Army asks soldiers to turn in extra gear...

Chuckman

Chuckman

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Inglis said:
I paid for all myTA50 when I got out.I was in the hospital when I got discharged and my wife packed my gear and took it home. Want to buy it back?
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In Navy officer school we have Marine Sergeant Instructors ('DIs', but for officers) and Navy RDCs (Navy DIs). I was in the barracks room and the duty came in and said I had to get my butt down to 'office' ASAP. So I hustled down and did the rap 3 times on the door thing. The Sergeant Instructor was standing there with mailman, and had a registered letter for me requiring my signature. I was like, 'WTF?' So I signed it, opened it, and read it. The Marine unit I had checked out of an an enlisted guy sent me a bill for over $1,500 for all of my 782 gear (web gear, ALICE/MOLLE stuff, etc.). The SI asked if everything was OK and I showed him the letter, he just burst out laughing. I called my wife who went through my paperwork and found the receipt of all of the issued gear, and I asked her to make copies and fax that to the S1 and S4 of the unit. So after about 30 minutes of legwork on my part, it was being handled.

But: The SI got such a kick out of me stealing Marine gear, for the rest of school I was called 'thief.' All in fun. If he ever called me...mail call, man a broom, take the duty, whatever...he would just yell 'thief!' or 'send me the thief!'
 
Chuckman said:
But: The SI got such a kick out of me stealing Marine gear, for the rest of school I was called 'thief.' All in fun. If he ever called me...mail call, man a broom, take the duty, whatever...he would just yell 'thief!' or 'send me the thief!'
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This reminded me somewhat of the Jack London novel The Sea Wolf and the nickname given to the protagonist by Wolf Larson of "Hump." "You, you 'Hump!' Of course, that was a play on the name Humphrey. Great anecdote.
 
Part of the issue is the MTOE'd equipment if they want to streamline things. I am a maintenance control officer for a battalion and I have a crows diagnostic kit on my books yet have zero crows systems all because I am supposed to have one.
 
“The program also included units turning in weapons that they were responsible for but did not need, including M249s, MK19s, M240B, M17, M2s and M4s.”

I think that I speak for everyone here when I say that us taxpayers stand ready to help with the timely disposition of these assets.
 
“Another recent program in the same vein aimed to stop soldiers from doing “unnecessary maintenance”both on vehicles and on the Army’s 800,000 rifles. Launched in May, the program replaces time-based maintenance scheduled, like regular six-month oil changes, with maintenance based on usage.”

So, it’s going back to oil sample every month! Talk about a waste of time program!
 
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rufrdr said:
How are the units retaining weapons in excess of their authorized TO&E? They don't do annual IG inspections anymore?
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Welllll...I'm guessing that the people who were supposed to be responsible for this were slipping in their responsibilities and suddenly someone realized what happened and realized they were left holding the bag.

Not good. While you can old the junior servicemembers accountable for their gear, you can't unilaterally do so without also holding those above them responsible as well in a case like this.

I suspect there will be a whole lotta "turn your excess $#!+ in so we can account for it", then a write off of all the unaccounted for items.

So long as it's not "inherently dangerous" equipment, such as weapons/ammunition, they'll likely be able to do this. I'm sure it won't be the first time.
 
rufrdr said:
How are the units retaining weapons in excess of their authorized TO&E? They don't do annual IG inspections anymore?
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Weapons and sensitive items, I have no idea. My experience is they (S4 and the armory) have very tight control over these things.

RetiredUSNChief said:
Welllll...I'm guessing that the people who were supposed to be responsible for this were slipping in their responsibilities and suddenly someone realized what happened and realized they were left holding the bag.

Not good. While you can old the junior servicemembers accountable for their gear, you can't unilaterally do so without also holding those above them responsible as well in a case like this.

I suspect there will be a whole lotta "turn your excess $#!+ in so we can account for it", then a write off of all the unaccounted for items.

So long as it's not "inherently dangerous" equipment, such as weapons/ammunition, they'll likely be able to do this. I'm sure it won't be the first time.
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CONUS and pre-deployment issue they (S4) seemed to be pretty tight-fisted and kept immaculate records, eve with things lie MREs. During a deployment there was so much use of 'low-end' items bags, gear, etc., they either didn't care or didn't have time to do the record-keeping. Weapons, NODs/NVGs, helmets, expensive stuff, they were pretty much on top of.
 
If I recall correctly the article talked about accountable property book items that will show up as excess to authorized equipment. I was an S4 once upon a time and know the games that could be played with excess stuff but not accountable items. Those would be discovered pretty easily. At least now the excess has been turned in.
 
Wow, interesting article

I got out in 2014, part of Obamas drawdown of the military. If your ETS was within a certain date range, you were given the option to reenlist or you’re ETS date was moved up to 6/15/14 and you were forced out with an honorable discharge. My ETS date was already 7/15/14, and I had no plans of reenlisting so I was fine with the extra month.

Part of that drawdown affected us in Afghanistan, cause we had to deploy with only half company strength (left all the crap bags behind) but we had to turn in all excess equipment there. Cleaned out our COP and shut it down, then transitioned to clearing out all our FOB. Went easy cause we just loaded everything into conexes to be sent to KAF.

When we came back to JBLM, they were closing down my brigade. That was a crap show, cause we had to inventory everything and turn it into certain places. I lost count of how many hours I logged in a LMtV driving around to different turn in places to wait our turn to turn in or sign over to different units. I kinda felt bad for the Mililtary Intelligence battalion we signed over our M4s to , cause we snuck crates full of crap we couldn’t turn in elsewhere and had to get rid of somehow in with stuff they knew they had to sign for. Their supply sergeant showed up pissed a couple of days later when they realized they had signed for the stuff. Sucks to be you pal, make sure you know what you are signing for.

In the end, we would drive all day around JBLM, looking for somewhere to turn in items until we got rid of everything. Thought we were gtg, then had to help our sister company whose arms room was teeming with stuff. Lucked out and got a crap ton of useful gear I could use or eventually trade/sell. Did it all with my XOs blessing, who pulled a bunch of us NCOs aside one day and said “idgaf where this goes gentlemen, but tomorrow at 0930 it can’t be here, make it happen.” Loved that guy.
 
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I was doing a small arms inspection and classification mission at Camp Roberts in '07 and chatted with the CW2 who we were working with at the combined maintenance operation. He told me about the equipment that went to Iraq with the CAARNG and was left with other NG units when they rotated home. Some equipment was shipped back but ended up at other state ARNG facilities. He said the property books were so screwed up that it was a steller opportunity to purge all sorts of stuff that had been lost track of prior to deployment. That's me in my SGT Rock pose with one of the M107s

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82nd guys: is this true? If so, can you send me your statement of charges? DOD gets to fail another audit, but they can’t fix a soldier’s hand receipt who was ordered to leave behind his gear? Pretty insane. | Terminalcwo | terminalcwo · Original a

82nd guys: is this true? If so, can you send me your statement of charges? DOD gets to fail another audit, but they can’t fix a soldier’s hand receipt who was ordered to leave behind his gear?...
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If this is true, this is some crap. I never served so I don't know how it works, but dang.
 
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