Former Sergeant-Major of the Army

[Pete]

They should have made Ken the Army CSM. He would have dropped a battalion of the 82nd in PERSCOM's rear but being as he is a student of Sun Zu, he would have left the enemy a "Golden Bridge" through which to escape. When they began leaving through that last resort he would have opened up with tracers from M60s firing eight feet over their heads. Then when they were in the kill zone the .50 cals would have opened up with knee-high grazing fire. Then he would have called up the artillery for the prearranged HE and VT concentration on the target.

[AdamG]

... left the enemy a "Golden Bridge" through which to escape.

Just make sure the target doesn't limp away short one foot or the blowback can be nasty

[Ken White]

Plus, the possibility surfaced by AdamG's comment exists and is not desirable. Add the complex is in an urban area and collateral damage is never a good idea.

I'd go for Earmuff charges on the building, one for each of the fifteen floors...

However, even that seems a bit extreme -- why doesn't someone in charge just force them to reform? Shy Meyer tried, he really did -- but Congress stalled him (can't have civilian jobs cut...) and PersCom just waited him out and reverted to business as usual. It will take a phased plan and perhaps ten years to implement. Sadly, that is not the American way...

[Bill Moore]

Posted by Ken,

McKinney was but one of a parade of political animals who do not believe that an NCO's job is to train troops and keep his Officer Boss out of trouble but rather to sluff training (it's hard work...) and emphasize appearance for appearance sake and do anything that Boss wants, no matter how abysmally stupid -- all while trying to look like a recruiting poster.

We still have a lot of NCOs who embrace training troops and mentoring their officers, but sadly this behavior is rarely rewarded, and the result is our best NCOs rarely get elevated to the top positions (nor do they want to be caught up in the political crap, but we need good muddy boots senior NCOs to so to help fix our professional culture again). We have a system that rewards the wrong type of behavior. Those who care more about themselves than selfless service will pursue the path that serves their ego rather than the army.