And I guess this week's NATO summit in Madrid sorta concludes the overall topic. The alliance officially invited Finland and Sweden to join; and while Turkish president Recep T. Erdogan after agreeing promptly went back to claiming he would still ultimately veto their accession if they didn't supply all the arms and dissidents wanted by him, odds are they will be full members next year.

Effective 2025, a total of 300,000 troops are supposed to be in high readiness states similar to those of the current 40,000 in the NATO Force (a third of which, Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, ready to move at two to seven days' notice, the previous year's VJTF at 30 and the one working up for next year at 45). The new forces will be under Notice to Effect (rather than to Move) of ten, 30 and 50 days respectively, and assigned to certain areas they'll reinforce.

The scope is helped by the fact that for the Eastern European members, their forces generally are already "there". For Germany, the total commitment amounts to a division leading one Dutch and two German mechanized brigades under the two nation's deep military integration, plus an airmobile unit, about 60-65 aircraft and 20 naval vessels to deploy to the Baltic States.

Separately, the US will of course establish a permanent forward HQ for V Corps in Poland as previously announced, deploy another brigade to Romania on a rotational basis, base two additional squadrons of F-35s in the UK, two additional destroyers in Rota, Spain, and stage additional air defense and other support capabilities in Germany and Italy. It's notable that after all that has happened, NATO is still sticking to the essentials of the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act stipulating no "permanent" basing of "substantial" additional troops in Eastern Europe, working with rotational and quick-reaction forces instead.

I suspect some of that is still reluctance not just politically vis-a-vis Russia, but due to the cost and effort involved in basing major forces, the lack of infrastructure and fear of retention problems given the still-considerable East-West divide of living standards in Europe. Then again, one of the decisions of the Madrid summit was to nearly double NATO's joint budget to about 45 billion Dollar, particularly in view of improving said infrastructure.

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The DOD is not accurately reporting how mandatory vaccinations have increased soldier's medical issues across the board.

This has also greatly effected recruiting.

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Originally posted by chellim1:

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The DOD is not accurately reporting how mandatory vaccinations have increased soldier's medical issues across the board.

This has also greatly effected recruiting.

I saw a military times article that indicated our military is in dire straits in regard to recruiting and retention
Short version - the vast majority of new recruits come from families with a history of military service. And the number of families with that background is shrinking with time.

If we look at Vietnam era there were let’s say about 6 million personnel around that time.
Due to the unpopularity of the war, far fewer offspring of vets of that era were inclined to service.
The offspring of those vets would be the key players in the global war on terrorism which continues despite out exit from Afghanistan
( we still have a very limited presence in Iraq, Syria etc)
I would expect a significant percentage of GWOT vets might be inclined to discourage children from serving too.
I could be wrong, but Suspect our military today, based on size as a reflection of percentage of the total adult population is smaller than it has ever been.

About two weeks ago I had a great conversation with my Company Commander that lasted over an hour.

She was inquiring why I was putting my paperwork in to go inactive. I kindly told her the reasons.

She totally agreed with my reasons because her time in coming to an end also and she cannot wait.

I had some ideas, opinions but she confirmed them for me. Basically she stated that since 2015, the Army reserve has been on a downhill slide. Many of the younger soldiers are doing one hitch and getting out. Also individuals who are the rank of E-4, E-5 and E-6 with various years of service are also getting out.

Also, most people have enough BS from their life, jobs, school through the week, why put up with it on the weekend for little to no reward.


We are losing the core of our military along with individuals that have extensive experience both on the civilian and military side.

Why..?
Mainly how things are run, going woke, BS, etc..

Throw in how the government is mandating lowered standards, training and along with all the alphabet crap.. It's not worth it.

On Friday I had a phone interview with a staffing agency.. The recruiter is a NG soldier and he flat out stated he has three months to go and he is gone. He had some great assignments/ missions in his six years but now that he is back, he is done with the BS..

I will go on any training mission, deploy to anywhere in the world, or go on active duty orders in a heart beat. I am ready to go, just let me know so I can pack my toothbrush.

BUT>> this sitting around the drill hall once a month, basically baby sitting and doing nothing is BS. I am done with that.

Most soldiers I know feel the same way. This is also the reason most soldiers I know go the Private Contractor route.

The US has been carrying the load for decades and we had a hard time getting many European country’s to pay or supply the agreed number of resources.
If this Ukraine situation has done any good, it’s to get countries like Germany and some others to suddenly take this problem seriously.
Before the invasion, the Germans had made a deal to use Nord Stream, a Russian pipeline for their gas to bypass Ukraine and other and make Germany mostly dependent on their energy from Putin and Co.
That money was making it possible for the Russians to cause these world problems as energy prices went up.
Talk about lack of foresight. As it is, many will have serious problems later this year.