I can see combat arms types not making Urgent Fury and Desert Storm, both were fairly short. But again OEF going on it’s 10th year, OIF on its 8th… WTF? There is no reason for a combat arms senior NCO or company level or above officer to not have time in either war, I don’t care if they are RC, NG or AD. If they have not made a trip to the sand box at this point, then it’s because they are avoiding it. Hell not even 4 years ago, all RC/NG units were rounding up soldier who had not been and sending them or putting them out. We had RC/NG soldier who were on 2nd and 3rd deployments while some shamers were hiding in TRADOC and CONUS training deployments.
The other important topic to be discussed here is why is the Army allowing these non combat deployed soldiers to hold senior leadership positions, when we have junior leaders with combat experience. Put the stupid combat patch aside for a bit and think about it. Combat Arms should have combat experienced soldiers in top leadership positions vs inexperienced leaders in charge of experienced. That is just plain common sense.
Think about it, an ACTIVE DUTY E8 1SG (top enlisted advisor) in combat arms company, that has not made one combat deployment in the last 10 years. Really, you guys don’t see something seriously wrong there? How many active duty Special Forces ODA Team SGT’s are out there that have yet to make a trip to a combat zone and how many of you long tabbers would want to be on that ODA?