COUNTERCOLUMN: All Your Bias Are Belong to Us

From the Wall Street Journal.

(Look, don't be cheapskates! Get a subscription!)

We got problems in the Reserve components. Not that that ought to be a surprise to longtime readers of this blog. But a thus far unpublicized Dept. of the Army survey quantifies it.

70% of reservists feel they were personally well prepared for their combat duties. But only 45% of reservists who HAD been deployed felt that their units were well prepared for their wartime duties -- a much lower figure than the total percentage of reservists, both deployed and undeployed, who felt that way (56%).

The results also indicated that the desire of the part-time soldiers to stay in the Reserves and National Guard is eroding. About 59% of Army Reservists and 62% of Army National Guard soldiers said they intended to stay in the military, down about 10 percentage points from 12 months earlier. As a result of the survey, the Pentagon in some instances tripled enlistment bonuses to as much as $15,000 for a six-year commitment, Dr. Chu said.

The Department of the Army is saying the retention numbers are nothing to worry about. But if that were really true, they wouldn't bother upping enlistment bonuses, would they?

Meanwhile, about 70% of Army National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers said they personally felt well prepared for their wartime jobs. Guardsmen and reservists who had served in Iraq reported even higher personal readiness rates of about 80%.

That's because we have some terrific NCOs and junior officers at the grass roots level. (If employers only knew the talent they have!)

Our failures are usually at company level and above. I have fallen short many times in many ways. My troops have never let me or you down, ever.

The somewhat unique nature of the Iraq war, in which supply soldiers seem to be specifically targeted by insurgents, may explain why a majority of Army Reservists operating there said their units weren't well prepared. Dr. Chu said the Pentagon hadn't reached a firm conclusion on why so many Iraq Reservists felt their units' weren't ready. "It's a puzzle...[but] we don't see it as a cause for alarm," he said.

Ok, guys...think back. Think about your OPTEMPO over the last decade. How much time did you give your SUPPORT elements to focus on battle drills, counter-ambush procedures, TTPs, live fire exercises, and rehearsals.

Sure, your infantry units got on the live fire range. But what about SUPPORT formations? Where were the live fire convoy ambush training facilities three years ago?

Did your 50 Cal. Machine gun ringmounts get rusty and frozen in place?

When your company XOs were screaming for weeks and months back in the mob site, after having new ringmounts on order for a year at home station, were higher echelons able to get them fixed?

No.

Dr. Chu, it's not that big a puzzle. And if we haven't figured it out, it IS cause for alarm, because men and women's lives are hanging in those ringmounts, and other parts like them.

The Army Reserve soldiers who refused orders last week to drive a dangerous supply route through Iraq's Sunni triangle were members of the 343rd Quartermaster Company, one of the few units in Iraq whose trucks lack protective armor, the unit's commanding general said at a news conference over the weekend.

Brig. James E. Chambers, the commander of the 13th Corps Support Command, said concerns about the lack of armor along with vehicle maintenance led the soldiers to balk at the mission. "Not all of their trucks are completely armored. In their case, they haven't had the chance to get armored," Gen. Chambers said of the unit.

Why? They've been in country for nine months! (Apparently the kits DO exist for this type of vehicle) They couldn't stand down a couple of trucks a day to have the armor kits installed? WTF?????

Today, about 80% of the 4,000 vehicles in his unit have been fitted with custom steel plates, the general said. The Army says it has ramped up production of armored Humvees to about 450 a month from about 230 a month last March.

Great. There are therefore hundreds more Humvees available to commanders in Iraq. The uparmor model comes with radios and a machine gun mount. Great convoy security vehicle.

How come, with hundreds more humvees available than when I was in Iraq, a LIGHT infantry battalion was able to provide security vehicles and comms for our logpacks, but we can't find a lead and trail vehicle or two for a whole platoon of fuel trucks?

I don't get it.

The survey also showed that as the pace of military operations and the violence has accelerated, Army Guard and Reserve soldiers and their families have become less satisfied with the military life. The number of Guardsmen and Reservists who reported their spouses viewed their service favorably fell 15 percentage points from last year to 60%.

I'm surprised it's that high. Great! Our families are tremendous. I already knew that. Even the critical ones are tremendous. But I thought the figure would be closer to 40%.

Maybe that's just local to Florida, though, given the fact we've been so heavily tapped in the last couple of years.

Splash, out

Jason