Site icon Fabius Maximus website

Do we need so many and such well-paid generals and admirals?

Larry Kummer, Editor

Summary: In today’s post guest author Richard A Pawloski (Captain, USMC, retired) asks some hard questions about the senior ranks of the US officer corps.  The military is the most trusted institution in America, and so has successfully resisted most efforts to reform it — or even slow its growth. Will this change in the future? Tomorrow’s post looks at this in more detail.

Photo from Government Executive

Contents

  1. Guest post by Richard A Pawloski
  2. About the author
  3. How many flag officers work for defense contractors?
  4. How many officers do we have vs the past?
  5. For More Information

(1)  Guest post by Richard A Pawloski

(a)  A rant about our senior military officers

“Form should follow function”
— American sculptor Horatio Greenough, 1852

I never saw a sign to that effect or affect on any Pentagon wall.  That is as say to “influence” a design or dream (‘affect) or even serve as the “result” of a design or dream (‘effect’).  We are doomed to our own illusions and those illusions can be lined up on the ramp of the Pentagon in order of price tag and not one will mean anything to the threats facing us now.  The total mobilization of America for WWII was over 8 million in uniform at one time with over 16 million serving during the war (413K deaths).  Some 2500 generals and admirals served with under 1500 at any one time (11 KIA) and under 400 actually in combat roles.  That is a lot of troops for one star.

Numbers from 2005 to 2010 numbers show that the total US armed forces + DoD + reserves has capped under 2.4 million, but during that time the total numbers of flag officers has gone over 1600 with under 500 properly accounted for in force structure.  The ratios of serving soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen to flag ranks has gone from ludicrous to ridiculous and it continues to skyrocket the costs of doing military business. Israel does with 2 cents what we do with a Buck 25.

However deep you want to go and look at it we are at least some three times overpopulated with generals and admirals. Now they have gravitated into their own political entity pointed towards post retirement jobs.  Do they really hold up any part of the system that actually defends the United States anymore or are they as totally biased by potential gains or perverted by deliberate incompetence as the rest of the military-industrial complex is?

.

What drives them is beyond my understanding, but its not the welfare of the armed forces or the security of the United States.  Their greed and self-serving is only exceeded by that of corporate America.  There are good ones out there, but they are muted as a force for positive change today.

To cut that flag force by 25% would be a good first start for the Pentagon after the cliff is reached. The total savings will amaze us all, probably billions of pampered waste. It should be made retroactive as it brings the benefits in line with what happens to the rest of society and especially the rest of the veterans who have been denied like benefits.

In short – with two wars miserably managed in a corporate style, what have they done for their country? Those that did make a difference, what would they say? “Cut deeper” I suspect.

I was profoundly affected during the dual thrust up the coast to Beirut and then through the Bekaa when Israeli retired general officers showed up in large numbers at aid stations taking care of the wounded and making sure mom got a note home.  In the squadrons they taxied aircraft and helped with the maintenance turns.  All in their pants and shorts not uniforms doing menial tasks but all the time being the force of the older generation there, on scene.

It just makes you want to cry when you walk around the Pentagon today, who wants any of these guys around you today, and for sure most avoid the chance anyway heading for their interviews.  What a world we have become.

(b)  A look at our officer corps

Graphics from General and Flag Officer Authorizations for the Active and Reserve Components: a Comparative and Historical Analysis, Library of Congress, December 2007

(c)  Some Questions

“Top generals, admirals can make more in retirement than on active duty, report shows“, Amanda Palleschi, Government Execute, 3 February 2012:

The military’s top generals and admirals can now make more in retirement than they did on active duty, thanks to pension rules that were changed as part of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act, USA Today reports. According to the paper’s examination of congressional and federal records, a four-star officer retired in 2011 with 38 years in the military can receive a pension of about $219,600, or 63% beyond what was previously allowed. Three-star officers with 35 years’ experience can receive about $169,000, or 30% higher than they would before the 2007 law was enacted.

Before the change, the maximum pension was based on an officer’s pay at 26 years’ of service, USA Today reports. “Pentagon officials sought to change top officers’ pensions in 2003, records show, over concerns that the military would lose too many experienced generals and admirals during wartime,” USA Today’s Tom Vanden Brook wrote.

Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez {explained} “At the time of this legislation, with the exception of cost-of-living increases, most [of the admirals and generals] were serving for over a decade without increases in salary or retired pay. … The legislative changes provided greater incentive and more appropriate compensation of service for individuals who the department retains beyond 30 years of service, increasing readiness through increased retention”  …

Perhaps we then need to review some simple facts — and questions. We need 2012 data, not estimates based on 2006 era studies and papers because the world has drastically changed in the last 7 years.  There are many questions to be asked.

  1. Where are the congressional/CBO/GAO/etc. 2012 reports and studies regarding the cost of flag officers ? And associated retirement cost?
  2. Does anyone know the current number in 2012 of retired Generals and Admirals (active and reserve) drawing military retired pay?
  3. Does anyone know the projected number ten years from now (e.g. In 2022) of the number of retired Admirals and Generals (active and reserve) who will be drawing military retired pay?
  4. How many total Generals (active and reserve) retire and begin drawing retired pay each year?
  5. What is the projected annual cost and total cost of funding military retirement for flag officers during the next 20 years for just for the Generals and Admirals who are now retired (active and reserve) and also including those (active and reserve) who will be promoted to flag rank and also retiring during the next 20 years? This includes all associated perks and people.
  6. How many years, on average, does a one star active duty general serve before retiring? 3 years? 4 years?
  7. How many years does a 2 star general actually serve at that rank — on average — before retiring at that rank? 3 years ?
  8. How many flag officers actually have combat experience, that is rounds fired their way. Rifleman’s Badge stuff.
  9. And what is his/her retired pay currently? Versus the retired pay of a Colonel/O-6?
  10. What is the annual current retired pay of a 3 star retiring at age 61 with 40 years of service?

In these calculations, important to also include ALL of the Reserve flag officers who also will be receiving retired pay! Try guessing to the nearest hundred million dollars.  Here are some bonus questions:

  1. How many (or % of) retired flag officers also claim “disability” pay ? And is this additional pay in addition to normal retired pay?
  2. How many are awarded disability status by “grateful” SECDEF’s?
  3. How much does a 80% seriously disabled wounded warrior marine (e.g. E-4 rank, 6 years of service, Afghanistan line of service injury) receive in disability pay from the military/VA when discharged back into the civilian world from the military?

Can it be true that no one knows the answer to these questions ?

(2) About the author

Key points about the background of Richard A Pawloski:

(3)  How many flag officers work for defense contractors?

Post-Government Employment of Former DOD Officials Needs Greater Transparency, 21 May 2008 — Summary:

Department of Defense (DOD) officials who serve in senior and acquisition positions and then leave for jobs with defense contractors are subject to the restrictions of post-government employment laws, in order to protect against conflicts of interest.

… In 2006, 52 contractors employed 2,435 former DOD senior and acquisition officials who had previously served as generals, admirals, senior executives, program managers, contracting officers, or in other acquisition positions which made them subject to restrictions on their post-DOD employment. Most of the 2,435 former DOD officials were employed by seven contractors. On the basis of a stratified random sample of contractor-supplied information, GAO estimates that at least 422 former DOD officials could have worked on defense contracts related to their former agencies and that at least nine could have worked on the same contracts for which they had oversight responsibilities or decision-making authorities while at DOD. The information GAO obtained from contractors was not designed to identify violations of the restrictions.

… However, GAO’s analysis found a significant under-reporting of the contractors’ employment of former DOD officials. … New post-government employment requirements enacted in January 2008 are likely to make written ethics opinions for former DOD officials more readily available to contractors. … This information was not designed to provide a mechanism for DOD to effectively monitor former DOD officials’ post-government employment compliance after they begin working for contractors on specific contracts.

(4)  How many officers do we have now vs. in the past?

Lots more. A mind-bendingly larger fraction of officers, especially senior officers, than effective military services of the past.

  1. PowerPoint presentation by Donald E. Vandergriff (Major, US Army, retired) on Officer Manning: Armies of the past.
  2. Officer Inflation: Its Cost to the Taxpayer and to Military Effectiveness, Officer Inflation: Its Cost to the Taxpayer and to Military Effectiveness, Project on Military Procurement, October 1987
  3. More Brass, More Bucks: Officer Inflation in Today’s Military, Project On Government Oversight, 1 March 1998
  4. Important:  “General and Flag Officer Requirements”, testimony of Ben Freeman (Project on Government Oversight) before the Senate Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Personnel, 14 September 2011

(5)  For more information

Two articles discussing this problem:

  1. “Generals Wary of Move to Cut Their Ranks“, New York Times, 26 August 2010
  2. “The Pentagon’s Biggest Overrun: Way Too Many Generals“, Dina Rasor, Truth-Out, 5 January 2012

Government Reports discussing the problem:

  1. General and Flag Officer Requirements Are Unclear Based on DOD’s 2003 Report to Congress, Government Accounting Office, April 2004
  2. DOD Could Make Greater Use of Existing Legislative Authority to Manage General and Flag Officer Careers, Government Accounting Office, 23 September 2004

See these FM Reference Pages for all posts about our military:

Other posts about the skill and integrity of our senior military leaders:

  1. The Core Competence of America’s Military Leaders, 27 May 2007
  2. The moral courage of our senior generals, or their lack of it, 3 July 2008
  3. Careerism and Psychopathy in the US Military leadership, GI Wilson (Colonel, USMC, retired), 2 May 2011
  4. Rolling Stone releases Colonel Davis’ blockbuster report about Afghanistan – and our senior generals!, 12 February 2012

.

.

Exit mobile version