Army Support Hooooah

[Shadowless]

I have been doing Army support for about 8 months now and I am def one of those who have no interest in ever doing it again. Has anyone here done Army support? What are some stories you have? Did you like it, hate it, in different?

I can now totally understand why the Government and Congress want to cut so many Soilders. It's nothing personal but when there are no wars to be fought, there really is nothing for soilders to do besides train. I am sure everyones experiences are different but from my past 8 months I am still trying to figure how why certain MOS have soliders working 4 on 2 off 12 hour shifts with 4 or 5 people on shift when they literally do nothing but sleep the entire time and bitch about how much they hate it? Or how on night shif there are no soilders to be seen because they are all sleeping in offices then come shift change there are suddenly like eight people showing up out of no where.

This is not a hate or dis on the Army its just what I have seen from my point of view and has made me realize that perhaps the Army does have far to many people then it really needs.

[DocBones]

The Air Force should really moth ball 80% of it's planes, because, after all, with no wars to fight, why would we need all of those aircraft flying around, not fighting a war?

The Marines have been or are cutting out a lot of their people. Pretty soon, I figure that the Navy will have robot controlled ships, also. On the TV, a lot of people are saying that since a lot of the AF missions are now being done by drones, such as bombing and recon missions...

Pretty soon after the F22s have shown the full panoply of their quirks, probably the fighters will become roboplanes too. Because some guys on TV are saying that, also.

If one service has to take a bite out of that nasty sammich, then all of them should be getting their share of swallowing down that nastiness, too.

This post was made in a good hearted way of making a joke.

I think.

[MACHINE666]

Both Congress and the Army can better utilize soldiers along the US/Mexican border, along with the failed War on Drugs. That's where our real focus should've been all these years, instead of Iraq and Ass-ghanistan....

[raustin0017]

USA, USAF, USN, USMC just sitting around training...for the next time to be called to react? That is what it is all about.
Don't think we can use US military to assist with Border Control...might want to check out Posse Comitatus Act [U.S. Code, Title 18, § 1385], which prohibits use of the armed forces to perform the tasks of civilian law enforcement unless explicitly authorized. Never will be 'authorized' in the U.S. ....and that is a good thing.

[jondstewart]

I have been doing Army support for about 8 months now and I am def one of those who have no interest in ever doing it again. Has anyone here done Army support? What are some stories you have? Did you like it, hate it, in different?

I can now totally understand why the Government and Congress want to cut so many Soilders. It's nothing personal but when there are no wars to be fought, there really is nothing for soilders to do besides train. I am sure everyones experiences are different but from my past 8 months I am still trying to figure how why certain MOS have soliders working 4 on 2 off 12 hour shifts with 4 or 5 people on shift when they literally do nothing but sleep the entire time and bitch about how much they hate it? Or how on night shif there are no soilders to be seen because they are all sleeping in offices then come shift change there are suddenly like eight people showing up out of no where.

This is not a hate or dis on the Army its just what I have seen from my point of view and has made me realize that perhaps the Army does have far to many people then it really needs.

I can't speak for the cutting soldiers part, but a lot of my opinions on deploying with the Army are varied. I was chosen in January 2006 to deploy to Afghanistan for an entire year. With 6 weeks of combat skills training at Fort Bragg on top of that 1 year. And on a FOB. Yeah, I felt I got screwed big time! Me and all the other NCO's that were voluntold for this duty had homesteaded our entire careers.

I absolutely hated the Army training, their backward and not so bright leadership, the rudeness of the folks at Bragg and Fayetteville, the hurry up and wait, and just plain total inefficiency of the training that could have been accomplished in 2 weeks. And staying a whole week at a makeshift FOB with canvas tents, catered dine and puke food, no running water, and no heat was just plain stupid!

BUT, the deployment was the best I ever had and we all became family and the branch of service we were in became irrrelevant. And if I was a FOB'it, so what? An Air Force guy staying on a FOB is special! And the Marines ran the place originally and lived like hell. They kept corpses in the freezers that stored food!

[Shadowless]

I think it would be wise for the Army to cut its active force while keeping its guard and reserve force fairly high. The reason being, outside of fighting in war there really is no mission for the Army in garrison. Yes, training needs to be done but from my point of view I am getting sick and tired of watching the Army sit around doing nothing besides watching tv while my phone rings off the hook!

[technomage1]

In fairness,both the marines and army added personel during the war to support it. So, yes, now that its nearly over those two services can expect a drawdown to previous levels. Nothing against anyone, just the reality.

In contrast, the AF lost people during the last 12 years.

[Drackore]

We not only cut down on people from the beginning and throughout two major wars...but we also ramped up our ops along with filling Army billets!

Why we are still filling Army billets and doing jobs like the OP is beyond me. Abuse and waste of resources and nothing but.

That said, what we need now are real leaders (not this bullshit we have now) that can effectively employ and utilize us with the end of Iraq and drawdown of Afghanistan. Yes we need to train and do our job, but we ramped up so fast post-911 that we are so fat (civilians) that we don't know what to do with ourselves.

In fairness,both the marines and army added personel during the war to support it. So, yes, now that its nearly over those two services can expect a drawdown to previous levels. Nothing against anyone, just the reality.

In contrast, the AF lost people during the last 12 years.

[technomage1]

We not only cut down on people from the beginning and throughout two major wars...but we also ramped up our ops along with filling Army billets!

Why we are still filling Army billets and doing jobs like the OP is beyond me. Abuse and waste of resources and nothing but.

This drives me absolutely nuts. The Army messed up, had to borrow our people, and still has not corrected their screw up enough to get their hands out of our cookie jar.

[jshiver15]

I've been working Army support for the past (nearly) 3 years and I love it. I deployed to support the 35 CAB in Kuwait and I had a great time. Granted, I'm not doing Army support to suppliment a position, I'm only doing it because the Army doesn't have weather forecasters.

With that said, I can see the OP's point. You see it all the time on base, Soldiers doing details in the morning and having nothing to do for the remainder of the day. A lot of sitting around. It's the nature of the beast until the next big war comes around.