Hey Pappy .... the combat leadership of our military and all the rank & file under should NOT be under civilian command or control . The so-called Dept. of Defence needs to be redesignated the War Dept . , with a Secretary of War. Forget the ‘ defence’ BS. If we aregoing to fight wars we need to fight to win . We have self limited ourselves as a nation & a people by placing the task of winning wars in the hands of clueless feckless civilians.
If Trump is elected he needs to take the gloves off , severely limit ROE’s and as C&C give basically one order : seek total victory ....
It makes me sick to see the Army I grew up with, served with and my family fought with, crumble before my eyes.
Ed
I remember the sordid tale of Petreus and his General buddies in CENTOM in Florida a few years ago.
There was a civilian "socialite" off-post that had weaved her way into the military senior ranks.
There were all sorts of garden parties, dinner parties, social events, etc.
Turns out there were literally HUNDREDS of emails back and forth between Petreus, another General, and this socialite woman.......while Petreus was in theater.
From my personal experience as a field grade....
Over the past 10 years, every time I see a senior officer, especially when they are with each other, they are almost always laughing, joking around, and just yuckin' it up. Seems like they're having a great time!
It's a club. It's a big social club.
The modern General mostly attends conferences, meetings, dinner parties, garden parties, awards ceremonies, and crap like that.
They're basically debutantes.
The evening before D-Day, Eisenhower left SHAEF headquarters at 6 PM and traveled to Newbury where the 101st Airborne was boarding for its first combat mission. Ike arrived at 8 PM and did not leave until the last C-47 was airborne over three hours later.
In My Three Years with Eisenhower Captain Harry C. Butcher says, "We saw hundreds of paratroopers with blackened and grotesque faces, packing up for the big hop and jump. Ike wandered through them, stepping over, packs, guns, and a variety of equipment such as only paratroop people can devise, chinning with this and that one. All were put at ease. He was promised a job after the war by a Texan who said he roped, not dallied, his cows, and at least there was enough to eat in the work. Ike has developed or disclosed an informality and friendliness with troopers that almost amazed me". The famous picture of Eisenhower supposedly forcefully delivering last minute instructions to the troopers actually involved talking about his experience working in a store when he was a kid.
In Crusade in Europe General Eisenhower says, "I found the men in fine fettle, many of them joshingly admonishing me that I had no cause for worry, since the 101st was on the job, and everything would be taken care of in fine shape. I stayed with them until the last of them were in the air, somewhere about midnight. After a two hour trip back to my own camp, I had only a short time to wait until the first news should come".
Very good article! Thanks for posting!
I’m sure the troops will trust SOME generals.
Retired General Mattis comes to mind. . .
A picture is worth a thousand words; post a picture of the current Secretary of the Army.
we dont have GENERALS..... we have uniform wearing YESMEN