It is from Col. Hackworth...and is a good read, makes you wonder what has happened in the last 8 years.


[url]http://www.hackworth.com/article04032002c.html[/url]

[b][blue]NAKED[/blue][/b]

Why this is not important at all:

1)  Most of those people will never see combat, the military's tooth to tail ratio is like 1:3 or worse.

2)  Anyone who does join a combat unit will get extended training.

3)  Anyone doing the real fighting these days--aka special operations forces, get all the training they could ever want and more.  Wars are not being fought by large armies in set piece battles anymore, they're being fought by "special" forces.  The rest of those idiots go on to desk jobs, reserves, or "peace keeping" in countries where even the soldiers don't carry live ammunition).  Most of them will end up in bars lying about how dangerous a killer they military made them.

4) This is an excellent example of the fact that the US military is far too large and could be reduced in size.  Most of these recruits are unneeded.  If they were needed, the tempo of the training regime would be greatly increased.  

5)  Hackworth, for whatever else he is, is a sellout--Fox News and the others call him up and put him on the air and probably pay him for the appearances where he blathers on and on about this or that nonsense or helps spread official government propaganda and lies while pretending to be a no-bullshit, pull-no-punches stand up guy.  He probably wrote this piece to argue for more money for the DoD, as if they don't absorb enough of America's GDP as it is.

6)  I'm glad to see America's youth doing more brainwork on the matter of soldiering and militarism--it's better for America that people would want to be in McDonald's managerial trainging that going out and being the cannon fodder for a bunch of politicians who don't give a damn about anyone but themselves.

Good read Naked. Thanks.

anything by hack needs to be taken with a grain of salt. seems like the only people who like him are civilians and the press that article is a good read overall but he made so many careless mastakes in basic terminology how many numbers did he misquote or how far off are his stats??? dont listen to him about the pugil sticks. they are about 3inches in diameter solid hickory and the pads at the end are mostly just for show. they are made of Jute like under the carpet in your car. the whole pugil stick weighs 8lbs to approximate the rifle. so when he says its "a broomstick wrapped with tape, the ends fitted out with two thick foam pads" HE'S FULL OF SHIT. dont believe him about the chow either. you might find pizza and hot dogs at the main side chowhall but recruits dont eat that trash. they eat terrible food that is engineered to be nutritionally perfect. it tasktes like ass but it keeps you going. and i dont buy the sex bit either. ...although a certain member of this board was able to sneak a quicky with his GF in the out of service bathroom at the Parris Island museum on family day. BUT THATS ANOTHER STORY

I have seen the wanton state of ft jackson lately and he is one hundred percent correct. some of the ds's don't a claymore mine from dog shit. the overall level of training and stress level endured by those who attend ft jackson is severly lacking. I don't care if you are part of a rear echelon unit why should you get a free ride when the rests of us going to benning get to slog in the mud and hump in the boonies. besides as for mentioned, afghanistan is already turning into a guerilla war and will continue to do so as long as there are muslim extremist willing to fight but not well enough armed or trained to fight us on conventional terms. this means that even some of you remfs just might get your head aerated, just as easily as that of the line troops. the reason why it is mostly special forces that do the combat these days is because to be completely honest some of the leg army units are in such a state of disrepare that no one in their right mind would send them into combat to be mutilated. there lies the problem. see special operations forces will run out after a while in a longer, sustained clash, if for no other reason than battle fatigue, and sheer fatalities. I imagine that they could do a pretty good job against quite a few enemies and defeat quite a few aswell, however you can't put the whole of a war on just special operatiosns forces alone. that is what regular line units are for in the first place. if the line units aren't ever going to be able to deploy, than either give their commanders the boot and re train, or eliminate them as a unit if they aren't going to do their job. but either way this pussy shit will not cut it. period.

Thanks a good read. This is scary, because you can read the war signs from the President about Iraq, and if this is what we are going to fight with, well it will be a sad affair.