Category Archives: United States Armed Forces

15 More things I would change about US Military Policy…

Fifteen is half of thirty and since thirty and twenty equal fifty I thought I would go half of the remaining distance to fifty changes here.

1. I would like to see a divided career option where recruits serve a year or two in the service, go into a civilian college with a commitment to follow-up with two or three years in the Foreign Service, Peace Corps or CIA in fields of endeavor related to building civilian ties. After this the next two years would be served in a special unit for political, civic and counter-insurgency operations.

2. It would be great if the military would support a handful of special recruiters to work with the home school community and become aware of its issues. It would be great if it was great. Getting it right would be vital in this case.

3.   There should be a unit for setting up full-scale radio, television and internet communications in the local language as soon as territory is seized.

4. I wish that whenever we are fighting overseas there would be programs to help the relatively small number of Armed Services personnel who would like to stay  and establish homes and businesses. Supporting the expat communities in the modern context will be hard.

5. I wish that each branch had a set of officers who specialized in setting up purchasing for units from the local hinterland of each major base and using those purchasing “weaknesses” as traps for enemy infiltrators and ways to recruit legal paramilitary support groups.

6. I wish that remote operated micro blimps were standard company issue equipment for marine infantry and infantry equipment.

7. I wish spray on antiseptic bandages sufficient even to assist civilians were standard issue to all infantry.

8.  I wish that the military sponsored both open and invitational seminars and papers competitions on how cultural changes in this country affect military readiness.

9.  I wish the absentee ballots of services personnel would be rushed back in impressive style showing speed and efficiency.

10.   I wish parade drills and dry firing artillery was standard in every base of substantial size in near combat zones in areas where as many locals as could be made safe could view  these things.

11.  I wish our military encouraged American expats who were seeking to produce local products with local  labor to supply local US bases over the longer course of most wars.

12.  It would  be great if the US military could escape from implementing policies that are destructive to our national integrity for as long as we have to live in a situation where such policies are promoted.

13. It would be great if Port and Border security were more impressively coordinated matters.

14. It would be great if we could secure assets for those  struggling in any area we leave and develop a real policy for long-term engagement.

15.  I wish all military policing units had more preparation for dealing with complex foreign community locations.

20 Things I Would Change About Military Policy in the USA

This is one of several impossible blog posts I have posted.  I did not say difficult, I would like to fancy that in some sense or other many of my posts are difficult. This is one of the impossible ones because I would really like to see fundamental constitutional change in the country and have outlined many changes that would come to the military with such a set of changes. The net result would be for more than fifty notable policy changes and far more than 20. In fact like any idea that might succeed it might slow the collapse of the system’s most objectionable parts and so is sort of   against my dream. But my dream is pretty unlikely.

So here are 20 changes for now and there may be 50 in total over several posts that may not be consecutive. So whether this is 20 in total or 20 of 50  for now  these are some changes I would propose. The same list would never occur on any other day but many of the same things would be on most lists:

1. Create an Alternate National Service Corps under a special Liaison of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There would be varied ranks and forms of entry including high schools, junior ROTC, juvenile courts and other methods of starting at varied points. An entrant would go to a no-weapons modified boot camp and take a course in a sort of combined military history and civics class before serving for one year in a special division of AmeriCorps.   Then the entrant would choose either a more real boot camp with infantry and skills training or a non-combatant camp suitable for even moderate conscientious objectors. Young men and women would also take a set of separate, sex, reproduction, marriage and family classes with access for their own religions to teach a section to adherents. Then these young people would serve another year, half with AmeriCorps and half with  a specialized Civilian  Services Unit on military reservations. At the end of this time all would be allowed to leave or enter any branch with advanced standing and rank.

2. I  would encourage any member of the Armed Services to take the last year of his service in the military and spend it in his or her home state’s National Guard or in a certified Indian Nation’s Guard or other similar program.

3. I would host a Small Business Administration joint Trade Fair with each branch every other year where small American firms could pitch new products and technologies to the Armed Services.

4.  I would require all but one branch to come up with a fully functional and parade ceremonial Animal regiment. The Army would have to have two such regiments. One being a full cavalry unit. Marines could for example have dog and horse military police.

5. I would have each branch adopt an artificial island project where it could explore the potential of fixed artificial large environs as force builders while functioning as part of an environmental and economic program,

6. I would have each branch explore planning a program for using its old nukes as spaceship propulsion in the future in the devices that I have described elsewhere .

7. I would have the branches each draw up a program for providing services on a paying basis above cost for licensed military clubs throughout the country.

8. I would bring back the Blackbird program with more simulator time and fewer planes and pilots to reduce cost. I would modify Blackbird doctrine and equipment to work in conjunction with unmanned assets like satellites , drones and  other assets as a focus for an arrayed group.

9. I would develop a Humanitarian Artillery unit in the Army. Because of the risk of encouraging proliferation of artillery the use of artillery to address problems like fires, avalanches, mudslides and many other problems has largely gone untapped. This unit would be under military control and capable of fighting but it would have all sorts of civic capabilities.

10. I would develop a Defense Intelligence Agency Linguistics and Culture Initiative. This would cultivate friendships with autonomous and gifted well-travelled Americans and seek to forge structures for co-operation and also military service.

11. I would set up programs to funnel, recruit form, correct and where necessary eliminate American boys with high propensities for violence before they were hardened criminals.

12. I would set up programs to help facilitate courtship marriage and a happy safe family life for men who by nature or solitary more often that not and are most comfortable undertaking great risk as stone cold killers. Such men are few in any society but are vital.

13. I would create a Liaison to the Re-enactors Community in each branch.

14. I would like to see a training program where soldiers are sent to real villages in Latin America or else where with other country’s permission to keep order and create a single infrastructure project in a short time. This would require many unrepeated real sites and projects.

15. Bonus pay should be given across the board in small amounts but with records kept for those acquiring skills in languages, arms, martial arts, first aid, survival and sanitation regardless of their job description or station.

16. A new functional dress sword made with Taser and GPS and combat tactical blades should be standard.

17.  The Marines should develop a full-fledged Marines Embassy Security Agency(MESA) such as I have described elsewhere.

18. All military contractors should receive points and benefits for hiring those with serious injuries and wounds received in the service for any job which actually is cost-effective no matter how specialized part-time or odd the structure used to create it may be.

19. There should be a program we can all GI Joe for now. The point would be to explore cost effectively the use of rarely gifted extreme outliers who wish to serve their country but are not good with large organizations. Hackers, smugglers, martial artists, inventors, people with extremely rare IQ scores and others would be considered.

20.   We should develop a doctrine and begin to plan for a future in which widely divergent carrier groups exist operating at significantly distinct cost profiles.