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

Category: Military issues

  • Obama campaign plotting against veteran votes in Ohio

    Breitbart writes that the Obama for America Campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the Ohio Democratic Party filed a suit last month in Ohio that opposes the three day grace period for absentee votes…you, know, the way that veterans are more likely to vote from their military addresses outside of Ohio. I guess it has nothing to do with the fact that Ohio is a battleground state, and that polls say that almost 2/3 of veterans are supporting Romney in this election. From Mike Flynn at Breitbart;

    If anyone proposes legislation to combat voter fraud, Democrats will loudly scream that the proposal could “disenfranchise” some voter, somewhere. We must ensure, they argue, that voting is easy and accessible to every single voter. Every voter, that is, except the men and women of our military.

    Make no mistake, the Democrat lawsuit is intended to disenfranchise some unknown number of military voters. The judge should reject it with prejudice.

    So, I guess the Democrats aren’t buying that their big push for veterans’ votes this season is going to work, so it’s back to the tried and true disenfranchisement strategy. This is not my shocked face.

  • “I’ve Got a Bad Feeling About This . . . “

    Reuters is now reporting that the POTUS has formally approved US aid to Syrian rebels. Frankly, I’m not so sure that’s such a good idea.

    Yes, Assad is a bastard. But Iran’s and al Qaeda’s fingerprints seem to be all over the Syrian opposition. And given Syria’s suspected WMD program, a takeover by either would not be good news for US interests.

    Further, the possibility for a Syrian takeover by radical Islamic elements also can’t be dismissed. Events in Libya and Egypt have shown that quite clearly.

    Sometimes the devil you know really is better than the devil you don’t. I suspect this may be one of those times.

  • A Jimmy Carter welcome home to the troops

    Chief Tango sends us a link from Rick Maze at the Army Times, reporting the news that the Rand Corporation endorses a pay freeze, a cut back in bonuses and caps to subsequent pay raises, because “Smaller military raises are “unlikely to hurt capability and readiness””.

    I hear Jimmy Carter applauding loudly, because these are exactly the policies that gutted the military in the late 70s. When I reenlisted for 6 years in the infantry in 1978, I got a $2300 bonus paid out in four increments. If I hadn’t been so in love with the life, I wouldn’t have stayed. Two years before that, there was a $12,000 lump sum bonus for six years, for your comparison.

    When I got promoted from corporal to sergeant, my monthly pay went up $23. And then a month before the 1980 election, Carter gave us a 25% raise. The following year, three years away from the election Ronald Reagan gave us a 36% raise.

    The Rand Corporation complains that there have been years that the military pay exceeded the civilian sector. Gee, that’s too damn bad, isn’t it? If the civilians were so jealous of military pay, why didn’t they join the military – there’s always that option, huh?

    Maze writes;

    Rand, however, says that a one-time pay freeze or one-time pay cap has the best chance of passing because they would be viewed as short-term responses to the high unemployment rate in the civilian labor market and an effort to reduce deficit spending.

    Longer-term cap caps would be harder to sustain, especially if the civilian job market improved to the point that military recruiting became more difficult and mid-career service members decided to leave the ranks to take civilian jobs.

    Yeah, well, unemployment during the Carter years was nearly double-digit and I didn’t see job-hungry Americans flocking to the recruiters’ offices – but, you know, that’s just a real life example, not a Power Point presentation ginned up by a computer model and thunk on by the brilliant denizens of the Rand’s offices who probably have more military experience than me.

    Couple these suggestions with the recommendations for cutting the pay of National Guard, increase the amount of training time that the military will require the Reserves and the National Guard and I see the toothless military that Reagan inherited in 1981. But what do I know…I remember jumping from the tailgates of duece-and-a-halfs as they drove down Sicily Drop Zone so we could practice assembling on the drop zone because there was no money for aircraft.

    I’m sure some of you have your own horror stories of the Carter years.

  • Training to increase for Guard and Reserve troops

    I know you guys have been discussing the cuts that are being eyed to the pay of National Guard troops. I noticed that some of you were complaining, and rightly so, about the time you spend during the week preparing for your drills. Well, I’m sure this won’t do much for retention, either. From the Stars & Stripes:

    [Guard and Reserve soldiers] will keep preparing for war, with training periods away from home each year that would grow from a two-week block to up to seven weeks, Gen. Ray Odierno, Army chief of staff said in an interview Monday with USA Today. Drilling one weekend a month would continue.

    “As they go through it, their readiness will increase, the number of days training will increase,” Odierno said.

    And the Pentagon is mouthing the words that they’re ready to accept the retention losses;

    “You might have some guys who will be OK with that and some people who will part ways,” [Army Maj. Michael] Moricas said.

    They claim that the upside for soldiers is their five-year plans, so the troops will know when their training is coming up. Of course, they’ll also know if they should stay or leave the service. The brass acts like retention is a steady number that won’t changed because of their policies. What they’re actually admitting is that, by cutting the active force to make the White House demands on their manpower reductions will impact readiness.

    This has the fingerprints of the White House all over it. In their planning, everything remains constant irrespective of the effect their planning will have – like planning on higher tobacco taxes funding their healthcare not figuring that people will quit smoking and that revenue won’t come in like they thought it would.

    So, by planning readiness based on the Guard and Reserves manpower remaining constant, isn’t planning at all. Just hoping with your fingers crossed that people are too stupid to toss their Reserve and Guard careers aside.

    Odierno said that National Guard members and reservists acquired combat skills the Army sorely needs now as it tries to save money by reducing its ranks of full-time soldiers from 570,000 to 490,000 by 2017, and cuts the number of combat brigades from 45 to 32.

    So it only makes sense that you drive those skills that “the Army sorely needs” away from military service. Or something.

  • Sometimes One Individual Can Make a Difference

    The Clackamas Town Center mall in Oregon has a “kiddie train”. Some time ago, mall management noticed that the kiddie train  conductor had adorned the train with the American flag.

    Mall management was not amused. They decided the flag was an “unapproved visual”, and ordered it removed.

    However, the train’s conductor balked. And not only did he balk, though in doing so he risked losing his job or being banned from the mall. He also went public to local media.

    Public reaction was reasonably swift. And it wasn’t in favor of mall management.

    Mall management relented. Old Glory still adorns the train.

    Why did this happen? You’ll have to ask the mall’s management why they chose to act like ignorant fools. I certainly can’t explain their behavior.

    But it turns out the kiddie train driver was a vet. ‘Nuff said about why he stood his ground.

    Thanks, Thomas Phelps. I don’t know your branch of service – and I don’t care.   Well done, fella; very well done.

    And I’m also guessing you’re not related to that crowd of idiots who run the Westboro Baptist Church, either. (smile)

  • A Current and QRMC Reserve Retired Pay Estimator

    It occurred to me that the spreadsheet I prepared to produce estimates for my previous article about the QRMC recommendations  could be modified to serve as a simple, general-purpose retirement pay calculator for Reserve personnel under both options.  While others Reserve retirement pay calculators exist (most notably this one at US Army Human Resources Command), they appear to make various assumptions concerning future pay raises and inflation that may or may not be accurate.  They also don’t seem to attempt to convert their calculated future value to current dollars, thus making interpretation of the result difficult.  And they and also don’t seem that easy to use for “what if” drills concerning future correspondence work, voluntary active duty, mobilizations, and the like.  So I decided I’d make this spreadsheet available.  You’ll need software that can use a MicroSoft Excel (97-2003) format workbook in order to use it.

    The spreadsheet calculates, under both current and QRMC rules, the Reserve pension that a reservist will earn under each system, plus the percentage reduction under the QRMC proposal.  Users must enter their actual and estimated yearly retirement points and selected other data.  The procedures which follow describe that other data and tell the user how to obtain or calculate it. (more…)

  • I don’t think “gutsy” means what you think it means

    Yeah, I’m going to pile on this one, too. For some reason, my work computer tells me that The Daily Caller is an attack website, so I have to rely on our buddy, McQ at Blackfive for the details on the story that Caller is reporting, that being; Obama cancelled the Osama bin Laden mission three times on the advice of f’n Valerie Jarret, his assistant for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs – a freaking PAO jock.

    Most of our past presidents have relied on their military advisers for, you know, military advice. But not this guy. He has to poll the strap hangers and pencil sharpeners first. After all, they know more about military matters than the folks responsible for pulling triggers and stuff. As Bruce said;

    Sorry, despite the fact that I’m not at all a fan of this President, I’m also not much for anonymous single sources. However, this would certainly further damage the already widely panned “ “gutsiest calls of any president in recent history” claim even more. And, who knows, if true, there may very well have been legitimate reasons for the cancellations. The inclusion of Valarie Jarrett in the decision cycle, however, would lead me to believe otherwise.

    Yeah, if the whole story is true, a everyone thinks it is, it kinda puts a damper on that whole “gutsiest call” thing we heard Joe Biden yanking his crank about a few months back. And to borrow from Mr. Hanson;

    The truly sad thing is that this is the one accomplishment he thinks makes him worthy of another four years of destruction.

    Like I said before, if I was running for president this year, I’d go on vacation until November, because nothing can hurt the current administration more than what they’re doing to themselves.

  • Marines teach educators about the Corps

    The LA Times reports that the Marine Corps recruiters in southern California are trying to overcome bias against them in local schools by inviting educators (and I use that term in it’s loosest sense) to an orientation;

    Some teachers in the district have launched “counter recruiting” efforts, warning students of physical danger, regimentation and loss of privacy and individuality that come with military service. Others put students on “don’t call” lists.

    “The U.S. continues to fight in wars that are opposed by the public, and yet the military can recruit with little opposition because working-class kids have few job options,” said Joshua Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers and a critic of the Marine Corps program.

    Yeah, well, then if wars and the military in general are opposed by the public, isn’t it parents’ responsibility to conduct their own “counter recruiting” programs in their homes. It’s a perfect example of teachers not staying in their respective lanes. They are public employees who are supposed to teach students, not indoctrinate at the students’ parents’ expense.

    After their hosts tell the educators to ask a lot of questions, this one pops up;

    An early question from one teacher was whether recruits may someday go to war.

    Dumbass. Who keeps telling people that there are no stupid questions in spite of these glaring examples?

    The program seems to have created some converts;

    “It’s impressive,” said William Lozoya, a music teacher and band director at San Fernando High School. “I had no idea that there are so many support programs, so many ways they can get an education or training.”

    Brian Metzger, an English teacher at Highland Park High, said that counselors at his school “actively discourage anyone from enlisting. Now I can at least provide a more balanced view for students to make up their own minds.”

    Miles Bonner, guidance counselor at Sun Valley High, said he planned to present military service “as a viable option that students should consider.”

    Teachers are having too much effect on children’s lives if the recruiters have to recruit teachers in order to recruit Marines.