Interesting…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday directed the active duty military to shed 20% of its four-star general officers as the Trump administration keeps pushing the services to streamline their top leadership positions.
Hegseth also told the National Guard to shed 20% of its top positions.
In a memo dated Monday, Hegseth said the cuts will remove “redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership.”
Full article, HERE at Militarytimes.com
Now the cats will truly be among the pigeons…
Because no 4 star or 3 star wants to give up their position, much less lose a billet that is ‘protected’ for a specific group, i.e. Armor or infantry or in the Navy, submariners, aviators, or surface types. It will be even worse in the Navy within the air community, with fighter, attack, helo, and fixed wing land based all fighting for relevance…
The Air Force will be the bombers against the fighters, with the ass and trash crowd coming in a poor third.
But this is long overdue! It was supposed to be done in 1992 with DOPMA, the Defense Officer Planning and Manning Act, with the secondary agenda of protecting those academy grads from those pesky mustangs who’d come up through the ranks and might take a command slot away.
In the Navy it was colloquially known as NAPA… The Naval Academy Protective Association, which is why a lot of us mustangs retired rather than fight a losing battle.
Will it work?
Maybe. But it will be extremely interesting to watch the infighting in the various services as those billets shrink and force structure gets leaner with less bureaucracy. And I will be really interested to see what happens in the acquisition community, as they have become a power in every service, making decisions that many on the pointy end have never understood. Especially the long lead times to actually GET stuff to the warfighters before it became obsolete.
The power plays in all the services should be ‘entertaining’, to put it mildly!
I’m gonna need more popcorn for this one!!!
The bloodshed will be epic! Glad I’m no longer in. When the bovine excrement strikes the rotating atmospheric oscillator at the top, it tends to shower everyone below them with more than enough shrapnel to go around.
I’m not shedding one single tear , I am not sure what the retirement pay is for a 3 or 4 star exactly but I am sure it is ample , and they’ll sure as shit get 100% from the V.A. for whatever the fuck tendonitis they got doing whatever the fuck it is they do , returning salutes I suppose . Purple Hearts excluded of course . Just get the fuck out …move on …Fair Winds and all that happy horse shit . Comnavsnakpak departing , line up the side boys and have each give them a kick in the ass as they get piped over the side. I’ve set up and torn down more bullshit for 30 minute visits for these fuckers than I care to remember , usually dealing with some fuckin Bull Ensign in charge frantically policing the pier setting up cones , parking signs , awnings , and whatever other dumb shit last minute ideas came out of the Wardroom over a hot mike Motorola . By your leave Sir !!!
The trade school boys and girls stick together. Same the world over.
There are plenty of positions where the only job the admiral seemed to do was brief other admirals and ask captains to justify their existence.
Obama got rid of 162 generals & admirals who weren’t politically correct, to be replaced by his appointees who then sponsored politically correct underlings to be moved up the ranks. Thus the current situation in the military. This is a direction to shed 20% without saying who, and I can’t see the political appointees quitting. Will they cover for each other as 20% more warfighters are gone?
Yes, indeed. That’s what concerns me.
There’s 20% of the Perfumed Princes of the Pentagon that are actual war fighters?
Records of that exist. Trump can clean house on those same 162 appointees and appoint new ones. Sauce for the goose.
Ray- Yep!
Boats- I hear you… sigh…
Gerry- As always! Saw that more than once.
Well, if we’re lucky, the woke ones and their associates will take the route of some illegals and “self-deport” to get the ball rolling.
I’m sure they need cuts among 1 and 2 stars as well, and probably some colonels/ captains as well.
I’d love to see systemic changes that promote the good ones, but I suspect that’s too much to hope for.
Commander Salamander wrote on this today also.
“Cynical Publius” posted these wonderful suggestions:
https://x.com/CynicalPublius/status/1919526618923401418?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1919526618923401418%7Ctwgr%5E36dab6e589d564249d85231db90e6ad67948811a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Finstapundit.com%2F718377%2F
All this will do is prove that high rank brass don’t give a rats ass about America or the good of the military. All that matters to them is rank, privilege and pay. Sh*t can all of them.
Get rid of the REMFs and keep the war fighters. Think that will happen? One can hope.