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Another Guest Post
This comes from a different friend of the blog, perhaps a bit closer to home:
So I have a funny story:
Once upon a time, there was a young CPT getting ready for work, she really had to pee! As she slips on some Army PTs and running shoes without socks, a mandatory uniform just to go to the port-a-john, she can hear yelling coming from the tent next to hers. It's hard to hear at first, but as she gets closer to the door to make a dash for the port-a-john she can make out what's really going on... "Take your Shit, and get the F*c$3 out of this tent!" As the young CPT steps outside, the light is blinding, and then she see it, a LOVERS' QUARREL! The young CPT forgets for a second that she has to pee, just so she can be entertained for a moment of what's unfolding right before her eyes. There are things laying on the ground, they were not gently placed there, these items had been thrown, and with aggression too! "Take your Shit, and never come back to this tent!" the angry female Soldier is livid about something. That's when the young CPT asks, "Do you need anything?" to the other female Soldier standing by as if a lookout for the two fighting. "I'll be right back!" the young CPT says, as she makes her dash for the port-a-john. She pees as quickly as possible, so she doesn't miss a thing, rarely is there anything going on at the FOB she has now accepted to call home. Once done, she returns to the scene of the lovers' quarrel, and the young male Soldier is gone, along with the things that had been thrown out of anger. The young CPT is relieved everything is okay now, but sad she did not get to witness the female Soldier punch this guy, who was apparently cheating on the young lady, in the face! As the young CPT headed back to her tent to continue getting ready for work, and continue with the same routine she always goes through, the young CPT's NCOIC comes in and informs her, the two were to be married upon return from this deployment, and she had told the PFC male to not return to the female tent area without his NCO! After a few moments to take in everything that just took place, it hits the young CPT, why did these two look so familiar? Why did she feel like she had meet them somewhere, but can't quite put her finger on it?... That's when the young CPT realizes!!! They were the ones the young CPT and NCOIC had walked in on while they were in the middle of "attempting" to make love on the dirty nasty floor of the force provider BATHROOM that had not been set up yet the other night!"
-The End
Women and the Draft
<p class="body"> Why don't women have to register with Selective Service when they turn 18? This splinter in the back of my brain was planted in High School, likely my junior year, whilst studying contempory American history. I saw a photo that accompanied an article about the Equal Rights Ammendment. It was young girl, perhaps four years old, with a sign that said, "Don't Draft Me!" My first thought was not that this was a rather underhanded tactic on the part of the anti-ERA campaigners, nor that she seemed a bit young for the draft board... My first thought was, "Fuck you, little girl. Why the hell not? Your adorable little brother gets to be drafted, why the fuck not you?" As you might infer from the amount of profanity directed at this small child, this protest, this idea that little girls don't have to get drafted, but adorable, tow-headed boys do, *pissed me off*. Setting aside some obvious political reasons why these changes might not be made (merely mentioning the draft is rather unpopular, anti-ERA-esque "women should stay in the kitchen" conservatives, etc), perhaps the real question I'm asking here is: What *legitimate* reason is there that women don't have to register for Selective Service? Like in previous posts, I will refer largely to the Army (it being what I know), while most of what I speak applies to the US Military as a whole. Similarly, I will address the roles currently allowed to women in the US military, not how that might or should change in the future - that I'll likely save for a future post as well. In the US Army, women can not serve in the 11- (Infantry), 13- (Field Artillery), 19- (Armor), 18- (Special Forces)-series MOSes. They can serve in almost every other MOS series (For instance 09, 12, 14, 15, 21, 25, 27, 29, 31, 35, 36, 37, 38, 42, 46, 56, 68, 74, 79, 88, 91, 92, and 94). Were a conflict to arise that would require the reenstatement of the Draft, the Army will need more than just Infantry. It's going to need medics (68), truck drivers (88), mechanics (91), supply SGTs (92), constuction engineers (21), etc., etc. The Women's Army Corps was dissolved in 1978. Women have been doing basic training with men since 1977. Though still prevented from serving in some direct combat missions, women have been fully integrated into the US Army since the Carter Administration. Overall, the jobs that currently exclude women make up something less than 20% of the Army. Just as, during the second World War women filled many of the civilian jobs vacated by drafted men (Rosie the Riveter, "A League of Their Own", my own grandmother who operated an overhead crane, builing aircraft for the war), women are more than capable of filling non-combat military jobs that might otherwise be filled by men. If we are dead set on keeping women out of the Infantry/Armor/Etc, we can make women medics and cooks and truck drivers and constuction engineers, and make all of the male draftees Infanty and Armor soldiers. Women may currently comprise only about 20% of the US military, across all services. It is not for lack of available jobs, or lack of interest in recruiting women by the military, rather American women are less interested in joining. That said, when they choose to join, they are as strong, competent, active and able as the men they serve with. Three of the top five cadets in my commissioning class were women - based on inteligence, diligence, leadership and physical ability. There is no reason, come a national emergency that required conscription, that women couldn't comprise 50% (or more) of the military. No reason other than our own outmoded thinking and a fear of talking about the draft.
Special Guest Post - Perhaps the Army Isn't Broken, But my Brigade Is
Comments from a friend of the blog, wishing to remain nameless. Not terribly apropos of recent posts, but still I enjoy being able to indulge others. Mostly, good to get a counterpoint to my "The Army isn't broken" spiel of recent days. I'll post the second half of my Draft Opus soon.
"I've been in Afghanistan for about 5 months now, about half of our deployment, in RC-South (about 20% of the country, lower in elevation, higher in excitement), deployed in a non-combat job in an Infantry Brigade.
This is my third combat Brigade, and by far the least ready to plan and execute missions. We failed at planning and executing our MRX prior to NTC. We failed to get a functional targeting cycle at NTC. By all rights we should probably not be here.
Our soldiers are doing well. They know what to do once we give them a mission. But my brigade cannot do it. We cannot plan and coordinate a mission more than, probably 4 days out.
I have seen field-grade officers who have the emotional maturity of small children. People who I do not trust. A lieutenant can sometimes be forgiven for neglecting to do an initial counseling. A Major cannot, especially when he gets furious because his expectations (never expressed) are not met.
You cannot tell a lieutenant, "Make and run a Battalion CUB," without giving guidance. We are supposed to train our subordinates - if you don't, their failures are entirely your own.
A company commander does not need to accompany every mission that sends two platoons outside of the wire. If you have more Majors than Platoons that leave the FOB, perhaps you should go home.
We have officers and senior NCOs that get moved jobs FOBs and raters, on a whim, via a message delivered third hand, without knowing that job they'll be moved into. Without so much as an explanation.
We have a massive EO [equal opportunity - Army for anti-descrimination] problem. Field grades say shit you'd be lock up a private for. Female officers and NCOs are NOT given the same opportunity as men - in gender immaterial positions.
We are flying, or falling, by the seat of our pants, more than half way through our tour. It isn't getting better. Every company grade officer I know in this Battalion is seriously considering getting out, changing branch, etc.
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