Cut training for combat troops?

[GreenTaco4x4]

Thanks Congress:

Army may have to extend Afghanistan deployments due to budget cuts | Fox News

Army may have to extend Afghanistan deployments due to budget cuts

WASHINGTON – Soldiers deployed to Afghanistan next year may see their war tours extended because budget cuts will drastically limit training for brigades to replace them, the top Army general said Friday.

Gen. Raymond Odierno, the Army chief of staff, said the military will be able to fund training and operations for combat units in Afghanistan now and for those deploying in the summer and fall. But he says there will be delays in training for those deploying in 2014.

If those training delays can't be made up, Odierno said he would have to send forces to war that aren't ready or extend deployments of units already there. A number of combat brigades will be deploying later this year and next year, even as the U.S. winds down the war.

"We will try to divert money so we do not have to extend people in Afghanistan," Odierno told a conference at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "That's a very big concern of mine."

He said that right now the Army is facing a shortfall of as much as $8 billion in operating funds for Afghanistan, and there could be an additional $5.4 billion in cuts if Congress can't resolve a budget standoff and automatic reductions -- called sequester -- go into effect.

Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Friday that he expects the sequester to go into effect March 1, triggering $46 billion in automatic cuts to the overall Pentagon budget through September. "I think it's going to happen," McKeon told reporters. "We have just not been able to get past the politics of it to really focus in on the devastating effects."

President Barack Obama announced this week that he will cut the size of the U.S. force roughly in half by a year from now. There are currently about 66,000 U.S. troops at the warfront, and he said he will withdraw about 34,000 by this time next year.

Longer deployments have been a difficult issue for the Army.

In 2007, the Army extended the yearlong deployments to 15 months in order to meet the demands of the Iraq war, including the surge of troops ordered by then-President George W. Bush. In many cases, combat brigades returned home and were ordered to deploy again 12 months later, leading top military leaders to worry that the force was being strained almost to the breaking point.

Over time, as the Iraq war ended, the Army deployment times were scaled back to a year, and most are now about nine months long.

Among the units scheduled to deploy later this spring is the 4th Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart, Ga., but the Army has not announced what units will go to Afghanistan later in the summer in fall.

[ironpig70]

Corporate downsizing sucks guess its time to look for another job

[Kurtuleas]

It's all smoke and mirrors.

If they are hurting so bad for $$, why are they EXPANDING military bases.

[ChaseYJ]

Originally Posted by Kurtuleas

It's all smoke and mirrors.

If they are hurting so bad for $$, why are they EXPANDING military bases.

And if Johnson valley is so great for training because it closely mimics afghani land then why do they need it to train for the area when they are pulling out?

[GreenTaco4x4]

Originally Posted by Kurtuleas

It's all smoke and mirrors.

If they are hurting so bad for $$, why are they EXPANDING military bases.

Originally Posted by ChaseYJ

And if Johnson valley is so great for training because it closely mimics afghani land then why do they need it to train for the area when they are pulling out?

Marines are the Army now?

[Provience]

You didn't get the memo? Traded the air force to the navy for them

[petro812]

Originally Posted by ChaseYJ

And if Johnson valley is so great for training because it closely mimics afghani land then why do they need it to train for the area when they are pulling out?

I don't know which valley you're training yer johnson for, or if you're even aware that withdrawal is an ineffective method of birth control that does nothing to prevent STD's either, but it should seem that if those jarheads are downsizing and returning to their more traditional role, that the extra space is unnecessary.

[mountainguyed67]

Originally Posted by petro812

those jarheads

How many threads per inch?

[gmcz7198]

I still think it's scare tactics. How can you cut the growth of your budget by 500 billion dollars over ten years, then scream your broke? Even if this sequester happens, which it won't, the military budget doesn't get cut. Instead of getting another 10% on top of whatever they received in 2012, they will only get an additional 8% (don't know the exact figure).


Stop and think of it this way, the sequester will cut 1 trillion over ten years. So the .gov is going to spend $100 billion less every year for ten years. The military gets 50% of that cut, so they will lose $50 billion a year for ten years. Isn't that a rounding error anymore in .gov spending?

[Kurtuleas]

Originally Posted by petro812

I don't know which valley you're training yer johnson for, or if you're even aware that withdrawal is an ineffective method of birth control that does nothing to prevent STD's either, but it should seem that if those jarheads are downsizing and returning to their more traditional role, that the extra space is unnecessary.

Yup.

But even so, we came up with a solution for them that would be a win-win....and they STILL ain't budge: Johnson valley lobby 1

[bigun]

Originally Posted by gmcz7198

I still think it's scare tactics. How can you cut the growth of your budget by 500 billion dollars over ten years, then scream your broke? Even if this sequester happens, which it won't, the military budget doesn't get cut. Instead of getting another 10% on top of whatever they received in 2012, they will only get an additional 8% (don't know the exact figure).


Stop and think of it this way, the sequester will cut 1 trillion over ten years. So the .gov is going to spend $100 billion less every year for ten years. The military gets 50% of that cut, so they will lose $50 billion a year for ten years. Isn't that a rounding error anymore in .gov spending?

Don't confuse the uneducated with facts, it just makes them grumpy!

[ironpig70]

Originally Posted by gmcz7198

I still think it's scare tactics. How can you cut the growth of your budget by 500 billion dollars over ten years, then scream your broke? Even if this sequester happens, which it won't, the military budget doesn't get cut. Instead of getting another 10% on top of whatever they received in 2012, they will only get an additional 8% (don't know the exact figure).


Stop and think of it this way, the sequester will cut 1 trillion over ten years. So the .gov is going to spend $100 billion less every year for ten years. The military gets 50% of that cut, so they will lose $50 billion a year for ten years. Isn't that a rounding error anymore in .gov spending?

Greentaco is military so he knows more than the rest of us.

Facts cannot be used here

[GreenTaco4x4]

Originally Posted by ironpig70

Greentaco is military so he knows more than the rest of us.

Facts cannot be used here

I know that everyday I drive by a CVN that looks like the USSR owns it because its overhaul was stopped after they moved people across the country for it and it had been planned for years (as in right now they are planning overhauls for 2020). I know I drive by a CG that is rigged to tow to decom but congress won't let us and they won't provide funds to fix her. I see the dismantling of the USS Enterprise has stopped and it just sits at a pier and rots. I know that I can't get all the parts I need for life support systems so we have started pooling our own money to buy them for when we can't get anything. I know that if this goes through 3 billion will be cut from Tricare which is the health care system for active duty and their dependents. I know the military on it's own already cut 490 billion over 10 years, then civilian leadership threw another 500 billion in cuts for the same 10 years.

But that is ok, because it is all smoke an mirrors.

[LOGANSTANFORTH]

Friend of mines son was sent home half way through air force basic because of this. Told he would come back later to finish...

[770 raptor]

We were officially put on furlough yesterday... woohoo for budget cuts.

[crashhawk]

Originally Posted by 770 raptor

We were officially put on furlough yesterday... woohoo for budget cuts.

What is it you do?

[770 raptor]

Marine mechanic

[Provience]

Originally Posted by LOGANSTANFORTH

Friend of mines son was sent home half way through air force basic because of this. Told he would come back later to finish...

wild.

Wasn't a big part of going to the 9 month deployment so that they could SAVE a bunch of money when they had to cut a bunch earlier?

[Kurtuleas]

Originally Posted by 770 raptor

Marine mechanic

If they were not planning on expanding 29, they could save several million and you may still have a job.

Just sayin...

[EricT]

Originally Posted by LOGANSTANFORTH

Friend of mines son was sent home half way through air force basic because of this. Told he would come back later to finish...

Originally Posted by Provience

wild.

Yeah WTF. Thats pretty fucking wild to get kicked back half way through and told you'll come back to complete the other half. Hell whats 3 more weeks?Sure this kid didnt get kicked out for failed drug test,fraudulant enlistment or opt out and thats the shit he is shovel'n on his folks ?

[EricT]

Originally Posted by 770 raptor

We were officially put on furlough yesterday... woohoo for budget cuts.

Damn,so what do they have ya'll doing in the mean time? No formations for accountabilty? phone musters? Figure they'd at least have ya'll come to the motor pool and sit around instead of just hanging out at the house collecting a check haha.
Man troops would wall the fuck out they did that here on base

[770 raptor]

Originally Posted by EricT

Damn,so what do they have ya'll doing in the mean time? No formations for accountabilty? phone musters? Figure they'd at least have ya'll come to the motor pool and sit around instead of just hanging out at the house collecting a check haha.
Man troops would wall the fuck out they did that here on base

I'm DoD, so I just take my mandatory 176 hours of furlough spread over until Sept 30.