tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post1213430281899839886..comments2023-10-30T06:31:05.501-07:00Comments on MilPub: The Disillusionment of Ranger: The GenesisFDChiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-25589345536383257922014-02-27T09:00:22.384-08:002014-02-27T09:00:22.384-08:00From 1968 into the the first half of the 70's,...From 1968 into the the first half of the 70's, Army promotion to MAJ (AUS) was a complete circus. First off, there weren't enough MAJs, so time in grade to MAJ was reduced and selection rates to MAJ were damn close to 100%. Even that didn't produce enough MAJs, so there were two promotion boards convened about 10 months apart. This caused an interesting situation, as the few CPTs passed over twice as a result of these two boards were not released from active duty, as the two passovers had to be at least 12 months apart.<br /><br />Then the drawdown began, and the backlog of CPTs selected for promotion was so great that no board was convened for 2 1/2 years! That still couldn't address the glut, so selection rates were lowered to force more CPTs out. <br /><br />Why the Army didn't just fill MAJ billets with CPTs, rather than accelerating the promotion process is a mystery. By 1970, it was clear that a significant downsizing was in the cards, yet accessions and promotions were moving at a breakneck pace. Our CG at Ft Wolters, who arrived following time at DCSPER, hypothesized that Westmoreland, who pushed through the acceleration of promotions, felt that increased rank and pay would be a just reward for the "inconvenience" of Viet Nam. <br /><br />Also, Westy really though that given the "proper training", you could produce "instant" anything. Thus, just as we suffered "Shake and Bake NCOs", we had a similar dilution of experience in CPTs and then MAJs. 70 Colonels were sent to flight school to address a shortfall in O-6 Aviators! Three generals were given the equivalent of "correspondence course Flight School" to make them "qualified" to command the two Airmobile Divisions. They received 80 hours of training by a local Flight Instructor (versus the 210 hours required for non-flag officers) to qualify to fly strictly in co-pilot status. Westy received Aviator Wings the same way during his "Free Time" as CSA. One "Instant Aviator General" died in a totally senseless mishap in VN, flying co-pilot with his Aide, a recent flight school grad.<br /><br />Westy did more damage to the Army than just his performance in VN.Aviator47https://www.blogger.com/profile/05585964386930142907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-90116795549951290722014-02-25T06:08:42.888-08:002014-02-25T06:08:42.888-08:00Walter,
My memory came to life when i saw the cart...Walter,<br />My memory came to life when i saw the cartoon that leads this essay.<br />The soldier is carrying a grease gun.<br />jim<br />jim at rangerhttp://rangeragainstwar.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-92096006939926038032014-02-24T23:16:16.002-08:002014-02-24T23:16:16.002-08:00Walter-
Brings back a memory of Warrant Officer F...Walter-<br /><br />Brings back a memory of Warrant Officer Flight School. There we were, just "graduated" from Pre-Flight Training and moving in to new barracks in a "Flight Company". We had to low crawl, in khakis, across the parade field to the barracks building. Then we were called to formation and inspected. Obviously, each of us received enough demerits to preclude being able to leave the company area for the next two weeks, not to mention the hours of "punishment tours" (marching back and forth across the parade ground in "off duty hours") involved. As my roomie put it, optimistically, it did ensure we spent time in our studies.Aviator47https://www.blogger.com/profile/05585964386930142907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-80633240970843338242014-02-24T21:39:35.760-08:002014-02-24T21:39:35.760-08:00Here is this veteran's M-3 story (the M-3 and ...Here is this veteran's M-3 story (the M-3 and the 1911, by the way, were the small arms kept inside an M48, the M-3 widely thought by tankers to be a real POS).<br /><br />I got drafted out of grad school in 1969. I swam in college, and was in pretty good physical shape when I started BCT. Early on we were timed in the low crawl, and we had to attempt the 100 bar monkey bar test. I figured the monkey bars would be a piece of cake, similar to some of the reps I had been doing in swimming.<br /><br />To my considerable surprise I failed the monkey bars miserably, because , it turned out, the bars were set loose so they rotated, and you couldn't swing to the next one. The low crawl was timed in a sand pit with soft fluffy sand which made your time very slow.<br /><br />Fast forward to BCT graduation. We went out to be tested again, but this time we went to a different site. The bars were fixed, I rolled through all of them without breathing hard, and the new low crawl pit was packed earth with slick canvas stretched over so that every trainee flew across it.<br /><br />And everybody in the training unit had to know that the results were phoney.<br /><br />I didn't get dinged the way Ranger did, but I figured it out pretty quick.Walter Olinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-91560819551209730552014-02-23T12:35:02.125-08:002014-02-23T12:35:02.125-08:00jim
I remember the phenomenon of shunning RIFs an...jim<br /><br />I remember the phenomenon of shunning RIFs and passovers back then quite well. Made no sense to me. <br /><br />As to the RC's reception of people from AD at the time, I had a buddy that was a UH-1 Instructor pilot (IP) who ETSed and joined the NG. They would not make him an aircraft commander until he had 250 hours "Guard experience"! He was the first VN Vet to join that unit, and had over 1,500 hours more Huey time than the unit IP. <br /><br />Aviator47https://www.blogger.com/profile/05585964386930142907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-391221243491703842014-02-23T11:04:27.924-08:002014-02-23T11:04:27.924-08:00Al,
I reckon i might as well get personal.
Back th...Al,<br />I reckon i might as well get personal.<br />Back then when a guy got a letter of being invol separated the entire brotherhood of officers avoided and pretended that the O in question was no longer worth talking to or associating with.<br />Then when u get to trying to get a Reserve assignment most units didn't want you b/c '"they wanted to give 03 slots to their faithful members who did everything in their power to avoid AD during wartime.<br />Now here's the cute part, and i still don't understand the logic or the inequality. My DOR started over when i was recommissioned in the USAR. They turned my 03 speedometer back to zero,so i stayed a CPT for 12 1/2years. This was 51/2 active and 7 reserve before i made 04.<br />Then let me further remember that not one officer in the chain of command offered condolences or said good bye or even bothered to tell me to fuck off and die before i signed out with my letter in hand.<br />Yeah,i believe in leadership and loyalty and all that stuff.<br />This is not said with any hostility to your question of passover.<br />It was a fair question to my essay.<br />jimjim at rangerhttp://rangeragainstwar.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-25242661624909868792014-02-23T10:25:59.543-08:002014-02-23T10:25:59.543-08:00Al,
I didn't ans your question.
I was a passov...Al,<br />I didn't ans your question.<br />I was a passover.<br />It's still hard for me to say the words.<br />jimjim at rangerhttp://rangeragainstwar.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-65409778982111377232014-02-23T10:23:08.837-08:002014-02-23T10:23:08.837-08:00Al,
This is not prying or personal.
Whether qual o...Al,<br />This is not prying or personal.<br />Whether qual or quan the product was the same. The boards both rif or promo were tools for the reductions to be implemented.<br />At the time Benning had a high suicide rate and i actually saw infy officers crying.But u know all that,but the taxpayers are unaware or unconcerned.We served faithfully and ended up on the street.<br />Now for quan. the DA rep told me that my 2LT oer of this essay was what got me. Man what mealy mouth stuff that is.<br />If i was so bad then they should have taken my commission the day the report was issued. In some Armies they would have shot me if i was that deficient.<br />I had an associate that beat the rif b/c his rif board was improperly constituted. His name was Maj. Tommy Poole, one of the finest rifleman and a national level shooter. He's the only one i ever heard getting recalled.<br />Thanks for your comments.<br />jimjim at rangerhttp://rangeragainstwar.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-11275053990733976692014-02-22T09:20:57.210-08:002014-02-22T09:20:57.210-08:00jim- I knew you were RA, but there was one post V...jim- I knew you were RA, but there was one post Viet Nam RA RIF as a result of Congress passing special legislation because of the depth of the cuts in officer strength. <br /><br />Not trying to pry in your personal affairs, but the officer personnel management system was in serious disarray at the time. Since the RIFs were "quantitative", not "qualitative", there was no recourse for those selected out. Sadly, that's why the Army chose a "quantitative" tool. <br /><br />You might also remember that in 1975, several promotion boards for temporary officer promotions were incorrectly constituted, and the result was the infamous "Re-Look" Boards in 1977 that selected a fair number of passed over officers for promotion, and passed over an equal number of officers originally selected for promotion. Of course, no one lost their promotion via Re-Look, but it did raise questions about the selection process in general.Aviator47https://www.blogger.com/profile/05585964386930142907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-5444620249857976002014-02-22T06:50:48.739-08:002014-02-22T06:50:48.739-08:00Aviator,
i was RA .
i can't say the words.
jim...Aviator,<br />i was RA .<br />i can't say the words.<br />jimjim at rangerhttp://rangeragainstwar.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-60741293049734222562014-02-21T16:59:30.402-08:002014-02-21T16:59:30.402-08:00So it sounds like it was a sort of perfect collisi...So it sounds like it was a sort of perfect collision of organizational politics and leverage. Yep; sounds like the Reserve components I knew and loved...FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-23540134361463188892014-02-21T13:57:18.707-08:002014-02-21T13:57:18.707-08:00Chief: "So perhaps it was a reflection of the...Chief: <i><b>"So perhaps it was a reflection of the USAR helo unit getting command pressure to STFU and go along so as not to cost DA any money..?"</b></i><br /><br />The money was not an issue. It was paranoia over declaring a unit C-4 when there was a way to be C-3 or higher. That commanders were not in any way "responsible" for a C-4 based on equipment shortfall didn't compute in the USAR mindset. Point was, in case of mobilization, these units could be quickly upgraded to C-3 or higher by a pen stroke. The UH-1H was a reasonable substitute, even if not optimal.<br /><br />Now, the Guard Bureau was a factor, of course. Their Aviation Directorate knew what needed to be done to get DA to program their MEDEVAC birds through conversion. There was no equivalent office for the USAR, but rather a bunch of individual fiefdoms at the ARCOM level, and two star Reservists whining, "But I would have to carry them at C-4, just to get hoists? That will reflect on my ARCOM's readiness rates. The book says we can declare the H Model as an acceptable substitute."Aviator47https://www.blogger.com/profile/05585964386930142907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-14170543840210815802014-02-21T11:05:50.271-08:002014-02-21T11:05:50.271-08:00"I asked him how the NG had the high speed su...<i>"I asked him how the NG had the high speed suck to get V Models, but not the USAR."</i><br /><br />My experience in both leads me to suspect that there might have been an element of command pressure involved.<br /><br />During my USAR service in the late Eighties and early Nineties the USAR was very much the poor stepchild of the RA. Because it was a "federal" branch of the service it was completely dependant on DA for its needs, and DA seemed to pretty much care less, so the USAR tended to get the last and the least.<br /><br />The ARMG, on the other hand, had a powerful sugar daddy in the National Guard Bureau as well as being a pretty sweet way to shike federal cash for the various states. The Guard tended to get a sweeter deal - particularly in handouts for large facilities - than the USAR in a given region.<br /><br />In Oregon the State Guard HQ as well as many of the Armories were upgraded or replaced in the Ninties and Oughts while the USAR was still drilling in the old USAR centers built in the Fifties and Sixties. The money spent on the ORARNG maintenance facility at Camp Withycome would have made my old RA maintenance sergeant weep.<br /><br />So perhaps it was a reflection of the USAR helo unit getting command pressure to STFU and go along so as not to cost DA any money..?FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-12379062048819448192014-02-21T10:06:35.054-08:002014-02-21T10:06:35.054-08:00jim-
I am assuming you were RIFed versus twice pa...jim-<br /><br />I am assuming you were RIFed versus twice passed over. Is that correct?<br /><br />The Post VN RIFs were a cluster screw. The Army had no way to identify the lowest performing officers in the numbers to be RIFed. A buddy of mine was at Engineer Branch during the RIFs. If a branch had to cut 2,000 career status CPTs, the branch had to forward about 2,500 officer records to the RIF Board, so that it didn't look like the Branches were making the RIF selections. The Branches simply looked for anything that could be an "excuse" for being RIFed. My buddy said that over 90% of all Infantry CPTs were rated in the 92nd percentile or higher, so percentile rating on OERs was useless. <br /><br />At least one branch put records forward of what they thought were excellent candidates for the target number to be RIFed, and then used the records of much better rated officers to make up the difference between their required RIF number and the total number of records required to go forward for consideration. They figured this would guarantee that the "real" RIF candidates were indeed RIFed. Such to their surprise, a fair number of CPTs they really didn't want RIFed were indeed RIFed. Obviously, the Boards and the Branches had different ideas of who should stay and who should go. And there was no way the Branches could go on record that they were trying to stack the deck. Some records went forward solely on non-official info that was not in the records seen by the board, such as an argument with your assignments officer. The Boards knew the records were allegedly the lowest rated in the year group and assumed the records came forward for good reason, and thus, often read more into an officer's record looking for the "reason" the record was sent forward.<br /><br />The point is, there was no way RIF boards could review every last CPT in the Army to pick the "best candidates" for being RIFed. Thus, an OER that could be overcome in terms of promotion boards was easily a "killer" in the RIFs. Also, whereas a successfully appealed OER that caused a passover would result in being considered again by a standby promotion board, no such avenue existed for someone who was RIFed.<br /><br />It was not a time of sterling performance by the Army's Officer Personnel Management System.Aviator47https://www.blogger.com/profile/05585964386930142907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-12015903166198934012014-02-21T08:52:37.027-08:002014-02-21T08:52:37.027-08:00To PFK,
Re; your cmt about my Co Cdr kept me awake...To PFK,<br />Re; your cmt about my Co Cdr kept me awake thinking about it.<br />I don't fault him.The problem is that i was too inexperienced to even know that i was being executed in the career sense.<br />I could have fought if i only knew. A few years later my Bde Cdr told me that he questioned my oer as the senior rater because he thought me to be a fine young officer. The BN Cdr confirmed orally that i was a shit bird.There was not one ounce of objectivity in my report and the fact that there wasn't anything positive should raise a flag.<br />But it didn't because i was too inexperienced to save myself.<br />I moved to Div g3 and worked for GS Meloy and he wrote that i was one of the finest young officers in the division. In my killer oer i was rated as a 5 for written expression , and at g3 level i wrote the division marksmanship regulation.When it came time to be involuntarily separated the oer trumped every thing that i ever did.<br />I just didn't know, and it doesn't matter since i came and went, but this stuff is still a fact of young O's lives.If this is doubted pls read my essay on Cpt Swenson, or the Purple Heart mag coverage there of.My battle analysis on RAW also reflect this fact.<br />jimjim at rangerhttp://rangeragainstwar.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-19112531761752534612014-02-21T02:59:20.335-08:002014-02-21T02:59:20.335-08:00Sometimes, ignorance of the "system" lea...Sometimes, ignorance of the "system" leads to less than desired results. For example, while serving as Chief of Collective Training at 4th Army, I noted that NG MEDEVAC units had the UH-1V, while USAR MEDEVAC units were still flying UH-1H's. Besides some better avionics and a higher capacity eletrical system, the V also had a rescue hoist. The USAR units were locally modifying their H models to add some of the better avionics, but were totally unable to successfully requisition hoists. And, of course, an H could not really be made a V at the local level.<br /><br />So, since one of the NG State Aviation Officers in the area was a friend from flight school, I asked him how the NG had the high speed suck to get V Models, but not the USAR. His response, "Is the USAR reporting their H Models as "acceptable substitutes" on the their Unit Status Reports to raise their "C" rating? If so, the system is not showing a shortfall of V models in deployable units. You don't requisition a V Model, the Army programs conversions of H models going through depot maintenance to meet deployable unit needs. Took my state two years of declaring our MEDEVAC unit C-4 for equipment shortage, but it got us V Models. The Guard Bureau made it clear that we were to do this."<br /><br />Next stop was a call to a buddy in the UH-1 Program Manager Office. Yup, programming and budgeting for conversions to V Models came from the USR system in response to identified shortfalls in "Equipment Readiness".<br /><br />Well, a quick check of USRs showed that the three USAR MEDEVAC units in the 4th Army area were reporting their H Models as "acceptable substitutes" for the "V". Self inflicted wound. However, trying to convince the two ARCOM Commanders to allow their MEDEVAC units to be rated "C-4" with appropriate explanatory remarks was no easy task.Aviator47https://www.blogger.com/profile/05585964386930142907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-86459106517040220842014-02-20T18:01:35.883-08:002014-02-20T18:01:35.883-08:00In the late Nineties and early Oughts my ARNG FA u...In the late Nineties and early Oughts my ARNG FA unit was badly understrength; typically a gun battery (authorized 6 M119A1 105mm gun systems) would field anywhere from three full crews and part of a fourth to two crews with the second short a spare number or two. My FDC, which was authorized 8 pax (1 FDO, 1 Chief, 2 computers (BCS operators), 4 13C fire direction specialists) ran with anywhere between 5 and 7; luckily we were usually only short snuffies.<br /><br />The rest of the battalion was about the same. You can imagine the effect this had on training. <br /><br />Typically a section going into annual training had about 2/3rds "P"'s on their collective tasks (meaning that they were trained in the task but not up to army standards for either time, execution, or both). The remaining third were equally divided between "T"s (trained to standard) and "U"s (nowhere close).<br /><br />This pretty much reflected the problems with time and strength; we couldn't train on all the METL tasks, so we had to prioritize the most critical and train hard on those. The "important but not critical" got hit every couple of months or so. The "this would be good to know but it takes time/troops/equipment we don't have" would get backfiled.<br /><br />Every time we went to AT the RA training group would go totally bugshit about this. Why weren't we trained to standard!?! Why did we have so many "P"s and "U"s????<br /><br />Regardless, they'd start us off at combat speed the first day in the field. Unsurprisingly, the unit was fucked up like a football bat. After the screaming died down the RA types called the unit together for an After-Action Review. They asked everybody to talk about what went right, what went wrong, and what we could do about that. They were deadly serious and seriously assed-up about that.<br /><br />When they came to my section, I just said "Look. We're fucked up right now. Right now it's kinda like how you know that sometimes "the bear gets you"? Well, right now the bear just kinda pulls our t-shirt over our heads and pokes us up the ass until our eyes pop out of our skull. <br /><br />We need to accept that and move on. Everybody is basically re-learning half of this shit and learning how to do the other half BOTH quick and accurate. Most of what we need is just time to do this over and over again. We'll get it, we've done it before, just let's quick dicking around and train."<br /><br />My FDO laughed, my section grinned and, sure enough, within a week we were processing every damn mission from battery adjust to battalion TOT and coordinated illumination within Army standard times. By the end of the AT we were shooting well under the standard mission times (and any grunt will tell you that arty needs to be not just accurate but FAST on target...)<br /><br />But my battalion highers were PISSED. By God, I wasn't taking this seriously enough! I was blowing off the RA evaluators' concerns! I was pulled off to the side and told that from then on I would NOT say anything at AARs unless I had a positive comment to make.<br /><br />It wasn't worth fighting over. But, damn, people; YOU should have known better than anyone else what shape your own people were in. All I did was SAY it. It you thought that somehow not mentioning that the unit was fucked up meant that the RA guys wouldn't see it was fucked up..?FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-28107561249025071332014-02-20T15:01:23.452-08:002014-02-20T15:01:23.452-08:00jim-
Agree. I would only add that my enlisted re...jim-<br /><br />Agree. I would only add that my enlisted reserve service circa 1975 hopelessly influenced what active service as an officer (both uniformed and civilian) I later experienced . . . <br /><br />Nice thread . . . seydlitz89https://www.blogger.com/profile/15431952900333460640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-25702854494903963392014-02-20T10:16:02.213-08:002014-02-20T10:16:02.213-08:00"Ultimately, that a 2LT gets dinged up for th..."Ultimately, that a 2LT gets dinged up for this is the failure. Where was your commander, Jim? "<br /><br />Becoming a Major and then a LTC by making sure that some dumb 2LT either got slammed for lying, or got slammed for not lying.Barry DeCiccohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04735814736387033844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-4903901792770813802014-02-20T08:48:31.577-08:002014-02-20T08:48:31.577-08:00seydlitz,
One of the things that i've noticied...seydlitz,<br />One of the things that i've noticied is that exceptional soldiers give exceptional oers, and poor O's give poor oer's.<br />I was in the Army for 2 years before a field grade officer ever talked to me as a man rather than as something of derision.<br />AS a Co Cdr my Bn Cdr gave me full faith and confidence. <br />My point is that yelling is a form of leadership in the infantry and true leaders are in the minority.<br />jimjim at rangerhttp://rangeragainstwar.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-18865437245210305072014-02-20T08:42:15.048-08:002014-02-20T08:42:15.048-08:00PFK,
My Co Cdr was a reserve 1LT only looking to g...PFK,<br />My Co Cdr was a reserve 1LT only looking to get thru his tour in europe without being levied for RVN. He did whatever and whenever according to the Bn Cdr.<br />He years later told me that the Bn Cdr told him to max me out on my oer(negatively of course) but he would not go on record and put this in writing.<br />jimjim at rangerhttp://rangeragainstwar.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-24786207430447477122014-02-20T05:51:30.074-08:002014-02-20T05:51:30.074-08:00I have a different take on this. Went through my ...I have a different take on this. Went through my disillusioning experience as a Marine Corps Private in 1975 . . . after bootcamp went out into the Fleet for MOS training being just a humble reservist as I was . . . there the absurdities were overwhelming and it quickly became apparent that any idealism would simply mark you as someone who could be preyed upon . . . so I became a cynic before I was 19 under the conditions of that time and place.<br /><br />Let me add that imo Infantry battalion commanders seemed to fall into three broad categories: psychopaths, "generals" and Dads . . . not excluding any mix of the three types. I think the first two are self-explanatory. Dads were those honest, competent, committed and respected officers one would do anything for and their character set the tone and moral conditions for the entire battalion, ditto of course with psychopaths and "generals" . . . This would cover the commander's direct influence from a strategic theory perspective . . . it's CvC btw.<br /><br />Finally there is the nature of the military itself which is about the projection of power, organized (potential at the least) violence and constant "friction". "Honor" in this context is always going to be at a disadvantage in this environment (especially with two of the types of Bn cmdrs mentioned above) and will probably only come to the fore after the fact . . .seydlitz89https://www.blogger.com/profile/15431952900333460640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-35283331248885073092014-02-20T00:15:22.475-08:002014-02-20T00:15:22.475-08:00Actually, the info available in a "verificati...Actually, the info available in a "verification of employment" can haunt you forever. Five little pieces of data: Start date, end date, starting pay, ending pay and "Eligible for re-hire?". A "No" to that final question is a red star cluster that is difficult to ignore, and unless the applicant is totally irresistible otherwise, usually is a game stopper that will not merit further investigation.<br /><br /><i>Man's inhumanity to man. Makes countless thousands mourn!</i> --Robert BurnsAviator47https://www.blogger.com/profile/05585964386930142907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-12294000979439698482014-02-19T18:22:33.223-08:002014-02-19T18:22:33.223-08:00Note that there is a big difference between milita...Note that there is a big difference between military and civilian careers: lack of portability!<br /><br />If the military, if you lose your career because you are unlucky enough to have a dishonest superior, that is pretty much it. In civilian life there is no single personnel record that haunts you forever. You can usually change employers without loss of career. In fact, changing employers is almost mandatory to advance in many careers.<br /><br />This difference affects a *lot* of attitudes.Aelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10788190394672505925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-13208702375775426192014-02-19T11:50:22.306-08:002014-02-19T11:50:22.306-08:00FYI, Aviator and Chief,
This was a heavy artille...FYI, Aviator and Chief, <br /><br />This was a heavy artillery unit so we spent most of our work days in the motor pools. I'm not talking about circle x faults, I'm talking about the vehicle does not move, but it can still shoot or it cannot shoot but it can move somehow being NNMC 'cause you know' we'd have to fix it right away! <br /><br />Additionally, this was Korea and the whole "Fight tonight" attitude was prevalent but ignored in reality.<br /><br />Ultimately, that a 2LT gets dinged up for this is the failure. Where was your commander, Jim? Why wasn't he running interference between you and Majors and LTCs? To me, that's the true failure. Relying on 2LTs to be moral compasses is a dumb idea because they don't have the power to back up their integrity.PF Khansnoreply@blogger.com