The “sky is falling” reaction by the Right regarding an alleged Obama political purge of some 200 flag-ranked military officers just doesn’t hold water. This manufactured crisis looks like a shotgunned water bucket. It may be the first significant, flag-ranked reduction-in-force (RIF) in our history. The alarmists assume those officers achieved such exalted heights by telling truth to power. That hasn’t been true in any significant degree since WW II. A lot of lip service has been paid to the concept but the promotion lists indicate otherwise. Any officer today who “falls on his sword” – once an honorable-but-career-ending stand on principle- is now mocked derisively for failing to “be a team player.” The first general of Special Forces – a “mustanger” – General Schachnow told an assembled group of junior officers at Ft. Bragg “anything above lieutenant colonel is political.” He was an exception. There are too few like him.
Empire building and role inflation have permeated the military since post-World War II. Beginning with Eisenhower’s warning America of the “military-industrial complex” it evolved into two of Col. David Hackworth’s observations in his book About Face still applicable today: 1. Brown & Root Corporation’s monopoly of logistic bases in Vietnam (and all future expeditions) and, 2. “you could stand at every door of the Pentagon and tell every fourth person to go home and no one would miss them.” The number of flag rank officers in the military has mushroomed disproportionately to the mission for decades. Congress should look at the military organizational charts and delete every “deputy commander, assistant to the deputy commander, assistant to the chief of staff, deputy to the assistant chief of staff, etc.” Make the commanders do their actual jobs instead of flying around on TDY boondoggles in their own planes. They’re as absent and profligate as their commander-in-chief.
Here’s some gee whiz cost-cutting measures: Move the basic airborne school from Ft. Benning, GA. to Ft. Bragg, N.C. instead of maintaining jump school at a different location from the only airborne division. Quit allowing non-airborne slotted personnel from taking up 80-90% of each class. The “leadership development” touted from airborne training has been drastically diluted to enable badge-seekers to graduate. It’s expensive to send non-airborne slotted MOSs to jump school. Multiply daily TDY per diem rates times several hundred students in each class for three weeks times fifteen classes a year and it adds up quickly. You know: “a billion here, a billion there and pretty soon it adds up to real money.” Move airborne training to Ft. Bragg (“Home of the Airborne”) so the 82nd Airborne Division can regain quality control of their paratroopers.
Remove the recruiting restriction on prior-service enlisted re-entering the military. Prior service veterans have been the lowest priority for recruiters – especially in peacetime. Why? Because the military knows fairly accurately how many raw recruits will fail basic training. The training funds allocated for those failures are redirected backdoor to pet projects. Prior service vets don’t need to go to basic training. The savings would be in the hundreds of millions.
Military cost cutting has always been taken out on the lower ranks – Captains down to NCOs. An Army Times headline five years ago reported most commissioned officers had no combat tours while an overwhelming percentage of NCOs had multiple tours. Why? Flag rank officers are long overdue experiencing the betrayal of Congressional budgetary dart board games. In the late ‘80s an officer attending the Command & General Staff College conducted a study “How to Make General.” He found getting a star included (in order): a) marrying a general’s daughter, b) have a parent that was a general; c) attend a military academy, and/or d) benefit from Affirmative Action removing qualified officers from promotion lists substituting them with minority quotas. General Colin Powell admitted publicly and in his autobiography benefitting from affirmative action – he failed to mention he married his “fast-mover” brigade commander’s daughter.
Taxpayers don’t get their money’s worth out of academy graduates. After receiving a “free” education, a majority leave the military after their six-year obligation (adjusted for the economy). It’s like becoming an Eagle Scout (I’ve sat on scout boards and asked) – it’s a great resume’ builder for a “real” job in the civilian market. A number told me they felt they “missed out on a lot of life” by attending a military academy. You can’t teach life experience critical to leadership in class or at summer camps. By law academy graduates are commissioned weeks before OCS and ROTC graduates to ensure they have date-of- rank authority over their “lesser peers.” (who do have more experience). The chances of closing an imperial military academy over the protests of “ring knockers” like the West Point Protection Society are as likely as a congressman not seeking reelection.
The Israelis – who by necessity must be both frugal and efficient – have the answer for our military. Their enlisted personnel have to prove their leadership in the field conducting actual operations before being considered for officer training. Their – and our- national survival depend on it. It would also produce a less “stepping out smartly” officer corps. Which is why it will never be done.
