D. Hackworth
U.S. Spec. Ops.
Sun Aug 22, 2004 18:00
65.139.153.21


Subject: THOUSANDS LEAVING THE ARMY
THOUSANDS LEAVING THE ARMY
THOUSANDS LEAVING THE ARMY
THOUSANDS LEAVING THE ARMY


DefenseWatch
Hack's Target Voting with Their Feet
By David H. Hackworth

Top military managers insist that our all-volunteer Army isn't
stretched too thin from this country's heavy and hazardous commitment to hot
spots like Iraq and Afghanistan and cooler places in another 131 countries
around Planet Earth. They spout positive numbers like carnival hucksters,
hyping enlistment and re-enlistment rates they keep insisting are at an
all-time high. ALL TIME HIGH!


Except that's exactly 180 degrees out from what hundreds of
soldiers have told me during the past few weeks.


It also doesn't square with the fact that the Army is currently
extending 44,000 soldiers under stop-loss provisions - which, like a form of
the draft, arbitrarily keep a soldier in service beyond the agreed-upon term
of enlistment.


"Stop loss is not only a breach of contract, it's a form of
slavery," railed a Special Forces (SF) senior noncommissioned officer.
"There's a tidal wave of folks getting out. ... The number of senior SF NCOs
leaving is amazing. Our battalion had three of five sergeant-majors retire,
and our sister battalion had two of five. The number of master sergeants was
well into double digits. I predict that the exodus will devastate the senior
NCO corps at a time when experience and stability are most needed."

Mass Exodus

Despite all the accentuate-the-positive spin coming out of the
Pentagon, the anecdotal reports I've received - especially from Reserve and
National Guard folks - agree with the Special Forces Sergeant and point to a
mass exodus that will reach the hemorrhage point by mid-2005.

The U.S. Federal Government should have killed off the communists here in
the States before sending young men 10,000 miles to kill Communists in
Vietnam. Likewise, why die for oil in the Middle-East when half the oil wells in
the States are capped (for tax purposes), and there's 200 years of oil in Alaska?

"Speaking off the record," writes a military wife, "my husband
was supposed to come home from Iraq this week but has just been extended
another 120 days. His old unit, 3rd Infantry Division, is already seeing an
exodus of junior officers. Since their return from Iraq, 35 captains have
left the Army for greener pastures. Several more - read: another 15-20 - are
due to leave, but who knows whether or not they'll manage to do so before
more stop losses and stop moves come down prior to their return to the
desert. ...

Between separation from family, no guarantee of tour lengths, no
clear mission and consistent pay problems, folks are pretty fed up. If they
can get out, which is no small feat, they seem to be doing so while the
getting is good."

"Don't use my name," writes a senior sergeant. "I believe we are
going to have a massive attrition problem in the Reserve. I have 24 years in
the Army Reserve, and this is my second time in the Gulf. They're talking
about reservists having to deploy once every five years. I doubt our
civilian employers and families are going to buy into that. I've got to get
out when I redeploy if I want to stay married."

"We're stretched too thin," reports a sergeant. "Our CO
(commanding officer) admitted this to us during our tour in Afghanistan. He
also admitted that morale is down due to the extending of tours. Yet the
Pentagon insists there's no problem with morale. We lost over 75 percent of
our unit when we got back. I know other units are having the same problems.
If this trend continues, we won't have enough people to defend this country
when the need arises."

An Apache pilot in Korea says, "It doesn't take a rocket
scientist to figure out that the Army is going to be losing a lot of people
as soon as they get the chance to vote with their feet."

I'm sure the brass have all the paperwork to back up their
propaganda campaign. But as far as the old saw that "figures don't lie"
goes, I've been around long enough to know that liars figure and soldiers
know the truth. So I'll go with the soldiers.

Unless so-called Army short tours in the badlands of Iraq and
Afghanistan become manageable based on the number of troops available -
right now the Army is trying to do the work of 14 divisions with 10
under-strength, active-duty divisions - we'll see a mass exodus from the
Green Machine and the inevitable return of the draft.


Col. David H. Hackworth (USA Ret.) is SFTT.org co-founder and
Senior Military Columnist for DefenseWatch magazine. For information on his
many books, go to his home page at Hackworth.com, wehre you can sign in for
his free weekly Defending America. Send mail to P.O. Box 11179, Greenwich,
CT 06831. His newest book is "Steel My Soldiers' Hearts." © 2004 David H.
Hackworth. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com

ATTILA BUSH AND HIS HUNS. — Anonymous, Mon Aug 23 11:02