thedrifter
12-13-06, 12:47 PM
December 13, 2006
‘Patchwork’ reserve units may cost lives, official says
By Rick Maze
Staff writer
The chairman of the Commission on the Guard and Reserve railed against the so-called “cross-leveling” practice of forming units for deployment to Iraq, saying he would not want to command a patchwork unit going into combat.
Retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro, chairman of the 13-member commission studying the structure, requirements and future of the reserve components, raised the cross-leveling issue at a hearing Wednesday morning that was supposed to focus on proposals to elevate the status of National Guard issues in the Pentagon.
But Punaro’s mind was on something else.
He went so far as to call cross-leveling “evil” and said it may be the cause of some casualties in Iraq because the practice diverges from the long-held military doctrine of having units train and fight together for cohesion and effectiveness.
Punaro said he knows of an Army unit that was built by taking people from 40 states and a Marine battalion made up of people from 21 cities, both examples of forming units for deployment stocked with troops who have never worked or trained together.
“I would not want to go into combat in command of a unit that looks like it was put together like a patchwork quilt,” he said.
Punaro, currently executive vice president for Science Applications International Corp., also was a longtime staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He previously served as the Marine Corps director of reserve affairs and also as commander of the 4th Marine Division, the ground combat element of the Marine Corps Reserve.
David S.C. Chu, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, who was testifying before the commission about why the Bush administration does not support a plan to elevate the head of the National Guard Bureau to the level of a service chief with a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. to be equate to the service chiefs with a seat on the joint chiefs of staff, acknowledged that cross-leveling is not the ideal way of preparing units for deployment.
But, Chu said, it has been necessary in some cases in order for the services to try to keep promises to reservists and their families about the frequency of mobilizations and deployments and to make up for the fact that some reserve units have not been fully manned.
Ellie
‘Patchwork’ reserve units may cost lives, official says
By Rick Maze
Staff writer
The chairman of the Commission on the Guard and Reserve railed against the so-called “cross-leveling” practice of forming units for deployment to Iraq, saying he would not want to command a patchwork unit going into combat.
Retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro, chairman of the 13-member commission studying the structure, requirements and future of the reserve components, raised the cross-leveling issue at a hearing Wednesday morning that was supposed to focus on proposals to elevate the status of National Guard issues in the Pentagon.
But Punaro’s mind was on something else.
He went so far as to call cross-leveling “evil” and said it may be the cause of some casualties in Iraq because the practice diverges from the long-held military doctrine of having units train and fight together for cohesion and effectiveness.
Punaro said he knows of an Army unit that was built by taking people from 40 states and a Marine battalion made up of people from 21 cities, both examples of forming units for deployment stocked with troops who have never worked or trained together.
“I would not want to go into combat in command of a unit that looks like it was put together like a patchwork quilt,” he said.
Punaro, currently executive vice president for Science Applications International Corp., also was a longtime staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He previously served as the Marine Corps director of reserve affairs and also as commander of the 4th Marine Division, the ground combat element of the Marine Corps Reserve.
David S.C. Chu, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, who was testifying before the commission about why the Bush administration does not support a plan to elevate the head of the National Guard Bureau to the level of a service chief with a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. to be equate to the service chiefs with a seat on the joint chiefs of staff, acknowledged that cross-leveling is not the ideal way of preparing units for deployment.
But, Chu said, it has been necessary in some cases in order for the services to try to keep promises to reservists and their families about the frequency of mobilizations and deployments and to make up for the fact that some reserve units have not been fully manned.
Ellie