Fireproof Commanding Officers by Lieutenant Lawrence Heyworth, Proceedings.
Naval officers relieved for cause have made headlines too often lately, with major newspapers highlighting the ethical violations and personal misconduct leading to such relief. Most recently, several post-command officers have been implicated in a Pacific Fleet bribery scandal. Seeing these frequent headlines could cause many junior officers to develop a disproportionate understanding of the frequency of such events. Further, junior officers likely begin to question both the quality of our commanding officers and their own ability to avoid these same pitfalls, the details of which are rarely described at much length.
Statistics reveal no endemic problem with the Navy’s commanding officers, yet these unfortunate incidents bring discredit to the service and more important, hamstring sailors by destroying command climate. Sailors deserve so much better from their commanding officers, and the law demands excellence as well…
Comments
The military as a whole is far to concerned with troops wedding tackle. The far reaching religious right as well as our enemies (the media) spend an awful lot of time on it. Some of our greatest Generals got some on the side and it didn't effect their war fighting ability. I could care less that General Petraeus enjoyed that Major (though I do care about the countless guys he burned under him for the same thing). I see that as something for him and his wife to worry about, not the US... I am not talking about harassment etc, they have no place. But since 75 to 85% of those seem to be made up anyway is it really an epidemic? What hurts morale far more is the double standard and lack of transparency by which the UCMJ is applied and the use of other means to punish offenders.
What will hurt us further, damage war fighting ability more is all the catering that has been done to assuage the special interests groups in our ranks. They continue to want special treatment, while professing to want equal. We have and will continue to pay for kinder, gentler until the day we are required to speak Chinese...
We tie up lots of officers and NCO's in stupid jobs... Which are mandatory. As far as I know no war has been won by the SHARP NCO etc.
Very good article. Ample parallels to Army as well as civilian leadership problems. I do wonder if anyone would judge David as less of a prophet for his transgression?
In broader terms, I think we have an interesting cultural problem in the military. Our Code of Conduct is the UCMJ. But it seems to be far more a penal code than a conduct code. It only specifies what cannot be done, not what must be done. This is all well and good in a free society, but it seems the argument that the military does not need a martial sub-culture distinct from the broader civilian culture is yet to be made. In my (admittedly brief) 11 years since commissioning I have never been told on whom to model my behavior. I've recited plenty of fancy creeds, but they all ring quite hollow. As in, by and large I doubt I would face any social sanction for failing to live up to them so long as a UCMJ Article isn't being violated. We seem to have all the artifacts of a martial culture (e.g. salutes, ceremonies, creeds, haircuts) but outside a penal code not much actually sticks. We may find ourselves in occasional organizations with strong esprit de corps, but often that is small scale or leader driven (and changes with leaders). And the strict Academy codes of conduct pretty much stop at graduation. It isn't institutional. There isn't a U.S. military analog to Bushido.
I point this out because the article's main thrust, that of introspection and avoidance of temptation that all men and women are subject to with success, implies a standard against which one should measure one self. Nothing in our civilian lives has that kind of currency (with the occasional exception of the ultra-religious). In a sense, this very recommendation has the potential to ring as hollow as he creeds.