Military brass sound alarm about 'insidious decline' in readiness

What if this article contains the "good news".  

In 1973 as a cadet on Army Orientation Training, I served as a Tank Platoon Leader in Friedberg, West Germany for about one month.  I had three M60 Tanks and two M60A1s. One of these tanks had a broken engine / transmission pack sitting on the ground and never moved while I was there. Two of the tanks had light weight horizontal thin aluminum Main Gun Ammunition racks with little clips that prevented the 105mm tank rounds from sliding out.  However, these clips fell off the racks when there was no ammo in the racks and disappeared under the turret floor somewhere. Worse, when you climbed in or out of the Loader's Hatch, one needed to step on the ammo or the ammo racks. Without ammo in the racks, the thin sheet metal bent and was deformed. Therefore, the only serviceable ammo racks on these tanks were on the floor next to the main gun. The other tanks had cast aluminum main gun round racks that had structural strength when empty. We were never better than 50% combat ready, if that.

Later in 1980-83 in Germany, readiness was 95-100% in my FA Battalion and nothing stayed down from very long.

Sounds like we are back to rebuilding time.  Hope no one starts really shooting at us... Do not think we could handle one war let alone 2 1/2 conflicts as per prior guidance.