Got To Be Kidding Me?

[Dennis1209]

My son is here visiting us for Christmas leave. He's an Iraq veteran and an Army Scout stationed at Ft. Benning, Ga. and plans on making the Army his career.

 

We're on our way to the range this afternoon in the cold to shoot some guns and started talking about our military experiences and how things have changed in the military since I was in, compared to today's Army. Anyway...

 

My son is the companies armorer and is responsible for ordering weapon parts, ammo, etc. His company has not been to the rifle / pistol range or shot in well over a year, because... Money!

 

He tells me his entire division budget is cut and only has $480,000.00 for the fiscal year. Out of this budget it pays for everything, toilet paper, administration supplies, mess, AMMO, etc. They do not have the extra funds available to purchase ammunition for the range and shells for the tanks. He said some of those tank munitions are $50,000.00 each? But no money to purchase ammunition to train and be proficient with? Tell me you're pulling my leg!

 

The whole purpose of our military when not in a combat zone is one simple mission, to train, train, train and make sure their equipment stays in deploy-able condition and they have everything they need when they get deployed. Not the case as they are deploying again to Kuwait shortly and do not have 1/2 of their required gear. Same thing when they actually got deployed to Iraq, severe shortages to complete their mission.

 

Would you active duty guys chime in here and verify or not if your unit has the same funding problems?

 

The absolute #1 responsibility our government has to its citizens is to protect the nation and give our troops the best training and equipment and best chance of survival in combat. To do that requires adequate funding of the armed forces and troops to be the best fighting force and best equipped in the world.

 

It really burns my azz knowing our troops are under equipped, under funded and under trained. Evidently it's come down to it, what's more important, funding our military to protect our nation or spending tens of billions for the "you owes me crowd", pork projects, entitlements, that would be better and more efficiently spent for those protecting our nation.

 

That great sucking sound is all that fiat currency being flushed down the drain for the lazy and ungrateful multitude of this nation that you owe.

 

I sure hope the government gets their priorities in order in a hurry.

 

Soap Box / OFF

[vontar]

hmm, if our military is short on ammo due to budget all the more reasons we maintain our arms and ammo.

[Guest bkelm18]

The military has a budget just like everyone else and our gov't can't even balance the checkbook. Not surprising really. War ain't free.

[JayC]

DoD has PLENTY of money to defend the US, it's a lack of the proper priorities...  Ask yourself why your son's unit is lacking funds for training, but we're buying truck loads of ammo to train foreign troops on our dime?

[RED333]

Or why DHS needs millions of rounds?

[Guest Mad4rcn]

I guess every fort is different in some way or another. My son and I spoke about this very thing a few weeks ago. He trains regularly with his company with all the tools of his trade and all sorts of vehicles that you have to be qualified to operate. Over the years I know he goes on training exercises for a week at a time, and all they do is shoot He also shoots on his own at the range with his buddies. That part is on his dime of course.

[swim615]

I was in the service during the Clinton years. I was a diesel mechanic and we did not have enough money to keep everything running while we were state side. While deployed if we needed it we had it within a few days.

I will ask my son he is in the Marines now how it is in his unit. Edited December 28, 2012 by swim615

[Guest bkelm18]

Or why DHS needs millions of rounds?

 

Different department, different budget.

Edited December 28, 2012 by bkelm18

[mcurrier]

Tell him to call Tsa, dhs, irs, noaa and borrow some fom them.

[Guest TNSovereignty]

Recently retired military.  The money is there ... someone already mentioned piss poor prioritization.  Guarantee there's a General somewhere getting new office furniture, a bunch of colonels getting the latest electronic gadget to improve their 'efficiency', and a glitzy "offsite" mega-conference in some big city Hyatt Regency so all the brass can practice their think-tank skills.