Stop the madness!

[ChiefB]

From Slate:

Fort Hood Feels the Toll of Multiple Deployments


["Since 2003, there have been 75 suicides at Fort Hood, site of Thursday's mass shooting.

That's the highest number at any Army installation since the invasion of Iraq. After so many years of war, personnel are feeling the toll of "revolving-door deployments" that is described as "living in the new normal.

" Those in the base say divorces, cases of domestic violence, alcoholism, and drug abuse are running rampant among soldiers who are deploying to the war zone and those who return.

The Washington Post notes that the psychological toll on the force has been described as "unprecedented" and some Army officials acknowledge that "they do not know how much the Army can sustain before it breaks." Of course, it's not just in Fort Hood.

A total of 117 active-duty Army soldiers have been reported to commit suicide this year. The mental health problems suffered by more than one-quarter of those who return from combat gets worse after repeated deployments."]

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When is the DoD going to realize, admit and correct the fact that the US Army is undermanned, overtasked, fatigued, and living a tortuous regimen of deployment after cruel deployment to their own detriment and unnecessarily risking their mental and physical health or their lives?

When are they going to stop this inhumane treatment of our brothers?

I for one am disgusted with our military leadership not coming to the table with a demand of our political leadership to get their head out of the sand and rescue our valiant forces from absolute chaos. Not a request, a demand. I want to see resignations before they will relent. I want to see some courage for this cause.

It is madness, just madness to maintain this interminable rotation in and out of war.

Families are disintegrating, marriages are desolving and life for our forces is just one foot in hell and the other on a banana peel.

The DoD needs to quit playing with numbers, shortening tours, lengthening tours, and refusing to recognize that the Army and Marines are too small and too overcommitted to be spread so thin.

Something has to give and the record shows that regardless of the valiant effort of our servicemembers, its their families, their health and their lives.

ChiefB

[ringjamesa]

With all due respect, they realized that long ago...that is why they are increasing the end strenght for the USA and supplementing their ranks with Seamen and Airman....

[ChiefB]

Originally Posted by ringjamesa

With all due respect, they realized that long ago...that is why they are increasing the end strenght for the USA and supplementing their ranks with Seamen and Airman....

I acknowledge your well taken point and appreciate your respect but, do you see any reduction in deployment frequency? I don't see reduction out as far as I can look. So far it has been a finger in the dike solution. The small increase in end strength for the Army is acknowledged but too late and inadequate.

The supplementing forces of the Navy and AF are being misused as a gap filler. They are doing all they can, the best they can but they are not "combat trained" riflemen, artillerymen etc., replacements. (Please don't misinterpret my immense respect for the sacrifices of our Navy and AF augmentees.)

The July '09 strength increase for the Army is proposed at 22,000. At the same time the Cmdr in Afghanistan is asking for 40+k in reinforcements. This does not add up to a reduction in deployments. The AF and Navy are also suffering their own deployment "fatigue".

The bottom line is that the DoD/Army has converted all the army-to-civilian slots it can, is being "supplemented" by the Navy and AF, has all the guard and reservists it can reasonably expect and is still and will be rotating their forces through deployment at an inhuman rate.

The real answer in the short term is to have NATO man-up and pull up the slack but that's not very likely because our leaders won't demand it.

All new Army strength increases need to be accelerated and additional increases need to be approved, now. Gap filling, piecemeal fixes aren't hacking it. This war on terror is not going away and Army deployment frequency has got to be reduced, soon, for their own sanity and well-being. There must be a way!

ChiefB

[MACHINE666]

THANK YOU Chief B for mentioning this! For the longest time I've believed the exact same thing but haven't been able to word correctly - you identified a real concern many of us have and done it justice.

Our Army brethren have faithfully served on these repeat deployments and all they ask is to be treated with dignity and equity by the very government they've signed their lives to. As you pointed out, we've tried to supplement their taskings with Air Force and Navy personnel, but even that's not enough to ease the burden. To relate a similar experience following the first Gulf War, my supervisor and I were part of an Alpha Squadron at Seymour Johnson that had a Saudi commitment in the early 90's. In the scope of the war plus 3 years afterwards, he had deployed 5 times there and back and his wife was ready to divorce him if he was picked up for a 6th. Luckily our commander was reasonable and I was able to go in his place instead (by then I had become a seasoned Senior Airman), but to illustrate your point as well, this is something that our government has had time to identify, and correct only they've chosen to ignore it.

Is it asking too much from our politicians to fix a fractured process that is tearing the military apart at the very seams? Now is the time if ever for our leaders on Capitol Hill to join together, listen to the demands of the military and not just the generals and the colonels but representatives all across the board - even the junior ranking and dependents included - to come up with a solution that works. If they can do it for an auto industry bailout and the airlines, they can damn well do it for the people who ensure that America sleeps safely at night.

Again, thank you for pressing the point. Given the gravity of the Ft Hood shootings, nobody can deny that we need help.

[Fenton]

Originally Posted by ChiefB

From Slate:

Fort Hood Feels the Toll of Multiple Deployments


["Since 2003, there have been 75 suicides at Fort Hood, site of Thursday's mass shooting.

That's the highest number at any Army installation since the invasion of Iraq. After so many years of war, personnel are feeling the toll of "revolving-door deployments" that is described as "living in the new normal.

" Those in the base say divorces, cases of domestic violence, alcoholism, and drug abuse are running rampant among soldiers who are deploying to the war zone and those who return.

The Washington Post notes that the psychological toll on the force has been described as "unprecedented" and some Army officials acknowledge that "they do not know how much the Army can sustain before it breaks." Of course, it's not just in Fort Hood.

A total of 117 active-duty Army soldiers have been reported to commit suicide this year. The mental health problems suffered by more than one-quarter of those who return from combat gets worse after repeated deployments

Apparently, Dyess, Kadena and Cannon have the highest rates of suicides, divorces, cases of domestic violence, alcoholism, etc. in the USAF.

[Texpat]

Congress hobbles the military with unrealistic expectations and the media provide a counterpunch demanding ludicrous ROEs. Congress says one Marine division will suffice when Marine generals call for three. (How many in Congress have military experience?) The media reports only bad news stories swaying world opinion against the coalition and serves as the self-appointed watchdog -- making sure no soldiers return fire toward a mosque or hospital where militant extremist muslims are firing from. Have you ever seen a CNN piece where they criticized the tactics, techniques or procedures of the enemy?

I haven't.

Beyond that, most Americans just can't wrap their fragile minds around the fact that the US isn't at war against Iraq and Afghanistan. They can't fathom that we're not fighting against a country. They want this phenomenon pre-chewed and partially digested before they're willing to try to understand it. They've never heard of Jemaah Islamiyah and couldn't point to Indonesia on a map if their life depended on it. They have no idea that militant Muslims are fighting for separate islamic states in China, Thailand, the Philippines and many other countries -- Somalia ring a bell? Rest assured they can recite every American Idol winner dating back four years.

If we ever fix Asscrackistan and Icrack, there's a long list of countries waiting to be fixed.

Good luck.

[Yggdrasil]

There's only two ways to end this "madness." That's either pulling the plug on the war in Afghanistan, or bringing back the draft. Neither of the two are really an option, since for the first time since WWII, we're actually fighting an enemy that's a direct threat to this country. IMO, the draft is not an option, because people are far more dangerous than they were back in the 1960's. The resulting draft riots would be a bigger problem for the US to handle than the war itself.

[Seasons]

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[VFFSSGT]

Originally Posted by ringjamesa

With all due respect, they realized that long ago...that is why they are increasing the end strenght for the USA and supplementing their ranks with Seamen and Airman....

Because the navy and air force are so overmanned...

[VFFSSGT]

Originally Posted by Yggdrasil

There's only two ways to end this "madness." That's either pulling the plug on the war in Afghanistan, or bringing back the draft. Neither of the two are really an option, since for the first time since WWII, we're actually fighting an enemy that's a direct threat to this country. IMO, the draft is not an option, because people are far more dangerous than they were back in the 1960's. The resulting draft riots would be a bigger problem for the US to handle than the war itself.

Why would we need the draft when all services have been and still are meeting their recruiting goals and then some? We just need the authorized numbers boosted back up and use the taxpayers money for the common defense of this nation and not corrupt political paybacks as has been done for sometime.

Because nations harboring terrorist are not a direct threat to the nation...