Hegseth, Pentagon Catch-All

nycfan said:


Interesting because of the media source …
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“… Numerous high-ranking officers painted Mr. Hegseth’s Sept. 30 speech to hundreds of generals and admirals gathered at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia as a turning point in how his leadership style, attitude and overall competency are viewed in the upper echelons of the U.S. armed forces.

“It was a massive waste of time. … If he ever had us, he lost us,” one current Army general told The Washington Times.

The Quantico speech — described by other sources as “embarrassing” and theatrical to a degree that “is below our institution” — seemed to crystallize beliefs about Mr. Hegseth that had taken root among some senior officers, including the view that the secretary operates with a junior officer’s mentality that has led him to micromanage policies about issues such as military facial hair standards and press access to the Pentagon, sometimes at the expense of the much broader portfolio of a typical defense secretary.

“Mainly what I see from him are not serious things,” a current senior officer said. “It’s, ’Why did this service member tweet this?’ Or internal politics and drama. That’s mostly what I see.”…”
 
nycfan said:
“… Numerous high-ranking officers painted Mr. Hegseth’s Sept. 30 speech to hundreds of generals and admirals gathered at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia as a turning point in how his leadership style, attitude and overall competency are viewed in the upper echelons of the U.S. armed forces.

“It was a massive waste of time. … If he ever had us, he lost us,” one current Army general told The Washington Times.

The Quantico speech — described by other sources as “embarrassing” and theatrical to a degree that “is below our institution” — seemed to crystallize beliefs about Mr. Hegseth that had taken root among some senior officers, including the view that the secretary operates with a junior officer’s mentality that has led him to micromanage policies about issues such as military facial hair standards and press access to the Pentagon, sometimes at the expense of the much broader portfolio of a typical defense secretary.

“Mainly what I see from him are not serious things,” a current senior officer said. “It’s, ’Why did this service member tweet this?’ Or internal politics and drama. That’s mostly what I see.”…”
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“… High-level sources said that they believe Mr. Hegseth is simultaneously doing deep damage to the military, both from a public relations standpoint and structurally behind the scenes, that may not be fully apparent until months or even years from now.

… “Across the services, we are bleeding talent, talented generals and flag officers, for what appears to be the opposite of a meritocracy,” another current senior officer said.

“There are people being held back from promotions, or being fired, or removed for sometimes unknown reasons, often for favoritism, or just simple relationships.”

The officer stressed that there is strong support for some of the policy changes Mr. Hegseth laid out at Quantico, including tougher fitness standards, reforms to the Pentagon inspector general’s office and changes to how complaints against officers are filed and investigated, with an understanding in the ranks that sometimes false or trumped-up accusations of racism, for example, have been used to unfairly damage careers.

The delivery of those policy changes was widely viewed as unprofessional.

… The level of turnover among high-ranking officers and civilian officials has not been seen in recent history. Sources described an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear, with hirings and firings sometimes seeming to come out of nowhere.

“Leadershipwise in the building, I can tell you the level of chaos is unprecedented. Even the teams that I was on, people were fired overnight for no given reason,” said one former Defense Department official who departed several months into the Trump administration.

“New people were brought to the team with no clear role,” the former official said. “There was just a lot of backbiting and mistrust and general unprofessionalism going on. And quite frankly, that’s carried through, and I think you saw that in the large number of civilians who left the department.”

…
Sources say the number of people trusted by Mr. Hegseth has become progressively smaller. Because of that, they say that unlike past secretaries, he is not taking advantage of the wealth of experience and expertise across the Pentagon when crafting policy or making key personnel decisions.

“My understanding is now he has very much insulated himself with Sean Parnell, his wife, his brother [Phil], those couple of advisers, and isn’t really utilizing the Pentagon as previous defense secretaries have to fully vet decisions before they go through,” one former Defense Department official said.…”
 
rodoheel said:
Really glad these two guys could get this sort of "Make-a-Wish" moment. Maybe they'll let Hegseth pull the trigger the next time we blow up a boat in the Caribbean, too, he'd probably think it was a blast.
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I hope he performs some maneuvers that make poor little Pete throw up.
 
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