Budget Woes Leave Army Aviation Few Options
- Thread starter Houston
- Start date
Blackhawk
Well-Known Member
Aviation is expensive. Anyone who has been around military aviation more than 12 years knew this was coming. Interesting- Tony Crutchfield was the battalion XO when I was a company commander. Probably one of the best officers I ever worked with. At that time we were under severe budget cuts- so much so that if I wanted to dispatch a vehicle from the motor pool I had to get the first O-6 in my chain of command to sign off on the dispatch for a while. Flying? There were times we were grounded for weeks and only went out and did weekly runups of the aircraft.
The Fez
Analog Millennial
Looks like it will go that way again unfortunately. I was just at a planning meeting last week where my Reserve unit is expecting to lose up to 2/3 of its current flying hours program budget in the next FY. That equates to just over 2 sorties a week, or 1 formation per week. With the number of personnel we have, I don't know how any of the traditional Reservists are going to maintain proficiency.
C650CPT
Well-Known Member
... don't ever confuse proficiency with currency ... I remember all too well when Risk Assessment only involved currency not proficiency.
The Fez
Analog Millennial
Believe me, I won't. Currency does not equal proficiency. But in the Reserves, with people's civilian careers and all of life's complexities, currency is sometimes the best you can hope for.
C650CPT
Well-Known Member
agreed ... been there, done that ... and with the forthcoming downsizing, budget cuts, overreactions and such, the proficiency part is lost on the commanders. I told a commander once... if you think training is expensive, wait till you have to pay for an accident.
The Fez
Analog Millennial
Regarding your last sentence, I couldn't agree more. The whole climate surrounding defense spending in this country has me very confused. I keep hearing words from politicians like "smaller", "more flexible", etc. Okay, I can understand the concept. But behind those words the budget is getting slashed to the point that these "smaller, more flexible" forces can't afford to train and as a result aren't going to be combat ready in any way. I'm all for finding better ways to do things, but our military leaders have obviously learned nothing from history. Every time we gut our forces following conflicts, another inevitably breaks out and we're woefully unprepared.
Blackhawk
Well-Known Member
Like I said, last time around it was pretty bad. Money was so short soldiers were only given their 40 rounds of 5.56 for qualification each year. If a soldier did not qualify- too bad. No extra ammunition. Our NTC rotation was cancelled. Field exercises were cancelled. Officers were being cut left and right. In my wife's year group there was a 1LT retention board prior to the captain promotion board. Between those two boards only 75% of 1LTs made captain. It was ugly.
No Ft Irwin for you!
Which doubly sucks because I've noticed in the Army, that guys make O-2 in about a year and a half, versus the two years of other services; and seemingly the same year and a half from O-2 to O-3.
Blackhawk
Well-Known Member
When you are doing real rotations every other year not a big deal. When only 1% of your unit has seen combat it is a big deal. One of the major factors behind the success of Gulf War 1 was NTC.
Blackhawk
Well-Known Member
JRTC was just nasty.
Blackhawk
Well-Known Member
Depends on the time. When I was commissioned it was 18 months but got bumped to 24 months by the time my wife was commissioned (I was grandfathered at 20 months). With a war they bumped it back to 18 months I guess.
Oh, I know... was playing and had my soldier hat on and not my commander hat.
Both are just awesome.
Army guys:
What's the worst CONUS Army post you've been to?
I rank up as "up there" being, mainly due to geographical being in the middle of nowhere:
Ft Hunter-Liggett, CA
Ft Wingate, NM
Ft Ord, CA
Ft Leonard-Wood, MO
Ft Irwin, CA
For overall geographic "suck" location:
Ft Stewart, GA
Redstone Arsenal, AL
Ft Polk, LA
Ft Bragg, NC
Ft Benning, GA
Ft Hood, TX
Ft Indiantown Gap, PA
Im probably missing a few......
What's the worst CONUS Army post you've been to?
I rank up as "up there" being, mainly due to geographical being in the middle of nowhere:
Ft Hunter-Liggett, CA
Ft Wingate, NM
Ft Ord, CA
Ft Leonard-Wood, MO
Ft Irwin, CA
For overall geographic "suck" location:
Ft Stewart, GA
Redstone Arsenal, AL
Ft Polk, LA
Ft Bragg, NC
Ft Benning, GA
Ft Hood, TX
Ft Indiantown Gap, PA
Im probably missing a few......
Blackhawk
Well-Known Member
Dude, where have you been? Ord and Wingate are long gone.
Hunter Army Airfield was a great assignment. I also liked the little I saw of Lewis. Ft. Bragg was a great place for being a soldier... geographically not so hot. Can't think of many other stellar posts for aviators. I did not mind Bliss. Good skiing nearby.
Some guys really love Alaska.