Comments for Why I'm not a General...

Why I'm not a General...

2009-03-08T14:01:25Z

...reason 4,562,133. I just don't get the word game. Why perfectly good words and concepts, that have served us well for, heck, centuries, need to be changed, when, really, nothing else actually changes.

What started me off on this rant was reading a picture caption, which we already know is a source of amusement for me.

U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Ruben Ben Cavazos from Honolulu, sergeant major of the 8th Human Resources Sustainment Center, shares a light moment with Brig. Gen. Luis Visot, deputy commander of operations for the 1st Sustainment Command (Theater), before the beginning of the Hawaiian Ultra Running Team 100 at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, Jan. 19. Cavazos ran the 100 mile race in Kuwait with permission of race officials because he is deployed there in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Cavazos completed the 100 miler in 18 hours, 59 minutes, 49 seconds and raised more than $10,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project, a non-profit organization designed to aid severely wounded service men and women.

First up - big HOO-AH to Sergeant Major Cavazos for running 100 miles for any reason at all, much less doing it in 18 hours. Hell, the 100 miles of the Nijmegen Marches in 4 days was enough of an a$$-kicker for me! This isn't about the Sergeant Major, nor is it about the caption. It's about the bit in italics.

8th Human Resources Sustainment Center

Heh. Oh, yeah, the personnel guys. But no, we can't do that. We can't have a nicely descriptive Personnel Command, PERSCOM, like we used to, no, we had to change it to Human Resources Command. And then we propagate that verbal atrocity (which only abbreviates well to HRC, which sends shudders down the spine of the politically aware) down the chain, because, well, HURESCOM, or RESCOM just... well, blows. Snerk!  If the intent was to somehow make the thing sound all people-friendly and modern or something, heh. I've always thought that "Human Resources" was actually more descriptive of the attitude anyway - you're just a part, bubba, like a tire or a tie-rod.

Actually, in the HR field of the military, it always struck me more that it was aimed at resume' enhancement for post-service employment.

I blame the Air Force, actually, with their damned dormitories and dining facilities. Heh. Barracks and Mess Halls, dammit. Here at Fort Leavenworth, we have the overly-pretentiously named "Single Soldier Quarters." Oh, btw, more than a single soldier lives there, in case there was a question.

Anyway I'm sure the name change made the troops like 'em *ever* so much more because they could say, "I'm going back to the Single Soldier's Quarters to freshen up and don a jacket and tie before I sup at the dining facility."

Right. Mind you, the barracks at Fort Leavenworth are a pretty nice, modern facility. We don't *have* a on-post mess hall any more, though one is planned for the next expansion of Single Soldier Quarters that is needful for the expansion of troop presence at the Fort due to the new jail, er, Regional Confinement Facility now under construction. And I bet the troops could give a damn if they were called "single soldier quarters" vice something like "Jordan Barracks" after Sergeant George Jordan, a 9th Cavalry Buffalo soldier awarded the Medal of Honor in 1880. In fact, I'm thinking they'd probably have a greater affinity for the latter.

And as long as the food was good, I doubt they'd care if they were eating in a mess hall vice a dining facility.

And don't get me started on the lingering effects of the thought experiments that took us through the rigmarole of "Unit of Employment X" and "Unit of Employment Y" during which process (in which I participated) I watched Colonels intone with a straight face that "No, we won't go back to 'brigade' and "division,' those are dated constructs that carry too much mental baggage. We'll stay with "Unit of Employment" because it's both more accurate and flexible."

And many heads, some thoughtful, some simply sycophantic, nodded sagely in agreement. Many others (probably all of whom weren't going to retire generals, either) looking more like they were trying to not explode into laughter.

It was all I could do to keep from bursting out laughing in the meeting.

As if the Colonels and Generals selected to command brigades and divisions, especially in combat, were going to let it remain that way, so they could tell their grand-kids, "Yep, I commanded the 1st Combined Arms Battalion, of the 2nd Unit of Action, 82nd  Unit of Employment X (Airborne), 18th Unit of Employment Y (Airborne)."

Well, the Colonels and Generals won. While the Lieutenant Colonels are commanding Combined Arms Battalions, the Colonels and Generals still get Brigades, Divisions, and Corps. Of course, I should rather say the maneuver guys won. The artillerymen get schizophrenic. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to get command of a Field Artillery Brigade.

But it's a consolation prize. The 428th Field Artillery Brigade is essentially the administrative hub of the Field Artillery School. The 434th Field Artillery Brigade is the administrative hub of the Field Artillery Training Center, which runs Basic Training and the Warrior Training Course. These are not commands that lead to stars on your shoulders.

No, if you're an artilleryman and you want stars, then you lust to command a Fires Battalion in a Fires Brigade. Which has nothing to so with putting fires out, unless you've been detailed to civil support out west in the wildfires season.

Watching it for over 30 years directly, living among it for a further 20 years, and looking back into history, most of these name changes have to do with big egos marking territory, justifying a medal by doing something "new" and, in many cases, whitewashing things under the rubric of "change is the illusion of progress."

Building better barracks and mess halls, improving personnel services, etc, are Good Things. But I suspect the troops wouldn't hate them if they were called barracks and mess halls and company clerk, if they were good places to live, eat, and you got promoted and paid on time.

And I actually do understand the intent behind removing the terms of infantry, armor, artillery from the battalion lexicon, as well as the distinctions made regarding Unit of Action,vice Units of Employment., instead of the comfortable hierarchy of brigade, division, corps.  When we were trying to kick people out of mental ruts and constructs in order to think a bit outside the box, and outside of some too-tightly held branch loyalties, that made sense.

And it was fine for when we were designing the new force. Oddly enough, that force still, in many ways, resembles the old force because many of the imperatives of military activity didn't lend themselves to just being pushed aside by smart people who want to change things. Those levels of command and control, and nodes of activity result from very real pressures in conducting world wide complex military operations.

Heh. This rant certainly morphed as I was writing it.

I think I'm going to head upstairs and see if the Mess Hall still has some joe available.

Comment from Grumpy on 2009-03-09

2009-03-09T23:05:27Z

@Josh, Yes, she was the person, who headed up the team that invented COBOL. The thing to remember is this, no one person writes a computer language.

@John, Yes, you are like these people. I'll take an example from one of the people mentored by Albert Einstein to prove it. The question was most definitely loaded, but it had a very important purpose, it helped reveal your view of the World or Life.

The question, "Are you smart enough to be dumb or dumb enough to be smart?"

My answer was, "Yeah". He said, "No, which one, one *or* the other? I said, "Our goal is to search for the things we believe to be true. What if I find things that I believe to be true on both sides? I must treat them both equally, or I'm a liar. As we grow and mature, the same thing happens to those things we think are true. When we are young, we want to see everything in a very safe with very large bands of black and white in this World. In their view, we find the whole World is either absolutely black or white. The question is this true? There is another World view would be something like this, narrow bands of black and white at the extremes. Then, by far, the center is mostly gradients of grey, a full spectrum range of grey. John, you bring a great deal to the table for us to consider. John, you also showed *a* path and not *the* path. Reader, only we, including me, can make the decision between *a* path and *the* path. John, *thank you*.

Comment from Dennis on 2009-03-09

2009-03-09T21:25:20Z

When I went through Oregon OCS, the Nissen hut billets were named after a number of obscure military guys; you know, like Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley and MacArthur.

I went back a few years later, as an instructor and they'd been renamed....after former instructors with no combat experience or history of deployment.

I nearly puked on the pavement.

Comment from Josh on 2009-03-09

2009-03-09T16:39:38Z

Ah, I see.

I love how the military trusts us to operate multibillion dollar equipment and to kill people and destroy infrastructure with aforementioned equipment, but it doesn't trust us to visit any website where we could read particular words that will somehow cause our heads to explode.

Not to mention actually *gasp* see naked people! Because THEN, well jeez, it would be all over. That would be, you know, just too much for any one human being to handle.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2009-03-09

2009-03-09T16:15:09Z

It's the Castle's proprietary (manufactured by BCR Labs, Inc) rating enforcer.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2009-03-09

2009-03-09T16:12:32Z

Back in the day, the Castle was a rather more rollicking place, as we were discovering our collective blog voices.

And the Armorer spent a *lot* of time fighting with Net Nanny services, who kept labeling the site as either a hate speech site because of the gun content, or a porn site, because of intemperate language in the comments.

Those services filter on words. They're much more sophistcated now than they used to be.

The Air Force was especially fond of one service that classified just abouit any blog as a porn site. You could get blocked in a heartbeat and it could take weeks to get the block lifted.

Plus, public wi-fi providers often use those services as well. Imagine my annoyance when I'm sitting at the KC airport, try to open the site, only to have this big yellow screen with red letters announce to anyone looking over my shoulder that "THIS SITE IS BLOCKED FOR PORNOGRAPHY"

You work to build a credible site and a good reputation, so someone says, "Okay, I'll go check it ouit" and they get hit with that...

So. As a part of the evolution of the site came "The Rulez"

There were essentially two.

1. Attack the message, not the messenger. Don't get personal. Clearly, some posts are just fun posts, and the snarkage is good-natured and appropriate. But serious discussions of substance can get easily sidetracked into pointless spittle-flecked ranting when people start attacking each other, and not ideas. And, sadly, some of our better thinkers and commenters around here sometimes have real trouble controlling the snark.

But it makes for a calmer place. Not as entertaining, which did cost readership. But while readership took a slight hit, influence made great gains. A good trade-off.

And many people tell me they like the Castle because it is a calmer place.

2. Keep the language PG-17 decent. No f-bombs. No graphic sexual innuendo. Keep it polite enough you wouldn't mind your mother reading it.

Because my father does. So does my sister. it's one of the few places like it my sister will visit... because we behave. I think that's a good thing.

So, as a way to warn and influence people, the mental construct of the PG-17 Police 'Bot was created. I could threaten people with the PG-17, as in "The PG-17 stirs uneasily in it's recharging cradle" to indicate that I thought the conversation was drifting into forbidden territory.

Every now and then, however, we would have comment parties where the Denizen/nes would deliberately test the boundaries. When those occured, someone decided that it meant the PG-17 had suffered severe damage or needed an upgrade, or both.

Hence the PG-17D.

Comment from Josh on 2009-03-09

2009-03-09T16:01:01Z

So it's basically the internet's version of the MPAA?

Comment from Argent on 2009-03-09

2009-03-09T15:31:22Z

PG 17 or was it PG 17c as far as a gather is not a cuss/norty word filter but rather a rating based on such words. If the Castle is triggered the entire site gets blocked for most military access. Needless to say the Armourer would prefer the site to be readable to the military as much as possible.

Comment from Josh on 2009-03-09

2009-03-09T15:03:02Z

What is a PG-17?

John, I figure there is a different reason, you're too smart. There was a Rear Admiral in the Navy, who figured the US Navy should be left to the Master Chiefs. She was one of the people who started push for computers in the Military. She would talk about two types of authority, "Real" and "Appointed". "Appointed" were the people who had the rank, but had no knowledge or ability to get the job *actually done*. On the other hand, you have the other side, called, "Real Authority." These were the people who had the Military version of "street smarts." These are the people who can get the job *actually done*. If you went into her office, there sat her flag or aegis, as she called it, "The Jolly Roger." In her obituary, it said, "She was known to be contentious." Her name was ADM Grace Hopper or just, 'Amazing Grace'". Do yourself a favor and Google her name.

Didn't she invent COBOL too?

And of course, by rising to command rank in the USN, get the amusing title of "The Old Man"...

Comment from BillT on 2009-03-09

2009-03-09T12:06:20Z

It's true, I am a bilaterally symmetrical humanoid.

Along the X-axis, anyway.

Comment from Justthisguy on 2009-03-09

2009-03-09T11:48:32Z

Yup, and Lex is not an Admiral. And Baldilocks is not President, unlike that other half-Luo. Life is not fair.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2009-03-08

2009-03-09T02:46:05Z

You're too kind, Grumpy. It's true, I am a bilaterally symmetrical humanoid. But I'm thinking the comparison pretty much ends there!

Comment from DJ Elliott on 2009-03-08

2009-03-09T01:56:43Z

Reorganization theory: Giving the impression of change without changing anything.

Who was the Roman that said something about that during the preparations to invade Britain?
I forget his name.

Comment from Grumpy on 2009-03-08

2009-03-09T01:28:59Z

John, When I look at you, I see comparatives between Hooper, Rickover and yourself. But Rickover was more into propulsion systems, not your realm. Each have their place in the big picture,

V/R Thank you, for your service to this Nation, before and now,
Grumpy

Comment from Argent on 2009-03-08

2009-03-08T23:58:10Z

It enforcing word games doesn't change the fact that it's a form of word games. Also I don't have a problem with it. It's your website to begin with and it has a role to play that you want and it plays that role functionally.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2009-03-08

2009-03-08T23:23:45Z

The PG17 is an enforcer. It *enforces* the word games. Just to be clear.

While I see a glimmer of where you're at with that, I see the purpose as different. I'm trying to prevent a descent into prurience, vice hide the true nature of the place.

I want to *preserve* the nature of the place.

And my, aren't we all fair and balanced today, Down Under!

Comment from Argent on 2009-03-08

2009-03-08T23:04:18Z

'Word games' as you put it are used because, I fear, they work. One starts as a checkout chick, then suddenly you're a console operator but now in the heady days of feelgood falsehood you're a accounting revenue manager and customer service consultant. Word games have been used by the military for a long time especially in senstive areas like death and recruitment.

You have a form of word games on this site called PG-17 when you get right down to it.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2009-03-08

2009-03-08T22:45:28Z

I should caveat that, rather strongly. I'm a nuke weapons guy, which is *not* in the same league as a nuke power guy, except perhaps, at the design level. I didn't design 'em, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express...

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2009-03-08

2009-03-08T22:39:07Z

Grumpy, I'm a military computer geek. No military computer geek worth his weight in microprocessors doesn't know Admiral Hopper.

Just as no nuke guy (I'm one of them, too) doesn't know Admiral Rickover.

Comment from Grumpy on 2009-03-08

2009-03-08T22:28:07Z

John, I figure there is a different reason, you're too smart. There was a Rear Admiral in the Navy, who figured the US Navy should be left to the Master Chiefs. She was one of the people who started push for computers in the Military. She would talk about two types of authority, "Real" and "Appointed". "Appointed" were the people who had the rank, but had no knowledge or ability to get the job *actually done*. On the other hand, you have the other side, called, "Real Authority." These were the people who had the Military version of "street smarts." These are the people who can get the job *actually done*. If you went into her office, there sat her flag or aegis, as she called it, "The Jolly Roger." In her obituary, it said, "She was known to be contentious." Her name was ADM Grace Hopper or just, 'Amazing Grace'". Do yourself a favor and Google her name.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2009-03-08

2009-03-08T21:52:36Z

Heh. Leaving aside the spell-check aspect of things, Dusty, I find myself having trouble seeing the screen these days, too. And I'm too wedded to my desktop to make things bigger, too cheap to buy a bigger monitor, and emotionally resistant to getting new glasses, too.

Heh. Hubris, thy name is Armorer...

5 MSMs for an E-5? Or am I mis-remembering what a buck sergeant is? Me, I have 5 MSMs, one of which was for my retirement, too. I do have two AAMs because I asked for an AAM vice another MSM at some point.

Comment from jsallison on 2009-03-08

2009-03-08T21:19:41Z

Personnel buck sergeant's I love me wall behind his desk at the Grafenwohr RPAC was festooned with 5, count 'em, 5 MSM certificates. Me, I received one, ever, on my retirement.

Comment from Attila on 2009-03-08

2009-03-08T20:18:08Z

I'm sitting in the ops center waiting for the crew of the airplane on which I'm jumping back home so I didn't have time to read this whole post but skimming it did me a severe case of deja vu, not to mention complete sympathy.

The difference between John and me is that John pulls his punches a LOT more than I do.

...that, and the fact that I can spell "facilities" and he can't. Or, at least he couldn't until now.

Yes, I'd call them barracks and dining halls, too, on an Air Force base. However, we still call our personnel toads personnel, er, specialists.

Comment from Josh on 2009-03-08

2009-03-08T18:47:06Z

Reminds me of when AFOATS was transformed into "The Holmes Center". Why yes, that tells me EXACTLY what it is, and doesn't at all sound like it could be an organization from ANY field, commercial, academic, charitable, governmental...although somehow not military...

Comment from BillT on 2009-03-08

2009-03-08T16:55:58Z

I've always equated the phrase "Human Resources" with "Soylent Green"...