Speaking Up
Why Don't Active Duty Senior Officers Publicly Criticize Elected Officials?
People frequently ask “why do current senior officers not speak out publicly against Trump?” The answer is both simple and complex. And it is not just a case of risk vs. reward.
Let me be perfectly clear: we cannot publicly speak out against elected officials while we are on active duty.
I will now explain but that statement stands on its own. And why this matters will be explored as well.
Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice: (link below)
§888. Art. 88. Contempt toward officials
Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
I will attempt to briefly and casually explore some of the many reasons why we do not speak up. Yes, I retired over a year ago but I still say we. The reasons are in no particular order and I reserve the right to revise whatever I want whenever I want.
Yes, like everyone else who enlisted we agreed to risk our lives. We know. That being said there are reasons that are greater than an individual for why someone who loathes the CIC may stay in. The first reason is people do not listen. Not a little bit, a lot. I literally had an idiot screaming in my face that I did not know who the person above me in a previous chain of command reported to and refused to look when I showed him. Not beating him down to his component atoms is a regret I will take to the grave.
We have families. If you have 30+ years in and lose your pension and you are military, and you have the wrong type of discharge you are completely fucked. Meaning you cannot work for any company with a government contract as you get quietly blacklisted. Technically this is illegal but good luck proving it. As most of us enlisted out of high school or college having a resume with nothing on it that you can use as a reference leaves you in the running for Walmart greeter. So the risk has to be worth it particularly when we are criticizing people that US citizens elected.
We can actually be doing something worthwhile and critical and, in that rarest of occasions it is actually working like it should. So we STFU and focus on our tasks because we know the importance of it. Yeah, it sucks. Believe me you have no idea how much senior officers complain about elected officials on both sides of the aisle amongst ourselves.
If we go (this mostly applies to people senior to me) we can be replaced by a crony of the administration. Like every other organization we have people who should not be in the positions they are and you never really know it until they get there (there are exceptions). So some stay to avoid it being worse and stay quiet in hopes that in a few years someone rational is elected. Better yet, someone both rational and who listens to the military when we say what we can and cannot do. We are still hoping for this individual who is currently riding a unicorn over a rainbow somewhere.
As sad as it is it can be very hard for some people to leave the military. This is a very small percentage as the number one feeling when out after three or four decades is relief. I slept for half a day and I did not bother to check the mail for three days because I would have had to put on pants. But some people have their entire identity wrapped up in what they do. Given what some of us have done over our careers and what we have had to sacrifice to wind up where we are I am surprised it is not more of us.
Some people are just fucking assholes and having been waiting for a chance to shit on somebody. Our system is very far from perfect.
It is not just that our friends are still in and we want to do right by them, sometimes their children enlist and if we have known them along time these are kids we have played catch with, babysat and changed their diapers. You can put up with a lot to do your best to give them a better chance. Yes, we are supposed to work for the greater good but anyone who has had a newborn smile at them understands this. Or should. And for those of us who never had kids this is even more important. For me this was the closest I ever got to knowing what it is like to care for kids like they were your own. If ever I was in a position to make their life a little bit better I took it.
Sort of tangential to above: When you have been in a long time the sense of responsibility can out-weigh other considerations. I do not really know how to explain this but I am going to try. For some people, particularly those of us with little family the military is a giant, fucked up family. (I met the woman who is now my wife when I was 47 - I had no family for more than 15 years at that point. I say this simply as an illustration, please do not comment on it.) Instilled into us from day one is take care of your unit (whatever it may be) and as you progress in rank this is not just the people next to you, it is the people under your command. It can just plain be hard to walk away from people you feel responsible for. I know this kept me in several times when I thought about leaving.
There are probably more reasons and that is why I will probably update this. It will be a long-term work in progress.