"Bush's drills with the Alabama Guard confirmed"

"Krztalizer" wrote in message
...
I thought the main issue wasn't that he served, but that he didn't
complete his
obligation of service? During the press conference, the press secretary
kept
affirming that he had drilled and it was all right in the records he had
provided - then he said something about 'nine days' for the year in
question
and I thought, Isn't the guard requirement "one weekend a month and two
weeks a
year"?

Only in general terms. You have to get a certain number of "points" to have
a good year (or that is the way it has been since at least the early
1980's). The training calendar is based upon 48 UTA's (unit training
assemblies, or weekend drills in most but not all cases--the usual breakdown
is four four-hour UTA's per weekend), with each giving a one point credit.
Different units and commanders arrange the schedule to suit mission and
training requirements; if you have a MUTA-5 (where you show up on Frdiay
night in addition to the weekend), you have to take a UTA off of another
weekend--it is not uncommon for units to have a month in the schedule with
no drills. A reservist also gets one point for every active duty day,
including his 15 days (for the NG--14 in the USAR last I heard) annual
training period. But some units/personnel break up their AT periods to
support mission requirements--you may do a seven days here, and eight days
two months later. Some units have "year around AT", where each individual
soldier/airman is scheduled to attend his AT based upon unit requirements
(common in higher supporting units and admin positions). Then there are the
"other" active duty days--"Cut orders for LT Shmedlap to perform four days
of active duty next month so he can attend the EEO conference"--at one point
per day. Finally, there are flying training assemblies--extra UTA's
exclusively reserved for flight personnel to maintain proficiency. And to
make things more complicated--yes, the commanders can authorize personnel to
make up missed duty periods, either before or after the fact, with
"equivalent training" periods--which is apparently what GWB did towards the
close of his time in uniform, making up for previously missed duty periods.
And no, that kind of treatment is not uncommon--we allowed PFC's to perform
ET when it was justified in our opinion.

Brooks


I think all of this stuff is ancient history, but its also the politics in
America today. Its all about tearing down people instead of finding
solutions
to problems. That's what makes it all so distasteful - more effort,
campaign
money, taxes, and most importantly, unrecoverable *time* gets poured into
hacking at political opponents than ever gets directed at the long term
issues
that face us all.

v/r
Gordon
====(A+C====
USN SAR

Donate your memories - write a note on the back and send your old photos
to a
reputable museum, don't take them with you when you're gone.