Does Anyone Remember the Military of 1990?

A grainy video revved up the projector screen. The setting was a party, 1990 on an American base in Germany. A gaggle of women surrounded a spry middle-age man. They could’ve been Fawn Hill or any of a million secretaries or female courtesans the Army men had back then. They were pinning paper tails on the “donkey” as he danced. Which was ironic; the man was the opposite of an “ass”. The music played: “Love shack, baby love shack Everybody's movin' around and around and around Everybody's movin', everybody's groovin' baby” The movie cut from the Colonel playing hard, to him working hard. He earned his stripes as a young man in the Vietnam War. Now, he was starting to fight another war, not against the Soviets next door, but against Saddam Hussein in the Middle East. There was no computer at his desk, just stacks of important papers. I thought: “This was a man who wasn’t afraid of going into the office on a Saturday”. After he fought the First Gulf War, he became a dedicated family man, shortly thereafter retiring from the Army- and its culture of solo deployments and family separation. This video was presented at a wake for the Colonel. We literally buried the military of 1990. I got to work with military veterans of that era. In the 1980’s, American industry had experienced serious downsizing, leading to an economic depression in the Rust Belt of America. Strong unions may have done their best to stave off layoffs and hour cuts of senior workers, but young people had no future in the factories. For those of intellectual capability, the college wage premium offered an opportunity to move upward. For the others, the military had a seemingly endless source of young men in the 1980s. Even as it increased in manpower, it was able to maintain recruiting standards, implement random drug testing, and ban beards. The military of 1990 did its grunt work in house. Not only was it necessary to wipe the bilges or peel potatoes, senior enlisted leaders of the time thought it built character. Roughhousing junior soldiers and sailors, and keeping an adversarial attitude, instead one of mentorship, seemed in their minds to build character too. This “busting nuts” attitude was becoming increasingly unacceptable in the private sector, but nobody told the military of 1990. Enlistments do come to an end, and veterans of that era did not receive the open-armed welcome to civilian employment that they often receive today. The “politically correct” military of today offers soft skills of leadership that transfer to the private sector. Senior enlisted leaders no longer view scheduled attrition as a personal failure of the soldier or sailor to commit to military life, but as an inherent part of the pyramid rank structure. For hard skills, the military now pays its departing soldiers and sailors to apprentice and earn credentials in private sector trades, before leaving the service. Once they hand in their uniforms, post-9/11 Education Benefits are generally superior to Cold War- era veterans’ programs. Sometimes I do wonder if the checks-and-balances of today’s military hamper its ability to move fast and break things: what militaries are meant to do. When anything happens quickly, such as this summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer, you can be assured that rules were broken. These could be in procurement, maintenance, personnel, or another of a dozen wickets. Being a rule follower means very little gets done in the military. Hopefully, this is the kind of political correctness our Secretary of Defense is out to fight.

Remembering SS El Faro, 10 Years Later

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the sinking of the SS El Faro, on October 1st, 2015. I was sailing as a Third Assistant Engineer for the Military Sealift Command; asides from environmentally- conscious petroleum tankers plying protected trade routes, government vessels (crewed by contractors or civil servants) were the most well-kept ships. Other vessels of the US merchant marine had to compete. When labor costs couldn’t be cut, on account of union contracts or the unwillingness of mariners to accept less than a sole breadwinner’s wage, it was maintenance and capital investment that had to be cut. Many of my fellow classmates had to compete in union halls for their first jobs. As our graduation ceremony was at the start summer, union-hall job seekers were encouraged to hit the halls when more-experienced mariners stayed at home with their kids on summer break. Having risen to the top of the pecking order at the Academy, they were reminded that their new position would be at the bottom of a new totem pole, although financial compensation could be decent in this career. You didn’t turn down a job offer, even on the most decrepit ship, as one could find themselves unemployed for a spell. When the SS El Faro sunk, it was a reminder that rustbucket ships were dangerous. I have to be careful with that term, as the longtime engineers onboard that vessel were proud of keeping the ship sailing with the limited material resources given to them by the company. Today, the picture has changed. There is a shortage of mariners, rather than a shortage of jobs. Inspections and the change configuration process is more rigorous. No captain can make fateful decisions in a vacuum, certainly not in the Starlink satellite internet era. Merchant marine officers were required to go through a three-week course of continuing education, in how to use technology, and in leadership and teamwork. At that precipice in 2017, many chose to take their retirement, instead of going back to the classroom. It was the end of an era in merchant shipping; those departing mariners had entered the industry at a time when women and college degrees were rare onboard ships, and when alcohol and smoking were fixtures at sea. They were world travelers at a time where that privilege was reserved for the rich. In other news, I am disappointed that our government has gone into reduced operating status. While the effects on civil servants will be cushioned for two weeks, on account of recently-added backpay protection, there is a risk of harm when the paycheck does not arrive on time. The impact is being felt immediately by those outside of government employment, as licensing bureaus such as the US Coast Guard are not processing applications. This means people are missing out on promotion and new career opportunities, as they must wait for government to reopen in order to obtain their new credentials. On the flip side, I believe there needs to be little debate to extend healthcare subsidies. In many states, the medley of health insurance programs allow for near-universal coverage. This is a stark contrast from the single-payer dreams of Democratic Socialists, or the creeping socialism, found in the UK or Canadian health systems, that President Eisenhower warned us about.