U.S. May Send More Soldiers to Iraq (More Reservists May Be Called)

[papau]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3186448,00.html

U.S. May Send More Soldiers to Iraq

Wednesday September 24, 2003 3:49 PM
By ROBERT BURNS AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon may be forced within several weeks to alert a large number of additional National Guard and Reserve troops for duty in Iraq, a senior general said Wednesday. Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said more reservists could be called upon if other countries do not soon pledge thousands more troops to form a third multinational division in Iraq. "We need to be making decisions about alerting reservists over the next four to six weeks," he said. "I would think that by around the end of October or the beginning of November we should be alerting those forces that may need to be called up to relieve or be prepared to relieve (troops there now) if we don't have specificity by then on a third" multinational division. He said the Guard and Reserve troops should be notified about four months before they would need to ship out because they require some training time.

When it announced a troop rotation plan in July, the Pentagon assumed that it would have available a third multinational division of 10,000 to 15,000 troops to replace the Army's 101st Airborne Division early next year. Britain is leading one multinational division and Poland is leading another. Among nations mentioned as possibilities for a third division are Turkey, Pakistan, India and South Korea, but none has agreed to do so. Pace said U.S. Central Command, which is running the military operation in Iraq, may determine that it can find enough active-duty troops to fill any gap next year. But he indicated that mobilizing more National Guard and Reserve troops was an option under active consideration. <snip>

..."What is not clear now ... is whether or not what we thought two months ago about the security environment (in Iraq) is still a valid projection, and then whether the coalition countries will or will not come up with a third division," he said."There are many countries out there talking about it, and we have every hope that that will happen," he said, "but hope is not a plan."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3186443,00.html

General: More Reservists May Be Called Up

Wednesday September 24, 2003 3:49 PM By ROBERT BURNS AP Military Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -

[underpants]

1. Oh good

How many are first responders?

[Patriot_Spear]

2. Heard this weeks ago through back channels...

Doesn't make it any less painful. More dead- more families broken because of Bush*.

[lebkuchen]

20. More families broken is exactly right.

I’m tired of all the active-duty military members telling all the guardsmen and reservists to suck it up and that we signed up for this.

No, we didn’t sign up for this. When I signed my contract to join the National Guard, I was fully aware that I stood the chance of being federally activated. But I don’t remember reading anywhere in my contract about back-to-back deployments for more than two years. I also don’t recall reading in my contract that being a guardsman or reservist subjects one to fewer morale supplies, simple military supplies, halfway updated equipment, and doing without basic necessities that active-duty components such as the 1st Armored Division, 3rd Infantry Division, and 4th Infantry Division are privy to.

We joined the Reserve and National Guard to be part time. Six-month and maybe even one-year deployments are acceptable for a part-time force. But deployments of more than a year are definitely not, especially when there are many active-duty units that have yet to deploy since Sept. 11, 2001.

For both of my unit’s deployments, we were called up and out of the state within a week. I twice left my house, family, career, school, and everything else in my life and placed the burden on the people around me. I’ve lost more money in the last two years than most soldiers make in two years.

Readers should picture their salaries being cut in half with their bills remaining the same. Thank God I don’t have children. I can’t even begin to fathom the difficulties that kids would bring.

Active-duty personnel signed up for this to be their sole, full-time occupation and life. Maybe they should deal with the fact that guardsmen and reservists are tired of picking up their slack. We have earned every right to complain.

Spc. Rustun K. Schack
Camp Caldwell, Iraq

http://estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=17635

[Caution]

3. And as the occupation drags on

and the insurgency becomes better organized and more violent, how long before the draft is re-instated?

[denverbill]

4. Democrats need to make sure reservists get absentee ballots.

We know how Republicans feel about counting all the military ballots. At least we know how they felt about it in 2000.

[lebkuchen]

21. The reservists and NG have other things on their minds

I’m assigned to the 211th Combat Training Center and Army Reserve Transportation Company. I’m currently in Kuwait. Under the new “one year on ground” announcement, we’re looking at a 19-month activation — if we’re lucky. We were activated at below 20 percent strength in January, and as a result spent five months active before we were “on ground.”

One thing I find disturbing is that we’re still sending active-duty personnel home after tours of less than eight months. I work where military personnel process out so they can redeploy. A few days ago I asked a captain whose active-duty company was going home how long they’d been in country. He said seven and a half months!

When active-duty soldiers are deployed:

1) They make more money.

2) Their families are taken care of with housing, reliable medical care, etc.

3) Their loved ones are surrounded by the “Army family,” which we reservists only hear about.

When reservists are activated:

1) We lose money and our financial situations deteriorate steadily over time.

2) Our housing is often in jeopardy due to our bad financial situations.

3) Our families get no support, Tricare seems to always experience “hiccups in the system,” and the “Army family” is not in the cities, only on active bases.

So why are reservists activated longer than active-duty, often two times as long? In the years to come, the Army will no doubt feel the consequences of these decisions and the antipathy with which we reservists are regarded. In a few years, when the Army needs to call on reservists and discovers that most of them have ETS’d and few are willing to join, maybe it will admit its mistakes. No. Instead, I think the Army will confront retention in the same tired ways, with a new slogan (perhaps “An Army of None”) and maybe a new hat.

Pfc. Brandon Biegert
Kuwait

http://estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=17635

[displacedtexan]

5. my favorite part

"the Pentagon assumed that it would have available a third multinational division of 10,000 to 15,000 troops to replace the Army's 101st Airborne Division early next year."

remember what the teacher said happened when we assume?

[Mari333]

6. Thank God my son is getting OUT of the Guard

in Nov...he has already been told he wont go. Until he is out, tho, Im scared shitless.

[Patriot_Spear]

8. Is he currently IRR or regular National Guard?

After you leave the Army, Reserves or National Guard you are considered on IRR (Independent Ready Reserve) status for two years. Which means they can call him back at any point within that time.

I have a couple of buddies who found this out the hard way.

[Mari333]

16. I know...I hope he leaves the country soon

I hate this fear.

[papau]

7. Why is this AP story not in the US Media ?????

:-(

[Liberalator]

9. It's in about 18 and counting

Follow link to Google News

http://news.google.com/news?q=U.S.+May+Send+More+Soldiers+to+Iraq&num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&sa=N&scoring=d

US may send more soldiers to Iraq
Contra Costa Times, CA - 20 minutes ago

US may send more soldiers to Iraq
Wilkes Barre Weekender, PA - 20 minutes ago

US may send more soldiers to Iraq
Aberdeen American News, SD - 23 minutes ago

US may send more soldiers to Iraq
Miami Herald, FL - 25 minutes ago

US may send more soldiers to Iraq
Fort Wayne News Sentinel, IN - 28 minutes ago

US may send more soldiers to Iraq
Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX - 28 minutes ago

US may send more soldiers to Iraq
Wichita Eagle, KS - 28 minutes ago

US may send more soldiers to Iraq
Penn Live, PA - 31 minutes ago

US May Send More Soldiers to Iraq
Biloxi Sun Herald, MS - 35 minutes ago

US May Send More Soldiers to Iraq
Centre Daily Times, PA - 38 minutes ago

US May Send More Soldiers to Iraq
Akron Beacon Journal, OH - 39 minutes ago

US May Send More Soldiers to Iraq
Grand Forks Herald, ND - 40 minutes ago

US May Send More Soldiers to Iraq
San Jose Mercury News, CA - 41 minutes ago

US May Send More Soldiers to Iraq
Belleville News-Democrat, IL - 42 minutes ago

US May Send More Soldiers to Iraq
Duluth News Tribune, MN - 45 minutes ago

US May Send More Soldiers to Iraq
Kansas City Star, MO - 49 minutes ago

[papau]

11. Sorry - I hit that actual papers in the 10 largest - and saw/see nothing

Also Broadcast and cable and radio have nothing.

Thank God for smaller town print!

[newyawker99]

17. Hi Liberalator!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Patriot_Spear]

10. Duh? For the same reason I heard it from a Guard Colonel-

Bush* doesn't want you to know what's coming down the pipe.

[catmandu57]

12. Two divisions to replace all the troops in Iraq?

They can't control the country with the soldiers there now, two divisions may be 48,000 soldiers at full strength, things are going from bad bad bad to the worst.

[Patriot_Spear]

13. You mean, '2 Divisions to replace 10'...

Sounds like the math just doesn't add up.

[lebkuchen]

19. The NG in Iraq now are very unhappy.

I’m a National Guardsman for the 105th Personnel Service Division out of Lincoln, Neb. My unit is stationed at Camp Wolf, Kuwait. We were deployed on Feb. 2. We arrived in Jordan in April, and half of us were moved a week later to Kuwait to throw mail. When our unit came back together in June we had a fragmentary order to go home. But the order was revoked, and we ended up replacing an active Army unit. We were told then that our return date was Dec. 1. We now hear that we’ll be here for a full year. We’re under 3rd Personnel Command.

My unit works in-processing and redeploying for theater. We’re doing a great job and working hard to treat each soldier with care and consideration. They’ve spread our 44 soldiers out to replace an active unit that had more than 50 soldiers and to replace a National Guard unit that had more than 60 soldiers. We’re running 24/7 operations for these two units, and four of our soldiers are also on the redeployment side working validation for another unit. We’re spread so thin and working so hard.

The knocks on our morale are devastating. We’re physically able, but mentally and spiritually we’re dying. If Army National Guard retention is anything of importance, we need to have faith in our government and leaders. But we can’t see anyone taking a stand for soldiers.

This isn’t a simple board game of “Axis and Allies.” This is a game with real people with families. We’re not robots. There are students out here missing more than a year of college. Officers say that PERSCOM (Personnel Command) refers to moving soldiers as “drug deals.” You do this for me and I’ll make sure your soldiers go home, etc.

My duty is to serve my country despite her faults. I won’t be able to ETS while here, and I accept that. I’m here to serve out of obligation and duty. But are there any checks and balances on those making decisions here? Everyone keeps saying it’s up in the air, including those responsible for deciding who goes where. It feels as if every decision is off the cuff. There should be plans in place and decisions made before the rubber hits the road.

We’re slowly becoming frantic. I hear people say that they’re going to begin hurting themselves or others if they can’t go home. The helplessness our soldiers are feeling is indescribable. It’s past the point of, “Suck it up and drive on.” We just want somewhere to drive on to.

Camp Wolf, Kuwait


http://estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=17635

[Nottingham]

14. I'm not surprised by this at all!

:bounce:

[Zero Gravitas]

15. More consequences

for Bush*'s irresponsible actions. More reasons for people to vote against him at the next election.

No-one will bail you out of this mess Georgie, you treasonous fuck.

[lebkuchen]

18. Plan on NG signups to decrease dramatically

Those signing on to the NG do so because they do NOT want to be deployed. Now they are deploying for longer periods than active duty.

The US will eventually have to institute a draft if it doesn't open itself up to UN help.

[curlyred]

22. but we don't need any more US troops in Iraq

Didn't we just hear this a few weeks ago! What a crock of shit. When is the media going to call the administration on another outright lie?