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Hard Charger
 
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Fire the Losers before the Army Goes Down
By David H. Hackworth
The Army has a new boss, and the word is he’s a good man. Let’s hope so, because Gen. Peter Schoomaker is going to need all the strength he can muster to transform an institution whose top brass have become increasingly incompetent at their trade.
Recalling Schoomaker from the retirement ranks after three years in civvies says it all – that the Army has just about hit rock-bottom in the senior-leadership department. Of the dozens of active-duty three- and four-star candidates for the chief-of-staff job, few wanted to step up to the most prestigious and sought-after position in the Army, and those who were willing were unacceptable to the SecDef.
From the middle of the Korean War to now, I’ve watched the Army shift from fighting generals to mainly Perfumed Princes. We lost in Vietnam primarily because management types finally outnumbered warriors, and since then it’s only gotten worse due to the cancerous system that consistently promotes Hollywood-handsome careerists – who in turn pick equally corrupt clones as the next generation of generals.
Although Schoomaker told congressional leaders that he’s going to look hard at force structure, missions and manning levels, he said nothing about the rotten senior leadership in an Army still filled with great soldiers, sergeants and junior officers but sinking fast. Of course, he’s right that he must quickly streamline the Army and whip it into shape to fight the wars of the 21st century. But his No. 1 priority should be to get rid of several tons of loser senior leaders.
Schoomaker did tell the senators: “Leadership is dealing with change. You can’t manage change. You have to lead it.”
Words like that give me hope he’ll take a chain saw to the self-serving wood moldering in most top Army jobs, from brigade commander on up.
Except for space limitations, I could give hundreds of examples. But here are four beauts out of Iraq:
* The commanding general (CG) whose 32nd Air Defense Brigade Patriot missiles shot down a U.S. and a U.K. jet. Good shooting at the wrong targets. He was also the CG of Jessica Lynch's 507th Maintenance Company that took the wrong road in the desert and was eaten alive by guerrillas, sustaining more casualties than any other company-size Army unit in the war. The 507th wasn't well-trained in convoy procedures, self-defense or basic soldier skills like weapons care or use.
* The CG, 4th Infantry Division, who lives with his staff in an air-conditioned palace with running water. Many of his grunts live in boiling-hot tents without water or fans, getting the short end of the stick on chow, drinking water and even mail. When Vice President Dick Cheney's old outfit, Halliburton, built air-conditioned sleeping containers complete with built-in latrines for the troops, the CG put out the word that the literally cool pads were on the way. The troopers couldn’t wait. I’m still hearing about how those containers were then diverted to Division Headquarters – to be used as offices for the CG’s staff.
* The CG, 3rd Division – the unit that led the magnificent record-breaking attack into Iraq and grabbed Baghdad almost before Saddam realized it was there – who allowed the Pentagon to rotate certain brigade and battalion commanding officers home almost as soon as Iraq was seized while their troops continued to rot in the desert. Shades of Vietnam: Musical chairs for the brass while the troopers stay stuck in the sand.
* The Commanding Officer, 3rd Brigade, 101st Division, who was more worried about dental readiness and Association of the United States Army (AUSA) membership than training for Iraq. In Iraq, according to witnesses, he struck a sergeant at a checkpoint and then applied heavy pressure to make the crime go away. He wouldn’t allow other sergeants to go back to the States to retire until they joined AUSA. He also ordered soldiers to move unstable, unexploded ordnance, and when his soldiers complained, the colonel allegedly killed the investigation by manipulating a key witness.
My prescription for this sort of sickness is a good old-fashioned purge followed up with consistent, two-fisted, hands-on leadership from a new chief who never forgets that consistently good leadership from the top on down is the only sure-cure protocol for an ailing Army.
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Hackworth may have some valid points but his increasingly shrill attacks turn many people off. The general officers on duty today as are the colonels and below are products of the Army school system.
They are for the most part technically proficient. But leadership is
not only learned out of a book but also in the field through practical experience. Typically officers selected for BG/MG are at or near the top of their year groups. In the Clinton years they were selected by the CSA but signed off on by the SEC Army and SECDEF. Now those selected this year are Bush/Rumsfeld generals. It will take another year or so for those to move up into the very senior ranks. Promotion above MG is strictly politics. Army politics. Ultimately generals who pass the politcal acceptability test get to
be LTG and Generals. They have to be technically proficient but also politically adept. I will let you in on a little known fact. Being CSA is not the job it once was. Its for the most part a political job. Alot of work with Congress. The SECDEF makes the promotions to general officer that the CSA used to make. The SECDEF makes the assignments[ commands] that the CSA used to make. All that is left is the budget and that dictates the type of force. So not many of the current crop of senior officers wanted to wade in the political waters in Washington. There are few officers that even want to work in the Pentagon. Being a post commander is better than a division chief job in G3/4/5 ect. As I see it the problem is that the Army is not GM or GEN Electric. Our business is warfighting. Not managing. Leadership is what its all about. Warriors not managers is what we should be training. Reinstill the warriro ethos at all levels and the Army will be transformed !!!
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Seasoned Vet
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| Hack's on target here IMO. Gen. Keane and Gen. Schoomaker have already started the needed purge at HQDA. Heads will roll.
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Seasoned Vet
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Very seldom do I even pay attention to Hack any more but here he seems right on target!
sticky307
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Trooper
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It is unfortunate that Hack is right on this subject. The senior jobs have always had a lot of politics in them. I remember reading that Gen Pershing hated Gen McArthur and during WWI tried to mess with his future. Also remember Pershing was promoted to BG and given command of the expedition to catch Pancho Villa over numerous senior gens who complained to high heaven.
In RVN I can remember one bde cmdr in the 101st who had his Aussie girlfriend (nickname "twin 40's", you figure out why)flown up from Saigon on Army A/C each weekend so he could spend the time with her in his A/C trailer. The expression RHIP is not a figment of the imagination. IMO there are very few senior cmdrs (including the WWII generals) who didn't live as well as could be expected. I don't expect generals to go out tank hunting (like Gen Dean 24th Div Cmdr in Korea, he won the MOH but was critized for acting like an NCO) but they should understand that the troops have a lot more respect for senior folks that lead from the front and share the dust, sweat and no showers.
Is Hack on target about "Perfumed Princes", IMO he is. I can look back and see that a lot of this started in RVN. I can remember a gen being quoted in S&S saying he put a col in charge of an operation so in case it failed the col could be relived instead of reliving a gen. The 6 month command tour was a killer. There was numerous occasions where the use of C&C A/C hindered small unit cmdrs on the ground. Also any one that has served as a commisioned or WO has had raters saying to not forget he would write an OER. Of course the best answer was "Well it won't be the worst or the best I have ever recieved.
In the 1970's everyone got carried away with being a manager. I questioned a bn cmdr about this at a Bn officers call after he mentioned being a manager and I asked "What had happened to Follow Me". I was not popular after that incident, but I was about 90 days from retirement.
Another thing that has hurt the warriors is the Army has got carried away with diversity. Too many times promotions were predicated on quotas. Am I saying that it was all wrong? Of course not but PC has hurt. IMO the Clinton years really played up how much they were doing for minorities. However as anyone who has been shot at knows everyone on a battlefield is fresh meat. But in my opinion in most cases the unqualified die quick and get others killed. We all know that the really good ones also die but is often a random thing when they get it.
One officer that I really respected was LTG(ret) Allen Burdett. When he was 11th Avn Gp cmdr in the Cav, he would get away from the office about once a week and fly a CA with the flight crews. When he became ADC of the 101st in 1969 he did the same thing. He retired and died of colon cancer. Did it improve the units ability? No but the flight crews knew he wasn't just issuing orders without worrying about the effect of carrying out the orders.
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Seasoned Vet
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If he is right about these guys doing these things, then they need to go. Giving a few small comforts to the pogues when they were earmarked for grunts is unsat.
Go with God, but make Him walk the point.
If you load a mudfoot down with a lot of gadgets he has to watch somebody a lot more simply equipped - say with a stone axe - will sneak up and bash his head in while he is trying to read a Vernier. - Robert Heinlein
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Keep the Peace and Be of Good Behavior
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quote:
Giving a few small comforts to the pogues when they were earmarked for grunts is unsat.
Hell I thought this was SOP. The first example that comes to mind is the Camel Bak incident. The company went to pick up the 150 Camel Bak's that the supply nco had ordered while we were conducting operations in Kosovo. Well, the 1st ID depot had an invoice for 150, but only had 5. The damn pogues pilfered them.
PC officers are abound. We had a BN change of command while over there too. From "Smokin Joe" Anderson, a real soldiers soldier, to RD Hooker, a politician in BDU's. He had the brain fart idea of having the whole BN road march 40+ miles from Kosovo to CAS, Macedonia. Why? Cause it would look Hooah. WTF? What about heat casualties, sniper bait, ambush fodder, and the fact that we had been there for 6 mos and were not in the mood to do any long range road marching that wasn't absolutely necessary?
Thank God we had just received a squared away CSM raised in the Ranger BN's to talk him out of it. Of course, he was so sick of the BS a couple months after returning from overseas that he got his 4th point reassigned to Ranger Batt. (He was our CSM for about 3 mos)
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Seasoned Vet
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Just because something is SOP doesn't make it right. This has always been the way it is, but when it gets big and blatant it is too far.
Go with God, but make Him walk the point.
If you load a mudfoot down with a lot of gadgets he has to watch somebody a lot more simply equipped - say with a stone axe - will sneak up and bash his head in while he is trying to read a Vernier. - Robert Heinlein
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