Grow the Army

If you've been paying attention to "Army" news, then you probably already know that an announcement was made before Christmas concerning the approved locations for re-stationing of the additional 74,000 Soldiers that will be added to the force by 2011. Forts Bliss, Stewart and Carson are the major recipients of new Brigade Combat Teams (BCT), but Fort Leonard Wood also will receive a headquarters element for a Combat Support Brigade (Maneuver Enhancement). The main point to keep in mind as one compares the new force organization with the pre-transformation force is that the Army now is "brigade-centric", versus a legacy "division-centric" organization. While divisions remain, they no longer have habitual relationships with the same brigades. Two each BCT will be located at Bliss, Carson and Stewart, and there will be eight new Combat Support Brigades.One-third of the Army will be re-stationed according to the plan, and the total military construction program associated with all of this is approximately $66 billion. Some continue to argue that the Army will still be too small even with this significant increase. Time will tell.

Merry Christmas

For those who read this Blog on a regular basis, I plan to take a few days off from writing updates, primarily so I can celebrate the Christmas holiday period. I'll be back later next week. To all, have a most joyous (and safe) Christmas. Especially all of our dedicated military and civilian personnel deployed overseas. Cheers!

Engineers in the Pentagon

I just returned from a visit with the Office of the Chief of Engineers - Pentagon. These are the folks who serve to cover all engineer bases, so to speak, for the Chief of Engineers, and help make sure all aspects of Army Engineering are properly stated and represented throughout all levels of the Department of the Army staff and elsewhere. Colonel Bill Haight is in charge, and he is ably assisted by Colonel (Retired) Ron Hawthorne (who at one time sat in Haight's seat), along with a superbly qualified staff of military and civilian personnel. Essentially, OCE-P is the "eyes and ears" for the Chief of Engineers in a location where keen vision and hearing are required. They do what they do on a "wartime footing" and have personnel right inside the Army Operations Center 12/7 today, and 24/7 as needed. I'm going to prepare an article about OCE-P for the Jan-Feb issue of Army Engineer, so you can read more then. For now, rest assured that the right engineer people are on point for us in the Pentagon.

Better and better

Friday night evening news, ABC reported that "The situation in Iraq is getting much better. Today was the first day in a long time that there were no reports of terrorist activities in Baghdad." Is it "the surge" or have the terrorists finally figured out that it's not to their long term advantage to continue to harm innocent women and children. It's too early to tell, but maybe, just maybe, we are seeing a glimpse of stability that might last. Let's hope so.

Game of Chicken

According to news reports today, many government and contract employees of the Army and Marine Corps will begin learning soon whether they could be laid off in early 2008 because Congress has failed to pass a war spending bill for the new fiscal year. That’s because the Department of Defense is paying for the war out of the services’ baseline budget operations and maintenance accounts, which also cover a large portion of base operations and civilian employee salaries. The notices apparently will be in the form of an “informational” letter, and not a furlough notice. Now starts the game of “chicken” between Congress and the administration, right on top of the holiday season.

I want snow!

If you are now stationed in the mountains of Afghanistan, or live in the northern regions of the United States, then this blog entry is not for you. For those of us in the mid-atlantic or southeast U.S., however, some (mostly me) want to see some white stuff the closer we get to Christmas. So, what do we get? Our local SW Virginia forecast is for record warmth next week, even though we had a small amount of freezing rain last night. I graduated from Michigan Tech in 1963, and there was still snow on the ground that gradation day in June. (Check out the site's web cam to see the snow on the ground now). Not that I want to have THAT much snow now , just enough to make me have to shovel the driveway. We're still a ways off from the big day when Santa climbs down my chimney, but I sure hope he has to hold on tight due to snow on our roof.

Loyalty

It seems to me that if you are an Army Engineer now serving, or if you are a veteran of such service, then you ought to consider belonging to the Army Engineer Association. Not only will you receive six copies of a great magazine annually, with all sorts of relevant articles about Army engineering, but you will demonstrate your loyalty to the only organization devoted entirely to promoting and reporting on the current missions, history and traditions of Army Engineers. The inseparable bonds of engineer service are strong, perhaps the strongest in the Army. Take a look at AEA's membership information on the web site, Just hit your browser's "back" button and there you are.

A key signal to a long term presence

Regardless of all the speculation going on about a sooner rather than later U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, a signal I get that we may be there for some time, is the number of NEW post exchanges that are being constructed to support the troops in major base locations. These don't appear to be some "wooden hut" arrangement, so I have to assume they are being built for the long haul. Picture above, Pfc. Matt Hayes, from Nashville, Tenn., Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery, checks out at the new Post Exchange, Dec. 1, following a grand opening ceremony on Forward Operating Base Hammer, Iraq. (Photo by Sgt. Natalie Rostek, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs)

Changing technology

I've been using computers in some fashion or another since the early 1980's. I remember being introduced to the "power" of computers by the S-1 of the battalion in which I served, when she brought in her IBM "personal" computer, and demonstrated how she could manage some of the data she utilized (like awards, promotions, etc) on her machine. I was hooked. Later, the S-3 did the same, as did a company commander. The latter had one of the first Macintosh computers made, and when I saw it, I knew Apple was for me. It still is today, but what I can do now makes what we did back in the 1980s seem stone-age in comparision. The sad thing about all of this, is that technology changes so fast these days, that what you buy now, will be obsolete in a very short time. I keep telling myself that computers can't do much more than what I want them to do now; but then, some company unveils a new technology that makes me think otherwise. Sadder is that fact this all raises the balance on my credit card!