Does Anyone Know What Permanent Active-duty Military Is?

[Chimichurri]

I'm not understanding what that is. This article says "the administration is preparing plans to bolster the nation's permanent active-duty military with as many as 70,000 additional troops."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/19/AR2006121900880_pf.html

I have a Marine friend who finished his service in 2002. He got a certificate, I think it was, or some sort of official paper saying he completed his contract honorably. Is this permanent active duty thing they talk about going to call back men and women who completed their service? Or are they going to push harder to recruit new guys. The permanent active-duty termonology worries me.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. war without end?

sure sounds like it, no?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. yeah that just means people who are

within their obligation, not reserves, not national guard, not called=back retirees or people like your friend.

[Chimichurri]

4. So there are people who sign up for the military permanently? Like, for life?

[crikkett]

6. for life, a few years at a time.

clarifying on edit:

enlistment contracts last a number of years.

officers' commissions last until they are resigned. You can be asked to resign (there's a "move up or move out" policy in higher officer ranks that has officers leaving service if they get passed over for promotion a certain number of times).

[Chimichurri]

9. So they can decide to leave after their contract is up or renew if

they'd like? I can't find anything on the internets about it - I apologize for all the questions.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

7. No, but they can be counted on

far beyond reserves and national guard troops, for planning purposes.

[xultar]

3. State held hostages.

[crikkett]

5. just a regular soldier not a reservist

your friend has to worry about the "inactive ready reserves" which he's subject to being called up for, for 10 years I think.

[Debau2005]

8. I don't know about the Marines

but the Army has an "IRR" list of soldiers that had completed their "contract". I believe IRR stands for Inactive Ready Roster. My ex-fiance was a Captain when he completed Active Duty 10 years ago. Two years ago he was called back to active duty because he was on the IRR list, he stayed on the list because he did not want to resign his commission. He was not in the Reserves or the Guard and other then being on this list he had no connection to the military.

Fortunately for him his "active duty" was in Honduras! His only threat was from bananas and geckos!!

I may be wrong about the way the IRR works, if so let me know. My information came from an "ex." haha

The man I am currently dating is in the National Guard and served a tour in Iraq. His unit lost 2 soldiers. I fear for him and the others in his postion. He hopes to be able to get out when his time is up in a few months. I also fear that they will not let him out!

[Chimichurri]

11. That's scary to think that could happen. This cabal is capable of anything.

They've already displayed their disdain for the military many times over.

I wish the democrats would do right by our military but it looks like they'll give Bush a pass, yet again.

[CarbonDate]

10. Misunderstanding of terminology.

The numbers are permanent, not the actual people. The DoD will sustain these additional 70,000 troops permanently, but will replace them as they depart, either through conventional means or by IED.

[Chimichurri]

12. That makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.

[Dhalgren]

13. I've heard this talk about increasing the size of the standing military

forces, but I don't understand how they think they can do that. If someone in the administration decides that the Army should have an additional 100,000 troops, where do they come from? Enlistments are way, way down - they have a very hard time maintaining the numbers they have. How would they go about increasing the size of the Army or Marines?

[GreenZoneLT]

16. You boost the numbers with money

Raise pay; raise enlistment bonuses and bennies; lower standards on stuff like test scores, education requirements and criminal records; and the enlistment numbers go up. We had 750,000 in the Army in the '80s, only about 510,000 now (Cheney was the SECDEF who started the drawdown, soon after the Gulf War, in response to the collapse of the Soviet Union). They're authorized for about 540,000 currently, I think, but Congress hasn't funded the billets. There's another 180,000 active-duty Marines.

We could easily field a million ground troops through volunteer recruiting; it would just be expensive and the quality of troops would be somewhat lower.

A lot of people have a totally wrong idea about the draft. You draft people when you need 10 million troops, not a million. Draftees are expensive, because short enlistments and commensurate high turnover raise training costs, and they're very difficult to motivate, leading to lower morale and higher turnover among the professional soldiers who have to lead their sorry asses.

[tnlurker]

14. What they are saying

I believe what they are saying is that they want to increase the permanent level of the military by 70,000. For example if the current authorized troop level is 1,500,000 soldiers they want to move that up to 1,570,000. Of course with recruiting being as poor as it is lately I don't know how they will fill those extra slots.

[Toots]

15. Seems to me that it is unconstitutional

I recall reading in the Constitution somewhere that the US is not to have a standing army...Maybe that has been changed but I doubt it, only ignored..