Posted on Oct 19, 2016
The Deliberate Emasculation of Our Armed Forces
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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.
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.
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 19
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.
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.
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1SG Al Brown
Can't argue with the POTUS no responsibility remark. Jack left town a while back concerning him. I have no idea how many military members have been reduced lately, but I do remember 1992, and the mid-level NCOs and Officers were gutted (paid to leave) from the Army. It took several years to re-build discipline and train E4s to replace them. I was a young E5, and it wasn't my fault that squads throughout the Army were running amuck, and OR rates were in the tank. It was because of a lack of NCOs. Remember the barracks "Single Soldier Initiative". Yeah, me too. It was a free for all until the CSMs finally stopped the madness. Draw downs cause operational havoc.
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SSG Shavonde Chase
Well said. Individual responsibility is a trait that we are losing not only within the military but also in society.
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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?
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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.
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Nice post but i have to echo some of the comments made by LTC (Join to see). 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.
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.
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SSG Carlos Madden
Sgt Gus Laskaris - Perhaps but accountability, personal integrity, duty, mission readiness, etc. do not.
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MAJ Norm Michaels
Of course I think that training and harassment were harder in my day... The rationale was that they were training us to handle the mental stress of combat also. If we couldn't handle the stress of training, how could we lead men in combat?
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SSG (Join to see)
The military is a subset of the US population...and a part of it. It will always be affected by what affects the US population. And in this nation more than any other, that is as it should be.
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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.
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