Special Ops Forces...
 

Late news.........;)


Big Teddy :munchin

For those of you whose eyes aren't as young as they used to be (as mine are) and have a hard time reading the scanned article that was attached to the initial post:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/militar...ons27_ST_N.htm

If you use Facebook you can link or whatever to this page and get lots of news.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/jfkcenterandschool

" repeat combat tours — typically six-month deployments — for his soldiers have become "too steep.""

I was gone for 2 years in SE Asia. The only reason I didn't do more was that it ended. Most guys I was with had at least 3 one year tours. 6 Months is too steep? Things have changed.

Thanks for posting the article! Even being a FOG, could read it with no trouble;).

Thanks for the link Bob!

RF 1

Mark, the current deployments are more like seven or eight months per year in theater, and there are guys in Group with seven or eight tours already, most importantly, with no end in sight short of ETS/retirement.

No alcohol, or sex while deployed, no R&R trips. General Order Number One. If you deploy for a year or more, you come home once for two weeks leave.

A year or two as a young single or recently married man is doable, being gone 60% of the time (as is the average for our current force), every year for an entire career, is IMHO, not sustainable. Many families will not put up with it.

TR

YES... .. a SOFTER man coming out of the American Household!!! IMO

TR is right.. young service members don't really know what they are getting into.. to say it. But if they are married they don't know the military system and whom to ask on post or within the unit and SFGs.

One thing to also look at is once a soldier is back home.. they are having to do Career schooling.. NCOES, professional development schooling. With them, they are gone addition time. Not being able to do RRR, 4-days and maybe even Post-D block leave. So a 7 to 8 month deployment turns into additional 6 weeks for SCUBA school and 4 weeks with ANCOC. Wait isn't ANCOC going to 6 months again. YES. SO add that to your way from home time. Which ever school he has to go to after or before a deployment.

Since days of Bosnia to current deployments.. SF guys always want to stay longer. We all like to stay longer so we can have those two months back we lose for set-up, area assess, and then pack up, show off area and deploy back home. But as leaders what line do we cross?? As soldiers on the ground.. what is the line we cross?? Family members.. do they have a line??

For me the BLUF is time away isn't just a Deployment into the Box. We have them to do and other time away from home.

Thanks- Understand. SE Asia definitely had women and alcohol. I was single back then. After I enlisted and got through Training Group, I told the girl I thought I was going to marry goodbye. I didn't think it was right to ask her to wait. That was as hard as anything I ever had to do. A six foot red head with freckles on her chest and legs that went all the way up...

And you gave all that up for Mekong and all those katoi's Strange Ed swore you were dating... :rolleyes: :D

Richard :munchin

My first wife was a Georgia peach, 5'10", 128lbs., an Atlanta Cheetah dancer.

Q: What do you call a Redhead?

A: A Blonde from hell.

What can I say, Richard? Pattaya, Patpong, The Cellar Bar, Udorn, the Bell Bar.... That Mekong was smoooooooth, wasn't it? Kinda like glass shards seasoned with Sulfuric Acid going down.... The cobra blood made it palatable...

Strange Ed... Geezus.

Amen!
 

SF/SOF forces will be on the go for awhile.

Stay safe.

Reaper and Guy- Afghanistan is a long term deal. The U.S. is going to be a presence there for years to come. I stated in a previous thread that changing the Afghan mind set is going to take generations. There is no national identity. We either have to help them create one or beat them down so badly that they will not have the strength or will to resist...

I go with the above and move JRTC, NTC and anyone else that needs to get away from the EPA.:D:D

Reincarnation will be vogue by the time they change.:eek:

Stay safe.

Exactly! I did two tours in RVN and have 2 years in Astan...there is no comparison..in RVN on down time you could drink, get laid, whatever go to the incountry RnR site at Vung Tau and raise all kinds of hell (did, was locked in the arms room with two Aussies).
Like the QP said, I know guys with 7-8 tours and the living situation when not in the field sucks.
There is no comparison...none.

My .02 cents
 

What a lot of people don't understand is after we've done our 6-8 month rotation we come home, and then deploy for team training, schools, etc. And then the cycle starts again.

On another note, Darren Markwick's team was at the same firebase with me in '06. I was there when he and others were shot up. Thank God for 18Ds. His 18D got a Silver Star for his actions on the battlefield. My 18Ds took over upon their return to the firebase while we waited for the medevacs.