Military, prison policies questioned
Don’t ask, don’t respond? The Pentagon says the response to its survey of attitudes on the military’s current policy on gays in uniform has been meager so far. Only about 10 percent of the 400,000 randomly selected active-duty, Guard and reserve troops who received the surveys three weeks ago have returned the questionnaire so far, the Pentagon is reporting.
The purpose of the 100-question survey is to take the pulse of those in the ranks about the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which Congress is considering repealing in favor of allowing gay troops to serve openly.
The Pentagon is conducting a yearlong review of the broad issue, and considers the feelings and experiences of those now serving to be a key part.
Military leaders want to assess the likely effects on unit cohesion, military readiness, recruiting and retention, among other things. The survey’s response deadline is Aug. 15. Another survey will go to family members that month.
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The U.S. Army says the last time it mounted a bayonet assault in combat was nearly 60 years ago during the Korean War.
Even so, ever since, hundreds of thousands of new soldiers in basic training have had to master wielding one on a rubber-tire course – even as their rifles evolved to be incompatible with bayonets and the skill ceased to matter.
Now, after listening to troops share their battle insights after nearly a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has ordered the end to bayonet training, effective this month.
That’s not the only training and battle-drill change the Army has made based on insights from the current wars and projections about future ones. Those returning from combat say, ‘drop the long runs, the repetitive sets of push-ups and sit-ups,’ and focus instead on preparing soldiers’ bodies for ‘walking point’ in full battle gear and ‘hauling your injured buddy out of harm’s way’,” the Army News Service wrote this past week.
New recruits will now learn to fight from their feet rather than mastering “wrestle and grip” on the ground, and will have double the hours of instruction in such “combatives.” And they will no longer have to learn to insert an IV into another’s veins to enable quick treatment for dehydration. “(D)octors say it’s counterproductive on the battlefield, and useless for treating heat injuries,” the Army story said.
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Four years ago, an internal Social Security Administration audit found that prisoners in 13 states were allowed to work in jailhouse and work-release jobs that gave them access to the public’s Social Security numbers and other personal information.
Since then, six of the states – Connecticut, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Utah and West Virginia – barred the practice. But in seven – Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee – there still is no law prohibiting inmates from working at jobs such as data entry and encoding, digital imaging and records conversion of documents collected by a state’s tax, education, labor, health and other departments.
The Social Security Administration has pressed Congress to ban the practice in all states, because the agency has no authority to do so.
Last Monday, a bipartisan group of 15 House members took up the challenge and introduced the No Prisoner Access to Social Security Numbers Act.
E-mail Lisa Hoffman at hoffmanl@shns.com. For more columns, go to www.scrippsnews.com.