A shrinking army aims to keep citizen-soldiers combat ready

[Peter1469]

As the army shrinks, more effort is being put into keeping the reserve and national guard forces trained and combat ready. That is both a good and bad thing. Our reserve forces should focus on defending the homeland, and out national guard troops need to be available for local emergencies. At various times I have served in each of the three- active, reserves, and national guard. So I have seen it from each perspective.

Before citizen-soldiers of the 48th Infantry Brigade deployed to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Georgia National Guard troops spent months training away from their families and day jobs as they prepared for war. Now a shrinking Army wants them able to get ready for combat sooner.

The brigade's 4,200 soldiers are the first of 13 National Guard and Army Reserve units nationwide chosen to test a new role that pairs them with commanders on active-duty who will oversee their training.


The Pentagon hopes the change will make the Guard and Reserve troops better prepared to fight overseas at a time when the Army has roughly 100,000 fewer full-time soldiers than it did at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read more at the link.

[valley ranch]

Of all the places to cut to save money for other projects, cutting the size and strength of our military is the dumbest, it's like sawing off the branch you are sitting on.