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The Guard's 22,000-Radio Shortfall

Defense Department budgets cause the eyes to glaze over with a long list of very big numbers printed in teeny type.

So, I asked Army Maj. Tony Caldwell, a Tennesseean on duty with the National Guard Bureau, to provide me with some perspective on the Guard's communications funding request in the 2008 Defense supplemental funding bill, as of now still in a political limbo somewhere between 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and the Capitol.

Caldwell, once an enlisted radio operator (the most noble military occupational specialty) and now a systems integrator with the bureau, told me that the Guard's $654 million supplemental budget request for Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System radios covers the buy of about 22,000 radios at $17,000 each. That request will ensure that every Guard unit that needs a SINCGARS radio will have one by the current 2008-2013 POM cycle -- and, of course, we all know what a POM cycle is, right? (Just in case, it stands for Program Objective Memorandum.)

But if the supplemental does not go through, Guard units will have a shortfall of 22,000 SINCGARS radios -- which Caldwell described as the "backbone of the tactical environment" -- in 2013. He emphasized that all Guard units slated for overseas deployment have an absolute priority for the SINCGARS sets.

Caldwell said that changes in mission and the combat environment have driven demand for these workhorse radios, such as convoys operating in Improvised Explosive Device Land, where every vehicle needs a radio for safety.

The Guard's appetite for these tactical radios also is driven by the need to replace older sets, Caldwell said, so units no longer have to operate with ancient hand-me-downs from the Regular Army. Or even worse (see below)...

No More Radio Shack Visits for N.M. Guard

When the 720th Heavy Truck Transportation Company from my hometown of Las Vegas, N.M., deployed to Iraq in 2004, it had a radio for every truck -- but only after Guardsmen went to the local Radio Shack to purchase commercial two-way radios.

Now, thanks to an ongoing fielding effort by the bureau, the New Mexico Guard will soon be fully equipped with SINCGARS radio, Army Col. Paul Pena, logistics officer for the New Mexico Guard, told me.

New Mexico is in the midst of fielding 660 spiffy new SINCGARS radios across the state, including a set for every truck in the 720th, Pena said.

Pena added that the 720th also will be equipped this year with the satellite-based Movement Tracking System gear, which features a built-in GPS receiver that transmits vehicle location over a satellite communications link and a data terminal for two-way text messaging -- handy for ordering a breakfast burrito with green chile.

Guard WIN-T a Win for Domestic Missions

The 2008 Defense supplemental also includes a $751 million budget request for Warrior Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) gear to support what Caldwell described as an "aggressive" project to equip 90 Guard units with the satellite-based system, which provides broadband voice, video and data service to the battlefield.

Caldwell said he viewed WIN-T as key to supporting domestic missions -- such as hurricane relief operations -- where nature has knocked out commercial communications systems. The POM calls for all 90 Guard units to be equipped with WIN-T by 2013, he said. But, if the supplemental does not pass, the Guard will have to stop fielding the system in 2011 or 2012.

Hopefully adult behavior will break out in Washington over the next week and Congress and the Bush administration will reach a gentlemanly compromise so the troops can get the stuff they need. Don't you yearn for the days of gentlemanly compromise?

The Pay-As-You-Go Army, Part II

Has the Army adopted a policy to stiff its troops in order to make up for funding shortfalls?

Last week, I wrote about a military family who had to tap into $2,000 of their own money to pay for rental cars and hotels for the wife's small unit deployment, because the Army could not seem to handle a cash advance.

In response to that column, I received a note from an Army spouse who said her family had all but given up hope on recouping $4,000 in expenses for a Hertz van her husband's Military Transition Team (which trains the Iraqi security force) rented for a month prior to their deployment to Baghdad.

The husband, an Army captain, rented the van on his government travel card, but as soon as his team deployed to Baghdad, his finance office canceled the travel card. Hertz, which does not know about deployments, wanted its money. So the Army allowed the rental car company to siphon the funds out of his paycheck - which for a captain runs about $5,000 a month - until Hertz got its money.

The captain returned this July and turned in the van receipt for reimbursement, but the stateside Defense Finance and Accounting Service wanted a clean, crisp receipt and rejected as illegible the one that the captain had toted all over a war zone for a year. (The trouble with many military stateside offices is the culture of "Yeah, we know there's a war going on, but you still have to follow our procedures.")

So the captain forked over 50 bucks to Hertz for a new receipt, and sent it to DFAS, only to find out that the finance office which originally issued his government travel card had closed, and no one in the entire Defense Department seems willing to assume responsibility for the expense.

Maybe the Army has hit on a clever scheme: If it can stiff roughly a half million soldiers for two grand a year, it can save $1 billion a year, and if Defense can ratchet that up to $4,000 a year per soldier, that would total $2 billion a year - definitely real money.

Walter Reed Santas Needed

Enough crankiness. On to some good stuff.

My buddy and fellow Vietnam veteran, Ed Meagher, the deputy chief information officer at the Interior Department, has launched Operation Covert Santa to provide Christmas gifts to severely wounded soldiers, sailors and Marines and their families who will be spending the Christmas holidays at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda National Naval Medical Center.

This is an opportunity for you to give in the true spirit of the season - anonymously.

You can help out Ed and the soldiers by adopting an entire Walter Reed or Bethesda family and providing gifts for them all. Or you can purchase and provide an individual gift or make a cash donation (which, as we all know, isn't really as much fun as actually buying and wrapping the gifts).

If you want to help, contact Ed by e-mail at Edward_Meagher@ios.doi.gov.

Or you can contact him through:

Operation Covert Santa 453 Walker Road Great Falls, VA 22066 (703) 759-9014 emeagher@cox.net

The best way to describe this effort is the Yiddish word "mitzvah," a selfless act of human kindness. Everyone's Christmas would be improved with more mitzvahs.

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