{"id":35872,"date":"2013-05-30T06:57:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-30T10:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=35872"},"modified":"2013-05-29T13:06:11","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T17:06:11","slug":"more-pending-congressional-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=35872","title":{"rendered":"More Pending Congressional “Help”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every once in a great while, Congress actually steps in and makes DoD get something right.\u00a0\u00a0 The 1999 Kosovo BSM Fiasco<\/a> is a primary example.\u00a0 In reaction to the USAF\u2019s abuse of the BSM during the Kosovo conflict, Congress acted and made it a legal requirement for someone to actually deploy and receive hostile fire\/imminent danger pay in order to receive a Bronze Star. In that case, Congressional “help” was indeed sorely needed.<\/p>\n

It now looks like Congress may again try to \u201chelp\u201d DoD fix a problem.\u00a0 But this time I\u2019m not so sure the \u201ccure\u201d is either necessary or appropriate.<\/p>\n

Apparently Congressman Rob Wittman, R-VA, has introduced legislation that would put an Army officer in charge of the Army National Cemeteries<\/a> (Arlington and the Soldiers\u2019 and Airman\u2019s \u00a0Home National Cemeteries).\u00a0 The impetus is doubtless \u00a0the serious issues noted recently at Arlington National Cemetery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At first glance this seems like a good idea.\u00a0 But on reflection I\u2019m not so sure it\u2019s appropriate.\u00a0 In fact, the more I think about it the more I\u2019m convinced that the proper answer is, \u201cBad idea, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n

The military\u2019s mission isn\u2019t to run cemeteries. The military\u2019s mission is to fight and win the nation\u2019s wars.\u00a0 Things that detract from that focus, for whatever good reason, are IMO counterproductive.<\/p>\n

In an era of declining resources, tasking the military with yet another requirement that must by law be filled by a senior officer who is needed elsewhere simply doesn\u2019t make sense.\u00a0 If that requirement isn\u2019t military-unique (or necessary to support potential deployment to combat) and can be met by someone not in uniform, then it probably should be. \u00a0\u00a0We have too few serving in uniform today to fill actual requirements as it is.\u00a0 That’s why we have so damn many contractors deployed in combat zones supporting the force.<\/p>\n

Further, Representative Wittman’s proposal is IMO nothing but a classic \u201cfeel good\u201d knee-jerk response that frankly accomplishes little other than good PR.\u00a0 Civilians today run all other US national cemeteries.\u00a0 Those cemeteries are run well or poorly not because of the type of clothing<\/i> worn by the individuals working at those cemeteries.\u00a0 Rather, they’re run well or poorly because of the quality<\/i> of the individuals working at those cemeteries.<\/p>\n

If the current incumbent at Arlington isn\u2019t doing the job well enough, they can indeed be replaced with someone who can.\u00a0 But IMO we simply don\u2019t need to create yet another inside-the-beltway billet for a soon-to retire O6 (or above)\u00a0 to do that.<\/p>\n

Just my opinion, for what it\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every once in a great while, Congress actually steps in and makes DoD get something right.\u00a0\u00a0 … More Pending Congressional “Help”<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military-issues","category-veterans-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}