Spring, from a "leg", please tell your son-in-law, that we appreciate his service.

L.Brown, During the post Viet Nam confusion converting the "Draft" Army to the Volunteer Army they did many things designed to make it seem they were keeping their promises. They held illegally constituted promotion boards to "pass over" officers after they had already "Riffed" the number they said they would limit the "Rif" to and wanted to make more reductions (at least courts intervened). When they couldn't support what decided to do, other times, they would set up a "test" and structure it to show what they had already decided was in the "best interest of the government". They converted many Military "slots" to "civilian" and changed "Construction" Engineer Battalions to "Combat Heavy", in order to improve the perception of the " tooth to tail" ratio. Instead of saving money over all, it cost more, but the additional costs were in different "appropriations". It was mostly smoke and mirrors. It is the same after every war.
Mike