5% of DoD’s 2013 total outlays, when contingency operation supplemental appropriations and other outlays are counted.

    But we should count our blessings.  Uncle Sam still has plenty of money to pay for really nice hotels when the POTUS or Vice President travel.  Or to fly the Vice President that 110 miles or so between DC and Wilmington, DE of AF-2 most weekends.

    Maybe you don’t want to mention that fact to any of the folks who’ll be directly affected by the furlough, though.  Since the furloughs will be imposed on a 1-day-per-workweek basis, those individuals will be seeing a 20+% cut in take-home pay for 11 weeks.   That might affect their outlook, attitude, and sense of humor just a bit.

     

  • The Latest on Sinclair

    Well, it looks like Jeffery A. Sinclair’s (presumably) high priced legal team is getting results.  The Army has dropped one charge against him.

    Sinclair is no longer charged with alcohol possession.  Military prosecutors have agreed to drop that charge.

    His defense team is also asking that the charges relating to porn possession be tossed.  They’re claiming that others had access to the computer, and that the search “violated Sinclair’s First Amendment rights”.

    Um, yeah.  Somehow I don’t remember people serving in-theater on active duty having quite the same freedom to speak their mind and/or access sexually explicit materials as your typical civilian in CONUS.  But maybe I’m wrong.

    The other charges against Sinclair – including forcible sodomy, indecent acts, violating orders and adultery – remain in effect.

    Stay tuned.