SEC DEF
This story seems to keep on going like that rabbitt with the batteries and beating the drum so in response to a number of questions via email, I guess that it is time I post my two cents worth. The Secretary of Defense, as he has done in the past, holds a townhall meeting with soldiers in a combat zone and says, “what are your questions?” No pre-screening, no stipulations, no kidding? That in itself is amazing and speaks volumes for the character of old Rummy. I’ve heard it said too many times this past week in the MSM that he was blind sided by the soldier’s question regarding the armor for vehicles. C’mon, give the man some credit. He might not have expected that particular question, but certainly he knew that soldiers gripe and given the opportunity to gripe to the head of the DoD, some will take it. I don’t think he was caught too off guard. The fact is, Secretary Rumsfeld asked for questions, got them, and now has to answer them and I suspect the issue of armor for vehicles is aggressively being addressed as I type this. Hmmm, sounds like a townhall meeting.
The boss sums it up nicely:
“The concerns expressed are being addressed and that is - we expect our troops to have the best possible equipment,” Bush said. “If I were a soldier overseas wanting to defend my country, I’d want to ask the secretary of defense the same question. And that is, ‘Are we getting the best we can get us?’ And they deserve the best.”
-Bush
Over the weekend, the lovely and talented and downright sexy Mrs. Hook remarked to me after watching a piece about this on one of the MSM channels, “that soldier is in a lot of shit.” I looked at her and thought for a moment and replied, “you know, I don’t think so.” Not too much shit anyway. If I were the kid’s first sergeant my blood pressure would’ve went through the roof as I stood there listening to one of my soldiers ask such a quesiton of the Sec Def. Given time to cool off and think things through, there really isn’t much I could hold against the soldier but I probably would have a discussion about being professional and the proper phrasing of questions to senior leaders, but barring that, he was passed the microphone in an open forum.
What would really bother me, and I suspect the rest of the command team, is if this kid never voiced his concern to his chain of command and the first I was hearing of it was in a townhall meeting with the Sed Def. Of course, the proper command climate has to be set for such a discussion to occur within the unit and the command team is responsible for setting that climate, not the soldiers. Again, if I were the kid’s first sergeant, I would hope that the issue of scrounging for metal to armor our vehicles would’ve been something addressed up front and honestly with the soldiers and that they knew I was voicing their concerns up the chain but in the meantime we were going to do every gottdamned conceivable thing, to include dumpster diving for scrap metal, to make sure each and every one of our ugly mugs comes back home alive, mission complete.
As for the reporter who “planted” the question, the point is moot. Once again the MSM shows true colors and I’m really not surprised. I doubt he’ll get a pullitzer out of this though.
There is a lot more on the subject worthy of your review:
A Line in the Sand
Froggy Ruminations
2 Slick’s Forum
I encourage you to go read them and then ask yourself, what exactly do you want in a Sec Def? Sgt Hook out.
Posted by Hook @ 1856 zulu | | Permalink
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