kBob
Member
RIF. It means Reduction in Force. In the past when ever the shooting stopped and the Army thought it had too many officers there would be a RIF.
The vast majority of officers under Major only hold reserve rank. Notice that most folks commissioned out of ROTC (RESERVE Officer Training Corps) are commissioned as reserve officers and but a handful given Direct Regular Army Commissions. Nothing ticks off a Young West Point Butter Bar more than meeting an alumni of Moo Cow U's ROTC department with an ID card that Identified him as having a Direct Regular Army Commission with the same date of rank. Even more fun when Moo Cow grad is also prior service and "out ranks" the ring knocker with time in service.
When they were no longer needed as officers some reserve officers were given the option of getting out all together, being a sit at home Reserve Officer slowly missing every promotion until not promotable, or "reverting" to regular enlisted rank.
Right after VN E6 and E7 former captains were not uncommon. Especially in the Special Ops community.
A bit later they sometimes used Reserve Officers to get around finance issues. A reserve officer could be used for 179 days a year without him being paid as on "active duty" A good number of folks were so used between the first gulf war and the second down in Tampa. Amazingly a number of these folks got offered active duty after 911.
As to double barreled shotguns and M-1 Garands I can not say. Weird things happen. I personally carried a reproduction Colt 1851 Navy revolver loaded with BP, caps, and .36 caliber round ball on a number of occasions in 1974 during times of high tension around a Pershing missile site in Germany. Yes, I would have been busted big time for doing so if caught. It and "spare" 5.56mm Ball got passed around for use when the powers that be decided that we might be trigger happy with our normal load of ammo on patrols. This decission on their parts was not thought highly of by the men required to go out whether they had ammo or not. Also during that time a non existant ( unpapered )Walther p-1 (P38) floated around another platoon.
Naturally no paper record of such crap exist.
On the other hand if I had not toted an obsolete C&B revolver on patrols I would not believe some one else telling barracks tales about doing so and you likely don't believe me, so.......
-kBob
The vast majority of officers under Major only hold reserve rank. Notice that most folks commissioned out of ROTC (RESERVE Officer Training Corps) are commissioned as reserve officers and but a handful given Direct Regular Army Commissions. Nothing ticks off a Young West Point Butter Bar more than meeting an alumni of Moo Cow U's ROTC department with an ID card that Identified him as having a Direct Regular Army Commission with the same date of rank. Even more fun when Moo Cow grad is also prior service and "out ranks" the ring knocker with time in service.
When they were no longer needed as officers some reserve officers were given the option of getting out all together, being a sit at home Reserve Officer slowly missing every promotion until not promotable, or "reverting" to regular enlisted rank.
Right after VN E6 and E7 former captains were not uncommon. Especially in the Special Ops community.
A bit later they sometimes used Reserve Officers to get around finance issues. A reserve officer could be used for 179 days a year without him being paid as on "active duty" A good number of folks were so used between the first gulf war and the second down in Tampa. Amazingly a number of these folks got offered active duty after 911.
As to double barreled shotguns and M-1 Garands I can not say. Weird things happen. I personally carried a reproduction Colt 1851 Navy revolver loaded with BP, caps, and .36 caliber round ball on a number of occasions in 1974 during times of high tension around a Pershing missile site in Germany. Yes, I would have been busted big time for doing so if caught. It and "spare" 5.56mm Ball got passed around for use when the powers that be decided that we might be trigger happy with our normal load of ammo on patrols. This decission on their parts was not thought highly of by the men required to go out whether they had ammo or not. Also during that time a non existant ( unpapered )Walther p-1 (P38) floated around another platoon.
Naturally no paper record of such crap exist.
On the other hand if I had not toted an obsolete C&B revolver on patrols I would not believe some one else telling barracks tales about doing so and you likely don't believe me, so.......
-kBob