[Norm]

Close relative is about to pull the plug, has had enough. After almost 30 years of Army service, he said he's got to go, will retire at end of this year.
0-4 Blackhawk pilot, he's not happy where the service is heading.

After a sit down with his superiors discussing advancement and where he would fit in in the future.....relayed his feelings to me, and I can understand. In part..........

Though the meeting went well, I’ve decided to retire when eligible. The odds of the cards falling in my (and the Army’s) favor is low. Even if I could get the desired assignments, they would be plagued with bureaucracy.

I’ve spoken to enough senior (and expected senior) leaders and determined the future of our organization should not include me. The values and principles which kept our Army (and NG) strong are eroding at an alarming rate.

We have hiring freezes and numerous openings at the same time. Turn-over rates are at record levels. Few can perform their jobs to standard. No one is accountable. Budgets are not followed. The minority trying to improve their organization are dismissed. The few I would trust to build a staff have left or are leaving.

The effort required to get people to do their jobs is not reasonable - this includes superiors, adjacent agencies, and civilians. People openly brag about their percentage of disability and other ways they’re gaming the system to include avoiding deployments and exercises. Déjà vu of my time at GM/UAW.

A few weeks ago an E6 lied to me about his participation in an upcoming exercise. I asked his chain of command (E7-E8-O5) to address. All three made excuses for him and themselves. This is not a one-off occurrence. Last week I went to a few aviation unit drills. The units were doing next to nothing. Their training calendars are not genuine. Excuses were rampant. It appeared no one was in charge - leaders were absent.

A very junior captain was recently hired (AGR - 01Feb) and temporarily assigned to our unit. This was a workaround to the current hiring freeze as our unit is congressionally mandated to be manned. She cannot perform the job as she is untrained and pregnant. She also has one year old twins at home. She is 20 years my junior and her only experiences are tracking NG COVID operations. Leaders at the top directed this action. All new-hires have to be counseled. I usually perform this task and did for her. Her biggest concern was advancement. She’s already looking for promotion. Though she is pleasant and respectful, she has no idea of what is expected of a military officer. I noted the same characteristics of numerous field-grade officers in my last military education course.

Masquerading as Soldiers and leaders will produce promotions, awards, and excellent photographs, but will result in catastrophic failure at the worse time. Our current civilian and military leaders are on record boasting how strong the Iraqi and Afghani militaries were…
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Some wording redacted ref. unit and location.