Well put, Hobbit.

They all serve at the pleasure of the POTUS, but as an observer it seems to me the current SecDef is equivalent to a box of rocks compared to his two most recent predecessors. A very useful idiot.

You just insulted rocks & boxes everywhere.

At least he backed us out of the alice-in-wonderland realm where a "drone warrior" medal was created and ranked above major combat medals in a ludicrous and transparent attempt serve the marketing needs of the UAV industry.

Hagel does have a decent breadth of experience, I'll take a wait-and-see approach for now. Sometimes you have to horse-trade to get things done.

The current SECDEF actions remind me of the old expression, "A giraffe is a horse designed by a committee [politically driven]. "

The Bronze Star isn't a major combat medal, and that is due to the DoD itself and how they've been giving them out and to who. Just do a search and you'll find plenty of personnelists and other people who went overseas, but nowhere near combat, that were awarded the medal. And no, being someplace that paid imminent fire pay does not equal combat.

I think it's funny that so many people were offended by that perceived slight against the medal, but have no comment about the devaluing of it that, in my mind, was a much bigger slight to those who risked much more in the past to earn it.

Are you sure it wasn't the politicians out to get the warriors?

No, I'm not sure. I'm really hoping there isn't a national political strategy to castrate the military (physically and philosophically) to ensure that someone's foreign policy agenda survives into perpetuity. But the suspicious side of me wonders.

And the F-35 is a giraffe designed by a committee. :rolleyes:

Has the U2 gotten the mod to bring the cockpit down to 16.5 yet? I completely assembled a U2 package including the wing commander endorsement but never pulled the trigger due to some of the unknowns of what happens to the brain at extended periods of time @ very high altitudes. The Al Dhafra fun-show and California politics might have played a secondary role :).