On Generals and Admirals

Can You Spare Some Sympathy?

As we speak, some 300 plus Generals and Admirals (and Colonels and Captains waiting to be promoted to Generals and Admirals) are locked in place due to an ongoing political argument between the Senate—well, one party in the Senate—well, one PERSON in the Senate—and the Executive Branch over how the Department of Defense reacted to the fallout from the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. You can go elsewhere for the details of the spat, but my view of the matter is that the administration made policy designed to ensure female servicemembers had access to abortion even if states in which they are posted have passed measures restricting it. The policy changes were designed both to ensure access and to score political points with the enraged Democratic base.

Senator “Tommy” Tuberville (R-AL) objected to these measures, making the case that what DoD is doing amounts to spending federal dollars on abortion, something prohibited under the Hyde Amendment. DoD disagreed, and so Tuberville imposed a Senatorial “hold” on all flag and general officer nominations, effectively locking in place the status quo, impacting not only promotions and moves, but also retirements (it may sound strange to the civilian, but a career officers must request to retire). Tuberville’s hold is designed both to send a signal to OSD that their policy runs afoul of the law and to score political points with the enraged GOP base.

Politics suffuses this issue, as Tuberville is obviously making a political point, but then again so are the Senate Democrats and their leader Chuck Schumer (R-NY) who could schedule individual votes for each of these nominees if they wished to. While an onerous and time-consuming process, Senate Democrats could certainly apply it to some of the more egregious situations, like the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, several service chiefs, and a number of three and four star operational commanders. But then the issue would lose some of its political relevance, and we cannot have that.

The Senate must vote on the promotion of all military officers up through the rank of 2-star. So far, Tuberville hasn’t messed with promotions at the level of Colonel/Captain and below—but all promotions above this are frozen. Added to this is the fact that not only are three and four star promotions voted on by the Senate, each position at these ranks must be confirmed for each job. So in the past, a two-star is nominated for a three star job, and the Senate votes both the promotion AND the insertion of that officer into that job. If the service three years later wants to move that person into another 3 star job, the Senate has to confirm it again.

So what we have across the world are three and four star officers who are either being held over in their present jobs (rather than being permitted to rotate or retire), or if the service allows the officer to retire, a relief is ordered in as “acting”. So in the Navy, the Four Star Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) retired a few weeks ago, the Four Star Vice Chief of Naval Operations is “acting” CNO. She (ADM Lisa Franchetti) is also the VCNO. Same goes for the Marine Corps, where the Assistant Commandant is also the Acting Commandant. There are numerous three-star commands across the world with two-star “actings” in place, with the grade decrement required because the Senate is not voting on the nominations.

There is PLENTY of blame to go around here. The administration obviously has politicized this issue. So has Tuberville, but he has also made the mistake of shooting at the wrong target. He has a policy gripe, and uniforms don’t make policy. They carry it out. If Tuberville were standing in the way of civilian nominations, I would understand it better. Still wouldn’t support it, but I would understand it.

The further (farther?) one is from this issue, the less important it seems. Military organizations tend to have a commander and someone designated to assume command in the death or incapacitation of the commander, so what’s the problem—next man (or woman) up? Also, who cares if a three-star operational commander has to stay where he is longer? I mean, he’s an admiral for goodness sake making a ton of money with drivers and planes and mansions. That was tongue in cheek by the way—as I believe our flag and general officers to be criminally underpaid when what we ask of them is considered. But I think the average American thinks hey are a bunch of fatcats.

My problem is that I’m too close to this. My boys (and girls!) are beginning to populate the 3 and 4 star ranks—people I served with since day one in the Navy. I see what this uncertainty is doing to them and their families. Retirements long-planned have been put off for months. Weighty family decisions are in the balance. Promotions to new and exciting jobs worked for across a career are now on hold. Officers have been plugged into jobs of great importance temporarily, and there are the inevitable questions of whether any the officer will be around long enough to see any changes he/she makes implemented. I have friends who are taking financial hits, as a home bought earlier in a career intended for retirement sits empty because they had moved renters out thinking they would be moving back, and the uncertainty of knowing when they WILL be able to retire prohibits further renting.

A man caught in the process here recently asked me how long I thought the situation would last. “You’re plugged in to this stuff, what do you think?” He went white when I said “after the Presidential election.”

There will be costs to this terrible abuse of power. The one I keep thinking about is the layer of “new” two-stars who came into their present jobs thinking they would work hard and play for promotion to three star in a reasonable amount of time. But now they watch the previous crop of two-stars marking time waiting to go to the next job, and there is going to be a big traffic jam of people at small flow points. We will see superb flag and general officers vote with their feet. Repeat this with delayed one-stars and captains. They won’t take this forever, and they have great options in the private sector. To put it bluntly, we could lose a critical slice of an entire generation of future leaders. Not great, Bob.

Turn of the Season

I left the Eastern Shore early last week for California and returned on Friday. In the meantime, summer departed and fall arrived. I know I’ve written already of the end of summer—but that was a chronological matter driven by the arrival of September 1st. What I write of now is the meteorological arrival of autumn (yes, I know autumn does not arrive until the equinox). As Catherine and I got in the car today to drive to church, she hesitated and returned to the house for a long sleeve pullover. That means autumn.

Much of the day yesterday was spent around the pool, doggedly responding to the season’s various depredations. Acorns, sticks, leaves, you name it. There is a church group meeting here Monday afternoon and standards must be maintained. Catherine’s office looks out over the pool, and covering it is akin to giving up on summer, so that doesn’t happen until some time in October.

I must search for my ankle-height L.L. Bean shearling slippers, constant companions throughout the fall and winter but cast aside when it warms. I gave the effort a half-hearted try the other day and was unsuccessful. Maybe a bit more of a search today. The twice-yearly “shifting of the clothes” will happen some time this week, as the spring and summer stuff goes into deep storage and the fall and winter stuff emerges. I will take a good bit of it to the dry cleaners for pressing, and maybe this is the year that I let the little receipts and tabs from the last cycle still affixed serve as a sign that certain items ought find their way into the Goodwill bin.

Football has returned, which I know more as a function of social media than any spectating that I am doing. I glance at the scoreboards in order to be ready to indulge in man-speak, but there is no passion in it. I don’t have an NFL team, and my Virginia Cavaliers are a hot mess, saddled with a Coach that Clemson was happy to offload who continues to suggest that if the players just embraced his “system” results would be better. As a political/legal matter I am all for players being able to transfer and to make money on their names, images, and likenesses, but that doesn’t mean that the professionalization of college football isn’t going to slowly drive me away.

To add to my autumn grilling pleasure, I recently bought a griddle top and added to my growing family of implements a burger/bacon press and those long-tongued spatulas one sees chefs using on griddles. I also bought a few plastic squirt bottles to apply water and various oils and vinegars on the cooktop. Grilling in the fall here on the Miles River is a thing of beauty, as the quiet left by departing songbirds is replaced by the cacophony of migrating geese. By way of practicing, I will take my goose-call out with me while grilling and see if I can coax transiting flocks into my cove. As fortune would have it, they seem happy to respond to me when I have only a long-tongued spatula as a weapon, but they are quite able to ignore me when I have a shotgun close-by.

There is a tree in my front yard (my resident Tree-Whisperer tells me it is a Black Walnut) that drops green balls (presumably walnuts, but I am no arborist) about half the size of a baseball this time each year. These balls litter my driveway, and so as I walk past with the dogs, I have the opportunity to fire them at near-by trees to test my arm strength, or more to the point, how much less strong my arm is from the previous year. A solidly hurled walnut impacting a tree squarely smashes into a lot of pieces, providing instant feedback as to the velocity and aim of the throw. I score precious few of these strikes of late.

Etc.

I’ma just leave this little ditty here from Commentary’s Matt Continetti that very much gets at a lot of my views about the “New Right”. Here’s a taste:

Unsurprisingly, Ahmari has found an audience among the writers and editors of the New York Times, who have taken to tracking the minutiae of his career with an intensity they normally reserve for Beyoncé. A recent piece for the Times quotes Oren Cass saying that Tyranny, Inc. “bravely goes where few conservatives dare tread, to the ideologically fraught realm in which the market appears inherently coercive and capitalism appears in tension with economic freedom.” Perhaps one reason conservatives have not trod upon this ideologically fraught realm, where markets are coercive and freedom is just oppression under a different guise, is that it is the preserve of the left.