RESERVE 'BROKEN' BY ITS BURDEN In a memo to Army brass, its leader says overseas demands, dysfunctional policies pose a 'grave danger'

BY TOM BOWMAN
THE BALTIMORE SUN

January 5, 2005

WASHINGTON - The Army Reserve, a force of some 200,000 part-time soldiers who provide key support in Iraq and Afghanistan with medics, engineers and truck drivers, "is rapidly degenerating into a 'broken' force," its top general has told senior Army leaders.

Lt. Gen. James R. "Ron" Helmly, the chief of the Army Reserve, in a blunt and detailed memo, cited the demands of overseas commitments and the unwillingness of Army and Pentagon officials to change "dysfunctional" policies that are hampering the Army Reserve on issues ranging from training and extension of service time to the mobilization of his soldiers.

The Dec. 20 memo, obtained by The Sun, said that in meeting "current demands" of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Reserve is in "grave danger" of being unable to meet other missions in Pentagon contingency plans or help with domestic emergencies "and is rapidly degenerating into a 'broken force.'"

"The purpose of this memorandum is to inform you of the Army Reserve's inability to meet mission requirements" in Iraq and Afghanistan "and to reset and regenerate its forces for follow-on and future missions," Helmly wrote in the eight-page memo sent through Army channels for the Army's chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker. "I do not wish to sound alarmist. I do wish to send a clear, distinctive signal of deepening concern."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usrese054104615jan05,0,2496236.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines

Yes, indeedy.  Clinton was so mediocre, but Bush is certainly a trendsetter!  He's so regressive I'm beginning to wonder how much longer until we're back in the Ice Age (ignorance of global warming) and fat, white, uneducated republicans are dragging women around by the hair and using Bush terminology - 'Ugh.  Me want grub!'  It's not 'Iraqnam,' huh?  I smell a draft.  I wonder what they'll call it...the 'Put America Back to Work Act?'