Callous Mistreatment of Navy Veterans

Mark Hyman February 6, 2018

An open letter to the Chief of Navy Personnel.

Vice Admiral Robert P. Burke, USN

Chief of Navy Personnel
Navy Personnel Command
5720 Integrity Drive
Millington, TN 38055

Dear Admiral Burke:
 

I have anticipated writing this letter for more than a year.  Like countless other veterans, I spent my entire Navy career struggling with the customer-unfriendly Navy Personnel Command. There was little doubt I’d reach this point in what should be my final communication with NPC.  Let me bring you up to speed. I served 35 years in the military. All but one year was in the Navy. One-third of that time was on active duty and the rest was in the reserves. I retired after 30 years of commissioned service as a Captain (O-6)............In the three decades I served in the military, I attended more leadership training seminars than I could ever count that addressed the importance of taking care of our people. Clever little catchphrases are emblazoned on commissary shopping bags. Signs adorn office walls claiming people are the Navy’s greatest resource. But every service member realizes this is merely lip-service. That’s because no one is ever held accountable for mistreating their people including both service members and their families. The scandals at the Veterans Administration highlight this reality.............To Read More....

My Take - Well, an officer of command rank is now being treated the way the officer corp treated the enlisted men.  Contemptuously!  Those of us who were enlisted men never had any illusions about how the Navy officer corp felt about us.  I hated the officers when I was in the Navy and I still hate the officers, but this is an issue that impacts everyone and someone needs to get in there an dump a bunch of people and systems.  He's right.  All they should need from a retired military man is a 3X5 card.  But this red tape issue is a massive problem Navy wide.  My question is - what did he do about it when he was serving?  Answer: Nothing!

There are two groups of people who are generally considered leaders.  Military officers and Ph.D'.s, and that's simply not so.  Show me a Ph.D. candidate who tells everyone during his oral dissertation their views are all wrong - and proves it - and I will show you a candidate who is a career Masters degree.  Show me a lower ranking officer who tells his superiors they're wrong and proves it and I will show you a permanent lower ranking officer, if he's even allowed to have a military career.

Give them a mission and they're great.  If that mission is possible - they'll get it done.  Ask them to be the rock in the current, and you're wasting your time as they've spent a lifetime going along to get a long, and they're incapable of standing against the conventional wisdom.