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Letters

DON’T SCARE THE HORSES

The ancient Army tradition against carrying umbrellas [“No brainer,” June 1] has a very practical basis. They scare the horses.

Does any soldier today want to be responsible for panicking an Army remount station or a cavalry regiment by simply opening an umbrella? Of course not.

Had the Taliban realized the anti-horse capability of the umbrella in 2001, they would have been able to defeat those Special Forces cavalry charges in Afghanistan easily by employing the umbrella in the defense. A line of rapidly opening and closing umbrellas is a fearsome sight.

The Sioux would have made even faster work of Custer had they been armed with umbrellas instead of Remington repeaters.

They also say that the Duke of Wellington, who set military fashion 200 years ago in the English-speaking world, had something to do with the umbrella ban. While fighting Napoleon in Spain, he thought that his young officers set the wrong example by strolling behind the firing lines twirling their umbrellas to ward off the brutal sun. As we all know, a vital element in the success of the Iraqi surge was ensuring that second lieutenants did not carry umbrellas.

Every soldier should realize that the banning of umbrellas falls under the even more honored Army tradition: “We have no reason; it’s just our policy.”

-- Lt. Col. Peter G. Tsouras (ret.), Alexandria, Va.

PIRATES NOT OUR FAULT

Regarding Somali pirates, Capt. Chaveso L. Cook wrote, “The society that is there now is partly due to our standoff approach” [“Pirates’ harried history,” June 8].

Captain, a society’s structure cannot be “due” to another society’s lack of action.

The claim the society that exists in Somalia is anything other than a function of the values and norms of the society which formed that culture is faulty. Claiming that our inaction led it to where it is smacks of saying the culture of the U.S. is partially due to the standoff approach taken by the various states of what are now Germany and Hungary during the Revolutionary War. Their lack of action added nothing, so we do not credit it with anything. Why not blame the Somalis who tied U.S. hands in offering military assistance when they initiated a war against Ethiopia leading to the eventual government’s collapse to warlords?

The U.S. isn’t to blame for the status of Somalia unless the proper role of the U.S. is to:

• Engage enemies of all other existing nation states in order to stabilize those governments.

• Invade nations which may be committing atrocities against their own populations.

• Remain indefinitely in countries while providing humanitarian aid to effect societal change and implanting of new governments.

None of these premises pass the common sense test, let alone have support from U.S. foreign policy.

The proper U.S. role for piracy is to do that which most befits the pirate’s crimes against the “law of nations” — a quick trip to the sandy bottom of the sea at first sign of resistance to arrest.

-- Sgt. 1st Class Jacob H. Bechtel V, Newport News, Va.

STRESSED OUT

Kudos to Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of III Corps and Fort Hood, for his approach to reducing unit stress, as well as to Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for drawing attention to the general’s example [“ ‘At the center of my life,’.” June 8].

No one can reasonably claim they did not expect to be stressed when joining the Army; it is an inherently stressful occupation. However, the levels and types of stress inherent to the Army have changed dramatically since the start of the current wars.

Official Army reports, and publications such as this one, have cited the inability of the Army to reset between deployments and conduct the same level of training as would have been expected before the start of the global war on terrorism. Unfortunately, many commanders don’t seem to realize this.

Workdays stretching from the morning darkness of physical training until well after the sun has gone down, and extensive training outside scheduled training cycles, are increasingly the norm.

Many units seem to be operating under the assumption that a soldier’s free time is constrained to the weekends, and that any other “white space” on the calendar is fair game for training and unit activity, however late it may go.

This attitude leads to a lack of predictability for soldiers during the limited time they are home, and has a detrimental effect on family and social life. An alarming increase in suicides, an increase in drug usage, drops in retention — all of these are indicative of soldiers who decided the “Army Life” was not worth living anymore.

All levels of command need to evaluate how they can best accomplish training objectives and return some semblance of normalcy to the lives of their troops. Senior commanders should follow the example of Lt. Gen. Lynch and play an active role in ensuring their subordinates maintain perspective.

-- Capt. Andrew Kelly, Fayetteville, N.C.

THE SUICIDE SURGE

As a Vietnam-era veteran, my chest heaved and eyes swelled as I listened to an account on the surge of military suicides.

Simply said, combat is not a pretty sight and can quickly be etched into one’s mind.

Being a chief executive officer of a 33-acre campus, I serve dozens of World War II, Korean and Vietnam-era men and women.

Speaking for all the Peabody Retirement Community veteran residents, patients and employees, I urge a military member who finds him/herself on the edge of reaching an irrational decision to seek every possible resource the military, Veterans Administration and public mental health care system offers.

For the “bunk and ship mates” or family members who see or hear irrational comments or actions, I implore them to help their friend quickly access support.

-- Former Reserve Ensign Jeffrey D. Brasie, North Manchester, Ind.

GROW THE FORCE

Military leaders acknowledge that our forces are seriously over-stressed by extended deployments.

They see “little prospect of relief for the next 18 to 24 months” — as if some relief is coming after that. But that’s a mere hope. And that is taking too much risk.

Last month, the outgoing Army personnel chief told the Senate Armed Services Committee that current plans will only get to 15 months of “dwell time” between combat tours, and acknowledged, “That’s not sustainable.”

We’re still basing manpower strategy on some rose-colored wish that the problem will go away, even while acknowledging that 10 more years of persistent conflict and deployments are likely.

Leaders previously said there was no point in trying to increase force size because they couldn’t even meet existing recruiting goals. They no longer have that excuse. All services are meeting their goals and even cutting back on enlistment bonuses. The enlistment pool is there.

If we say our top priority is easing stress on those who are being asked to bear the nation’s wartime sacrifice, are we willing to put our money where our mouths are?

The only way to ease the stress on today’s forces is to grow those forces beyond the current plan. The current recession provides the perfect opportunity to do that.

Expressing empathy for troops’ and families’ sacrifices without taking the only step that will ease those sacrifices is just useless conversation.

-- Vice Adm. Norb Ryan Jr. (ret.),

President, Military Officers Association of America, Alexandria, Va.