Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the upcoming US commander in Iraq, knows the price of war intimately.
"His son Anthony, then a 26-year-old cavalry lieutenant leading an armoured platoon in the city, had been injured in a rocket attack that almost severed his left arm…Military doctors were forced to amputate…"
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Tagged Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, US Army
Army recruiting, while meeting its goals, plainly has a problem obtaining educated recruits, according to Stars & Stripes.
"In fiscal 2006, which ended Sept. 30, only 81 percent of Army recruits were high school graduates. That is the smallest proportion of graduates that the Army has brought in since 1981, the first year of the Reagan administration…A second worry is that the Army usually sees its proportion of high school graduate recruits increase after graduation, in the months of June through September. Last summer, for the first time, no such spike occurred."
The business-as-usual-at-home, here-you-guys-take-it-all, while the news media and half the country’s politicians bad-mouth the effort, seems to be having the predictable effects. The pity of it is that the country is not driving the war, as it did in Vietnam, but the enemy is. How to fix?
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Tagged Army recruiting, high school graduates, Stars & Stripes
"He was first an infantryman, then a paratrooper, serving in the 101st Airborne Division, and, finally, a Green Beret. A crack shot, foster brother Jim Cracraft told the Modesto Bee, Nguyen’s ambition was to join the military. Recognized as a master marksman, Nguyen (38) became an instructor at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center in 2003 and, later, shipped out to Iraq."
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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops
Tagged Green Berets, Iraq, John F. Kennedy School of Special Warfare, SFC Tung Nguyen
The biggies in the MSM only write about the tilt-rotor when it crashes, sort of like the way they usually cover the war–casualties only. But the maligned Osprey is operational now with the Marines–who have two tilt-rotor squadrons, VMM-162 and VMM-263–while Air Force special operations, which recently received the first of thirty, is still testing and developing operational tactics, according to one of the littlesies, the Pensacola News Journal
UPDATE I am reminded that University of Texas engineering professor Hans Mark, who had a hand in the early development of this thing, used to tout it as a reliever of highway congestion. It would pick up airline passengers at a stop near their homes and whisk them to the airport. It’s a lot faster in airplane configuration than a helicopter. Mark also had something to do with the new Airborne Laser, which has yet to see operational service. I also posted about it here. I don’t recall any civilian apllication.
“’It’s too soon to say we have failed,’ he said. ‘We can’t keep talking about it as if it’s a disaster or a failure.’ …Abizaid said there was reason to believe…the situation in Iraq would ultimately stabilise. He said extremists in the region, including Osama bin Laden and al Qaida, had yet to go ‘mainstream’."
In Vietnam, generals saying things like this were not backed up by the troops. Abizaid is.
Any troop can get killed, thinks Steve, a Vietnam veteran in The Dinner Party, one of the tales in my short story collection Leaving The Alamo. So why should being killed be enough to make you a military hero? He concludes the reason is that, nowadays, fewer and fewer Americans are willing to risk a military death.
And so Our Fallen Soldier, a website by the family of a soldier with California, Texas and Oregon ties, who was killed in Iraq at age 23, makes sense. For once the rollcall of the dead is not a protest gimmick, but a true memorial to American heroes–until something better comes along.
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Posted in Library, The War, Troops
Tagged heroes, Leaving the Alamo, Our Fallen Soldier
Captain’s Quarters uses the occasion of an NYTimes article to vouch once again, as he is wont to do, for allowing gays to serve in the military. I stole his good headline because I agree with him. He has some good arguments, and his host of commenters hash out the cons. Captain Ed’s take…
"In fact, gays serve openly in the military now; they do it in Britain. American and British troops have served together in Afghanistan and Iraq without this causing damage to morale and cohesion. They also serve openly in the IDF, one of the finest fighting forces in the world, although their leadership could use a refresher course after Lebanon. Both armies work jointly with American forces, and 22 other nations also allow gays and lesbians to serve without hiding themselves."
I’ve always thought discriminating against them in this way was absurd. I remember my career Air Force father’s reasoning was that they were security risks, because they could be coerced with threats of exposing them. That made sense in the universal closet days, but hardly does now.
UPDATE 11/21: "The (Israeli) High Court ruled that same-sex marriages registered abroad must be listed in the Interior Ministry registry – a step short of full recognition. MK Gafni: ‘Sodom & Gomorra also had High Courts.’" Not nearly the legalized gay marriages some reports already have it, but a step in the direction thereof.
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THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 