They tell me this problem should go away next year. I hope so.

Fire when ready.

Best,
Tom

In the Spirit of the Season, I lay aside my deep ire to Mr Rumsfeld. Its just not worth the continued waste of precious time. I reserve the right to reconsider at some later date.

The photo of Thasker and Theo I have found to be one of the most ironic of the recent past times. I have used it as my desktop background for many weeks now. I never tire of it. Their story is eternal.

I too thank Tom for presenting this forum. It is one of the highlights of my day. I have learned so much from so many. The give and take has been intense at times. I thank my many electronic friends for their courage in their convictions and not calling me out too many times for my emotional outbursts. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all. Peace this next year to all of you in the fight and who have served in times past.

gone by since LTG Barno's article...and it seems the Army is moving in the opposite direction on almost every point.

- going to bring back zero defects
- going to purge people (so you know there won't be chances to go to educational opportunities as green suiters have to fill the canceled contractor positions)
- no apparent change at the top except for lip service messages
etc

The wars are over in the minds of our leadership. Afghanistan is almost treated as an after thought now. I'm surprised it still gets headlines.

Garrison is what our current GOs grew up in, and that's what they'll take us back to. I guess it's going to be a 1980s reset as Putin brings back the Iron Curtain and our GOs bring back garrison life.

Amazing how some things don't change.

Glad Tom is posting these "best of" types of pieces, gives a good snapshot at the past year.

I'm with Charles; I couldn't be more shocked with speed for which senior leaders are moving us back to "garrison" life. I thought we would have 2 more years before we started with this stuff.

Here's a question for everyone: I keep hearing all these senior officers and NCOs talk about their biggest fear is the current crop of young officers and leaders weakness in training management. I'll don't understand the anxiety. Training management isn't any different than any other part of the military; the allocation of resources(land, ammo, supplies, etc) when taking time and people into consideration. Doesn't seem like a scary concept to me. If you've been a poor college student or PVT drinking Naty Ice or liquor that only comes in a plastic bottle, then you get a job or a few promotions and start drinking Sam Adams, then you have a family and you're back to drinking PBR you can understand resourcing and prioritizing. You add in the ability to employ creative and analytical thinking and you could probably figure out how to rotate a company through CQM tables using round Robbin training on a single range instead of multiple ranges(and do more detailed planning on the drills and strings of fire and you could probably meet the standard with less rounds). Lets not make or act like training management is an a AP calculus class.

Command supply discipline might take a little time and some people's pay checks before we get back to wasting days of training counting bolts and connectors for every piece of equipment but we should have way more training days to waste since we won't having the funding run the tanks and Bradley's as often.

If generals were really in touch with reality(as some are), they would be worried about all of the Soldiers and Marines that joined the military to deploy and fight in the war getting out. Deployments are the only reason many can stomach the miltary though the FOBITisms(reflective belts in daylight hours)have begun to crush and freedom or common sense). You can see the FOBIT POG CSMs salivating over getting back to things they actually know about; starching and pressing ACUs, spit shining shoes, taking back
over the barracks so that we can Okinawa Field Day the barracks rooms every Thursday night, keep everyone at work until 1900 everyday, and the list goes on forever.

But, rest assured, the senior leadership will do zero to prevent that. For, they truly believe it's the right answer.

The reason they get away with such practices is that it is virtually impossible for us to enter combat with a peer competitor any time soon. So, we can waltz in and wax their asses in short order. Those up high will claim victory, pad their evaluations, and repeat the cycle.

Meanwhile, mothers and fathers will bury more of their children than necessary because of a reduced capability that a hollowed and poorly resourced force will exhibit. The more the combat differs in character from that studied during the glory years of AirLand Battle, back before FSO, the more unprepared we'll be, and the more grave yards we'll fill.

Some like to resurrect the old quote about people not being in the Army but that people are the Army. But, it's people (not machines or programs or garrisonisms) that are last considered, first cut, and most abused.

Not directly related to the topic, but can anyone tell us more about the top photo, the close up of the face and ammo? Was it from a related article? Who, what, where, when, you know, the usual?

There's really not much to say on the dogs. I'm a dog lover* so I tend to read articles Ricks' on them but it's not as though there's a strategic debate or clear wrong to comment on.

*And already I can see that turning into some vulgar statement in twenty years time.

So, we can waltz in and wax their asses in short order. Those up high will claim victory, pad their evaluations, and repeat the cycle.The more the combat differs in character from that studied during the glory years of AirLand Battle, back before FSO, the more unprepared we'll be, and the more grave yards we'll fill.
massagista
avioes venda

That is some really good. A very nice click.