I stopped writing this blog last February, primarily because I felt not many were reading it. Last week when I visited Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri to write an article for the July-August issue of Army Engineer, and then went on up to St. Louis for the 3-day, 2007 Engineer Regimental Training Conference, I was asked by several folks, "What happened to your BLOG, you took it off the AEA website". "Yup, that's true", I said, "Guess I need to put it back online". Another lesson learned.
What I found out while at Ft. Leonard Wood was reinforced while I was at the St. Louis conference. Poeple in the Army today are much busier than I thought. And, in many cases are making do with less. Waiting for Congress to pass the budget so things could move forward, units getting ready for another rotation to Iraq or Afghanistan after too few months back home with families, some personnel and grade shortages being dealth with, and equipment shortages in the reserve components. Nothing really bad, but together stress builders for sure, that our folks don't need. I'm continualy amazed at how resilient they are, and how adaptive they have become in recent years.
I'm worried we may be facing some future problems in the Army as a result of how our training base has been degraded over the years in terms of people and resources to support a training tempo equal to the needs of the combat and combat support force. NCOs in the training base are often having to do double duty in many cases, and there are growing shortages of people in key positions. I have written an article about all this for the July-August 2007 issue of Army Engineer, so won't go into any more detail here. Suffice it to say the Army needs to place greater emphasis on growing the training base to keep pace with growth and change in the Army's front line forces.
Anyway, the BLOG is back. Hope you enjoy. If so, make a comment at any time. Thanks
