Someone asked why units are not training on their METL tasks when they are back in the states. I think that the answer is simple, really. Once every couple of months an article will appear somewhere in the MSM about how PFC Snuffy was killed in Iraq/Afghanistan and how it was because PFC Snuffy's unit was rushed into the fight had to skimp on this training or that training and that is why PFC Snuffy is dead, because he missed an NTC rotation. While there may be some truth to it, it is generally way overstated. Unfortunately, overstated or not, that is the impression that John Q Public gets and when John Q. Public gets worked up then the politicians have to appear to get worked up too and they are all looking for scapegoats, for instance a commander who decided to train METL tasks instead of just doing PMT for the next rotation. Nobody wants to be that guy. It's micromanagement from the top (civilian) level that just oozes downward and inevitably leads the resurgence of the zero defect Army of the '60s. In that kind of enviroment commanders can't afford to train for a war they are not fighting, even if it means letting METL atrophy.

SFC W