March 11,
2013
Shawnee
News-Star
Letters to the editor:
The Pentagon and Secretary of Defense has lately been much in
the news.
By the Grace of God, and a bit of good luck, I was able to
avoid a permanent assignment to the “Puzzle Palace” (military jargon for the
Pentagon). Several temporary duty assignments and discussions with military and
civilian personnel assigned there provide the background for this letter.
The Pentagon is unbelievably large in physical size and
thousands of people work there. Commuting to work is a daily clock burning
adventure. I think I may have talked to the all-time long distance commuter. He
drove three hours, each way, from Pennsylvania. Fortunately, he had only six
months to go before retirement.
Considerable effort is expended to put a public “purple face ”on
decisions. Purple represents the coordinated position of all service uniform
colors. In fact, I just had to catch a drink of water from the only purple
water fountain in the building.
Below the Joint Chiefs level of command, some real spirited
and heated debate takes place between service staff officers. To a large
extent, performance reports reflect the ability of a staff officer to defend
their service’s position on hot button issues like roles and mission, force
structure, base closures, budgeting, and Congressional inquiries. In most
cases, day-to-day mission accomplishment is left to theater and field unit
commanders.
The Pentagon is the Madison Square Garden for general and
flag officers climbing the promotion ladder. Advancing careers are made or lost
here.
Most of my service career was spent in field operations units.
We had a saying: “Nothing is true until the Pentagon denies it three times!”
Glenn, USAF (Ret)
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