Topic: Purged 157 USAF majors

[charlesoakwood]

[blockquote]
Link

“The Obama administration has ordered massive reductions in forces, resulting in many officers who are near retirement being involuntarily separated without retirement or medical benefits,” explained institute director Maj. Kyndra Rotunda.[/blockquote]

A good way to purge officers you do not want and motivate those who
desire not to separate until retirement.  I am sure the remaining officers
will be more attentive to Prince's Perspective.

[Pandora]

Meantime, those "separated" will be absorbed into the civilian milita.  Win/win afaic.

[charlesoakwood]

Majors have one foot in the military and one in politics.
They are two steps from being total political.  They are in
the middle between the political flag officers and the junior
grade officers.  If this action becomes de rigueur forts and
bases will not have dependable seasoned senior officers. The
new officers will be political appointments. This could cause
a great degradation of traditional leadership.  Therefore if a
situation arises requiring independent cohesive onsite
leadership there will be none. 

[Delnorin]

It's fairly 'standard practice' to give people the boot out of the military about the 18 year mark.  You are put under a massive microscope to try and find some reason to get rid of you.  Friend of mine hit the 18 year mark and they tried to kick him out on a medical discharge so they could skip out on most of his retirement benefits....

You wouldn't believe the Hell he had to go through to stay on his full 20.

[Sectionhand]

I was surprised to learn about a Major in my son's Marine Corps reserve company several years ago for whom they didn't have a normal slot in the battalion structure so he wound up as a platoon leader . "Oak Leafs" and leading a platoon ! 

[Libertas]

I hope you are right Pan, I really do!

 

[CatholicCrusader]

[blockquote]
Link

“The Obama administration has ordered massive reductions in forces, resulting in many officers who are near retirement being involuntarily separated without retirement or medical benefits,” explained institute director Maj. Kyndra Rotunda.[/blockquote]

A good way to purge officers you do not want and motivate those who
desire not to separate until retirement.  I am sure the remaining officers
will be more attentive to Prince's Perspective.

This story is awful!! Obama is a pig!!

[John Florida]

  Isn't this the same Obama that gave a speech where he said that he had given instructions for fed depts. to come up with 100K jobs for our returning military people so's as they could work for the Fed Government??

 IIRC when he said that I thought that the crowed had lost their minds applauding that when they already work for the fed Government.  But that would be a win win for his highness,in the sense that he took 100K out of the military and added the same to the DC government.

[Libertas]

Clinton did the same with defense cuts if you recall.  And this is just the AF, there are more O-4's in the Army, Navy & Marine Corps to go after.

If you look at the demographics the services are still mostly white and mostly male, even in the officer ranks (see pg. 22 in the link below), so it is little wonder Stymie feels good about this.

http://prhome.defense.gov/MPP/ACCESSION%20POLICY/PopRep2009/summary/PopRep09Summ.pdf

Odd, none of this is discussed on DoD home page, and a search just generates the usual blather about overseas deployment reductions, budget-talk stuff like the "conditions-based force structure reductions in the Army and the Marine Corps" mentioned by a DoD Asst Sec last March.

No, the leading HEADLINE on Penetta's DoD home page is "Panetta Congratulates ‘Dancing with the Stars’ Champion"!!!

http://www.defense.gov/

 

[Glock32]

Majors have one foot in the military and one in politics.
They are two steps from being total political.  They are in
the middle between the political flag officers and the junior
grade officers.  If this action becomes de rigueur forts and
bases will not have dependable seasoned senior officers. The
new officers will be political appointments. This could cause
a great degradation of traditional leadership.  Therefore if a
situation arises requiring independent cohesive onsite
leadership there will be none. 

Demagogues throughout history have made the mistake of "purging" their military for political purposes, replacing them with politically-reliable but militarily-incompetent lackeys.  See USSR, 1941.

I agree with Pan though. I am all for disenchanted military veterans returning to the civilian fold.