That WAS the PLAN, WAS IT NOT?
Posted on 01/15/2025 3:03:19 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Making the Department of Defense great again starts with making the habit of trading senior military honors for dollars shameful.
Amid the Democrat senatorial clown show of Tuesday’s secretary of defense confirmation hearings, one confrontation between Pete Hegseth and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., resonated particularly strongly with me as a retired Army officer.
It was when Warren challenged Hegseth with his past writings that “generals should be banned from working for the defense industry for 10 years.” Warren tried to put Hegseth in a twist by asserting that he would not follow his own rule, but Hegseth defused the situation masterfully by replying, “I’m not a general, senator.”
Laughter ensued, but this exchange had me thinking deeply about one of the primary issues I believe plagues the Department of Defense in 2025, that being the revolving door between our military’s senior ranks and the military-industrial complex.
It is generally understood that one of Hegseth’s biggest challenges will be to unwind the most pernicious effects of the military-industrial complex, from cost overruns, to decades-long delays in weapons development, to reliance on in-theater contractor support, to mismatches between requirements and capabilities, to every other vice of the world of defense acquisition. Hegseth faces the Herculean task of cleaning out the Augean Stables at the Pentagon, but there is also a little-known and related cultural paradigm Hegseth must shatter if he is to succeed in this arena.
My personal experiences inform this analysis. I retired from the Army as a full colonel. My career was a mix of peacetime and wartime assignments, often in tactical units that deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, but also serving repeatedly in the fearsome budget wars of the Pentagon and Congress...
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
He’s not a general. That’s what galls the flags. A mere O-4 as head of the DOD! How dare they!!!! I LIKE it! A lot closer to the boots on the ground.
...and restoring the mission of the US Military to national defense.
Pronto.
Quite.
well, the lineages of the Defense Dynasty should be set for a few generations at this point
It’s really NOT the generals. It’s the politicians that have their pockets in the industry and who also nominate the generals who then do their bidding. Too many of the generals are useful idiots, but it’s the political world that keeps this going.
That's mostly true. Politicians want the contractors to set up shop in their districts then protect them.
FWIW I served 9 years in the military and walked out with expertise that no civilian contractor could compare with as far as systems knowledge. There is a natural fit but it doesn't have to be ridiculously lucrative or gratuitous. You still have to earn your salary..
Lloyd Austin is the poster child for the military to defense contractor gravy train.
I hope he immediately cleanses the military academies and all ROTC and JuniorROTC programs of that woke/DEI BS!!! Purge it STAT!!! And that includes any specialty training programs such as Health Professions, pre-cadet accession programs designed to boost candidates’ ability to succeed in the academies, etc. No more of that crazy junk—fire anyone who doesn’t comply and obey!
MAYBE PETE CAN HAVE SOME CONTACT WITH EISENHOWER...
Totally support programs including Special Pay to support Army Nursing and military medicine. Military medicine has made incredible strides in the past 20-25 years. Army Nursing as an example has to complete with civilian nursing employers. An RN with a 2-year degree that just passed the NCLEX can make $70-85K starting, and that's without specialities
When I was in ROTC, you had to score at least 270 out of 300 to go to Advance Camp. If you couldn’t score that, you didn’t go between your junior and senior year, you went after your senior year. We had a female that max’d the PT test easily while some guys were blowing chunks on the 2-mile run, scored a 5 at Advanced Camp, made the Army a career in MI. Top shelf. Quiet, but knew her ‘stuff.
Bkmk
That WAS the PLAN, WAS IT NOT?
That would probably require the services of Bob Woodward and a Ouiji board. 🤡
They could save a fortune by cancelling all the woke classes taught by racist 650 pound Ghettopotamuses.
Non-nuclear war is at a crossroads. Cheap drones have proven their effectiveness over traditional weapons like tanks, helicopters and artillery. If you have real time satellite intelligence you can control/defend large swaths of territory assuming you can communicate reliably. Innovation is the future,
I agree we over rely on contractors. There are also many things ‘private’ industry can do better. One example - chow halls. Pre-Iraq/Afghanistan and through much of those conflicts, base chow halls (at least in the Marines) were garbage. [Think terrible school lunch - they were worse]. KBR set up awesome chow halls forward, with great food.
Then the troops asked - “Why do I have to go to war to get good food?” Then the higher ups started asking the same…..we got decent chow halls stateside. Direct positive impact to quality of life.
My hope is legit beneficial contracts remain, and the garbage removed. My fear is they’ll throw the baby out with the bathwater, or they’ll smartly trim, and before long it’ll be back to where it is now.
The less someone is a political insider, the better off we're going to be.
They'll at least be in touch with real America and Americans.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.