Tuesday, March 12, 2013

THE PUZZLE PALACE

WHAT FOLLOWS APPEARED IN THE SHAWNEE NEWS-STAR:


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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