Let's Vote

[DDilegge]

SSG is the peak of an NCOs career; the survival of the fit. Progressing further past this rank, they get senile. By the time they reach CSM(survival of the stuborn), they get alzimers.

This also goes for CPTs. Upon making Maj. a frontal labotomy is performed. They may recover at a later rank but are never the same.

It is about colliding egos. "Leaders" get jealous and resentful when a young stud takes the initiative on the battlefield without permission. Their peers also hate it when someone ramps the competition. Retrobution is exacted indirectly through administrative errors(ie losing awards/promotion paperwork, filing paperwork late, lying about it, ect)

Many generalizations here GT-6, and while some of us have seen examples in our careers of "ROADS" scholars, I believe that such a sweeping statement concerning senior SNCO's and field grade officers is unwarranted.

Not much time to respond here, just want to state for the record that in many military communities the senior SNCO and "Iron Major" are the backbone of successful operations. While that may not be true in every MOS, I would offer that infantry and other combat arms S-3's, XO's and CO's do not fit your one-size fits all generalization. Same, same for SNCO billets in infantry and other combat arms battalions. I also believe that holds true for SOF.

Yes, success ultimately depends on the junior leadership on the ground - the strategic corporals and lieutenants - but to just release them into a battle space without training, fire support, combat service support, operation plans, etal, would be foolish at best.

Are there exceptions? Of course, but to stereotype by rank does not do justice to the "good ones" who stuck it through...

Again, just a quick thought on your post.

[GorTex6]

Again, just a quick thought on your post.

It was meant to be humorous

[Stu-6]

I'd like to say yes, but modren commo leads to micro managing

[Xenophon]

I agree completely with point 1 in your post, Bill Moore. But be careful about comparing the strategic corporal to the Starship Troopers of science fiction. Remember, submarines and airplanes were science fiction not that long ago.

Also, I think the "dumbing down" of kids has less to do with computers and video games than with the education system that acts much the same as the military. Conformity is the key, and nowhere are students encouraged to seek out knowledge that they want just for the sake of learning. I have far more academic reading since graduating college than I have ever done before, just for the fact that I have the time and freedom to read what I want to learn instead of getting tired old classic novels and worthless algebraic formulas down my throat.

[zenpundit]

"...instead of getting tired old classic novels and worthless algebraic formulas down my throat."

Oh, I don't know. Dostoyevskii's The Possessed looks pretty relevant these days.

[Xenophon]

And certainly it is. If only that had been assigned reading. Instead we get crap like Ragged Dick and Flowers for Algernon. Middle school level books at the max, being taught in college. You should see the crap high schoolers are forced to waste their time on now.

[zenpundit]

"Instead we get crap like Ragged Dick..."

Resisting.....joke...too.....easy....

I agree, totally inappropriate for the college level. Or even serious H.S. courses in the honors or A.P. vein. I imagine these books are kept on reading lists because so many students have reading and critical thinking skills years behind their chronological age. A H.S. in an affluent area will have juniors reading Paradise Lost and Moby Dick while schools in an impoverished area - well - nothing comparable.

OTOH I retain a certain fondness for Flowers For Algernon - a good way to have younger students contemplate the nature of intelligence, perception, moral reasoning and so on.