10,000 more NG troops assigned to Inaguration

[just a scout]

The way I see that playing out is more along the lines of them being allocated a certain number of vehicles, likely buses. Those are the only vehicles they get and its based off of the number of personnel that were activated. Any extra gear that's brought is now sitting on that Soldier's lap for the entire trip.

Again, I don't know that it played out that way so I could be very wrong. However, I've been a company commander for just under a year and have been forced into positions that seem really shitty without the proper perspective. Even then, they were shitty either way, but it legitimately was the lesser of two evils. That's part of what command is all about and it can be extremely frustrating when you believe you should be giving your company a better answer. And we're not even talking about this in the context of the real Army, aka war.

I’m unsympathetic. I get plate carriers and all that but soldiers and leaders need to be taught again:

Live out of your ruck
Fight out of your LBE
Survive out of your pockets

A GOOD load plan and PCI ensures your guys have what they need to accomplish the mission and survive. Even if space is an issue, a 3 day pack lets you make sure Joe has a poncho, liner and a pad like a Klymit Recon pad. At least.

I’ve spent time with minimal stuff, mainly because mission essential tool almost every cube in my large ALICE.

I’ll toss another acronym

SMOLES

Self defense Weapons
Medical. IFAK
Observation. NODS etc
Land nav. Map, compass, gps
Extreme weather. Rain/cold weather gear
Survival. Food, water, purification, etc

Standards are set by leaders, from team to corps. Don’t care AD vs USAR vs ARNG. Set the standard and enforce it. I don’t care about how it’s been done the past 20 years on Iraq or it’s an urban environment or anything else. The Army as a whole is decidedly lacking in field craft. Joe is still lacking in common sense and leaders need to lead.


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[OH58D]

So they were specifically ordered not to bring issued sleep system gear, or they were told they wouldn’t need it? There’s a big difference there.

If that was an order to not bring their sleep system, then the officer responsible for that idiocy needs to be relieved and cashiered out of service. Because that officer is a moron who has no business making decisions about even the most simple things. At that level of decision making you either have plans hammered out and you have things like billeting firmly in place or you don’t, if you don’t you have the Joe’s bring all their gear just in case they need it.

If that was a suggestion or advisement the individual company commander dumb enough to roll with that suggestion needs to be relieved of command. Any officer who’s been around long enough to be a company commander on up should have enough experience to know that plans go sideways. They have also been around long enough to know that higher echelons of command invariably screw you and don’t deliver on logistical support among other things. If those officers haven’t learned those lessons they clearly have not been paying attention and therefore have no business being in command.

From what I was told, the exact language was that they wouldn't need it. The 226th MP BN received an "approved" packing list for D.C. and they sent a company sized unit. They are a subordinate unit to the 93rd Troop Command out of Santa Fe, commanded by a Full Bird Colonel. From the pictures I have seen, a lot of the National Guard units brought none of the regular sleep system equipment.

[Coal Dragger]

Advised they wouldn’t need it, not ordered to omit the gear.

Sounds like piss poor planning.

[Wake27]

I’m familiar with the charter bus trip to a training area etc. I also know, and so do you, that a reasonably well compressed sleep system and iso-mat don’t take up much extra space. Plus if a dude has to have some gear on their lap for the bus ride, well that’s life.

Well these guys came from all over the states. I'm about to take my company on a 12 hour bus ride because of COVID. That's not the same as two hours. Also I don't know what sleep system you're talking about, the current full issued one will take up a solid 1/3 of the MOLLE ruck if packed well. That doesn't count sleeping pad.

[Coal Dragger]

We strapped the sleeping bags on top and the iso-mat on the bottom at least on the ALICE packs. The MOLLE I don’t remember that well but the sleeping bag and mat were not an insurmountable item to pack on or in the MOLLE.

[OH58D]

Advised they wouldn’t need it, not ordered to omit the gear.

Sounds like piss poor planning.

It was a throw together call-up. The normal S-3 (Major) was away in Georgia on training, the acting S-3 in his place with only two days on the job (Captain I know) was sent with the unit before any of the Defense Travel System authorizations were in place, and a Second Lieutenant with the Vermont National Guard doing split-training in New Mexico with the unit was made Acting S-3. That young 2LT was up day and night processing all the paperwork for pay and travel even after the unit left.

This is a normal battalion but only sent a Company of around 102 MP's made the trip with a Captain, 1LT, SFC, Staff SGT, and the rest assorted ranks. This unit was given 4 hours notice before travel. That was piss poor in itself.

[Wake27]

I’m unsympathetic. I get plate carriers and all that but soldiers and leaders need to be taught again:

Live out of your ruck
Fight out of your LBE
Survive out of your pockets

A GOOD load plan and PCI ensures your guys have what they need to accomplish the mission and survive. Even if space is an issue, a 3 day pack lets you make sure Joe has a poncho, liner and a pad like a Klymit Recon pad. At least.

I’ve spent time with minimal stuff, mainly because mission essential tool almost every cube in my large ALICE.

I’ll toss another acronym

SMOLES

Self defense Weapons
Medical. IFAK
Observation. NODS etc
Land nav. Map, compass, gps
Extreme weather. Rain/cold weather gear
Survival. Food, water, purification, etc

Standards are set by leaders, from team to corps. Don’t care AD vs USAR vs ARNG. Set the standard and enforce it. I don’t care about how it’s been done the past 20 years on Iraq or it’s an urban environment or anything else. The Army as a whole is decidedly lacking in field craft. Joe is still lacking in common sense and leaders need to lead.


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So you're preaching all of these leadership aspects but are using the example of a commercial sleeping pad that's significantly smaller than the issued gear? That's cool. I don't disagree with your point about fieldcraft but I also don't see how any of this is actually solves problems. I don't know what you did and if you're still in or gotten out but a lot of leadership problems at the BN level come from old NCOs (typically CSMs) that just throw out terms that are barely relevant. Regurgitating acronyms and sayings is super hooah but telling people to live out of their ruck doesn't create more space in whatever form of transportation is utilized. Just like telling NCOs to counsel their Soldiers isn't actually developing leaders.

[Coal Dragger]

It was a throw together call-up. The normal S-3 (Major) was away in Georgia on training, the acting S-3 in his place with only two days on the job (Captain I know) was sent with the unit before any of the Defense Travel System authorizations were in place, and a Second Lieutenant with the Vermont National Guard doing split-training in New Mexico with the unit was made Acting S-3. That young 2LT was up day and night processing all the paperwork for pay and travel even after the unit left.

This is a normal battalion but only sent a Company of around 102 MP's made the trip with a Captain, 1LT, SFC, Staff SGT, and the rest assorted ranks. This unit was given 4 hours notice before travel. That was piss poor in itself.

Yeah, that is a poop sandwich for sure.

The cynical Marine grunt in me would have me packing all my crap though, cause I learned really really quickly that higher would screw it all up or be playing catch up to what is needed.

Oh well, learning experience for everyone hopefully.

[OH58D]

Yeah, that is a poop sandwich for sure.

The cynical Marine grunt in me would have me packing all my crap though, cause I learned really really quickly that higher would screw it all up or be playing catch up to what is needed.

Oh well, learning experience for everyone hopefully.

You would have said the same thing when we were called up at Fort Campbell for Operation Urgent Fury in 1983. Half of our flight crews were off-base and unreachable before we left for Fort Bragg. Lots of rules were broken to get our aircraft to the staging location at Pope AAF. I had to land at the civilian airport at Asheville, North Carolina to top off the tank before reaching Bragg. The Army rented cars so the remainder of our tardy pilots could reach Fort Bragg before we loaded up our helicopters for the flight to Barbados.

[Coal Dragger]

I’ll bet the wise among you grabbed as much gear as they could to take with them.

Super short notice is a prescription for problems, especially trying to organize 20K bodies to be in one place.