Retention and Recruitment Crisis

[Devildoc]

Are we just building up to do a war?
It looks like we are trying to do a war.
I think we should just do a war.

For a man who says he doesn't want a war with Russia, Biden sure is trying to start one.

It's not a 'D' vs 'R' thing, either. I feel the same way I did when Bush Junior was talking about Iraq. We all knew we were going to do it, and we all were like "let's just get it over with." Just stop pissing on my leg and telling me it's raining.

 

[Totentanz]

What are you all making of this?

Biden authorizes military to use up to 3,000 reserve troops to augment US forces in Europe




A couple of things to consider:
-1.3M active-duty US troops
-50,000+ US troops already in "Europe," not counting the thousands that go back and forth on exercises and deployments to places like Latvia and Poland.
-750M Europeans
...and still the US needs to call up thousands of Reservists?

In no way am I disparaging the IRR or Reserves, but... are we really that strained on active-duty manpower that we have to resort to this? The last time I remember mass mobilization of Reserves we got into two wars that lasted 20+ years, and we lost one of them decisively, and the other more-or-less.

Thoughts?

I am not high on this. In the Navy there are a lot of people in IRR that have niche jobs; ones that aren't usually needed for peacetime service, but desirable in wartime. Some of the staff corps jobs are like this, ask me how I know.

Re: the bold part, I wonder if the “you may include up to 450 IRR members” is there to allow for the ultra-low-density capabilities that may only be feasible via IRR. It reads as a “they’re allowed to” not “orders have been issued”. My take on it is that they’re giving themselves the option rather than finding out they need whatever capability from IRR too late and having to ask for it.

I’m also concerned about the always-increase-never-decrease approach as well as the lack of any kind of exit discussion. We had magical moving goalposts in GWOT. Here I’m not sure if the goalposts for a reduction in US aid even exist.

 

[Gunz]

What are you all making of this?

Biden authorizes military to use up to 3,000 reserve troops to augment US forces in Europe




A couple of things to consider:
-1.3M active-duty US troops
-50,000+ US troops already in "Europe," not counting the thousands that go back and forth on exercises and deployments to places like Latvia and Poland.
-750M Europeans
...and still the US needs to call up thousands of Reservists?

In no way am I disparaging the IRR or Reserves, but... are we really that strained on active-duty manpower that we have to resort to this? The last time I remember mass mobilization of Reserves we got into two wars that lasted 20+ years, and we lost one of them decisively, and the other more-or-less.

Thoughts?

Even talking about activating anybody in IRR during peacetime is nuts. I always assumed the shit would have to be pretty bad to take a drastic step like that.

If it’s meant to send a message to Putin, it’s the wrong message. Makes us look desperate.

 

[RackMaster]

This is related. Ironically, there are whole regular force units deploying to Latvia that are primarily composed of reservists. Because there's so many empty slots due to recruiting and retention problems and many are not being cleared for deployment. Everything from mental health to financial burdens. There's troops living in their cars.

Canada pledges to double its troops for Latvia in NATO reinforcement

 

[AWP]

Just announce a surge of troops to Europe and then tell everyone when they are coming home. It's worked before, right?

 

[Box]

For a man who says he doesn't want a war with Russia, Biden sure is trying to start one.

I've mentioned this elsewhere but it is worth repeating... What we are seeing is just an extension of "science" - its the science of the military industrial complex - but it is still science, and it can be explained by Newtons Laws of Motion...
...a General Officer at war will remain at war until acted upon by an external force.

Newton's Second Law suggests that acceleration of war is dependent on unbalanced forces acting upon a General Officer.
...and we all know that the current administration is pretty fucking unbalanced

For any given General Officer, when the net support from the defense industry is accelerated, the escalation of war is increased.

We also know that for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words, if you blindly throw your support behind ANY politician of ANY party expecting a blow job as a reward, you're actually going to get fucked in the ass by the system as punsihment for being so exceptionally gullible.
Newtons Law of Political Motion can be shown by the following formula:

JRB = ma

• JRB is the unbalanced force
• m is taxpayer money spent on military build up
• a is the anarchy caused by a world plagued with endless armed conflict and corrupt world leaders

Now, go forth and learn some mother fucking science.

 

[AWP]

Look at Mr. Wizard's fancy pants. Box Nye, the Science Guy.

 

[DA SWO]

Reserve/IRR call up is Bill Clinton's legacy. We whacked careerfields figuring "Peace in our time", only to be in a constant state of war.
This also reflects retention rates, though using reservists to plus up active duty units should raise red flags.

 

[Devildoc]

This also reflects retention rates, though using reservists to plus up active duty units should raise red flags.

In my last community the late/post-GWOT drawdown killed the numbers, so most of those guys (and gals) either went into the reserves or just got out entirely.

 

[ThunderHorse]

Reserve/IRR call up is Bill Clinton's legacy. We whacked careerfields figuring "Peace in our time", only to be in a constant state of war.
This also reflects retention rates, though using reservists to plus up active duty units should raise red flags.

Stupid shit from the DoD Media Industry calling this: just using part time workers to give full time workers a break...lol that is the dumbest analogy ever. You're making 8% time workers and in some cases 0% time workers full time workers. Mobilizing Soldiers in the thousands like this just shows you how dumb the Democrats have been. Three draw downs under Obama, Trump tried to avert that but never got the recruited end strength back and then another under Biden...pretty sure we hit what they wanted. Hard to retain people when you go zero defect and reward the political class.

ETA: In service suicides are up.

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[digrar]

How Jesse's dress is overturning the army's gender diversity policy

Meanwhile, we've got dudes in dresses leading troops... I imagine the troops are following out of morbid curiosity more than anything.

 

[Devildoc]

How Jesse's dress is overturning the army's gender diversity policy

Meanwhile, we've got dudes in dresses leading troops... I imagine the troops are following out of morbid curiosity more than anything.

When I was an officer and we were learning to write enlisted evals and officer fitness reports we saw some examples of British OERs, one said "this officer's men would follow him anywhere if for no other reason than sheer curiosity."

 

[Johca]

And stop working out acquire and sustain combat readiness to be lethal combatant on the battlefield too.....

 

[Gunz]

How Jesse's dress is overturning the army's gender diversity policy

Meanwhile, we've got dudes in dresses leading troops... I imagine the troops are following out of morbid curiosity more than anything.

 

[Box]

Can I say, WHAT.IN.THE.ACTUAL.FUCK.
I feel like this thread is one of those threads that has earned a WHAT.IN.THE.ACTUAL.FUCK. response.

Men in dresses in uniform, wondering if we have too many pilots of a given skin color. Quietly killing bonuses without telling anyone. Disrespecting the force at cosmically increasing rates and wondering why retention and recruiting numbers are down?

WHAT.IN.THE.ACTUAL.FUCK.

 

[DA SWO]

And stop working out acquire and sustain combat readiness to be lethal combatant on the battlefield too.....

Funny, careerfields that are under represented by whites get no attention.
Civil service is half black, but the General is cool with that.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

How Jesse's dress is overturning the army's gender diversity policy

Meanwhile, we've got dudes in dresses leading troops... I imagine the troops are following out of morbid curiosity more than anything.

You forgot to post the picture in the article. This is being done on purpose. The cancer we are seeing pushed by the DoD, Govt, and other players, is trying to destroy and demoralize the US military, the American fighting man, and our allies.



When the brass gets top cover to pose for shot's like these it's proof that the string-pullers are flipping us off.

 

[Gunz]

I’ve always had great admiration for Aussie soldiers and their legacy. This^^^is a fucking insult to every one of them, past and present.

 

[Box]

I laugh in their general direction...

 

[R.Caerbannog]

You forgot to post the picture in the article. This is being done on purpose. The cancer we are seeing pushed by the DoD, Govt, and other players, is trying to destroy and demoralize the AUS military, the Australian fighting man, and our allies.

View attachment 42778

When the brass gets top cover to pose for shot's like these it's proof that the string-pullers are flipping us off.

@digrar I'm sorry, I'm an idiot. I read the article from an American perspective. We have have so much of this bullshit going on that I thought it was our idiots. Sorry dude. The above has been fixed.