Quote Originally Posted by JMA View Post
I have specific experience of this insanity.
. . .
Sound familiar?
Too familiar.

Same sort of thing. US Army ROTC Advanced Camp at Bragg, the DCG of then Third Army decided all Cadets should qualify as Sharpshooter or better on the Range. Only available time for refires for those who did not do so was a Sunday. Voila, All Cadets fired Sharpshooter or better on their first try. Happy General, happy NCOs who worked the ranges, happy Cadets *...

Viet Nam. Diktat was promulgated that no body count could be claimed lacking a weapon . Predictably, body count went down, weapons collected count went up. Queries from 'Higher Hq' " You're falling behind. What's the problem down there?" Counts reversed. Amazing...

* The General later wrote an article on leadership in which he cited that incident as an example -- with no trace of irony -- of the 'fact' that you could have perfection if you simply demanded it and obtained metrics to validate performance.

Duty, HONOR, country. Yes...