Archives » Wednesday, April 02, 2008
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David Botti
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Apr 2, 2008 11:10 AM
The Washington Post reports today
on the decrease in readiness among U.S. ground combat forces. Not only
are the soldiers and Marines worn down by continuous deployments, but
tactically there are few available forces to respond other potential
conflicts throughout the world. According to the Post, Army Vice Chief
of Staff Gen. Richard Cody told the Senate Armed Services Committee:
"When the five-brigade surge went in...that took all the stroke out of the shock absorbers for the United States Army."
Currently,
Army soldiers serve 15-month overseas deployments with 12 months at
home in between. Marines serve seven-month deployments separated by
another seven months. For the Marine Corps (a much smaller branch of
service than the Army) the fact that 3,200 Marines are now being sent to Afghanistan is considered by some to be severely degrading Marine assets.
"There has been little, if any, change of the stress or tempo for our
forces," [said Gen. Robert Magnus, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps], calling the current pace of operations
"unsustainable."
Magnus suggested that if more Marines are freed from Iraq they could
also go to Afghanistan. Marines "will move to the sound of the guns in
Afghanistan," he said. But he said it would be difficult to keep the
force split between the two countries because the Marine Corps has
limited resources to command a divided force and supply it
logistically.
The Marine Corps is "basically in two boats at the same time," he said.
The
Post further reported that efforts to increase the number of soldiers
and Marines will not translate into units able to provide operational
relief until 2011.
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David Botti
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Apr 2, 2008 10:36 AM
A reader recently pointed me to an incredibly detailed interactive map
indicating the hometowns of U.S. military casualties from Operations
Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Based on information available from
the Department of Defense, the map's creator has allowed viewers to
filter the map by branch of service, military operation, sex, and age. Check it out here. It first appears zoomed in on the New York City area, but one can view anywhere in the country.
From the Website's mission statement:
In mid 2007 oobgolf.com launched an advanced golf course finder for our users. We recently made the decision
to use that same technology and development resources to map the hometowns of soldiers who have died in
Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
This was not done as a political statement. We simply felt that this tool provided a unique way for Americans
to connect to these fallen soldiers in a new more personal way.
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