Has our military gotten THIS bad??

stuckatwork, YES!! Those "stress cards" will be a major contributor to the downfall of our military. There is not a soldier in any other country that we fight against that will honor that stupid thing. The whole point of basic, I thought, was to weed out the dead that couldn't handle the stress of a combat type situation. If you can't handle basic without a stress card, then you will certainly have problems with bullets buzzing you.

My last Platoon Sgt was an ex-drill and said that the Drill Sgts today have been told to let them all go through no matter what. Even the suicidal ones. No matter how good or bad they do in basic, they still are passed so that they can go to a Unit. These soldiers show up with one thing in mind, getting out. And the Units waste their time on them by trying to fix them and make soldiers out of them. These people don't want to be soldiers!! It is unbelievable.
 
Stress Cards? If anybody has one of them and shows it while I'm
responsible for his 'well-being' (in the Marine sense of things),
I'll have him compete in push-ups against me. Every morning, even out
of the army, I do 100, in the evening 150 for my workout. My record is
325 in ten minutes.

God ever hopes I never get a platoon of these wimps under my command.
They'd be dead a week later. Morning gym includes 100 push-ups, 100
sit-ups and some more-than-evil excercises. Then they go to shower,
and only then, it's Breakfast time. You can get these do-no-goods
moving their behind real fast. Believe me.

Once I had US visitors in Colombier and they asked me wether I trained
a special unit. I just told them I was a friggin' mud-hopper.

(Actually, when I had to command a platoon during a recruit school, I
sent away 7 recruits (three of them went to other services like
artillery) and kept 29. I even got the proposal to stay in military as
professional instructor - I didn't want to at that time since I had a
vivilian job).
 
A stress card apparently is sort of like an instant TS ticket. Still I find it incredible that they could exist in the military. In marriage maybe, but not the military.

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You have to be there when it's all over. Otherwise you can't say "I told you so."

Better days to be,

Ed
 
As best as I can find out, the "Stress Cards" (if they in fact were ever in existance and not an urban myth) were only tested and are not currently in use at any training installations.

One of the major US Military training installations (Ft Leonard Wood, MO) does not use them, nor has anyone here ever seen them or heard of them.

Rob

RKBA!

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It's amazing what a large group of stupid people can accomplish.
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HukeOKC, I know he was not trying to slam the military. Its just that I get heated when people start talking about the military. As for my squadron, we went through bad times, but our commander was forced to retire after about a year of command. Now we have 2 females running the place, and it is getting a lot better, they are laying the law down, but we still have a couple spineless upper management SOB's. As for taking the job serious, in my career field, if you don't take your job serious you are weeded out to some detail that is stupid like facility manager or something. We are responsible for the lives of US/Coalition pilots and ground crews and I know of some people who have not done their job right and were sent to those positions.
As for stress cards, never heard of or saw them.
Sorry for coming off on the wrong foot.
 
"Stress cards" were real, at least in the Navy. I thought they were kidding until someone actually showed me one of the stupid little things. BTW, the Navy figured out they not only weren't helping, but actually hurting and did away with them. Don't know about the other branches...

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"...and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
Luke 22:36
"An armed society is a polite society."
Robert Heinlein
"Power corrupts. Absolute power - is kinda cool!"
Fred Reed
 
YES.

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God, Guns and Guts made this country a great country!

oberkommando sez:
"We lost the first and third and now they are after the Second!(no pun intended)"
 
I retired from the Army in 86 and live near Fort Campbell, where the 101st is stationed. This guy's assesment of the military is pretty much dead on from what I hear form active duty soldiers. Not much different from conditions at Fort Hood, Tx when I was there during the mid and late 70's. There was a tank battalion that had been reporting a conistant 90% combat ready status. For a tank unit this is pretty damn good, actually too good. The commanding general also thought so and one day without warning directed the battalion to move out to the field. They got one tank out of the motor pool but it broke down just outside the gate. Needless to say, head rolled over that one. Conditions under Carter, a former naval officer and a democrap, were pretty poor also. Actually things were extremely sorry in the military during that administration. Have we stumbled upon trend here?
 
One of the hour news shows on prime time had a portion of their show on the air force. They interviewed mechanics who had to keep jets in the air. I really wasn't paying attention, I listen to tv while playing on the computer, until I heard a statement that had me crying and laughing. A mechanic talked about needing parts and not having money to keep them in stock, or get them in a timely fashion. I work on cars and know that some stuff you keep lying around, others you order and hope it shows up. This guy was talking about pulling a flying jet apart to keep others in the air. He said it was a common occurence and they showed a jet with its cockpit all apart and I would say it would have taken at least a day to get the seat and gauges back in properly. The news show then went into percentages. With bush as president there was a high point in the overall military readiness of this country at around 85-90 percent. I think that was the number. The kicker is that the current number is in the 60's somewhere. I forget the show and numbers, but I remember thinking that a even a draft dodging weasel should know better than to have the military in shambles. I don't know what they based their numbers off of, and maybe they are wrong, I sure hope so. The numbers related to what could show up in order to fight for or defend this country in an acceptable amount of time. That was explained as the time needed for an air craft carrier to get within range to getting all army boys loaded and flown to whatever country outfitted with weapons and vehicles.
 
We have gotten to the point that if you tell the truth you will be through.
I made the "mistake" in Korea of filling out an honest Unit Status Report (USR). I was pretty much told I was an incompetent leader since my unit was the only one in such poor shape (actually I was the only honest one).
It would take 6-8 weeks to get a fan belt for a truck!!!! Usually, after a few butt chewings you go to a store and simply buy one in the states. However, that's not an option there.
We have been lying for so long they are scared to death to tell the truth!

As for the warrior mentallity is has been killed, with maybe the exception of the Ranger Bats and the SFG's.

If you resemble a soldier you will be punished and ostracized.

If a young man wants to join today I still think it is a great idea. However, do the shortest enlistment possible in the 82nd and get out.

It will take a decade to fix it. The posts are falling down and we/equipment are wore out. Besides, the current administration has had a hand in all general promotions for 8 years now.



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He who dares wins.
NRA Life Memeber
 
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