I believe the only B-52 missions flown in the second Iraq war were in the initial invasion stage (April 2003).

As a Reservist, I already had a year of drills, an abbreviated boot camp, and a training cruise under my belt. So I made Seaman Recruit when I took the oath and Seaman Apprentice while still a civilian. So I went aboard my ship as a full Seaman (E-3). I got my Crow (made Third Class Petty Officer, E-4) 6 months later and Second Class after I left active duty and went back to the Ready Reserve.

Here’s the Crow for QM2. It’s worn on the left arm. The ship’s wheel insignia identifies my rate as “Quartermaster”.

Other rating insignia you may recognize are crossed cannons (Gunner’s Mate), crossed anchors (Boatswain’s Mate), electric sparks (Radio Man), crossed flags (Signalman), A ship’s screw (Engineer) and so on.

The didn’t, and don’t, have it together for the war they wound up fighting, an insurgency. For all their value in many situations, a B-52 is not a hearts and minds tool. I know, I know, you have to get their attention first. But not by slaughtering them. If it would work it would have worked by now.

E-5 in 13 months is absolutely incredible. Congratulations. Takes a good brain, discipline and usually someone interested in you.

I’m not sure the draft will be necessary in the future, even if a “big war” comes up. The days of thousands of ground troops advancing on an enemy position by sheer manpower may be behind us. Knock on wood.

We were stressed on manpower with both Afghanistan and Iraq running full tilt, but I believe (no hard data) if it had only been one or the other, it may have been different. I don’t know what kind of war would be “bigger” in the future, and with luck, we’ll never find out.

Probably the biggest single factor was we had a volunteer army. That made a huge difference, although it was greatly resisted at the time, it only makes sense people aren’t going to give it their best if they feel they are in forced servitude. Its one thing when the country is fighting for its life, like in WWII, another when you can’t get a straight answer why we’re “over there”.

We have a professional army, like the Roman legions. There’s no question it works better. But whether that is a good thing for a democracy, I don’t know. And I don’t know how it will scale up if we ever get in a big war and have to institute conscription again.

Or maybe things always look better from the outside.

One of the major problems in Viet Nam was getting that combat ticket punched for the career officers. Then they got out. By the end of that 13 month tour, just when they were starting to get good at their job, they’d get pulled out and some boot put in their place.
The result was that the line officers, were all inexpereinced, or short. In fact, I guess you could say that for most of the enlisted men, too.

In the Navy it was a little better, many had multiple tours, but my impression of the military is that it was mostly a goof ball outfit, the officers cared more about their careers than their duty. I told my skipper as much during my man-to-man “shipping over” speech when I was leaving the Dewey. He said nothing to contradict me. I was offered a nice cash bonus to re-enlist and a chance to sew on my E5 stripe (even though I had already earned it by passing the exams). It was all screwed up, they were releasing me prematurely from my 2-year committment, but wanted to pay me to ship over.!) As it turned out, they let me sew on the stripe when I went to my home reserve unit anyway. E5 in thirteen months. It was some kind of record in my rate.

I could not believe how well the military had their shit together by the time we went to war in the Middle East. I sincerely believe the career officers and NCOs who survived the VietNam era committed themselves to reforming the military, and by the time of Desert Storm they were really, really good. I was impressed.

Up to that time one had to have a combat ticket punched to make General officer. All the Air Force pilots were volunteers. I don’t know about the Navy and Marine Corps pilots.