Service Branches Rudderless Without Top Officers
Irreplaceable?
Army, Navy Will Be Latest Services Without Chiefs as Senator Maintains Block on Confirmations
The Army and Navy are set to join the Marine Corps in being without a full-time top officer as the Senate leaves for a five-week break without finding a way to end Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s blockade on general and admiral promotions.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville is set to retire next week, while Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday will depart in mid-August.
The Senate began its summer recess Thursday night without confirming replacements for either officer and is not scheduled to return until Sept. 5, ensuring the Army and Navy will join the growing cadre of military services led by acting chiefs.
The rare scenario is playing out because Tuberville is using a procedural tactic known as a hold to prevent quick confirmations for all general and flag officer nominees to try to force the Pentagon to reverse its recently implemented policy covering travel and leave for troops who need to get abortions.
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At a speech Thursday night at a civil rights symposium, President Joe Biden described a “growing cascade of damage and disruption” caused by Tuberville’s hold.“Military families who have already sacrificed so much, unsure of where and when they change stations, unable to get housing or start their kids in the new school because they’re not there yet,” Biden said. “Military spouses forced to take critical career decisions, not knowing where or if they can apply for a new job.”
The hardships being inflicted on General Officers and families are indeed appalling. Senator Tuberville is unmoved by their plight and is demanding either a halt to the abortion travel policy or far worse, have Congress go on the record to vote it into law. In the meantime, the several Branches will have to make do with their respective vice-chairman stepping up as acting chief.
The horror.
Category: Big Pentagon, Diversity, Points-and-Laughs
My field is bereft of, you know, the thing.
Beat me to it, but then, again…RLTW. I, too, have eggs-xactly ZERO (0) phuques to give for the “hardships” that are being suffered by these ossifers. They knowed the job could be dangerous when they took it, the Pilgrims. Way back yonder in the dark ages of my Military Service, we had this thing called “cross training” where as if someone fell, there was someone else ready to step into the breach and continue the mission. Seems as if now, there is more emphasis placed on “cross dre$$ing” than “cross training”. IIRC, WEB G. made mention in one of his “Brotherhood of War” Series (The Aviators?) when a group of newly promoted 06s reported for 07 charm school, they were told that if the aircraft that brought them in had of went down, killing all 30 aboard, DA could reach into the pool and pull out 30 more that were just as qualified. The room got real quiet.
I have even less phuques to give for someone that wants to murder a baby for “convenience”. Abortion for rape, incest, life threatening to the Mother (yes I said MOTHER NOT BIRTH PARENT, call my lawer), that’s different and shall fall under “health care”. The same number of phuques are available to those that think the Military’s Mission is a Social Experiment, and exists to make you feel all warm and fuzzy. The mission is to defend the USA using and including all of the diverse weapons available with equal enthusiasm. How many here have told us stories of certain troops that got themselves knocked up just when the unit was to deploy?
Pure politics going on here, hang tuff, Tubby. Don’t think that Tubby made the rule for this procedure, he’s just playing by the rules available. RTR!
YMMV
I think the overall tactic is dumb, but I have to admit, I’m enjoying the turmoil.
Some Army dude told me if an idea is stupid but it works, it ain’t stupid.
The way things are being run by these “Senior Officers” I would rather a Non-Qual Puke be in charge.
Do I understand this correctly? A Brigadier, for example, is awaiting promotion to Major General and assignment to a slot usually occupied by a Major General because he has been determined to be qualified to hold that rank and position, but Sen. T. is holding up that promotion. Therefore, this same Brigadier who was qualified last month is now unqualified to occupy that slot.
And the whole system comes to an ass-shattering halt because officers who are deemed by promotion boards to be qualified to hold increased responsibility are in “reality” unqualified without the proper collar insignia.
All because female “soldiers” are too dumb or lazy to use contraception and don’t want the responsibility of having a child.
You’re missing the worst part. They are not getting paid where they should be getting paid and losing. The 08 is only getting paid $16,500 a month. Once he gets promoted to 09 he gets 17,700 a month. That 1,200 a month might break him. 😢
Nah, they don’t care about the money; it’s all about the Patriotism, Service, Sacrifice, etc.
“All because female “soldiers” are too dumb or lazy to use contraception and don’t want the responsibility of having a child.”
You forgot the “free, government-provided” contraception part.
Any female who can’t avoid conception, is too stupid to serve in our military. The pill and a hard rule of no glove no love, will preclude pregnancy and STD’s.
I always thought if a female troop got knocked up while on active duty they should be NJP’ed for a self inflicted wound.
The male troop who “knocked her up” while on active duty should b NJPed as well for a “self inflicted wound”.
It takes two genders to bring a child into the world.
Quit blaming women.
Nuh-uhn. Men can get preggers by men and totally have babies so long as they are not in a small town. It was on CNN, they wouldn’t make that shit up.
There’s plenty of free condoms available for male Soldiers too, usually a bowl full at suck call
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👌👌👌👌👌👍👍👍👍
OK, I’m not quite sure how that happened. SICK call. Paging Dr. Freud…
Men have the responsibilty of using contraceptions as well….😉😎
Because screwing (and its consequences) is, of course, “line of duty”.
Not quite. While he is blocking GO/FO promotions, this article is about nominative positions with specific Title 10 authorities and responsibilities laid out in law- only the service chief can perform those duties. It’s not that these guys are missing out on a promotion it’s that certain things can’t happen by law without someone in the position. Most of them are 4-stars already, so they wouldn’t be getting a raise or promotion anyway.
So for now it’s the Commandant, Chief of Staff of the Army, Chief of Naval Operations. Luckily for us all the Chief of Space Operations has less than a year in the job so we are safe there.
At some point this will get around to COCOMs ((Eucom, Centcom, etc), and that will be a problem because of Goldwater-Nichols and Unified Command and Joint Operations laws; these are the only 4 star commanders that have the authority to commit forces to combat.
The senate does have to confirm all Field Grade promotions, but it’s not clear if he is blocking those.
Of course, Milley and the Service Chiefs probably had no say in the policy; it was SecDef and the Service Secretaries at the direction of the Prez.
Could you be a bit more specific re Title 10? I couldn’t find anything that said slot A must be filled by rank B and the duties of slot A cannot be done by anyone of another rank.
As cynical as I am, I cannot believe that the military establishment must come to an ass-shattering halt and cannot function unless someone of an “appropriate” rank is in the “appropriate” slot. My personal experience is only at the Company level, but I have had numerous NCO platoon leaders and 1LT Company commanders. I would like to think that “The show must go on” applies to our military as well as show biz.
timactual wrote:
“All because female “soldiers” are too dumb or lazy to use contraception and don’t want the responsibility of having a child.”
Last time we looked, it takes a MAN and a Woman to conceive a child.
Could have sworn that men can use contraceptions as well, AKA “condoms”.
Men can also shirk responsibility of taking care of a child.
Ever hear of Hunter Biden?
Men not paying child support?
Men denying or/abandoning their own chid?
We Have.
Quit blaming women and quit making false statements that “female soldiers” are too dumb or lazy to use contraception and don’t want the responsibility of having a child” because we can say the same exact thing about “male soldiers”.
It’s the individual Soldier/person that is igmorant/lazy/dumb about contraceptions, not the gender.
🤔
“we can say the same exact thing about “male soldiers”.”
Sure can, but it’s still the Female who gets pregnant and has the ultimate responsibility. It is, after all, “her body, her choice” as we are constantly being reminded.
Let me know when the male has an equal voice in the decision on whether to screw or not, and when to abort or not.
I’m sure the general officers are just quitting in droves. Since every single one of them is eligible for retirement with a pretty hefty pension, I expect them all to be gone by the end of the month. And then we will just have to make do without.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Good!!!
Well,,, bye!!!!
We’ll manage.
It’s time for the services to go back to breaking stuff and bouncing rubble type of military.
Quit being a social club for sideshow circus freaks.
Start at the top and work down from there.
That is what Tuberville is trying to achieve. He is not letting shit for brains nominate more woke incompetent idiots to take over and continue to hamstring the military for their nonsense.
And he should be applauded.
The tears are real,, honest Indian,
Posted without further comment:
Too many chiefs rings a bell.
The tears are real, the Indian isn’t. “Iron Eyes” Cody was Italian!🤣
I had that particular individual as the “headline question” in a trivia column a while back. Got a bit of response, as a lot of folks really thought he was a real Indian. (Being part Native American myself, I do not have an issue with the word “Indian.” In fact, I get to call them anything I want.)
Just don’t call them cleveland.
My wife, who is Eskimo, was once told by a Canadian that she was “First Nations”, not Eskimo. She told him she had been Eskimo for 70 years and was not changing.
Same tribe as Elizabeth Warren?.
Terminal leave is not a right. They can stay until the end of the month and sell back their excess leave.
You mean that keeps them from double dipping?
I wonder how we were able to get through all of those hours of PMCS in the motor pool? I never saw anyone with stars out there unless they were doing a walk through to be seen or damage control after a bad command climate survey.
Do some more Drag shows.
And then fuck the SF command by not going to Bama (which has the support).
Then more Drag shows.
Go DoD!
Bring back the five star to end the crisis.
They are all going to end up like Omar Bradley soon enough.
a lot of those top officers prefer double dutch ruddering
FOR BEHOLD MY FIELD OF FUCKS, FOR IT IS BARREN AND EMPTY, AND I HAVE NONE TO GIVE.
I didn’t even plant any fucks this year.
Plenty of seeds available – right next to all of those cases of bud light 🤣
They wouldn’t make it with this year’s weak monsoon. More of a non-soon.
Yeah, last year spoiled us
https://tucson.com/news/local/weather/petting-zoo-destruction/article_5ca1567a-2f21-11ee-97f6-b3bc2804d05c.html
Still a kangaroo on the loose. The capybara was found happily hanging out in an irrigation ditch
In this economy, someone’s probably looking up kangaroo recipes
Kangaroo tacos?
So military personnel and their families can’t execute PCS orders because General/Flag officer assignments are held in abeyance?
I thought USC 10/35 section 601 allowed the president to appoint temporary positions as needed.
Also for chief of staff positions USC10-9033 states in times of national emergency the president doesn’t need the advice and consent of the Senate…
Biden could state that having no one in those positions while we are actively supporting an ally in time of war constitutes a national emergency and appoint someone. That someone would fill the position with the authority of the position while maintaining their current grade…
It would be an interesting exercise of CinC powers…
Congress has abdicated much of its responsibilities over the last 75 years. Perhaps it’s time to remind them regardless of their personal vendettas they’ve actually got some statutory responsibilities to the nation and its people.
Since we the people seem unable to hold them accountable the executive should press forward and see how it all plays out in real time.
He is too busy banning light bulbs, gas stoves and window ACs. Com’on man!
Let the E-4 mafia run the whole thing for a while…they’ll probably do a better job.
Or all the 2LTs that have something to prove!
That would make for interesting reading material. Instead of guys like Jack Carr writing novels about former SEALSs, it would be books on how the “wiredogs” of Commo Platoon continullay outwitted the 1SG to stay off the duty roster….
It’s all about looking busy and staying off the radar. And a PSG that remembers his roots as a mafia member helps. That is, if the E4 mafia actually existed.
Those other services do have a chain of command, right? Then second banana steps up and takes over. This should be fairly seamless and not all that difficult for old guys making a lot of money being generals and admirals and all.
“Biden To Keep Space Command In Colorado, Rejecting Move To Huntsville”
https://www.waaytv.com/news/biden-to-keep-space-command-in-colorado-rejecting-move-to-huntsville/article_e64c0992-2fda-11ee-a059-b36c97d774a8.html
“President Joe Biden has decided to keep U.S. Space Command headquarters in Colorado, overturning a last-ditch decision by the Trump administration to move it to Alabama. The choice ended months of thorny deliberations, but an Alabama lawmaker vowed to fight on.”
“US officials told The Associated Press on Monday that Biden was convinced by the head of Space Command, Gen. James Dickinson, who argued that moving his headquarters now would jeopardize military readiness. Dickinson’s view, however, was in contrast to Air Force leadership, who studied the issue at length and determined that relocating to Huntsville, Alabama, was the right move.”
“In announcing the plans, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said the decision was based on an “objective and deliberate process informed by data and analysis.” He said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin supported the president’s decision.”
“Biden said the U.S. officials, believes that keeping the command in Colorado Springs would avoid a disruption in readiness that the move would cause, particularly as the U.S. races to compete with China in space. And they said Biden firmly believes that maintaining stability will help the military be better able to respond in space over the next decade. Those factors, they said, outweighed what the president believed would be any minor benefits of moving to Alabama.”
The solution is simple. Reverse the policy of using taxpayer money for abortion travel. Any member who can’t afford to take some leave and foot their own travel costs can take advantage of Navy Mutual Aid or whatever the other services have as analogs for assistance.
Or, even better, NOT. GET. PREGNANT!
(and both sides can participate in this fun little exercise. it takes two to dance the horizontal mambo)
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.