Key US Army ranks begin to thin
The Army has seen the reenlistment rate of mid-grade enlisted soldiers
drop 12 percentage points, from 96 percent during the first quarter of
2005 to a low of 84 percent for the first quarter of 2007. While a reenlistment shortfall in any Army group is cause for concern,
many consider the declining rate among mid-grade sergeants to be a sign
of potential bigger reenlistment problems for the Army down the line.
In addition, the fact that more mid-level soldiers are leaving could
have a long-term impact on the Army's ability to grow future leaders.
Mandatory national service to be a major campaign issue in 2008
The Pentagon is firmly opposed to a draft, believing that volunteers are more willing to learn, train and serve. There's far more support for a broad-based national service program.
The concept takes various forms, but it generally requires that young
college and high school grads perform a year of public service between
the ages of 18 and 24. Supporters say that a compulsory national service program with a
military training option would instill patriotic values and pride in
upcoming generations of young people.
Army chief wants to speed up troop hike
The Army’s new chief of staff said Saturday he wants to accelerate by
two years a plan to increase the nation’s active duty soldiers by
65,000. He said the Army was stretched and would remain that way until the additional troops were trained and equipped.
Pay soars to keep people in military
The Pentagon poured more than $1 billion into bonuses last year to keep
soldiers and Marines in the military in the face of an unpopular war
and battlefield deployments that are getting longer and more frequent. The incentives — including tax-free payments for those who re-enlist
while in the war zone — have jumped nearly sixfold since 2003, the year
the war in Iraq began.
Pentagon to Extend Service for All Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan
Forget small extensions and trickles of National Guard troops. Under
the plan, deployments for active-duty soldiers will be extended from
the current 12 months to 15 months. This will apply to all active-duty
soldiers, but not to the National Guard and Reserve.
Breaking the Army
According to a report in the Boston Globe Wednesday, graduates from the
military's officer training academy at West Point are choosing to leave
active duty at the highest rate in more than three decades – "a sign to
many specialists," the Globe said, "that repeated tours in Iraq are
prematurely driving out some of the Army's top young officers." Of the 903 officers commissioned on graduating from West Point in 2001, 54 percent had left the service by January of this year.
An army popping at the seams
Of the 20 army combat brigades in or on their way to Iraq or
Afghanistan, none has been home for two years and four have not been
home for a year. One unit, the 4th Infantry Division Headquarters from
Fort Hood, Texas, will return to Iraq after about seven months at home.
None of the units was rated fully or even substantially combat ready
(C-2) when deployed.
Experts: Force increases may not be enough
The Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony Tuesday that
increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps may not resolve severe
and growing personnel problems. There was even talk of returning to the
draft to fill the ranks.
Stressed army makes US vulnerable-retired general
McCaffrey, who returned last month from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan,
condemned Pentagon policies he said had left the U.S. Army too small,
with its equipment in disarray and lacking a fallback position should a
challenge come from somewhere like Iran, Syria or North Korea.
Pentagon strains to uphold troops levels in Iraq
The Pentagon will send four National Guard brigades to Iraq and may extend the tours of five active-duty Army brigades by as much as four months as it strains to find troops to sustain the buildup in Baghdad through the end of the year.
Once Prohibited, Guard Units Now Returning to Iraq
The Army's announcement Monday that four Army National Guard brigades--totaling more than 12,000 troops--are headed to Iraq marks the first time that any full brigade combat team has returned to the country for a second tour. The return of Guard units to Iraq is a politically sensitive issue, since states--and their governors--rely on the corps of citizen-soldiers to provide emergency help in the event of natural disasters or threats to homeland security. To that end, National Guard Bureau Chief H. Steven Blum has promised not to deploy more than 50 percent of a state's national guardsmen at any given time.
Army Reserve falters on recruitment
The Army Reserve, whose troops drive trucks on bomb-riddled roads and help set up local governments in Iraq and Afghanistan, is struggling to recruit soldiers. The Army Reserve missed its recruiting goal by 5% last year and is 9% short of its target this year, records show.
Retired major general: it's time to debate military draft
Retired Major General John Batiste, who led the 1st Infantry Division for two years in Iraq, said it's time for Americans to begin debate on whether to bring back the military draft. atiste says coalition forces would need 300,000 troops to "win the peace" in Iraq. Right now, there are 140,000 troops.
To reach that level, and to confront threats from terrorists all over the world, Batiste believes it could be time to debate the military draft as an option.
U.S. Army prosecutions of desertion rise sharply
Army studies and interviews suggest a link between the rising rate of desertions and its expanding use of moral waivers to recruit people with poor academic records and low-level criminal convictions. We're enlisting more dropouts, people with more law violations, lower test scores, more moral issues," said a senior noncommissioned officer involved in U.S. Army personnel and recruiting. We're really scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to get people to join."
America's Broken-Down Army
"The readiness of the Army's ground forces is as bad as it was right after Vietnam," Murtha tells TIME. Even Colin Powell—a retired Army general, onetime Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Bush's first Secretary of State—acknowledges that after spending nearly six years fighting a small war in Afghanistan and four years waging a medium-size war in Iraq, the service whose uniform he wore for 35 years is on the ropes. "The active Army," Powell said in December, "is about broken."
Is US Army bent to the breaking point?
The Pentagon's announcement Monday that it is sending two units back to Iraq early means it will renege on its objective to give soldiers at least 12 months at home between deployments. The fact that the Pentagon felt compelled to make the call-up seems to validate what many retired generals and former Pentagon officials have warned: that repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan are wearing out military personnel and equipment to a worrisome point.
Broken Army, broken empire
The Army is "about broken," agrees Colin Powell, the former chairman
of the Joint Chiefs. Powell believes we "are losing the war" in Iraq, but
opposes any "surge" of U.S. troops. "There are no additional troops," says Powell. "All we would be doing
is keeping some of the troops who were there, there longer, and escalating or
accelerating the arrival of other troops." Retired Gen. Kevin Ryan agrees: "Today, the 37 combat brigades of the
active Army are almost totally consumed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
With all units either deployed, returning from deployment or preparing to
deploy, there is none left to prepare for other contingencies."
A top Democratic lawmaker reintroduced legislation to restore the US military
draft, saying that the all-volunteer army is shorthanded and overwhelmed by
current and future troop deployments in Iraq.
Pentagon abandons active-duty time limit
The Pentagon has abandoned its limit on the time a citizen-soldier can
be required to serve on active duty, officials said Thursday, a major
change that reflects an Army stretched thin by longer-than-expected
combat in Iraq. The Pentagon also announced it is proposing to Congress that the size
of the Army be increased by 65,000, to 547,000 and that the Marine
Corps, the smallest of the services, grow by 27,000, to 202,000, over
the next five years.
General Says Army Will Need To Grow
Warning that the active-duty Army "will break" under the strain of
today's war-zone rotations, the nation's top Army general yesterday
called for expanding the force by 7,000 or more soldiers a year and
lifting Pentagon restrictions on involuntary call-ups of Army National
Guard and Army Reserve troops.
Military considers recruiting foreigners
The armed forces, already struggling to meet recruiting goals, are considering
expanding the number of noncitizens in the ranks -- including disputed proposals
to open recruiting stations overseas and putting more immigrants on a faster
track to US citizenship if they volunteer -- according to Pentagon officials.
Leaned on as never before, reservists weigh re-enlistment
Those deciding whether to remain in the Guard and Reserve must take
into account the possibility that they'd have to serve longer and more
frequently on active duty than they do now. Under current mobilization
policies, part-time troops can be called on to serve involuntarily on
active duty for no more than 24 months during a five-year period. Army
officials want the Pentagon to lift those restrictions so that National
Guard and Reserve troops can be pressed into service more often;
specifics remain to be worked out.
Powell says troops stretched too thin
Former secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that the U.S. Army
"is about broken" and could not support sending a significant increase
of soldiers to Iraq. "That surge cannot be sustained," Powell said. "The current active Army
… and the Marine Corps is not large enough for the kinds of missions
they're being asked to perform."
With Military Straining In Iraq, Troop Limits Affecting Strategy
The Iraq Study Group has come under fire for recommending a drastic
drawdown of U.S. military forces in Iraq, but the nation's military
experts are warning that limited resources may have the final say on
what to do there.The Pentagon has 174,000 troops deployed to the Southwest Asia theater,
including 132,000 in Iraq and almost 20,000 in Afghanistan.
About a third of U.S. combat troops are actively engaged in the region.
Another third are either returning from the region or preparing to
return to it -- some for their third tour. That leaves few reserves for doing more in Iraq or for responding to other dangers.
Deployment data underscore the strain of combat operations
“To sustain this cycle of deployments to Iraq is going to be one hell
of a challenge for as small as this Army is,” said retired Brig. Gen.
David Grange, former commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division.
“If North Korea or Iran or something like that started, we would be in
a bit of a pinch. Could we do it? Yes, but with ground power, it would
be difficult. I don’t think they can sustain the rotations the way they
are right now without really starting to have severe readiness issues
in the Army much more than another year, say through 2007. You’d really
be pushing it.”
Unions oppose ‘draft’ of federal workers to Iraq
The Iraq Study Group’s recommendation that the Bush administration
consider ordering government civilians to Iraq has drawn outrage from
federal employees’ unions.Civilian agencies have been seeking volunteers to assist with efforts
in Iraq. But the report states that the potential danger of the
assignment means few qualified candidates have taken the offer.
Therefore: “In the short term, if not enough civilians volunteer to
fill key positions in Iraq, civilian agencies must fill those positions
with directed assignments,” the report says.
Add 100,000 to military, King says
The U.S. military should be expanded by 100,000 to 150,000 troops to
help relieve the long-term burden on those already serving in Iraq and
Afghanistan, U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Ia., said Monday.
"I think this global war is going to go on for a long time," he said.
Volunteer force may be ‘severely degraded’ soon, retired general says
Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle, the Army’s deputy chief of staff, said the
current recruiting environment may be the most challenging the service
has faced since the draft ended 33 years ago. The panel on Thursday said recent recruiting difficulties are a
combination of a lack of emphasis on military service in society and
the heavy deployment of both active duty and reserve forces. And the
experts said if those issues aren’t addressed, the recruiting
difficulties will only grow, jeopardizing the readiness of the military.
Possible Iraq Deployments Would Stretch Reserve Force
The Army's National Guard and Reserve are bracing for possible new and
accelerated call-ups, spurred by high demand for U.S. troops in Iraq,
that leaders caution could undermine the citizen-soldier force as it
struggles to rebuild.
Army Recruiters Accused of Misleading Students to Get Them to Enlist
An ABC News undercover investigation showed Army recruiters telling
students that the war in Iraq was over, in an effort to get them to
enlist.
US force in Iraq swells to 150,000: Pentagon
With the US death toll in Iraq passing 100 this month and mid-term
elections just days away, the Pentagon said the US force in Iraq has
grown to 150,000 troops, the biggest it has been since January. The increase is noteworthy because US troop strength in Iraq is only
10,000 under the all-time high of about 160,000 reported in January
after the Iraqi elections.
McCaffrey: Army near 'breaking' point
The Iraq war has left the United States
military in critical condition, stretched beyond its limits in manpower and
equipment and in danger of "breaking." "The United States Army is stumbling toward the edge of a cliff. It’s
starting to unravel," said Gen. Barry McCaffrey.
Army: Troops to Stay in Iraq Until 2010
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Army has plans to keep the current level of soldiers in Iraq through 2010, the top Army officer said Wednesday, a later date than Bush administration or Pentagon officials have mentioned thus far. Currently there are 141,000 troops in Iraq, including 120,000 Army soldiers.
Troops polled say armed forces stretched too thin overseas
A solid majority of American soldiers returning from the fighting in
Iraq and Afghanistan say that U.S. armed forces are stretched too thin,
according to a poll released yesterday by a veterans group.
Top Generals Hint at Army Expansion of 60,000 Troops
One official told ABC News, other than the troops now in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are only two to three combat brigades — that's 7,000 to 10,000 troops — who are fully trained and equipped to respond quickly to a crisis.
More Troops
Researchers at conservative think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation call for larger ground forces, as do thinkers at centrist and liberal organizations like Brookings, CSIS, and even the Center for American Progress. The more modest recommendations call for increasing the Army, over the next few years, by 50,000 to 100,000 new troops from its current 500,000. We would urge an immediate expansion toward a 750,000-person Army. In any case, the consensus for a larger Army is about as complete as it could be.
Iraq tours stretched for 4,000 US troops: Pentagon
The increased demand for troops comes at a time when military analysts say it is nearly stressed to the breaking point. on-deployed combat brigades are experiencing low readiness ratings due mostly to a lack of usable weapons and equipment, the paper noted. The wear and tear in Iraq is ruining M1A1 tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, Humvee vehicles and other equipment at such a fast pace that the Army has neither the money nor the industrial base to replace them, according to the Times.
Deployment Math Tests the Military
If the American force in Iraq cannot be shrunk, lawmakers will face some difficult decisions, military experts said. Jack L. Tilley, who from 2000 to 2004 served as sergeant major of the Army — the service's top enlisted officer — said "The question our Congress has to ask itself is at what point do we activate our country a little bit more. Nobody wants to talk about a draft. But how long are you going to go until enough is enough? Those are tough questions."
Not coming soon: US troop cuts in Iraq
In recent days, US military commanders have delivered a bleak message about Iraq: The number of American troops there is not likely to be substantially reduced anytime soon. Yet the current force may have been strained near the breaking point by frequent deployments to the region, say experts. That means in the months to come, the Pentagon could face increased pressure to expand the size of the active-duty Army.
America's youth must serve their country, one way or another
The United States military has a very big problem: Too many global conflicts and commitments - and too few soldiers.That's why it's time to reinstate the draft. A draft would do more than
just harness the energy and idealism of the nation's youth to meet the
military's unmet personnel needs. It would also tap more of the
resources of the nation's women, heeding their demands for more gender
equality by making their obligations more consonant with their rights.
New Call for a Draft
The head of Connecticut's Selective Service program, believes the
nation needs a military draft. "I think it is going to be almost
unavoidable if we continue heading down the path we are going on," said
retired Brig. Gen. Nathan Agostinelli. "A lot of those in Congress know
it is needed, but they also know they wouldn't get elected if they said
so."
Concern over US army recruitment
This year the army appears to be on target to reach the 80,000 goal but to do so it has had to double the top enlistment bonuses for recruits from $20,000 to $40,000. It has also had to loosen medical standards, forgive more minor criminal offences, raise the age limit for new recruits from 35 to 42 and accept more people who did not finish high school.
Military made up of weary volunteers
This was the plan in 1973: Dump the draft. Count on volunteers. When
something big comes up, rely on the reserves and National Guard. Only in the case of a long-term, large-scale foreign deployment -
define that as more than six months and 100,000 troops - would there be
any need to bother with a draft again.
Marines to recall troops to active duty
The Marine Corps will soon begin ordering thousands of its troops back to
active duty because of a shortage of volunteers for Iraq and Afghanistan — the
first involuntary recall since the early days of the war. The deployments can last up to two years, but on average would be 12 to 18
months. Each Marine who is being recalled will get five months to
prepare before having to report.
Governors Oppose Radical National Guard Plan
24 members of the National Governors
Association sent a letter of protest to the House Committee on Armed Services.
The strongly worded letter was a reaction to a provision of a bill that would
allow the president to seize control of the National Guard without gubernatorial
consent. The radical proposal is in direct violation of Article 1, Section 8 of the
U.S. Constitution, which expressly prohibits the president from mobilizing state
National Guards without the consent of Congress.
Former Generals: Bush Must Negotiate to Make America Safer
Twenty-one former generals and high ranking national security officials
have called on United States President George W. Bush to reverse course
and embrace a new area of negotiation with Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.
In a letter released Thursday, the group told reporters Bush's "hard
line" policies have undermined national security and made America less
safe.
Troops long out-of-uniform sent to Iraq
Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Arlington, Va.-based
Lexington Institute, said part of the reason that the military has
called up so many people who were on reserve status is that certain
skill sets such as military police or civil affairs were concentrated
in the reserves after the Cold War ended. But he said the sheer numbers of IRR soldiers being mobilized also are
a sign that the military doesn't have enough people to fight this war,
now in its fourth year.
Pentagon slow to address burden on nation's citizen soldiers
Lt. Gen. Craig R. McKinley, director of the Air National Guard, said there must be enough funding to keep reservists operating at the pace they have been or a draft could be possible. "What is the cost if we don't support our Guard and reserve?" McKinley said during discussions about funding for the units. "I believe it would be a debate over conscription."
Army relaxes standards to fill ranks
Pentagon officials announced Monday that the Army has managed to
achieve its latest recruiting goals, while admitting that they have
lowered some standards that had been set to ensure the quality of the
force. But as the military continues investigations into alleged atrocities
committed by U.S. troops in Iraq, some experts worry that the Army,
stretched thin by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and under pressure to
fill its ranks, might be signing up soldiers who should not be in the
service.
U.S. Military Manpower at Crisis
Frederick W. Kagan, a resident scholar at the Washington-based think
tank, American Enterprise Institute, says in his new analysis that if
the U.S. military is to avoid crisis in the future, the size of U.S.
ground forces must increase by "at least 100,000 and possibly by as
many as 200,000 active and reserve soldiers and marines -- combat and
support forces both."
