Not just a disturbance in The Force, but a complete gutting.

Once again, I sense a great disturbance in The Force. In this case, the force in question is our Army force, and it's a force about to be gutted once again.

I remember the drawdown of troops that started when I was in Germany in the late 80s. While I was there, the Army shut down the 8th Infantry Division and the 56th Field Artillery Command, the command responsible for the Pershing intermediate range nuclear missiles. The drawdowns stopped abruptly at the end of 1990 when Papa Bush found himself headed to Gulf War 1. That brought a new term to my lexicon: Stop Loss.

Stop Loss meant that NO ONE, and I mean no one, was allowed to exit the Army unless under the most dire of emergencies. No one was leaving their units, either. If you were scheduled to get off active duty, you were stuck in Uncle Sugar's service until further notice. If you were scheduled to leave your unit and transfer to another unit, scratch that till further notice. Several of my friends were stuck going to Iraq when they were supposed to be getting out and starting college or starting police jobs they had set up in advance.

After the war ended, Stop Loss ended too, and the great RIF of 91 began. Reduction In Force meant at that time that "Hey, the Russians are a non-issue, we just won a quickie war, and you guys are no longer needed", and basically the Army was letting people take Early Outs and Early Retirements if they had served a certain amount of their enlistment contracts.

The Clinton years saw a further reduction in forces and we found ourselves after 9/11 with less equipment and fewer troops than we would have liked. The active duty Army had to rely MUCH more on reserve components and National Guard units than ever before since WW2. Fewer troops meant longer deployments and more frequent deployments, especially in our Special Operations forces. It's nothing in the SpecOps community to see guys who have made 20 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the regular forces, I saw guys make three to five and sometimes as many as seven rotations through the combat theater.

And now Obeezy and his minions are busily gutting the military again, cutting the forces we do have left. This means that when things go to shit again in the Middle East (and they always do; just look at Syria)or when something threatens us domestically  we'll have fewer assets around to deal with it.

We have a Navy with the fewest ships since the First World War, when we had a 600-ship Navy under Reagan. Sure, our ships are more capable now than ever before and in some cases one ship can do the work of two or three of its predecessors, but fewer ships means longer deployments and a longer time between refits and maintenance. Gear wears out and doesn't get replaced and it fails and people die. People get tired, mistakes get made, and people die.Families get tired of longer deployments and marriages die. Dudes stop re-enlisting. The force suffers.

They canceled the Air Force's orders for F-22 Raptor fighters. Just make do with the excellent-but-thirty-year-old planes you have now. The F-35 program crawls along and stalls.  Just make do with the excellent-but-thirty-year-old planes you have now.

I'm just the messenger...

And now, the Army announces that it's cutting 12 Brigade Combat Teams over the next three and a half years.  In addition, Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno told reporters at a Pentagon news conference the Army will shrink its active component end strength by 14 percent, or 80,000 soldiers, to 490,000, down from a wartime high of 570,000 troops.

The Army National Guard will cut 8,000 soldiers, he said, without making any force structure changes. And the Army Reserve will skip a planned force increase and maintain its current size of 205,000.

In all, 12 brigade combat teams will inactivate, the general said, including two brigade combat teams stationed at Baumholder and Grafenwoehr, Germany, that were already scheduled to inactivate in fiscal 2013.

Two brigade combat teams will remain in Europe to fulfill strategic commitments, Odierno said.

This makes sense to some of you...

One brigade combat team will inactivate at each of the following installations: Fort Bliss, TX; Fort Bragg, NC; Fort Campbell, KY; Fort Carson, CO; Fort Drum, NY; Fort Hood, TX; Fort Knox, KY.; Fort Riley, KS; Fort Stewart, GA, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, in Washington. (God I hate that Joint Base name crap. It's their new way of combining a local Army base and Air Force base into one giant entity to keep it from being closed. It's all the latest rage. Locally, Joint Base Charleston combined the Navy's Goose Creek Weapons Station (which houses their nuclear power school) and the Charleston Air Force Base)

In Germany, the 172d Infantry Brigade Combat Team is going to get the axe in Grafenwoehr (or just Graf as we called it), leaving the Second Cavalry Regiment to hold the line at Graf. Up in Baumholder (The Rock, as it was always known) I'm less certain who was closing up shop as their website listed no current BCT at the base. Baumholder was actually supposed to close as a base not too long ago but seems to have been spared. Most recently though the base was home to the 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which closed up shop and disbanded six months ago.

As for the other bases, it's starting to come out as to who is going to have to "case the colors", Army lingo for closing up shop, folding your flag, and being shut down. At Fort Bliss, it is rumored that the 3d Armored Brigade Combat Team, part of the First Armored Division, is the likely unit to be axed. At Fort Bragg, it's looking like it's the 82nd Airborne Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team. At Campbell, it's the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division, which traces its lineage back to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which was activated in 1942. Soldiers from the regiment serving in World War II were made famous in historian Stephen Ambrose’s book “Band of Brothers.”

Up in New York at Fort Drum, it's the Spartans of the 10th Mountain Division's 3d Brigade Combat Team. At Fort Carson it's the 4th Infantry Division's 3d Brigade Combat Team, where it has been assigned since the Vietnam War. Ar Fort Hood it will be the First Cavalry Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team. At Joint Base Lewis-McChord it will be the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, part of the 7th Infantry Division.

At Fort Stewart, just an hour or so down the interstate from me, it is 3d Infantry Division's 2d Armored Brigade Combat Team. Some of the base's loss is offset by other units moving to the base, however. As such, the division's remaining brigades will gain a maneuver battalion and fire and support elements under pending Army restructurings. Additionally, Fort Stewart will gain a Fires Brigade headquarters, a Gray Eagle drone company, a Civil Affairs Battalion, a heavy transport company and a Chemical Maintenance company.

At Fort Riley, my old stomping grounds, the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division is getting the axe. The First Division, the famous Big Red One, is getting a serious one-two punch because their 3rd Brigade Combat Team, housed at Fort Knox in Kentucky, is also getting axed. That cust the division in half until other units move in under restructuring. The two brigades set for reorganization are the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team and 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, both located at Fort Riley. As part of the reorganization, each brigade will receive a third maneuver battalion and see an increase in its engineer and artillery capabilities.

Each brigade that gets cut means a loss of around 3,000 soldiers and their families, not to mention civilian employees at the bases associated with the units. The economic impact in the base's communities will be felt sorely until new units move in.

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear said he was disappointed by the plan to inactivate the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division at Fort Knox.

“This decision will likely remove nearly 10,000 military employees and dependents from the area, which will have a profound economic impact, not only on Fort Knox but the surrounding region as well,” he said in a prepared statement.

Oh, goody. More unemployed people in a shaky economy.

And with the National Guard shedding 8,000 troops, that's 8,000 people with a reduced income from their Guard drills and 8,000 fewer people on hand to assist their local communities in times of emergencies like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and wildfires.

But that's okay. As long as we can send weapons and supplies and aid to people who hate us in Syria or Egypt or Pakistan, and as long as we can keep printing food stammps and welfare checks, it's all good in Obeezy's Hood. It's the Democrat Way.

Happy Birthday to the Military Police

It was a busy week at work so I was remiss in not celebrating the 71st birthday of the United States Army Military Police Corps Regiment. This is my regiment, the one that I served in for my four years as a soldier in the US Army.

The tattoo on the back of my right calf

Military Police soldiers aren't just the law enforcement troops of the Army. When I was in, we pulled site physical security missions at sensitive nuclear & chemical weapons storage facilities abroad and here at home. We guarded the ammunition and supply trains to West Berlin. We were at the DMZ in Korea in the Joint Security Area. We worked with US Customs. We manned Checkpoint Charlie at the Berlin Wall. We did the usual law enforcement missions like regular cops, including anti-drug operations. And we worked closely with the Infantry & Armored Divisions in the combat support mission.

The Military Police Regimental Crest

Our badge, although we stopped wearing them with our uniforms in the early 80's

We perform myriad duties in the Combat Support role, from convoy security to route reconnaissance to Enemy Prisoner of War operations. In Panama, MP's engaged enemy forces to capture key locations, including a large secret weapons storage facility. When the first tanks of The Big Red One rolled into Iraq in Desert Storm, Humvees of the 1st MP Company rolled in with them to set up traffic control points to keep following units from getting lost in the desert. When Iraqi forces signed the surrender, one of my former platoon mates was spotted on CNN guarding the tent where General Stormin' Norman Schwartzkopf accepted the surrender. MPs were the first US troops on the ground in Somalia. Guys I served with were in Bosnia with the United Nations peacekeepers. Military Police soldiers have been heavily involved in combat operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan since the very beginnings of the Global War on Terror, as well as training local police forces to stand on their own.

SSG Robert Springmann working with his specialized search dog, Freida, as they look for weapons caches during an operation in Naba Safi Village, Iraq, on May 22, 2008. At the time, Springmann was assigned to the 89th Military Police Brigade's 178th Military Police Detachment.

 Recently I also learned of another special honor regarding MP soldiers, that of Tomb Sentinel, guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. Traditionally this duty has been performed by Infantry soldiers assigned to the oldest continuously active unit in the Army, the 3d Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), but when the 289th Military Police Company was attached to the regiment, something unique and special occurred.

 After months of memorizing and reciting the history of Arlington National Cemetery and the Army, of polishing shoes and perfecting her uniform, after hundreds of bone-jarring heel clicks and a grueling written test, Sergeant Heather Lynn Johnsen was awarded her Tomb Sentinel Badge and became the first, and so far only, female Tomb Sentinel at Arlington in 1996.

And most recently, Sergeant Erik McGuire became the first MP in 11 years to wear the Tomb Sentinel Badge when he was officially made a Tomb Sentinel on August 30, 2012.

I am exceedingly proud of my Army service and of my years as a Military Police soldier. Happy Birthday to all my fellow MP's, past & present. Of the troops and for the troops!

Black History Month: LTC Joe D'Acosta, USAR

The inspiring story of US Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Joe D'Costa, born in Uganda and fled the Idi Amin regime with his family. The story is borrowed from the U.S. Army Reserve website & was authored by Vince Little.
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As a boy growing up in Uganda, Joseph D'costa became inspired by America's role in World War II and told his teacher he wanted to go to the U.S. Military Academy someday.

"She laughed at me for my dream of going to West Point, telling me it would be impossible because I wasn't an American and Uganda had no ties to the U.S.," he recalled. "I still remember that to this day."

The thirteenth of 14 children raised by an Indian father and an African mother, D'costa was exiled to Austria at age 7 following Idi Amin's 1971 rise to power in Uganda. Two years later, he came to the United States and ultimately got into West Point on a third and final attempt, earning his commission in 1989.

Now a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, D'costa just completed a 10-month mobilization here as commander of 1st Battalion, 378th Infantry Regiment, a Lafayette, La.-based unit activated to augment basic combat training for the 192nd Infantry Brigade on Sand Hill.

"When we talk about the diversity of soldiers across our Army, Lieutenant Colonel D'Costa's life story is one that tells a great story and serves as a motivational and inspiring example for our soldiers, [Defense Department] civilians and the nation's civilian population," said Army Lt. Col. Roger O'Steen, the brigade's executive officer.

Shortly after Amin seized the Ugandan presidency in a military coup, D'costa's mother fell ill with pneumonia-like symptoms. Because of her religious faith, however, she didn't get proper treatment as Amin decreed that anyone who was not a Muslim would get sent to the back of the line for health care. She died at age 42.

"For me, it was very devastating, to realize the person I depended on so much was no longer there," said D'costa, who was 6 years old at the time. He said Amin then declared that anybody who wasn't 100 percent black had a choice: leave Uganda or face execution.

D'costa's father fled to India. A brother and sister got sent to Italy, and D'costa took exile in Austria with five other siblings. Three stayed behind.

"I was half, so I was considered impure and had to leave," he said. "Here's a black man saying, 'You are not the perfect race.' When you experience racism from your own race, ... I was not expecting that.

"Idi Amin was killing so many innocent people when they weren't leaving the country fast enough," he continued. "Books were burned. Even educated blacks got killed, because they were considered threats to Amin."

The "Butcher of Uganda," as Amin became known, ruled over the nation for eight years. The number of opponents killed, tortured or imprisoned varies from 100,000 to a half million, according to biographical accounts. The dictator was ousted in 1979 by Ugandan nationalists, and he fled into exile.

In Austria, a Catholic priest looked after D'costa, who spoke Swahili in Uganda and never learned English. In time, he learned German.

D'costa said he told the priest about his desire to attend West Point.

The priest was a friend of then-U.N. Secretary Gen. Kurt Waldheim, who arranged for 9-year-old D'costa and several siblings to go to the United States. He went to live with an older brother in Englewood, N.J.
After graduating high school in 1983, D'costa applied to West Point, but he was turned down.

"They said I'm not American and don't speak English well enough -- the very thing that teacher was telling me would happen," he said.

So he joined the Army ROTC cadet corps at Providence College in Rhode Island. Following his freshman year, the department head offered him a full scholarship, but he'd have to abandon his West Point dream and remain at Providence.

"It would've been the easy way out," he said, "but I needed to know how far I was willing to commit. I had given up on that, but [the ROTC department head] said, 'If West Point is in your heart, you need to apply again.'"

D'costa submitted a second application, but West Point was already at its 1,500-cadet limit, so he had to go to the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School at Fort Monmouth, N.J., for a year and then apply again. If turned down, he would have been too old for another shot, but he finally was accepted and became a 21-year-old "plebe."

D'costa served in the Gulf War as a field artillery officer. He left the Army in 1994, but joined the Army Reserve two years later. Since then, he's deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan, and he has supported military relief missions following Hurricane Katrina and the Pakistan earthquake.

At a ceremony in Lafayette on March 12, he'll turn over the battalion command that he's held since 2008. He's set to leave Fort Benning on Feb. 11.

"My life should've ended in Uganda. All these people I encountered along the way were put into my life to help me reach my goals. ... I never looked at my skin color as a reason I did not get to West Point at first. They were looking for certain qualities and tools I needed to learn."

D'costa will return to work in the private sector, but he's expected to graduate from the U.S. Army War College by July. From there, he'll learn if the Army has any further plans for him.

The lieutenant colonel praised the U.S. military for preserving freedom around the globe and said he stays in the Army Reserve to serve his country.

"The United States could've said 'no' to me," he said. "Putting my life on the line for a country that took me in is a small price to pay. ... Freedom is so priceless, and all I have to do is serve in the reserves to continue saying 'thank you.' Until the Army tells me to get out, I'll stay.

"This is the greatest country in the world," he continued. "When I say that, I'm not just saying it because I heard it from somebody else. ... The majority of Americans don't know what it's like when you have no freedom."

D'costa said he hopes ultimately to work for NASA. In the late 1990s, he spent two years with the agency in a liaison role for a civilian company.

"West Point seemed like an impossible goal, ... but I kept pursuing that goal till I made it happen," he said. "You can achieve anything you want -- you just have to put a little effort into it."

Soldiers helping out in Uganda

Further evidence of American treachery!!! American soldiers helping out people in Uganda, from right here in South Carolina.

But the Left, and other nefarious world forces, would have us all believe we're simply running pell-mell through the Third World killing anything that moves....

The voices of humanitarian assistance from U.S. Army on Vimeo.

The best Army commercial I've seen in a LONG time

I love this ad. It's a great way to show potential recruits that there's a wealth of things you can do after the Army, and it appeals to me as a veteran to see all these people doing all these different things today, who proudly state what they did in the Army and what unit they were with. Once upon a time, I was Army strong, too.

Happy Birthday, US Army

Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, the United States Army was established to defend our fledgling nation. Today, the Army still performs that mission all over the world. I am proud to be a part of the Army’s legacy and its history, and today I salute my fellow soldiers, my fellow Army veterans, and the families who support them.

THE SOLDIER’S CREED

I am an American Soldier.
I am a Warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States,
and live the Army Values.
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and
proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.
I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.
I am an expert and I am a professional.
I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy, the enemies of the
United States of America in close combat.
I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.
I am an American Soldier.


Today is also Flag Day. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened this day by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress.