A dose of truth for the US Army

[vitoal125 0]

By Katherine McIntire Peters

kpeters@govexec.com

The Army is either unable or unwilling to do its job. That's the message

some mid-grade officers are getting from the deployment of hundreds of

Marines to landlocked Afghanistan this week.

The seizure of an airfield near Kandahar is a textbook Army mission, yet it

was Marines, who usually operate near shorelines, who performed it.

The mission was "a tremendous showcase of new capabilities," said Marine

Corps spokesman Capt. Joe Kloppel. "It shows you how far the Marines can

extend when they need to."

The fact that the Marine Corps was needed to extend into what most Army

officers consider their service's territory had some of them wondering where

Army leaders were when the mission planning decisions were being made.

"If this doesn't raise questions about Army relevance then I don't know what

would," said one infantry captain who says he is beginning to think he might

feel more at home in the Marine Corps than in the Army.

"It's a big slap in the face," said Maj. Don Vandergriff, an armor officer

who teaches military science at Georgetown University.

The fact that the Marines have the first sizeable contingent of conventional

ground troops on the battlefield in a theater of operations far from any

shoreline sparked fury among many mid-grade officers. The fact that the

theater commander in chief is an Army officer--Gen. Tommy Franks--only adds

insult to the injury.

"The Marine Corps foresight seems to have eliminated the need for the Army,"

one Army captain complained in an online forum. "Here's the bitter pill I've

been chewing on. My Army is operating equipment designed to fight Soviets in

the Fulda Gap, and the stuff in the pipeline is just a more expensive

version of the same. My Army has a personnel system that was build to defeat

the Kaiser. My Army trains to fight fictional forces in make-believe lands

instead of focusing on real-world missions. My Army has one-half the number

of generals as we did at the height of World War II, even though the force

is one-tenth the size. The resultant leadership inertia bogs decision-making

down in a bureaucratic morass, as more chiefs fight to protect their

hallowed turf. The end result of all this is we get to watch the Marines

perform Army missions because they can do them better," he wrote.

"You've got to give the Marine Corps credit for trying to make themselves

useful," said Thomas Donnelly, deputy executive director of the Project for

a New American Century and a former staffer on the House Armed Services

Committee. "At least they're making some attempt to respond to what the

country needs to have done. The Army just seems to be spending most of its

intellectual effort trying to find ways to stay out of it."

[charles 0]

wasn't the army rangers there too? and the airborne too

[EveronVetsAgainstTheWar 1]

Go USAF

[ABN RGR SF 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Quote: from charles on 7:00 am on Dec. 3, 2001

wasn't the army rangers there too? and the airborne too

<span id='postcolor'>

The 1st SFOD-D,  Many Army SF ODA's & ODB's, and Bco 3/75th Ranger Regiment  were all operating in Afghanistan before any other U.S military unit (and are still operating inside Afghanistan)

**10th Mnt. Division is deployed in Ubekistan(sp?)**

(Edited by ABN RGR SF at 9:43 am on Dec. 3, 2001)

[charles 0]

i heard they have deployed the 10th Mnt Division there too. are the screaming eagles there? they are always my fav

[GFX707 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Quote: from ABN RGR SF on 9:43 am on Dec. 3, 2001

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Quote: from charles on 7:00 am on Dec. 3, 2001

wasn't the army rangers there too? and the airborne too

<span id='postcolor'>

The 1st SFOD-D,  Many Army SF ODA's & ODB's, and Bco 3/75th Ranger Regiment  were all operating in Afghanistan before any other U.S military unit (and are still operating inside Afghanistan)

**10th Mnt. Division is deployed in Ubekistan(sp?)**

(Edited by ABN RGR SF at 9:43 am on Dec. 3, 2001)

<span id='postcolor'>

How about the FKN NRD's....? and the YRA FKN DORK's....? and the HW ABT NT USNG SO MNY STPID ABBRVTIONS....?

geezuz

(Edited by GFX707 at 5:48 pm on Dec. 3, 2001)

[suma 8]

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