Rumsfeld Said to Pick Retired General to Head Army

AP News via New York Times ^ | June 10, 2003 | By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

[68skylark]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a highly unusual move, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has selected a retired four-star general to become the next Army chief of staff, senior defense officials said Tuesday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the selectee is Peter J. Schoomaker, who retired from the Army after commanding the U.S. Special Operations Command from 1997-2000.

The choice, which has not been publicly announced and is subject to confirmation by the Senate, may raise some eyebrows inside the military because it is rare for a defense secretary to bypass senior active-duty generals in favor of a retired officer to be the Army's top general.

The current chief of staff, Gen. Eric Shinseki, is retiring Wednesday.

Because no successor will have been nominated and confirmed by then, the vice chief of staff, Gen. John Keane, will temporarily assume Shinseki's job when he departs, officials said.

Rumsfeld had tried to persuade Keane to take the top job but he declined for family reasons, officials said.

Schoomaker began his Army career in 1970 as an armor officer but switched to the secretive world of special operations in the late 1970s. He graduated from the University of Wyoming, where he was a star football player, and served with a variety of armor and cavalry units.

From 1975-76, he completed the Marine Corps amphibious warfare course and in February 1978 joined the Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment, now known as the highly secretive Delta Force that specializes in counterterrorism missions.

He later was commander of the Army Special Operations Command and the Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C.

[Pukin Dog]

I'm retired; soon to join Delta Airlines training program. I knew Bates. He was nuts. I flew for the Dogs, Sundowners and Agressors, and I was an instructor. (see profile) Final countdown was cool. VF-84 Jolly Rogers got that duty.

Actually, the Tomcat could fly slower than a Zero if need be. It has amazing AOA capability. Lots of lifting area. I did not know the RIO personally. With the newer Engines, both Bates and Hultgren woudl still be alive, but that is no excuse for poor airmanship.

[RSM]

Especially since "Chargin' Charlie" Beckwith has been dead for years.

[VaBthang4]

~A smirk, an eyeroll and a giggle~

Brother let it go.

6000 years of Human history flies in the face of our most recent effeminate subterfuge.
They arent wired for it. You'll always have overlaps...nevertheless, those are overlapping examples....not general rules.

[VaBthang4]

LOL!!
Am I confusing my Special Forces soldiers?
Hahaha...yeah, that would've been some trick!

Let me go find out who I'm thinking of. The General that travelled to Riyahd in the first Gulf War in order to brief Schwarz on plans to insert Delta into Western Iraq.

[Pukin Dog]

There are women who do just fine. You would not want to date them, though. The ones who do well do not consider themselves pioneers and shun the idea that they are anything special. The only serious problem with the women is fraternization. Happens every cruise to someone. You can't stop human nature.

[VaBthang4]

"There are women who do just fine. "

I've known a couple...one of'em was a looker. A WM who scored a 300 on her PFTs without fail. Nevertheless, Hotties like her are few and far between.

Anyone pretending that it is remotely possible to pool them all into the pilot community has an agenda.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

I'm glad to hear they've found someone to fill this job -- if this report is true I hope he's the right man.

He has the smarts and the background but has NEVER been under fire in 30 years in the service. Hope he has the backbone for the job.

[Pukin Dog]

You are right about that agenda, but Rummy is weeding those people out, now that the Democrat congresspersons are not up the Navy's ass over the issue anymore. The way that the downsizing of squadrons is going on, you may not see any women in combat jets at all in 5-10 years. If it goes back to being completely competitive for slots, women wont get any.

[Phsstpok]

Final countdown was cool. VF-84 Jolly Rogers got that duty.

a story I read at the time was that the squadron involved was the first squadron certified to be able to shoot down a missle (not sure what kind) in flight.

With the newer Engines, both Bates and Hultgren woudl still be alive

At the time of the crash of the Thunderbirds squadron I read alot about how limited the planes they used were, how they were always pushing the edge of their envelope (I think they were T34s?). They then went to the F16. The big comment was that the engine had so much thrust that, if they got in trouble, they could simply red line it and they'd go ballistic in whatever direction they were pointed at the time. There's often no substitute for lots of pounds of thrust on demand.

I'm retired; soon to join Delta Airlines training program.

Do you know what you'll be flying? It'll be a bit different from what you've flown before. I knew the VP of American at the time they were consdering buying the L-1011. He was in charge of the buy. He had been a military pilot and was still certified, including his multi engine jet, so he took up the plane, along with the execs from Lockheed. According to his story, he asked if it could survive a roll. They assured him it could. So he rolled it. It survived. They lowered the price to what he was offering (which they hadn't been willing to do before). True story or not, you guys are all nuts.... in a good way (g).

[VaBthang4]

That sounds good to me.

[Pukin Dog]

Thunderbirds were in the T-38, a plane with only enough guts to get you high enough to die coming back down. The F-16 is a great airplane, but a strange bird to fly. We had them in Aggressors. The computer does too much for my tastes. Like you said, it will go anywhere you point it, but what it does not do well is fly slow. It is designed to be pushed around the corner by that big engine, but you have little wing to hang on at high AOA. F-16's stalls are very ugly because at low altitude there is nothing you can do except leave the thing. At high altitude, you have to shut off the computer's pitch limiter and rock it back and forth to get air on the wing enough to fly away from the stall.

I'll be flying right seat on a 767 after training if everything works out.

[verity]

Especially since "Chargin' Charlie" Beckwith has been dead for years.

Irrevocably retired!

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, some women can handle high stress situations.

At age 12 I surprised a burglar opening my parents' outside bedroom door at 1 a.m. (I thought it was my little sister playing a prank and was about to jump out and yell "BOO!" until I realized it was a 5'9" white guy in a tank top and 3 days of stubble.) Instead of going "drama queen" I went "war movie" and did my best Marine belly crawl backwards from the door and to the head of the stairs, where I yelled, "DADDY! There's a man on the back porch!" (I guess I should have tip-toed up to him and whispered in his ear, but time was of the essence.) While dad grabbed the shotgun from the sofa (he'd been shooting crows), mom grabbed the phone, and was on the phone quick enough for the dispatcher to hear the two shots . . . the guy was jumping off the back porch, and dad caught him with the choke barrel in the air and the scatter barrel when he hit the ground. Unfortunately it was only #6 or 7 shot.

But mom and I both kept our heads. My sister slept through the whole thing. We never heard from Mr. Perp again, but dad was sure he got at least one solid hit, and the police officer who showed up an hour later told us we shouldn't have any more problem with burglars. And we never did -- my parents left their doors unlocked and the keys in the cars for 30 years, in the City of Atlanta, with no problem.

It may just be a Southern thing, the women around here are flint-eyed mean. When there was an escaped convict around here, mom was toting a .32 revolver in her purse. She was also in a drive-by shooting in New York City more recently (at age 65). A couple of guys shot out the windows of her cab, the cabbie was screaming and praying and having hysterics, she shoved her friend down on the floor, jumped out of the back, shoved the driver over, said, "Let me drive" and got the !#@)($%)(& outta there.

[AnAmericanMother]

Thanks for all the inside info.

I am just a humble private fixed wing SEL, nothing exciting ever happens in a "C-150". (And that is a good thing, thank you.) But it's interesting to read about the high, wide and handsome.

[VaBthang4]

"Instead of going "drama queen" I went "war movie" and did my best Marine belly crawl backwards from the door and to the head of the stairs, where I yelled, "DADDY! There's a man on the back porch!""

LOL!!

Point taken. Nevertheless, my thesis stands...backed up by reality. I do appreciate your current service.

[Pukin Dog]

nothing exciting ever happens in a "C-150". (And that is a good thing, thank you.)

You just aint tryin' hard enough.

But it's interesting to read about the high, wide and handsome.

Did you mean me, or the jet? *wink*

[AnAmericanMother]

I did let daddy do the shootin' (at age 12 I wasn't much of a hand with a shotgun or anything other than a .22 rifle.) At age 79 he is still a crack shot, and I would trust him to get the job done even now whether with his old Parker 16 double or the .348 Winchester. That burglar should thank his lucky stars that dad was shooting crows and not cleaning the Model 71, or he would have been crow bait on the spot.

And to be absolutely dead honest, although I think I can match my dad shot for shot with shotgun or pistol, my husband is a better shot with his 1911A1 and his FN than I will ever be (not that I'm BAD -- he's just phenomenal. But he's not a scattergun man. :-D )

But as dear old dad says about World War II, it's surprising what you can do when you have to.

[AnAmericanMother]

Wink, wink. I'll let you take that one in the deliberately ambiguous way it was intended! Wink, wink.

My CFI did do stall/spins with me preparatory to my private license (that'll tell you how long ago I got my ticket). Since he was a little skinny guy and I was a little skinny 16 year old kid, we had to top off the tanks before we could get it to do anything but just buffet along with the stall horn blaring. I will never forget going "over the top" and starting to rotate, and looking UP at the cows looking UP at me from some west Georgia pasture . . . but that was about as exciting as it ever got. Just let go the controls and it straightens itself out. Plane was made for fools to fly.

Of course it was correspondingly SLOW . . . I once went on a cross-country in a pretty stiff headwind, and was flying "IFR" ("I Follow Roads") along I-20 when I realized the 18 wheelers were passing me on the uphills. I did some quick fuel calculations, turned around, and was back at my home field in 10 minutes.

[VaBthang4]

"and was flying "IFR" ("I Follow Roads")"

ROTFLOL!

[Phsstpok]

I'll be flying right seat on a 767 after training if everything works out.

767 is a commercial with thrust to spare. I know. I was flying into SF with my family a couple of years ago from Memphis and we had the long, sloooooow, approach from the south bay. We just got over the threshold of the runway, the first solid ground you see under you after being over the bay for a long time, when the pilot literally fire walled it. I was definitely pushed back into my seat, big time. As we pushed back up we passed over the crossing east west runway and I could see a Lear jet going by underneath towards Oakland. He had to really push it because we were heading straight for Mount San Bruno (mount is optimistic, but it is "controlled flight into terrain" regardless of how high it is). We circled out over the Pacific and the Pilot simply said "I think we'll try that again." I was real glad for the big engines on that airplane. Come to think of it, it was Delta. Good airline (g).