Randi smacking down freeper caller

[The Witch]

A caller saying "Well that's their job to be soldiers."

Randi is explaining that there is a contract signed where the armed forces have a duty not to make untrained folks do jobs they weren't trained for.

She says that if you don't have a hazmat license you can't drive a truck as a civilian; freeper doesn't understand why people don't have basic combat training: "When did that change?" "The minute we invaded Iraq and gave those non-combat jobs to contractors."

:yourock:

[Jecks]

1. That is.......

........an oversimplification.

Every soldier is first and foremost a soldier.

Every soldier is trained on a series of "common tasks", that is to say, tasks related to soldiers. For example Basic Rifle Marksmanship, First Aid, NBC training. This gives them the basics of being a foot soldier.

Every soldier then goes on to their Advanced Individual Training for their job.

No soldier is expected to do a job they have not been trained for.

If they are ordered to do something for which they have not been trained and they screw it up then the ordering individual is to blame by Army regs.

[The Witch]

3. And what Randi is saying

is that whether or not those are the regs, folks are being sent over for jobs they have not been trained for, because there's that shortage of bodies and because we don't have a plan and because the contractors are taking many of those non-combat jobs.

[FloridaPat]

9. Taking non-combat jobs was started in 2001. * had Haliburton

take over the feeding of the troops. (or Kellog Brown or one of those subsidies). That's why the food was so bad and the water non-existant during the first few months of the invasion.

[LostinVA]

4. Not an oversimplification at all

I have many family members and friends in the military. Take Solder One: he has his Basic training, then is assigned to be an automotive mechanic. Thats' pretty much all he does for the next five years: fix cars. Then suddenly you throw him into combat and expect him to be this great warriot... it won't happen. It CAN'T happen. Sure, they can be brave, but there "job" isn't being a soldier, not really, even if it technically is. They are support staff. That's what they were trained to do, and what they've done. I asked my BIL about this -- these men and women don't have combat refresher courses every other month. They are mechanics, or supply clerks, or cooks, or whatever.

They deserve better from the U.S. government.

[wtmusic]

5. Every soldier signs up to defend their country

not to build someone else's democracy

All else is unimportant

[TahitiNut]

8. Well, not quite.

Army Regulations are quite clear. (I assume other services are too.) No person can be ordered into a combat zone under an MOS for which they're not fully trained and/or qualified. It's an illegal order. (Heard of those?) Period.

I designed and implemented the Enlisted Personnel Requisitioning System for USARV. Until it went into full effect, it was a common practice (and, when challenged, disallowed) to cut orders for enlisted personnel, filling billets for which they weren't trained. The most common cause of this was sheer sloth -- but malice played a role, as well.

[fooj]

2. Not another piece of info to educate another poor, deluded freeper!!!

I love it! "Give me your e-mail and I'll send it to you." LOL!

Peace.

[CityZen-X]

6. I am willing ...

to bare and have Randi babies!!

[The Witch]

7. I suppose you'd have to bare before you bear anything :P

Sorry. Copy editor genes.

[CityZen-X]

12. I barely understand your...

self image. The point is taken and forsaken. In a land where Inglish is a 2nd language.

[The Witch]

13. Sorry, dear.

Bare = to get naked
Bear = to carry, as children

:-)

[jmowreader]

10. All soldiers have "basic" combat training

but if that "basic" combat training was enough to prepare you to be an infantryman, the Infantry School at Fort Benning would be an anachronism.

Sending cooks and tank mechanics out on patrol is the reason we're getting back so many cooks and tank mechanics in flag-covered boxes. They don't know how to do it.

[gratuitous]

11. Not to mention

That folks join the military (I presume) with the understanding that they won't be used as pawns for a delusional madman's imperial designs. I'm not saying everyone in the military would object to being used as such, but our nation certainly doesn't expect the military to be a tool of empire, but our first line of defense against attack or invasion -- neither Iraq nor Afghanistan qualified as potential attackers or invaders.

[tjdee]

14. Also, just because they signed up doesn't mean we should LIE to them.

If I signed up to protect my country, why should I be put in harms way based on bullshit? I wouldn't have signed up just for the president's kicks and whims.