Recruit or Perish

A story in today’s SJ-R contends that one of the main reasons the Pentagon is recommending the 183rd Fighter Wing be moved to Ft. Wayne, Indiana is that Ft. Wayne has a good recruiting record:

The lawmakers also stated that the Pentagon’s main rationale for the move - Fort
Wayne’s strong recruiting record - is irrelevant.

“Recruiting for the Air National Guard in the Springfield area has been strong. The 183rd Fighter Wing is presently at 100 percent strength in aircrews and 97.5 percent overall,” the lawmakers wrote.

In addition, they argued that the move “will likely further diminish military capability because the skills amassed by the people flying and maintaining the F-16 through years of experience will be lost. As part-time warriors with full-time civilian jobs, the affected Air National Guard members do not move with the aircraft but remain in place,” they wrote.

You gotta be kidding me. If this is true, they really were looking for any excuse to realign units. I suppose it speaks well of the military if the margins of inadequacy come down to silly stuff like this but give us a break.