HUDSON (CBS) – Hundreds of Massachusetts troops are coming home from Afghanistan this week, but the families of one National Guard company may not have the homecoming they feel their heroes deserve.
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They have been planning for a huge welcome home celebration on Wednesday, but have been told the unit is 15 members short of the minimum required for a special homecoming.
Now, I may be showing my ignorance here, but what's the size of the company in question as compared to the minimum number needed? It's germane to the story - if the company is 250 people and they're 15 short, waive the limit. If there's 10 people and they're 15 short, then while they still deserve a hero's welcome, it's hard to fault the town for conserving resources.
It's a sad commentary that this is one of the areas that gets cuts in these tough economic times, but such is life. There's a not-inconsequential cost associated - the police, fire, etc. details that accompany these homecoming events aren't free (and, I suspect, even if the police officers and fire fighters wanted to donate their time, the equipment costs would still be prohibitive). It's sad - but understandable - that the returning troops aren't in sufficient number to warrant the "official" homecoming regalia.
Then again, whether it's one soldier or 100, they should still receive the full hero's welcome, IMHO...
That is all.
4 comments:
Army companies are typically 4-6 platoons (sometimes 3 plus a command element). If it's an infantry company, it's 3 rifle plus 1 heavy weapons platoon. The rifle platoons are usually 42 soldiers. I believe a heavy weapons platoon is typically smaller, say 30 men. So >150 soldiers would be a good guess.
I'm confused. Is it Big Army saying they can't come home and have a celebration because they're short handed? Is it the Mass Guard who are saying they can't afford it out of Your Commonwealths' Tax Dollars because your Commonwealth thinks Money would be better spent lining the pockets of Politicians and their Cronies? Is it Hudson?
Either way you slice it, however, this is beginning to smell like the last half of the Vietnam War, where the the Vets were given a plane ticket home and told "See Ya! Don't let the Hippies throw Blood on your Uniform when you get to the Airport!"
Les: It better not go the way of the Vietnam War. Near the end they were sending troops home in civvies and saying "For the love of God, don't tell anyone you're a soldier or you might not make it home at all."
The problem is, one-hundred soldiers are needed to book a charter flight. “D” Company has 85 coming home.
From the article. The men are being split onto two flights. Granted, I never got a whole lot of experience with this back in the day, but I'm not entirely certain what prevents the FRG from making up signs and blowing up balloons and whatnot. Back when XH was on a boat that was on deployment, there were a couple of FRG meetings to make stuff for homecoming. I think the only thing anyone else did for us was make the Chiefs park elsewhere for a day so that tents could be set up in the pierside parking lot for family members to wait.
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