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 ne…
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.
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.