One In Five Army Generals Could Not Deploy In 2016 For Medical Reasons

Wikipedia

Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY: One in five Army generals could not deploy for medical reasons in 2016, data show

WASHINGTON – One in five Army generals could not deploy in 2016 for medical reasons, according to data obtained by USA TODAY, a troubling trend in the military's readiness to fight that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has vowed to fix.

Overdue medical and dental exams were the primary reasons for what the Army refers to as medical readiness in 2016. The medical readiness rate for generals has improved to nearly 85 percent, according to Brig. Gen. Omar Jones, the Army's top spokesman. Almost all generals, 97.4 percent, can now deploy after taking care of minor issues such as having updated blood tests and dental exams.

"The Army's top priority is readiness and soldiers are expected to be world-wide deployable to ensure our Army is ready to fight today and in the future," Jones said. "The data from 2016 does not reflect recent improvements in medical readiness for the Army as a whole and for the general officer corps specifically."

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WNU Editor: The rates have improved since 2016. But if you cannot deploy .... you better have a very good reason.

Was Napoleon The Best General Ever? (According To The Math He Was)

Image: Napoleon (Wikipedia)

Ethan Arsht, Towards Data Science: Napoleon was the Best General Ever, and the Math Proves it.

Ranking Every* General in the History of Warfare

*Almost every

When Africanus asked who, in Hannibal’s opinion, was the greatest general, Hannibal named Alexander… as to whom he would rank second, Hannibal selected Pyrrhus… asking whom Hannibal considered third, he named himself without hesitation. Then Scipio broke into a laugh and said, “What would you say if you had defeated me?”

— Livy

Like Hannibal, I wanted to rank powerful leaders in the history of warfare. Unlike Hannibal, I sought to use data to determine a general’s abilities, rather than specific accounts of generals’ achievements. The result is a system for ranking every prominent commander in military history.

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WNU Editor:  For those who like math and history .... this is a must read.

General George S. Patton - Commander of the US Third Army (Biography Documentary)

WNU Editor: What I found interesting about this video is that it is narrated by former President Ronald Reagan.

This Is Why The U.S. Congress Wants To Fire Many Pentagon Generals

Saagar Enjeti, Daily Caller: Here’s Why Congress Wants To Fire So Many Generals

The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) recently proposed a 25% reduction across the board for general officers. The bill would cut the number of four star officers from 41 to 27, representing one of the largest reductions in modern history.

A summary of the committee’s bill states the drawdown in general officers also applies at the three, two, and one-star levels. The majority staff reasons, “Over the past 30 years, the end-strength of the joint force has decreased 38 percent, but the ratio of four-star officers to the overall force has increased by 65 percent.”

A litany of aides and other staff officers accompany each general officer, significantly bloating the number of military personnel in administrative roles. The growth in the number of administrative roles relative to the fighting force concerned the committee, who want to “shift as many personnel as possible from staff functions to operational and other vital roles.”

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Previous Post: There Are 886 Generals And Admirals In The U.S. Military

WNU Editor: 41 four star officers. 21 U.S. generals leading the war effort against the Islamic State. A military that is shrinking but the number of top officers increasing. Yup .... I can understand why some cutting may be necessary .... but I doubt that when "push comes to shove" it will happen. On the bright side .... at least the Pentagon is not like Venezuela .... Venezuela Has 4,000 Generals (May 7, 2016).

There Are 886 Generals And Admirals In The U.S. Military

James Clark, Scout: Does The US Military Have Too Many Generals?

The Senate is weighing a provision that would force the U.S. military to cut hundreds of general officers.

On May 12, the Senate Armed Services Committee proposed some pretty substantial cuts to the military’s general and flag officer corps. As part of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2017, the provision proposes cutting the number of generals by 25%, or 222 of the Department of Defense’s 886 generals and admirals.

According to the committee, the number of general and flag officers has “become increasingly out of balance with the size of the force it leads.”

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WNU Editor: At least the Pentagon is not like Venezuela .... Venezuela Has 4,000 Generals (May 7, 2016).

The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History

Photo: General Lloyd Fredendall. Wikipedia

Commanders of Chaos: The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History -- Michael Peck, National Interest

It would be nice if all American generals were great. How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command?

Alas, call it the laws of probability or just cosmic karma, but every nation produces bad generals as well as good ones—and America is no exception.

What is a bad general? Defining that is like defining a bad meal. Some would say that failure on the battlefield warrants censure. Others would say that it is not victory, but success in fulfilling a mission that counts.

But for whatever reason, some American commanders have lost the battle for history. Here are five of America's worst generals:

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My Comment: It is easy to blame the Generals .... but it should be noted that it is the civilian political leaders who command them who really lose the wars.

A Look At The U.S. Generals Who Will Be Leading The Campaign Against The Islamic State

Retired Marine Lt. Gen. John Allen said after his retirement that 'I don't think there's any question' Iraq would have been safer if the US hadn't withdrawn all its forces, but now he's on mop-up duty as ISIS grows.

Obama Administration Taps Retired General John Allen – Who Opposed Iraq troop Pullout – To Coordinate 'Coalition' Effort Against ISIS -- Daily Mail

* Top Marine said after his retirement that 'I don't think there's any question' Iraq would have been safer if the US hadn't withdrawn all its forces
* He was caught up in the 2013 David Petraeus sex scandal after an investigation found that both men had flirted with a socialite via emails
* Allen was the U.S. commander in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2013
* He will cooordinate a multinational coalition of nations that will devote various resources to the fight against the ISIS terror group

U.S. officials told the Associated Press on Thursday that retired Marine Lieutenant General John Allen will coordinate the broad international effort to battle the self-declared Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), as nations begin to determine what part they will play.

Several U.S. officials said Allen will coordinate the contributions of various nations. Nearly 40 countries around the world have agreed to join the fight, although few have said they will put soldiers in harm's way.

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Update #1: Retired general to coordinate Iraq, Syria effort -- AP
Update #2: Why Gen. John Allen is a logical point man in the fight against the Islamic State -- Dan Lamothe, Washington Post

My Comment: Retired Marine Lt. Gen. John Allen has been consistently calling for the destruction of the Islamic State this summer .... so his appointment should not be a surprise. The other General is General Lloyd Austin and he will be responsible for operations .... a decorated soldier who warned in 2011 on the what would be the consequences of leaving Iraq without a U.S. residual force .... a warning that was sadly not heeded.

A Historical Look At Five U.S. Generals Killed By Hostile Forces

Maj Gen Dillard, Maj Gen Greene, Gen Sedgwick

Five US Generals Killed In Action -- Annie Waldman, BBC

Maj Gen Harold Greene, killed by an Afghan soldier in an insider attack, follows a long line of US generals killed in war. And their deaths say much about the changing nature of warfare.

In the past decade, thousands of American soldiers have lost their lives to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet news this week of Maj Gen Harold Greene's death made headlines.

Gen Greene is not only the highest ranking US military official to have been killed since the start of the war in Afghanistan, his death also marks the first time in more than 40 years that a general has been killed in combat.

Although it's now a rare occurrence, before modern technology and tactics, the deaths of senior officers were far more common.

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My Comment: It should be noted that in past conflicts the U.S. has targeted Generals on the opposite side .... the most celebrated one being the assassination of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto during World War II.

The Last U.S. General Killed In Action Was In South Vietnam

US General Killed In Battle Is Highest-Ranking Officer Killed In Conflict Since Vietnam -- IBTimes

A major general was killed on Tuesday at a military training academy in Kabul, Afghanistan, U.S. Rear Admiral John Kirby confirmed in a news conference. The general, who has not been identified, is believed to be the most senior U.S. military officer to be killed in conflict overseas since the Vietnam War.

At least seven major generals died in battle during U.S. military operations in Vietnam between 1967 and 1970. Among them were George William Casey Sr., whose helicopter hit a mountain in South Vietnam on July 7, 1970, and John A. B. Dillard, who died May 12, 1970, when his helicopter was shot down.

An article from July 1967 recalls the death of Robert F. Worley, deputy commander of the U.S. 7th Air Force in Vietnam, who died when “Communist gunners shot down his RF4C jet plane while on a photo reconnaissance mission over South Vietnam.”

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Update: Maj. Gen. Harold Greene Is Highest Ranking Soldier Killed Since Vietnam -- ABC News

WNU Editor: U.S. generals and admirals being killed in action has happened many times before .... Maj. Gen. Harold Greene isn’t the first fatality: A history of U.S. generals killed in combat -- Washington Post

The Top Brass Never Suffer From Budget Cuts

Photo: Wikipedia

Thousands Of Troops Axed While Top Brass Run Up £157,000 Expenses Bill On Plush Hotels And Business-Class Travel -- Daily Mail

* Thousands of troops have been made redundant during army cuts
* Officers spent £157,000 on travel and hotels mostly to US and Canada

Top brass in the Ministry of Defence have enjoyed plush hotels and business-class travel as thousands of troops are axed to save money.

Military personnel spent £157,000 of taxpayers’ cash in three months on jaunts around the globe. The two-star officers lived the high life and charged the bill to the public.

The extraordinary details were slipped out late yesterday by the MoD, prompting claims it was trying to bury bad news.

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My Comment: Britain is not the only one who has a problem of Generals spending public money .... this retired Canadian general just claimed $72K in moving expenses when he moved from his old home to a new one a few blocks away.

How America Lost Its Four Great Generals

How America Lost Its Four Great Generals -- Max Boot, Commentary

The quasi-official ideology of the U.S. armed forces holds that generals are virtually interchangeable, that individual personalities don’t matter much, that ordinary grunts are in any case more important than their leaders, and that what really counts are larger systems that make a complex bureaucracy function. There is some truth to all of this. But for all of the bureaucratic heft of the services and the heroism of ordinary soldiers, it is hard to imagine the Civil War having been won without Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan—or World War II without Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Arnold, LeMay, Nimitz, Halsey, and all the other senior generals and admirals.

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My Comment: My opinion on these Generals is still up in the air .... my only hope now is that they have trained their replacements to do a better job than what they did when they had their moment in the spotlight.

Are America's Generals Becoming Morally Bankrupt?

From left to right, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III; Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mark E. Ferguson; Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter; Robert F. Hale, the Defense Department's comptroller; Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno; Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James F. Amos; and National Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Frank J. Grass testify on sequestration before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington, D.C., Feb. 12, 2013. DOD photo by D. Myles Cullen

A Stampede Of Hysterics -- Winslow Wheeler, Foreign Policy

America's generals are just as morally bankrupt as Congress.

I read two critically important reports this week on the impact that sequestration would have on national defense. That possible reduction in military spending -- $48 billion, or 7.4 percent of the $645 billion currently appropriated for fiscal year 2013 -- is being characterized by the stampede of hysterics who run the Pentagon as the virtual end of national security as we know it. What these two reports show is that we should now consider the Pentagon as morally and mentally broken as Congress.

The first report, by Chuck Spinney, who spent a few decades inside the Department of Defense evaluating budgets, weapons, and bureaucratic behavior, was published at Counterpunch and Time's Battleland blog. The second was a Congressional Research Service report by Amy Belasco, who has spent the last few decades at CRS and the Congressional Budget Office parsing defense budgets and their implications.

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My Comment: To be compared to Congress is not the situation that you want to be in. But while the U.S. military still enjoys the support of the mass majority of Americans .... this has definitely not been a good year for America's top Generals. Scandal, sexual misconduct, and now the budget battles .... all of these issues are now starting to make people question (this blogger included) on what is exactly happening in the Pentagon today. And .... it pains me to say this ..... what we are finding is a leadership that is coming up short.

U.S. Generals Behaving Badly

Marine Gen. John Allen, left, meets with Army Gen. David Petraeus in July 2011, prior to Allen assuming command of ISAF-Afghanistan from Petraeus. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says emails sent by Allen to a woman involved in the Petraeus sex scandal have triggered their own probe. Navy

General Disorder #1, General Disorder #2, &c. -- Time

When Marine General Anthony Zinni became chief of U.S. Central Command in 1997, he was stunned to find a Navy commander working for him dedicated to keeping track of Zinni’s schedule. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Zinni recalls thinking, before eliminating the slot.

There’s a growing number of senior officers in the U.S. military who wish they’d had Zinni’s judgment. The increased pressures that a decade of war, combined with an ensuing gusher of money and staff bloat, have helped isolate senior military officers and blind them to the rules, military officers say.

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My Comment: This list is waaayyyy too long.

With Many U.S. Generals Facing Legal And Ethical Issues, Pentagon To Launch Review Of Military Ethics

Panetta Orders Pentagon Investigation Of Legal, Ethical Issues Among Military Leaders -- Washington Post

BANGKOK — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has ordered the Pentagon to find out why so many generals and admirals have become embroiled in legal and ethical problems, a trend exacerbated by recent investigations of two of the military’s best-known commanders.

The Pentagon disclosed Panetta’s directive on Thursday after he arrived in Thailand as part of a visit to Asia. But aides insisted that he had been considering the review for some time and that it was not prompted by revelations that the FBI has been investigating former CIA director David H. Petraeus, a retired Army general, and Marine Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

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More News On Why So Many U.S. Generals Now Find Themselves Being Investigated Over Legal Or Ethical Issues

Panetta orders ethics review for US top brass -- AFP
Panetta Orders Review of Ethics Training for Military Officers -- New York Times
Panetta orders review of ethics training review for generals -- CNN
Leon Panetta orders military ethics review in wake of David Petraeus sex scandal -- CBS/AP
Panetta Orders Review of Military Ethics -- Wall Street Journal
Panetta Asks for Review of Officers Ethics Amid Turmoil -- Bloomberg Businessweek
Panetta Orders Military Ethics Review -- Voice of America
5 US generals in trouble rock military culture -- Huffington post
Petraeus unlikely to face court-martial -- Washington Post
Panetta Warns Against Early Conclusions in Allen Case -- Voice of America
Panetta Praises General Linked to Petraeus Scandal -- New York Times
U.S. General Allen in fight for his career -- Washington Post
Concern Grows Over Top Military Officers’ Ethics -- New York Times
Do recent ethics, sex scandals undermine integrity of officer corps? -- Stars and Stripes

U.S. General Demoted For Lavish Spending And Travel

Taking advantage: A running theme of the report was Ward's insistence that his wife Joyce, centre, join him on trips and stay at lavish hotels even though she had no official capacity

Bad Week For U.S. Generals... Four-star Chief Who Headed Africa Command Is Demoted Over Lavish Spending And Ordered To Repay $82,000 -- Daily Mail

It's not turning out to be a good week for a number of America's top generals.

Following the resignation of retired Army Gen. David Petraeus' as CIA director because of an extramarital affair and the revelation that Marine Gen. John Allen is being investigated for improper communications with a woman, another four-star general is also in the news for the wrong reasons.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has reportedly demoted the former head of U.S. Africa Command, who was accused of spending thousands of dollars on lavish travel and other unauthorized expenses.

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Watch News Wrap: U.S. General Demoted for Lavish Expenses on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

More News On The Demotion Of Army Gen. William 'Kip' Ward  

General demoted for lavish travel and spending -- AP
4-star Gen. William 'Kip' Ward, former head of Africa command, demoted over lavish spending allegations -- NBC News
Defense Secretary Strips 4-Star Army General of Star -- Wall Street Journal
Top general demoted amid questions about his lavish expenses -- L.A. Times
U.S. general demoted over 'extravagant trips' -- New York Daily News Leon Panetta demotes 4-star Gen. William Ward over 5-star travel habits -- Global Post
Former AFRICOM general demoted over excessive spending -- Government Executive

Firing Generals And Admirals

Pentagon Push To Phase Out Top Brass Causing Much Consternation -- Washington Post

Of all the spending cuts and budget battles the Pentagon is confronting, none is causing more angst than Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's vow to start getting rid of generals and admirals.

By almost any measure, the military is more top-heavy an institution than it has been for decades. Today, there are 40 four-star generals and admirals -- one more than in 1971, during the Vietnam War, even though the number of active-duty troops has shrunk by almost half.

The number of active-duty generals and admirals of all rank, meanwhile, has increased by about 13 percent since 1996.

It is, as Gates puts it, "brass creep."

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My Comment: "Brass creep" .... that is one hell of a good phrase.

A Class Of Generals

Gen. Ray Odierno, left, and U.S. Army Lt. Col. Joseph McGee walk the streets of Samarra, Iraq, on an October visit. Sg. Kani Ronningen/U.S. Army

From The Wall Street Journal:

The cadets of 1976 graduated from West Point at a low moment for the Army and its storied training ground. But that year produced the generals running the nation’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as their key deputies. What happened?

Ray Odierno was a floppy-haired teenager who was recruited into West Point’s class of 1976 to play football. An average student, he spent his free time tailgating outside the military academy’s football stadium and leading excursions to an off-campus bar.

His classmate Stanley McChrystal came from a military family. His idea of a practical joke was mounting a fake assault on one of the campus’s office buildings using decommissioned weapons and “grenades” made out of rolled-up socks. When the prank drew the attention of the military police, then-Cadet McChrystal’s career almost ended.

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My Comment: This is a fascinating read.