Overseas Units and Family

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Once the war started in ernest, I'm not too sure much of the peacetime rotation and training system would remain. We could say that as of around August -September 1997, all training carried out by soldiers in Europe took place in Europe, much of it "on the job".

Sure there'd be "exceptions to the rule", but would promotion courses for example justify taking an otherwise trained soldier from the line for the weeks, if not months (in later times) it would take just for transporting them to and from the US training facilities? Specialist skills might require US transportation, but those that could be done in theatre, probably would.

I agree that on promotion for some ranks, transfer between units may be a good idea, however transfer within a battalion might be sufficient - can't see any advantage in transfering between brigades or larger organisations. However, again being wartime, promotion within the unit may well be the norm.

Being wartime, I doubt many would be allowed to retire either. Manpower needs would be just to great to allow a soldier to leave once their 4 year (or whatever) enlistment term ended. Same goes for officers, perhaps even moreso.

I agree!

As FightingFlamingo wrote in our document on the US Army

"Mobilization
Immediately following the invasion of China by the Soviet Union, the US Secretary of Defense enacted a stop-loss of all active component personnel and received presidential authorization to recall recently discharged personnel (those released from active duty in the preceding 180 days) back into the force. This served to make up personnel shortfalls in active component units, with priority to those assigned to PACOM, which went to a heightened state of alert following the outbreak of the Sino-Soviet War."

Stop-loss means nobody gets out! In addition, as the war continued retirees under age 60 were recalled (every retiree knows that they are not discharged, just transferred to the "retired reserves", eligible for recall although generally not deployed outside the US) and used to free up deployable soldiers for the war. (And every soldier's enlistment contract reads something along the lines of "I enlist for 4 years; however in the event of war or national emergency my enlistment is for the duration plus six months" - and "the duration" means a legal declaration that the war has ended, not the end of hostilities, hence WWII for enlistment purposes wasn't declared over until September 1946!).

Every training course in the US Army has two "programs of instruction" - curriculum, course material, class schedule, etc - a peacetime one and a mobilization one. Sometimes the mobilization POI reads along the lines of "this class is not offered. Immediately deploy the students (with or without a promotion) and assign the staff to teach something more vital or deploy them too!" Other times it eliminates less vital material and free time and cuts the duration, often by 25% or more.

For re-assigning soldiers on promotion, it depends. When I became a NCO I was not reassigned, but my MOS (supply clerk) and way my unit was structured (National Guard) was such that I had gradually acquired NCO responsibilities and the stripes were more a formal recognition of such than a radical change. Oftentimes the NCO schools are done as part of a permanent change of station, where a soldier would leave a unit stateside, spend a month or two at a school, and report to a new unit in Europe as a NCO. Junior officers get reassigned quite frequently so they are exposed to a variety of things in their field... spend a few months running a line platoon, then some time in the battalion HQ, then become the motor officer for a little while, then become the company XO, etc.