Word: pentagonal
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...Pentagon records show that over the past five years more than half the Special Forces units have earned readiness ratings of no better than C-3, meaning "marginally ready." (C-l is "fully ready," C-2 "substantially ready," C-4 "not ready.") "The bulk of the units are C-3 and below," one Pentagon official told TIME. Said another: "The readiness has been atrocious...
Deciding just how the U.S. should go about organizing and deploying such Special Forces has provoked a fierce debate in the corridors of the Pentagon and in secret congressional hearings over the past few months. When he went West for New Year's, President Reagan took with him a secret report from the Holloway Commission, a White House task force set up six months ago to explore new ways of fighting terrorism. Next week the debate will spill into the open, as Secretary of State George Shultz and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger join more than 100 experts to discuss...
...less enthusiastic about this new breed of warrior. Special Forces are often regarded by the brass as unworthy of precious defense dollars and a bit too independent to boot. Disclosures last November that members of the supersecret Delta Force had been charged with skimming covert intelligence funds only heightened Pentagon suspicions that the Special Forces are a bunch of freebooters. Shrugged retired Army Brigadier General Donald Blackburn, an expert on unconventional warfare: "Special Forces have always been the bastards of the Army...
...unprepared for the challenges they could face. Though it is far more likely that the U.S. would use its handful of quick-reaction shock troops rather than any of its 17 active Army divisions or 13 Navy carrier battle groups, special operations still receive less than 1% of the Pentagon's $300 billion budget. Warns Jeffrey Record, a respected expert on military affairs: "I have no doubt that low-intensity conflict is the sort of scenario we'll be fighting in coming decades. What I do doubt is that we'll be prepared...
Congress has found that the combat readiness of U.S. Special Forces is far below acceptable levels and that equipment shortages, despite the recent infusion of dollars, are getting worse. A 1980 investigation into the Desert One fiasco faulted the Pentagon for having available only eight specially equipped helicopters to transport the rescue force when "at least" ten were needed. Today the Air Force has only seven. Although the Pentagon has ordered ten more, "the main transport programs are hopelessly behind schedule and over cost," charges Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee...