National Guard Faces Recruiting Crisis

[Jack_Dawson]

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

The Massachusetts National Guard has a desperate battle on its hands: recruiting and retaining troops at a time when anyone signing on the dotted line is all but assured a tour in Iraq.
This year alone the Guard lost roughly 800 troops - 9 percent of the force - as many returning Iraq veterans retired or got out as soon as their enlistments ended.
``My unit is already hearing rumors about going back to Iraq next year, and we've only been home for six months. There's no end in sight,'' said Spc. Danny Pazyra, a National Guard truck driver who plans to hang up his fatigues for good when his hitch is up.
The Massachusetts Guard's ranks have been dwindling for years, but the specter of endless deployments now is driving off experienced guardsmen in droves...

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=48808

[bluestateguy]

1. Don't worry. There are lots of College Republicans waiting to sign up

Their patriotism will motivate them to all march down to the recruiting office and enlist!

[AlCzervik]

2. They better hope they have an easy winter

back in 1978 we had a huge blizzard and the Nationial Guard was called up and were dealing with the aftermath for almost a month.

[tabasco]

3. The entire military is getting desperate for warm bodies.

1. First they had stop-loss.
2. Next they called up part of the IRR.
If Bush gets elected:
3. They call up the rest of the IRR.
4. "Read My Lips - No New Draft" (lie #1) Bush reacts to an emergency and declares we must reinstate a draft, stating that it is only for 200k troops (lie #2).

The military can't keep everybody in with stop-loss indefinitely, and they DO need lots of young folks to get the missions done.

DON'T BE FOOLED !!