Posted on Nov 19, 2013

You're in Charge, 3 Changes to the Army or Military in General, GO!

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My three: Retirement: Begin Retirement pay at the 10 year mark, someone gives up a decade of their life for their country 25% of their base pay isn't that much to ask in return. Uniforms: Goodbye combat uniforms in garrison. Exceptions being of course Field training and Motor Pool Ops. This would also fix some weight issues in the Army, Make everyone wear their Class B ASU's there will be more people in the gym next week. Standards: We need to cut the force, Easy fix Every Company in the Army holds a formation on January 6th. A PT Test Follows, and a hight and weight after that. If you fail either of those events you go on the track to a new career according to regulations. Within 1 year you would see a leaner more fit fighting force.

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Uniforms

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Posted 11 y ago

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Responses: 62

CPT Aaron Kletzing

Posted 11 y ago

This is tough to answer because there's so much info we don't know re: Big Military planning.  Anyway, here are 3 areas I would focus on:  (1) More emphasis on professional military education and academic degree programs for personnel while in uniform; (2) More opportunities for joint training and collaboration across service branches and specialties; and (3) New opportunities for personnel to take sabbaticals and train/work alongside professionals in non-military industries that are relevant to their military specialty.  I think the USAF does this last one, but I'm not sure.

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CPT (Join to see)

11 y

SFC Gates,

Regional Accreditation is no easy task. CGSC and the AWC are both accredited, but they are 10 and 12 months long respectively. They meet stringent classroom/contact and workload hours to meet the accreditation requirements. Accrediting SLC to hand out BA/BS degrees would require SLC to give up to 64 credit hours of upper level courses. When you factor in that each branch has its own SLC, you see how staggering that challenge would be.

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CW3 (Join to see)

11 y

CPT Kletzing, some MOS's have the Training With Industry (TWI) option. It's a year working with a civilian company with relevance to that particular career field. I haven't seen it in the USAF, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I think it would be great if there were more slots that could be cross-service for some fields. There are a few, but not many.

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LTC (Join to see)

11 y

FA 51 Acquisitions get most of the TWI slots. I know an Army Officer who did a year at Intel and another one working at General Dynamics Land Systems for a year now.

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SFC (Join to see)

11 y

I agree with SFC Gates, Its preached alot in the NCO Core to get Cilvian Education. But its hard for some of us NCO to go do Cilivian Education cause of details. If not a degree for each school then maybe once you have completed WLC, ALC, SLC then all those should be at least a Bachlors degree. Officer are sent to colloges to get degrees. NCO Should be also..."We are the Back Bone Of all Forces"..

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SGT Ryan Siefert

Posted 11 y ago

1. PT: Revamp the program based off of Crossfit or Insanity. Have leaders actually conduct it as TRAINING instead of a "by the numbers" thing they have to do in the morning (in cadence, exercise = BORING). Tests should be more robust instead of the PU/SU/2-mile run. Add or replace with burpees, sprints, fireman carries/drags, etc. Institute a better and more accurate way to measure bodyfat percentage.

2. Multicams. I think they're the best uniform in the past 20 years. Yes, they are better than the BDUs no matter how nostalgic you are for the smell of Kiwi and spray starch.

3. NCOs should be allowed to hurt feelings again. No more of this crying about "hazing" or "bullying" nonsense. Soldiers need to develop thick skin and be pushed to do their absolute best.

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CPT (Join to see)

11 y

SGT, I think you deserve consideration for SECDEF in the next administration.

Great Ideas.

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PO3 (Join to see)

11 y

#1 and #3 (never had to deal with #2, in any sort). I like your style, bud.

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SGT (Join to see)

11 y

#s 1 and 2 are good. i can certainly understand your position on #3, but I would augment it to be "at the company commander's discretion." That way, if it truly is something that negatively effects morale, then it can be dealt with at a lower level.

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CPT (Join to see)

10 y

The biggest problem I see regarding #1 is that Crossfit and Insanity both have led to some pretty severe injuries because they are either a.) Led by Soldiers lacking proper training in how to complete an exercise, or b.) Done by Soldiers lacking the knowledge to properly execute the maneuvers needed without causing injury.

Figures we used to calculate how many people would go to a WTU following deployment...combat related units were normally around 15%, non-combat deployments (Kuwait/Qatar/etc) were usually around 25%....the majority of these injuries were MCL/ACL tears, labral tears, rotator cuff tears, and a combination of them.....caused by "battalion fun runs" and Crossfit.

I agree with the need for more robust and challenging physical training....but this is a good way to ensure that people don't make their 20 years in the military due to injuries. Increasing the number of PT NCOs would be excellent as well.

SGT (Join to see) -I agree, but I have seen some shitty company commanders, and some company commanders that were good, but definitely flirted with that line. I don't have the perfect answer....but company commanders still need humility checks from time to time.
v/r,
CPT Butler

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CPT Mike M.

Posted 11 y ago

1. Physical fitness and appearance - Come up with a more comprehensive physical fitness test and come up with another means of calculating body fat. Anything will do. Our system for body fat determination is horrible and is second from the bottom only above one person looking at another and saying "you look fat, you're flagged."

2. Get rid of a lot of the Brigade and higher level staff positions that were created after 9/11 mainly for field grade officers. Our Army across the board has become WAY too rank top-heavy. Fewer positions means fewer individuals to fill those, which means fewer field grades and higher which means money saved for the government.

3. Enforce equal opportunity and SHARP while finding a balance between enforcing the standard and being a PC Nazi. We've become WAY too sensitive, WAY too thin skinned, and that's hurting our force in more ways than one. With everyone (or at least many) tiptoeing around those they work with for fear of saying something that gets taken out of context and ends their career, they're not comfortable in their workplace and perform poorly. Not to mention we're here to support and defend the Constitution, to defend America, and often times that means using lethal force to violently end the lives of those who oppose us. This is not a job for the faint of heart. There's no room for racism or sexism in our military, but we've got to be a little more able to let some out of place comments bounce off our skin.

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SFC (Join to see)

11 y

I like your ideas Sir (CPT Miller)

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SSG (Join to see)

11 y

Very good ideas CPT Miller. Especially your third choice.

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CPT (Join to see)

11 y

2. "Everybody fights, No one quits"

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