How about we require the command staff where a ‘fighting load’ at all times while on duty? Might give them some incentives.

 

For officers testifying before Congress there should be a version with a quick release, just in case some congressman or staffer needs to try it on for a couple of quick laps around the Hill.

Duh....

 

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1646798.The_Soldier_s_Load_and_the_Mobility_of_a_Nation ;

One only has to look a old photos to see that in combat, the soldier will drop any and everything he feels  1) compromises his ability to accomplish his mission, 2) hinders his mobility 3)compromises his safety (in his mind).

 

I know of no evidence that men of any era carried the loads that US troops carry today.  Romans were reputed to carry as much as 80 lbs on the march.  In WWII the field load was much less, and made more so by the shedding of gas masks, and field packs.  I cannot remember ever seeing one picture of WWII soldiers or Marines carrying field packs.  Most soldiers only wore web belts and many Marines not even that being in the tropics.  In 1945 most soldiers are seen wearing only the web belt and suspenders to carry thier combat load.  Todays troopers and Marines are grossly over burdened in part to politics.

 

The pressure to avoid casualties exerted by uniform and non-uniform wearing politicians is so great it compromises not only the soldiers mobility in the field, but has transformed the publics perception of war.  The "American way of war" has become so grossly overweight it mirrors American culture in every way.  Our war machine has become a big screen dependent, air conditioned, overfed technology dependent monstrosity.  This began in Viet Nam and has not abated.  Is our military effective?  Yes, by all accounts, but what will happen when we go up against a foe that has the same or nearly the same capability?  What happens when they knock out our GPS capability, or we don't have air supremacy over the battle space and cannot resupply at a whim?    In ten years in Afghanistan we have not suffered the equivalent KIA casualties of one WEEK of combat KIAs in WWII.  One WEEK.  The public has forgotten what its like to fight a real war.  In Vietnam the media managed to work the American Public into a frenzy over 400 KIAs a week, forgetting the magnitude of the deaths only 40 years earlier.  Imagine if the media had had the sway they do today in 1943-44.  The US would have pulled out of the war with its tail between its junkless legs.  Those weekly casualties were from a collective population of less than half of what our population is now.  Hell we kill more people on the roads in a MONTH than have died in Afghanistan and Iraq combined in the last ten years!  What is wrong with this country?!  Yes a death is tragic, but a combat death in protection of this countries interests is far better than a sensless death on the highway. Politics and Political Correctness is gutting not only our national will but our military too.  The liberals are doing from within what our enemies have not been able to do in over 200 years.   Today they have an ally in the whitehouse who seems to want to accelerate the process.  Read up on the process Lenin and Stalin used to transform the Russia...they first demonized the Kulaks, the Russian middle class and wealthy, then eradicate them.  Sound familiar?  Remove them, then all you have is a needy mob willing to kiss whatever hand that feeds them. 

So what's your suggestion?