30 October 2009

What do we need to do in AF?

From the Soldier side: OK, I promise I am working on my stories of stupid things I did as an adult in the US Army. But I thought I should post some useful info.
There's a lot of discussion about what we need to do in Afghanistan. I thought instead of talking shit, I should ask somebody I know who's there right now.
This person I'm talking about I'll just call "The Calm NCO" is one of the best bosses I ever had. When I was in Iraq, he was my boss for the first 4 months. He is one of the BEST! So if he has an opinion about something, I think it's going to be good.
I asked the simple question: "What do we need to do in Afghanistan to fix it?" I have added some comments to help good citizens understand better.

His answer:
1.) Shift unused/under used assets to Afghanistan (why am I living in a tent after eight years of us being here.- They don't have the correct troops where they're needed.
2.) Send more troops-They don't have enough troops to do the missions.
3.) Don't operate under NATO rules, no interrogation allowed- If you can't question the assholes you capture, you can't get good intel.
4.) Cancel half the MWR events, i.e sala night, karaoke night, techno night and country night. Too many troops are playing and having a good time, while others go out and are getting killed.
5.) Cancel college classes on BAF because soldiers forget the mission is more important- WTF? Taking college classes while in a fucking war?
6.) Kick 1/3 to 1/2 of the people off BAF (the Victory Base of Afghanistan) and send them out to the warfighter. Too many of the troops there are not doing shit. Too many REMFs, and too many "leaders" just getting their tickets punched.

Oh yeah, this sounds just like my Bosnia deployment. My teams and I went out 5-6 days a week doing missions and the REMFs at the main base went to dances and stuff. When we got to Iraq....Baghdad had the same waste of resources going on, while the small camps and FOBs had nothing and were over worked.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. Same same 40 years ago.
2. Guys on the firebase had diddly, guys at the camps had access to big PX's, class VI, etc.
3. Most visitors came in by air and were off the base by 2 or 3PM. (Afraid we'd be overrun -tho it never happened)(and that was just the base, not even outside the wire)
4. Two questions:
5. First, how can they do all this fancy garbage when everything is coming in by air?
We had sea access and free movement over pretty decent roads -and still didn't have that much crap.
6. Second, since the REMF contingent and ticket punchers and other useless human garbage seems to be holding an even strain across 40-odd years, do you really think they'll shoehorn those clowns out and into useful assignments?
7. Your guy has a vested interest. A couple others with a lot of time there do also (OLD Blue, for one)They tend to think we can achieve our objectives over there.
8. Am not so optimistic, for many reasons. Have been disappointed many, many times.
9. Wish them and you well.
V/R JWest

Coffeypot said...

What makes you think this will work...it makes scense.

Gia's Spot said...

Jeesh... great blog with great info for us uninitiated....thanks
Gia