always had trouble understanding this
06-01-2010, 03:51 PM
#1
Gets Weekends Off
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always had trouble understanding this
The American military has always been kind of confusing to me because of the way it is set up with it's diffferent branches all designed to work together for a common goal.
One question I have is how do they figure out which soldiers get deployed? If I see the president on TV giving a speech and saying something along the lines of "we will begin deploying 1,000 soldiers".... How do they decide how many of those 1,000 are going to be Navy? Or Marines? Army? Air Force? And who exactly makes those kinds of decisions?
One question I have is how do they figure out which soldiers get deployed? If I see the president on TV giving a speech and saying something along the lines of "we will begin deploying 1,000 soldiers".... How do they decide how many of those 1,000 are going to be Navy? Or Marines? Army? Air Force? And who exactly makes those kinds of decisions?
06-01-2010, 06:32 PM
#2
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You are looking at it kind of backwards. The number the President announces was arrived at through a process in most cases. I would like to think the CinC doesn't pull some random number out of his backside because it sounds good....but you would be surprised sometimes.
Foreign policy or the desired goal is set for a region/war/conflict. The Joint Chiefs and all their minions way down (hopefully) to the on scene commanders determine how many of what kind of assets they need to accomplish the goal. Each branch basically has its specialty with some overlap between services. The 'package' is built and presented up the chain. Each level of the chain of command applies some filters for requirements, budget, etc. This continues with increasing levels of politics taking all kinds of things into consideration all the way to the President. While the numbers should be pretty firm from the commanders for a desired goal they get watered down (i.e. increased/reduced) by previously signed treaties/agreements between governments, including the U.N., and to make it look reasonable to whatever party/group they wish to impress/pacify.
I typed this in about two minutes and it is a very quick snapshot. By no means is this 'exactly' how it goes but you get the idea.
913 days until retirement...but who is counting
Foreign policy or the desired goal is set for a region/war/conflict. The Joint Chiefs and all their minions way down (hopefully) to the on scene commanders determine how many of what kind of assets they need to accomplish the goal. Each branch basically has its specialty with some overlap between services. The 'package' is built and presented up the chain. Each level of the chain of command applies some filters for requirements, budget, etc. This continues with increasing levels of politics taking all kinds of things into consideration all the way to the President. While the numbers should be pretty firm from the commanders for a desired goal they get watered down (i.e. increased/reduced) by previously signed treaties/agreements between governments, including the U.N., and to make it look reasonable to whatever party/group they wish to impress/pacify.
I typed this in about two minutes and it is a very quick snapshot. By no means is this 'exactly' how it goes but you get the idea.
913 days until retirement...but who is counting
06-01-2010, 07:07 PM
#3
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Originally Posted by FlyBoyd
You are looking at it kind of backwards. The number the President announces was arrived at through a process in most cases. I would like to think the CinC doesn't pull some random number out of his backside because it sounds good....but you would be surprised sometimes.
Foreign policy or the desired goal is set for a region/war/conflict. The Joint Chiefs and all their minions way down (hopefully) to the on scene commanders determine how many of what kind of assets they need to accomplish the goal. Each branch basically has its specialty with some overlap between services. The 'package' is built and presented up the chain. Each level of the chain of command applies some filters for requirements, budget, etc. This continues with increasing levels of politics taking all kinds of things into consideration all the way to the President. While the numbers should be pretty firm from the commanders for a desired goal they get watered down (i.e. increased/reduced) by previously signed treaties/agreements between governments, including the U.N., and to make it look reasonable to whatever party/group they wish to impress/pacify.
I typed this in about two minutes and it is a very quick snapshot. By no means is this 'exactly' how it goes but you get the idea.
913 days until retirement...but whose is counting
Foreign policy or the desired goal is set for a region/war/conflict. The Joint Chiefs and all their minions way down (hopefully) to the on scene commanders determine how many of what kind of assets they need to accomplish the goal. Each branch basically has its specialty with some overlap between services. The 'package' is built and presented up the chain. Each level of the chain of command applies some filters for requirements, budget, etc. This continues with increasing levels of politics taking all kinds of things into consideration all the way to the President. While the numbers should be pretty firm from the commanders for a desired goal they get watered down (i.e. increased/reduced) by previously signed treaties/agreements between governments, including the U.N., and to make it look reasonable to whatever party/group they wish to impress/pacify.
I typed this in about two minutes and it is a very quick snapshot. By no means is this 'exactly' how it goes but you get the idea.
913 days until retirement...but whose is counting
USMCFLYR
06-01-2010, 08:21 PM
#5
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To elaborate on what FlyBoyd said, the strategic or more likely operational circumstances which require the plus up should determine WHAT kind of forces are sent...
If they need an aircraft carrier, they will send several ship, and a bunch of sailors (and maybe a handful of marines), but no army or usaf.
If they need a brigade combat team, it will be army (or maybe marines).
Normally the mission would determine who goes. But in Iraq/Afghanistan the army has been bagged with a huge counter-insurgency and nation building requirement, and they are spread too thin. For that reason the DoD is requiring the other service to augment the army with individual warm bodies, who get pulled more or less at random from their active or reserve jobs, and get sent to fill an army job for one year typically.The don't do "front-line" army jobs (since they are not trained or experienced at the their rank for that stuff) but rather staff, support, or nation-building duties.
If they need an aircraft carrier, they will send several ship, and a bunch of sailors (and maybe a handful of marines), but no army or usaf.
If they need a brigade combat team, it will be army (or maybe marines).
Normally the mission would determine who goes. But in Iraq/Afghanistan the army has been bagged with a huge counter-insurgency and nation building requirement, and they are spread too thin. For that reason the DoD is requiring the other service to augment the army with individual warm bodies, who get pulled more or less at random from their active or reserve jobs, and get sent to fill an army job for one year typically.The don't do "front-line" army jobs (since they are not trained or experienced at the their rank for that stuff) but rather staff, support, or nation-building duties.
06-02-2010, 10:37 AM
#6
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Kind of what the others have said ... and it is very complicated process.
The gist of it is, each region has a combatant commander (4-star) who is in charge of all military operations within his theater. Using the mission objectives as stated by the SecDef or POTUS, the combatant commander determines the requirements based on capabilities needed to meet those objectives and puts in a request for forces. The commander doesn't always get what is asked for.
Our services deploy differently which muddies the waters even more. Most of the forces have aligned or grouped their forces into certain packages or sizes so as to tailor their distinctive capabilities. The packages they deploy can be small to very large. Some are made to "cherry pick" certain capabilities to help compliment another service's. (A carrier strike group is deployed, but a USAF tanker squadron is sent to help forward project the carrier's footprint).
So who gets tagged to go? Once the request for forces is submitted and approved (POTUS and SecDef), then the different services assign deployment notices to the different units. Each service as I said before deploys differently and thus has different units "on call" ready to go at any given moment. They do this to help provide some stability and quality of life. Some units are in a training mode, some are ready to deploy, some are in transition or building up phases.
Unfortunately, the decision of who is deployed is very political. Some unit commanders are just begging to volunteer their forces (resume building). Also, some states have cried foul when the federal government tasked their Guard units (some would say, the States argued as to not have their people deployed and exploit some other unit).
I have seen deployed commanders stipulate capabilities in such detail that only a certain unit could be used (by design) ... so that commander's home base forces could only be used (again someone padding their resume).
It is for these and a myriad of other reasons why some units get multiple deployed and some units have never seen combat. I hope I perhaps helped make this process a little more understanding. hhaaha
The gist of it is, each region has a combatant commander (4-star) who is in charge of all military operations within his theater. Using the mission objectives as stated by the SecDef or POTUS, the combatant commander determines the requirements based on capabilities needed to meet those objectives and puts in a request for forces. The commander doesn't always get what is asked for.
Our services deploy differently which muddies the waters even more. Most of the forces have aligned or grouped their forces into certain packages or sizes so as to tailor their distinctive capabilities. The packages they deploy can be small to very large. Some are made to "cherry pick" certain capabilities to help compliment another service's. (A carrier strike group is deployed, but a USAF tanker squadron is sent to help forward project the carrier's footprint).
So who gets tagged to go? Once the request for forces is submitted and approved (POTUS and SecDef), then the different services assign deployment notices to the different units. Each service as I said before deploys differently and thus has different units "on call" ready to go at any given moment. They do this to help provide some stability and quality of life. Some units are in a training mode, some are ready to deploy, some are in transition or building up phases.
Unfortunately, the decision of who is deployed is very political. Some unit commanders are just begging to volunteer their forces (resume building). Also, some states have cried foul when the federal government tasked their Guard units (some would say, the States argued as to not have their people deployed and exploit some other unit).
I have seen deployed commanders stipulate capabilities in such detail that only a certain unit could be used (by design) ... so that commander's home base forces could only be used (again someone padding their resume).
It is for these and a myriad of other reasons why some units get multiple deployed and some units have never seen combat. I hope I perhaps helped make this process a little more understanding. hhaaha
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