Where are the US airforce and Navy ground Units

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Originally Posted by Legbreaker

In 2000 there may be sufficient numbers of senior NCOs available, however these people are likely already old and their numbers will decline.

I don't know how the Royal Australian Air Force is organized, so I can't comment. In the USAF, senior NCO means E-7 through E-9. These are men (and women) with 15-30 years of experience. The bulk of these people are in their thirties. They're not in immediate need of replacing, if old age be the primary consideration. The E-9s will be older, having 20-30 years of experience. The same goes for the warrants. Even they aren't so old that we should worry that they are about to lose their faculties.

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Regardless, technical skills and specialities should be considered when transferring. It's extremely wasteful to have a naval communications specialist sent to an infantry company for example. This may result in a higher percentage of these "reinforcements" being sent to rear area and support units, but...

I agree that using highly trained technicians as riflemen is wasteful of skills. This is why the junior enlisted people go first. In any event, Twilight: 2000 offers such an extreme circumstance that the usual rules of calculation go out the window. Now if the Navy guy arriving in the rear has a superior ability to run whatever equipment is available than the Army guy who is already there, a case can be made for bumping the Army guy to the rifle unit. Nevertheless, the idea that the infantry will continue to take it on the chin so that excess specialists from the Air Force and Navy can sit in the rear and avoid being wasted is unlikely to carry much water after 1998. The need for riflemen after the nuclear exchange will develop a logic all its own. Some specialists will be left as cadre to operate whatever gear remains and to train the next generation. Everyone else is going to have to remember what they learned in Basic.

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