I like to quote the retired COL, AR I met in 1981 who told me that in his twenty plus years of service "I saw training go from the one thing everyone
worried about to the one thing nobody worried about." One acquaintance who was drafted into the Army in the Summer of 1964, served at Fort Riley, told me
that "I was in the Army for about 700 days
and I musy have been on KP for at least 50 of them." I have mentioned elsewhere my sour experience with Special
Forces training at Fort Bragg in 1969 where most of my time was spent on scutwork and busywork, and I remember
the words of a cadet in my platoon at ROTC Advanced Camp at Fort Bragg in the Summer of 1975. He was prior
service, like me-he was an E-7, served in the Air Defense Artillery, he said "The problem with the Army isn't the lack of work, it's the lack of meaningful work." I note that a frequently heard complaint in my day (1966-1972) was that a US
with some education-high school plus a year or two of college-all to often received one of the choice clerical or administrative jobs, characterized by soft working conditions, fast promotions and being exempt from duty. When I was in the 12th Engineer Battalion in Germany the only time you saw any of the clerk and jerks working on weekens was when the IG was coming up. And it was another nail in the Carter Administrations's coffin when it was revealed in the Spring of 1980 that 46% of the Army's first term enlistees were Cat IVs. When I did my 2nd AD stint as an officer
1977-1981 I saw an awful lot of people who would have rejected 10 years earlier.
and I musy have been on KP for at least 50 of them." I have mentioned elsewhere my sour experience with Special
Forces training at Fort Bragg in 1969 where most of my time was spent on scutwork and busywork, and I remember
the words of a cadet in my platoon at ROTC Advanced Camp at Fort Bragg in the Summer of 1975. He was prior
service, like me-he was an E-7, served in the Air Defense Artillery, he said "The problem with the Army isn't the lack of work, it's the lack of meaningful work." I note that a frequently heard complaint in my day (1966-1972) was that a US
with some education-high school plus a year or two of college-all to often received one of the choice clerical or administrative jobs, characterized by soft working conditions, fast promotions and being exempt from duty. When I was in the 12th Engineer Battalion in Germany the only time you saw any of the clerk and jerks working on weekens was when the IG was coming up. And it was another nail in the Carter Administrations's coffin when it was revealed in the Spring of 1980 that 46% of the Army's first term enlistees were Cat IVs. When I did my 2nd AD stint as an officer
1977-1981 I saw an awful lot of people who would have rejected 10 years earlier.
