FA ADA?

[Ponchspayback]

hey does anyone have a link to the report about downsizing the FA and ADA branches and making them something else i heard about it but i want to read it. I knew those bastards were going to send me infantry somehow

[Sammy Sandbag]

I'm beginning to think this is more rumor than fact. I've heard it mentioned several times, but I cannot see downsizing ADA. Field Artillery I could maybe see downsizing, and under the new Division XXI plan which should all be implemented by now, there's more of a reallocaiton of guns and tubes than an actual downsizing. After 9/11, the threat of terrorists using commercial jets has made the ADA much more necissary. ADA and FA took on a shit-ton (yes that is an actual unit of weight) of 2LT for FY03, or at least it seemed. Sharaffe, you got any insight?

[Gambit]

I cannot see downsizing ADA.

Looks like not everyone shares your opinion. On 12 December, a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal was on GEN Shoomaker and his plans to revamp the Army... the graphic read as follows:

Planting A Flag
Areas affected by planned revamp of the U.S. Army

Getting Bigger
- Military police
- Civil affairs
- Psychological operations
- Military Intelligence
- Infantry

Getting Smaller
- Artillery
- Air Defense
- Heavy Armor

Another quote:

Gen. Shoomaker recently proposed to Mr. Rumsfeld that the Army close several air-defense and artillery batteries. [...] Mr. Rumsfeld supports the wide-ranging changes Gen. Shoomaker proposes, a senior defense official said. As many as 100,000 active duty, National Guard, and reserve soldiers could be affected.

For those of you interested in reading the entire article, check these out:
http://www.theopenmic.com/WSJArticle.jpg (1.5 MB)
http://www.theopenmic.com/WSJArticle-Small.jpg (400 k)

A side note, this means that more people may get their first choice if it's Infantry... ;)

[Gambit]

Oh, and one other thing... if anyone wants to transcribe those, feel free... my OCR software is sucking ass, hence the .jpg versions of the story. As Domer would say, suck it.

[Sammy Sandbag]

Somewhere in the desert a lone Sharaffe is crying in the fetal position.

[Ponchspayback]

sharaffe shit somewhere in western ny ill be crying in the fetal position when they take me away from my guns

[Sammy Sandbag]

Schoomaker’s Goals Face Cultural Hurdles
By Jeff Kojac
Gen. Peter Schoomaker, U.S. Army chief of staff, wants to refashion his beloved institution into something more relevant to the missions and threats it faces today and for the foreseeable future. If he succeeds, it will be nothing less than a cultural revolution.

The general proposes to slash air defense, artillery and armor and reinvest the saved resources to better handle the ground combat missions the Army faces with increased infantry, military police, civil affairs, engineers and intelligence analysts.
22 December, 00:00 EST

Sorry I didn't get the full article but you have to subscribe. But at least it confirms what Gambit said. Of course Schoomaker will be gone before most of this takes place, so who's to say.

This all goes back to Schoomaker's "you're a rifleman first" mantra: http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1001422/posts?page=51,50

[Gambit]

This all goes back to Schoomaker's "you're a rifleman first" mantra

Well, that's certainly worked well for the Marines... not taht we're the same type of force per se, but still...

[The Sharaffe]

Reduce me, I don't care..just keep paying me. Yeah, I've heard alot about the reduction of Short range Air Defense, and the chance of making it more and more into a corps asset like patriot. I asked a 3 star about it about a month ago and he said even if it does happen, you're talking years...not months, so it wont have any effect on people just getting in besides ADA OBC has been shortened by a month for upcoming LTs.

[Gambit]

besides ADA OBC has been shortened by a month for upcoming LTs.

Does that have anything to do with the whole "IOBC for everyone" thing? Is that still even happenning, or what?

[The Sharaffe]

I honestly wish it did, but the everyone soldier a rifleman is just words at the moment. I've got alot of good friends going to Iraq without the right amount of training, so I wish the Army would do something to train them better. The Army needs harder, more realistic training for Officers. They say you'll learn it on the job, but I don't know about anyone else....I'd rather not "learn" with soldiers lives on the line.

[Gambit]

I'd rather not "learn" with soldiers lives on the line.

Funny, that makes sense to me...

I thought they had some random OBC classes running through the first part of IOBC last year.... did that not happen, or what? Anybody know?

[airjun]

5brigades each can do the job of the ones we have now.......i dont know about that. I dont see how technology can do it either. Im a know nothing cadet but seems to me those new strikers are nothing more but APCs with a 802.11b lap top with some glorified instant messaging client