Your thoughts on what's happening in the military?

[Lcp3557]

By no means am I discounting your service, or length of time in uniform. What I am discounting is your attempt to derail the thread into a discussion regarding a topic that is not being discussed. The questions were about what is going on inside the military. If you think discussions and plans for insurrection and coups are what's happening right now, let me assure you that you are sadly mistaken. However I will tell you that, in my opinion, your "pension" is under a greater threat from "enemies domestic"...and not in uniform, than from "enemies foreign." But that's a political discussion that I won't have on this forum.

"Your thoughts on what's happening in the military "

The new blood has it under control just like we did. Press on and remember your oath.

[1stindoor]

Fair enough.

[jigman51]

I am a retired infantry guy with three children currently serving. They know what is BS and what isn't, so do their friends. I always remind them of the oath they took upon joining.

[eh2000]

Some of what is being called BS here is needed training. As much fun as it is to spend a night on the range, rolling on the MMA mat, hot wiring cars, or practicing urban and rural land navigation against OPFOR that is trying to find you...the reality is that many of our service members are becoming victims because we have predators in and amongst us largely in the 18-24 year old category. Take a read of the Fort Hood Independent review or the USASOC Comprehensive review to get a feel for what I mean. Do some exit polling of people getting out after their first few years and see what the challenges are. I bet beans to bullets not many of them used a rifle as their primary tool. It might have been a wrench as a maintainer, a computer as a human resources clerk, or a satellite dish as a communicator.

It isn't that our senior leaders are falling victim to political BS, but rather that these leaders recognize risk is much more than just the declared enemy in this or the next fight. The generals gotta keep as many service members trained as well as possible and as it turns out a pretty good chunk of the military doesn't need to know how to crush a larynx, but they do need to be taught how to be ethically straight and morally correct. Shouldn't have to teach that, but they do. And that doesn't even begin to address how to teach them to be leaders which has almost nothing to do with how good they are at their job.

[1stindoor]

Thanks for the input. Appreciate the perspective, my son (an E6 in the Army) tends to agree with your assessment, that too many of the younger kids need the reinforcement of ethics and morals.

[Hogman]

The last time I replied to one of these threads I got blasted for double dipping as if I was supposed to stay in my whole life. I retired in 2010 after 26 years and went back to work as a DA civilian. I actually work in the Operations section for the same organization I retired from. It has been mentioned but the military is a cross section of society. There are still some great Americans out there that care and take ownership of everything assigned to them BUT there are a bunch of guys who want an award or promotion for having a good day. My biggest complaint NOW is the first thought to fix a training deficiency is a credit card purchase. So many people want to buy something to fix their problem instead of training harder or putting in the work. Same thing applies with work loads. Everybody always needs more people. We are under strength almost everywhere but IMO we still have enough to get the job done if we roll our sleeves up and get after it. The mandatory training (Sexual Harassment, EO, Extremism, Consideration of others, Cyber Awareness, Etc) is ridiculous. Even as a Civilian I have about 2 work weeks worth of online training to do every year. My biggest complain is the ridiculous amount of political correctness and virtue signalling going on right now, especially in the last three months. Services are putting people in positions that have no experience or skills for. They will fail but they won't fail because that would require people to admit they screwed it up. I know I sound like an old grumpy guy but that's the bad. The Good? We still have great young men and women who are willing to serve this country and sacrifice.

[1stindoor]

Great input! I'll respond in more length when I get back to work and not on my phone. But I for one would not "blast" anyone who has done their time and then turned around and continued to serve in a civilian capacity.

[B-47]

I worked with a few people who complained about double dippers. After a few days of listening to them, the message starts to come out that the complainers are upset that they couldn't qualify to be a double dipper. You serve and an opportunity comes along and you take advantage. No different than anyone else.

[Ship]

I worked with a few people who complained about double dippers. After a few days of listening to them, the message starts to come out that the complainers are upset that they couldn't qualify to be a double dipper. You serve and an opportunity comes along and you take advantage. No different than anyone else.

Been double dipping for 16 years. Gonna ride it out into the sunset. I love my job and still get to mentor young military folks. Doesn't feel like work at all.

[1stindoor]

^^That's me in a nutshell. Worked as a contractor and happy as a clam for five years until my organization restructured their organizational footprint and created roughly 7 new GS positions. I was invited to apply for one of them. I did, and (sometimes sadly) got the job. Been doing the GS gig for nearly 3 yrs. When I hit the 5 yr mark and am vested in then civil service retirement system...I'm on borrowed time. I had a 10 year plan post military retirement...still making the milestones. But like you, most times it doesn't feel like work. I could work until I'm 62 and able to draw on the retirement without too much effort. Depends on Household 6.

[Hogman]

Great input! I'll respond in more length when I get back to work and not on my phone. But I for one would not "blast" anyone who has done their time and then turned around and continued to serve in a civilian capacity.

Thanks. I didn't let it bother me too much and I don't think it was on the Veteran's page. I had just retired and posted that I started my new job as a Civilian. One guy was miffed about the cost involved in paying me a retirement, paying my civilian pay, and having to pay the new military guy that backfilled me.

[1stindoor]

I find the ones that are "miffed," are generally the ones that understand the least about how the military works with their civilian counterparts, who are largely the "institutional knowledge" of the organization. Hard to keep track of how many times we've reinvented the wheel when the chain of command changes at least every two years.

[cwilt]

I find the ones that are "miffed," are generally the ones that understand the least about how the military works with their civilian counterparts, who are largely the "institutional knowledge" of the organization. Hard to keep track of how many times we've reinvented the wheel when the chain of command changes at least every two years.

This is so true!

Been at the same place/job since 2001. Some GS supervisors keep the machine rolling but some come in and just uproot the place. Been on both sides of the fence and unfortunately my last supervisor was a total ______! He was actually removed from his command position (GS-14) which i have only seen once in my 30+ years as a civillian/military job.

[Hogman]

Been double dipping for 16 years. Gonna ride it out into the sunset. I love my job and still get to mentor young military folks. Doesn't feel like work at all.

That's the best part right there...Helping a young kid who cares and wants to do well.