The US Military – A Fish Rotting from the Head

I wish Mr. Starmann would really open up and not mince words or hold back. LOL

Ray Starmann served as an army intelligence officer in Germany during the last days of the Cold War. He is also a veteran of the Gulf War. Ray also wrote the Hallmark original movie, “Generation Gap” with Sean King.

The US Military – A Fish Rotting from the Head

By Ray Starmann

The US military is a fish rotting from the head; a politically correct, feminized, decrepit, nearly bankrupt force that is one step away from complete obliteration on the land, on the seas and in the air.  The military is decaying by the hour. Veterans know it, the troops know it, the military’s senior leaders know it, yet they do nothing as the floor gives way underneath them.  As long as we favor civilian leadership (per the Constitution) the Military top bass will have to play politics (LM)

From our commander-in-chief, to the Secretary of Defense, the secretaries of each service branch, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the admirals and generals, the US military is being led by a combination of leftists, feminists, selfish careerists and all around lackeys and yes men. Only compliant four-stars are picked for the top jobs (LM)

The current crop of senior leadership in the US Armed Forces has either green lighted, watched or turned away in embarrassment as every form of budgetary cut, equipment shortage, dimwitted national security directive and social engineering policy is hammered into the military like a thousand nails in a wooden coffin.

We now have a military where Marine Corps planes don’t have spare parts, where Navy ships are decrepit and Naval air assets have less range than the planes Bush 41 flew in WWII; where Armor officers can’t run a tank range; where breastfeeding soldiers express milk in the field; where the slightest non-PC comment gets you a ticket to unemployed obamaland; where male ROTC cadets parade around in red high heels to express empathy for rape victims; where women are want to serve in the Navy SEALs and the US Army’s Delta Force; where fantasy and delusion have become standard operating procedures.

An example of the moral relativism wafting through the Pentagon like Sarin nerve gas are the comments made by General Mark Milley, the Army Chief of Staff, who sports Ranger and Special Forces tabs and who once served in the famous 5th Special Force Group. Milley told the nation and the world that women will serve in direct ground combat units and furthermore, he has no problem with young American girls being subject to a draft that could ultimately send them into direct ground combat units, aka the infantry.

We’re all supposed to nod in a semi catatonic state as a man who wore the famed Green Beret spouts out this absolute nonsense with a poker face. Unless Milley has become some kind of bleeding heart liberal, I doubt he believes anything he has said. What Milley does believe in is the greater good of Milley, just like Dempsey believed in the greater good of Dempsey.

And, look where that’s got us.

What’s in it for you General Milley, the Chairman of the JCS once General Joe pops smoke? What’s the price today for selling out America’s women to mass slaughter on a distant battlefield?

Tis the season of moral cowardice at the Pentagon and it’s quite reminiscent of the Vietnam era, when political perfumed princes (great image) skulked through the hallways of the Pentagon like mastodons; admirals and generals who cared more about their careers than about the troops and the nation they had sworn to serve.

Some point out that the military is subordinate to civilian authority. (I just did) They need to remain silent. (no thanks) I’ll say it again. Someone with a lot of stars on their shoulders is going to have to fall on their sword and resign. (that’s the spirit) When they do, they need to hold a press conference and tell the nation how a combination of the Obama White House and willing minions are demolishing the military by the hour. (now, who is first?)

But, this will never happen, mark my words.

A more realistic option is this:

The US military must be gutted from the top down by a President Trump. A President Trump must fire the Secretary of Defense, the secretaries of each service branch, the entire JCS and every admiral and general until he gets to a point where he’s cleaned out the perfumed princes, feather merchants, and narcissistic careerists who have run roughshod over the military in order to pursue their own goals.

The US Army was on the verge of self-destructing in the post- Vietnam years of the early and mid 1970’s. What saved it from imploding were the field grade officers and some tough and truthful general officers who maintained Army traditions and who rebuilt it from the bottom up; men like Dick Cavazos, Carl Vuono, Shy Meyer, Paul “Butch” Funk, Norman Schwarkopf and Fred Franks.

In 1974, the Army’s problems were at the bottom, not the top. The Army had soldiers who were thugs, gang bangers, druggies and race baiters. Race riots were common and officers were afraid to walk into a barracks without being armed.

The troublemakers were discharged, the new volunteer Army began to slowly attract motivated and better educated soldiers and with the election of Ronald Reagan money flooded into the lean green machine; resulting in new equipment like the M1 tank and funds for endless training at places like Hohenfels in Bavaria and on major NATO exercises like REFORGER. (I got to lead a dozen USNR war-gamers to Germany for that one – fun in 93 – Kaiserslaughten)

By 1990, the US Army was a magnificently trained and equipped fighting force. The men responsible for the military’s ascent were the senior leaders who had seen the military savaged by political generals and admirals.

General Fred Franks, an amputee, who rose to lead the VII Corps to victory in the Gulf War is a symbol for everything the Army’s senior leadership once stood for and doesn’t today; devotion to duty, honesty, moral courage and most importantly, putting the troops always above personal ambition.

During the Gulf War, a soldier in Third Armored Division noticed that General Franks looked very worried as he spoke to young soldiers. The soldier told General Franks, “Don’t worry General, we trust you.”

How many soldiers can say the same thing about their senior leadership today?

A young adult who enlists in the military must know that their leaders care more about them than their careers and retirement benefits and investment portfolios.

Wanted: US military senior leadership with honesty and moral courage. Apply here.

Originally posted 2016-09-19 15:01:49.