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Anyone in the Guard or Reserves in 1998-1999 Remember this?


The Rooster
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I had an experience in my National Guard Unit in 98 or 99 on a weekend drill.

All the NCO's E6 and above were called into a room. There was a guy there I assumed was

Reg Army. He gave us a talk a said we needed to decide wether we were going to stay in or get out because if we

stay in, he guarenteed us in the next couple of years, we would be deployed.

It was one of the weirdest briefings I ever had in the service especially in retrospect.

I was wondering if any of you out there experienced that same briefing?

 

Thank you.

 

PS I made an error in the title Should read 1998-1999

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  • 3 months later...

Did anyone else have a similar briefing ? I always reasoned that they, the Army, were giving the older guys with family

a chance to get out... because he said we needed to make a decison because deployment is coming for sure. Guarenteed.

I think it was in 1999.

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I Started in January 1999 as a peon but it seems like I heard the sergeants talking about the same thing after a briefing.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I Started in January 1999 as a peon but it seems like I heard the sergeants talking about the same thing after a briefing.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thank you Sir !! I didnt imagine we were the only ones.... I was wanting confirmation.. Thank you.

It all lines up with this theory I have that our Military knows things are going to go down way before they happen.

Same sort of thing happened in 1989 -1990 The Tempo of training picked up late 89 and we went to desert warfare training at Irwin in Jan of 1990.

We had to update our wills. We had to have all our gear at the armory and they formed family support groups... In March of 90 I started noticeing freight trains loaded with military equipment.

In may our sergeant major who had been pushing us harder than usual died of a heart attack in the field. He knew......In Aug 1990 Saddam Hussein and the iraqis invaded Kuwait..

 

They knew...

Ive always wondered how they knew about 911 ?

Why we got the briefing 2 years prior...

They know things.

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In the history of our military... who ever heard of the relatively old timers getting a heads up

2 years ahead of something that no body knew was going to happen ?

And being told that if you dont want to be involved, get out.

Kinda strange. Not that I didnt appreciate it mind you, just really odd.

Clinton was POTUS. 2 years later 911.

Id be looking for a tin foil hat, if it had not happened.

It wasnt a question and answer thing either. I never saw the guy before, Looked reg army type..

He gave his talk and we were dismissed. No questions allowed and other than

discussing it amoungst ourseves, nothing else was said.

Was mighty nice of them.

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I started in the reserves in 1986. Switched to the Guard in 1989. I don't ever recall a briefing like that but I wasn't an NCO.

 

I do recall being told by a LTC in late 88 or early 89 to, "transfer to the guard", as they were deactivating a lot of reserve units. He was right.

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It may of had less to do with any pre-knowledge of 911 than with the restructuring of the military force at the time.

 

I can understand briefings like this being given if the Army was planning on rotating Guard and Reserve units to overseas postings. You have to remember at that time the Active forces were being drawn down, especially overseas in Germany and other areas.

 

There has always been this mad desire to prove that Guard and Reserve units were just as mission capable as their Active counterparts, or at least should be. This complimented the thought of rotating Guard and Reserve units through postings previously manned by Active forces to maintain troop levels in Europe in particular. It was also thought to increase the experience level of such units so it would not be a huge culture shock if deployed in an emergency.

 

It was quite possible there was a perception at the time that there were more non-deployable troops in the Guard and Reserve units than officially on record. If so, this would impact mission readiness away from home station. It may have been an effort to encourage those who would not deploy to get out and thin the ranks.

 

About that time I was in a Reserve Combat Heavy Engineer BN (Construction) that deployed to Korea for our two week "summer camp". We used locally positioned equipment and performed a number of construction projects that had been pre-planned. Our operations staff had made a couple of prior planning trips. Most of our troops had similar jobs in the civilian world, so a number of these were completed successfully. Anything that required finishing was taken up by a permanent party engineer battalion.

 

I remember other friends in the Reserves that were getting all kinds of overseas assignments at the time. I remember thinking some of them had been in more countries than many of the Active people I knew, although generally for shorter durations.

 

I think Desert Storm resolved the question of whether Guard and Reserve units could perform well in a deployed crisis situation. Same with Kosovo and Afghanistan They've been rotated in and out of theater ever since.

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I went into the retired reserve in late 87, and remember having many briefings along these lines prior to the dates you're discussing. As a 12Z I knew we comprised about 60% of the Army Engineer's total troop numbers and as such anything going down would involve us. Oh and the retired reserve worked out just fine til I got the call or first Gulf war.

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I remember when they did the call ups for the first gulf war.... the first ones were...People from the post office and

the Individual Resdy Reserve.

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I was in the Marine Corps Reserves in an artillery unit and I was honor guard as a Lcpl. For one of our beloved master sergeants retirement ceremony who had survived the Lebanon barracks bombing and he delivered a short talk to the battery and his parting words were, Gentlemen, keep sharp and ready and keep your eyes on the Middle East its not a matter of if but when, you will be there, I promise I always just thought it was wise master sergeant intuition.

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It may of had less to do with any pre-knowledge of 911 than with the restructuring of the military force at the time.

 

I can understand briefings like this being given if the Army was planning on rotating Guard and Reserve units to overseas postings. You have to remember at that time the Active forces were being drawn down, especially overseas in Germany and other areas.

 

There has always been this mad desire to prove that Guard and Reserve units were just as mission capable as their Active counterparts, or at least should be. This complimented the thought of rotating Guard and Reserve units through postings previously manned by Active forces to maintain troop levels in Europe in particular. It was also thought to increase the experience level of such units so it would not be a huge culture shock if deployed in an emergency.

 

It was quite possible there was a perception at the time that there were more non-deployable troops in the Guard and Reserve units than officially on record. If so, this would impact mission readiness away from home station. It may have been an effort to encourage those who would not deploy to get out and thin the ranks.

 

About that time I was in a Reserve Combat Heavy Engineer BN (Construction) that deployed to Korea for our two week "summer camp". We used locally positioned equipment and performed a number of construction projects that had been pre-planned. Our operations staff had made a couple of prior planning trips. Most of our troops had similar jobs in the civilian world, so a number of these were completed successfully. Anything that required finishing was taken up by a permanent party engineer battalion.

 

I remember other friends in the Reserves that were getting all kinds of overseas assignments at the time. I remember thinking some of them had been in more countries than many of the Active people I knew, although generally for shorter durations.

 

I think Desert Storm resolved the question of whether Guard and Reserve units could perform well in a deployed crisis situation. Same with Kosovo and Afghanistan They've been rotated in and out of theater ever since.

I'll agree with what you have written when it comes to Combat Support and Combat Service Support units. Big Army had absolutely no interest in allowing National Guard combat units (Armor & Infantry) to prove their worth. Desert Storm proved that with their failure to mobilize the Roundout Brigades alongside their active components. Throughout the 1990s, there was always talk that the Regular Army wanted to convert the National Guard Infantry, Armor and Artillery units into support units. It wasn't until OIF/OEF where the Guard was able to prove their value.

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Throughout the 1990s, there was always talk that the Regular Army wanted to convert the National Guard Infantry, Armor and Artillery units into support units. It wasn't until OIF/OEF where the Guard was able to prove their value.

 

Yea my experience when I was in was that the Regular army looked way down at us. But honestly we were well trained enough

to pass all their ARTEPS every year. We were well trained but never used. They had their chance but like you said, but if the war hadnt gone the way it did, if the predictions of gas attacks and mass casualties had come true, the Guard combat units would have been sent.

But no need. 3 Days and done !!! Got to give all those people back then credit for a great job done.

Its too bad Old Man Bush Did not let them finish the job back then.

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