Huggy, the post you were responding to was posted by milpilot, not milplt - he has the 'i' in the middle.
I, on the other hand, got to see that the Navy has its fair share of problems after flying with them for 3 years.
Even the Marines have failing leadership. Do some reasearch on their onerous ROE of getting HHQ approval to take out targets that are engaging in activities short of active fighting with friendlies. Snipers can have eyes on individuals actively planting IED's and they need to get several layers of HHQ approval. It has been documented that, in many cases, after discussing what was being observed and answering numerous questions from command - the subjects were gone before they were able to be engaged. And do some research on how poorly the sniper teams are being utilized by local commanders today. In many cases, their training and skills are completely going to waste as they are being used as glorified rifleman - and I talking about full-up snipers - not marksmen. The autonomy of the past is long gone - in some ways technology has not been a good thing. In very few instances are commanders letting them go out for days on end to reconoiter. In many cases, locally or HHQ directed ROE prevent the sniper teams from infiltrating at night or individually in small teams, completly negating their stealth capabilities and alerting enemy forces to their presence.
Want a better review of the Army than I could ever write - read http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/05/2635198.
To get promoted today, you need to have support from above. Support that in most cases is garnered by being a 'yes man' and certainly not being a risk taker. Let's do a poll and see how many commanders are really risk takers nowadays. And I am not talking about everyone's current watered down view of risk taking - I am talking about risk taking that stands up to the WWII level (read Gen Kenney's autobiography or any biography of the great leaders of that era.)
This 'my service is better than your service' bickering detracts from the real issues that all of the services have. Kind of reminds me of two ants fighting about who is better as the big boot is coming down to crush them both.
I, on the other hand, got to see that the Navy has its fair share of problems after flying with them for 3 years.
Even the Marines have failing leadership. Do some reasearch on their onerous ROE of getting HHQ approval to take out targets that are engaging in activities short of active fighting with friendlies. Snipers can have eyes on individuals actively planting IED's and they need to get several layers of HHQ approval. It has been documented that, in many cases, after discussing what was being observed and answering numerous questions from command - the subjects were gone before they were able to be engaged. And do some research on how poorly the sniper teams are being utilized by local commanders today. In many cases, their training and skills are completely going to waste as they are being used as glorified rifleman - and I talking about full-up snipers - not marksmen. The autonomy of the past is long gone - in some ways technology has not been a good thing. In very few instances are commanders letting them go out for days on end to reconoiter. In many cases, locally or HHQ directed ROE prevent the sniper teams from infiltrating at night or individually in small teams, completly negating their stealth capabilities and alerting enemy forces to their presence.
Want a better review of the Army than I could ever write - read http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/05/2635198.
To get promoted today, you need to have support from above. Support that in most cases is garnered by being a 'yes man' and certainly not being a risk taker. Let's do a poll and see how many commanders are really risk takers nowadays. And I am not talking about everyone's current watered down view of risk taking - I am talking about risk taking that stands up to the WWII level (read Gen Kenney's autobiography or any biography of the great leaders of that era.)
This 'my service is better than your service' bickering detracts from the real issues that all of the services have. Kind of reminds me of two ants fighting about who is better as the big boot is coming down to crush them both.
