Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
Well, thanks for the water, I guess...

....
Ken,

You're right- when people moved gets vague very quickly as time passes.

I agree with all of the points you are making- but your're mis-reading the facts of what we did on that deployment in support of your points.

The change in mission, that you find "particularly troublesome" changed because of the surge- when everyone was extended, lots of AOs got switched to align rotations, and we ended up with a crappy mission- I don't think the politics of the pachyderms had much to do with that. Lots of units (a) went early, (b) went somewhere they didn't plan on going or (c) got moved around in theater. We politicked for the special mission (if its the one I'm thinking of), but were never assigned it.

Still, I agree with your points about updating our training and personnel system- just the specific facts of our deployment don't point to those issues as much as the ad hoccery that happens in war.