1 dead 14 wounded US Army base shooting - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

cmbdiesel · #13 04-08-2014, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Air&Road

GOOD GRIEF! That's what I've been saying. All the old man has to do is issue a duty roster that authorizes key individuals to draw and carry side arms when they come on post for work.

We're talking about an Army post for gosh sakes! There are people trained and qualified to carry and use weopons. The MP's and other post security can't be everywhere. Having some higher level, responsibile personnel armed, puts people around everywhere who have a chance of defending in such a situation with something more than their pocket knife in their hand.

Given the fact that most Generals today are politicians that are working toward another star, most of them don't want to do anything politically incorrect and initiate such a simple step on their own. If the POTUS OTOH told them to do something about it, they have everything in place to simply tell their Exec to get someone to put together such a duty roster.

WHY IS THIS SO HARD FOR PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND?

And yes, from where I sit it IS the fault of the CIC. If he were a competent leader, after the first massacre at Fort Hood, he would have told one of his underlings to talk to the Post Commander and do something to increase security. 30 seconds of his time would do it, and a REAL leader would have instinctively done that out of the natural concern for his people that a REAL leader naturally possesses.

For those of you unaware, leadership is supposed to come from the TOP DOWN, not the BOTTOM UP.

Let's be realistic. The CINC is not really a military man. He relies upon intel from the officer corp to make decisions, and those decisions are not typically in regards to day-to-day operations. Those kind of decisions are delegated in the military as they are in most large organizations.
If the ability to have more armed personnel resides with the base commander, then they are the ones immediately responsible to ensure that it happens.

I understand that responsibility flows upwards, so in essence, the CINC is ultimately responsible. But I think it is fair to say that unless the need was presented to him and/or the ability to rectify was denied to the commanders because of edicts from the CINC, then placing the blame on him is not entirely deserved. At least not until you wore out the backside of the post commander.

As I stated earlier, I'm sure that you and many other veterans (thanks for your service) would be profoundly upset if POTUS started nosing into day to day military affairs...