Ready Reserve gets effed in the A

Things like this make we wonder how the military folks/vets will vote this November.

 

Mostly Republican I bet.

 

Revolt... for some of these guys it'll be a real thrill and I guarantee they'll thank Bush in November with their vote! Things are kinda dull at Retirement Home anyway. You know what they say at Sunnyside Retirement Home: ... "shootin' a few terrorist ragbags in the desert beats Solitaire anyday!"

IntheNet

 

Mel. If that's you, you can drop it now. The ITN sockpuppet is becoming a tired bit.

 

While you are probably right, I think the tide is turning some. There are lots of people coming back (as evidenced in Fahrenheit 9/11) who are jumping ship. I personally know plenty of military folk who are extremely angry at Bush for cutting benefits, for deploying them in such a hell-hole for so long, etc etc, and have indicated that they are unlikely to vote for him this fall.

We'll see, of course. I'd be interested in seeing some historical data for military support of the sitting president - of both parties - to compare to the results of this election.

 

Of course. One would hope so.

 

bigredfutbol: no racist intent here, and I apologise if you took offense, but if the above is how you define racism you have a very large "politically correct" problem of your own I suggest you get help with!

IntheNet

 

That is such a load of crap! Especially after hearing how each branch of the service have been meeting their recruitment numbers. This makes me so glad I joined the Air Force.

 

This call-up is going to be MOS-specific and apparently isn't going to be relying on 11-B's. The military is meeting their recruitment and re-enlistment numbers, but consider how long it takes to train a new recruit to their MOS-specifications, such as a 37-F or 21-B. If you have spots you need to fill in units that are deploying immediately, that's what the IRR is for.

 

I'm not going to pretend to know the intricate inner-workers of the Army, but you would think that their recruiting efforts would have dug up enough intelligent soldiers to work in intel without having to go to guys that are RETIRED. They might as well drop the I and call them RETREDs. On a positive note, I guess there's no shortage of infantry available.

I shouldn't speak for those being recalled, but I can tell you that while I was in IRR, I couldn't wait to get that piece of paper telling me I was officially discharged. I cringed with every letter that came from the AFPC.

 

It still sucks. This type of thing is what Catch 22 was written about.

 

I don't understand why this is necessary. We don't have every single available soldier already stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, do we? No. Can someone explain to the retard, me, why this is happening? Serious question.

 

Help me with this grammar you could?

 

Well put.

 

speedcake...we have enough bodies, we just don't have enough of certain specialties.

This has been hanging out there for a while. IIRC, we're short foreign-language speaking soldiers, and civil affairs soldiers.

 

For instance:

Take your typical potential, recruit. Wants to help the war effort by becoming an Arabic/Persian Farsei/Uzbek linguist.

First they've got to score high enough on the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Apptitude Battery) to be eligible for MI, or have had some college.

Then, they've got to score high enough on the DLAB (Defense Language Apptitude Battery) to qualify for Arabic, which is one of the hardest languages to qualify for.

Then they schedule a Basic Training Date. Often there is a wait. Then they go to Basic Training. (2 months).

Then they go to DLI (west or east) for at least a year, assuming they don't need to retest. Many get this far and can't handle Arabic.

Then, they go to FT Huachuca, AZ from 6 months to year to learn to do something with that language. (Counter-Intelligence, Interrogator, Radio Intercept, etc).

Assuming all goes well, the relatively few that can hack it are in the training pipeline for two years.

 

Because very few people that would score high on the AVSAB and/or have some college also want to join the millitary? They can recruit all thay want to, but if there's no supply, there's nothin to train.....

 

Forgot to mention sercurity clearances. MI soldiers typically need a Top Secret clearance, which basically adds even more time to the 'pipeline' I mentioned above, and really reduces your potential applicant pool even more. TS's are tough to get if you've got credit problems or a couple drug/alchohol violations.

My personal opinion:

It's competitng directly with ROTC for those kinds of recruits, and ROTC is a much better deal. Then when these recruits become offiers, they are steered away from the elnlisted solider/technical specialist career path. Officer career path is very different.

 

I see. Do these reservists all have special abilities? I remember a while back discussions about needing these types of folks.