Firing the Generals
BY Herschel Smith
1 month, 1 week ago
It’s easy to watch Trump and Hegseth at work firing worthless generals now, but it’s also too easy to forget when Obama engaged in that action too. And one such detail is remarkable.
Rear Adm. Chuck Gaouette, commander of the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group, was relieved in October 2012 for disobeying orders when he sent his group on Sept. 11 to “assist and provide intelligence for” military forces ordered into action by Gen. Ham.
Let that wash over you. This officer was relieved of command for sending assets to assist and provide intelligence for what was happening in Benghazi and the forces General Ham ordered into action for the fight.
By the way, General Ham was also fired and had to sign an NDA on the event, so he can never speak of it. Clinton, Obama, and the other gaggle of demons. One cannot imagine a more insanely corrupt, polluted and poisonous bunch of people.
On February 23, 2025 at 11:43 pm, Dan said:
Firing people is easy. Obama proved that even he…as incompetent as he was could do it.
The hard part if replacing those people with hires who are competent AND who will do what is necessary and correct.
On February 24, 2025 at 2:12 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
Re: “By the way, General Ham was also fired and had to sign an NDA on the event, so he can never speak of it.”
There is probably some manner by which that NDA can be rescinded, but even if there isn’t – General Ham can probably make a good legal case that he was coerced into signing it, and that it ought to be null-and-void.
How valid can such a classification be in the first place if it was slapped on there not for valid national security reasons, but to protect the criminality of the Obama regime?
High-ranking officers who risk their careers and good names in the cause of honoring their oaths instead of playing political games and cashing in like their corrupt comrades ought to honored, not punished, for their integrity and righteousness.
Secretary Hegseth ought to emulate what was done by General George C. Marshall during his time as Chief of Staff of the Army. Marshall kept – or his aide did for him – a small notebook which went everywhere they did, and into which Marshall could record the names and other information concerning personnel who had impressed him, disappointed him in some manner, or who were otherwise noteworthy.
He knew that the army, indeed the whole institution of the armed forces, had gotten careerist and somewhat soft and complacent from years of peace and the bare cupboard of the Depression years. If and when war came, as he believed it would, a lot of dead-wood would have to be cleared away and up-and-coming officers appointed capable of getting the job done.
Over in the Dept. of the Navy, Admirals William Leahy – who later became the first Chief of Staff of the Joint Chiefs – as well as Ernest J. King and Chester Nimitz also used similar methods to track outstanding personnel on the rise in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
Secretary Hegseth is going to be under considerable pressure from the ring-knockers, the graduates of the service academies who tend to watch one another’s backs on their climb up the hierarchy of the service and the Pentagon. They’ll pressure him to select only from a pool of people known to them and a part of their ad-hoc association.
The Secretary ought to resist such pressures and – if necessary – promote much more junior officers over the heads of those above them and more senior. Indeed, if the right person for the job isn’t a professional at all, but someone outside standard military channels, he should be prepared to issue whatever waivers are needed.
The Secretary of Defense should know, and perhaps he already does – that principled, ethical officers who are warriors and aspire to the highest standards regardless of the winds of political correctness, often don’t make flag rank at all. Why? Because they upset the gravy train and smooth functioning of the peace-time military. Warriors make chair-warmers at the Pentagon and civil servants of all kinds nervous, which is why some of the finest officers our military has ever produced top out at O-6 and never make the jump to flag/general rank.
General/flag officers are inherently political creatures under our system anyway, since no aspirant to general/flag rank can be promoted to Brigadier General or Rear-Admiral (lower half) without the advice and consent of the Senate.
On February 24, 2025 at 2:18 pm, Bill Buppert said:
Army: 218 general officers, including eight four-star generals
Navy: 149 general officers, including six four-star admirals
Air Force: 170 general officers, including nine four-star generals
Marine Corps: 62 general officers, including two four-star generals
You each get two four-star FOs and ten percent of the remainder (you decide the distribution). Fire the rest and put a ten-year ban on their employment with the MIC after retirement.
The COLs will be stepping up to put their shoulder to the wheel.
If you don’t win a war as an FO, you get to ride bare-chested with no ribbons displayed. Win a war, you can have unlimited rows of cloth salad.
Reduce all officer strength in the Army from 14% to 3-5%.
On February 24, 2025 at 5:06 pm, Grunt said:
Obozo didn’t just fire generals. I met an infantry captain near Ft. BRAGG that had just returned from Afghanistan. They sent him to a board and was promptly fired. As in out of the Army fired. Not for anything he did wrong in war, he didn’t lick the boot.
On February 25, 2025 at 9:06 am, Latigo Morgan said:
Colonels and Corporals.
No General or Admiral who held their rank or was promoted after the Biden and Obambi purges should be retained.
On February 25, 2025 at 4:22 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
Then-Major Stephen Coughlin, USA (ret.), an intelligence officer widely-acknowledged as one of the foremost experts in the U.S. military on Islam and Islamic jihad, was unceremoniously relieved by the Obama regime in 2008, when groups such as CAIR complained about Coughlin’s work.
Recipient of outstanding fitness reports up to that point, Coughlin was ultimately forced out of the army. He landed on his feet at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, but the fact remains that a grave injustice was done to this patriot and truth-teller.
At this late date, Coughlin is probably unwilling to return to the army, but none-the-less, the present administration ought to do everything in its power to see that the former intelligence officer is recognized for his contribution to the defense of our nation, and that his record is cleared of unfounded charges or smears against his character and/or work.
Considering that he was forced out under less-than-ethical circumstances, some sort of financial recompense or award should also be considered, since Major Coughlin lost his career and very livelihood in trying to do the right thing. Whatever it takes to make him whole, so to speak.
Not just because it would be the right thing to do but because of the message it would send to other truth-tellers. If it remains obvious that dissidents and others who say/do controversial things will be censured and punished for trying to do their duties, then many will think twice and say nothing. If, on the other hand, the army does the right thing and protects such individuals, that will also send a powerful message.
On February 26, 2025 at 10:21 pm, Beast5 said:
For every general that was fired, there are hundreds and thousands of lieutenants and captains that simply quietly resigned after their 4 year commitment. It was clear then and now that the enemy wasn’t the greatest danger, but the traitors and cowards inside your own chain of command were. Many great junior officers were given relief for causes for doing the right thing. Threatening junior officers with courts martial or threatening to send them to Leavenworth for trivial matters was routine. The best were stabbed in the back by their own CO’s, presumably out of jealousy. Under Bush or Obama, it didn’t matter. Our generals destroyed our military in the Gulf War with Vaccine A(nthrax) and B(otulism). Our generals destroyed many good men with Anthrax and Smallpox Vaccines during OIF/OEF. And our generals destroyed our military during the Covid era with the Covid mRNA jab. Just look at the DMED data from the 3 LTC’s. Our military has been decimated. We’re just not to that chapter in the story yet.
On February 27, 2025 at 6:39 pm, Latigo Morgan said:
@Beast5 — My kid resigned their Navy commission at O3 after 6 years. Three of those years were under Trump. They had a 6 year obligation, or they would have gotten out sooner than that as soon as SlowJoe took over.
On February 28, 2025 at 8:53 pm, Unknownsailor said:
Adm Gauette was fired for being a tyrannical asshole to his staff. I was on that ship when he was fired (Stennis), and he was reported by the Stennis CO, Capt Ronald Reis.