Should we scrap the whole National Guard and Reserve LOD Sysyem?

2018-03-18T18:30:16-04:00

https://www.armytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2017/11/09/back-from-combat-guardsmen-feel-slighted-by-army-medical-care/

Back from combat, guardsmen feel slighted by Army medical care

Members of the 19th Special Forces Group came home from Afghanistan last spring to a slew of headaches with their military health care, some still unresolved.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 18 at 2018 6:34 PM

2018-03-18T18:34:20-04:00

Rally Point Please permit the editing of our own posts... please ...
The question should be:
Should we scrap the whole National Guard and Reserve LOD system?

Response by LCDR Rabbah Rona Matlow made Mar 18 at 2018 9:16 PM

2018-03-18T21:16:45-04:00

This is one of many problems in how we handle the after-effects of combat. During the 90's with BRAC, the decision was made to go with a largely reserve and guard force, reducing the active component, to, what else? Cut the Federal budget. But they didn't anticipate the 'aughts.

The last two decades of war have relied heavily on guard and reserve troops, and neither DOD nor VA have really stepped up to deal with all the injuries from these years of combat. This is true for all troops, active and reserve.

Reserve and guard folks have it much harder though, because the system is automatically rigged against them from the start.

There are a lot of things that need to be changed system wide, but certainly an improved process for dealing with these injuries in reserve and guard troops is needed.

Response by COL Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 18 at 2018 10:17 PM

2018-03-18T22:17:41-04:00

The real problem is created when you have so many malingerers. There is so much fraud that it’s hard to pick the fakers from the real. They frustrate the system and everyone gets screwed. I’ve seen where a guy would purposely injure himself so that he couldn’t get removed from active duty cause he didn’t want to go back to teaching school. Couldn’t prove it but he told others that was his plan and they must have kept him on orders for at least six months longer after I had fired him and requested he be removed from active duty for being a $hitbag with multiple security violations. So we do need a system but scraping what we have isn’t going to make it better.