Ken said,

"Totally true -- thus a selective set of tasks and missions is a necessity. That's why we have a Deployment mission task list. As we also saw at Abu Gharaib, the wrong folks doing the wrong mission with no supervision can be problematic..."

"Makes no difference if you re-role the FA as Infantry, Military Police, Constabulary, Imperial Strom Troopers or Plerztbarginfers -- what will make a difference is that they're productively employed."

Ken - if you believe these things, then we disagree less than you seem to think. Sorry to make you want to "give up". I do think the labels matter, though - at least a little. I have no interest in branch parochialism. I have something of a reputation of shooting WAY outside of my lane to try (haven't gotten very far yet) and train my soldiers in other areas of expertise. I'd be more than happy to sit down and help plan training to temporarily re-role soldiers to perform my, or anyone elses, METL tasks (at a level of proficiency tbd by the amount of time and resources we're willing to throw at it). Soldiers are soldiers, and can handle alot, usually faster and better than we expect. None of those things devalue subject matter expertise, though.