Posted by
Reeson on Monday, October 16, 2006 1:39:02 PM
Army News Service reported today that 307 soldiers from the 4th BCT, 25th Infantry Division reenlisted at Camp Buehring, Kuwait this past weekend. How can that be? Soldiers reenlisting? While deployed?
Everything I hear in the mainstream media and from the left-wing talking groups tells me that soldiers are abandoning the Army as fast as their enlistments expire.
Stop and think about this for a moment. A brigade typically consists of about 3,000 soldiers, give or take a few. That means a full 10% reenlisted at one time. Now, since not all enlistments expire at the same time, this number means that A LOT of soldiers are choosing to stay Army.
Why would they do that? There are lots of reasons why soldiers join and stay in the Army. Some are being good patriots. Some need the job. Some are continuing a family tradition. Some want education benefits. Some are escaping broken homes and bad neighborhoods. But when it comes to combat, soldiers fight for each other. Sure, they want to accomplish their assigned missions. But when you really sit down and talk to them, you find out that soldiers never want to let their buddies down. They see Iraq as a fight that they are in together, and they would never dream of leaving their buddies. Sure, some soldiers leave the Army every day. But more are staying than ever. Retention rates are through the roof, especially in deployed units.
Despite what the mainstream media and left-wing pundits say, soldiers are not fleeing from the Army because of the war in Iraq. On the contrary, reenlistment rates are at record high levels, especially in deployed units.