Resourcing the Troops in Afghanistan has Always been an Issue

Not just the Arty. (4.00 / 2)

But we were sucking on resupply. That was not a lack of it being at the FOB's but it was a lack of planning on the higher ups.

On about the third or fourth day in Anaconda we were actually digging in the trash piles and making meals out of the iced tea and sugar packets. And to drink, well we melted snow.

Anaconda was supposed to last 72 hours from the day we hit ground, we planned for it to be longer as you always do while you are on the line, but the higher ups never saw fit to plan forward to make sure we were taken care of if the mission lasted longer than 72 hours, which it did.

And the Arty, some piss poor planning on the part of, well pretty much everyone.

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by: Brian McGough @ Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 15:49:32 PM CST

It is instructive to remember… (0.00 / 0)

...that one of the first tasks Secretary Rumsfeld took on as he took the helm as Secretary of Defense was to cancel the Crusader weapons system.

He complemented this folly by attempting to push through a radical restructuring of combat forces that called for the elimination of Armored Cavalry, Division and Corp Artillery, and the traditional structures of the Division of Corp themselves. His plans also called for the elimination of separate Armored and Cavalry Divisions, and a 'lightening' of heavy and medium Infantry Divisions in the reserve components by removing their heavy assets. He also called for the elimination of separate Aviation Brigades, and the reduction of Military Police forces.

It was going to be all about separate Brigades and Task Forces. Highly mobile, not so lethal forces, supplemented by more unconventional 'special forces.' Largely mop up forces to follow General Horner's 'shock and awe' bombardment campaigns.

Well, we've all seen how well that worked out. What kind of idiot would deploy infantry forces into the mountainous regions of Afghanistan without the artillery, airlift and close air support assets they needed to survive, let alone accomplish their mission? And the rear area protection assets required protect their advance? The air mobile assets required to jump ahead and cut off their escape routes? What fools...

Secretary Rumsfeld almost singlehandedly turned more than 200 years of protocol and experience on its head, helped along by the likes of General Franks, who knew better but had apparently forgotten what leadership actually is. They crippled the Army as a fighting force, as they pushed headlong into reinventing it, allowing it to become essentially combat ineffective in both the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters.  

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by: Michael Lafferty @ Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 16:30:50 PM CST

Close air wasn't a problem, (0.00 / 0)

 for me at least. I talked to a lot of birds during Anaconda. Lift assets were an issue and thus the reason we were going hungry. I think it took as long to get resupply on ammo too, now that I think about it.

The whole no arty situation was so messed up. We brought tubes to Kosovo, but didn't bring any to Afghanistan....That makes no sense.

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by: Brian McGough @ Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 18:23:15 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Again: (0.00 / 0)

  Rummy was the single worst SecDef ever, and it's up to guys/gals like us to prevent that from happening again.

 Boggles the mind, doesn't it?

 IV
 

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by: IrritatedVet @ Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 02:33:51 AM CST

[ Parent ]