The Pentagram, that five-sided monument to Murphy's Law on the Potomac has done it again. They have allowed the BRAC, that post-cold-war brainchild of the Bush I and VP Crashcart to start to effectively strangle them. From the announced BRAC closings today:
The nine-member Base Closure and Realignment Commission also voted to shut major Army bases in Georgia and Michigan and to close nearly 400 Army Reserve and National Guard facilities in dozens of states.
400 less Army Reserve and National Guard centers nationwide. Young potential enlistee thinks: "Gee, let's see...I can't drill here at home on the weekends, I have to go to a center 300 miles away, and the Army won't reimburse me for travel to and from the center...and gas now costs almost $3.00 a gallon, and then there's the wear and tear on the car, plus having to take off work early on Friday to make the drive, plus I'll be dead tired on Sunday night, plus, well, it's not home." Hmmm. There's a real bonus for recruiting. Not to mention taking the centers out of communities lessens the ties that local folks, many of whom have never served, feel to the military at all, a point that's been made here before. Reserve force recruiting very much counts on the visibility that the reserve centers have in their communities...that's a fact, jack.
Now figure that a vet who has done a tour or two in Iraq thinks all those same things, plus knowing that it's a weekend away from the family they just left for several years, on-and-off. Yeah, I'd say that the BRAC just did the Pentagon a big favor. Not.
So BRAC just saved a few bucks for the next round of tax cuts for the friends of the 1600 Crew...wowee. There's an old saying: One aw-shit wipes out 1000 atta-boys. And folks, here's proof positive...
