Head on over and ponder.
49 minutes ago
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
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Proactively “From the Sea”; an agent of change leveraging the littoral best practices for a paradigm breaking six-sigma best business case to synergize a consistent design in the global commons, rightsizing the core values supporting our mission statement via the 5-vector model through cultural diversity.
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What is Sal drinking?
I'm going to be spending some quality time with the list of Southern cocktails from Garden & Gun through the new year.
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2011
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June
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- Diversity Thursday II: Electric Boogaloo
- Diversity Thursday
- USA vs. PRC: we win
- Firescout, UAS/V and their dirty little secret
- A beautiful girl regardless of what she is wearing...
- Nothings has changed - you just forgot
- If Perry runs ....
- Prince, the culture war bottom
- Test driving Influence Squadrons?
- Oh hai! Just me, widdle 'ole Big E
- Sunday Funnies
- What does Disney think of LCS-2?
- Watchdogs over the Potomac, on Midrats
- Congress goes Salamander
- Fullbore Friday
- The Kung Fu of Freedom
- Diversity Thursday
- Executive Summary on the CINC's AFG Speech
- Lutefisk Farfalle
- Oh, that Ghandi
- Test your LCS concepts here ...
- Can this be operationalized?
- NATO's Hourglass ...
- Captain Roman Shchury - Salamander hero of the day...
- Italy shames the Royal Navy
- Fathers Day in Korea - on Midrats
- Sunday Funnies
- Rust never sleeps ... on LCS-2
- There never was an anti-war movement
- Fullbore Friday
- Metaphor of the day
- Greenert it is....
- Pentagon calls LCS "unreasonably expensive" and "...
- Diversity Thursday
- I'd like my good name back ... and maybe a ship too?
- Love that revolving door?
- NATO nations' seriousness in pictures
- What people want to comment on ...
- Gen. Dempsey takes Salamander's advice
- OK, then listen to him
- A Mattis Marine in a picture
- LCS: no need for 1,000 words
- Sunday Funnies
- NATO, Russia, Eurasia - on Midrats
- CATO goes Salamander
- SECDEF joins Craddock, Salamander & others
- Fullbore Friday
- NATO channels Lord Vader
- Jack Welch goes Salamander
- Diversity Thursday
- Command Pins and Zippers
- Self-loathing on the high seas
- GBR-FRA agree to share CV
- THATs more like it PAO!
- D.V. Gallery on planning
- ... all I have to say about NY politicians ...
- From the other side of the channel .....
- Small memorials for great men
- Uninspired ideas from uninspiring people
- Sunday Funnies
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- Saturday Music Stop
- A Day Without Seapower, on Midrats
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- No, you be the CHENG ...
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June
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17 comments:
Well written and to the point. If you find the little head doing the thinking for the big head....bad things are goingt to happen.
Command is fraught with plenty of unforeseen dangers. Why add to the list of things that could potentially derail your career?
Very well put. Funny... I was just having a conversation along these lines with a grasshopper I "mentor" who has gone to live in the Great Sleepy Silly Swamp. An exceptionally beautiful young lady who is a dead ringer for a drop dead gorgeous actress, she is presently waiting tables as one of her jobs. As the rich and powerful come in to dine and she does her job cheerfully and professionally, she has noticed charm and kindness and politeness among the men, but absolute rudeness and hostility among their wives. I had to explain to her the dynamic... the wives don't trust the young women in the Sleepy Silly Swamp. Nor apparently do they trust their friendly husbands. "Well, why make me pay for it? I'm doing my job and I don't want their 60-year-old husbands." "Well, grasshopper, that is the town full of Clintons and Lewinskys and there are many many young women who would be happy to take his business card quietly slipped to you as he leaves the restaurant. The Hillarys are not amused."
Ahhh... the whirlwinds of suspicion in the dance between the burned, the guilty, the innocent and the bystanders. The Great Sleepy Silly Swamp looks boring and quiet on the surface, but deep down under it's... a swamp. And sometimes the young friendly ladies are just trying to do their jobs. It's so sad to see innocent idealism and integrity meet up with the stark light of egotism, suspicion and intrigue.
Sal, Another great blog over at USNI with two observations. First, I agree that the screen process is about as fair as possible, but...We exclude briefing community rep at our own peril. There is only so much that can be crammed into block 41, even with 10 point font. I can think of two cases recently where the CO/XO's behavior was a well known fact in the community. Can this be abused? Yes. Should we trust our leaders? Yes. Most of these people didn't turn into a A-hole once in command. Second is the PCO course with the IG. I have to tell you that all I got from VADM Winns was that if I didn't track my command coins correctly I would be relieved. It was almost comical over the two weeks in Newport and again in Pensacola how many times the issue of Command Coins came up. Not bitching, just saying it wasn't an open, frank discussion of how to remain strong and virtuous in a dangerous world!
Keep fighting the good fight.
Au contraire mon frer- "Lechery, Lechery, still wars and lechery-nothing else holds fashion".
And if anything proves MY point, its Mr Rowan's point: <span>all I got from VADM Winns was that if I didn't track my command coins correctly I would be relieved </span><span>. Shocked I tell you-simply shocked, I am. Phib, I am sure you are too. :)
</span>
Grandma Salamander might have said "don't sleep with the help", but the version I got at the Basic School was "Ya don't s**t where ya eat"! It was good advice in the USMC and even better in civilian life afterwards.
Winns. Good googly moogly.
You know I have been wondering where to put a thought I have and I suppose it can fit in here.
We have over the years been so paralyzed to make decsions at the deckplate or CPO levels because we have grown into a culture that only the CO can say "No" even to a 24 hour special request Chit.. we no longer empower and than support that Sailor in his decision. We get wrapped around the axle over things that dont matter much when the bullets fly.. and we get wrapped around the axle on somethings that matter greatly when the bullets fly. I just have been running the recent Seal Team 6 action through my mind..
Imagine the Helicopter Scene on the ground.. in the midst of all that, a young SEAL Petty Officer or CPO probably made the decision or certainly the recommendation that he was gone "BLOW" the Helo up.. probably over the protestations of the Acft Commander and the H2P... the decision was made on the fly no doubt with little thought to any UCMJ/NJP or FITREP ding.. he was able to make this decision because his Chain of Command demonstrated that they would support him and back him up (kind of like the Code of Conduct that a POW will back his Chain of Command?).. and well, quite simply this standard of support no longer flows down the COC.. that is why the Skipper loses confidence.... these shenanigans dont help...
MTH,
The paralysis is both voluntary and systemic. As the armed forces become less war-focused and more corporate (which despite ten years of war, most are), the servicemembers are smart enough to play along. Risk aversion. Not institutional, but personal.
If you never make a decision, you can never be criticized for making a bad decision. People get that, and act accordingly.
Problem is, you can be a lot of things in the Military as a leader and officer. You can be grouchy, you can be a little fat, you can even be a little slow. If you execute boldly you will do okay. The one thing you cannot be is indecisive. It is a death blow. Cede the initiative, the enemy will gladly take it from you. And it plays hell getting it back. That bill is paid with the lives of NCOs and Lance Corporals and PFCs.
We should be training for decisiveness. The old "Do SOMETHING, Lieutenant!". Instead it is like that show "How to succeed in business without really trying".
"When I started here, I was told, 'Don't get any bright ideas!', and I haven't had one since!"
Hence, today's situation. Unless the "bright idea" is one which will curry favor, politically. Like Diversity, and Optimal Manning. And DADT repeal. And "Global Force for Good".
Meantime, Red China builds ships and shipyards....
What is a "command coin"?
Aah, yes, but if you never make any real decisions, you can be elected President. Look no further than the current White House occupant and golfer.
Sadly my morning was spent listening to an date on lean projects....two months into the project kick-offs and nothing has been solved and we are actively restraining people from solving the problem (not part of the "process" timeline you see...).
Good grief!
I felt like I was watching the Quartermaster dudes in the movie about the battle of Islawanda not giving out ammunition because the proper form had not been filled out! Zulus all around me at work and you want me to follow some process instead of solving the problem?
Andy,
Could you please drop me an email. Thanks.
You are going to get Sid up in this discussion. I think he gets Lean Six'd to death in his job.
Concur
"Present"
Yea, verily.
Never mind....found out what they might be on the Internet.
Good grief, when did this nonsense start???
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