Opinion: How I wish the U.S. Military was used during peace time

Each year the United States of American spends roughly 598 billion dollars on its military. Most of this money goes towards upgrading weaponry, training, and to maintain overseas military bases. After World War 2 and the United States massive military build up there has been a perceived need for us to always be on the cutting edge. With the capability to fight a war on both sides of the globe simultaneously.

In an attempt to meet this perceived need, the United States has built a military base on every continent besides Antarctica. Along with this we have 12 active carrier groups which are constantly circling the globe they all of have the capability to invade a small country. Each career group has roughly 80 aircraft and a large assortment of helicopters and boats.

So, what are these aircraft caries doing you may ask? Outside of small anti-piracy operations and the occasional maritime drug bust really not anything. Their primary role is to act as a threat deterrent projecting Americas Military power around the world. But if we are spending 598 Billion Dollars on something a year you think we should be using the thing for something right?

My idea would be to have a small volunteer force stationed on all of our carrier groups who during times of peace would be dedicated purely to providing forging aid, and conducting small hit and run carrier-based operations. Most of these operations unless in the event of a major natural disaster or other event should never reach over 200 men and women at the max.

Even though the military today is purely volunteer no personal would be forced to fill or sign up for this role. Most members of the military have enlisted to protect American values and interest. Many operations conducted by this theoretical group would not directly server American interest rather the interest of the greater good. Any time these groups where deployed their lives would still be at risk. I would find it highly immoral to push anyone into that position if they are not willing to risk their life for that cause.

Potential Operations:

Support of Non-Profits/ Red Cross: A common problem we see today is the inability of aid to be brought in either do to conflict or concern for the people delivering it. One example of this would be the most recent case in central Africa where clinics treating people effected with Ebola have been attacked killing doctors and scaring away locals who need their help. Sending in a small detachment of American soldiers to run security for these clinics would remedy that situation. And allow them to restore normal operations saving lives.

Attacking soft targets: Around the world there are many places where criminals are able to run free. I am not talking about small time drug production or anything like that, I mean full scale open slave air markets, factories that have thousands of forced laborers, and places producing thousands of pounds of heroin and other deadly drugs a day. The goal would not be to arrest any of these individuals but to simply fly or ride in clear the site, and then render it unusable.

Pros and Cons:

Combat readiness: one argument against this idea would be its potential effect on the combat readiness of our soldiers encase of a major military engagement or war. Over all I don’t think that it would have to detrimental of an effect. The goal of most of these types of operations would be to achieve the goal as quickly as possible and then leave. They should never have to have boots on the ground for more than a 3-month max before their task is achieved. Nothing more than a simple FOB would need to be set up most of the time allowing soldiers to pack up and leave at a moment’s notice if need be.

Response Time: These types of theoretical operations I believe would have a positive effect on the United States Military response time over all. Most of these operations would be planed very quickly maybe even a few days or weeks in advance. This would require the military to have to quickly deploy and coordinate troops on a semi regular basis. In modern warfare speed is key and being able to hone these skills in less critical situations then real combat would give us a good advantage and make our response time to potential threats much faster.

Training: You can train as hard and as much as you want but nothing beats the real deal experience. Allowing more service men and women hands on experience who may not have received it before will increase their tolerance for combat, and do more then any training could.

Logistics: American military logistics has been on the decline sense the end of the Korean war. I cannot stress enough the importance of logistics in the modern battlefield. Many historians believe that good logistic and supply lines played a critical role in helping us win World War 2. Reports from soldiers in the middle east especially during the Iraqi war claim that at times there was a sever lack of basic utilities, ammunition, and body armor. Primary because logistic lines could not keep up wit the fast pace of the American and NATO forces front lines. Another example would be the response to the hurricane that recently hit Puerto Rico. Thousands of pounds of supplies and water where left to rot on runways because for some reason the military could not get the proper equipment on land to move it. If we want to have a hope of winning any major conflict, we must get our logistics close to perfect. Having to rapidly deploy and supply food and other need more regularly will help fine toon and repair or broken logistics system.

Cooperation With non-state actors: In order to plan any operation, we would first need to identify a need or target. This is where non state actors would come in to play. I imagine that this group would be dealing with nonprofits and locals the most. If help was needed by either reports would be submitted by them directly to this volunteer part of the military. It would be their purgative to asses the situation reported and whether or not they respond.

Finances: Most of this would be done with already existing American assets. Money would need to be spent on fuel for aircraft and other necessities like Food, Water, and Medicine however I don’t believe that cost would be astronomical.