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Who knew what French combatants thought of us?

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Replied by jtallen83 on topic Who knew what French combatants thought of us?

The "minimum intelligence requirements" are more for the REMF's. Not that we don't need good REMF's but a good warrior's intelligence would be hard to grade with a standard test. From what I experienced in the Rangers heart and dedication went a lot further than understanding calculus.
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9 years 4 months ago #43798

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Replied by Libertarian623 on topic Who knew what French combatants thought of us?

The recruiter said my sons ASFAB score was the highest he had seen in two years. He turned down everything and went option 40. It was his decision to make, I was steering him to MI the recruiter was steering him to the high school to flight school program. Son said that all the option 40 applicants at the MEPs station that day failed to get accepted for one reason or another except him. He said that a lot of kids are not getting in right now because of tightened standards.
9 years 4 months ago #43799

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Replied by OleCowboy on topic Who knew what French combatants thought of us?

1) I pray you are correct

2) What you are speaking of is individual skills and attitude, but the reality is its an Army and the bottom line is war fighters are but a tiny minority...Vietnam '65-'75, 10 years and about 2.55 Million soldiers deployed, but only 300,000 spent their time on the killing fields in the bloody arena.

And we are heading fast into a peace time Army and trust me it ain't pretty. Few hardened combat soldiers make it thru the ranks and to retirement. The military likes to weed out its combat* vets. In fact in the latter half of the 70's it was suggested I not wear my combat patchL because it told the other officers I was enlisted in Vietnam. Later on I wore it and most assumed I was a 2nd Lt in Vietnam.

I left TO&E units and bases in '85, I went to TRADOC HQ, 4 star command approx 2500 officers and less than 50 EM and almost all of them were in HQ&HQ Co. Almost all were LtC and Col, few Majors and a hanfull of wait staff...errr Capt's.

We went in about 8, took for lunch about 11-1330 and started heading out the door about 1600, M-F. I had never seen that since I came in. My world was one of going in before light, home by 2200 hrs and work 0600 -about 2000 hrs on Sat and Sun x 365.

There I met officers who had never had a overseas tour, been CONUS the whole time. DO NOT think this is only in the officer corp, the enlisted corp is worse. I personally knew of a 11bang who came in and as a Pfc got shipped over to the post Country Club to work at the golf courtse. Nothing unusual here we detailed lots of lower EM's to to thing like from the post pool to the Gym's. Usually its a 90 day detail. He buddied up with a GO out there on the golf couse as his caddy and lacky. GO has him moved to Div HQ, perm detailed the the golf course. GO PCS's and take him along to the Pentagon where he get assigned to on of the golf courses up there. 22 years later, never an overseas tour, he retirs as a E 8. He started a Golf club company and it gets bought out by some bigger golf club company. He builds multi-million buck home on Lake Travis outside of Austin and drives a Ferrari...

22 years playing with golf balls...I met him and he told me his story.

Common or rare? COMMON! Buddy of mine who was in Officers Basic with me, I bumped into years later as I was PCSing from Ft Hood my. He was now a Pers Officer, got out of Infantry completely. We met up for lunch and spent some hours talking about our careers. He thought the Inf was a waste of time and applied for a branch transfer into Pers. I was on the way to Korea, DMZ 1/9 Inf another hard assignment. He told me could divert me for an in-country soft assignment. And he had connections and could get me diverted from Korea if I did want to go. I declined both, but this led to a discussion of assignments. He flat out told me no shortage of Officers/EM never see a hardship assignment or combat tour.

Take away is that the Army for sure really does not honor its combat soldiers with much more than a boot out the door. Ohh a few will be paper heros, but they are already well on there way to making Col or Sgt Maj and they need that yo polish there record. So they get a plush assignment, Purple Heart and maybe a Bronze and Silver Star.

PH: More PH are awarded to non combatants than combat soldiers

BS/SS: Just like my buddy, Don, its easy, get on a chopper, fly out, spend the night, come back the next day and get your BS and SS if you are REALLY tight with your CO. He was and he has both displayed on his wall in his office.

The Army is changing, unlike it ever has. Now you will compete against quota promotions...yes its been there for many years for blacks, but now they will add in women, gays, lesbians and transgenders...glad I am gone
9 years 4 months ago #43808

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Replied by Libertarian623 on topic Who knew what French combatants thought of us?

Combat has changed a lot in the last thirty years , thirty years ago on a Reforger or Team Spirit exercise you would have officers coming out of the wood work. You would run into them everywhere. Now in the last twenty years ( with actual war going on)not so much, the only place you will find officers is penned up on secure compounds or armored vehicles. Most of the actual war fighting is done and the squad level by competent NCO's. Because of constant warfare (highly experienced NCO's) and the phenomena of progressive intellectual transfer it doesn't matter if they try to actually fuck shit up. The end result will be a highly efficient combat force with very high levels of unit cohesion. So at least for the foreseeable future (another twenty years) I just don't see your scenario playing out. It is a rolling juggernaut.
Last edit: 9 years 4 months ago by Libertarian623.
9 years 4 months ago #43815

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Replied by OleCowboy on topic Who knew what French combatants thought of us?

Same, same Vietnam, seeing an officer was a rare occurrence unless you count them flying around in a command chopper, but down on the ground they were not to be found, especially Field Grade, I cannot remember of ever seeing one out where I was.

I remember one time getting off a chopper, bunch of us, back to pick up mail, take a shower, shave and catch the afternoon milk run. We come out of the blade wash and there stands the Maj, spit shined everything, starched fatigues, baseball cap. He goes FRIGGIN B E S E R K. Here we are about 4 or 5 us, dirty, filthy, no shirts just flak jackets, no rank, no name and he is screaming attention, when one of the guy yells WHO THE CHUCK ARE YOU? He exploded to say the least. A jeep is going by and it stops and back up this Col gets out and runs over and wants to know what is going on here? That Maj was pointing talkin so fast he was out of breath, pointing at us, then the Col said Maj where do you work...long since forgot but some answer like he was the laundry officer or something. He tells the Maj to go back to work he would take care of us. Maj leaves chuckling. Col says 'what can I do to help you guy'. Sir we just want to pick up some mail, take a hot shower and if you have a PX annex pick up some smokes. He says sure, meet me over in the Mess tent at 1130, want to talk with you guys.

We all meet up at the mess tent at 1130 and we are outside arguing with the mess officer, and Sgt over coming in. Seems we don't have any 'mess card', weapons are not allowed (and of course we have no place to put them) and we are out of uniform. About this time the Col shows up and looks at the mess officer and asks what the hell is going on...he goes thru his chit about us not eating in HIS mess hall. The Col looks at the officer and NCO and tells them if he EVER hears of a combat soldier being turned down for entry into HIS mess hall he will see to it their career is over...and bring us some food, these soldiers are sitting MY Table. Turns out he was the new Bde CO....we ate, told him what life was like out there. He told us to go to the S-4 tent and get some new uniforms and boots, if you have ANY trouble come to HQ.

Next day a Chinook came out with a load of boots and fatigues...
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9 years 4 months ago #43830

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Replied by OleCowboy on topic Who knew what French combatants thought of us?

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people:

"First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.

Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc."

The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.

This applies to the military as well. A study of our military and its purges after every conflict shows it very well.

The second half of my military career was in Ivory Tower on Ft Monroe Va, only about 2500 officers and about the same amount of civilians. What i discovered was this was the people that in fact really run the military. Most of them LtC and Col who you would not follow to the PX let alone in combat. We also had over 20 GO's assigned and if anyone thinks most of our GO's are battle hardened soldiers who look out for the soldier you are smoking something.
9 years 4 months ago #43894

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Replied by jtallen83 on topic Who knew what French combatants thought of us?

That is what I see in my agency, as long as the agency looks good then everyone is happy. Those of us that point out issues that need work are kept at arms length in hopes we don't damage the "reputation". Problem is we already look like idiots to most on the outside that know the facts (contractors). There needs to be a serious effort made to break this "iron rule". :censored:
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9 years 4 months ago #43895

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