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April 7, 2024 - Stew Peters Show
56:32
Addressing Soldier Fatigue through Recruitment and Retention
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If I were to tell you, our soldiers are tired, what would you think about that?
And what got me thinking about this was this whole discussion that's going on all over this country about recruitment, retention, and just overall manning and staffing in the United States military.
And a lot of the things that we hear about come down to, we just don't have the people, but the mission has to get done.
So we gotta push, we gotta push, we gotta push.
And I understand that.
But I think that our soldiers are tired.
Well, today we're going to talk a little bit about that.
I found an article that came out last week that I thought was pretty interesting that I wanted to expound on today.
And so we're going to do that.
So stick with us.
Don't go away.
We start now.
Hey everybody, and welcome here to the next installment of The Richard Leonard Show. and welcome here to the next installment of The Richard I want to thank you as always for joining us.
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Okay.
Alright.
By the way, our good friend Jason, who usually is on the show, has prior commitments, so he will not be joining us today.
And so, it's okay.
You're stuck with me.
If you're a follower of this show and you've been watching it for some time, I want to say this is 105 weeks in a row or 106 weeks or whatever it is.
You've had a lot of just me.
Hopefully it's just as insightful and entertaining as when we have guests on, but I guess I'll leave that up to the court of public opinion.
Boy, our soldiers.
Our soldiers are tired.
At least that's my opinion.
I was sifting through some websites and whatnot.
One of them that I regularly go to just for my own knowledge and sometimes pull from for this show is the Military Times.
It's my opinion that it's one of the most accurate There's news outlets for military and quite a bit of VA news.
But again, who knows?
I mean, which media outlet can you really trust?
And so you got to kind of sift through it and pick the best ones you can.
Without being an actual insider, you got to just pick the things that you think have some validity and build and expound upon that.
And so that's what we do here at the Richard Leonard Show.
And I hope that some of this stuff is insightful.
At least it is a cause for further conversation for you and other people that watch.
So let's dive into this.
I'll read through it and kind of pause and interject where I think necessary.
And then I'll give you my overall opinion about it at the end.
But when we go through it, here's the other thing.
There's been a lot of talk in different circles as it relates to To our branches of service about a lot of different things.
For example, there was a report recently put out and I want to say that the GAO who also did the research for this fatigue deal that we're going to talk about.
But there was a report put out about military currently serving members of the military and the suicide rate.
We talked about suicide just the other day.
And they linked a lot of it to fatigue and being overworked.
And I think that's part of what sparked maybe this research that we're going to discuss.
In that report, as it relates to the suicide numbers, they were talking some about the jobs of service members most likely.
To commit suicide.
And in the United States Army, it was tankers.
The guys that work on like the Abrams for example.
So the drivers, the gunners, the commanders, the maintenance people.
And I think it's because...
I'm not going to say I think it's because.
I think that their job becomes extra stressful, especially the maintenance side of it, which the tank crews, so when you talk about a tank crew, you're talking about the drivers, the gunners, the loaders, you know, the guys that ride and work inside the tank in a forward area.
So when the tank is out and there's a battle, they're the ones that are operating the tank.
They do a lot of the service work too, not only just the mechanics.
I mean, the mechanics are the ones They get down and dirty with that thing.
There's a specialized mechanic for just the turret.
There's a specialized mechanic for the engine.
There's a specialized mechanic for the track system, I think.
I mean, I know for sure that there's a specialized mechanic for the turrets.
But it takes a lot of time.
These Abrams tanks, for example, they're super impressive machines, folks.
They do some amazing stuff.
The technology in them is pretty awesome.
They're pretty quick, if I remember right.
The targeting systems are pretty cool.
I won't get into all the stuff I know about it because I'm not sure if I'm supposed to talk about all of it, but I'm sure all of it's online if you're interested.
Whatever is supposed to be available.
But, man, they got a big job.
And so, in a training cycle, I would imagine it takes a long time.
And not only just to complete the services, but also to get the parts.
God forbid someone orders you the wrong part and then it doesn't fit or doesn't work properly or you get a part that's broken already or who knows what can happen.
But the work that it takes to keep these tanks rolling and operational and in good working order, it's a huge job.
And all those guys deserve a pat on the back.
And I'll tell you this.
I was never a tanker.
I was a gunner in a Bradley fighting vehicle for a couple years.
And that was a lot of work too.
I mean, as a gunner in a Bradley, which is kind of, it's a tracked vehicle.
It doesn't have a cannon or a main gun.
It has a cannon.
It doesn't shoot howitzer shells or the big 155s.
It shoots 25 millimeter bullets.
But the maintenance on that gun alone was, it was a big job.
You know, you got to take it out.
It's heavy.
It's cumbersome.
You got to get it in and out of very tight spaces.
And I'm already a big dude.
It's like shoving...
It literally is like shoving 25 pounds of shit in a five pound sack.
But we made it work.
And it was an awesome experience after it was over.
But in the middle of it all, boy, it was trying times.
So anyway, they say that these guys are overworked.
And part of the problem with being overworked is fatigue, of course.
But they're most likely the ones that, while in the course of their service, are gonna suffer from depression and anxiety and separation and whatever else, and they're the ones most likely to take their own lives.
And so now the Department of Defense is talking about possibly taking away bases.
You know, they mentioned there's a whole armor brigade somewhere in Europe.
I want to say it's Germany, maybe?
Well, they talked about just doing away with it.
Bringing that whole brigade back to the U.S., housing them somewhere stateside.
And then just deploying when they need to.
And although that is a way, it is a option, that base that they're talking about giving up most likely has been there for many, many, many, many years.
It's a strategic strong point of some sort or it wouldn't have been a base there in the first place.
And I'm not sure that giving up that strategic strong point, that base, is really what we want to do.
Now, we don't want soldiers killing themselves.
We know that.
We certainly want soldiers to be getting adequate rest.
After all, these are the men and women we're asking to defend us, to defend our homeland.
And so we want them to be as safe as possible.
We want them to be healthy.
We want them to get the rest they need, good food, good equipment, all that stuff.
But I don't know if giving up strategic strong points, if that's what that is, is something that we should even be considering.
So keep that in mind as we go through this.
And I promise you I'll link it all back together at the end of the show.
But let's get through this article here.
Okay, so Pentagon needs to wake up on troops' lack of sleep.
So this was from back in March, March 27th, so a week or two ago.
Even with a full arsenal of energy drinks and coffee rations, the U.S. military is still losing the war against sleepiness.
Despite promises for military leaders to address lack of sleep among service members, most troops still fail to get enough sleep each night to fully function at their post.
Researchers warned this in a report released last week.
I'm going to tell you what.
The first line there, that is not a lie.
There is...
If you go on to any military installation...
You will find more places to get Red Bull and coffee and Monster, 5-hour energies, energy drink powder, whatever it is.
You'll find pre-workout.
You'll find more of that stuff on a base than you'll find bottled water.
I mean, you gotta go to a drinking fountain or a faucet and fill up your water, but the stuff is everywhere.
And soldiers love it.
I can honestly say, and Nick and Ann Chafee, if you guys ever see this, maybe you can go in the comments and confirm, but when we were in Iraq, when we'd go out on mission, we'd be gone a day up to two or three, depending on if we needed maintenance or whatever.
And in our cooler would be, you know, half a case of water maybe.
But there'd be a full case of Monsters.
There'd be a full case of Red Bulls.
Sugar-free if they had them.
What else?
Some peach tea.
And then some IV fluid bags.
Because it would get so hot we would, you know, give each other IVs of cold fluid to help cool you down.
Oh, and Gatorades, things like that.
But water was the least of our worries.
If we're leaving at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and we're not going to get done with our workday until, you know, sometimes it was 2 or 3 in the morning, which isn't bad.
But other days it was 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 in the morning, depending on what happens.
You're going to need a Red Bull or 6.
You're gonna need a few monsters.
And then we might stop somewhere to refuel and maybe grab a bite to eat and it's nice to have a nice tea.
And then you have water when you need it.
Water was more of a maintenance thing in our situation most of the time.
But there's a lot of that stuff floating around and it's everywhere.
Anyway.
Fatigue and sleep deprivation among active duty service members continues to be more the rule than the exception.
Investigators from the Government Accountability Office wrote in findings released to Congress on March 26.
Impairment from fatigue can be equivalent to the effects of alcohol intoxication and increase the risk of collisions and mishaps.
So, here's another good point.
It was not uncommon.
It was uncommon in our unit specifically, but you heard about it all the time, that it was not uncommon for soldiers to be getting injured or a property or equipment being damaged due to accidents.
And so, if you were to, you know, wake up in the morning and we were doing a movement or something and training, and you go down the motor pool to get your vehicle ready and you do your inspections and all that.
And they had the, sometimes they had the board, right?
It was this many days since the last accident.
Well, whenever you see it switch to zero, the first comment ever made was, Who fell asleep?
Somebody fell asleep, had to have fallen asleep driving.
It was always somebody fell asleep, probably.
So I can see this being true as well.
Past studies by Defense Department officials have shown that active duty personnel are twice as likely as their civilian counterparts to sleep less than seven hours per night, leading to increased risk of accident and error in daily tasks.
The new study mandated by lawmakers in response to concerns from those past findings said little progress had been made on the problem in recent years, even as military officials have promised.
That the issue is being taken seriously.
Okay.
How seriously?
I guess the question is more, how seriously can it be taken?
You see, when...
How do you explain this?
When...
When you have soldiers in training, and the duty day is 07 to 1600, right?
Or 1700, so seven to five.
From 1700 until 07 the next day, soldiers are on their own.
You do what you gotta do.
Go do your laundry, go to the gym, call home, eat dinner, work out, whatever that looks like for you.
If you're not getting enough rest, well that's kind of on you.
But I will say this also.
The military...
And maybe it shouldn't.
Maybe it's not the job of the military.
But this is just my opinion here.
The military doesn't do a really good job at giving you an opportunity or teaching you how to use your time wisely to unwind from the day.
And maybe there are programs out there that I didn't or don't know about.
But in my experience...
In the 19 years that I served, well, 18 years and 10 months, when we got done with the day, it was maybe take a nap so you get some rest, maybe a 20-minute power nap, get in the shower, and depending on the time of year, we'd go try to get nine holes of golf in or go to the bar.
Maybe hang out outside the barracks and start a bonfire if there was a pit, which was rare where we were at, but it happened a few times, or grill up some glizzies and have a beer, whatever that meant.
But there wasn't a whole lot of...
There wasn't a whole lot of guidance about how to do a good job of spending your time.
And as I said, maybe it's not their job to do that for you.
When you join the military, you're an adult.
The way it sits now, people that aren't in the military, I mean, you go to work at 8, you leave at 5 o'clock or 4.30, and you do what you need to do until you go to work the next day.
It's a job, right?
You go to work, you do your job, you go home.
And maybe what they're getting at here is that there isn't a whole lot of resources available.
To help with some of these other issues, some of the depression or the loneliness if that's a thing or whatever those issues may be.
But let's keep going.
As part of a survey of military officers conducted by GAO, researchers found that more than one in four respondents slept for six hours or less per night, and half of all respondents rated the quality of sleep as poor or extremely poor.
Problems included long hours spent at work, deployment interrupting sleep patterns, and medical issues from their military service that affect troops' ability to rest.
Okay, so now we're getting into the meat and taters here, right?
Long hours at work.
So, if we're going to talk about those tankers.
Now, again, I was never a tanker, but Assuming how this works, right, is these guys go down to the motor pool.
One morning they get their tanks.
They get them all online.
They load them with their gear and ammo and rations, whatever it is they need.
If they're doing a training exercise and they go downrange for, I don't know, a day, five days, ten days, whatever it is.
And in that time, things break.
Tracks break.
Your road wheels get chunks out of them because there's rocks, big-ass rocks out there.
You might try to drive over a tree or something that's in your way, whatever the case may be.
And so this equipment takes a pounding because in the United States Army anyway, You train as you fight.
At least that's how we were taught.
And so if we're doing a training exercise and the training exercise is We're going to take that town today.
They have a little shanty town set up and they got OP4 in there and the job is to fight it out and take over the town as if we were really fighting.
Well, that's what we're going to do.
So people get injured, equipment gets damaged, equipment gets lost, things break.
Okay, so then we get to the end of that training period.
So let's just say it's five days, right?
Five days in the field.
Then you have your recovery period.
For five days in the field, the recovery period, depending on the status of your equipment, could be five days, it could be 20 days, it could be 25 days.
Do you need parts?
Is your stuff really broken and you need a lot of parts or big parts?
Is there specialty stuff needed?
There's a lot of electronics.
There's a lot of computer systems.
And they're all encased in this weatherproof, dustproof, shockproof casings.
And it's all put together I mean, it's not bulletproof by any means, but it's stout, right?
And so getting the stuff in and out is time-consuming.
And making sure that you get it in properly and it's all working properly is a whole other issue.
And so you've got to get it in there and you've got to identify it and you've got to then order the stuff and then you've got to clean it.
And then you gotta disassemble the weapon, so the main gun has a huge bolt assembly, I would imagine, and your coax weapons all have barrels and bolt assemblies that need to be taken apart and cleaned.
And then the body and the tank itself has to be taken through the wash rack and driven through the bird bath, hopefully if you have one, and then you pressure wash the crap out of it for two days to get the mud and the dirt off of it.
Because the motor sergeant isn't going to let it sit in his motor pool with mud and chunks of dirt on it.
It's just not how we do things.
And all of that takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.
So now your duty day is being stretched out from...
It isn't 07 to 1700.
It's 07 to 2000 or 2100.
So you're working 7 a.m.
to 9 p.m., and you gotta be back at 7 o'clock in the morning for PT, maybe.
That gets to be a long day.
And this is just one job.
This is just the tankers, right?
I mean, the infantry guys got the same thing.
They don't have as big of equipment, but they have equipment that needs to be serviced, and it needs to be cleaned.
It needs to be put back together.
Stuff needs to be repaired.
A lot of stuff gets lost.
Hopefully you tied down your stuff enough to not be able to have to go back out and look for it.
All that kind of stuff.
Let's see.
The DOD and the services have taken steps to address fatigue, such as conducting research and implementing strategies to limit sleep deprivation.
I don't know.
I guess we'll have to see about that.
However, we found challenges with DOD's approach to overseeing and leading the department's fatigue-related efforts, fragmented research-related, fatigue-related research efforts, and information sharing across the department.
The GAO report found promise in some individual military services projects and guidelines designed to help troops get more rest, but noted that those separate efforts are not being analyzed or shared among the other armed services leading to incomplete results.
In 2021, the Defense Department researchers outlined several recommendations to tackle the issue including adopting new duty schedules to ensure eight hours of sleep, providing resources to troops who want to cut back on caffeine use.
I bet that was well attended.
And establishing training in sleep leadership to emphasize the importance of the topic to commanders.
However, DOD officials told us they do not have plans to implement and monitor the recommendations from the study and officials were not able to provide an updated status on each of the recommendations that the GAO researchers wrote.
The watchdog recommended moving ahead with those overdue changes and assigning leaders within the services and Pentagon to spearhead the efforts.
GAO leaders said that defense officials generally agreed with the ideas but did not provide any timeline when or if changes will be made.
Which tells me that the Pentagon is telling GAO to buzz right off.
I don't know, man.
I don't know that the military wants to solve this fatigue issue.
And I guess I don't really know exactly how I feel about it either.
I think I have mixed emotions.
But chew on that for a second.
We've got to take a break.
We'll be right back.
Hey folks, welcome here to the second half of the show.
Before we went on the break, we were just discussing the article that talked about the research on soldier fatigue.
And it seemed in the last couple paragraphs that the DOD and the Pentagon are kind of telling the GAO to pound sand as it relates to their recommendations.
But a few of those recommendations, it says here, as we covered, we're adopting a new duty schedule to ensure eight hours of sleep and providing resources to troops who want to cut back on caffeine use.
I don't think so.
And establishing training in sleep leadership.
To emphasize the importance of the topic to commanders.
Now, this whole report that was conducted by the GAO is available.
This article is available on the Military Times.
So if you're interested in reading this whole report, it was quite extensive.
It was quite long.
So feel free to check it out.
I didn't read through it all the way.
I kind of just skimmed over it.
One of the things that I found interesting is that they provided a few units while they're conducting their research, all these wearables, these headbands and chest straps and smart watches and things like that, to get biometrics on soldiers as they were going through their duty day for a period of time.
And so I guess where I'm coming from on this is that some of these recommendations, like adjusting the duty day.
The duty day is already adjusted to meet the workflow.
The United States military is not an organization where you can just drop your tools and pick it back up tomorrow.
In most cases.
I think there is some of that.
But in a forward area, for example, in a training environment, when you are relying on your equipment, it's not just a, well, let's go home, rack out for a while, get something good to eat, and relax.
We'll pick it up tomorrow.
Because there's already things scheduled for tomorrow.
And so, it just doesn't work that way for many things.
You know, for example, in the National Guard, where my whole career was, you only have so much duty time, right?
I mean, because we were all weekend warriors, if you will.
And, you know, we catch a lot of flack for that, but whatever.
So in a drill weekend or a two-week annual training, there's a list of things that need to be done.
And so a lot of times it's, hey, this is what needs to be done.
Nobody goes home until it's done.
And so it could be like online trainings.
It could be some medical event, you know, where you got to go get your teeth looked at.
Or it could be vehicle maintenance, weapons maintenance.
There's a whole litany of things, recovery stuff.
There's a whole list of things that it could be.
And so many times you find yourself working until, you know, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2 in the morning.
Just to get the things done to meet the commander's intent for the drill period.
And of course on the active duty side of things, you know, they have things planned too.
They gotta go get their teeth looked at.
They gotta do their medical events.
They gotta do their trainings.
They gotta do this.
I mean, there's a lot of things.
It's not just always wake up, go to work, go home.
There's a lot of administrative stuff.
That goes along with military service and all of it has annual due dates and things of that nature.
And so I think that adjusting the duty day schedule is just not...
I don't know that that is going to be something that is easily done.
Well, maybe it's easily done, but easily implemented is probably where it's going to fall short.
Because at the end of the day, the commander doesn't give a shit about what the duty schedule is.
These tasks need to be completed.
And as we all know, whether you served or you didn't, shit rolls downhill.
And the further downhill it gets, the bigger and sloppier and heavier it gets.
Which means the consequence for not getting it done becomes heavier.
And so for the frontline guys, the ground pounders, right?
The privates up to the E4 Mafia, those are the guys that want to get done with the duty day whenever it's done and go have a beer and play Call of Duty or whatever it is young soldiers do nowadays.
I mean, I don't know, man.
I think that this whole fatigue management game is easily solved by manpower.
You see, all of these issues are not about fatigue.
It's not about the fact that we can't get the equipment or that we don't have the money.
It's all about manpower.
For example, in the beginning of the show, we talked about the base in Europe.
They're talking about closing down because the armored brigade is over-tasked and they can't keep up with their maintenance schedule because they got to get it done and they got to get back out the door because they're getting deployed again or there's a deployment cycle or a training cycle.
I mean, their arphagen cycle is fast moving, I'm sure.
Well, we're not going to solve that by shutting down that.
I mean, it would solve it.
But the consequences of just moving them out of there, they got to have, there's got to be a bigger consequence to that action.
And of course, I'm not a field-grade officer.
I don't work at the Pentagon, and I never have.
And so there's a lot of things that I don't know.
But just from an outsider's opinion looking in, as somebody who served in the military, you would think that that base was established.
There was an armored brigade put there for a reason.
And it's been kept there for all of these years, however long it's been, for a reason.
Or it would have been removed long ago.
And if the narrative is that, well, we're just going to remove these armored brigades from this base in Europe because it's not necessary anymore, well, maybe that's a different conversation.
Which is probably similar to what we'll end up hearing should it be done.
So that these types of conversations don't happen at a higher level than the lowest viewed podcast on the internet.
But it's there for a reason.
But if we could do something...
To instill in this country a pride and a love for the United States of America that causes people to hear a call for service.
Things like this I don't think would be as big of a deal.
Since the beginning of Since our country's infancy, since it was just a little tiny baby country, since war has been a thing, since fighting has been a thing, since military has been a thing, I would go on a limb and say that fatigue and fatigue management...
Has been an issue and I think that it's probably been an issue that each individual person has to figure out.
You know what your job is.
You know what it takes to do your job at a high level of proficiency.
You know what the consequences of you not effectively doing your job in a forward area in combat, if you have a combat job.
You know what the consequences of not being 100% on the ball are.
If you are a person that doesn't have the ability to ensure that That you're bringing your A-game every time you step up to do that job?
Well, it's probably just not the job for you.
Maybe you should be a cook or maybe you should be an admin specialist or maybe you should be a dental assistant or a supply person or whatever that is.
I mean, there's a lot of jobs.
Maybe you should be a mechanic or a chaplain's assistant or something like that.
Who knows?
I'm not trying to put anybody down, but we all know what the details of our jobs are or were.
And what it means when and if you show up and you're not on your game.
And so for those of us who had jobs that were actively engaged in combat, it means that me or my brothers or sister dies.
Possibly.
Or hurt.
Possibly.
Or some civilians that have nothing to do with what's going on.
They just live here.
They end up hurt or worse.
And so that's why you find that soldiers got 15 Red Bulls in their backpacks.
That's why you find that soldiers carry one-gallon thermoses of coffee and Or they're taking pre-work.
I mean, I'm not sitting here saying that it's a healthy way of life.
Because I'm sure that there's a lot more ways to gain energy a healthy way.
Like sleep and a proper diet.
But I will say this.
And clearly, if you know me in person or you've seen enough of these podcasts, clearly I'm not a picture of health myself.
I'm not a Greek god with my shirt off.
In fact, at this point I might swim with a wife beater on.
I'm getting old and gravity's taking place.
It's taking its place on my body.
I got low hanging nipples and all that stuff.
Anyway, there was nothing, there was no pick-me-up.
Maybe people disagree, I'm sure some will agree, but there was no pick-me-up.
In the middle of the night when he had a break and we'd pull in somewhere to refuel, stand on the back of your Humvee, relieve yourself.
Light up a cigarette and pop open a Monster or a Red Bull.
Slam that son of a bitch down.
And then open up the next one to sip on for 10 minutes.
Maybe get some beef jerky in you.
Something like that.
And then you kind of shoot the shit with your comrades a little bit.
And before you know it, it's time to roll out.
And we're rolling out and we're doing it again.
Now, I can say that getting enough sleep the night before, not a bad thing.
Okay.
But in that moment, there's nothing like it.
When you know that you're about to get in this Humvee, in this Iron Eagle of sorts, right?
With Chappie on the other end of the line.
But you get into this chariot, this iron chariot.
We know is not impenetrable.
But you can imagine that it is, right?
You can feel until you get to the gate, right?
And you're really out in the shit.
But you can feel like it is.
And you got all these endorphins running through you.
And, you know, Evan would turn on some music on the iPod that we had.
Jerry rigged through the...
I don't know how he did it.
He had it jerry-rigged through the headset system we had in our truck.
We had music going.
Cigarette going.
You got a couple swigs left on your Red Bull.
And then you're...
I mean, it's like there was nothing like it.
And there's no amount of sleep...
There's no protein bar.
There's no amount of carrots and kale.
There's nothing good for you, right, that is going to give you that same rush, at least that we found.
And maybe there is.
But like I said, I'm no picture of health.
And so that's what soldiers use.
Because for us...
It's all about now.
It's about right now.
And I don't disagree with anybody that says, yeah, but you've got to get enough sleep.
You've got to eat a proper diet.
You've got to exercise.
You've got to work out your brain and read a book here and there.
I get all that and I agree a thousand percent.
But there's nothing like that cigarette and Red Bull, man.
I'm telling you.
When we were in Iraq, it was 05, 06, the first time.
Anybody watching that served around that time or after, how many rippets did you have?
Little cans.
They were little tiny.
I think they were like 5-ounce cans or 3-ounce or 6-ounce cans, something like that.
Man, people were fighting over them.
They used little energy drinks, man, and they would put you through the roof.
Down 3 or 4 rippets leaving the gate.
Bring on the bullets.
Bring on the RPGs.
Explode the IEDs if you want to, but we're rolling.
And so there's just all these things.
And just changing the way that soldiers do it.
Maybe it'll work over time.
But I don't think that you're going to force soldiers into this new way of life.
And you're not going to get them to just, hey man, you need to go to bed.
Because I think that when soldiers are tired and they have the time, they go to sleep.
And they get the rest they think they need.
But at the end of the day, they're adults.
And so, if the duty day is over, then the duty day is over.
You're not going to force...
They're not kindergartners.
You can't make them take a nap.
I'd really like to know...
And the one thing I would look at in this report, and maybe I'll go back and look at it now that I've read this whole thing with you guys, is this sleep leadership to emphasize the importance of the topic to commanders.
Let me tell you something, people.
When the duty day is over, unless there's a problem, I think it's rare that you see the commander...
Commander's at home.
Probably getting some rest.
Or he's out with other officers.
The commanders don't just hang around.
So what, the commander's going to take a course in sleep leadership?
I mean, so some of this stuff, it seems pretty far-fetched.
And so if we think that commanders...
If these units are so overworked that they're considering removing them from a whole country and relocating them, what makes the GAO think that commanders are going to have time to give their soldiers courses on sleep leadership or take courses on sleep leadership to teach their soldiers about sleep?
I don't know, man.
The things that military service do to the mental state of an individual, and I'm not saying that it destroys you, but it and I'm not saying that it destroys you, but it changes.
There's a reason why military people don't sleep all that much.
And they said in here that there was issues with Not being able to sleep because of injuries or whatever due to their military service.
And maybe that's true.
I mean, it is true.
I have issues with sleep myself.
But, I mean, I still figure out how to get up every day and do what I need to do.
Is it healthy?
Maybe not.
But since the beginning of time, soldiers have been sleep deprived.
Also remember that these individuals run on adrenaline.
There is no adrenaline rush on the face of this planet that I've heard about.
Or that I've experienced than being in a firefight.
Being in a forward area.
And maybe for the guys, those special operations guys, you know, the SEALs and the Rangers and the Green Berets and stuff like that, maybe it's not as...
Exciting for them.
I think maybe it still is.
But there isn't much that you can do back home.
I mean, you hear about people skydiving and riding their motorcycles too fast.
Like wing walking on the wings of airplanes with a parachute on and trying to get out and walk on the wings of a plane.
I mean, there's all kinds of just craziness going on.
And people end up getting hurt or killed trying to do these things.
But a lot of guys are looking for this adrenaline rush and they're never able to find it again.
And some people say that adrenaline is like a drug.
It's like a drug and you get addicted to it and...
And you're always searching for it, but much like they say about meth, it's never the same as the first time.
And I can remember.
I can remember, you know, we'd be rolling down the road.
We'd get engaged in a firefight.
There's RPGs flying around, although that was pretty rare.
Bullets bouncing off the truck in the pavement.
In fact, one guy, Sergeant Taylor, one night we were rolling down the highway with some fuel tankers and the guy stopped and it was leaking out of the bullet holes, the diesel fuel.
And Sergeant Taylor had some Twizzlers in the front windshield of the Humvee that had probably been there for like a month and a half.
They were hard as concrete.
And he tried to plug the holes of this fuel tanker.
And we're getting shot at.
And he's running around out there trying to plug the holes with these Twizzlers.
And it wasn't working.
And he got back in the truck and he reeked of fuel.
We had to have the windows open.
It was a disaster.
But man, he gave it a shot.
We got to where we needed to go.
Everyone was safe.
But man, it was hairy for a minute.
And I can remember standing around...
We were standing around all the Humvees.
The tankers went to drop the fuel wherever they had to drop the fuel on the base that we brought them to.
Like, everyone was super pumped, right?
And this was a...
I mean, we were...
It was a complex attack.
We were getting shot at from multiple angles, and there was a couple RPGs skipped across the road.
Here's the thing...
In our experience, I would say a handful of RPGs were shot at us, and not one of them came close to whatever they were shooting at.
They skip across the road, they go up in the air, way above you, whatever it is.
So anyway, I think that this whole issue of fatigue is something that Is more easily solved by figuring out our retention and recruitment.
Soldiers are going to always be overworked.
They're going to want to put in the time to get the job done, or they're going to be forced to put in the time to get the job done.
And usually, in my opinion, You're going to have a pretty nice handful of soldiers that want to put in the time to get the job done and have it done right so that the equipment works properly for training or for combat or whatever.
But just picking up whole unit, whole brigades and moving them across the world from a place that we've been occupying for many, many, many years I don't know if that's the right answer, unless it is a place that has no strategic value to us at all, which I find hard to believe when it's dead set in the middle of Europe.
We've been there.
We've been there forever.
So anyway, we've run out of time.
Of course, I got off into the weeds.
Let me know what you think.
Leave some comments below.
Maybe I'm way off base on some of this stuff and I sound like a dipity-doo, but it's just kind of my thoughts on it.
I don't know.
I don't think it's ever a good idea to just cut things.
Why don't we figure out how we can add more good people to the fray when we're already low?
We've been talking about it for a year now, how low the numbers are.
What are we doing to raise recruitment so that fatigue is not an issue?
Isn't that a better question?
Instead of, what are we doing to battle fatigue in the military?
We should answer that with, we're going to do better at recruiting so that there's more people to share the work so that not everybody's overworked.
That would be my opinion of an answer we should see.
But anyway, take care of yourselves, guys, and we will see you all next week.
Thank you again for watching.
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