Writing a career risk?

[Entropy]

Found this fascinating article in the latest Proceedings, which warns of the dangers of writing:

In today's military, boldness is rewarded only in battle, and sometimes not even then. It's a fact of human nature that leaders tend to promote subordinates who most emulate them.

The argument has been made that controversy among military officers should not be played out in public. Unfortunately, controversy played out in private usually dies a very quiet death. To give an idea life, sometimes the only effective way is to make it public, even when doing so might imperil one's career.

And there's the rub. I believe the real threat to serious and open debate has been a single-minded focus on careerism among some officers. This is destructive. In the final analysis, if you wish to advance the cause, you must be willing to put the good of the service over the good of your career (advice I gave to a young officer in "An Open Letter to Lt. Butler" and advice I tried to follow myself).4

I received warnings from superior officers that it would be in my best interest to stop writing. Some of this criticism stemmed from the nature of the subject I had chosen to write about. Some of the blame belongs to editors who changed the meaning of the pieces by assigning them eye-catching but off-the-mark titles. The result was the same: intense pressure from a superior officer to stop writing.

[Schmedlap]

Odd. Only a few months ago Admiral Jim Stavridis, in the August 2008 issue of Proceedings, urged junior officers to Read, Think, Write, and Publish.

[BayonetBrant]

I was NTC in the late '90s when there were several junior officers (mostly LTs) who were all published in Army Times and/or Armor Magazine within a few weeks of each other.
The topics weren't without controversy, either - Force XXI's butt-kicking by the OPFOR, "Breaking the Phalanx", etc.

I remember the command being very encouraging of those officers in their writing and pushing dialogue forward in the field. And these weren't 'command-sanctioned' pieces either. They were just some guys who had ideas they wanted to express.

[William F. Owen]

My personal experience is that if you write supporting a well liked or fashionable agenda, then you will be rewarded. - all about timing and use of language.

If you frighten or injure the Sacred Herd, you will suffer.

My work is by no means original or insightful, but I can say what serving UK officers would get crucified for saying, or so many of them tell me.

[Ken White]

and subscribing off and on to periodicals covering all four services, my observation has been that there always are a few flag officers who actually encourage writing and don't object to some controversial stuff as long as it isn't overboard. A few of them will actually protect junior folks who write.

There are more of them who discourage such writing for several reasons, largely that it may reflect on them or the institutions they see themselves as guarding -- and the majority are sort of neutral and take no position unless, as Wilf says:

"...if you write supporting a well liked or fashionable agenda, then you will be rewarded. - all about timing and use of language.

If you frighten or injure the Sacred Herd, you will suffer.

The good news is that it seems to me there is, as a result of more and better communication and openness, a slight trend to less restriction and persecution on writers.

[Stan]

Hmmm, Tom always made me drive when he took notes for his books.

I was however permitted to type his reports. That's quasi "encouraging your subordinates to write non-controversial stuff"... aye

[Tom Odom]

Hmmm, Tom always made me drive when he took notes for his books.

I was however permitted to type his reports. That's quasi "encouraging your junior to write non-controversial stuff"... aye

As long as they sang my praise

I always found this depended on where and whom one served. In history circles, writing was of course encouraged, indeed it was your duty.

I found the parallel to be with reading: those who read are more inclined to write. Those who refuse to read not only don't write, they don't want others to read or write.

Tom