Category: Reserve Issues

The Army Marksmanship Unit wants us to tell you about registration for the 2014 U.S. Army Small Arms Championships;

The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU), in conjunction with the Maneuver Center of Excellence, will host the 2014 U.S. Army Small Arms Championships Jan. 26-Feb. 1. The “All-Army” competition is open to all Soldiers – active and reserve component — of all ranks including, West Point and Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets.

The USAMU hosts the “All-Army” in order to raise the standard of marksmanship across the force and increase overall Army combat readiness.

There is no cost to compete in the championship and ammunition is provided to all competitors. USAMU Soldiers will conduct small arms firing schools and hands-on training prior to each match. Instructors include Olympians as well as world, national and interservice champions. As the Army’s critical intent is to develop combat firing skills at the entry and intermediate level (as well as recognizing superior skill at the highest levels), Soldiers will compete in separate Cadet, Novice, Open and Pro classes based on their competition experience. Soldiers will fire M-16 or M-4 service rifles at distances between 25-500 yards and M-9 pistols between 7-35 yards in a variety of courses of fire. There is also a combined arms match, where competitors employ the rifle and pistol in a number of exciting stages of fire that simulate close-quarters marksmanship.

During the pistol and rifle matches, there will be an Excellence-in-Competition (EIC) Match where all Soldiers can earn points toward their EIC Marksmanship Badges. The prestigious EIC badge takes precedence over standard qualification badges. In addition to individual awards, battalion-level and up teams can compete for team awards and unit recognition.

Range capacity for this event is 240, so early registration is encouraged. Once registration exceeds that number, Soldiers will be placed on a stand-by list for the competition.

For additional information and to register, visit the USAMU website at www.usamu.com or contact Michael Behnke, the USAMU chief of competitions, at (706) 545-7841 or michael.j.behnke.civ(at)mail(dot)mil.

So, go shoot some paper for freedom.

Well, it looks like the Federal Reserve components (USAR, USAFR, USNR, and USMCR) now have a new mission. A recent change in law explicitly authorizes state governors to request and receive extended support from Federal reserve forces in the event of a disaster. The previousl law/policy was that such support could only be given for a short period of time (72 hours) without Federal orders.  Federal law now allows up to 4 months of such support with the President’s/Pentagon’s approval.

On the surface, this seems like it should be a good idea. However, as with many things the “devil is in the details”. And there are indeed many potential devils here.

First, this adds yet another rock to the Reserve rucksack. They’re already stressed heavily by current operations.

Second, Federal Reserve units will have to be prepared to respond more often and longer to state authorities. This potentially provides a confused chain-of-command.  While providing support, to whom does the unit commander turn for definitive direction – the State AG? The governor?   His/her normal Reserve chain-of-command?  All of the above?  Confused chains-of-command are not a good thing.

Third, I can easily see cash-strapped state governments requesting Federal assistance in lieu of fully mobilizing state resources – e.g., before calling up all appropriate state National Guard units – to save money.  But disaster support is one of the primary reasons states have National Guard units in the first place.  And last time I checked, the Federal budget is in bad shape too.

Finally, this also may make Federal Reserve units more subject to political pressure from state authorities. Because if a unit commander knows he might have to work for the State AG or governor for long enough to get an OER or letter input to same – well, let’s just say that commander might be a bit more willing to bend a few rules if asked.

As I said: on the surface, this looks like a good idea. I’m hoping this is not a case where good intentions end up paving the road to hell. Because IMO that potential certainly exists here.

Thoughts?

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.

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…)