What an amazing pile of crap that article is. A few valid points surrounded by a lot of muck.
Just a few comments since that unjournalism isn't worth much:
--Yes, morale is low. Tight budgets and stupid political bickering/gridlock does that. Most DoD folks I know (and that is quite a lot) are not happy with sequestration, not happy with reduced funds to do what they firmly believe they need to do to defend the country. But most of them are also smart enough to realize it is because BOTH parties are using them as a pawn in their ego-driven tantrums.
--What a shock: macho guys relieved of duty are upset and believe THEY did nothing wrong! Wow, I would never believe THAT!!!!
--I keep seeing a definite trend in the article: "We're Manly Men and we want to ignore the reality of changes in society around us!". Some of the issues brought up (reducing PT standards for example) I completely agree are wrong. But many of the others are largely the Good Ole Boy clique wanting to keep the next generation of GOs looking as 99.4% White Male (and preferably Southern & Protestant) as possible.
Let's look at the reality of promotions for centuries: the majority have been the Peter Principle at work. The best tank driver or fighter pilot is assumed to make the best CEO. That is crap in the medical field, and crap in the military. DoD has long been in need of a complete overhaul in how it grooms and selects leaders. Even after the turnover there are far too many O-6s and GOs who refuse to acknowledge the financial realities of DoD acquisition have changed. How many new major systems can we afford to start acquiring per year? Single digits? Yet the Services keep insisting they need dozens (which they probably do in an ideal world) and won't make a decision! Then, when the SecDef, President, or Congress does select one or two, the same Service GOs scream they selected the wrong ones.
The other area the Services are in major need of an attitude change is in their Service centered parochialism. The Joint Staff has been around for decades but the Services remain in a adversarial role about $$$ far too much. I've lost track of how many times I've heard a Service chief essentially say, "We're the (insert any service), we don't work for OSD/JCS/Congress!). The hell you don't! Those who insist on pushing sub-optimal service perspectives that cost more to produce less SHOULD be removed. There DO need to be a lot of marginal GOs moved aside, the key questions are will be do we move the right ones aside and will we move up the right ones. I've seen some signs of hope, but it's too early to tell. The turnover itself is not the problem.
I don't know all the GOs mentioned, but I do know a lot who have been moved aside gently or forcefully. Of the ones I know a couple were "for cause", many were essentially because they probably never should have risen that high and we as a country can't afford meritocracy in those positions, and some I don't know enough to comment on. I know some (including a couple I would count as friends) who are very good PEOPLE, were outstanding soldiers/sailors/airmen, but were NOT great CEOs. In tight, tough times we need different skills at the top than they possess.
On the note of appointees and some senior civilians, I think the article is right.
Originally Posted by Old-T
Don't slam the article.
A lot of it has already been reported in other more reputable news sources.
There is a lot of truth in the comments about downgrading physical fitness standards in combat units so that women can be in them. And a lot of truth about family breakups caused by co-ed units. After a six month deployment, even the butch looking women in your unit start to look good.
It is idiotic. The sexes are not physically equal, yet women's advocates think they can bend reality to their agenda. The same thing was tried in NY City in the 1980s when they tried to dumb-down physical standards for firefighters. Instead of being able to do a shoulder carry of a 220 pound dummy, it was proposed that the test be changed to dragging a 170 pound dummy across the floor (and just think about how much fatter we have gotten since the 1980s). Fortunately, intelligence prevailed in that instance
All this is being done to try to prove that anything a man can do, a woman can do. But can that ever be true if you have to make the test easier to enable women to pass it?
And the leading advocates of such nonsense are frequently (mostly?) women who wouldn't be caught dead in a uniform. They are making rules for other people to live by.
And I think your comments about procurement are somewhat off the mark, too. Our primary problem is Congressmen wanting to protect weapon systems that are made in their state. The current fiasco with the F-35 fighter is an prime example of that.
There are a lot of weapons that Pentagon doesn't want that they are forced to take - and in quantities they don't want. Like when they are forced to buy more Abrams tanks than they want. The DoD is a jobs project for many in Congress.
And, you don't need a CEO to run the military. That is the wrong skill set. You need trained warriors. The CEO types can work on budgets and procurement. Let the service academies produce the fighters.