Admiral "reassigned"

[Pugs]

The article is almost painful to read...

Seriously weird.

 

[phrogdriver]

The FY-14 USMC LtCol precept has this blurb (which I'm sure is similar to USN promotions, as the precept is from SECNAV):




1. Taken literally, I agree - this indicates that an IA "should weigh equally." However, which officer is better for the long-term health of the community/service: The one who spent a year hoping his 'Stan counterpart doesn't put a bullet in his brain, or the one who spent a year gaining/maintaining qualficiations and tatctial proficiency in his community?

2. If IAs are so critical, why does it take SECNAV to spell out how officers filling these billets shall be viewed by the boards?

3. What does phrogdriver think about this?

First, IAs are often the result of poor force planning, both from a long-term and a short-term perspective. Was it really a surprise that someone needs to write an ATO during a war? Shouldn't we have people who do this? Short-term, they are born, but never die. Staffs are rarely scrubbed of obsolete billets, and the IA train keeps getting sourced.

I am in one of those,"don't let your Aghan counterpart shoot you in the head billets." I like most of the Afghans, so I don't fear that on a daily basis, but it's definitely a different world here at the edge of the empire, albeit with intranets available, than it is at Camp Cupcake Leatherneck.

As far as board precepts, it's all well and good, but depending on the billet, an IA may not have the same relationship with an RS/RO as one in a regular billet. For example, we're attached to an infantry battalion. Who do you think is coming out with a better fitrep, me or the Bn OPSO? The board can have guidance all it wants, but an 85RV or whatever is still just that.

I think the question of whether these billets help the service is an open one. If we used them as part of a concerted plan, so that one might do the last year of one's time-on-station on an IA, one that actually counts as a b-billet and actually gave good training for IAs, those officers will leave better than when they came. However, usually it's higher sending an e-mail requesting nominations by COB tomorrow for a gig wiping the DutyO's butt in the CoC for 7 months. With that constraint, squadrons are going to shit out whatever guy they don't need.

For me, I could have probably taken the job writing the ATO or whatever, but I had the chance to do something a little more interesting. I know it's not career-enhancing at all, but I have gotten to do some cool training and see some good shit.