H&I* Fires, 7 JAN 2007

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite. [Admittedly, I'm fibbing. Trackbacks are still broken]

You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...

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Today is SWWBO and the Armorer's 9th anniversary. I've been married three times, and never had one of those. Whee! Speaks to the quality of my decision-making. It improved over time. Hers... -the Armorer

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And on the subject of men and women... the revealing phenomenon of "Macho Dems." - FbL

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Courtesy of Capt H, an alternative to Macho Dems," if it suits ya. - FbL

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Over 5 years into a serious casualty-producing era of combat, and two things about the Institutional Army (vice the Operational Army) still stand out, painfully.

1. The pay system for reserve component soldiers is *still* broken.

2. The personnel system has serious issues. From the Washington Post:

Army Mistakenly Sent Letters To Dead or Wounded Officers

The Army said it will apologize to the families of about 275 officers killed or wounded in action who were mistakenly sent letters urging them to return to active duty.

The letters were sent a few days after Christmas to more than 5,100 Army officers who had recently left the service. Included were letters to about 75 officers killed and about 200 wounded.

The latest available Pentagon statistics report that, as of Dec. 2, 217 Army officers have died in Iraq and 894 have been wounded since the war

One can only hope the apologies are delivered in person by the people who screwed up, who will leave copies of their Permanent File Letters of Reprimand behind.

Sadly, I expect excuses will be offered. Oh, and no doubt the apologies will be in letter form, too. Feh. The people who screwed it up should fund their own TDY to put it right.

When I was a battalion adjutant, my battalion commander made it clear to me that if my Personnel Administration Center screwed a soldier, I would read about it in my OER. If it was bad enough, I would read about it in my Relief For Cause OER. I had no reason to doubt him on the issue. I won't lie and tell you the fact that my battalion had *no* late OERs, *no* late NCOERs, *no* late pay changes due to PAC personnel errors was wholly due to my sterling capabilities. It was due to my PAC Supervisor, SFC Sisson, and myself, making sure that everything happened on time and to standard. Period. But the fact that the battalion commander made it clear that I had nothing more important to do, period, than take care of the troops and their commanders, was also a factor. It was a lesson I carried forward the rest of my career.

Inexcusable. -the Armorer

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Oh, after that, I owe you this - Stop The ACLU's Sunday Funnies. -the Armorer

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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires.

Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.

Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*

The UAVs we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.

I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to. It's also an open trackback, so if (Don Surber uses it this way a lot) someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone".