MIL - 3rd Infantry Div. not ready for battle

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http://www.boston.com/dailynews/088/nation/Report_Army_says_unit_not_prep:.shtml

Report: Army says unit not prepared for battle

By Associated Press, 3/29/2001 04:37

NEW YORK (AP) One of the Army's 10 active divisions has been downgraded to the second-lowest level of battle readiness due to a lack of training and personnel, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Citing unidentified Pentagon officials, the newspaper said the 3rd Infantry Division, based out of Fort Stewart, Ga., was downgraded because thousands of its soldiers have missed battle-readiness training while stationed overseas. Nearly 4,000 troops from the division have been serving as peacekeepers in Bosnia since October.

Maj. Gen. Walter Sharp, who commanded the 3rd Infantry Division, downgraded the division's readiness rating to C-3. That means the division would need to prepare for weeks, if not months, if it was called up for wartime duty.

The Pentagon officials said the downgrading does not indicate the military is seriously impaired. But the move is likely to add to the debate in Congress over the deployment of military troops overseas.

Many members of Congress have called for less involvement of U.S. troops in peacekeeping missions. They say the missions are too costly and demoralizing for troops.

Congressional officials declined to comment to the Times on the downgrading of the 3rd Division.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001

Answers

I am becoming a real isolationist and feel like they ALL should come home, battan down the hatches and hunker down on home shores. How would you like to be in a foreign land when TSHTF? Or have you kid over there? I do hope Bush pours the money into defense. The world has our services so fragmented that they are not going to be able to defend their own homeland.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001

Not only the that, but the cost associated with keeping our forces over there as "peacekeepers" cuts down on the funds for training of the troops here within the USA.

Some divisions of our .mil are lacking training and the parts needed to keep what they do have working.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001


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