Posted on May 16, 2016
As a career Army officer, I must finally make this admission... - Allen B. West - AllenBWest.com
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Is the situation as dire as Allen West presents it? (Please read his article before responding.) If yes, we who serve/have served need to start the conversation. People are voting with their hearts. They need to vote with their heads. It seems likely that we will emerge from this election with a President hardly fit to address the issues presented in Allen West's essay, regardless of who wins. Our only hope to mitigate the damage is in our selection of members of Congress. We in California will replace one of the worst U.S. Senators this year. Hopefully we will choose more wisely this time. We have a retired Marine colonel running in our district to replace a career, establishment Republican. Do you have a decent choice in your district.
As a career Army officer, I must finally make this admission... - Allen B. West - AllenBWest.com
Posted from allenbwest.com
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Politics
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 9
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Allen West is an embarrassment to his country and to the Army. This article, with it's numerous inaccuracies shows his lack of knowledge on many subjects. Never mind that, since WWII, the US has used the Army, not the Navy, to project power around the world. The Navy has been relegated to a largely support role, moving men, supplies and equipment for the Army and Marines, and providing fire and air support when possible.
It is NOT Navel tradition to name carriers after former presidents, and is something that was not done often until the '80s. Furthermore, Pres. Reagan served in the Army during WWII and never left California. He never saw combat, and certainly was never on a submarine.
While a strong navy is needed to protect the shipping lanes, we are not the only country in the world with a navy that can patrol those lanes. To assume that they would be inherently unsafe because we aren't there is to ignore the fact that, even at our best, we could never cover all the lanes in all the oceans at once. Other countries rely on those same shipping lanes, they can help patrol them and keep them safe.
The Army is poised to meet manning levels we have not seen since the end of WWII. As we remove ourselves from combat operations around the world, we are cutting back on all aspects of the military. The Navy should be included in these cutbacks, just like the Air Force and the Marines.
Perhaps, if we weren't embroiled in two wars at the same time, one of them arguably avoidable, our equipment wouldn't be in such bad shape. This article also ignores the role the Republican led Congress has played in the lack of maintenance. Allocating more money for combat and less for re-fitting, repair, and general maintenance has a debilitating effect.
It is NOT Navel tradition to name carriers after former presidents, and is something that was not done often until the '80s. Furthermore, Pres. Reagan served in the Army during WWII and never left California. He never saw combat, and certainly was never on a submarine.
While a strong navy is needed to protect the shipping lanes, we are not the only country in the world with a navy that can patrol those lanes. To assume that they would be inherently unsafe because we aren't there is to ignore the fact that, even at our best, we could never cover all the lanes in all the oceans at once. Other countries rely on those same shipping lanes, they can help patrol them and keep them safe.
The Army is poised to meet manning levels we have not seen since the end of WWII. As we remove ourselves from combat operations around the world, we are cutting back on all aspects of the military. The Navy should be included in these cutbacks, just like the Air Force and the Marines.
Perhaps, if we weren't embroiled in two wars at the same time, one of them arguably avoidable, our equipment wouldn't be in such bad shape. This article also ignores the role the Republican led Congress has played in the lack of maintenance. Allocating more money for combat and less for re-fitting, repair, and general maintenance has a debilitating effect.
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CPO (Join to see)
Do you know what are mission was no you do not. We did a lot of reconstruction and you need to check but MAJ support element constructing projects all over Africa and South America The MAJOR military construction force in that AOR. Also as for the CA mission thing in Iraq we worked the USMC side and they have CA teams. We supported the PRT missions and doing MIL-Mil Training in Iraq also started a Tech school for Ramadi Civilians in that whole province. The mission was not FOBs that is all I was saying and the commander was wrong also. The SOTF in AFG used use as their MAJ engineer force starting in 2008 and RED Horse was also there they would come in after we built the VSP's, VSO's and Fire Bases this was a Joint Engineer Command mission this is what they are doing with Engineers now. Also the PI-JSOTF (Philippines) used us not other Engineers I don't know when you got out but a lot of things have changed and Engineers have combined assets. SeaBees will take command and control of all DRT operations involving Engineers and Army control all combat assets but Engineers are now conducting joint operations. We are just a small number and the Mission was not FOBS we had other missions.
Most of the FOBS that were in south and up to Baghdad were laid out by our advance teams NMCB's with Marines in 2003 when we crossed the LOD on 21 March 2003. We moved and advanced with the Marine Combat Element up into Baghdad Repaired the main Bridge into Baghdad over the dahlia river on the 9th April. Then built a couple of small FOBS around there and two more bridges until Marines were relieved by the Army in MAY and then down south to Ad-wiana (spelling you were there so you under stand) HQ and then the MEF moved over to Ramadi and set up MEF HQ in July. We stayed and turned over all the FOBS to Army and Polish Engineer units. In 2004 the Main mission was again support Marine in combat operations in Fallujah two NMCB's. Plus all the other missions around the world, were not just in Iraq and AFG we have other missions all over like supporting AFERCOM and JSOTF PI until 2012. If you do not know what our mission was or is do not speak on it and comment we were all over the place that is something you and the commander do not know. I will ask this if we were not building COPS and doing Convoy Security why did we loose 18 personnel during that time. We are a small force compared to you 12B's and 12C's.
Bottom line is we are one team one fight do not speak on a mission when you don't know. We went into Iraq in the invasion with I MEF/MEG if you did not know this and we had 2 NMCB's in south until November 2003 and then turned FOBS over to Army and moved up to support MEF in Ramadi. So just because you did not see us does not mean we were not there and we also took the Iraq JSOTF mission in 2006. The Seabee main mission support MEF and MUE and Disaster Recovery Missions and Civil Humanitarian missions all over the world. Also SOTF support.
Most of the FOBS that were in south and up to Baghdad were laid out by our advance teams NMCB's with Marines in 2003 when we crossed the LOD on 21 March 2003. We moved and advanced with the Marine Combat Element up into Baghdad Repaired the main Bridge into Baghdad over the dahlia river on the 9th April. Then built a couple of small FOBS around there and two more bridges until Marines were relieved by the Army in MAY and then down south to Ad-wiana (spelling you were there so you under stand) HQ and then the MEF moved over to Ramadi and set up MEF HQ in July. We stayed and turned over all the FOBS to Army and Polish Engineer units. In 2004 the Main mission was again support Marine in combat operations in Fallujah two NMCB's. Plus all the other missions around the world, were not just in Iraq and AFG we have other missions all over like supporting AFERCOM and JSOTF PI until 2012. If you do not know what our mission was or is do not speak on it and comment we were all over the place that is something you and the commander do not know. I will ask this if we were not building COPS and doing Convoy Security why did we loose 18 personnel during that time. We are a small force compared to you 12B's and 12C's.
Bottom line is we are one team one fight do not speak on a mission when you don't know. We went into Iraq in the invasion with I MEF/MEG if you did not know this and we had 2 NMCB's in south until November 2003 and then turned FOBS over to Army and moved up to support MEF in Ramadi. So just because you did not see us does not mean we were not there and we also took the Iraq JSOTF mission in 2006. The Seabee main mission support MEF and MUE and Disaster Recovery Missions and Civil Humanitarian missions all over the world. Also SOTF support.
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SN Greg Wright
CPO (Join to see) - Chief, this guy thinks the Navy just moves supplies for the Army and Marines. I don't think he's going to get it.
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CPO (Join to see)
SN Greg Wright - Ya thank you brother, juts like they don't think we do combat and well tell to the Marines we helped and worked with during the invasion. We had 35 MAN DET also at Camp Rhino before MARINES, They had to defend small pockets with an ODA 12 man team and small DET of rangers for 4 days till Marines got security in place. anyway out...
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PO1 (Join to see)
SN Greg Wright - I think this is covered in point 3, but can be stressed another way: The Navy provides 24/7 global nuclear deterrence with ballistic missile submarines.
Spot on response!
Spot on response!
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We still have the most potent Navy in the world, the issue is the smaller the fleet is, it takes time to move from one field of battle when you are thousands of miles away or incapacitated. Deterrence is the key, but no one is deterred knowing there is little that can be done on short basis. Even if the C-in-C had the will.
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I have a hard time taking Allen West seriously, as his political agenda drives the facts he chooses and how he interprets history. Many of the people who commented below have noted the inaccuracies and other problems with Mr. West's essay, so I won't try to do likewise. It seems that Mr. West has greater influence over people who have no connections to the military than he does over veterans and those on active duty.
We can argue back and forth about which service is the best (although we all know deep in our hearts that it is the Marine Corps, of course
We can argue back and forth about which service is the best (although we all know deep in our hearts that it is the Marine Corps, of course
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