Senate Committee Proposes One of Largest Reductions in General Officers in History

By Constitution.com /From the Daily Caller News Foundation:

The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) recently proposed a 25 percent reduction across the board for general officers. The bill would cut the number of four star officers from 41 to 27, representing one of the largest reductions in modern history.  A summary of the committee’s bill states the drawdown in general officers also applies at the three, two, and one-star levels. The majority staff reasons, “Over the past 30 years, the end-strength of the joint force has decreased 38 percent, but the ratio of four-star officers to the overall force has increased by 65 percent.”......these generals represent bureaucratic hurdles for war-fighters to jump through, making routine authorizations complex procedures.    Phillip Lohaus, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, described the war effort against ISIS to TheDCNF as, “rife with sluggishnes".........To Read More...

My Take - When I was in the service I despised the officers....I still despise the officers and I've been out for almost fifty years.  I used to wonder just exactly what they did all day long.  I'm not talking about combat officers....at least we know they're leading men into danger.   But the rear echelon crowd is different.  It always seemed to me they had little to do except find petty ways to assert their power over enlisted personnel who were helpless to do anything about it.  Chief Petty Officers carried out the day to day operations - so what exactly do they do all day long? I know they loved the Officer's Club!

And at the General Staff level - unless there's a real war such as WWII - I have even less confidence they're dong anything except polishing the apple, feathering their nests and wasting our money. And struting.....they're really good at strutting.....along with worrying someone didn't salute them.  This was especially true among the junior officers, many of whom were ROTC officers who gave me the impression they were geeks who were picked on when they were kids and now it was their turn.  I found them to be smug, arrogant and petty.  In four years I only found one officer worth spit, and he didn't do anything.  But at least he left us alone. 

I didn't like the service but as I tell people - and only those who served really understand this - you couldn't pay me a million dollars to repeat it, but you couldn't pay me a million dollars to have missed it.