Still Not Enough Ammo

[MSgt213]

Some of the emails Hack is receiving from the field. PS: Don't the news media get a hold of this it might we don't want to upset the Bushes and Cheneys victory celebration. They can tell us they don't give a good fuck once the parties over.

10-28-2004

Still Not Enough Ammo

I spoke with my SSG son at Camp Liberty outside of Abu Ghraib Saturday. He said that he had received two replacements to the platoon recently. He took them out, had them qualify and zero their weapons. When finished, one had gone through 48 rounds, the other 49 rounds. My son could not for love nor money get the shortage replaced. He went on two round-trip convoys to Kuwait with these guys shorted almost 30% of their 180 rnd combat load. When he called, he had just completed another two convoys to an undisclosed location south and west of CL and had yet to get the ammo shortage replaced. I asked him what he was supposed to do if the Iranians decided to come over the line? He said, he figured, the way the ammo issue was going, that the 411th guys would be throwing rocks long before it was over with. This crap has been ongoing since he arrived in country 7 months ago.

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Special%20Reports%20Hack.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=356&rnd=872.1555699978345
10-28-2004

A Good Soldier Sounds Off



Hack,

You’re probably already aware of this, but for what it’s worth, here’s a couple of points.

A. Women have been assigned to Forward Support Battalions (FSB), and the Companies under the FSB, since before Desert Storm. They are also in the Main Support Battalion (MSB) which provides back up support to the FSBs. The FSB’s are doctrinally located in the rear area of the Brigade Rear Area, the MSB is located in the Division Rear Area, and the Corps (COSCOM) has units that co-locate in the Division area. All of these units, have contact teams or forward support elements that go as far forward on the battlefield as required to support the mission. In Desert Storm, which was a “normal” war, with a normal front line, we had women as far forward as the Cav’s front lines. These were women who were assigned to both maintenance units, and to the Ground Surveillance Radars (GSRs) which were assigned to the Corps MI brigade. These women did a stellar job. Now this is history out of a linear battlefield environment. In an asymmetrical situation, like Iraq, Females are already in the fight whether they want to be or not. We need to acknowledge this is happening, and stiffen up the training requirements for ALL support personnel (Male & Female).

B. How does this happen in clear violation of the Aspin Letter about no women in combat? Simple- it’s the personnel system. The Army level assignments process normally only assigns the person to the Headquarters unit or to the Base/Installation (eg, the Replacement Detachment at Ft Hood, or to the 82d Airborne Division). There is a slightly different process for Officers and Senior Enlisted, but it all pretty much works out to the same results. Once you get to the unit, they can (and will) assign a person to wherever there is a vacancy. As a result, I end up with a maintenance platoon which is like 10% female. So for me as an Army Maintenance Officer in a support battalion, I have a choice, send the same 4 guy’s to the field all the time, which crushes their morale, or send the female soldier to do the job with, or in lieu of, the males. (Probably the worst case of the guy’s getting screwed on this is the Combat Medic, it’s an MOS open to both genders, but if you’re Male, your happy butt is going to hang out with an Infantry Battalion, while your female counterpart is more likely to be assigned to a Medical Company. You can guess at the relative comfort level of these two jobs). But back to my experience, I had a choice to make as to who was going to do what job, and the least important thing in my choice was a Pentagon Policy letter.

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Special%20Reports%20Hack.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=355&rnd=48.63376617461574

[bemildred]

1. Wondering about this. Thnx for post. nt