California Militia show up to help wildfire victims - Liberal media come unglued

[gmerkt]

A perfect description of the reason (well, maybe not the only reason) my dad hated his WWII military service. To hear him tell it, he was still pulling KP up to the day he mustered out as a Sergeant. Guess some things never change.

During my time, things did change when we got to Vietnam, where labor was dirt cheap and the US Army hired local girls to work in our consolidated mess hall. Our local national hiring were done within our own battalion. No contractors to take a (big) cut. We had a broken lieutenant who was made Civilian Personnel Officer, had a small staff of VN girls to help him do the hiring, firing and paperwork.

When the volunteer army was created, the cost of military labor rose and kept on rising. Military managers no longer had tons of low-paid military labor at their disposal My sense is that now there is a lot of contracting out of dining facility operations. Especially in places lately like Iraq and Afghanistan, where cheap local labor was used for the dirty work -- organized by American contractors, of course.

Beyond the mess hall or dining facility, soldiers now get a Basic Allowance for Subsistence. Which means they can eat wherever they want. When they choose to eat at a government dining facility, they are charged for it. Or they can eat at home off post, or at MacDonalds. But the monthly BAS is about $407 for enlisted personnel, that only goes so far. The problem for the military is, they are running dining facilities, but within a system where soldiers don't have to eat there if they don't want to.

People here who've had recent military experience can update this, as necessary.

 

[ArmedNovelist]

Seems to me that they'd be wise not to waste their time, manpower, nor money again... But, that's just me.

 

[Member 52301]

Seems to me ....

If you refuse a meal that is offered to you for free , after a disaster or in a time of need...
You ain't that hungry ( or know what hard times really are ).

Andy

This! Thank you.

Cate
PS: I read news from ALL OVER the WWWeb and from ALL sides including international news not only national news. This story was all over many websites when it first HIT the so called news.

 

[jackrv]

Yeah, imagine a regimental size field kitchen. Leave me out of KP duty this time, please.

One of my pals was a draftee at Fort Hood in 1970. PFC's and below pulled KP. He was so looking forward to promotion to Spec 4 with which would come exemption from KP duty. When he finally was promoted, it was with a whole bunch of other PFC's at the same time. Then the first sergeant didn't have enough people for KP. So they bumped the exemption rank up to E-5 and above; all those who had been pulling KP as PFC's were still pulling it as new Spec 4's.

I know the pain..... I was a fireman / shipfitter striker on the ship in the picture to the left.

Working parties were all E3s and below. I was so looking forward to 3rd class to get exempted. When it happened, a whole bunch made 3rd and they upped the working parties to all E4s and below

 

[Ura-Ki]

I can sorta speak to the "Labor" issue in the military. When I was in, (1988-2008) I saw the transition from junior airman doing KP and yard/field maintenance to contractor supplied staff to perform those duties, usually Hispanics in stateside bases, or locals for overseas assignments. It started out slow and sorta expanded until Iraq kicked off, before long we had contractors running most of the non combat labor assignments! When I inquired about this to my boss, a LtCol, he pointed out the costs of training each individual airman and maintaining that airman ready to deploy vs cheap labor they could hire for WAY less, it was the gov. trying to be thrifty and spend it's budget where it mattered most!

In a way, that all made sense, keep your fighting forces thin but well trained and equiped and leave the lower priority stuff to civilian contractor's. We had everything from mess staff, grounds keepers, administration details, and even some medical, all preformed by civilians, which left the heavy duty stuff to Service personal. We handled maintenance and minor repairs, ran the various shops with civilian assistance, unless it was secured type work, and generally operated at pretty high standards of readiness! When I first enlisted, out flight ops readiness ratio was something like 48 to 53% and the failure to report/launch ratio was only a little higher, in other words, for every mission, they would plan for 12 airframes, knowing only 8 or 9 would likely be able to take off and fly the mission, with those failures mostly at take off or shortly after and then have to recover a busted aircraft somehow! We lost a few birds and killed a few crews, but we learned! When I retired, out mission readiness ratio was 99.9% and we were meaner and leaner then ever!

I rarely took my meals off base, with the rare exception of weekends when I had a pass and had some thing fun planned, I was generally a pretty conservative, plus, I had to maintain a pretty strict diet and physical condition in order to maintain my flight duty status, and besides, the food wasn't half bad, though not great by any stretch, I generally enjoyed what they served us! Down range however, that's when it sucked, at least until the civilians took over, then it really improved, with food choices we had never had before, and a real strong push for eating healthy and high performance oriented options!

 

[gmerkt]

When I inquired about this to my boss, a LtCol, he pointed out the costs of training each individual airman and maintaining that airman ready to deploy vs cheap labor they could hire for WAY less, it was the gov. trying to be thrifty and spend it's budget where it mattered most!

In a way, that all made sense, keep your fighting forces thin but well trained and equiped and leave the lower priority stuff to civilian contractor's. We had everything from mess staff, grounds keepers, administration details, and even some medical, all preformed by civilians

Which, over time, during the Iraq / Afghan thing, got well out of hand. Eventually, the US contracted out military work. "Security Work" done by the likes of Blackwater, et al. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I've read that of the $14 Trillion spent by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan, half went to contractors for various services.

When US involvement in Iraq began in 2004, the national debt was about $7.4 Trillion. Now it's over $30 Trillion. It isn't all war related, but a big chunk of that increase is. Between 2019 and 2020, the US racked up $5 Trillion in additional debt. Which isn't war related. BUT: A big reason government debt has grown so much in the past few years is inflation. Our money is worth so much less, buys so much less. The government has to pay more for everything just as individuals must.

I don't see any good reason why volunteers providing food to firefighters wouldn't be welcome. Quite a number of the food banks that operate in the US are run by religious organizations. Which represent a particular viewpoint. Yet the voluntary relief efforts of these groups are typically welcomed.

 

[rjmt]

Which, over time, during the Iraq / Afghan thing, got well out of hand. Eventually, the US contracted out military work. "Security Work" done by the likes of Blackwater, et al. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I've read that of the $14 Trillion spent by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan, half went to contractors for various services.

When US involvement in Iraq began in 2004, the national debt was about $7.4 Trillion. Now it's over $30 Trillion. It isn't all war related, but a big chunk of that increase is. Between 2019 and 2020, the US racked up $5 Trillion in additional debt. Which isn't war related. BUT: A big reason government debt has grown so much in the past few years is inflation. Our money is worth so much less, buys so much less. The government has to pay more for everything just as individuals must.

I don't see any good reason why volunteers providing food to firefighters wouldn't be welcome. Quite a number of the food banks that operate in the US are run by religious organizations. Which represent a particular viewpoint. Yet the voluntary relief efforts of these groups are typically welcomed.

as was brought up - the news media found 2 - just TWO Liberals in Maricopa who had concerns about the Militia providing assistance and it made international news and front page on the LA Times

 

[3MTA3]

as was brought up - the news media found 2 - just TWO Liberals in Maricopa who had concerns about the Militia providing assistance and it made international news and front page on the LA Times

Truth is that if you see any kind of relief effort going on in response to a disaster and you aren't someone who needs the relief then you should roll up your sleeves and assist if you can. It's the human thing to do. Or, you can whine because people you don't like (and haven't met or spoken with) are doing what needs to be done to help others.

 

[nwslopoke]

as was brought up - the news media found 2 - just TWO Liberals in Maricopa who had concerns about the Militia providing assistance and it made international news and front page on the LA Times

Not completely correct. They found the message they wanted (needed) and that made the international press. Otherwise they would have just made it up.

From Gulf War era media I've seen first hand reports of inflated troop numbers as well as deflated numbers. The media used the excuse, to camouflage troop movements. Yes, as if the Iraqis needed CNN to tell them they were getting bombed at will. The media can't fool everyone, but they can fool enough.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Far Right Wing Extremists, says all you need to know, not only about the reporter doin the reportin, but the community members offended by dudes in camo and dark green army trucks! Lighten up Karen, here's a soy sammich, now go STFU and let us help those who actually need it, and if your place burns, sorry not sorry, you don't want help cause your offended, sucks to be you!

I can't tell the difference. Love em both.