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My views are mixed. I was a platoon leader at the end of the last draft period (and beginning of the infamous VOLAR). It was just as the Army was expanding to 18 active divisions. The problems we had with low education levels, drugs, etc., negated a good portion of the additional strength. I and my NCOs spent more time dealing with "troubled" soldiers than with training. We do not need a draft, what we need are better retention incentives. We are spending all kinds of money getting new soldiers, but very little on retaining the ones we have trained As for forces overseas, we are now relying heavily on the ARNG and USAR for duty in the Balkans, I know, my unit has processed many of them thru Ft. Benning. I started in the Army Reserve in 1987 and we were barely recognized as existing. I or members of the units to which I have been assigned have been mobilized a half dozen times since Clinton got us into the Balkans in '95. I now have 56 MPs on active duty at Ft. Benning because of 911. The US military is over-extended when the reserve components are pulling as many deployment days as the active component. DJ - I thought only the 2nd ID was watching North Korea, who else is over their? Ramble -OFF #:-)

Jeff

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Jeff--the current location of US Army division is no secret, so I am not divluging anything about guarded National Security matters. In the Pacific, you have the 2nd Infantry with two brigades in Korea and one (now transforming into the Interim Brigade Combat Team IBCT) at Fort Lewis. The other Pacific division is the 25th Infantry in Hawaii with two brigades and the third at Fort Lewis, Washington. The Lewis brigade is also transforming into the IBCT. In Europe you have the 1st Infantry and 1st Armored each with two brigades while their respective third brigades' are at Fort Riley, Kansas. In the US, we have the 3rd Infantry at Fort Stewart, Georgia and their third brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia. At Fort Hood, Texas, you have the three brigades of the 1st Cavalry (the best in the Army) and two brigades of the 4th Infantry. Their third brigade is at Fort Carson along with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. At Fort Bragg, North Carolina is the 82nd Airborne with three brigades while Fort Campbell, Kentucky has the three brigades of the 101st Airborne. I think that is everyone. We also have five active (1,3, 5,7, and 10th) Special Forces Groups and three Rangers Battalions. As my Brother In Arms, Rob, correctly pointed out, you kinda get run ragged real quick doing housekeeping, training, and deployments. Hope this assist in the discussion.
DJ

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DJ, you only list 9 divisions here, you missed the 10th (literally), the 10th Mountain Division at Ft. Drum, NY which is basically a light infantry division. There is also the remnants of the old 9th ID (Motorized) reflagged as the 2nd ACR (Light) at Ft. Polk, LA. They are mainly an OPFOR for the JRTC training area at Polk. Additionally the old 177th Armored Brigade that was the NTC OPFOR at Ft. Irwin, CA was reflagged as the 11th ACR. (Oh how the mighty have fallen.)

As far as who's at Ft. Knox, I believe the last MTOE unit was DJ's old unit when the 197th Armored Brigade pared down to a task force (TF 1-10). I thought they closed up shop and all that is left at Ft. Knox is the Armor School's 15th Cavalry Regiment (just a training unit).

Tough question, DJ. A quick answer is decrease the obligations somehow. I think we need to be in all those places, but Korea is a place to pare down. Really, our force there i more of a tripwire to prevent the South from going North than the other way around. We could redeploy some folks form there. And the current force in Kuwait and Iraq is also probably too large. Saddam isn't going to try that trick again, and in any event our friends in the neighborhood are better prepared themselves. Fact is, we're going to have to decide where to garrison and where to clean house and leave the garrison work to allies covered by our air assets. My comments about "lightening" the force dovetail here too---increase the tooth-to-tail ratio and you generate more deployable battalions. But obviously the decisions are hard ones...
Greg

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Tough question, DJ. A quick answer is decrease the obligations somehow. I think we need to be in all those places, but Korea is a place to pare down. Really, our force there i more of a tripwire to prevent the South from going North than the other way around. We could redeploy some folks form there. And the current force in Kuwait and Iraq is also probably too large. Saddam isn't going to try that trick again, and in any event our friends in the neighborhood are better prepared themselves. Fact is, we're going to have to decide where to garrison and where to clean house and leave the garrison work to allies covered by our air assets. My comments about "lightening" the force dovetail here too---increase the tooth-to-tail ratio and you generate more deployable battalions. But obviously the decisions are hard ones...
Greg

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Yes I agree with you as I have said why wait until it's balls to the walls before starting one. This way we can have our MODERN young people running away now before they have to go and fight. Good idea a draft does not hurt anybody. Unless they won't go.

A dynomite discussion guys! I only regret that I had not read it sooner. (Still trying to play catch-up)
As far as a draft Certainly, there should be one! I must say that I think that todays kids - whom I choose to mostly call punks - should be taught some sort of military training. It builds character. Most kids today don't care where or how their freedoms in this great country came about.
I know when I was in, there were a great number of these kids who, even though they raised their right hands, still did not seem to give a hoot about why they were there. Some were there to just get a paycheck. To some it was just some sort of joke. So any ideas of a drafted army being lesser in quality than a volunteer army are not quite so.
Even if the kids were made, forced, drafted or whatever else you want to call it into some sort of military training would be a good idea. What the heck, I mean the kids here in Florida are mandated to do 150 hours of community service before they can graduate. Great idea, poor execution. These community service programs are somewhat of a joke. They get their choice of where, when and how, and perform like...well, like punks. (Most mind you, not all) The ones supervising are mostly to blame, no question. I would just love to see an over-bearing, in your face DI supervise these kids.
Draft, yes. There should be.

Fair Enough, And well stated Both DJ and Kenc, I agree it sounds like a reasonable idea. THE TRICK THOUGH is to get these liberal minded ego centered politicians to understand this concept ant to get them to pass a law that will enable it to be put into effect!!

DAGGER-1

Didn't get to read this post until today, wow very enlightning. But I still feel we don't need to start up the draft machine yet. I know we are at war with terrorists, but I am not sure that this country has a clear view who these people are, and where they are. I do feel we need to do more to keep good people from leaving the military. But maybe we need a civil defence force, to free up the military.

I really don't believe that we need to reinstate the draft. Our all volunteer force is the best army (in my humble opinion) in the world. If we were to fight a major conventional war..say with Iraq...that might be a different story. I don't see that happening again. We didn't have to use the draft for the Gulf War..although we called up large numbers of reserves and National Guardsmen. Who knows..I'm probably just all wet and don't know WHAT I'm talking about. I joined the Army back when they gave you a belt buckle for getting 2 friends to join...back in '78. Those were the BAD old days under Carter. When we didn't have the money for live fire excercises.,etc.,etc.,etc......

Tell them the way it is DJ "OH RAH" Hopefully they will get the point !!

DAGGER-1