Letter to Secretary Leon Panetta

Published On: February 13, 2012|Categories: MRFF's Inbox|1 Comment on Letter to Secretary Leon Panetta|

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Dear MRFF,

I’m just amazed that our leadership can be so oblivious to this kind of stupidity. While having some flags and insignia for small squads my not really be visible above company grade officer levels (lieutenants and captains), these officers still must have a college education and have gone through introductory levels of professional military education. do we not have some level of instruction that says the equivalent of: brandishing racially charged symbols and using potentially inflammatory, divisive, and discriminatory names for units, bases, and organizations is just plain, fucking, stupid? Our officers should serve as the guardrails for our brave enlisted folks, steering them in the right directions so that they can do their (lethal) jobs without having to face the onus of investigation, embarrassment, and public outcry–not to mention serving as unwilling tools of enemy propoganda. Our officers are failing us and their nation when they just let stuff like this slide by because they think that doing anything about it might harm their soldiers morale or might harm them in the eyes of their own superior officers.

Now, when we look at the Camp Aryan issue, we see that this level of fucking stupidity MUST extend beyond the company grade officer ranks into the core of our services. Naming a base–even a temporary forward operating base–is NOT something that some lieutenant does on a dare in a poker game. They’ve had names like Camp Phoenix (lots of hometown cities and states), Airborne (themed, functional names), and Eggers (named for fallen heroes)–these are good and easy calls, and I know we haven’t used all available names since we’ve lost hundreds in Afghanistan alone. Names must be approved through at least the colonel and probably the one-star or above level. These approval authorities have masters degrees, a few more years of professional military education, more than two decades of experience, AND (professional?) public affairs and strategic communications staffs at their disposal. They actually would have to expend some serious effort to screw it up this badly. It can’t be an accident. And it had to be known by many, many complicit others who just chose to take the easy route and not complain. All it takes is for one good person to NOT do his or her duty for evil to triumph…

(Senior American Military Officer’s name, rank, position and military installation withheld

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One Comment

  1. watchtower February 13, 2012 at 4:51 pm

    Well senior military officer…not sure what a “master degree” in wild life management, business administration or fine arts has to do with managing soldiers, but ok, let go with that. Senior enlisted troops “manage” lower ranking troops. Officers just give the senior NCO’s their philosophy or have someone to blame if things go south.

    Now, if these officers had leadership training that would be a different story. Most officer schools and PME are more about how to deal with generals and the politicians than how to deal with soldiers. I’ve never run into an AF officer that gave me a sense of security with regard to leading the troops to victory probably because they fly air planes and then desks. Now I’ve met a few Army and Marine officers that did give me that warm fuzzy to a victory in war (if I was in a war), but they did not give me a sense that they really know how to necessarily deal with generals or politicians. All of them complain about the “system,” especially all of the rules and regulations that tie their hands.

    In a war or austere conditions it doesn’t surprise me that FOB naming conventions and flag designs are going to be picked that rallies the troops together in a common goal. I’d bet the officers in these chains of command recognize this too and gave them the benefit of the doubt.

    If you want a “standard” put it in writing and then socialize it. Otherwise soldiers will be soldier no matter what their rank is.

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