Many Troops Return to War; Many Never Go

[wakeme2008]

Source: AP

June 1, 2007
Many Troops Return to War; Many Never Go
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 6:01 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Even as troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are serving longer and more often -- three, four, even five times -- roughly half of Americans in uniform have not been sent at all.

That's partly chance, partly a matter of timing. It also illustrates the massive organization on the home front to support an army in the field.

Whatever the reason, it didn't seem fair to Marine Sgt. Matthew Clark, who sits behind a desk in Illinois but has asked to ''go to the fight'' instead.

..cut..

Fifty-three percent of the active duty Air Force and 50 percent of the Navy had not been to the wars, not surprising since the fighting is overwhelmingly on the ground.

Still, 45 percent of the Marines and 37 percent of Army forces had never been deployed.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Going-to-War.html

---

A lot of these are Pentagon Desk Apes :grr:

[Zywiec]

1. Some MOS's are definitely more in-demand

I'm glad I'm not an MP!

[MADem]

2. Desk jockeys at the headquarters slots....the old "tooth to tail" ratio

This shit keeps up, they'll start hiring more civilians to take the place of those guys.

And even when fifty percent of the USN is there, they're there on a vessel off the coast, steaming around in the Gulf. The risk exists, certainly, but it's a different sort of risk.

This bit was interesting:

Clark is among some 1,000 reassigned for deployment since Marine Commandant Gen. James T. Conway issued a policy message early this year called ''Every Marine into the Fight.''

''When they join our Corps, Marines expect to train, deploy and fight,'' Conway said in the January message. ''That's who we are. That's what we do.''

Yeah, bet Part Two of that "Every Marine into the Fight" bullshit is "Every Deskdriving Marine Decides Not to Reenlist" or "Every Commissioned Office Commando Marine Resigns that Commission!"

But I AM shocked that they actually got the reasoning right in the article. Usually, they just toss out some shit, and don't back it up with pesky details. This time, they did:

There are many reasons:

-- The military is an ever-morphing body, with people coming in and going out constantly. The four branches recruited about 180,000 just last year -- meaning there are always new people still in training.

-- Though the two wars are the biggest Pentagon efforts, there are tens of thousands of forces in other parts of the world, from Korea to the Philippines to Africa.

-- Some duty is three years -- such as Marine tours in Japan -- meaning a Marine might train, then serve a tour in Okinawa and not have much time left in the enlistment contract for another assignment.

-- Some skills aren't in demand in the war zone: Purchasing, personnel, maintenance, training and administration, for example.

[tabasco]

3. Most of the military is REMFs.

Everybody is doing an important job for the most part but the grunts and combat engineers are always "in the shit."

I suppose MPs are getting abused in this Iraq fiasco, but I never had a high opinion of them.

I was infantry so I didn't like MPs. They seemed like Clint Eastwood wannabe assholes to me.

On edit: Most of the gung-ho war lovers are the REMF types, from my experience. They get to be "war vets" but never have to go.

[Bigmack]

4. IMHO the organized vet's groups...

... are full of RAMFs (For Marines, "Area" is the second word).

They never retreated, but they backspaced a few times, and some of them got nasty papercuts. To hear them talk, you'd have thought the war effort turned on them. When you ask their MOS, it's supply or Motor T. Nothing wrong with those jobs, (and in Iraq they're really getting creamed) but let's not have the Remington Raiders turn themselves into LRRP's.

[tabasco]

5. "Never retreated, but backspaced a few times." LMAO!

I hate to see the leadership of the Legion and VFW be such idiots.

Stopped giving them money a long time ago. Damn shame too because there aren't too many places to drink beer where I live. I could use another but I refuse to support those organizations until they start TRULY supporting all VETERANS and stop being toadies for the republicans.

[k8conant]

6. Talk about jargon and alphabet soup! Any translation? n/t

[Bigmack]

8. Sorry....

It didn’t seem all that bad until I re-read my post and tabasco’s. In my defense, I was only responding to tabasco, and he knows all the acronyms.

REMF.... Army term ...Rear Echelon Mother Fuckers... anybody who is in a non-combat job.
RAMF...Marine term... Rear Area Mother Fuckers... same as above... anybody who is “in the rear... with the gear.”

MPs.... Military Police... Military cops. Sometimes disliked by the troops.

MOS... Military Occupation Specialty... a number that indicates a person’s job in the military.
In the Marines, for example, a machine gunner in the infantry is 0331

Remington raiders was a pejorative term used to describe military office workers and clerks .... that is, when people used typewriters... Remington was a common brand.

Motor T is Motor Transport..... drivers of trucks and supply vehicles.

LRRP’s .... Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol.... very dangerous scouting missions

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. In my boy's squad, they are all 'green'....

this is the explanation they have been given for not being deployed yet.

However, their orders to go to some obscure base somewhere in 2011 have now been changed to Iraq, 2009.

[FormerOstrich]

9. War-weary? Many troops have yet to fight

Source: MSNBC

WASHINGTON - Even as troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are serving longer and more often — three, four, even five times — roughly half of Americans in uniform have not been sent at all.

That’s partly chance, partly a matter of timing. It also illustrates the massive organization on the home front to support an army in the field.

.......

“There are a lot of folks doing God’s work right here stateside that are invaluable to the people overseas,” said Col. Daniel Baggio, an Army spokesman. “The spirit of the Army is really that folks want to do their part ... in any way they can. ... They go where they’re told to go.”



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18988292/

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What kind of propogand BS is this?????

[ixion]

10. "God's work"?

:wtf:


Uh, check me if I'm wrong, there, Col Clodhead, but the US taxpayers foot the bill for your paycheck, NOT god. :grr:

[OwnedByFerrets]

11. ditto that!!!!

[LiberalFighter]

15. Who is he to decide WHAT is god's work!!!

Maybe our enemies are doing god's work.

[Kagemusha]

12. So we haven't sent the file clerks to fight in the trenches. And?

Did the writer have a point?

[sanskritwarrior]

16. Exactly

there are jobs that are required for warfighting and jobs that are required for sustaining warfighting and jobs for sustaining the sustainers of warfighting........Not everyone will go. In WW2 more than 2/3 of America's 12 million men in arms never saw one second of combat........That's just the way the cookie crumbles......

[AzDar]

13. Welcome to the New Crusades. 'Cause we all know how well that

went last millenium....

[StarryNite]

14. Onward Christian soldiers

:puke:

[alfredo]

17. As my unit sang:

I want to be a desk borne ranger
Fuck that life of death and danger
Desk borne ranger! ASA!
WEEEEEE!

The first US soldier to die in Nam was ASA. I don't think they admitted in public that he was a spook.

some of us did see combat.

http://www.amazon.com/Top-Secret-Missions-John-Malone/dp/1412006449