Current Events > DoD releases new guidance - Be deployable or get kicked out

(+) Yeah! (+)

Memo: https://partner-mco-archive.s3.amazonaws.com/client_files/1518714002.pdf

Article: https://americanmilitarynews.com/2018/02/pentagon-might-kick-out-non-deployable-troops-new-policy-says/

Service members who have been non-deployable for more than one year could be kicked out of the military, according to a Department of Defense policy under final review, Military Times reported. The new policy could affect some 235,000 troops.

The policy will require the services to process members who are non-deployable for 12 consecutive months for admin or disability separation, according to a draft of the policy, Military Times reported.

The department intends to emphasize the expectation that all service members are worldwide deployable and to establish standardized criteria for retaining non-deployable service members, Pentagon Spokeswoman Air Force Maj. Carla Gleason told Military Times. The goal of the policy is to further reduce the number of non-deployable service members and improve personnel readiness across the force.

Command Sgt. Maj. John Troxell told Military Times that 11 percent of the 2.1 million active duty, National Guard and reserves service members are non-deployable. Of the 11 percent, some 99,000 service members are listed as non-deployable for administrative reasons; 20,000 for pregnancy; and 116,000 are on it for injuries.

If you are going to serve and continue to want to serve, and if you want to make this a career, youre going to have to learn that path of recovery and get back to being healthy. Because we need healthy, fit warriors to defend this nation, Troxell said of those injured during physical training, doing their job or, on some occasions, during combat.

Service members who would be included as non-deployable are those who need more than 30 days to heal from a medical condition, those who are close to retirement, and those who are not properly immunized or medically examined, among other things.

Wounded warriors would have exceptions to the drafted policy.

Weve got to look at each [situation] on a case-by-case basis and say, Alright, youve been in a non-deployable status for 500 days. Its time to have a path for what you are going to do, Troxell told Military Times. And if we cant get you healthy, then we probably need to process you for separation and allow [the Department of Veterans Affairs] to assist you, or allow you to get the help you need.

Because the more of these people we have that cant deploy and do their mission, that means somebody else has to pull their weight for them, or we have a void or a degradation in capability, because we dont have the requisite people, Troxell added.

Since taking over as Defense Secretary, Jim Mattis has focused on the military readiness and lethality of the U.S. military.

Everything we do must contribute to the lethality of our military, Mattis said last month during the announcement of the new U.S. National Defense Strategy. We cannot expect success fighting tomorrows conflicts with yesterdays weapons or equipment.
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I know this doesn't seem like anything groundbreaking but I really see a connection between this policy (which was not precipitated by any event, and there's even contradictory policy in at least one branch) and the fact that certain high ranking members of government want to get rid of transgender service members.
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Good.

In units that were getting ready to deploy there is always a period where the unit has to transfer out the non-deployable people (mostly people on medical profiles) while transferring people in from other units to hit the magic number of people that they need to actually be at full strength for their deployment.

The issue that Mattis is trying to address is that once these non-deployable people get transferred out they land in units where their non-deployable status may go unnoticed. And then when that unit finally ends up deploying they suddenly realize they have a lot of non-deployable people they need to lose immediately so they transfer out the people who can't deploy including some of the same guys and girls that missed the last deployment.

It may seem heartless to kick a guy or girl out of a unit just because they are non-deployable but just keeping them on for sentimental reasons is a massive waste of resources.

If a job can be done by someone that is non-deployable then it really should be done by a civilian in the first place.