"Bill Kambic" wrote in message
...
"Michael Wise" wrote in message

How does slashing veterans benefits come anything close to approaching a
fix for what you call "8 years of abuse"? Face it, Bush Jr., like his
pappy, doesn't give two ****s about vets.

The "gutting" of the Naval Reserve goes all the way back to the Carter
years. I don't recall him as a friend of vets, either.

On the other hand the idea that two years as a draftee entitles you to a
lifetime of benefits is a bit much, too. I know a BUNCH of people who
exist
on military disabilities with VERY questionable bases.

I did my time (10 years Active, 14 Reserve), got paid for what I did
(mostly), and will get a check every month beginning in April of 2006.
Since I live in an area where the closest thing we have to a "military
installation" is an ANG Base I won't get to use a lot of the "benefits" to
which I am entitled. I blame neither Republican nor Democrat for that; my
choice of residence is my choice.

My wife also gets her check, after 5 Active and 19 Reserve.

He talks the armchair "Rah rah
military" talk from the safety and comfort of somebody from a family
wealthy and connected enough to ensure never being sent in harms
way...but at the end of the day, he's like the rest of those do-nothing
privileged stooges at the top and given the choice of protecting his the
already obscene profits of his lackey friends and contributors or
funding programs to benefit those who served their country and even shed
blood for it...will always side with his cronies.

So, what else is new?!?!?!?!?! ;-)

Republican or Democrat, it makes no difference...servicemen are just
their pawns....although Republicans are pretty good about lying to deny
that.

I guess you are going to vote Libertarian next time out. Right?

Soldiers (and the rest) have been pawns since the beginning of the reality
of the "rich man's war and the poor man's fight." And that goes almost
back
to the time of Og and Mog.

More to the point, loss of an internal Reserve hardware capability is
unlikely to EVER return. The RESFORONS have always been "poor relations"
but made do with what they had and sometimes embarassed Active Duty types
in
head to head competition. The Active Duty types have, in my personal
presence, often noted the vast "wastage" of funds on the Reserve hardware
units. (To be completely fair, a fair number have also "looked behind the
curtain" and seen the reasons why hardware units are a Very Good Thing.)

The likelyhood of facing the hords of the Red Army (or the late,
unlamented
Soviet Navy) is very small. But there are still places where you can lose
a
bunch of aircraft and people in a hurry and have to replace them the same
way (a "dust up" in North Korea comes to mind). The complexity of modern
aircraft means that the "WWII Approach" of 90 day wonder to Fleet Fighter
Pilot in a year (or so) is unlikely to EVER be seen again. This means
that
you have to have a "well" of trained people to draw on in time of crisis.
The REFORON/SRU hardware units filled that need. When they "go away" so
will a cheap solution to an expensive problem.

Bill Kambic

Formerly of VS-73 (the SRU part whose numbers escape me) and VP-93
(ditto),
NAF Detroit, 1974-1978

Hey Bill, are you an A-dub? I'm one of the active duty types that has seen
behind
the curtain. I left active duty after my first 4 and joined the reserves
(SAU VP0545),
but came back to active duty after 4.5 there. I don't view the reserves as
wasteful,
but I do view them as somewhat of a luxury. We shouldn't have reserve
squadrons
instead of active squadrons. A choice that the VP community would be facing
in the
near future if we didn't make use of the aircraft in the reserve units. I
do believe that
the SAU concept will be making a return to the Naval Air Reserve, and
hopefully we
can reform some of the units when MMA is online.

Giz