We all know that anyone who had managed a business the way the Bush administration runs the military would have been fired long, long ago. But I’d like to draw everyone’s attention to a dirty little, not-so-secret element of this gross mismanagement: For the past three years, the Defense Department has quietly been "training" Air Force personnel to work as infantrymen in Iraq and Afghanistan. Given just five weeks of training, these airmen are being used extensively for convoy security missions. In 2006, a source explained to CNN the reasoning behind this new role for the Air Force by saying:
The Air Force took more of that role over so Army commanders could use soldiers in needed combat roles.
In other words, the Air Force took over because the Army could no longer complete its given mission with the forces it had. In other words, the Army had broken.
Most rationally managed organizations would rethink the whole operation if the primary piece of the operation could no longer carry out its mission. But not these guys. These guys—guys like Rumsfeld and Cheney—are smarter than us. They figured out that you could just cross-level members of the military when one part gets worn down. Army overworked? Bring in the Air Force!
But that is an insane idea. That’s like a manager saying, "If my IT guys get overworked, I can just bring in the Sales guys to cover for them." That line of thinking is arrogant, disconnected, and criminally negligent in this case.
Using the Air Force to cover for a broken Army is a bad deal all around. While the Defense Department has insisted for years that it doesn’t need a draft, it’s "drafting" members of the Air Force to serve in the Army. Today’s LA Times reports:
Many airmen were surprised at the assignment.
"I was expecting just to be a vehicle operations troop, dealing with wreckers, forklifts -- vehicles like that," said Senior Airman Robert Bledsoe, who manned a 50-caliber gun during his first deployment to Iraq.
In the same article, the Times goes on to say:
Few of the airmen, who once mostly moved or fixed equipment on Air Force bases, imagined they would be sent to fight in a ground war, but course trainers say it makes little difference.
(Sound of screeching brakes.) I beg your pardon, Mr. Air Force Course Trainer. But, have you ever been in urban combat yourself? It makes a huge difference—in mentality, aggressiveness, motivation, and confidence. Those are personality traits that must be honed for combat. And this. . .This is a Five. Week. Course. You can teach Air Force airmen what to do in a five-week combat skills course, but you can’t teach them how to survive on an urban battlefield in such a short time.
That takes considerably more specialized training. For instance, an Army infantryman trained for the same job will have at least 13 weeks of training before doing the same job—and those are only the ones who go straight to Iraq from their initial training. Everyone else will get significantly more training with his or her unit before embarking. Back before the Bush administration launched its War on Our Armed Forces, soldiers got months and years of training before heading into combat.
And the reason all this training is necessary? Reflexes. Confidence. That sixth sense infantrymen develop regarding their surroundings. You have to have these things before you go. A five-week course run by Air Force personnel (and I presume contractors) will not instill them.
The Air Force has tried to spin this, too:
While acknowledging that the training represents a real "cultural switch," Master Sgt. Phil Coolberth said airmen's lack of field combat skills when they enter the training isn't all bad. They come to the course without ingrained bad habits and are open to the course material as they undergo training specifically geared to the convoy mission, he noted.
Right. And George W. Bush’s lack of foreign policy experience before he entered the Presidency hasn’t been all that bad either.
Anyone who doesn’t think the Bush administration has broken the Army should just ask Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Matt Rossoni who said this:
More and more Air Force are doing Army jobs. It's nothing bad about the Army. They're just tapped out.
And when did Rossoni say that? Over 13 months ago—in January of 2006. Before 15-month-long deployments.