Re: [OT] US 'Inactive' RE: [OT] Territorial Army was Re: [OT] Free CalTex Interplanetary...

On Tue, 30 Sep 2003, Doug Evans wrote:

> ***
> That, I have heard, occurs here in the states too.
> Overconfident is never a good condition for a military
> to be in, regardless of whose....
> ***
>
> The stories I heard went on to suggest that the Guard and Reserve
troops,
> especially air units, had more time 'in the seat', more fuel for
training
> and practice, and no longer deal with out of date equipment. Weird,
no?

I think most of the US Air Guard/AF Reserve types are professional
pilots
in real life, too. Herd 767s during the week, play in fighters on
weekends
- I'm envious...

Not sure about military-training time, but a lot of these guys would
have
more overall flying experience than the regular Air Force pilots.

> The down side is, if true, our full timers get(got?) less practice
than
> 'one weekend per month and two weeks per year' warriors.

Not quite true, I think. The Reserve/Guard pilots might have many more
hours flying time, but less (and less recent) military flying time.

When the AF regulars fly, it's always going to be in a fighter or
fighter
trainer aircraft; the weekenders might be herding 7x7s or Airbuses - and
getting more hours, but less military training time than the regs.

> Still, as Al Franken has pointed out, George Bush won the war with
Bill
> Clinton's army. I'll leave off the nasty debate coming as to if he'll
win
> the peace.

Won't start that up...

Brian.

>
> >It's been since late 1970's/early 1980's since I was associated with
USAR
> >(After Active USAF) but NG tended then to be more combat and (what we
> >then called "Combat Support") and the USAR was more "Support"
>
> Interesting, and a bit weird, given the extra duties that the NG has
taken
> up, including disaster relief that sounds more like "support".
>
> Back when I was looking into service, before I was told I was unusable
> (childhood illness), I got the impression that the reserves were
strictly
> for those who'd previously been in active service, and was in fact an
> extension thereof. The guard was open to both 'newbies', and those
who'd
> previously served, who were VERY actively recruited.
>
> And with that, I apologize for extending this thread. Sometimes, even
I
> can't resist.
>
> The_Beast
>