Kind of reminds me about Vice President Al Gore lecturing his kids while pointing at his Secret Service Agents and and saying do you want to grow up to be like them.
I served during the Vietnam War Era when the draftee army was phased out and the volunteer army came about. It was a dicey transition and it was a difficult transition. It did not happen overnight and we almost lost the army in the experiment, but there were a dozen generals who bore down and got the job done. Wartime armies are different than peacetime armies.
It is important to know that even when we had the draftee army, the vast majority of soldiers were volunteers. Draftees start as riflemen and everybody above him from a three stripe buck sergeant and higher was a volunteer. This is an important fact.
It takes a year to train a soldier and to assimilate him into a unit so he can contribute. This includes Basic Training, Advanced Individual Training (MOS specific, military occupancy specialty), and unit training when assigned to a field unit.
That VN Era army was much, much larger than today's army -- 7-8X larger.
The draft was good for the country as it spread the burden without as much favoritism of who shared the burden -- except for the well heeled draft dodgers such as Clinton, Cheney, Trump who were able to game the system to avoid service. They were all cowards and punks, but mostly just cowards.
An added benefit was draftee soldiers knew what the military was and was not. They returned to civilian life knowledgeable about soldiering. That was very good for the country.
I was an officer, a volunteer, an Abn/Rgr combat engineer, and a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, the son of a professional soldier, and my mother served in WWII. In a lot of ways, it was the family business and I wanted to serve. It never crossed my mind I would not serve.
It was the greatest honor of my life to be entrusted with the lives of America's mothers' and fathers' sons and I took it very seriously and I'd like to think I did a good job of it. I learned a lot and I worked my ass off. It made me a better person. I grew up in the Army.
We need to return to the concept of national service -- not everybody has to go in the military -- we have plenty of national parks that need work or you can empty bed pans or you can program computers -- but some should. It is a duty of a citizen to serve the republic in some way.
If we are to have a professional, lethal, modern volunteer army in a heightening technology environment, then we need to pay our soldiers -- officers, NCOs, and enlisted soldiers -- in a competitive manner and to ensure they leave with skills and more benefits than the current GI Bill and a VA loan. We have to make it an attractive profession. Modern weapon systems require smart, well-trained people.
The military is currently run by a breed of officers who are politicians. In my day, generals did not have press officers and speak to reporters. This is where all the wokeness nonsense is coming from -- political objectives. The army is not a social petri dish.
We have only two real missions:
1. Increase the lethality of the force -- ready to fight tonight; one fight, one win, right now
2. Safeguard the lives of our soldiers
Every decision and program should be measured by those two objectives. If using certain pronouns is not going to increase the lethality of the force or safeguard the lives of our soldiers then it is not the right program. Our enemies are not going to be defeated by pronouns.
We should have a modern military capable of fighting two wars simultaneously -- the US national security doctrine until Obama abandoned it -- and win.
If the country needed me, I would serve again, but I probably couldn't serve in an airborne unit.
The personal experience you cite: Father/Mother family business is being broken today. Those fathers and mothers are telling their kids NOT to go into the military because of what it has become. The change is deliberate.
I teach Air Force JROTC at a high school. While JROTC isn't a recruiting program, most of the kids do it because they want to join the military. One thing I have seen is that most of the kids who do want to join have close relatives who are veterans. For all of the reasons others have listed, I think those relatives steer some of them away. I've also have some students who wanted to serve but couldn't pass the ASVAB unfortunately. My cadet corps commander last year couldn't (bad home life, parents never read to her when she was a toddler, never had books in the house, dad is an alcohol, etc.) but she was one of the best leaders I've seen in my life. Too bad the military doesn't trust my NCO and I to have waiver authority. We spend 4 years with these kids and given our combined 45 years of military service, I'd think we would be a good judge as to who could make it or not, even if they have some academic shortcomings. One last thing, I think the military is missing out by not asking JROTC instructors why the recruiting is as bad as it is; we are at the frontline so to speak and could provide some insight if they wanted it.
For most of its history, Rome’s military was the envy of the ancient world. But during the decline, the makeup of the once mighty legions began to change. Unable to recruit enough soldiers from the Roman citizenry, emperors like Diocletian and Constantine began hiring foreign mercenaries to prop up their armies. The ranks of the legions eventually swelled with Germanic Goths and other barbarians, so much so that Romans began using the Latin word “barbarus” in place of “soldier.” While these Germanic soldiers of fortune proved to be fierce warriors, they also had little or no loyalty to the empire, and their power-hungry officers often turned against their Roman employers. In fact, many of the barbarians who sacked the city of Rome and brought down the Western Empire had earned their military stripes while serving in the Roman legions.
Great post today Mr Carter! I have a friend (since deceased) who was a proud West Pointer who wanted nothing more than to serve, who was shown the door because of the ossified "Command" structure, and not kissing the correct behinds. He told his kids before he passed to do anything else than our current military. Still hoping there's enough of us to pull back from the abyss!
Very insightful. Not sure if you had served Jeffrey, but this is spot on. I served during the early 1980s - we still had a post-Vietnam mentality. Among our issues were replacement parts and ammo. Vehicle cannibalization was the rule. (Two of our sons are currently in-service and they often complain of similar issues.)
I did not serve. I attended the United States Air Force Academy briefly. (I had a very good jump shot that they wanted to acquire) That's where I was exposed to Schofield and I hated him because I had to memorize that whole damn thing. I missed the true wisdom in the quote and it is an essential quote for leadership. My uncle served in Vietnam, and other uncle was in the Marine Corps but didn't get shipped there. My grandfathers were both too old for WW2, although each took a physical before we dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. If we would have invaded, I am sure they would have gone since virtually everyone was all in at that point.
I did attend the Air Force Academy and graduated in 1975. I also memorized that Schofield statement, which I thought was very ironic given all the hazing that followed long after basic training summer, dignified under the name, the "Fourth Class System." I subsequently served 22 years and qualified in three aircraft, C130, T38, C5, the latter which I flew during Desert Storm. Thoroughly loved the AF as much as I disliked the Academy, but still glad I suffered my way through it. My late father had 35 mission as an engineer in B-24s, and would be appalled at what the military is doing today, as would his cousin and four uncles who also served in WWII. My father-in-law, 18 A26 missions in the European theater as a gunner, just passed this last February at 98, and had no stomach for the nonsense the military leadership, both civilian and uniformed, promote today. They are lickspittle. But like you say, it was different then.
Agree.....I can't imagine getting behind the "wheels" of a C5....what a big horse...My sitting height was too tall to fly....It was funny. I regretted not finishing but when I read the USAFA page on FB about all the violations people saw in a SAMI photo I thought that maybe I made the correct decision! I was recruited by Navy and USAFA. Coach Egan was a wonderful man-funny as all get out.
In his book The Old Navy, Daniel Mannix describes meeting various British officers prior to WWI. Some of them were members of the First Life Guards, an “elite” regiment that was open only to the wealthy and titled…”Kipling referred to them contemptuously as the “fatted flunkies of the Army.” But:
"Twenty years later I was in Constantinople and the Household Brigade of the British Army was stationed there. I looked over the list to see if I could recognize any old acquaintances. Among all those names there were only two or three who had titles…Where were all those young earls and baronets and honorables? They were dead. Most of them had died in August 1914 during the terrible retreat from Mons when the old British Regular Army virtually ceased to exist. They were not “fatted flunkies” there.”"
Conscription works. Fosters patriotism and camaraderie among all classes. Creates a trained populace that is proficient in self defense and arms training. Even if it a just 1-2 years between HS and college.
I don't agree with that. Conscription doesn't work. The elites figure out ways to avoid it. Regular people do too. I have friends that are in their 70s that did everything they could to stay away from the draft. College deferments were one way. Getting married and having a baby was another avenue. When there are edicts, there are always loopholes and only the wealthy and powerful can find their way through them. Suppose you get drafted. You don't want to go. Your alternative is to serve jail time. Elvis got drafted and served. Ali did not. We can't all be Ali and overcome the stigma of jail time on our records.
No way, Jose. You do NOT want to be in a foxhole, a landing craft or having to launch an air strike amidst a biohazard with someone who didn't volunteer to take the same risks as you. You need a buddy that you can rely on. The military simply doesn't work without them. Absent the current ESG manure, would a 2 yr enlistment do the average person good? Yes, but forcing them to do it does NOT "foster patriotism". Service enhances patriotism; it doesn't c
Our forces increasingly rely on skills and knowledge that cannot be adequately captured, assimilated and employed in 1-2 years. So a curriculum that short would not be useful. Further, far too many of today's American youth are unsuitable for military service because of personal discipline issues (obesity, drug abuse) that cannot be "cured" in a short period of time.
We are well over 30 years beyond the point where conscription would be a viable approach (that was already true when I began active service in the late 1980s); our only viable option is to make service attractive enough to persuade a sufficient number of high-quality youth volunteer to serve.
I served for six years in the mid 80's/early 90's. I had to go through rigorous pre-screening/background checks and vocational testing (ASVAB). Further, in boot camp there were no fatties or snowflakes. It was physically and mentally demanding designed to weed out the weak of body and more importantly the mind/mental toughness. My boot camp company started with just over 90 recruits and graduated with just over 50.
As a veteran, I'm disgusted with today's military and it's leadership. They are sh@t and if I had a son or daughter of military age today, I would do everything in my power to tell them to not join.
A friend in the military tells me that a significant, unpublicized factor in low recruitment is the automated review of medical records, and blocking people who want to enlist but who have minor issues in their medical history that would have been ignored under a discretionary system, such as having ever used antidepressant medication as a teenager. I agree with the thrust of this post, but there may be other, significant factors in play here that are not getting the focus they should.
In our present environment, conscription (short of a *major* war) would include a 'public service' option, with a heavy Woke flavor to that public service, and increasingly pleasant ways of fulfilling it for those that are best credentialed and/or connected.
Drafts are not conscription. Conscription is compulsory across the board. Benefits include but are not limited to better public health, higher collective patriotism, immersion among people of diverse ethnicities/socioeconomic citizens (poor and White kids together as Biden would say)military training (people who’ve been around guns are less likely to be against them), and a de facto universal national guard to draw upon in a national emergency. Conscription is requisite to maintain citizenship. In conscription, if you haven’t served your country for a year (physical deferrals just change your form of service), your citizenship is revoked. And then you’d have to fly to Mexico and walk back across the border where you will be greeted with an iPhone a plane ticket to a city of your choice, unlimited nights in a 4 star hotel of your choice, with free room, board, room service, education, and medical care.
Kind of reminds me about Vice President Al Gore lecturing his kids while pointing at his Secret Service Agents and and saying do you want to grow up to be like them.
Exactly
I served during the Vietnam War Era when the draftee army was phased out and the volunteer army came about. It was a dicey transition and it was a difficult transition. It did not happen overnight and we almost lost the army in the experiment, but there were a dozen generals who bore down and got the job done. Wartime armies are different than peacetime armies.
It is important to know that even when we had the draftee army, the vast majority of soldiers were volunteers. Draftees start as riflemen and everybody above him from a three stripe buck sergeant and higher was a volunteer. This is an important fact.
It takes a year to train a soldier and to assimilate him into a unit so he can contribute. This includes Basic Training, Advanced Individual Training (MOS specific, military occupancy specialty), and unit training when assigned to a field unit.
That VN Era army was much, much larger than today's army -- 7-8X larger.
The draft was good for the country as it spread the burden without as much favoritism of who shared the burden -- except for the well heeled draft dodgers such as Clinton, Cheney, Trump who were able to game the system to avoid service. They were all cowards and punks, but mostly just cowards.
An added benefit was draftee soldiers knew what the military was and was not. They returned to civilian life knowledgeable about soldiering. That was very good for the country.
I was an officer, a volunteer, an Abn/Rgr combat engineer, and a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, the son of a professional soldier, and my mother served in WWII. In a lot of ways, it was the family business and I wanted to serve. It never crossed my mind I would not serve.
It was the greatest honor of my life to be entrusted with the lives of America's mothers' and fathers' sons and I took it very seriously and I'd like to think I did a good job of it. I learned a lot and I worked my ass off. It made me a better person. I grew up in the Army.
We need to return to the concept of national service -- not everybody has to go in the military -- we have plenty of national parks that need work or you can empty bed pans or you can program computers -- but some should. It is a duty of a citizen to serve the republic in some way.
If we are to have a professional, lethal, modern volunteer army in a heightening technology environment, then we need to pay our soldiers -- officers, NCOs, and enlisted soldiers -- in a competitive manner and to ensure they leave with skills and more benefits than the current GI Bill and a VA loan. We have to make it an attractive profession. Modern weapon systems require smart, well-trained people.
The military is currently run by a breed of officers who are politicians. In my day, generals did not have press officers and speak to reporters. This is where all the wokeness nonsense is coming from -- political objectives. The army is not a social petri dish.
We have only two real missions:
1. Increase the lethality of the force -- ready to fight tonight; one fight, one win, right now
2. Safeguard the lives of our soldiers
Every decision and program should be measured by those two objectives. If using certain pronouns is not going to increase the lethality of the force or safeguard the lives of our soldiers then it is not the right program. Our enemies are not going to be defeated by pronouns.
We should have a modern military capable of fighting two wars simultaneously -- the US national security doctrine until Obama abandoned it -- and win.
If the country needed me, I would serve again, but I probably couldn't serve in an airborne unit.
JLM
www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
The personal experience you cite: Father/Mother family business is being broken today. Those fathers and mothers are telling their kids NOT to go into the military because of what it has become. The change is deliberate.
This is front page commentary that can and should be applied in our military and well beyond our military. Bravo, Jeffrey!
I teach Air Force JROTC at a high school. While JROTC isn't a recruiting program, most of the kids do it because they want to join the military. One thing I have seen is that most of the kids who do want to join have close relatives who are veterans. For all of the reasons others have listed, I think those relatives steer some of them away. I've also have some students who wanted to serve but couldn't pass the ASVAB unfortunately. My cadet corps commander last year couldn't (bad home life, parents never read to her when she was a toddler, never had books in the house, dad is an alcohol, etc.) but she was one of the best leaders I've seen in my life. Too bad the military doesn't trust my NCO and I to have waiver authority. We spend 4 years with these kids and given our combined 45 years of military service, I'd think we would be a good judge as to who could make it or not, even if they have some academic shortcomings. One last thing, I think the military is missing out by not asking JROTC instructors why the recruiting is as bad as it is; we are at the frontline so to speak and could provide some insight if they wanted it.
For most of its history, Rome’s military was the envy of the ancient world. But during the decline, the makeup of the once mighty legions began to change. Unable to recruit enough soldiers from the Roman citizenry, emperors like Diocletian and Constantine began hiring foreign mercenaries to prop up their armies. The ranks of the legions eventually swelled with Germanic Goths and other barbarians, so much so that Romans began using the Latin word “barbarus” in place of “soldier.” While these Germanic soldiers of fortune proved to be fierce warriors, they also had little or no loyalty to the empire, and their power-hungry officers often turned against their Roman employers. In fact, many of the barbarians who sacked the city of Rome and brought down the Western Empire had earned their military stripes while serving in the Roman legions.
Great post today Mr Carter! I have a friend (since deceased) who was a proud West Pointer who wanted nothing more than to serve, who was shown the door because of the ossified "Command" structure, and not kissing the correct behinds. He told his kids before he passed to do anything else than our current military. Still hoping there's enough of us to pull back from the abyss!
Very insightful. Not sure if you had served Jeffrey, but this is spot on. I served during the early 1980s - we still had a post-Vietnam mentality. Among our issues were replacement parts and ammo. Vehicle cannibalization was the rule. (Two of our sons are currently in-service and they often complain of similar issues.)
I did not serve. I attended the United States Air Force Academy briefly. (I had a very good jump shot that they wanted to acquire) That's where I was exposed to Schofield and I hated him because I had to memorize that whole damn thing. I missed the true wisdom in the quote and it is an essential quote for leadership. My uncle served in Vietnam, and other uncle was in the Marine Corps but didn't get shipped there. My grandfathers were both too old for WW2, although each took a physical before we dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. If we would have invaded, I am sure they would have gone since virtually everyone was all in at that point.
I did attend the Air Force Academy and graduated in 1975. I also memorized that Schofield statement, which I thought was very ironic given all the hazing that followed long after basic training summer, dignified under the name, the "Fourth Class System." I subsequently served 22 years and qualified in three aircraft, C130, T38, C5, the latter which I flew during Desert Storm. Thoroughly loved the AF as much as I disliked the Academy, but still glad I suffered my way through it. My late father had 35 mission as an engineer in B-24s, and would be appalled at what the military is doing today, as would his cousin and four uncles who also served in WWII. My father-in-law, 18 A26 missions in the European theater as a gunner, just passed this last February at 98, and had no stomach for the nonsense the military leadership, both civilian and uniformed, promote today. They are lickspittle. But like you say, it was different then.
Agree.....I can't imagine getting behind the "wheels" of a C5....what a big horse...My sitting height was too tall to fly....It was funny. I regretted not finishing but when I read the USAFA page on FB about all the violations people saw in a SAMI photo I thought that maybe I made the correct decision! I was recruited by Navy and USAFA. Coach Egan was a wonderful man-funny as all get out.
Lots of wisdom here to chew on for the horned albatrosses that run our late stage banana republic. 💩🐂🤡🌎🤮🤬
In his book The Old Navy, Daniel Mannix describes meeting various British officers prior to WWI. Some of them were members of the First Life Guards, an “elite” regiment that was open only to the wealthy and titled…”Kipling referred to them contemptuously as the “fatted flunkies of the Army.” But:
"Twenty years later I was in Constantinople and the Household Brigade of the British Army was stationed there. I looked over the list to see if I could recognize any old acquaintances. Among all those names there were only two or three who had titles…Where were all those young earls and baronets and honorables? They were dead. Most of them had died in August 1914 during the terrible retreat from Mons when the old British Regular Army virtually ceased to exist. They were not “fatted flunkies” there.”"
Conscription works. Fosters patriotism and camaraderie among all classes. Creates a trained populace that is proficient in self defense and arms training. Even if it a just 1-2 years between HS and college.
I don't agree with that. Conscription doesn't work. The elites figure out ways to avoid it. Regular people do too. I have friends that are in their 70s that did everything they could to stay away from the draft. College deferments were one way. Getting married and having a baby was another avenue. When there are edicts, there are always loopholes and only the wealthy and powerful can find their way through them. Suppose you get drafted. You don't want to go. Your alternative is to serve jail time. Elvis got drafted and served. Ali did not. We can't all be Ali and overcome the stigma of jail time on our records.
No way, Jose. You do NOT want to be in a foxhole, a landing craft or having to launch an air strike amidst a biohazard with someone who didn't volunteer to take the same risks as you. You need a buddy that you can rely on. The military simply doesn't work without them. Absent the current ESG manure, would a 2 yr enlistment do the average person good? Yes, but forcing them to do it does NOT "foster patriotism". Service enhances patriotism; it doesn't c
Our forces increasingly rely on skills and knowledge that cannot be adequately captured, assimilated and employed in 1-2 years. So a curriculum that short would not be useful. Further, far too many of today's American youth are unsuitable for military service because of personal discipline issues (obesity, drug abuse) that cannot be "cured" in a short period of time.
We are well over 30 years beyond the point where conscription would be a viable approach (that was already true when I began active service in the late 1980s); our only viable option is to make service attractive enough to persuade a sufficient number of high-quality youth volunteer to serve.
I served for six years in the mid 80's/early 90's. I had to go through rigorous pre-screening/background checks and vocational testing (ASVAB). Further, in boot camp there were no fatties or snowflakes. It was physically and mentally demanding designed to weed out the weak of body and more importantly the mind/mental toughness. My boot camp company started with just over 90 recruits and graduated with just over 50.
As a veteran, I'm disgusted with today's military and it's leadership. They are sh@t and if I had a son or daughter of military age today, I would do everything in my power to tell them to not join.
A friend in the military tells me that a significant, unpublicized factor in low recruitment is the automated review of medical records, and blocking people who want to enlist but who have minor issues in their medical history that would have been ignored under a discretionary system, such as having ever used antidepressant medication as a teenager. I agree with the thrust of this post, but there may be other, significant factors in play here that are not getting the focus they should.
In our present environment, conscription (short of a *major* war) would include a 'public service' option, with a heavy Woke flavor to that public service, and increasingly pleasant ways of fulfilling it for those that are best credentialed and/or connected.
Drafts are not conscription. Conscription is compulsory across the board. Benefits include but are not limited to better public health, higher collective patriotism, immersion among people of diverse ethnicities/socioeconomic citizens (poor and White kids together as Biden would say)military training (people who’ve been around guns are less likely to be against them), and a de facto universal national guard to draw upon in a national emergency. Conscription is requisite to maintain citizenship. In conscription, if you haven’t served your country for a year (physical deferrals just change your form of service), your citizenship is revoked. And then you’d have to fly to Mexico and walk back across the border where you will be greeted with an iPhone a plane ticket to a city of your choice, unlimited nights in a 4 star hotel of your choice, with free room, board, room service, education, and medical care.
The Draft is coming.
You have been warned
I don't think so unless there is a world war.