As a retired Navy Captain, I cannot disagree with your assertion. However, do not underestimate the civilian "Deep State." During his first term, once it was obvious that Trump's loose lips would start sinking ships, the intel community stopped sharing intel that he might react to recklessly. I was surprised by how long it took our spook…
As a retired Navy Captain, I cannot disagree with your assertion. However, do not underestimate the civilian "Deep State." During his first term, once it was obvious that Trump's loose lips would start sinking ships, the intel community stopped sharing intel that he might react to recklessly. I was surprised by how long it took our spooks to retrieve the stollen secrets - likely to extort favors from the globalist oligarchy without regard for the "losers" in uniform that his extortion might kill.
Also, keep in mind that Hegseth and Trump's flag-officer hit-list are a bold attempt to undermine the integrity of the officer corps which stymied Trump's first coup. My Marine DI in OCS reminded us Ensigns-to-be that "A tattoo is permanent evidence of a temporary lapse in judgment. " Hegseth, unlike 99% of non-prior-enlisted military officers, is covered with serial evidence of bad judgement.
As a retired mustang, rank irrelevant, just commissioned via Officer training via a long career as an enlisted man. I hold the officer corps suspect, especially academy graduates. They have been infected with Dominionism, Christian warriors. It started in 62 when the AF Academy opened it's doors, and evangelical mega churches flooded in to Colorado springs. Since they they have been pumping out Christian warriors and the infection spread to West Point and Annapolis.
Examples are Ret Col Martha McSalley and Gen Stanley A McChrystal commander of forces in Afghanistan who descibed it as a Christian Crusade.
Two non academy grads whose allegiance to the constitution are inquestion are ret lt Gen Michael Flynn and his brother ret Gen Charles Flynn who as Chistropher Millers assistant sat at his desk on Jan 6 and let the phone ring off the hook, as Pelsoi was calling to release the National Guard.
Biden repaid Charles treachery by appointing mi 1st, Commander Pacific Forces, then promoting him to four stars.
Gen Milley was commissioned via ROTC, I do not trust any Academy grads..
Most officers I served with are flat out careerists, their career and promotions come first.
I shudder for the country, to think of how many Generals and subordinate officers will obey all commands that come down the chain of command., especially since SCOTUS has sanctified all orders issued by the president.
Biden has two months left to stop this jump into dictatorship, but he will do nothng. He appointed a fifth columnist as AG, and has not twisted Chuck Schumers arm to advance a progressive agenda, by using the nuclear option. probably because he doesn't believe in the progressive agenda
I think your characterization of generals has a lot has to do with the view from afar. Until you make O-5, all contact with the top brass is remote and trickle-down - often retranslated by several officers of lower rank. That creates a very distorted picture of leadership. Like you, my Navy career began at bootcamp, then later OCS. I served an in-country tour in Rung Sat in the Saigon jungles, then another on the Vietnam coast as flagship navigator. In 1974, I became a "peace dividend" but stayed in the "active" reserves to make car payments while getting my psychology doctorate. At that stage of my Navy career, I shared your "careerist" stereotype of senior officers. But then I got a rare opportunity to sit in a room full of admirals on a regular basis, and my stereotype did a 180.
During my 3rd year on a med school faculty managing a psychiatry lab, the Navy SG called to invite me to return to active service to head up a huge Navywide study. That study was such a huge hit that I was asked to stay in uniform, and I soon I got my first Pentagon job on the personal staff of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations overseeing his R&D programs. Within 6 months, he asked me to sit in on all board meetings as a consultant. Watching 8 admirals deal with policies, practices and scandals was an eye-opener. They were all very focused on doing the right thing by their people, and often asked me if we had any study results that might help inform changes to make things better for the troops. Almost monthly I was asked to commission new studies to help them with data-based decision-making. I only met a couple of rear admirals who fit the "careerists" stereotype, and they wound up retiring as Captains due to poor performance.
I too was shocked by Flynn as I had never worked with a 3-star as whacky as him. The personnel system is not perfect. As for the academies, two of my mentors were mustangs who were commissioned at Annapolis. One was CO of my first ship. The other was CO of the entire US Navy. Neither struck me as different from non-mustang officers. Your tale about Christian nationalist is quite troubling, but I am not sure how dominant their numbers are today. I retired in 2000 – not so current.
Bill, it is not so much defending one's group as it is about realizing that our views of the world are limited by personal exposure/experience. The world is full of jerks in every occupation or social group. I regularly asked mustang colleagues what changed their view of their career potential. Nearly always it came down to outgrowing neighborhood grooming. Socialization is subtle. As kids, we usually fail to notice that we grow up with values and beliefs similar to those of our friends and our/their parents. Due to capitalism, income usually homogenizes where we live and thus neighborhood attitudes. As a result, our choice of a worklife career path after high school often conforms to those most of our friends consider.
In the world of work, some people focus on just getting money and yes-sir-bossing as high up the organizational career ladder as ass-kissing will take them. Most of my colleagues along the way just did the best they could, and usually passed up the careerists because they focused on advancing the goals of the organization rather than self-promotion. COs often spot them and try to encourage them to look for work elsewhere. One careerist who outranked me, wanted my access to the Admiral, and tried to wangle replacing me. The chief of staff spotted it and derailed him by transferring him to the West Coast which motivated retirement on the spot - I guess to try to cheat his way to the top someplace else. Most organizations are self-correcting – at least to a point.
I had the unique chance to observe a promotion board for O-6’s. I was surprised how readily careerists were weeded out of promotions. By that stage in one’s career, the odds were that at least one promotion board member had served with every candidate. That added insights to any faint-praise double-speak in annual performance appraisals. Thing is, unless you have had a chance to see this sort of thing, it is easy to adopt peer stereotypes of the brass and view unpopular tasks as validation of those stereotypes.
Tom you do realize that your admonition about our views being reflective of our own experience, also pertains to you.
And it is also a fact that people whose identity is based on externalities are protective of those things that comprise their identity.
If I cast aspersions say on Christians, Muslims or Jews, a Christian, Muslim or Jew that reads my comment will experience a heart palpitation, and have a reaction.
A mustang who graduated from a service academy is a rarity, not as you seem to infer a common occurence.
And at best they would have achieved the rank of E-4, because of age. The average age is between 17 and 23, with 23 being the average age of a newly minted 2nd Lt.
I wouldn't consider an officer a mustang, unless they had NCO experience.
Then again I am projecting from personal Experience.
Then there are the Captain George W. Bush who was commissioned a 2d Lt by his father, the governor, upon graduation from basic military (enlisted) training and never even learned the minimum requirement of a commissioned officer.
But our point of disagreement Tom is that you expect more of officers especially 0-7 and above, than I.
And I base my opinon on proven behavior, like Generals Mike and Charles Flynn, and Stanley McChrystal and they are not anomalies at all.
We are two months away from finding out who is correct and who has mud on their face.
So far I am batting 1000 I predicted that Gaetz would withdraw his name from consideration, I also predict that he will be the Speaker of the House in th 119th congress. Trump will sure try and only some unforseen fluke will stop that from happening.
As a retired Navy Captain, I cannot disagree with your assertion. However, do not underestimate the civilian "Deep State." During his first term, once it was obvious that Trump's loose lips would start sinking ships, the intel community stopped sharing intel that he might react to recklessly. I was surprised by how long it took our spooks to retrieve the stollen secrets - likely to extort favors from the globalist oligarchy without regard for the "losers" in uniform that his extortion might kill.
Also, keep in mind that Hegseth and Trump's flag-officer hit-list are a bold attempt to undermine the integrity of the officer corps which stymied Trump's first coup. My Marine DI in OCS reminded us Ensigns-to-be that "A tattoo is permanent evidence of a temporary lapse in judgment. " Hegseth, unlike 99% of non-prior-enlisted military officers, is covered with serial evidence of bad judgement.
As a retired mustang, rank irrelevant, just commissioned via Officer training via a long career as an enlisted man. I hold the officer corps suspect, especially academy graduates. They have been infected with Dominionism, Christian warriors. It started in 62 when the AF Academy opened it's doors, and evangelical mega churches flooded in to Colorado springs. Since they they have been pumping out Christian warriors and the infection spread to West Point and Annapolis.
Examples are Ret Col Martha McSalley and Gen Stanley A McChrystal commander of forces in Afghanistan who descibed it as a Christian Crusade.
Two non academy grads whose allegiance to the constitution are inquestion are ret lt Gen Michael Flynn and his brother ret Gen Charles Flynn who as Chistropher Millers assistant sat at his desk on Jan 6 and let the phone ring off the hook, as Pelsoi was calling to release the National Guard.
Biden repaid Charles treachery by appointing mi 1st, Commander Pacific Forces, then promoting him to four stars.
Gen Milley was commissioned via ROTC, I do not trust any Academy grads..
Most officers I served with are flat out careerists, their career and promotions come first.
I shudder for the country, to think of how many Generals and subordinate officers will obey all commands that come down the chain of command., especially since SCOTUS has sanctified all orders issued by the president.
Biden has two months left to stop this jump into dictatorship, but he will do nothng. He appointed a fifth columnist as AG, and has not twisted Chuck Schumers arm to advance a progressive agenda, by using the nuclear option. probably because he doesn't believe in the progressive agenda
I think your characterization of generals has a lot has to do with the view from afar. Until you make O-5, all contact with the top brass is remote and trickle-down - often retranslated by several officers of lower rank. That creates a very distorted picture of leadership. Like you, my Navy career began at bootcamp, then later OCS. I served an in-country tour in Rung Sat in the Saigon jungles, then another on the Vietnam coast as flagship navigator. In 1974, I became a "peace dividend" but stayed in the "active" reserves to make car payments while getting my psychology doctorate. At that stage of my Navy career, I shared your "careerist" stereotype of senior officers. But then I got a rare opportunity to sit in a room full of admirals on a regular basis, and my stereotype did a 180.
During my 3rd year on a med school faculty managing a psychiatry lab, the Navy SG called to invite me to return to active service to head up a huge Navywide study. That study was such a huge hit that I was asked to stay in uniform, and I soon I got my first Pentagon job on the personal staff of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations overseeing his R&D programs. Within 6 months, he asked me to sit in on all board meetings as a consultant. Watching 8 admirals deal with policies, practices and scandals was an eye-opener. They were all very focused on doing the right thing by their people, and often asked me if we had any study results that might help inform changes to make things better for the troops. Almost monthly I was asked to commission new studies to help them with data-based decision-making. I only met a couple of rear admirals who fit the "careerists" stereotype, and they wound up retiring as Captains due to poor performance.
I too was shocked by Flynn as I had never worked with a 3-star as whacky as him. The personnel system is not perfect. As for the academies, two of my mentors were mustangs who were commissioned at Annapolis. One was CO of my first ship. The other was CO of the entire US Navy. Neither struck me as different from non-mustang officers. Your tale about Christian nationalist is quite troubling, but I am not sure how dominant their numbers are today. I retired in 2000 – not so current.
Tom, it is a natural tendency to defend a group to which one belongs.. but not everyone is of that ilk.
You say you were shocked by Flynn, called him whacky.
Whacky is dismissive, he is not whacky but dangerous and how about his brother Charles, who enabled Jan 6th and got rewarded.
There are enough Dominionists and self serving careerists among officer ranks to raise concerns.
We will find out in two months won't we? Let's see what officers survive the purge and serve dear Leader.
Bill, it is not so much defending one's group as it is about realizing that our views of the world are limited by personal exposure/experience. The world is full of jerks in every occupation or social group. I regularly asked mustang colleagues what changed their view of their career potential. Nearly always it came down to outgrowing neighborhood grooming. Socialization is subtle. As kids, we usually fail to notice that we grow up with values and beliefs similar to those of our friends and our/their parents. Due to capitalism, income usually homogenizes where we live and thus neighborhood attitudes. As a result, our choice of a worklife career path after high school often conforms to those most of our friends consider.
In the world of work, some people focus on just getting money and yes-sir-bossing as high up the organizational career ladder as ass-kissing will take them. Most of my colleagues along the way just did the best they could, and usually passed up the careerists because they focused on advancing the goals of the organization rather than self-promotion. COs often spot them and try to encourage them to look for work elsewhere. One careerist who outranked me, wanted my access to the Admiral, and tried to wangle replacing me. The chief of staff spotted it and derailed him by transferring him to the West Coast which motivated retirement on the spot - I guess to try to cheat his way to the top someplace else. Most organizations are self-correcting – at least to a point.
I had the unique chance to observe a promotion board for O-6’s. I was surprised how readily careerists were weeded out of promotions. By that stage in one’s career, the odds were that at least one promotion board member had served with every candidate. That added insights to any faint-praise double-speak in annual performance appraisals. Thing is, unless you have had a chance to see this sort of thing, it is easy to adopt peer stereotypes of the brass and view unpopular tasks as validation of those stereotypes.
Tom you do realize that your admonition about our views being reflective of our own experience, also pertains to you.
And it is also a fact that people whose identity is based on externalities are protective of those things that comprise their identity.
If I cast aspersions say on Christians, Muslims or Jews, a Christian, Muslim or Jew that reads my comment will experience a heart palpitation, and have a reaction.
A mustang who graduated from a service academy is a rarity, not as you seem to infer a common occurence.
And at best they would have achieved the rank of E-4, because of age. The average age is between 17 and 23, with 23 being the average age of a newly minted 2nd Lt.
I wouldn't consider an officer a mustang, unless they had NCO experience.
Then again I am projecting from personal Experience.
Then there are the Captain George W. Bush who was commissioned a 2d Lt by his father, the governor, upon graduation from basic military (enlisted) training and never even learned the minimum requirement of a commissioned officer.
But our point of disagreement Tom is that you expect more of officers especially 0-7 and above, than I.
And I base my opinon on proven behavior, like Generals Mike and Charles Flynn, and Stanley McChrystal and they are not anomalies at all.
We are two months away from finding out who is correct and who has mud on their face.
So far I am batting 1000 I predicted that Gaetz would withdraw his name from consideration, I also predict that he will be the Speaker of the House in th 119th congress. Trump will sure try and only some unforseen fluke will stop that from happening.