Professional Reading Drop Box

[Recovering LSO]

The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse. This is a book review of the book by same title. It gives a pretty good summary (or so it would appear) of the book, and without too much difficulty it's fairly easy to view most of the examples through the context of a squadron.

 

[Recovering LSO]

The Mike Flynn Problem is Actually a Profession of Arms Problem - ML Cavanaugh With relevance to Fat Leonard

FTA: "We don’t do statues like we once did, so today’s common monument to military service is the title retained in retirement. Without legal or financial options, this seems the most appropriate and just punitive target for a member who has so profaned the pillars of this profession. A simple rule with a simple consequence: If a member so tarnishes the profession’s tenets, then they risk losing their honorable status within the profession. This symbolic judgment would not impact pay or legally remove any benefit. Yet, the loss of title amongst professional peers, a figurative expulsion from the “Band of Brothers” — this heft transcends money."

 

[Pags]

The Mike Flynn Problem is Actually a Profession of Arms Problem - ML Cavanaugh With relevance to Fat Leonard

FTA: "We don’t do statues like we once did, so today’s common monument to military service is the title retained in retirement. Without legal or financial options, this seems the most appropriate and just punitive target for a member who has so profaned the pillars of this profession. A simple rule with a simple consequence: If a member so tarnishes the profession’s tenets, then they risk losing their honorable status within the profession. This symbolic judgment would not impact pay or legally remove any benefit. Yet, the loss of title amongst professional peers, a figurative expulsion from the “Band of Brothers” — this heft transcends money."

Surprised the author didn't say anything about all the $ Flynn got from the Russians. I'd think that a former high ranking intelligence official advising Russian firms/govt about US intelligence policy would raise a few eyebrows.

 

[Flash]

Surprised the author didn't say anything about all the $ Flynn got from the Russians. I'd think that a former high ranking intelligence official advising Russian firms/govt about US intelligence policy would raise a few eyebrows.

It has, his clearance has been suspended.

 

[jmcquate]

Flynn was a potentially dangerous man. Given the stars all in their courses, he was an outstanding leader, but being that close to the White House..........yikes. The country is a safer place with him relegated to the ash heap.

 

[Uncle Fester]

A good summary of "The Rules of the Game." CNO Richardson's been raving about this book for a while. I didn't realize that he apparently paid for it to be reissued when it went out of print.

How 'The Rules of the Game' can help the US Navy

Why would any sane naval commander execute an order sure to bring about catastrophe?

That’s among the questions historian Andrew Gordon investigates in his masterful work The Rules of the Game. Ostensibly about the 1916 Battle of Jutland, The Rules of the Game is really about the perils of winning too big in sea combat. The history of Jutland is there, and in abundant detail. But it mainly serves to frame the author’s meditations on how a culture of automatic obedience dulls individual enterprise and derring-do to the detriment of battle effectiveness.

Gordon’s verdict: winning too big—as the Royal Navy did at Trafalgar in 1805—makes a navy intellectually flabby over time. It debilitates the institutional culture. Victory begets cultural decay by sparing the navy the rigors of future combat, the truest test of martial adequacy.

 

[Recovering LSO]

^ SECDEF is fan of Rule of the Game as well.

 

[Recovering LSO]

On the happy life - by Seneca, with introduction by Massimo Pigliucci.

 

[Recovering LSO]

How I Almost Destroyed a £50 million War Plane and The Normalisation of Deviance.

 

[bert]

How I Almost Destroyed a £50 million War Plane and The Normalisation of Deviance.

That's a great read - good find. I've always felt this has played a part in a lot of Navy mishaps, particularly in the old HC community.

 

[jmcquate]

How I Almost Destroyed a £50 million War Plane and The Normalisation of Deviance.

Good article. What the author described is an issue, but I think mostly for maintenance work-arounds that can magnify during NATO joint exercise dick measuring.

 

[Gatordev]

Good article. What the author described is an issue, but I think mostly for maintenance work-arounds that can magnify during NATO joint exercise dick measuring.

It can be common in normal ops, as well. On my last deployment, the RAST barely worked, the TACAN would randomly catch on fire (and therefore not work), Datalink was hard down on the ship so it was common to go lost comms for short periods going below LOS when conducting operations, and generally, the CIC crew were a bunch of mouth-breathers. But we continued operating because we had a senior det and we were still technically legal. Then a lighting system went down. Still technically legal. Then another went down, but it was very possible to still operate and it would have been easy for anyone to keep flying because "we've done this before." To his credit, the LSO asked the question out loud if the launch should happen.

Everyone agreed it was probably time to just go watch a movie, but everyone was on that same path to continue due to normalization.

 

[sickboy]

It can be common in normal ops, as well. On my last deployment, the RAST barely worked, the TACAN would randomly catch on fire (and therefore not work), Datalink was hard down on the ship so it was common to go lost comms for short periods going below LOS when conducting operations, and generally, the CIC crew were a bunch of mouth-breathers. But we continued operating because we had a senior det and we were still technically legal. Then a lighting system went down. Still technically legal. Then another went down, but it was very possible to still operate and it would have been easy for anyone to keep flying because "we've done this before." To his credit, the LSO asked the question out loud if the launch should happen.

Everyone agreed it was probably time to just go watch a movie, but everyone was on that same path to continue due to normalization.

Been there, it's a slippery slope and takes a concerted effort from everyone to fight. Add in perceived (or actual) pressure to operate and things can go south real quick.

 

[Recovering LSO]

A few years old, but something I try to come back to from time to time: Let’s Quit Going into Debt with Our Families: Time Management for Leaders

FTA: "Just like money, mismanagement of time requires us to borrow from somewhere else, and unfortunately the lender in this case is our families. Serious debt in this area of our lives may lead to a multitude of problems which are much harder to fix than a lousy credit score."

 

[Pags]

A few years old, but something I try to come back to from time to time: Let’s Quit Going into Debt with Our Families: Time Management for Leaders

FTA: "Just like money, mismanagement of time requires us to borrow from somewhere else, and unfortunately the lender in this case is our families. Serious debt in this area of our lives may lead to a multitude of problems which are much harder to fix than a lousy credit score."

Great article with a noble goal. it's very easy in the military to misuse subordinates time because managers don't have to pay for it in the form of OT and it's all too easy for career oriented folks to forget that the long days on top of deployments take a very human toll.