Time to Hit Pause on the US Army's Drawdown

SSgt (Join to see) - Alternatively, they could increase the "tooth to tail" ratio by reducing the tail somewhat.

Of course one of the problems with doing that is that the "teeth" would have to learn how to do some of the things that the "tail" does now and that would mean that the quality of the "teeth" would have to improve.

Sir,pardon my candor, but honestly much of the tail I was referring to, isn't doing much of their jobs anyways.I had given this some thought, using troops in my BN as the model. SMA Dailey estimates as many as 50,000 troops are not able to do their jobs. There are many unemployed Guardsmen and Reservists at the lower levels whomy are the tail. A good solution would possibly be rotating those troops onto ados for tours of 30to 90 days. It would fill the needs of the Army, and fiscally would cost significantly less. It would also leave the good ones to stay without having to be cut. One of the biggest benefits, it would allow troops beneficial training opportunities by utilizing their mos in a real world application versus just Annual Training. At least in a perfect world.

SSgt (Join to see) - Sergeant; I agree with you that any troop that cannot do his/her job (and I don't mean just for medical reasons [in fact "medical reasons" may well be a valid reason]) shouldn't be holding down a slot. Of course having all of the slots filled makes the TOE look really good and gets people "promotion points" (especially if they never have to put those "phantom troops" on the ground and doing what they are supposed to be doing).

I also agree with you that there are benefits from having a defined rotation of active duty for reservists and Guardsmen. In fact there are benefits from having a defined rotations of "deployed duty" for the Regulars as well (from both the individual's and the planning aspects). There doesn't even need to be "a war on" for troops to be "deployed" there are lots of places in the world that could use the assistance of trained people to get their standards of living up past the point where they are easy targets for revolutionary/fundamentalist recruiters.

However, doing that does require a substantial "re-think" of what role America wants to play in the world and how it does want to play it.

COL Ted Mc - Sir, absolutely in regards to med reasons. If you are hurt in service, you are owed to be fixed. This may be anecdotal, but in 2008 (?) One of the MP units deployed from Bragg, in its place, they had NG MPs go title 10 as their rip. It really was a beneficial experience and allowed the MPs actual experience in their field that a tm cannot teach. I serve with many from that rotation and the wealth of experience they offer, is tantamount in training.

We do have the Military Personnel Exchange Program, I wish more actually knew about it.

LTC John Shaw - Colonel; I can understand how those Captains feel. AND, because the RIF is being driven by the "sequestration" which was the price paid to keep the country from defaulting on its international obligations, they have a good reason to feel disheartened.

In the vast majority of cases the "Boots-on-the Ground" are making bricks without either straw or clay and getting surprisingly good results. It's the "Policy People" who started the whole mess without actually having any PLANS to implement their GOALS who are responsible.

Maybe "TheGummint" should be required to write its programs like Ops Orders starting with "Commander's Intent" and then detailing what the difficulties (Op For) are, then listing the assets (Fren For) and then going to detailing who is going to do what with which to whom - when.

At present (and especially during election campaigns) all we seem to get are VERY vaguely worded "Commander's Hopes" which don't even come up to "Commander's Intent" in specificity.