h/t WRSA
Discuss in comments the odds that Hegseth already knows that answer.
And after that, the over/under odds he'll do anything to fix that longstanding boil on the military's ass, under the theory that victory in battle is their primary mission.
Step One: Anyone who can't perform their service branch's PRT/PFT to the current male standard is given the same number of weeks as they have years TIS to either meet the male standard, or be separated for the good of the service.
There's no Step Two necessary. Combat doesn't grade based on gender.
[Pro tip: I wouldn't be holding my breath for that small amount of obvious common sense, even from Hegseth. #Notevergonnahappen]
{Nota bene: We said "tits" rather than "a pussy", because if we started picking on people in the military packing that gear, it wouldn't just be the women we'd be talking about, and a quite large number of them would be in the O-7 and above ranks. #Fireallthegeneralsandadmiralsforopeners.}
8 comments:
This'll make lawsuit # umpty ump billion and one since Trump was inaugurated. You'd think that maybe they'd run out of lawyers to bring these suits by now, but no. Trump or a cabinet member speaks or takes action and lawsuits are filed in micro seconds.
Nemo
entire powerpoint "I work in supply. did you want supply clerks at the front?"
just like the powerpoint for the guy who "missed" veitnam because he was stationed on an icebreaker. or flew an interceptor like an F-106. or someone "missed" desert storm because they were in a P-3 orion squadron, when iraq had no submarines and no navy after day 3.
so, he had skills they needed at that particular war, not everyone did. that does not make those other billets unnecessary. someday we'll be fighting enemy submarines and no special forces required. does that mean they were goldbricking?
Tits, sexual confusion level and color, in that order. I have seen it personally. Watched a black, female , lesbian Army staff Sgt get a bronze star and then a promotion for spending 6 months in Iraq, never left the fob, never even put on war gear. Sat in her office with full AC blowing and clicked on a digital signature on documents 2-3 times a day. Then those documents went back stateside to be fixed by the poor old straight white guy that had to make sure that stupid cunt didn't fuck everything up and crash the system. Not that there is ANY bitterness there of course.....
There are probably ~10% that have a legit reason. I knew some ETs (electronic technicians) back in the day who never left the States and never would due to the equipment they worked on. He did specify "Staff NCOs" so that excludes Medical and Supply, at least in the Navy, I assume the other branches are the same. I expect some exceptions to be made for the Air Force folks maintaining the ICBMs and does anyone know if a B-2 crew chief sitting back in Minot, ND, gets ribbons for where his plane goes? The Boomers never got involved in either (and we are all grateful for that), most of the bubble heads for that matter, though I think we launched some Tomahawks from some subs in the last 15 years.
Points taken, but the number of E8s and E9s who missed any involvement in a pair of 20 year wars should be few and far between, and probably a microscopic fraction of the military overall.
And as the DoD policy is to put any first sergeant/sergeant major/SC/MC from any MOS in the senior leadership of combat units, the number of those with no combat experience should be a number approaching frighteningly close to zero.
If someone wants to remain without combat experience beyond E7, shove them over to the WO/CWO ranks for their technical expertise, and get them the hell away from enlisted leadership. They aren't leaders at that point, they're technicians. If you haven't earned a single campaign ribbon in 15 years' service during 20 years of war, a technician is what you are, and all you'll ever be. There's no shame in a CWO with a single ribbon rack, but a first sgt. or sgt. major without even a campaign ribbon is a walking abortion.
There are two big problems that the military has never really dealt with, and this idea that everybody should be a rifleman doesn't address them. The first is that there are some jobs that are simply not military jobs, and should be performed by civilians. Learning and maintaining military skills is a distraction, and often culls out people who are better at the job, but worse at military skills. The second is that there are some professions that are pretty consuming and require full time commitment. That means that every hour learning and maintaining military skills takes away from the professional skill.
I'll give you two examples, one of whom is me. The first, however, was a fellow who was in my platoon in Officer Basic. He was a top-flight neurosurgeon who went through Basic at the age of 62. Why? Because the Army badly needed neurosurgeons. The bottom line is that there was no reason for him to be active duty. Neurosurgery is an all-consuming profession. When it comes time to have your brain surgery, do you want a surgeon who is 100% devoted to being the best surgeon he can be, or one that is 80% as good as he can be, but is very good at common soldier skills?
I'll use myself as the second example. I have degrees in Microbiology, Medicine, Computer Science, Justice Administration, and am Board Certified in Anatomic, Clinical, and Forensic Pathology. When I got out of training, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology was looking for someone to run a small scientific military computer network, develop visualization algorithms, and do image processing and image intelligence tasks for the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner (OAFME, now AFMES). I interviewed there and we hit it off. But... they told me they were all out of civilian slots. They had billets for two Army officers and one Navy officer, but I'd have to get a commission. They promised that as soon as a civilian slot opened up, they would lateral me into a GS position.
I said, OK. So, at the age of 36, I went to Officer Basic with an older entry medical platoon at Ft Sam (the average age in my platoon was 42). We struggled through Basic and they put me in a sub-basement of a building in Rockville, gave me a small mini-supercomputer for my personal use, and basically let me play. I occasionally went on very short deployments to death scenes in various places, got dangled from helicopters over crash scenes and such, but spent 99% of my time in my lab. Of course, because I was an Army officer, I had to punch some tickets and do some other stuff. I was PROFIS'd to a small chemical and biological warfare unit, so I was off in the woods for a week or two every year. But, basically, I spent all my time in the lab.
Every year, I'd go to the head shed and say "Hey, what about making me a civilian." It turned out that they declined because of budget reasons. As long as I was a commissioned officer, may salary and bonuses came out of the Pentagon budget. As a civilian, that money came out of the local budget. I was out of luck. After eight years, I put my foot down and said that if they didn't make me a civilian, I was walking. So, they finally did, and I worked there as a civilian doing exactly the same thing for another four years until my unit was disestablished in the BRAC closings.
Being in the Army was one of the best things that I'd ever done, personally. I lost 50 lbs to make height/weight, ran two miles a day for 12 years, got interested in marksmanship (though that was not really a requirement for the Medical Corps), and got exposure to case work and experiences I would never have had a chance to do otherwise -- investigation of operational deaths, investigation of crimes against humanity, dealing with intelligence and planning issues, etc. I got to work with all sorts of three and four letter agencies. But there was no real reason for me to be active duty.
honestly, if the DoD is putting a guy who has been in charge of a warehouse his entire career and doing a good job of it in senior leadership of a combat unit simply because of his rank, there is something wrong with the DoD policy and they're just gonna get people killed if they keep doing that.
Frankly, the entire military would be better-off if WOs outnumbered commissioned officers by a factor of 10 or more.
High-tech warfare? We need technicians.
Rapid mobilization? WOs are probably the only component that can’t be rapidly mobilized?
Long period of peace/zero action? Accumulating an excess of WOs is a lot less problematic than accumulating an excess of generals/admirals.
Careerism? Mostly it’s guys who would do great at WOs being given every incentive to not go WO (no ROTC pathways, lower pay, fewer slots, lower career stability…)
Decentralized command & control? More WOs means fewer commissioned officers, and more WOs would improve staff work.
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