Posted by Tina
Okay, I’m going to need some input from those who have been in the military for this one. It’s a proposal floated by the Pentagon, “to open the door for more “lateral entry” into the military’s upper ranks, clearing the way for lifelong civilians with vital skills and strong résumés to enter the officer corps as high as the O-6 paygrade.”… “while it’s not universally embraced, there is interest in Congress and among some of the military’s uniformed leaders — even, they say, in exploring how the services could apply this concept to the enlisted force.”
Hmmm, I get using the private sector to inform, train, and instruct but full service? Why bother to have a military at all? The tough training, the sense of unity and strength, the protocols and continuity would deteriorate…wouldn’t they? (Just what our socialized military needs)
The most obvious area of concern now is cyberwarfare, defined as:
“…actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation’s computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption,” … other definitions include non-state actors, such as terrorist groups, companies, political or ideological extremist groups, hacktivists, and transnational criminal organizations.
Might Mark Zuckerberg choose to serve his nation? And who would we recruit for the “other definitions group?”
Back to Military Times:
While Zuckerberg’s skills would likely be profoundly valuable to U.S. Cyber Command, the 32-year-old computer programmer dropped out of Harvard and has no bachelor’s degree, making him ineligible for commission as an officer. A military recruiter could probably find some ways to grant him credit for the skills and experience evident in his self-made fortune — estimated to be $51 billion — but not much.
“If Mark Zuckerberg decided that he wants to serve his county in the military, we could probably make him an E-4 at cyber command,” Carson said. “Corporal Zuckerberg. We think we should have the ability to bring him in at whatever rank the military service thinks he’d be effective.”
That last sentence is telling. Once established the “powers” would do whatever they want. That’s the way bureaucracies work.
What do you think…good idea…bad idea?
Good idea. However, according to the Constitution, civilians can’t be combatants in the military. That would make them mercenaries. They can and they have been given virtual military ranks depending on their skills, but as a non-combatant.
For example a project engineer might carry a rank equal to LTC or Col for the duration of his project. Some of the guys I worked with went into combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though they were technically civilians, so it happens, its just not supposed too or you could get into trouble.
I actually think its a good idea to have professional civilians in uniform helping the3 military. I would just draw the line that they just can’t be commanders of troops, giving orders or actual combatants. That requires a whole new skill set and responsibility.
I can see how civilians with a particular area of expertise could be a great help to the military and the Pentagon. During WWII the military called of all kinds of experts and trained people to do things the military could not do. Right now we need help with our intelligence arm (I’d like to see us beef up and train the undercover division)
But if this is already being done what makes this proposal necessary and controversial…and why the controversy?
Call me curiously suspicious.
And Happy Fathers Day Jack, you’re a man dedicated to family and country!
No need to re-invent the wheel to solve an age old problem. That problem is new technology that comes on line. The military commander has a new eargeshplittenloutenboomer and is delighted at with what it can do, but has no idea how the bloody thing works. He needs someone with technical expertise and the authority to direct the crew to keep it running. To meet this need during the Civil War, our military established the Warrant Officer Corps. They are still with us today. Their rank is above that of Enlisted and below that of Commissioned Officers.
https://www.army.mil/symbols/armyranks.html
When I was in uniform (mid-70’s) we had enlisted specialist ranks as well. They were pretty much confined to the support branches (maintenance, logistics, etc.).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specialist_(rank)
For example, I was a Spc 4 and my pay grade was E-4. A corporal would have had the same pay grade, but had the situation arisen, he would have had command authority over me with his “hard” stripes.
Ah, the memories. Came the fine day that my buddy and I were called to the front of morning formation and each promoted to Spc 5. Came noon, and we headed as usual over to the orderly room to check our mail on the way to chow. Our First Sergeant was waiting for us. “Smith! Jones! (not our real names) Get over here!” He locks our heels at attention against the wall and gives a two minute impassioned lecture on proper wear of the uniform and the fact that both of us out of proper uniform. Obviously, we are both scrambling in our heads trying to figure out what heck (not our real words) he is on about. Where upon he shoves paper into both our hands, executes a right face, and walks down the hall to his office, cackling all the way.
We read the papers he had just given us. They were new orders. The Army had just done away with the Spc 5 rank for our MOS and we were now brand new three stripe Sergeants.
Where was I? Oh yeah. So, there is already a mechanism in place to bring in technical experts. Give them command authority as high as O-6? Not without prior military service of at least O-4.
“Call me curiously suspicious.” Yeah, me too. Could it be just another way to further fracture our military and award political payola?
The military has very talented computer hacks. Zukerberg is not anything special. It is a loophole being created. PERIOD
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