[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by Webstral

There is clearly a good deal of feeling underlying your position, Army Sgt. I'm glad of it, because those who love the Army are the most focused on the good of the Army. Your assertions deserve a well-considered reply. I'm not going to be in a position to write such a thing today, so a well-considered reply will have to wait until tomorrow, for the most part.

I was an MP so all those Units are mixed Genders. I just have personal experience in the matter. I have been in units where the pregnant females made a platoon strength element. A Floor Platoon Corps MP Company that cannot in actuality field four platoons. In Garrison that means that Four under strength Platoons. Each with three Squads instead of four. If not two and a half. When it is deployment time for Training or for War what happens? Three platoons and then a Platoon is borrowed from another unit. All those females make up a huge rear detachment. A Lieutenant, a Platoon Sergeant, then Squad Leaders, and Team Leaders get screwed. They do not get that experience (ok well the metric F-Ton of paperwork) in Leadership on the ground doing their tasks. That kills their promotion down the road, especially Lieutenants. The problem then transitions into one of morale all the way down, not just the usual privates griping because it is not yet happy screw off time.

Originally Posted by Webstral

I couldn't agree more. I will point out, though, that this idea flies in the face of an automatic severance for all single parent soldiers.

That was in reply to the special "What if" of a long term NCO with a critical skill. That is unusual, since most of the single mom problem is first termers at or below the grade of E4. Those get the severance and the automatic not optional drop as it is now.

Originally Posted by Webstral

No, it cannot. To be certain, money is involved. Failure to pay probably will result in a lack of needed skills. But the skills of the senior NCOs cannot be purchased like software or a weapons system. The skills that are the backbone of the force must be grown and developed over years of training and hard experience. Again, money is involved; but we cannot slap down a quarter-million dollars and get a quality sergeant first class off the shelf. Commodifying human qualities is the mistake made by capitalists; the assumption that money solves all problems belongs to people who have plenty of money and little practical experience. You don't strike me as a capitalist (not to be confused with someone who views capitalism as the engine of economic growth) or as someone who has more money than sense, Army Sgt.

Most certainly is. Those Private Military Contractors like Blackwater gutted the MP Corp in 2004 and 2005. Two E7 Platoon Sergeants in addition to many E6 Staff Sergeants left. There were at least 8 Corporals and that promotion seldom happens just to fill Team Leader slots.

Even with the bonus pays and tax free the Army pay couldn't touch the $100,000 tax free pays going to PMCs.

I think what your speaking of is Training and that is something the Army is reluctant to invest in. Hence my above rant about NCO schooling. It is why I think that the first school the "Primary Leadership Development Course" should be a year long hardship tour and one that a person probably re-enlisted just to be eligible. Just like why the Military likes 16-18 year old recruits. You got them. Their still malleable and impressionable after a year of schooling the traits the Army needs will be ingrained in so deeply that it won't be conscious thought. Your going to wash out some their just going to fail on their own account, still better than finding out when the bullets are for real.

Originally Posted by Webstral

Now, before anyone gets up in arms about how the idea of growing the skills of the senior NCOs has some sort of direct correlation to the young single moms making careers in the rear while other soldiers pull their weight, there is no direct correlation. I make it practice to point out fallacy where it appears. When I fail to do so, the unaddressed fallacy often reappears and bites me; ergo, I address it when it appears.

Thought this went without saying?