Destruction of military equipment post conflict

2013-11-20T10:24:17-05:00

I experienced this weeks ago and it still haunts me. There I was, sitting in a small FOB in Paktiya, Afghanistan, with only my rifle and my NCO by my side as we overlooked the destruction yard. Despite my training, my weapons, and my wit, there was nothing I could do as the man in front of me swung the hammer down. The crunching sound was sickening. He looked up at us with lifeless eyes and tossed the now mangled ACOG into the growing pile of broken sights that were perfectly good only moments before. I shudder to think about it.

Seriously though, why not have an "Military only Ebay" program to sell these non SI pieces of equipment to service members instead of needlessly destroying them? It would be a great deal to the service members, help offset budgets, and it would make way more sense (scary, I know). Why the senseless destruction?

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 20 at 2013 11:55 AM

2013-11-20T11:55:19-05:00

I may need to speak with mental health, just hearing about this senseless violence.

Response by SFC Michael Boulanger made Nov 20 at 2013 12:00 PM

2013-11-20T12:00:54-05:00

That sounds like Fraud, Waste and Abuse. Why couldn't they just ship them back stateside and turn them in to DRMO and let them do what they do. They auction items off if it is allowed for that spacific type of item. That just doesn't sound like policy.

Response by CMC Robert Young made Nov 20 at 2013 12:11 PM

2013-11-20T12:11:04-05:00

Sir, I have witnessed similar silliness throughout the course of my career. "Surveying" as the Coast Guard calls it never made sense to me. If it's functional, why not sell it, trade it, recycle it, DD1149 it, or something, but for the love of Pete, don't destroy good equipment and then complain at budget time about what you don't have.

We might be well served by assigning a Radar O'Reilly to every unit to do nothing but trade, swap and bargain with everybody else to make better use of what we have.

A follow on comment sir. "It would make way more sense". There is no call for that sort of talk or logic in the US military! It flies in the face of what we do.

Response by LTC John Czarnecki made Mar 16 at 2014 6:45 AM

2014-03-16T06:45:58-04:00

Destruction in place.

Everytime a war ends, you'll see this, with more equipment than you care to imagine. I'ts more an unfortunate but tru fact that it's much more economical to destroy much of the military equipment we projected into theater in place rather than paying to return it to the US of A. ACOGs I personally might keep, but then I was an out the gate guy. Trucks and other big stuff is where the big moola is tied up, and where we'll be using lots of demo, gas, and sledgehammers to wreck the gear rather than turning it over to the Taliban.. I mean the ANA / ANP.

Makes ya sick to see poor little and useful ACOGs get the hammer, but keep your eyes peeled... it will get MUCH worse, and soon.

Be safe out there. You're too short to get hurt now.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 18 at 2014 5:04 PM

2014-07-18T17:04:55-04:00

This is something that has bugged me to because we will send stuff over to a war zone that we could either allow the solders in the unit to by as a way to raise unit funds to do things once we get back from the deployment. Instead we have them destroy it and waist government money that they could have used on things that we need.

Response by SGT Michael Glenn made Jan 4 at 2015 3:49 PM

2015-01-04T15:49:19-05:00

I watched an entire post be refurbished, roofs masonry work, windows, electrical revamp EVERY THING !!! only to be turned back to the German Government who in turn leveled a good portion of those buildings to make way for new ones and open a college. The military has always wasted money and it seems there will ever be an end to it.