Porter,

When I was at Fort Drum for a class in 2008 we had a SGM in our class. He was a former 75th Ranger, made the Panama jump, and always wore a patrol cap. Other SGMs kept jacking with him and telling him to put on his beret, so he’d take it out of his pocket and put it on, then walk around the corner and put his patrol cap back on. He thought the beret rule was the dumbest crap he’d ever seen in the army, which kinda restored some of my lost faith in SGMs.

Thanks for the compliments on my writing, and feel free to come back and comment anytime. And you might even want to check out my books. 🙂

I used to promote this exact plan, minus the officer beating, although I do like that addition. I thought I was the only person who had thought of this! One of my favorite “good idea fairy” moments: I was stationed at Ft. Sill in the early 2000’s, shortly after switching to the black beret. We were required to wear the beret on base but the patrol cap in the motor pool. Being artillery, we spend most of our time in the motor pool when we weren’t in the field. We were required to carry both sets of headgear on us at all times to comply with this stupid rule! I spent 13 years between active and NG and could come up with many more examples. This one just popped in my head as I read your article.

On a separate note: I really enjoy your writing. I found your blog through Breach, Bang, Clear and have been reading it like a book. I started from the beginning about a week ago and have already gotten this far. I find your writing very entertaining. I am an AFG combat vet and 10 year LEO. Keep up the good work.

Seriously now, seems quite an interesting idea. A good balance of responsability between decision maker and experts.

Can’t help but think of the reading of ( and some more translation practice can always be of use, even for those who don’t really seem to need it ) “Les décisions absurdes” sociologie des erreurs radicales et persistantes.
Which analyses several situations where absurd decisions have been made ( challenger launch despite cold weather deteriorating seams , useless company products, pilots running out of fuel and not trying to land, etc ), and precisely concludes most were taken when roles and responsabilities were badly distributed.
Hope you might enjoy it.

…and in the General Support Field Artillery units I served in, the Gunnery Sergeants babysat the Butterbars, the Platoon Sergeants kept the O-2 Platoon leaders fron hurting themselves or others, and the FirstShirt kept the Battery Commander in line ……. sometimes this required a career ending kamikaze-like move (which I saw firsthand on one occasion), but no Officer was allowed to do stupid things to the troops. Stupid Officers were often given enough rope to hang themselves, and then left hung out to dry …. back then, the Officers led the Army, but the non-Coms ran it.