IN THE NEWS
The Navy lawyer in the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case did not receive his promotion, so he's leaving the Navy. In case you don't know how the modern US military handles personnel decisions, the "up or out" policy means that, once you reach clearly-defined landmarks in your career as an officer, you've either earned a promotion, or you don't have the right stuff for staying in the US military.
As you might imagine, these landmarks are very clearly defined, as are the requirements for going to the next career step. Which means, there's some kind of paper trail about the Navy's denial of Swift's promotion. Hmmm...
And let's be clear about the definition of "the right stuff" - it's not your quality but your connections within the community, including having friends on the promotion boards. That is to say, it's not what you know but who you blow.
Posted by: J. | 10/12/2006 at 05:05
Cases like this demonstrate how militaries degenerate into politically focussed piss-poor careerist bureaucracies.
Posted by: John | 10/12/2006 at 06:06
Does anyone know when he met his in-the-zone board?
Posted by: jim | 10/14/2006 at 17:27
The fact is, it only takes one less-than-perfect Officer Evaluation Report in today's military to get passed over. The "paper trail" you refer to can consist of one page.
Posted by: Part of the Plan | 10/16/2006 at 12:55