20 August 2008

Not really telling the whole story

First of all, who's the idiot editor that let the headline escape into the wild?
Overhauling Guard training overhaul is costly

Second, the following explanation doesn't come close to telling the whole story
Spurred on by the Pentagon's promise that Guard deployments would be limited to one year, military leaders pledged to spread some of the required pre-deployment war preparation into the soldiers' routine weekend and weeklong training exercises each year.
That would allow soldiers to train, get required medical tests and do some paperwork while at home for much of the 12 months prior to heading to one of 10 mobilization centers for their final prewar training and equipment.

That pre-deployment training at home is not worked into the regular routine, but parallels it. You end up with almost double the number of weekend drills (especially if you're on a staff somewhere). Your annual training cycle goes from 2 weeks to 3 or more. You make extra weekend trips to get the physicals done, based on where the doctors find it convenient to set up, rather than where the unit it.
It's not what this article sells it as...

No comments: