Here’s Why Congress Wants To Fire So Many Generals

As we should, too many E-10 wannabes as it is now! Do we really need a Senior Enlisted Advisor (SEA) for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs? As it stands now, for every MAJCOM and Headquarters SEA across the services there is a extra layer of protocol that screams excessive expenditures. The effective management and leadership of the rank and file doesn't require that many extra level mid-level managers.

SMSgt Roy Dowdy - A number of O7 billets are currently filled with O6s.

SMSgt Roy Dowdy - remember, general officer positions are basically political positions. If they don't put a general there, the political world would cause a headache more expensive than simply putting a general there. Also, you need to understand that 2 star rank is the last "permanently own rank." The 3 and 4 star ranks are capped based on specific number of positions and not based on a size of the military population (US Code 10, 526).

How is it that over the course of decades we create these artificial and bloated structures of increased bureaucracies of power and influence (i.e. Department of Education, DoD Centers of Excellence, etc...) where once they never existed before and suddenly we can't function without them? We successfully defeated the Soviet Union through 45 years of Cold War with more manpower and weapons inventories than currently in place, but fail to definitely win in over 15 years of conflict in the Middle East? I understand completely the limitations of political will in fighting asymmetric warfare, but the current infrastructure and management of the DOD, which has openly admitted can't verify the veracity of their financial books, is a Frankenstein of it's own creation! It's analogous to the Lottery Winner in Michigan (Amanda Clayton) who still collected food stamps after she won $1 million because the system as designed permitted her to do so, she died later of a drug overdose! Justifying the accession and retention of an increased number of Flag Officers just because the system is designed that way is not a credible argument. Efficiency and fiscal propriety demands that something dynamic be instituted to change the status quo, the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 changed the command structure and decision making of the original NSA Act of 1947 for somewhat more efficacy. The DOD simply suffers from from far too many chiefs and not enough Indians, where the rubber truly meets the road!