Ah, the campaign cover. I was actually thinking of ordering one for ####s and giggles when I was working with 5-7 CAV, since they all had their silly little Stetsons (the Troop CO threatened to beat my ass when I called it that, he played rugby at West Point, so I kept a watchful eye on him after that ). I wanted one of the old fore and aft style hats, for some reason it just appealed to me more than the Montana peak hats. Never followed through on it. It is a good looking piece of gear, though. Just something timeless about it.
A large number of those folks seem to worry a lot more about uniformity, haircuts, shaving (all Sqd / Veh / Platoon NCO jobs), personnel assignments (the Adj and his crowd) and other exotica than they worry about assessing and improving the training, morale, attitude, care and feeding -- and employment -- of their assigned unit. That means, if a large number do in fact have such misplaced priorities, that the system is at fault. That means the Army's not doing it right. That's misuse of CSMs.
That's a lot of experience being wasted on inconsequentials; makes no sense. That really need to be fixed if that misalignment of priorities is correct.
If a Bn / Sqn has, say eight to twelve COPS out there, the CSM oughta get to each of 'em at least once every week or two (if he appears more often than that, then the 1SGs and Co Cdrs get upset ). That BTW is Bn /Sqn; Bdes are a slightly different kettle of fish but the principle and priorities for Bns still apply just longer periods and more people to care for. I'm aware of the dangers of travel in the 2004-2007 period; I'm also aware that food and ammo get or got to the COPs...
Oh -- and he ought to be doing that fairly regularly without tagging along with the Cdr most times.
It can be done; the good ones do it -- but it is frowned upon by too many including some Cdrs and thus I say it is a systemic problem of priority allocation. Mostly. Some folks aid and abet the system...
It just doesn't compare to the flair of these uniforms.
"Pick up a rifle and you change instantly from a subject to a citizen." - Jeff Cooper
I think we've missed the brilliance behind the design of the new uniform. I believe this design was intentional. Given a choice of remaining CONUS and wearing this hideous unifrom OR volunteering for a MITT team and wearing ACUs, the choice is simple."The implementation of this wear policy represents another step in our transformation to a campaign quality expeditionary force that is dominant
across the spectrum of 21st Century conflict.
Thanks for all that you do for the Nation and the Army. Army Strong!"
CSA/SMA
CSA/SMA is a genious- he has broken the mold of our culture to increase volunteer rates for deployments and assisting Big Army with embracing the Advisory Corps mission.
That's why we should never underestimate sergeants majors.
Army Strong!
Mike
the absymal headcovering that the female soldier is wearing. Why do the services insist on clinging to those ugly looking tar buckets? The barracks cover (service cap to you soldiers) fits women just fine. And when is the female dress "outfit" going to really become uniform, i.e. looking like all the other soldiers? And please spare me the "women require different tailoring," women wear almost identical uniforms as the males at the military academies without any untoward difficulties. Why not on active service?
Dropping the beret for traditional headgear like the Stetson for the cav folks and the Montana Peak for all others would certainly solve the wind, rain, sun issue; althought the drill sergeants may take issue.
"What is best in life?" "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women."
I wanna know who these thousands and thousands of soldiers that were polled about the various uniforms are? Have yet to find one to admit they where polled. I wonder how many of us will be confused with a 3rd world dictator?
ODB
Exchange with an Iraqi soldier during FID:
Why did you not clear your corner?
Because we are on a base and it is secure.
There was a survey sent out in mid-2007 regarding the uniform. The survey was asking about mundane nonsense like the SSI badge or whatnot, and completely disregarded the fact that the uniform is one of the most god-awful pieces of junk anyone could have thought of. Seriously, if given the choice between the Army Service Uniform and the uniforms from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, I might choose the pastel disco pants from ST:TMP.
I replied to the survey saying "The Army might do best to re-examine the 'gays in the military' issue. Had we allowed openly gay people to serve, we might actually have a uniform that didn't look like it was designed by a colorblind idiot. Just saying."
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