I think SNL agrees with us.
I’ll just leave that right there.
I recall that the Army thought it was best to send me to two different training courses (PLDC and BNCOC) for a combined 10 weeks before they sent me up for promotion to sergeant; and that was aside from the 13 weeks basic / AIT I’d had. If they’re pinning lieutenant’s bars on guys with 2 weeks training, they’re out of their minds.
Now, this is funny. These guys can’t stop shooting themselves in the foot. If only their poor aim wasn’t also endangering everything else, we could could just relax and enjoy the show.
Presumably, these individuals have experience in leading others in the specific roles that they are being brought on board for (e.g., senior lawyers have lead other lawyers in other environments). In other words, they’re being brought on to do what they did, before. That’s different than elevating someone into a new position. For example, if my firm hires a new lateral partner, we don’t send them to weeks and weeks of training. They’re career has been that training. Now, if the Navy needed to drop them into a severely different role, sure, train them up.
While I’m no fan of Preibus, from what I’ve read, this isn’t that unusual of a move. Certainly nothing in the realm of craziness that you see in other stories tied to this admin.
Lawyers are probably a bad example, because it’s impossible to believe that a civilian lawyer would function in a military posting effectively with only 2 weeks military training because military law is different.
Since normal OCS for the Navy runs 12 weeks and covers naval history, orientation and naval warfare, engineering and weapons, damage control, leadership, seamanship, navigation, and military law, I wonder what this 2-week course leaves out?
My guess is Preibus is going to be a glorified Washington lobbyist for the Navy. They are probably prohibited from hiring lobbyists but they can station Navy people in Washington posts.
Why the assumption that the lawyer is being hired to administer military justice? The separate branches of the military are essentially some of the biggest corporations in the country. They need “civilian” legal representation just as much as any big corp. As Mark_Asher comments, they have lobbying needs, and other needs, like any large organization. Frankly, it would be a waste to hire Preibus and then have him work on nuanced military issues. I assume they’d use him in the capacity that he is already skilled at.
To be clear, I’m not talking specifically about Priebus. I think the idea of giving anyone a commission on the basis of two weeks training is absurd. I get that the Earl of Grantham gets to be a colonel because he owns that big house up there on the hill, but I guess I thought with the advent of the professional military, the days of handing out reserve commissions to the wealthy and privileged so that they can add them to their resume and play dress-up from time to time were over.
naval history, orientation and naval warfare, engineering and weapons, damage control, leadership, seamanship, navigation, and military law
A lawyer in the Navy is useful even if they don’t know much about any of those things. They won’t be serving aboard a vessel, using weapons, leading combat troops, or even necessarily administering military law.
Do you think it’s absurd for the VA to hire a private sector doctor and expect them to start their regular duties within two weeks of their start date? I sure don’t. And the job duties of a Naval doc aren’t necessarily much different from those of a VA doc. Both are considered federal “officers”, by the way.
Just realized I don’t think he’s been posted here. Randy does an awesome job on various Trump-related matters, going back a couple years to his GOP Dropout series on the Republican primary race.
This is not remotely the same thing. They are bringing in professionals from civilian life to serve as reservists. They will never, ever be deployed. They are available to be called up to fill domestic roles if and when we need the active duty people to deploy. They have no line command authority over combat troops, ever. They will always be in roles where their bosses are active duty staff officers. It isn’t a big deal.
Also, unlike your experience in the Army, I’ve trained at Newport and had lunches and dinners with the people going through this program. It’s really not a big deal.
I haven’t seen Vice yet but I think the Bush administration elevated the presidency as a grift to a high art but the difference was they people running the grift were intelligent, well connected people with tons of political experience whereas Trumps clown show is a bunch of clueless goons all the way down. They thought they could grift with impunity
100 percent correct. @scottagibson if it makes you feel better, he will be an LDO, limited duty. He would only ever be able to attain XO somewhere and even then, related to what he is serving as, so perhaps some DC second in command of reservists making shit for extra pay. Reservists would most likely never be pushed to active duty unless the shit really hit the fan, and if so … well im.just glad I’ve served and my commitment is done.
I love that it’s an exact replica of a fictional stone. I guess it’s in the vein of the exact replicas of the GoT or LotR swords that folks collect.
“And the Lord did say unto David, take thy bloodied stone and use it to hold down thy important paperwork at the office. And David took the stone from the crushed skull of Goliath and he did as the Lord commanded. And it was good.”
Using your name to power up a weapon seems vaguely blasphemous and heretical. If you were a Christian, that is.
But what if your name is a killing word?
I knew I smelled terrorists around here! This is why we need a wall!
Luckily none of those brown folks down south are Christians or they’d be well versed in the art of wall-busting, thanks to the Book of Joshua.
I found a bunch of ‘exact replicas’ at the landscaping center last weekend and I didn’t even know it.