The Deliberate Emasculation of Our Armed Forces

SGT Robert Riley — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 12:08:36 -0400

Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery once said, or rather warned, “We must be very careful what we do with British infantry. They are the people who do the hard fighting and the killing… Their fighting spirit is based largely on morale and regimental esprit de corps. On no account must anyone tamper with this.” Although we are not the British Army, this statement can allude to the current and deliberate destruction or emasculation of traditions, discipline, and morale that are the foundations of our Armed Forces, by misguided folks ranging from our Commander-in-Chief, certain high ranking officers in the Pentagon, the Senate, politicians and the mainstream media. First off, some people upon reading this will point out that attacking the C-in-C is taboo, and that is true - to a point. He is not a sacred cow and, to be perfectly honest, the rot which is slowly devouring the core values that we hold sacrosanct begins at the top, aided and abetted by politically-motivated senior military and naval officers and the aforementioned others.

It is very sad when veterans like myself and those who are actively serving look at social media sites and watch soldiers call out their own peers. These are NCOs and officers who don’t care about the welfare of their soldiers, discipline, or tradition because people are scared to enforce regulations due to political correctness. Political correctness has, in my opinion, turned the U.S. Armed Forces (especially the Army) into one vast petri dish open to absurd social experiments that will not help our warriors out in the battlefield.

When personnel have to go to social media in order to air their grievances, you have to wonder where the team leader is. Where is the squad leader? I am quite sure that some of the junior and senior NCOs are doing their jobs, but why are other senior NCOs and officers being reactive instead of proactive? We are all sick and tired of reading about the morale problems plaguing all five branches of the Armed Forces, commanders being sacked for not leading by example, not being politically compliant, etc. We are sick of hearing about junior enlisted whining about NCOs trying to discipline them, NCOs whining about not being able to do their jobs, and officers who don’t like their NCOs or Petty officers. The list goes on, and each day, our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Coast Guardsmen and Marines wind up suffering for the mess created by this disease that affects training, how they operate on the field, and so many other aspects of military life.

We need to have officers with collective intestinal fortitude to stand up to the C-in-C, their politicized fellow officers, spineless politicians and the mainstream media in order to fight for our traditions. Every service member in the U.S Armed Forces lives by these traditions and core values; they are the warrior ethos, the raison d’etre for all of us.

Response by Sgt Wayne Wood made Oct 19 at 2016 12:15 PM

Sgt Wayne Wood — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 12:15:43 -0400

The fish rots from the head

Response by Sgt Wayne Wood made Oct 19 at 2016 12:17 PM

Sgt Wayne Wood — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 12:17:28 -0400

The military is always a petri dish for social experiments

Response by Cpl Justin Goolsby made Oct 19 at 2016 12:45 PM

Cpl Justin Goolsby — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 12:45:22 -0400

Excellent post and it was a great read. Political correctness is slowly unraveling our finest fighting forces. My biggest gripe currently has been all the stories coming out about "hazing" or "abuse" in basic training. I was an older recruit, so I got my share of special attention, but looking back I can see the benefits of what they did to mold me into the Marine I am today.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 19 at 2016 12:52 PM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 12:52:10 -0400

Sorry , but having Sgts and and other NCOs and officers not doing their jobs, not being in shape, not enforcing standards has absolutely nothing to do with the POTUS. Let's get real here. If you are a fat NCO who can't do PT and therefore can't enforce standards on your subordinates, that's on you, and the immediate leaders above you, that in most cases go no higher than a 1SG and a CPT. If you have senior NCOs and officers (and general officers) getting relieved for having extra marital affairs, that's doesn't have a damn thing to do with President Obama, or whether gays can serve openly in the military, or whether women can be assigned to the infantry.

Let's quit trying to blame everyone but the people who are really at fault--the mid level NCOs and officers who either fail to meet the standards themselves, or fail to enforce them. And spare me any talk of "old school" things you can't do anymore, like putting troops in wall locker, or blanket parties, or PT for the sake of harassment. That type of stuff was already on the way out in the 1980s. It's time the members of the military turn the looking glass on themselves, and take a good look at where the problems really lie. And I've got news for you--it's not with the President of the United States or the Chief of Staff of the Army or political correctness. That is just pathetic finger pointing by so called leaders who appear to be failing at the leadership part of their job description.

Can you imagine a squad leader, platoon sergeant, platoon leader, company commander or battalion commander, when confronted with why their units can't shoot, move and communicate or pass PT standards say "well, it's the President of the United States fault". LOL. Or something like "well, we could do better on the PT tests, except there are 3 women in the pipeline to go infantry, and therefore my unit is adversely affected by this momentous change and suddenly no one can do push ups or run fast anymore". What a bunch of crap.

Response by SGT Ben Keen made Oct 19 at 2016 1:07 PM

SGT Ben Keen — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 13:07:53 -0400

Nice post but i have to echo some of the comments made by LTC Private RallyPoint Member. Why does a failure in leader at the unit level require the "bashing" of the POTUS and other senior leaders? I am not excusing things that are a direct result of their decision making or lack there of but I think the morale of Service Members starts where the boot meets the ground. It starts with the young Sergeant. Taking the time to train his or her troops to one day take their place while learning from his or her section NCOIC on the tasks to take on that job. The pattern follows up the ladder. If we, as leaders, try not to correct things at the lowest level, we are failing our troops. We all know that any change from the top can and mostly does take a long time to put in place and more often than not, does not actually fix the situation but rather gives the higher command more time. Great example, uniforms. They try and try to make them better and better but seem to never really reach their end objective.

All in all, tradition, pride and discipline all start at the bottom. The top has it's issues but rather than complaining and pointing fingers, I think we can better serve our troops by taking the time to fix what we can at our level.

Response by PO3 Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 19 at 2016 1:14 PM

PO3 Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 13:14:50 -0400

I despise political correctness

Response by PFC Harry Leuchen made Oct 19 at 2016 2:52 PM

PFC Harry Leuchen — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 14:52:31 -0400

I never knew that allowing all servicemembers, regardless of gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation, a chance to succeed was a bad thing.

Response by SPC Erich Guenther made Oct 19 at 2016 3:34 PM

SPC Erich Guenther — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 15:34:39 -0400

So maybe I can help the discussion along a little bit here. Attached is a video from a recently discharged Infantry SSG. I have heard complaints like this from other recent dischargees. He went on the Drill Sergeant Path and spent time on the trail. Served with some elite units like the 101st Airborne and 1st Cav. But a couple of points of disagreement I have with him.

1. Confused about battlefield awards I understand why a 1SG gets a BRONZE STAR (meritorious) vs a E1-E4 getting a ARCOM (meritorious). But apparently nobody explained to him how the awards system works. In peace time garrison you had to almost be the second comming of Christ to get an ARCOM, very rare and it was not given out lightly. Still if he had a exceptional writeup then one of his E1-E4 could have done better with an award. Also, part of this is why the Infantry gets to wear the Blue Cord and Discs for doing their regular job. Over and above their job then yes they should get higher than ARCOM. They gave out ARCOMS in Vietnam as well. So this is not really a GWOT wartime thing.

2. Someone told him how RECRUITING works he hasn't really done it, you can tell from his comments. RECRUITER has the say who gets in and who does not, the quota stuff exists but the overwhealming pressure to make quota I was told disappeared over a decade ago. The quota is still there but you don't see NCO's crying about missing quota as they did in the 1990's when I was at USAREC as a civilian. A lot of that pressure is gone now.

3. Overweight issues date from the 1980's nothing has changed there with the decades long argument of what is obesity and what should and should not pass tape. In my view thats Army life some folks are going to scam and get away with it. That is what periodic RiFs are for.

4. Tatoos I agree with the policy it was a LOT stricter in the 1980's and I am not sure why they slacked up on the policy but the slacking up has caused a lot of confusion and hard feelings.

Just four of the points I disagree with off the bat, probably more. Anyways sorry in advance for the profanity he should have screened that out for youtube but he is fairly recent dischargee and that profanity habit hard to break. Took me a few years after ETS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RprtLmK8yqc

Why I chose to leave the Army and pursue my own business venture.

I describe my reasons for deciding to set off on my own and pursue a happier life where I control my own success, and failures.

Response by MAJ Norm Michaels made Oct 19 at 2016 4:20 PM

MAJ Norm Michaels — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 16:20:56 -0400

Yes. It is sad when the top leadership supports this moral decay. Naming a ship after a pedophile? The flag officers (generals and admirals) follow the CINC, but they don't have to proactively support the decay. Congress wants more funds in DOD; the President wants less. Our flag officers have sided with the president. They swore an oath to our country. Why does congress have to force them to do the right thing over and over?

Response by SFC George Smith made Oct 19 at 2016 5:28 PM

SFC George Smith — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 17:28:14 -0400

"Monty" was dead on...

Response by SPC Sheila Lewis made Nov 22 at 2016 3:45 PM

SPC Sheila Lewis — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 15:45:01 -0500

The time is now to stop this negative course.

Response by Cpl Joshua Caldwell made Dec 12 at 2016 6:26 PM

Cpl Joshua Caldwell — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 18:26:12 -0500

Over the last eight years the politicians have gutter the upper levels of the officer corps, and eliminated anyone with a spine. This combined with deliberate social engineering of the military allowed a REMF mentality to replace traditional leadership. I am being a bit over general here but the fish rots from the head.

Response by SFC Michael Hasbun made Dec 13 at 2016 2:41 PM

SFC Michael Hasbun — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 14:41:13 -0500

You say emasculation, I say "expected to act like educated adults"... The days of being an illiterate caveman who can follow orders and not much else are gone...

Response by CW3 Harvey K. made Dec 17 at 2016 4:58 PM

CW3 Harvey K. — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 16:58:54 -0500

Such a subtle sign of that emasculation is seen in my DD Form 2. I am not retired from the "Armed Forces", but from the "United States Uniformed Services".
Perhaps the next step will be to replace the M-16 with a "less than lethal" weapon.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 29 at 2017 2:17 AM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 02:17:32 -0400

100% agree. The military and the discipline of soldiers just coming out of basic is garbage. Only few come out with any discipline and that I would chalk up to just them having good personal character.

Response by SFC James Asbill made Aug 11 at 2017 5:22 AM

SFC James Asbill — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 05:22:53 -0400

Amen .... So much truth in this post ..

Response by SSG Edward Tilton made Sep 4 at 2017 3:21 PM

SSG Edward Tilton — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 15:21:47 -0400

Yes agreed. Your people are well trained when they can do the job without you. That is how you grow.

Response by SFC Michael Hasbun made Sep 4 at 2017 6:10 PM

SFC Michael Hasbun — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 18:10:43 -0400

I've noticed that "political correctness" seems to be the popular buzzword when people don't get to indulge in their favorite cliché or prejudice of choice...

Response by SPC David Willis made Nov 15 at 2017 10:37 AM

SPC David Willis — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 10:37:29 -0500

This issue has nothing to do with who is president. Trumps the guy now and you still have this trash almost a year later. Also political correctness doesn't mean you're now hindered from accomplishing the mission. Your dumb opinion and my dumb opinion don't keep our bullets from hitting their targets. In fact under the Bush admin during the surge, regulations were at there most lax. We had guys smoking weed, and getting on a plane for war the next day. Or dudes that didn't even come close to height and weight getting on the plane, and its understandable because I'd rather take a fat combat vet to war than a skinny guy who hasn't finished basic yet. Its war, bodies are needed. If the problem has spanned 3 presidents you cant just say its one president's fault. In my opinion (and that's all it is) this has been slowly happening since Vietnam started. When cameras are allowed to broadcast war images you instantly lose civilian support for the war. WW2 was so heavily backed not because we were attacked (because we were on 9/11 as well) but because our government basically lied to its citizens and told them we were winning handily when that wasn't really the case for 80% of the war. If fox news or cnn or brietbart or MSNBC had cameras on the beaches of Normandy and citizens saw entire groups of men being torn apart or drowning before they even landed on the beach the public image would be greatly different. Also since Vietnam our wars have been much more ambiguous we have fought against communism and terrorism which are ideals that you cant line against a wall and shoot or sit down at gun point and force a signed peace treaty. This has all been paired with more "news" and social media surges that give everyone a platform to speak their mind.

Simply put its a much more complex problem than "thanks obummer".