Reince Priebus, President Trump’s former chief of staff, has officially joined the Navy.I suspect that Preibus got in due to political connections because Ens. Priebus is 47 years old.
At a commissioning ceremony Monday morning, Vice President Pence swore in Priebus as an ensign, an entry-level officer. Priebus and his family also met with Trump at the White House after the ceremony.
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A Navy review board reviewed 42 candidates last December and “professionally recommended” Priebus and four others to join the service through a competitive direct-commission program for human resources officers, the memo said.
Whether or not Preibus feels truly called to serve, one might wonder why that call wasn't present fifteen years ago, when the need for people who were willing to serve was so dire that the recruiters were accepting people who would have had trouble outsmarting the contents of a petri dish. Tens of thousands of sailors and airmen were sent to fill Army jobs in Iraq and elsewhere. My recollection is that the Air Force Chief of Staff was publicly complaining that the Air Force was having trouble recruiting people because nobody wanted to join the Air Force to drive trucks over IEDs in Iraq.
But that was then.
Preibus's going into the service both at an advanced age and into a non-deployable specialty where the uniform could be a cocktail dress and heels is both less than impressive and smacks of political pandering on the part of the Navy.
For the record, I don't view 47 as an advanced age. More like a mere kid.
ReplyDeleteThis should remind us all that it's never too late to follow your dreams!
ReplyDeleteEspecially if you are really nice to Donald Trump and your dreams come under the purview of the federal government.
For military service, 47 is an advanced age unless one is a colonel, general or a master sergeant.
ReplyDeleteI agree with re; from where I am 47 is quite young.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah.
Kind of throws a tiny bit of shade on the validity of all Navy officers, does it not? It's like some kid that just bought a few cheesy tricks in a magic shop getting top billing in Vegas, leaving David Copperfield scratching his head.
ReplyDeleteI graduated high school in 1978. I was an athlete, with football scholarships offered to me. I was 6 foot tall, weighed 205, and was in very good shape. I tried to enlist in the Air Force, and they told me that I was too fat. I had to lose about 20 pounds to enlist in the Air Force, when I was mostly muscle, since I was still in football season at the time. They told me that they wanted to recruit only the best.
ReplyDeleteI was pretty mad, since I could have out run, out lifted, and out done pretty much any entrance test that they could have given me. And now, they give a political hack a free commission simply because they need a human resources person, at the age of 47? I wonder if any graduates of the Air Force academy are angry, for having to do the heavy lifting required to get their commissions?
Political nepotism is never a good thing, no matter on which side it is done. Why could the Air Force not just contract with civilians to do their human resources work, like they do with many other jobs, such as janitorial, food service, and such? I guess some people have no shame, at all.
Nangleator-
ReplyDeleteThere are always some officers who call their own validity into question. It never affected my opinion of the rest of them.
t. ex-nuc
Be careful what you wish for, Reince. When the next CIC is a D there will be plenty of decks to be swabbed and barnacles to be scraped.
ReplyDelete