Americans are quickly losing trust and confidence in the U.S. military, according to the staggering results of a recent survey conducted by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.
The survey found that the number of Americans who said they have a lot of confidence and trust in the military has dropped from 70% to 45% in just the past three years, and that includes a steep 11 percentage point drop since February, a Reagan Institute news release says.
“The fact that ‘political leadership’ was the plurality response among those with low confidence (albeit only a 13% plurality) may be an indication of the corrosive effects of political polarization in the body politic generally bleeding over into attitudes towards the military,” Feaver said.
This last part is very true.
One of the things that burned working in the defense industry me was how the military has turned into a college campus.
There are fewer and fewer door kickers and more and more officers who got a commission to do administrative work as a resume booster and to gain access to the lucrative world of contracting.
This picture recently came across my radar:
Look at Secretary Mayor Pete, all armorered up like he’s about to kick Taliban ass, with no optic on his rifle, rifle mag pouches on his his rig, and his target range earplugs.
He got a direct commission to be an administrator for the navy to put on his resume for McKinsey.
This is why we lose wars, our military leadership sees military service as another credential to be collected as rungs on a ladder to success.
Well, you have to admit, Petey looks very butch, so, that’s nice.
Well he is young and I see flip up sites on his rifle…
Heh heh. What a maroon..
Having been in the service I’ll take my first cut by saying folks with a tour or two at a minimum are qualified to shit on those who serve and why as may be appropriate. They’ve earned the right and enjoyed the perspective to inform their commentary.
Kinda rubs my fur the wrong way for civilians to trash folks who have served…with a fairly broad brush.
Just one old fellas opinion. Worth what I paid for it.
Once upon a time I would have agreed with you.
After 6 years in the MIC, my respect is left to actual door kickers.
I dealt with too many who “served” in an administrative, non combat roll, saw no danger in their career, and then used that experience to make fat cash in the MIC. A paper pushing bureaucrat is a paper pushing bureaucrat, whether or not his daily wear was fatigues or a cheap suit.
Objee: you make a valid point. OTOH, so does J. Kb. As a civilian, my thought is that not all “service”, is Service.
Folks who went outside the wire, reach a level. Folks who were overseas, not staring down mayhem, another, different level of service. Folks who were were in country, inside whatever equivalent of the Green zone, who attempt to pass themselves as door kickers, well, some flavor of stolen valor comes to *my* mind.
But, closest I got to combat, was ball gunner on an ambulance in Da City (I kid!)
There’s always been paper pushers and boot lickers and horse holders. There’s always been no loads. There always will be.
I remember a story my pop told me about a prig that sat a desk in country during VN. He was a pilot but dint want to fly. My pop was a fighter interceptor guy whose particular skills weren’t useful in VN…as an interceptor pilot. (They needed air to air and air to ground guys.) So, the old man put his life support chops on the table and got a job flying FAC looking for downed pilots and crews and negotiating with ‘Yards and hill tribes for survivors and or proof of life. So along cones the original on a day pop wasnt flying FAC missions and prig wanted to be taken up and flown “around” with some touch and goes “someplace safe.” Turns out he wanted a shitload of touch and goes. Pop said “F it” at a dozen and RTB. Found out months later the prig routinely did this and logged each touch and go as a combat mission.
Those kind of folks will also always be in and around the military.
Your ire should be moreso about the bureaucracy that gives a uniform and green ID card to specialties/MOS that could and should mostly if not all be done by civilians or contractors. We’ve grown the tail side of the beast while the tooth side doesn’t always fare well.
If I chose to shit on a YN or SK because they aren’t carrying their share if the load, then I might know what I’m talking about. If however the watch quarter and station bill says that YN or SK has a key billet during emergency ops, they better do it as if that was their only job…ever.
Folks join and serve for a host of reasons. Not everybody can be a pilot or door kicker or EOD or whatever. Not everybody gets what they want or even what they were promised upon signing up.
Warriors are a special breed. Most are lucky to do what they love and what they’re good at. Support ratings have done pretty key jobs too. I’ll spot ya that there’s some overhead jobs held down by no loads. Hell, I’ll concur strongly that folks join for lots of wrong reasons. Some selfish.
The modern military manpower design lends itself to bureaucrats in uniform. I sure hope the chagrin offered isn’t the many good folks who do their level best at the job they’re in…assigned or not.
Our military structure is top heavy. It’s unaffordable. It rarely holds the correct person accountable. The poor SOBs who are doing their hitch to the best of their ability are NOT the ones at fault.
I’d prefer specific examples to broad brush. I’d also rather not have a door kicker in many situations that might require a little tact and or diplomacy. We cannot and should not have all our service members be so seriously salty.
It’s a lousy place to have a discussion like this. Let it suffice to say my opinion of ButtGAG (per the OP) is he had a plan and worked the plan. I would not want him behind me if SHTF. What I’ve seen and read suggests he isn’t made of the kind of mettle needed for salty situations. Hell, he used the whole twelve weeks of maternity leave, didn’t he? (I know y’all think he looks suave and deboner in his kit…admit it.)
As they say in the sea services…up behind!
Stay safe
That was pretty standard gear for those not going beyond the wire. What that tells me is that he failed to qual on his pistol, and is thus stuck carrying the rifle. On most of the larger FOBs you were not allowed to carry more than the one loaded magazine unless you were going beyond the fenceline.
He’s a total shmuck, but he’s not really posturing here. The vests were required to be worn while flying from FOB to FOB or on R&R leave.
And then he probably put himself in for a Bronze Star, as a “Naval Officer” who never left his base, as so many others I personally witnessed! Anyhow, from any angle, Pete is a joke, especially dressed like this, not a gram of dirt on his butt breaker uniform!
Buttigieg was never in combat, but he did spend time in Kabul as part of the Afghanistan Threat Finance Cell intelligence operation. He was basically a forensic accountant in a war zone… Not exactly a “door kicker” but not a completely useless bureaucrat either.
I won’t shit on his military service, but I’m not going to pretend he’s the second-coming of Pres. Eisenhower either.
I’ll be that guy then, I’ll shit all over him. He was the mayor of South Bend, which is in St. Joe County, I live 1.2 miles outside of that county. I’m quite familiar with his tenure. I can’t find proof, but the rumor is that he volunteered to go over. He served overseas while serving as mayor of SB. He was still the mayor when he returned. That means he was not properly doing either job because both jobs should require a lot of time.
I agree. Unless you have a good reason for a “direct commission” (like being a chaplain) I view that as a fake military title given to actual civilians who are trying to pretend they aren’t civilian REMF paper pushers. People like that should not count as military, and deserve none of the honors and regard given to actual military people.
“A veteran – whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve – is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to ‘The United States of America’, for an amount of ‘up to and including his life.'” – Author Unknown. Clearly Pete is not such a person. He never wrote that blank check and never intended to come anywhere near it.
I saved a picture from the 2020 presidential campaign showing another example of Pete B trying to look like a soldier. A cropped version appeared in some publicity, but what I saw was the uncropped one. It very much looks like’s holding a rifle for the first time in his life and doesn’t particularly like doing so.
There’s real value in intelligence analysts, but he was no David Drake in Vietnam.
Intelligence analyst? He was an accountant.
That isn’t the only picture of buttigieg I’ve seen like that. He did that direct input commission thing to burnish his resume and that’s the simple truth, regardless if whoever says it served or not. He had that picture taken to pretend to be something he’s not. Fuck him and that has nothing to do with your service or mine it just is..
And fuck John Kerry too for using his Vietnam service in his campaign, after his winter solider fuckery and throwing some other guy’s medals over the fence as a public display.
I can’t say I’m surprised. The DOD is rotten to the core and the people that truly believe in the mission of defending the country have gotten fucked by grandstanding politicians and officers with dreams of MIC board positions and dollar signs clouding their judgement for
Also, as fucking toxic as some of my previous jobs have been, I’ve never once received an email from HR telling me that I might be a white supremacist because I want to live in a certain neighborhood or because I don’t give a rip what race someone is.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/07/11/exclusive-army-email-refers-recipients-to-attachment-which-included-graphic-calling-maga-a-sign-of-white-supremacy/
Apropos of nothing, I’m reading Freehold. Interesting contrast and in some ways quite prophetic.
Let me say this: There are those who use their service to get things. There are those who do not. I served. I went where they told me to go, and did the job I was assigned. That doesn’t make my service any less important or necessary than anyone else’s. The door kickers can’t kick doors without the logistics guys to deliver the ammo. The logistics guys can’t distribute the ammo without the truck drivers. The truck drivers can’t go anywhere without the fuel, which is delivered by the guys on the ships.
I refuse to accept that my service meant less because I wasn’t a operationally operating operator carrying out operations in an operational environment. Fuck anyone who wants to play like their service was any more important than anyone else’s. The fact that we served is enough. I did my six years, did my job, 3 deployments (two of them combat tours) and came home without seeing a single shot fired at me in anger. That doesn’t mean that my service was any more or any less than any one else’s. I was no glory hound, I just went where I was ordered to, did what I was told, and then came home when I was told to.
Yeah, every branch gives every other branch a hard time, but the fact is, we were all on the same team. Some guys are more heroic than others. The guys like Lt Mike Murphy have my respect, but those guys are few and far between.
So Buttigieg (or however you spell it) served. I am happy for the fucker. He still did more than the civilians who want to sit there and say it wasn’t “really” service and are in no position to judge. The fact that some negotiate a better deal than others while pinning medals on their own chest, well that has been a problem for the military since the days of the Roman Legions. People who wore the uniform can steal valor just like civilians do.
The ones who can eat my shit are the ones who try to make themselves sound more important than anyone else. That is precisely why I never ask for anything as a result of my service, nor do I stand and accept anyone’s thanks for my service.
@Divemedic: Well, I _was_ going to thank you…until I got to the end. 😉
If you serve honorably in any capacity, you deserve ]respect. My father didn’t kick down doors, but he patched up those who did. A good friend of mine was a paralegal helping soldiers in some pretty scary places. I won’t judge his service.
But as to whether there is a game involved, power plays, people in leadership that shouldn’t be, that is nothing new. Money, power, and influence opens doors. (Are they all the same thing?) Reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSGWoXDFM64
@PermanentFacepalm: Or this 😆 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2cfju6GTNs
Courtney Massengale incarnate.
We need more divisive shit like another hole in our collective heads. Find common ground and values. Focus on those. Or keep up letting them drive your thoughts, decisions and actions.
Our military has more bullets and less slugs in times of conflict. Peacetime military and liberal led military tend more toward a predominance of slugs. Butt boys tend to promote each other. Every. Single. Time.
Balance and change are all you need to know. Our military is politically controlled. That by design of some wicked smart men.
Ain’t nothing perfect. Last fella was perfect got treated like shit. Don’t forget that.
With many of these progressives, there is no common ground. They unabashedly LOATHE us, and many would happily see us dead.
I was referring to our very own little community.
F the progs. I’ve little to nothing in common with them
What are you doing in my head with that weapon Private Pyle?