How the Hell did Gen Mark Milley earn four stars ?

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  • togor
    Banned
    • Nov 2009
    • 17610

    #16
    Officers it's different. But again, Chief/Indians.

    And the system makes sense, intuitively. A Master Sargent in his late 40's is a valuable repository of knowledge and experience. A Second Lieutenant that same age is an officer with serious holes in his/her game.

    Companies can roll whatever culture works best for them. Usually not as hierarchical as the military. Not anymore.

    Comment

    • Art
      Senior Member, Deceased
      • Dec 2009
      • 9256

      #17
      Originally posted by togor
      Officers it's different. But again, Chief/Indians.

      And the system makes sense, intuitively. A Master Sargent in his late 40's is a valuable repository of knowledge and experience. A Second Lieutenant that same age is an officer with serious holes in his/her game.

      Companies can roll whatever culture works best for them. Usually not as hierarchical as the military. Not anymore.
      Promotion to Captain is pretty much automatic but your point is well taken. It also applies to lifer E-5s.

      Comment

      • blackhawknj
        Senior Member
        • Aug 2011
        • 3754

        #18
        The socially isolated and usually underfunded Army of 1920-1940 with its slow promotions and emphasis on seniority produced Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Patton et al. and expand rapidly after 1940 and took on the Axis and later the Red Chinese in Korea. The "New Look" Army of the 1960s doubled in size and went down hill badly and couldn't take on the NVA and VC. The pre-WWII Army had an officer corps strength of about 4% and ended the war with about 7%, at the start of Vietnam the officer corps was about 14%. One author I read said in comparing the British and German Armies in WWI he noted the British Army had large staffs-"large staffs are the sign of bad armies." And large officer corps are the mark of bad armies. In WWII the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS had officer corps strengths of 3-5%. The Waffen-SS General Felix Steiner said "An officer is an officer for one reason only-he is a better soldier than his men." The Pentagon own's assessment is that Vietnam produced no outstanding generals and few if any good ones. If you at our recent military history it seems our last really good generals were Mathew Ridgway and Walton Walker in Korea, Norman Schwarzkopf entitled his memoirs It Doesn't Take A Hero because it doesn't take a hero when your enemy is garbage and runs away.
        Last edited by blackhawknj; 09-04-2021, 12:38.

        Comment

        • lyman
          Administrator - OFC
          • Aug 2009
          • 11269

          #19
          Originally posted by blackhawknj
          The socially isolated and usually underfunded Army of 1920-1940 with its slow promotions and emphasis on seniority produced Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Patton et al. and expand rapidly after 1940 and took on the Axis and later the Red Chinese in Korea. The "New Look" Army of the 1960s doubled in size and went down hill badly and couldn't take on the NVA and VC. The pre-WWII Army had an officer corps strength of about 4% and ended the war with about 7%, at the start of Vietnam the officer corps was about 14%. One author I read said in comparing the British and Armies in WWI he noted the British Army had large staffs-"large staffs are the sign of bad armies." And large officer corps are the mark of bad armies. In WWII the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS had officer corps strengths of 3-5%. The Waffen-SS General Felix Steiner said "An officer is an officer for one reason only-he is a better soldier than his men." The Pentagon own's assessment is that Vietnam produced no outstanding generals and few if any good ones. If you at our recent military history it seems our last really good generals were Mathew Ridgway and Walton Walker in Korea, Norman Schwarzkopf entitled his memoirs It Doesn't Take A Hero because it doesn't take a hero when your enemy is garbage and runs away.
          weren't a lot of the British Officers from the ruling class, as in Lords, Dukes, etc etc and their kids?

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          • blackhawknj
            Senior Member
            • Aug 2011
            • 3754

            #20
            The Cardwell reforms of 1868-1874 abolished the purchase of commissions.

            Comment

            • barretcreek
              Senior Member
              • Sep 2013
              • 6065

              #21


              Alexander Vraciu retired as Cdr after a 25 year career mostly as a test pilot. Should he been riffed at 16 years?
              Last edited by barretcreek; 09-04-2021, 02:29.

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              • fredtheobviouspseudonym
                Senior Member
                • Dec 2010
                • 419

                #22
                GWOT isn't over.

                We may have declared defeat & got out but as my old advisor, a VN vet with 150 combat missions, always said, "The enemy always gets a vote."

                We may think leaving Afghanistan ended the war. Oh no, my brothers & sisters. The third string man in the Taliban is the second string man in Al-Qaeda. Every terrorist goon on the planet is energized & now has a safe place to plan, train, & rehearse. Look for a lot of bombs going off during Xmas season, if not here, then in Europe.

                War isn't over until they agree it's over -- and they haven't.

                Comment

                • Vern Humphrey
                  Administrator - OFC
                  • Aug 2009
                  • 15875

                  #23
                  Originally posted by fredtheobviouspseudonym
                  GWOT isn't over.

                  We may have declared defeat & got out but as my old advisor, a VN vet with 150 combat missions, always said, "The enemy always gets a vote."

                  We may think leaving Afghanistan ended the war. Oh no, my brothers & sisters. The third string man in the Taliban is the second string man in Al-Qaeda. Every terrorist goon on the planet is energized & now has a safe place to plan, train, & rehearse. Look for a lot of bombs going off during Xmas season, if not here, then in Europe.

                  War isn't over until they agree it's over -- and they haven't.
                  I was running for Congress in '04. Someone asked if we shouldn't bring our troops home. I asked him, "Do you know what will follow them?"

                  Comment

                  • Roadkingtrax
                    Senior Member
                    • Feb 2010
                    • 7835

                    #24
                    Originally posted by Vern Humphrey
                    I was running for Congress in '04. Someone asked if we shouldn't bring our troops home. I asked him, "Do you know what will follow them?"
                    Not your election to office.
                    "The first gun that was fired at Fort Sumter sounded the death-knell of slavery. They who fired it were the greatest practical abolitionists this nation has produced." ~BG D. Ullman

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                    • togor
                      Banned
                      • Nov 2009
                      • 17610

                      #25
                      The Taliban has a navy now?

                      Even (especially) Trump voters know it's time to end these military/civilian adventures where we try to install democracy in places where indoor plumbing is a novelty. It doesn't work to want something for someone more than they want it themselves.

                      Comment

                      • lyman
                        Administrator - OFC
                        • Aug 2009
                        • 11269

                        #26
                        Originally posted by togor
                        The Taliban has a navy now?

                        Even (especially) Trump voters know it's time to end these military/civilian adventures where we try to install democracy in places where indoor plumbing is a novelty. It doesn't work to want something for someone more than they want it themselves.
                        yes they do,


                        somewhere there is a pic of them riding a paddle boat on a lake,



                        give them 10 minutes and some duct tape and they will have one rigged with a mortar on it or rocket launcher

                        Comment

                        • Major Tom
                          Very Senior Member - OFC
                          • Aug 2009
                          • 6181

                          #27
                          Originally posted by Roadkingtrax
                          Not your election to office.
                          More of immature posts from a dimocrat stoo-ge!

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