The Glade 4.0

But, it seems, still be deployed. Its ok they - they'll get a brief bit of training before deployment so it wont impact operations.

WTF.

I'd be resigning at this point if I were in the TA

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8300530.stm

wtf.. I think I understand now why my sister in laws parents keep saying that the UK has gone to **** and that they are in the process of immigrating to the US.

_________________
Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

That's what happens when you keep using your defense budget as the slush fund for everything that comes along.. while trying to fund a war out of the peacetime budget in the first place.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I heard that they had their bayonets replaced with spoons.

_________________
A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

It'll hurt more, you twit!

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

They're just following the USAF's example...

You train people before they deploy?

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I think its much more effective to just gear people up and shove them out the door. I mean not like anything bad could happen.

_________________
"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Worked pretty well for the Russians in WWII, right?

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Yes - I suppose our flaw is we give them too much gear...

_________________
"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Yeah. But only JUST before they deploy. The last time I got any actualy "military" training (marksmanship, NBC, anything at all) was...umm...2002 I think.

They (the AF leadership) seems to think that training AF enlisted folks for a couple weeks before they deploy them will somehow suffice when they've been ignoring those skills for perhaps YEARS before the deployment.

Good thing I work on my marksmanship on my own time (although that's a lot harder now that I'm in Maryland)...

Another bright point is the new, "better" PT standards that focus even MORE on running fast and even less on strength or overall fitness than the old, extremely stupid one we're moving away from...

AF fitness standards are all about lowering health care costs in the long run, and not at all about the ability to perform in combat. Calling it "fit to fight" (*gag*) doesn't change that.

I keep telling our "PT leaders" that I'm willing to throw on pads/gloves and fight anyone in our squadron that scored a 90+ on our moronic standard, but so far no takers.

Edit - Interestingly, someone in the AF leadership seemed to realize just HOW deficient the AF's hand to hand skills were and was making noises about everyone having to take combatives training. As I expected at that time, after that annoucement that it was definately happening before the end of the year (last year) nobody ever said another word about it...

Dude, there's plenty of people to shoot at in MD.

I live on an Army base, not downtown Baltimore

Lol

_________________
"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

The Wire tells me it's the westside that's dangerous, not downtown so much.

_________________
“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

The Wire lies to you. Even the Old Harbor tourist area is semi-dangerous.

Hand-to-hand combatives are bout the least important basic skill you could work on before deploying.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Hmm...

Well, I did say "not so much" as opposed to "not at all." Hopefully that saves me.

_________________
“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Of course they are, but it's one more example of the AF leadership saying "we're going to create a warrior culture" and then turning around and doing the complete opposite.

Deploying people who have only shot an M-16 once in, say, 12 years, people who had their first "training" on NBC a week before they deployed, focusing so much on a stupid 1 1/2 mile run that they deploy people who can't handle the weight of body armor, much less everything else they have to carry...the list goes on and on.

The AF is all set if they have to prepare powerpoint slides, fill out moronic paperwork, or make coffee in a combat zone, though

The Army is doing sort of the same thing, at least insofar as everything these days is a "warrior" something, such as Common Task Training becoming Warrior Tasks and Drills or something like that. There's the Soldier's Creed which is something that appeared in the last 5-6 years and refers to warrior stuff, and basically is a ripoff the the much older Ranger Creed which a bunch of politically correct stuff thrown in.

I have seen AF guys at Ft. McCoy doing predeployment training with the army; these were those red-hat engineer dudes or whatever they're called; I think they fix runways (red horse?)

Really, there are 3 things that, IMO, you asolutely have to be able to demonstrate proficiency on before you deply: first aid, marksmanship, and comvoy procedures. Everything over and above that is in the category of "important, but you can survive without it."

I'm really appalled by the rifle thing. The Army requires all soldiers to qualify with all assigned weapons annually, including night fire, NBC fire and night NBC fire for rifles (I'm not sure off the top of my head if all weapons require all those tables; I know pistols don't, but no one takes only a pistol on deployment either). That includes crew served weapons, and vehicle crews must complete gunnery tables as well.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

/hypothetical on

So set your nest up in the tower of the ESPN place and pick 'em off from there.

/hypothetical off

edit: I mean the bad guys, not the tourists.

_________________
"If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me." - Alice R. Longworth

"Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun." - Ash Williams

You hit the nail on the head there DE! Back when the red horde was the big enemy, it was first aid, marksmanship and NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) training.

Have all qualification requirements dropped to once a year? When I was on active duty, we had to qualify with assigned personal weapons every six months, with familiarization of the NBC and night fires being once a year.

Yeah, Red Horse is the Air Force version of Army Combat Engineers.

_________________
"If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me." - Alice R. Longworth

"Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun." - Ash Williams

Yeah, first aid is a yearly requirement. We spend MAYBE 2 hours doing "hands on" training, and do a stupid CBT (computer based training), so our first aid training is a joke. NBC seems to have gone to a "just in time" schedule just like marksmanship, which means "oh ****, you're deploying in a month. Better get this done!" and convoy seems to be something you only do if you're sent for an ILO deployment.

Our Airman's Creed is also a rip-off of the Ranger's creed

NBC has dropped a lot in priority. The requirement may still be for fire of assigned weapons every 6 months and night/NBC yearly for active component.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."