It seems Petey Boy Hegseth’s hopping up and down prattling about “Warrior Culture” isn’t having the desired effect. Remember his attempt to cosplay Patton when he summoned eight hundred plus of the top Officers and Enlisteds from around the world to Quantico? (Trump took a turn too) They sat there in stone-faced silent contempt hoping it would be over soon and they could get back to actually leading their troops. The whole thing landed like a thud and one had to wonder what effect it (and other antics) would have in the ranks. Now we know. They are leaving the service in droves!
Yep, in addition to cutting standards to recruit new troops there’s another problem. An increasing number of the ones they have are leaving once their enlistments are up. Or finding other ways to leave the service. Hegseth brags about having gotten rid of “Woke” and creating a mass of “warriors” but his chaotic leadership (and Trump’s) has done a number on morale as respected leaders who knew how to train them for tough missions were dumped. Long ago in what seems like another life I was an “Enlisted Puke” in the Marines. One didn’t have to be a grunt (infantryman) like me to know how important solid leadership was.
In Trump’s second term while he’s been reluctant to fire his folks at the WH or Cabinet members he’s had no such reservations when it comes to folks at the Pentagon or in major commands around the world. Petey Boy sold him on the whole clean house and replace them with “Warriors” bullshit and both morale and readiness have suffered. Enlisted troops are unsparing when it comes to rating their leadership, especially Officers. For a good one they will charge the gates of hell. For one who isn’t they count the days until that officer or NCO is transferred, or they are. Or their enlistments are up and they can just leave the service entirely.
That’s the way it’s always been. Retention rates can go either up or down for whatever reason. I’m sure you’re aware of recruiting to sign up civilians for military service. What civilians don’t usually know is that there are what might be called retention recruiters – Staff NCO’s who’s job it is to work with people in the last six month or so of their enlistment contracts to get them to sign up for another hitch. For those who might need an incentive being able to pick their next duty station might do the trick. Sometimes a change in Military Occupational Specialty (M.O.S.) will do it. Sometimes a financial bonus can be offered, at least for some M.O.S.’s. Some people are trained at great government expense for skills that are highly valued in the private sector and throwing money at them sometimes gets them to stay. The point is that there’s a well-established, organized system to try and get troops to stay.
It’s become clear as Alternet reports that under Hegseth’s (and Trump’s) leadership it’s not working very well. They don’t pull any punches at the start as they cite an NPR report saying a combination of the Iran war and Hegseth’s ‘culture change’ is driving troops out of our military:
“Members are choosing to retire early or to not reenlist when their contracts are up, according to those who spoke with NPR. Others are applying for medical separation or are breaking their enlistment contracts regardless of the consequences.”
If asked I’m sure Petey Boy would try to spin with bluster about the significant numbers of folks leaving is him shedding “Woke” people who don’t have what it takes to be a “warrior.” For the record, although he left the Army as a Major he didn’t either. He served a tour in country in Afghanistan as a public affairs officer. He served a second training Afghans to fight. However he never seems to have requested an assignment to be a line combat Officer himself. A platoon or company commander out on the front lines… well they get SHOT at. Nope, Pete was cosplay all the way even back then. I’ll bet all those top officers and Staff NCOs that had to sit through his bullshit at Quantico, people who HAD faced enemy fire knew that. And thought “Who the f**K is this punk in his tailored suit with makeup and hair gel to lecture US about being a warrior?
You would think as time went by troops who’d already seen good leaders sacked and knowing more would be because they weren’t white male Christian Nationalists who would rather suck off Trump than hump their wives didn’t realize what kind of leadership they had? Or rather did NOT have? So troops started leaving and it seems the pace has been accelerating. That part above about ‘breaking their enlistment contracts regardless of the consequences’ sure as hell got my attention. Those consequences can be awfully severe.
There are groups that counsel service members, and help them not only with transitioning back to civilian life, but with decisions on whether to re-enlist or get out. GI Rights Hotline Director Bill Galvin says things have ramped up since Trump and his appointees have been back in charge. He says 24-hour phone lines have “been very, very busy.” His organization, the Center on Conscience and War, informs service members of their options on obtaining a military discharge.
Military members cite many reasons for wanting out, but NPR reports the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran “has been a powerful motivator.” Galvin said nearly all the callers he talks to mention the bombing of a girls’ school in Iran on the first day of the war, which killed at least 165 civilians, many of them children. Trump initially tried to claim Iran bombed its own children, but a preliminary assessment determined the U.S. was at fault.
“It comes up almost always,” said Galvin. “It’s like, ‘I can’t be a part of something that’s doing that.’” Unfortunately our troops are led by people who expect exactly that of them. To commit war crimes. How any senior Officer (who has the option of resigning their Commission) can look themselves in the mirror each morning while they continue to carry out, and worse order subordinates to carry out ILLEGAL orders is beyond my ability to understand. Now we are in not a limited engagement but an outright war and with NO authorization from Congress. Yet from General Caine on down there are those who ignore their oath to the Constitution. Instead, they protect Donald Trump against “all enemies foreign and domestic” and that defense includes silently standing by while good people they’ve served with have been sacked. For NOT blindly following Trump’s crazy-assed orders.
Marines are, or at least used to be familiar with a set of paperback books. The first, Green Side out was two “mustangs” (Officers who’d started out as Enlisted but attained Officer rank) trading “Sea Stories. Most were colorful, but also sometimes emotional stories that were at most a few pages long. The next three in the series, each titled with a line from the short saying that inspired the first book were all Major Moore. In one he wrote not a “Sea Story” but a lesson on Lions vs. Lambs. Lions were Officers and NCOs who put the needs of their troops before anything including their own careers. Lambs were those who were poor leaders that not only didn’t make sure their Marines’ needs were being met and ensuring good training but would even through them under the bus.
Hegseth has worked furiously to create a military led by LAMBS! No wonder folks want to leave as soon as they can. Running around shouting the kinds of slogans Hegseth wants to hear, having them work on building “buff” bodies (as opposed to meaningful physical training which of course is necessary) and NOT ensuring they are well trained doesn’t inspire confidence in the ranks. It’s one thing to serve even in harm’s way for a proper mission and secure in the belief they have the best possible training and leadership – and quite another to realize they are serving under leaders who are sycophants who spend most of their time trying to impress asshat leadership. AND that the top two asshats are their Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary of Defense!
It’s easy to see why troops would want out and as soon as possible. And they are:
One career counselor speaking anonymously with NPR said retention “is the only thing holding the Army up, from a metrics standpoint. And it is crumbling fast,” with “climate and cultural shifts within the military under this administration” being the main reasons people are giving for leaving.”
“It has been a mess, and many individuals feel frustration throughout the ranks,” that counselor said.
Somehow I have trouble believing Trump and his minions when they say we have the best military with the best troops ever. There have been a lot of times when that was true but incompetent leadership from the President on down has destroyed morale and with it our military readiness and capability. How bad is it? Scuttlebutt (the term in the ranks for gossip which has Navy origins) suggests that the laundry room fire on the Gerald Ford that knocked it out of action (it took 30 hours to fully contain/secure) was deliberately set. DOD is being awfully quiet about it which suggests to this ole grunt there might be some truth to it. The Ford did a full deployment and was set for a return to port for regular maintenance and R & R for the sailors and Marines that serve on her. Instead their deployment was extended indefinitely.
Make of that what you will. But what we know for sure is a real retention (or lack of retention) problem exists with our armed forces.
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Denis, I was wondering if something like this would happen, and it has. It’s no surprise that they want out when faced with supposed leaders who are better at being suck-ups than leaders. I was afraid it would, too.
I do not understand anything about the illegal orders going around. Why they are accepting them is something we don’t know. I don’t expect we ever *will* know. The phrase “war crimes” is being thrown around a lot, and they are very real. Are people just losing their minds? Do they honestly not care? I expect thuggery from ICE. I don’t expect it from our troops. They’re coming close to it by following along.
What am I missing? *sigh*
i think you hit it – some of the excessive quantity of product has soaked into what the alcohol hasn’t eroded of his brain.
This is the same rot within the military that exists in the Russian armies which have shown so poorly against Ukraine. Decades of inept, corrupt leadership under Putin’s direction so weakened the mighty Russian armed forces that they were stopped in their tracks by a relatively unprepared and under-armed Ukrainian defence, and are still stymied in their allotted task of conquering the country. Putin’s armies are being bled dry by Ukraine because weak leadership on the ground continues to obey stupid, out-dated tactics dictated from the Kremlin’s sycophantic high command. No one will defy Putin, so thousands of young Russians die for nothing. There’s a lesson there to be learned by anyone watching but, of course, Trump and Hegseth learn nothing; they only watch themselves on TV.