Army ready to call some missing IRR members 'no-kidding AWOL'

The number of people to be declared AWOL “is very small — about 12,” an Army officer involved in developing the policy told Stripes on Wednesday.

But the move to punish the no-shows “is long overdue,” said the officer, who asked not to be identified.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=28139


Uh, if only 12 are missing, why should this piece even been considered for publication? Why is punishment "long overdue?" Just a handful of weeks ago Stripes was saying "hundreds of other IRR members, meanwhile, simply have failed to show up at deployment stations when ordered to do so.

And instead of declaring the scofflaws as “absent without leave,” or AWOL, the Army is choosing to give these people “the benefit of the doubt,” Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, an Army spokeswoman in the Pentagon, said in a Tuesday interview.

http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=25722&archive=true

What gives?

Nice.

and they have jobs and families that take precedence over our oil wars. AWOL is not the appropriate label to apply the no-shows, who simply could have just moved without leaving a forwarding address.

When I was discharged from active duty I never bothered to report to a reserve unit or to give the military a current forwarding address. I had no intentions of donning the uniform again!

In Jan. the attitude was cavalier, we're not going to prosecute the no-shows. Come April, an about-face, even though the article says only 12 are AWOL. It's got to be more than that.

We're doing worse in Iraq than the papers will ever admit to. I think the situation is completely unraveling. I also think reenlistment rates aren't "booming," as Stripes stated in its headline last Sunday.

This is only the tip of the "no-shows" iceberg. Their increasingly hostile tone indicates they are panicking.

Iraq could be the end of the volunteer army, and conscription will bring the end of the Bush empire.

As of March 16, 370 of the 4,067 IRR members who have received mobilization orders had not reported as ordered, according to Maj. Elizabeth Robbins, an Army spokeswoman.

Refusing to report for military duty is a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, with penalties ranging from a bad-conduct discharge to a court-martial and jail time.

Until now, however, Army officials had decided not to declare IRR members AWOL, largely because the Human Resources Command in St. Louis has done a poor job tracking the IRR force, and some of the no-shows may never have received their orders, the Army officer said.

a rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq.

My advice: buy euro.

...either sent back the forms with "F-You!" scrawled across them, or the Reserve administrative officials have found some other way to verify that they in fact got their notices. The remaining several hundred still have "plausible deniability" on their side.

It seems like a good time to go on an extended hiking trip in say, the Himilayas....!

and coupled with the poor enlistment rates, the army is desperate for boots on the ground.

'The Army does not have the manpower to actively pursue AWOL soldiers, the officer said.'

...which was USE THE POLICE. They'd put draft dodgers and UA servicemembers on the same lists as felons, so if they got picked up for anything, they'd be handcuffed and jailed, and the service personnel returned to military custody. Of course, nowadays, the exchange of information is way better than it was back then, so the noose tightens immediately if the AWOL individuals have any interaction with the thin blue line.

What's to pursue? Even a 39 y.o. entrenched in the civilian sector suddenly placed into a war zone successfully is about as likely as my Dad making the cut for the Green Bay Packers.

and we are also angry...

The only retirees and "older" (50's and above) IRR people I know who have been called up have been docs, translators, and "supply chain management" software developers.

I have heard of truck drivers, truck mechanics, helo and jet engine mechanics, etc. (who are in their 20's and 30's) being called up - hits the papers every day.

Let's face it - this war is going bad -- and like SS piratization, and WMD's, an energy non-plan in the face of Peak Oil, and politicizing Terri Schiavo - it is blowing up in Bush's face.

I do not want to bail Bush out - I want to see Bush and Jeb and DeLay and Hastert and Frist stew in their own juices - but I do not want to see the big banks and big mortgage companies and big car finance companies and big insurance companies and big employers get away with blatant violations of the Servicemembers' Civil Relief Act

"Let's face it - this war is going bad"

All signs sure point in that direction. It could be an interesting summer, peak enlistment season, when the HS grads don't line up for service.

The Chimp's going to have to pull a rotten banana out of a hat then.

Isn't that what KBR is paid to bust tires in Balad?

at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1345554 and talked to a JAG Corps Reservist lawyer about volunteering as a freebie, pro bono, volunteer on a strictly part time basis -- and guess what?

Two e-mails and a phone call -- "Yes, we know you are a Retired Reservist, over age 60, and over weight and a diabetic - but how does coming back as a civil servant sound? Joe Snuffy Sailor - the last guy in the last rank - needs you."

That's the same line they use with "over age 60, physically unfit, retired reservist" burn reconstruction plastic surgeons, orthopods, and Arabic Studies academicians.

Dude, I am at the bottom of the Judge Advocate General's Corps barrel. I have actually done Article 138's and Article 88's (referrals from the ACLU). I should be on the Good Admiral's shit list. ;)

The army is running out of people to fill the boots.

two auto dealers and a "rent to own" furniture store called the Admiral's Command Judge Advocate - and told him to "Get that friggin Yankee (religious epithet) (political epithet) anal sphincter off of me and send his Yankee (religious epithet) glutteous maximus to Viet Nam." The Judge Advocate told me that I must have been doing a good job - until I started with the Article 138's.

(I cleaned up the language a little bit :) )

From what I understand, the Army is now taking in enlistees with a 9th grade education, 39 y.o, tops. Judge Advocates with a bucket load of Article 138's filed against them are probably considered the creme de la creme in today's army! :)

when I was on active duty -- won both (I was threatened with a punitive transfer to VietNam after the second one); did one against a Command/Commanding officer on a pro bono assignment -- after I was safely released from active duty, won it (after a collateral attack against the Convening Authority in Federal District Court and the Court of Appeals).

But, I am the kind of pain in the butt that Admirals and Generals don't like.