Congress Orders DoD to Justify Enlisted Aides for Generals, Admirals

I would say when Congress can justify their hill staffers then the Admirals and Generals can justify enlisted aides. Wow!

LTC Jason Strickland Sir, I have a few officer friends that are Aides to a COCOM CCDR, and from what they tell me, the way Flag/General Officers employ their aides can vary widely. I've heard of a 4 star General from a service that will remain nameless requiring his enlisted aides to fly ahead of him, check into the hotel room and unpack his suitcase into the dressers for him, then stay after him and pack it up, he would also send aides (oficers and enlisted) to pick up dry cleaning and to fetch barbers to come to his office to cut his hair (then to clean up after). The 4 star general for which my friends work, on the other hand, uses his officer aides principally as trip planners. They're given wide authority trust and responsibility, alternating turns on planning his upcoming travel including timing, logistics and calendar for his entire trip. He travels so frequently (necessarily-to supervise and perform KLE's) that while one is executing a trip the other is planning the next. He's a Marine (Ill claim that one for my service) and he picks up his own dry cleaning and goes down to the barber himself. And he also PTs-when his aides build in enough time in his schedule for it. He imbues them with such trust and confidence, if they scheduled him a 20 hour day, he'd execute it, trusting they did everything they could to make the mission work.

I'd say like most things, it depends on the quality of the individual.

LTC Jason Strickland Sir the value of an enlisted aid to a General Officer, while different from that of an Officer Aid, is still quite valuable. I met the enlisted aid to Admiral Mullen when he was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he was a Master Chief Petty Officer and was responsible for ensuring the support services such as uniforms, billets, food etc were taken care of. At the level where enlisted aids are assigned these roles are critical. No one wants to see a General or Flag Officer whose uniform is wrong, because lets face it, they have many things to do and an order of importance must be established.

While budgets are important, more important is the professionalism of our military. At some point in balancing the budget I am hopeful our elected leaders will begin to examine the cost savings versus long term damage done to the American fighting forces.

I covered down in the absence of an aide and I was utilized as driver and escort for his promotion ceremony. I know during the weekends his enlisted aide was used to prepare the awards and evaluations and other paperwork needing his sugnature as well as his schedule. If that slot is to go away the work will be shifted to a NCO in the G-1 and an officer that will be an aide in deed, just not in word on paper.

Having served as an Aide de Camp for a 3-star who also had an Enlisted Aide, I can tell you that I think both positions are fully justified.

While it is true that GOs use the aides differently, most use them to take care of the routine things that they frankly do not have time for or to plan/prepare for the unending official/unofficial social events that come with the job/position the GO holds.

The social responsibilities of GOs is mind-boggling. My boss rarely had a free evening to himself, as there was always something he had to attend in an official capacity. There is no way he could have handled his daily work load and met his social obligations without the assistance of aides (officer and enlisted).

As the old saying goes, "You had to have been there"... I speak from experience when I say they are absolutely necessary. No question.

LTC Strickland...interesting question. My frame of reference is working for SACEUR on down to BG level. I have the highest respect for an "aide-de-camp", which has always been a demanding position, whether officer or enlisted. That's a tough job, and there are a few personal services involved from time to time from picking up uniform from the cleaners to ensuring the brass is on correctly--nothing wrong with that. It's not a full time butler or orderly as some in Congress might assume. One rarely sees an "enlisted aide" per se, below four-star rank (although I am told there are some). I've known quite a few including those who served for 5 star Gen Bradley. In many cases but not all, drivers and perhaps a few other special positions are effectly the "personal staff" and usually not classified as "aides". I don't think the CSM's driver or admin assistant is classified as an Aide, but perceptions are reality for they are in an aid-like function. There are also Military Assistants, such as at NATO/SHAPE that might be considered Aides, yet they are not. And of course the White House, DOD, JCS and other levels where the high ranking brass effectively has an Aide. Why, we might even consider and intern or a White House Fellow to be a type of Aide.

From Wikipedia: "In 2000, every Representative hired 14 staff members, while the average Senator hired 34. In 2000, Representatives had a limit of 18 full-time and four part-time staffers; Senators had no limit on staff.[1] Budgets for staff were determined by the population of the state; Senators from California, the most populous state, get more money for staff than Senators from Wyoming, the least populous state. Members can choose how to distribute staff between their Washington office and their district or state home office or offices."

Sorry, Mr. Congressman, but as a Soldier, I already know the General's justification. As a voter, I would like to hear YOURS.

As an E-4, working in a Unified Command's Command Group. I gladly accepted each task or errand if you will. I looked at it like this. I could be standing guard, mowing grass, filling sandbags or being shot at. I was treated very well by all of the senior officers and took pride in the job that I performed. There was only a small handful of us enlisted folks around and were always very busy. Also I never carried the title enlisted aide, but we got the job done.

I agree with PV2 (Join to see), when Congress defends and justifies their $3,000,000.00/year office budget they can start throwing Stones.

I find it interesting that the number of enlisted aides is mandated by statute to not exceed 300, yet the NDAA stipulates that each General and Flag Officer is assigned one billet for these personnel.

With over 900 General and Flag Officers across DoD, I wonder why Congress has not asked the DoD to justify those positions billet by billet?

We have already had separation boards and selective early retirement boards for our O3-O6 population, but why have we not done the same with our GO and Flag population?