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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KyrosL who wrote (118351)	6/6/2005 12:25:17 AM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793916

To keep more soldiers in the service, the Army has told battalion commanders, who typically command 800-soldier units, that they can no longer bounce soldiers from the service for poor fitness, pregnancy, alcohol and drug abuse or generally unsatisfactory performance. Typically such decisions are made at that level. Instead, the battalion commanders must send the problem soldiers' cases up to their brigade commander, who typically commands about 3,000 soldiers. "Basically it is another set of eyes reviewing cases. It lessens the chance that we will separate people who might still make good soldiers," says Maj. Elizabeth Robbins, a Pentagon spokeswoman. Here we go centralizing more decision making. Notice that the explanation came from the Pentagon. Mark my words...This is a morale killer that will backfire big time. First Sergeants and Captains determine who fails to meet the performance standards. If they have to take it two levels up the chain for resolution, it means they have to deal with two completely different staff levels...both battalion and brigade. This creates what is lovingly known as a clusterfk. NCOs hate it. They don't have time for that BS...and they will begin to become enormously frustrated. The other subtle message being sent is going to every Lt Col in the Army. The Pentagon is telling all of them that we don't trust you to make decisions regarding your Battalion's standards and we don't trust you to make the best decisions for your privates and the good of the Army. The Pentagon major is right. We have done this before, but it was more than a few years ago. These are the exact same methods used by Robert McNamara to destroy the morale of the officer and NCO corps in the 1960s. Our finest won't tolerate this nonsense. They will immediately recognize that the Pentagon is trying to cover their own butts. Real soldiers don't play CYA. The current moves to centralize decision making for CYA purposes is what drove magnificent field commanders like Hackworth out of the Army. This press release is dated June 3. That is 4 days after the Pentagon should have received the May enlistment numbers. The highest levels of our military command are getting rattled. uw