Military question.

[OwnedByFerrets]

This is a legitimate question, not trying to stir anything up.
Isnt it weird that there are military personnel over in Iraq getting killed while others are in the states playing Basketball and Football? How do I straighten this seemingly inconsistancy out in my mind?
Justifications?

Ok, its seems as though my question was misinterpreted. What I meant was the basketball and football games that are played by military college teams here in the states.
Sorry for any confusion.

[DisgruntledVet]

1. When you are not

on patrol over there you generally play basketball, football (or more often) X-Box. It's not like we slept in the bunkers 24/7 waiting for the next round to land. I played more hands of Spades than just about anyone in history.

[hobbit709]

5. Spades, Hearts and Euchre

is what we played most of the time back in 70-73. We'd go through a deck of cards in about 3 days.
you could hear the knives being sharpened around the table-that's how cut-throat we played.

[A HERETIC I AM]

2. You can't have everybody at the front....

someone has to stay "in the rear with the gear".

(I know it is much more complex than that, so please vets, dont flame me.)

[sarge43]

6. No, that pretty much sums it.

Someone has to track the beans and the bullets, too.

[trogdor]

8. And somebody has to make sure you get paid.

And somebody else has to count heads.
And somebody else has to cook eggs.
And somebody else has to make sure the damn radios work.
And somebody else has to keep your humvee from falling apart.
And somebody else has to make sure your maps are up to date.
And somebody else has to spy on the enemy.
And somebody else has to pick up your busted ass off the battlefield, preferably without getting busted up himself, and make sure what's left of you doesn't die.

The Army is a community onto itself. A really big, really diverse team.

[sarge43]

10. Yup.

You forgot the most important: And somebody else has to train 'em.

When I was recruit wrangling, we'd run o/a 70K eager young space cadets thru basic per year. A flight was o/a 50 and two no-neck monsters with stripes and pressure plates per flight. 8 weeks to get 'em up and running. And that's just hands on. The support for this fun 'n' games was something else. For example, when I was done riding herd, I had the pleasure of running the Basic Trainee Record Section in the Green Monster. Ten troops shuffling records and o/a 2K personnel records per week coming and going and that's just personnel records, not medical or finance or whatever else. And that's just a fraction of the personnel support to the teaching them how to salute, shine shoes and make beds.

Get into the personnel support care and feeding of officers, especially aircrews, that's a quantum leap.

[The Deacon]

12. 'Cept

Define "front" in Iraq. (Not a flame, just an observation.) If you're IN Iraq you're a TARGET (goes for civilians & Iraqis as well.)

[bryant69]

3. Sometimes the guys playing basketball strain their ankles

I don't know where the inconsistency is. We have troops on ready in case something else flares up - assuming nothing flares up, those guys are going to be shooting a certain amount of hoop. They rotate them around so that it's not the same group of guys all the time.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[AllegroRondo]

4. Im assuming you mean the West Point teams

West Point is a college, like any other, except that the graduates automatically become officers in the Army. As a college, they have sports teams and compete in NCAA events. Very rarely, the Army may waive the requirement that a graduate go directly into the Army if that person is drafted into a professional sports league.

but even for active duty soldiers, not all 100% of them can be at the front fighting all the time. If they did, morale and troop strenght would drop incredibly quickly. Units need time off from the front to fix equipment, regain sanity, and train.

[sarge43]

7. The air forces are almost all support to combat.

9 to 1, I'd estimate.

[DisgruntledVet]

9. Air force

is actually 97% support. The Army is less than 40%, but the numbers are hard to pin down since even rear echelon troops can take fire from indirect artillery etc. It takes a lot of joes to keep the one combat troop in the field.

[sarge43]

11. It was o/a 9 to 1 back in the day. n/t

[Hobarticus]

13. They're not active-duty soldiers. They are in college for officer training...

They come out as commissioned officers. They're not typical soldiers.