FEOS wrote:
rdx-fx wrote:
It's like.. becoming a politician, the really hard way.
From what I've witnessed, GOs put up with a lot more bullshit than your average officer, noncom, or enlisted troop. The shit screen starts at the top and by the time anything hits the bottom, it's just the bits of corn and peanut that made it through.
The biggest danger there is is a GO who doesn't have a mind like a steel trap. They have to have so much detail about so many different issues at their fingertips to make so many decisions in so little time...if they don't have a handle on the details, bad decisions
will get made. If the GO isn't smart on something, it's often a combination of his staff not doing their job and/or him/her not being the right guy/girl for the job.
As for hanging around with politicians? The last place most of those GOs want to be is the Pentagon (where they are around politicians all the time). They want to be out in field commands, where politicians come through occasionally and where the GO gets to actually run things. That's not to say they don't have to deal with politics...it's just greatly reduced and they can focus on command.
I was an Army NCO. Air Force, having a higher number of officers in real work positions, may be different.
My perspective on the flow of bullshit is,
"The shit starts as a fart from upon high, then picks up mass and velocity as it accelerates downwards". The bits of corn and peanuts in there? Just the additions of various "me" projects thrown in there, to advance the agenda and career of whichever officer the orders passed by on the way downhill.
The transition from gaseous fart and idea, into a solid pile of shit?
Einsteinian relativity, slightly modified for military use.
It's like the famous equation E=MC², but;
S=NR²whereS =
Shit FactorN =
Number of steps in the chain of command the order has passed through so farR =
Rank of the highest person issuing the orderexamples;Lt. Dan issues an order to Sgt. Lucky's squad, to go pick up a vehicleN; 3, by the time the order has passed from (LT - PSG - Sqd Sgt - Privates)
R; 4² = 16, as Lt. Dan is the issuing officer
S= 48, not so bad, really
President Blowme, having not had a satisfactory blowjob yet today, issues an order for someone to go blow something up somewhereN; 12 or so
R; 12² (CinC, Pentagon, Pentagon, Army, Corps, Division, Brigade, Battalion, Company, Platoon, Squad, Private) Yes, the Pentagon is two layers - they're exceptionally good at adding an extra layer of bullshit to everything they touch.
S = 12 x 12 x 12 = 1728
Hence, an S-factor of 1728. Anything above 100, and you should have a medic on standby, just in case. Anything above 1000, and
someone is probably going to get killed. Anything above 1500, and you're in a job field where you probably cannot get life insurance. Like, SF or
"in-flight missile mechanic".
Officers get to shuffle paperwork, hone their Power Point skills, drink coffee and hold meetings.
On rare occassion, if they're truly hardcore, they might have their driver take them out to the field, where they get the chance to be within 100 feet of actual work getting done. (Not really, though. If it's anything Field Grade or above, their visit stops all real work, and it becomes a field-expedient parade ground dog-and-pony show).
° Note: The equivalence between
higher officer & politician thought-energy (energy) and
physical bullshit(mass) has other implications that are being ignored here.
Last edited by rdx-fx (2009-12-08 13:29:59)