COVID 19: The Shit Show

There are some hard lessons being learned about how we respond to a pandemic, and I’m lucky enough to be at one of the centers trying to figure out the problem.  No we aren’t developing cures, or doing research, that’s for the heroes that matter.  We are trying to preserve our ability to deploy a force of ready Soldiers and conduct combat operations. As always, I’ve identified some problems that I’d like to share in hopes that my peers and subordinates alike can read and learn from my time in staff purgatory.

1. Failure to adapt

The number one problem we’ve been facing is the Army’s willingness to run into the brick wall until we break through with wanton disregard for our personal safety. Senior leaders have decided that COVID-19 is slowly approaching our defensive positions and we’re going to be able to react fast enough to keep it out, after identification.  As we all know, that’s simply not the case with a viral pandemic.  Our assumptions are old, outdated, and full of holes.  This is blatantly apparent in the generation of officers raised prior to GWOT serving in senior positions now.  With an organization as rigid and unflappable as the US Army, it’s hard to tell these boomers to open their eyes, which is the root of the problem, we fail to adapt.  

Just keep going we’ll get through this together trooper!

      Let me tell you first hand, our organization had insisted on maintaining physical meetings indoors until the end of March, only just publishing guidance to limit training to squad and below.  Hell, the 82^nd and 173^rd did an airborne operation after the order to maintain social distancing.  I’ve driven down streets watching Soldiers stand in formation, days after they were ordered not to.  While this is a problem during the pandemic, I point to a larger problem which is our rigid adherence to “how we’ve always done it”.  We just don’t like changing things.  I knew this was a problem in 2010 when I was in Iraq and Frank our CSM insisted on PT formations outside, “just like garrison”.  I would argue that both formations in the examples are stupid, and our leadership is the problem if they’re unwilling to step in and protect us from the madness.

Don’t worry about the rocket attacks, we need to maintain good order and discipline

      Another scab that just won’t heal is the reliance on power point.  Look, don’t get me wrong, power point can do some good, but it’s not the only tool in the kit.  Part of my beef with power point is that it has prioritized optics over content.  I’ve physically seen officers be denigrated in public for having the wrong font.  We’re so worried that icons aren’t aligned that we lose picture of the operational framework.  Couple this emphasis on aesthetics with an actual crisis and we lose critical horse power that could be utilized to do good.  In other words, Arial font wont kill COVID, get over it Boomer.

Yeah… it’s kind of a well known thing

     Last point here, let me share a buzz phrase that makes every Officer under the age of 40 shudder.  We need to “operationalize” this.  A similar phrase that brings staff officers to immediate murder mode is “let’s codify that in the FRAGO”.  Both these phrases stink of generations past where ample time and space were given to training events and situations developed daily or weekly.  In the days of COVID, the situation changes every moment.  You like those numbers? Too bad, shit is about to change.  We can’t get tied down to battle rhythms and prescribed times.  It’s 2020, shit moves faster than what we’re accustomed to, let’s all get used to it cause COVID isn’t taking any weekends off.  

 2. “Readiness”

The hardest thing for type “A” people to do is take a damn break, this is extremely apparent in the military, where time out of the office is a mark of shame for most.  My two cents says we need to get past that antiquated notion.  To quote the Chief of Staff of the Army, “We’re an industrial age army, in an information age world.”  He was referencing our systems and processes, but I feel like this is applicable to our COVID response as well.  From January until March the military was only concerned with preserving training readiness and loath to cancel any training events based on the doom and gloom coming from the CDC.  If you think that January and March were too early to really know the impact, I’ll remind you that the US army lost about 12 men to disease for every 1 killed in the trenches of WWI. 

That’s right…this is a peace time hospital

Let that shit sink in.  We should be quite keen on the whole communicable disease thing, but we continue to push training readiness, as seen by all the facebook posts of Paratroopers going through JMPI with masks on their face, then cramming into a packed aircraft. 

     News flash, our force is made up of a majority of support personnel.  Army University Press published Occasional Paper 23 by John J. McGrath, to the Long War Series where they showed the graph depicted below.  The paper took a look at a cross section of Forces in Iraq for 2005, which shows only 28% of forces listed as combat forces.  So why does this matter?  The trigger pullers are the minority, and we are sacrificing the safety of the logisticians and supporting contractors by refusing to read the writing on the wall. I would argue that your M4 range is not as vital as the bulk cargo capability at an airfield.  That’s the readiness we need to preserve, its not just putting metal on metal, it’s getting the hardware there in the first place.

APU Figures for Iraq 2005

      Bottom line, our maintenance and support systems are important, much more so than jumping out of an airplane for currency, or conducting a range to maintain “readiness”.  If you want a ready force, make sure they’re healthy, and not facing repertory failure prior to H-Hour, or P-Hour for you Paratroopers out there.

3. Decision cycles and getting ahead of the problem

     The most egregious issue we’ve seen in the military, facing the Corona Virus, is the lag time for decision making.  COVID-19 moves at the speed of people, this is not a slow moving hoard of bad guys, it’s an invisible germ that hides for two weeks before letting you know you’re fucked.  Additionally, some people are asymptomatic while spreading the virus, ala typhoid Mary.  Yet, we continue to ask people if they’re symptomatic and take their temperatures while we continue to allow them to share gym equipment and house them in the same building until symptoms present themselves.  That’s like asking your creepy uncle to pick up your kid at school and buying a nanny cam afterwards. 

If the shoe fits…

     Town hall after town hall I watch senior Army Leaders dodge questions and give political answers.  The underlying issue is that we lack adaptable leaders willing to address the problems and concerns over optics.  Nobody wants to be the general that overreacted or underestimated the problem. They walk a fine line of just enough to get by, and Joe, or even worse, military family members, are paying for it. Some senior leaders went so far as to say Soldiers were “safer in the field”. 

#killthevirus

     Drastic times call for drastic measures, if you ask me, which nobody has, but still, if you ask me, making a decision now is better than waiting for guidance and having it blow up in our face.  We’re playing the long game now, we’re talking a two week flash to bang, and our leaders need to be prepared to look at LEAST two weeks into the future to create their vision of success and implement measures to get there.

Stay healthy out there kids.

Here’s a link to the CDC website.  Please make sure you guys are keeping healthy and take more precautions than you think.  If not for you then for your family and friends that may not react to the virus as you would.  Remember the goal here is to slow it down to help the folks in the hospitals catch up to the demand, and we’ve all gotta do our part.  

A slippery slope: A look into the modern U.S. Military

The US Military has become a bastion of the Americana, despite the fact that less than 1% of the American population is in service.  Everything from glorification in movies, holidays, and tv shows have become a cornerstone in American culture.  This isn’t necessarily a good thing; this fascination has spawned some issues, and in keeping with the tradition of this site, I’ve written those issues into a list. 

1. It’s time to ditch the executive branch

Regardless of your political stance, there’s been a lot of talk about presidents overstepping their politically appointed powers.  FDR was criticized for his goal of ditching isolationism and getting involved in international affairs, especially a little conflict we like to abbreviate as WW II.  Congress passed a resolution to try to limit the power of the president to deploy troops, known as the War Powers Resolution but that only matters if you want to declare war. 

The wheelchair was really to assist him with his gigantic set of stones

The easiest way to get around this is to simply redefine what the president is doing with the troops, call it a conflict or intervention.  You’ve seen this in such conflicts as Vietnam (Kenedy/Johnson), Grenada (Reagan), Kosovo (Clinton), and Syria (Obama).  Bottom line, there aren’t any real checks and balances here, and although the president is an elected official, it’s one person that wields the greatest military power the world has seen, and I’m not sure this is a good thing. 

War? No, this is just a police action, what are you talking about?

So we’ve put all our nuclear eggs into one basket essentially.  Historically, this centralized power and authority, unchecked, has led to a steady decent into autocracy.  Don’t take my word for it, look at Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, Communist China/Vietnam/Cuba, hell even present-day Russia where Putin is skirting the line of being a modern-day Stalin.

My point, put the military under congress, which already controls procurement, funding, and holds the authority to officially declare war.  George Washington might have resisted the allure of absolute power in the country’s infancy, but we’re seeing rapid, and progressive, power grabs from our modern presidents, that is surprisingly not alarming the public as much as I think it should.   

2. You should stop feeling sorry for us

One of the most frustrating things to go through as a veteran or active duty service member is to watch politicians, businesses, and people gloat about doing things for the troops while knowing just how little they give a shit about you.  You see this a lot around the political spectrum, arguably more so by the right, but often times whether someone is pro or anti war, they’ll spout out shit about care for the troops, often times while justifying the new ungodly budget for defense spending.  This leads me to say, we’re not the charity case you brag to your friends about, we’re your crazy relatives that are a little fucked up in the head. 

This’ll help right?

The resentment builds when you see generations of politicians, with no skin in the game, spouting off about how our “heroes” are out on the front lines defending freedom.  The truth is, most politicians, and defense industry folks, actively profit on those same heroes getting put in harm’s way as a way to increase and justify spending.  We’ll “thank” the troops, wave a flag, and thank people for their service, but then turn around and cut medical care for those same people, or unemployment benefits for veterans that are permanently disabled from combat related injuries. 

Bottom line is, we’re not your dollar a day charity for starving kids, these problems have been manufactured by the same people that put us in harms way through hazy justification, so stop feeling sorry for us and do something about it.  Demand transparency, don’t just blindly accept the war hawkish “merica” mentality that demands a strong military response to everything, unless you’re willing to accept the repercussions.  Buying me a cup of coffee every now and again is not the way to take care of me, go out and demand that these politicians have some kind of plan before sending us into another country to topple a government.    

3. We’re taking sponsors, and that’s a problem

Speaking of money, we’ve become one hell of a money hungry organization, and everybody knows it.  Caring for troops is synonymous with large purchases and new equipment.  The Bureaucracy and politicization of the military industrial complex has caused this mass spending to ultimately be for nothing.  An illustration of this boat load of cash with nothing to show is the F-22.  The Air Force spent $334 million dollars in research and production only to stop said production in 2010 for the F-35, keep in mind, this aircraft had it’s first flight in 1997, that’s a service life of 13 years if you count that first flight. 

Yes kids, this is now outdated.

There is a stark contrast between old military spending and new military spending.  The M2 .50 caliber machine gun has been in service since 1933, almost completely unchanged, hell I have pictures of me firing this beast, it’s a god damn monster that continues to serve like the loyal god of war it is.  The B-52 has been in service since 1955, and continues to serve today.  So what the hell has happened?

Hail to the king baby.

Corporations and contractors have capitalized on our government spending and restrictive rules.  The military is bound by congressional spending and allocation, which has politicized our leadership in service to the dirty hands holding the purse strings.  The priority nowadays isn’t really caring for the Soldier, Sailor, Marine, or Airman, it’s solidifying a plant a district manufacturing hardware for the government and jobs for the constituents. 

So the next time you hear about a new Air Force toy, a new vehicle, a new uniform, reflect on the talking head spouting out bits and buzzwords and really think about it.  Same thing goes for those politicians waving flags, thanking the “boys and girls in uniform” what service have they done aside from holding political office? 

Is this shit necessary?

Cause if we never question, we’ll never get out of the shitty spot we’ve found ourselves in. 

Institutionalized

I promise this article gets less depressing.

Memorial day, a day of remembrance and mourning, to appreciate the hard life and sad demise of many of our brothers and sisters in arms. While I appreciate the sacrifices that many Americans, and to be honest, many immigrants, slaves, and under appreciated masses have paid, I also take this day to reflect on my chosen profession and the military at large. For while we do recognize the heroes, the warriors, and the people that have served, or given their lives, this is as good of a time as any to point out the inadequacies of some parts of the military. Today, I’d like to thank those who fell before me, but also give a glimpse into how the system mirrors any other institution that this country hosts, but mainly…. prison.

Until post Vietnam war, this country enjoyed a fine tradition of conscript armies. Yes, even the brave souls who stormed to beach on D-Day were drafted. Granted, there was no shortage of oversized balls (and ovaries in support throughout the war), but many of them were there because they were pressed into service. This fine history of people forced and coerced into service has given our service a bad habit of treating our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines like the common prisoners. We’re not going to change that today, but I have put together a nice list of similarities between us. Because while the sacrifices that individuals have made in the system, it doesn’t pardon the process that they endured on the way.

These guys relied on their gigantic balls as flotation devices as they stormed a contested beach in support of OPERATION OVERLORD.

Stories as Currency

Stick people in a room together for long enough and they’re eventually going to start talking to each other. We’re humans, we rely on our social circles and ability to communicate. No matter how many applicable subjects you have to your situation, the overwhelming trend is to start, as we say, Bullshitting, because there is only so much sleeping and discrete masturbation one can do.

And then I was like “stop trying to make fetch happen….”

Basic training, follow on schools, Ranger School, deployments, training, it doesn’t matter, you need to blow off some steam, and what better way than to say some outlandish tails of gallantry in the face of a bar fight, or a beautiful woman you talked into giving you her number. In prison, the same applies, cause who doesn’t like some good bull, or a good joke? Hell even complaining beats the hell out of staring at each other in boredom. We look forward to getting back home, enjoying the things we used to enjoy, being with the ones we love. We carry totems and symbols of the life we left for this one, willing or against our will. I myself have a laminated hand print from my son, and on the back, a picture of my wife, it makes me forget about the bullshit, and start bullshitting.

get a load of this bullshit

The longer the stay, the more extreme the stories, the more self honesty you convey, the more you stretch for the absurd. Your ability to make people laugh becomes your calling card, it’s how people know you, cause humor is universal, nobody likes a stick in the mud.

Counting the Days

A wise man once told me, “Do the time Evan, don’t let the time do you.” He learned this wisdom from his time in county jail, and I continue to spread the gospel to those I serve with today. My interpretation of this nugget is to accept a little thing I like to call, the cycle of fucks.

Notice the inverse relationship between your attitude and stress levels, as well as the steady exhaustion of fucks to give.

You see, when you first arrive in a deployment, training rotation, or start your sentence, your stress level is high, you’re weary, strung out, and trying to find scraps of normalcy in an otherwise bizarre world. I likened Iraq to something out of a sci-fi novel, hell we even called the fine crushed sand moon dust. As you continue through your sentence, training, or rotation, you find your rhythm, you make friends, you make enemies, and you have some semblance of normalcy, glued together by the ridiculous experiences in the gaps. The little frustrations don’t bother you as much, because you’ve accepted your station during this fart in your life. Then you hit a point of which all of that becomes an exercise in futility, and it feels like your box, your truck, your bunk, is all a prison. You’re back to a stage where you’re stressed, strung out, and angry all the time, mainly in anticipation of going home.

That’s beautiful private…. now paint those rocks and trim the grass.

Doing the time prolongs the zen like focus you have before going off the deep end. It’s a kind of enlightenment after your preliminary liminal experience. It’s where you can appreciate a good shit, or a funny joke, without bitching about how much longer you’ve got till you get to drink a real cup of coffee, or just sit in the sun showing off your freedom.

Masturbation

It doesn’t matter how proper or pious you are, you’ll be jacking off discreetly and bragging about the ability to do so. It’s an unwritten rule in most institutions, if you see the opportunity, treat yourself, cause you never know when you’ll get the chance again. Sometimes this is a strategic decision, you’ve found a comfy bathroom, or location where you can eek out about three minutes to poach the egg. Sometimes, this is tactical, the roommate or cellie (cell-E) is preoccupied, you’ve spotted an opportunity and it’s time to scratch Yoda behind the ears.

cough, cough, cough

If this offends you, or makes you feel uneasy, chances are you’ve never been a cog in an uncaring machine. You’ve probably always had access to a vice, or at least some form of release, whether that was a long walk, a bong hit, or a beer, you got to unload your problems on something. So don’t judge, cause that remains one of the only vices we’re allowed. No booze, limited smokes, and few glimpses of the opposite sex becomes your road down your happy highway.

Dude…. I totally walked in on her in her underwear, I almost saw full on ankle

So while on the outside or back home, you might brag about how epic a night you had, and how much you had to drink, in this arena, it’s a crooked smile followed by something along the lines of “my roommate had to leave early, so I finally got to burp the worm in peace”

Sophomoric Humor

I don’t care how mature you think you are, on a long enough timeline, you will fart for laughter. If you filled a room with generals, inmates, or privates, the outcome will eventually be dick and fart jokes. This isn’t the only thing that ruminates from long discussions amongst professionals (criminal or otherwise), but it is a normal byproduct of stress, or intense thought. Eventually you have to unwind and enjoy dumb shit. Life isn’t just about filet mignon, every so often you have to enjoy a shitty burger.

with buts though

Another standard for institutionalization is the ability to mess with people. This can be direct, in the form of shit talking, or indirect in the form of pranks. A note on this behavior, it can be done as a form of endearment, or hate. We assign nicknames and catchphrases regardless of your location on the spectrum, and we’ll play jokes on you to either entertain ourselves, or the masses, what the hell else are we going to do with our time? How else could we show off our creativity. Hell, it usually makes for a good story.

This is what happens when you leave your CVC unattended as a new LT.

Unique Language

Verbal language is uniquely human, unique experience garnishes unique language. Sure dolphins, whales, and whatnot can communicate in complex modes, I’d argue that humans are the heavy weight champs of complex communication. Part of that communication is the language we use, which serves a lot of different purposes.

First and foremost, the language you use on the inside, so to speak, communicates a lot about who you are and the circumstances that brought you there. In the Army, the way you talk will probably tip me off to your rank, the types of assignments you’ve had, where you’re from, and what you value. It also preps me for the trash talk, ego stroking, or complaints that will eventually occur.

example: this will piss off every infantryman I know

Furthermore, this language communicates that you’re either one of us or an outsider, a fucking new guy (FNG), or a narc. In Ukraine, the Soldiers spoke Russian to you until they knew you weren’t a spy and they trusted you, for which they rewarded you with speaking in their native Ukrainian dialect. In Prison, guards and inmates alike, have their own language, speak their own codes, and communicate in a way that would be foreign to even your closest family members.

example: that piece of steel is called the bitch plate

I’m thankful for those who came before me and gave their lives in service to others, and in that respect, I challenge everyone to honor them in the way they treat the service members and the less fortunate today. Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines aren’t indentured servants, criminals, or scum, the same way most prisoners aren’t (although there are exceptions). Let’s honor those who paid the price before us by finding ways to develop, trust, and confidence in those who we typically spit on. I don’t want a “thank you for your service” or your commemoration on a certain day, I want better opportunities for my Soldiers, and a better transition for those who found themselves on the wrong side of the law, cause I like to think they died for the best of humanity, not to perpetuate the worst of it.

The Army Combat Fitness Test… or How I stopped worrying and learned to accept defeat.

Intro

What the hell is the ACFT?

The Army Combat Fitness Test is the newest assessment the army has flopped out in an attempt to measure a Soldiers combat readiness.  Readiness is the vague term that the military uses to describe the ability to deploy.  The vagueness of readiness gives type A people the chills because you can’t measure it, but I digress.  The ACFT is composed of dead lifts, hand release push-ups, power throws with a medicine ball, sprint / drag / carry of a sled, a hanging leg tuck, and a 2 mile run.  This test requires a Hex bar (with weights up to 360 lbs), a medicine ball (10 lbs), a sled with 90 lbs and rope, two 40 lb kettle bells, and a set of pull-up bars.  I would go into depth on each event, but it honestly doesn’t matter for this argument because…

We don’t use the tools of the trade

Not sure if you guys noticed, but this test doesn’t use ANY military equipment, or specific combat applicable movements.  The regulation justifies these exercise using shaky footing and awkward statements in a “relevance of test” section for each exercise such as…

The Leg Tuck

Not sure how many vertical walls feature a completely open frame, with a convenient bar to grab in order hurl your feet towards your elbows, but this movement also doesn’t test much outside your abs and grip strength… which, even though incorporating a dead hang, doesn’t colorize the skinless dudes forearms.

The Power Throw

If this is how you’re throwing a hand grenade or pulling out a casualty, you’re a liability, not a battle buddy.  Not to say that this doesn’t require strength and coordination, but it doesn’t emulate combat in the slightest, especially in the ways mentioned in the relevance portion.  He’s not moving equipment, that implies picking it up, hauling it, and putting it down, he’s throwing it…. behind him.  He’s also not dragging anything, and the fact that he’s throwing it behind him negates the grenade thing.  This is just overall a dumb explanation written by people that wanted to justify their stupid medicine ball throws they do at their “box” work for them finally.

The Push Up

This is the worst offender of all, first and foremost, it’s a timed strength test that requires you to do non-work movement, so moving your hands out and resetting to a very specific part of your body, secondly, the relevance portion is laughable.  If you’re not following me here, let me illustrate…. Who pushes a vehicle with their chest and triceps?  How many fighters out there are developing their chest in an attempt to press up an opponent?  Also straining your neck back like that is not exactly a natural position.

Last issue here…

The 2 Mile Run

Which one of those pics have people that look like they are moving towards combat?  Although Sergeant Major Daily is a bad ass that could probably defeat any developed country’s military by himself while wearing PTs, the guy to his left looks more like he’s headed to the Green Beans on the FOB than he is a bunker.

This test uses equipment that we don’t use, in a uniform that we only wear for PT, and has the audacity to to call itself a combat readiness test.  So congratulations, you’ve created a test in which it doesn’t recreate an environment, uniform, or movement of what you’re testing for, AND will cost additional money for the purchase of specialized equipment.  This leads me to my next point.

Money problems and branding

This ACFT looks more like a crossfit WOD than a military fitness test, thus completing the evolution of crossfit as the ultimate cop out military workout for lazy leadership and legitimizing fruitless effort at the gym.  Crossfit is, funny enough, a great parallel for this test, it’s pointless, doesn’t incorporate functional movement, and makes you look like an asshole.  The test isn’t only a shallow attempt at “functional fitness” but it also continues the Army trend of bowing to the military industrial complex through its uniform and equipment shenanigans.

The equipment, that this test demand every Army unit to purchase,  can be easily replaced by military equipment and individually issued equipment.  Instead of hex bars, lets wear our body armor (or ruck) and pick up water jugs.  Instead of a weighted sled, drag a pole-less litter (with aforementioned water jugs), and water jugs replacing the kettle bells.  But, no, we are beholden to contracting, and stuck in our old ways of thinking, physical training is only done in the physical training uniform.

These issues pop up after the fact, mainly because of the vast amount of yes men that surround general officers and their offices.  The overwhelming issue is the vast distance between the people doing the research and development, and the common, chain smoking, tattoo having, energy drink addicted, twice divorced, degenerate Soldier.  But that’s another post, and another time.

This devil dog gets it….

How it could be better. 

Not one to bitch without offering a solution… here’s what I propose.  The grading would be gender and age neutral, and would have no cap for points, every 10 seconds would be a point, with lower points being better.

-Uniform: ACUs and IOTV.

-Equipment needed: 40 meters climbing rope, Pole-less litter, Water cans, IOTV.  All of this is either individually issued equipment or part of the Army supply system that can be easily and cheaply ordered.

-First event is a .5 mile run, followed immediately by a .25 mile run with a full water can.  Graded by time.  Grades the ability to quickly move to a fighting position or to an assailable flank, as well as the ability to quickly move supply or ammunition a short distance to a fighting position.

-Second event is a Pole-less litter drag for 400 meters, followed immediately by a pole-less litter pull for 25 meters (litter with two full water cans, attached to a rope that you have to pull from a stationary position). Graded by time

-Third event is  a 50 meter water can relay where you have to pick up and move 6 x water cans to the 50 meter mark however you want (one at a time or two). Graded by time.

And that’s it… that’s the test.  The only thing I would add that is more of an exercise than a directly correlated combat movement would be pull-ups and dips, which to be fair, could easily be found on many army posts or built (for remote locations).  But they test your upper body strength in pushing and pulling scenarios mimicking that of getting yourself or a casualty out of a turret.

 

The Army is not a Business

There’s a common saying in the Army, and it routinely sends me into a rage. You’ll mainly hear the senior enlisted ranks and field grade officers spout this out when talking about efficiency or administrative functions. “The Army is like a business” they say. Whenever Battalion or Brigade level leadership feels like it’s time to wax intellectual, or drop some knowledge on junior Officers, they’ll spit out this chestnut before making their point. This saying is a little dangerous for a few reasons, and completely wrong for a few others. I would warn you potential and current wielders of this simile to be careful when using it, lest you sanitize and marginalize the darker aspects of the military and warfare. After all, the Army is mainly designed to conduct, and win, land warfare.

First, and most obviously, business applications and theories don’t always translate to the problems the Army faces. Six Sigma was a popular process that mid to senior level leaders kept trying to implement with questionable added value. Unfortunately, most Army leadership is very rigid, and not very open to changing processes or empowering junior leaders to make drastic changes in procedure, which is actually the downside of Six Sigma. Additionally, quality control is much easier to define in something like electronics production, or product design, even the more comercial service industry. The human dimension however, as well as the variables involved with direct small unit leadership, are difficult to quantify with objective and statistical analysis. It mainly comes down to opinion, circumstance, intangible perceptions, and a good ammount of risk. Additionally, in the Army, you don’t get the autonomy to run your team or group with any sort of freedom, it’s a top driven organization, very seldom is bottom up refinement solicited.  Granted, some leaders do allow and encourage communication, refinement, and empowerment of junior level leaders, but it is not a widely shared, nor encouraged practice. Funny enough, what you often hear, after they tire of the business speak is, “just do what I say”.   This is perfect transition for my next point.

The Army is the service provider, not the business. Namely, the Army engages in land warfare to protect the United States, it’s interests, and it’s constitution. The Army doesn’t get to decide when or where to deploy, or even who to fight, that’s for the Congress or President to decide. Not to trivialize warfare, or the losses suffered on both sides, but the Army is more like an employee in pest control, it doesn’t get to decide how many exterminators are employed, or which pests to eliminate, it simply goes to where the problem is and tries to figure out the best solution to eliminate the problem. The Army doesn’t control it’s own funding or size, again, it takes what it has, and what it’s equipped with, and tries to solve the problems given to it by Congress or the President. Additionally, the Army has constant turnover in personnel. Successful businesses refuse to work with the complexities and variables that the Army constantly faces, while under sever limitations and inflexible managment. This is a good thing, mainly because it would be very difficult to maintain a profit margin within said confines. This digression is necessary to point out the next issue I have with the Army as a Business model.

The Army has is no profit margin,  the budget is volatile, and it’s a gigantic money fire. The Army’s funding is delegated by the Department of Defense, from the federal budget, which has proven problematic a few times, and disastrous other times. This control leads to problems because there is not a very good synchronization between the risks, mission sets, and long term spending analysis needed to wage nearly constant warfare. Additionally, regardless of congressional approval, the President could deploy the Army, albeit for a limited time. This divorced family model of operations is extremely inefficient and leads to a large amount of waste. Additionally, the Army model of logistics does not work within the confines of a business seeking to eliminate waste, or make things more efficient. The Army cannot simply project supply costs, maintenance, training expenses, and overhead, it is at the mercy of the Government.

My final point is a bit morose, in that the Army, and warfare in general, is built on sets of hypocritical ideals. Warfare results in murder, carried out in defense of interests. While I believe there are times when warefare is very necessary, we cannot shy away from the more disturbing facts, because doing so has set a very large and clear divide between civilians and uniformed service members. But the hypocrisy lies in the standards we set for our Soldiers. We can send eighteen year olds to war, but refuse to let them drink alcohol, or smoke marijuana. We expect these same young adults to make life and death situations, under dire circumstances, which could incriminate or burry them, but we hear the general public cry out to invade countries and topple dictators. It is a brutal endeavor, and not something to be trivialized through buzz words or catch phrases under a sort of false patriotism.

If you’re a leader in the Army, or the military, don’t make yourself a target by spouting out a phrase in an echo chamber. The Army is not like a business, it’s a political tool to protect a nation and further our interests. It’s comfortable with this.  The Army kills others to protect it’s own. It’s comfortable with this. The Army is a broad sword that routinely breaks things and loses it’s edge, only to be oiled and sharpened when the job’s done. Don’t trivialize this harsh, brutal, and violent nature with clichés.