One way to get Internet access...

February 6, 2001 5:54 PM

One way to get Internet access... just join the Alaska Army National Guard. From the Nome Nugget newspaper article, "Army National Guard leaders have said they want all 350,000 Guardsmen in the U.S. wired to the Internet by 2005 as part of a plan to improve communication and to create a force of 'Cyber Warriors'".
posted by JParker (4 comments total)

"By enticing members to remain in good active drilling status, the National Guard will be able to operate more efficiently and save funding. Bridges indicated it was much cheaper to keep a fully-trained, experienced soldier than to recruit and train new personnel for vacant positions."

mmmhmm. minus operating and maintenance costs for this cutting edge technology. other than that - why not?
posted by xammerboy at 8:21 PM on February 6, 2001

> create a force of 'Cyber Warriors'

Hee hee.

Yeah, and we're all becoming 'Cyber Warriors' by blogging. It's going to be 350,000 beer-bellied weekend soldiers downloading pictures of girls young enough to be their daughters. If this is "part of a plan to improve communication" and make them "capable of passing along information at a moment’s notice," why don't they just buy them telephones?
posted by pracowity at 1:16 AM on February 7, 2001

xammer, a fully trained soldier is probably worth $100,000. Why not spend a fraction of that on retention?

The "weekend soldiers" are often some of the most experienced specialists in the armed forces. The reserves don't need dozens of identical grunts -- they need the specialties for which it's hard to keep people in the armed forces. Say you're an experienced helicopter repairman with a wife and kids. Stay in the army, or find a high-paying civilian job and buy a home?

pracowity, which is faster -- calling an entire guard battalion one by one, or sending them all an e-mail? If this is obvious and makes sense for corporations, why not the freaking army?
posted by dhartung at 10:01 AM on February 7, 2001

should they call the program, "nerds with guns?"

hey! forget your laser guided missiles and smart bombs, baby, we got email! The scourge of terrorists everywhere, AOL keyword GoGuard.
posted by JParker at 11:36 PM on February 7, 2001