Posted on 03/27/2002 7:05:44 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, the guy who saved our nation during the Civil War, probably wouldn't make major in today's Army. He was mule-skinner abrasive, enjoyed his sauce and wasn't exactly what you'd call a pretty face.
Today most generals and admirals are highly attractive smooth talkers with some sort of master's degree and a Ph.D. in how to work the corridors of power.
But while these uniformed central-casting smoothies know how to schmooze for funds for their latest silver-bullet project, they unfortunately don't know how to fight guerrilla wars.
The Somali debacle, and now the recent major foul-up in Afghanistan, prove in spades that our warrior class has lost out to a professional-management culture that's virtually destroyed our armed forces, less the Marine Corps which is slowly veering in that direction as well.
Long before the first regular American soldier headed to Vietnam, the hardened vets who'd slugged it out on hundreds of killing fields knew the post-World War II ticket-punching personnel system was on its way toward destroying the leadership needed to win America's future wars.
Going, going, gone were the days when lieutenants like Frank Gunn stayed with a regiment from the first shot of the war until the last. Gunn led a platoon and company in Africa, was a major by '43 in Sicily, skippered a battalion in France the next year, and by the end of the war, at the ripe old age of 24, was commanding the storied 39th Regiment fighting across Germany. General Gunn, now retired, became skilled at his trade down in the mud with the soldiers he loved and would have died for and they, in turn, followed him to hell and back. Gunn never got caught up in the type of career management that produced the current lot of Perfumed Princes. He learned to soldier by listening to his old sergeants and being with the troops.
In Vietnam, officer leaders were churned almost as quickly as customers at Starbucks. Ticket-punching was in, and leading from the front was out. The Washington personnel chiefs' agenda was to use the war as a training vehicle for officers so they'd have blooded leadership when the big fight with the Soviets exploded.
Post-Vietnam studies concluded ticket-punching was a major cause of our failure, and that the personnel system desperately needed surgery. But nothing was done, and over the years the cancerous system disabled our senior officer corps and is now infecting our proud NCOs. Their foremost concern always used to be for the welfare of their troops and how sharply their unit was trained, not what kind of rating they got on a report. My First Sergeant in Italy took great pride in showing us 'cruits the chain scars from his time in a Georgia prison. But with his fifth-grade education, the old Top could still run a lean-and-mean company of soldiers.
Afghanistan was going just fine while the old-pro Special Forces sergeants, chiefs and captains were running the fight. But when Perfumed Princes like Maj. Gen. Franklin Hagenbeck with his M.S. degree in exercise physiology (but no combat experience) and Pentagon punches such as director for politico-military affairs for global and multilateral issues (I kid you not) under his shiny general's belt took over the fighting with the conventional, non-mountain-trained 10th Division, our Army came away with that Vietnam Heartbreak Ridge look: high body count without many bodies and too many friendly casualties.
A fine sergeant in Kuwait says it all: "My generals worry about what kind of engraved Buck knives to buy to give as gifts to the foreign generals, do we have enough potpourri-scented Pledge to make sure our mahogany desks are dust-free, color ink for our laser printers, oh and let's not forget the staffers have to eat better than the rest of the Army, so we have to plan at least one big dinner function so the fat-cats can get fatter. I've seen these generals cancel a visit to troops training in the desert so they could drink coffee and have lunch with another general visiting from the War College. Where are their damn priorities?"
Grant's activities before the siege set in were definitely of a very high order of skill and success. He won five battles in 17 days: Port Gibson (May 1st), Raymond (May 12th), capture of Jackson, Mississippi (May 14th), Champion's Hill (May 16th), and Big Black River Bridge (May 17th).
In all these battles he applied maneuver warfare techniques to confuse and defeat his opponents. His force was numerically inferior to the aggregate force of CSA troops in the area. He defeated them by turns. Even crossing the Misssissippi river demonstrated a maneuver warfare technique and a willingness to take a calculated risk (are you hearing this Monty?).
There was a time during the Overland campaign where Grant's skill stole a march on Lee and would have allowed him to get into Petersburg virtually unopposed, but his subordinate leaders flubbed it.
Walt
...until you need to make one.
Spoken like a true air-force or navy techno-puke. Unless you have been and done, in real combat, not the video-game crap that you seem to love, keep your opinions to yourself. Your reliance on weapons that provide distance as a measure of protection are usurped by the need for "eyes on" intelligence gathering and assessment. But wait, there is technology for that too sin't there??? Get real bucko... I can't wait to see you in any form of combat, you will be easy to find, what with the big stain on your trousers...
Semper Fi
I'll agree with Rokke. If you're forced to close with the enemy or the enemy is in your lines, you've screwed up. Never bring a knife, no matter how long, to a gunfight.
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In that battle over a 30 mile front Montgomery had 1,000 new tanks to the Germans' 500. That's a new tank every 150 feet along a frontal attack. The Germans were hard up for fuel. Due to Hitler's mistake, the Germans had just had 360,000 gallons of desperately needed fuel sunk on its way to Africa. Furthermore, the lost British tanks were being replenished by American tanks. Replenishment of ten tanks a day would result in massive superiority.
Still, the Germans managed to take out 500 of Mongomery's tanks, which is as much as the Germans had to start with.
With 10,000 more gallons of fuel and 100 more tanks, Mongomery would have been wiped out.
Maybe you missed all the reports and pictures of the B-1/B-52/F-16/F-15E strikes in Afghanistan? Maybe you've never heard of an AC-130. Maybe you don't know there are currently A-10's flying out of Bagram airfield. Maybe you don't know that the purpose of most of the special forces in Afghanistan during the first several weeks of the war was to coordinate Navy and Air Force airstrikes. Maybe you don't realize that your obvious ignorance puts you in a category several levels below today's average grunt. Then again, maybe you do know that much. If "aimlow" is your goal in life, I think you have acheived it.
I've served in the Navy and Air Force, but would say the Marine Corps is probably, pound for pound, the best led and most effective service we've got. But I could give you a list a mile long of stupid things the Marine Corps has done, and even more stupid things some Marines have said. Fortunately, I have my head far enough out of my ass to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of each service, and would never claim that any service could win a war without the capabilities of all the others. If you are/were a Marine, stick to writing about the Marines. Your knowledge of the Air Forceis is so gross it merits no further response.
Guess what, the business world is rotten with it, too -- think the best knowledge workers and engineers survive when corporate honchos are under constant pressure from the money-runners to smash headcounts and outyear G&A liabilities? Guess again.
Yeah, there are similarities, unfortunately they end at the bottom line. One is about dollars, the other life and death decisions.
Realize this is old post. It damn sure needs to be revisited.
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