Following is from a Naval Aviator. The Dude, pictured on left with Baby Boo a few years ago at the Air Force Academy, loves jets and jet noise and wants to fly.
Charmaine is not so sure.
The Air Force crashes about 75 jets in routine training accidents apart from the war zones. The Navy budgets two jet losses per carrier per deployment.
Producing a number of widows, orphans and grieving families.
Our cousin Will was an F-18 pilot after graduating from Harvard.
He assures us that Naval Aviation is safe.
Except when it isn't.
Subject: Oyster Here . . I Think We Need To Rig The Barricade [ To Catch This Thing ] !
Here's a personal story of an F-18 pilot's . . at o'dark thirty . . with the carrier's barrier in place. The barricade's an impressive 20 foot high stiff net, that can be stretched across the deck to ' capture ' birds during extreme emergencies.
" Oyster, here. This note is to share with you the exciting night I had the other month. So There I was .
. . manned up with pins pulled on the hot seat for a 2030 night launch on the Hornet about 500 miles north of Hawaii. I taxied off toward the carrier's island where I did a 180 and got spotted on Cat number 1. They lowered my launch bar into position and the take-off routine began. On the run-up, all systems appeared to be ' in the green.'
After waiting the requisite 5 seconds to make sure all my flight controls were OK, I turned on the exterior lights, then shifted my eyes to the catwalk to watch the deck edge dude move his head while clearing me, left and right.
With the back of my helmet, I touched the head rest for...what was coming.
The Hornet cat shot is pretty impressive. Particularly at night. As the cat fired, I clicked in both afterburners...and I am along for the ride. But just prior to the end of the stroke there's a huge flash with a simultaneous B-O-O-M ! ...
continue reading at the jump.
###
This article has been circulating on the web. Credit to John Howland's USNA-At-Large.
Your (Army) Business Blogger[R] had no business in the cockpit. My instructor was a Vietnam vet with MigKlr license plates on his truck.
He said the F-14 was a "Man's Plane." He sounded sexist. He explained that the old-generation hydraulics required real strength -- after a couple of hours, even the manliest studs needed two hands on the stick.
No place for girls.
Or so I thought.
But I was wrong, again.
I bring the Five-kid Penta-Posse to Oceana Naval Air Station to show them how macho military men (like their father) defeated Communism.
We get invited to some F-14 training. I climb in the simulator. No photography is permitted. And a good thing, too...
Jack and Charmaine This is wedding anniversary week in our household: We celebrate for 7 days.
Men's Health magazine reminds us why marriage works. The April issue has six compelling reasons to marry, by Anna Maltby.
Anna is a woman.
But the advice is still good,
If you are susceptible to vice, find a wife. She'll save you from yourself -- and improve your life -- in a variety of ways...
1. Increase your pay
A Virginia Commonwealth University study found that married men earn 22 percent more than their similarly experienced but single colleagues.
[VCU is a terrific school located in Richmond, Virginia. Conservative. Good.]
2. Speed up your next promotion
Married men receive higher performance ratings and faster promotions than bachelors, a 2005 study of U.S. Navy officers reported.
[If the Army wanted you to have a wife, it would have issued you one, goes the old joke -- it looks like the military is a-changing its perception of the value of a helpmeet.]
3. Keep you out of trouble
According to a recent U.S. Department of Justice report, male victims of violent crime are nearly four times more likely more likely to be single than married.
[Your Business Blogger(R) has not been in a bar fight since getting married. But every few years I got to get the caps replaced on those cracked up front teeth from an altercation back in single days. And I wish that ringing in my ears would stop...]
4. Satisfy you in bed
In 2006, British researchers reviewed the sexual habits of men in 38 countries and found that in every country, married men have more sex.
5. Help you beat cancer
In a Norwegian study, divorced and never-married male cancer patients had 11 and 16 percent higher mortality rates, respectively, than married men.
[Charmaine is forever pestering me to get a(nother!) physical. Goodness, I had one back in the 90's. And the colonoscopy was her idea too. Such a pain in the ...]
6. Help you live longer
A UCLA study found that people in generally excellent health were 88 percent more likely to die over the 8-year study period if they were single.
The accountability and friendship of marriage works.
Excuse me now, I've got some yard work to do.
As one academic studying the men-marriage-maturity transformation wrote, "A rake, now out raking leaves,"
A product of...
Navy Office of Information
www.navy.mil
703.697.5342
April 24, 2008
U.S. Fourth Fleet Re-Establishment
“Re-establishing the Fourth Fleet recognizes the immense importance of maritime security in the southern part of the Western Hemisphere and signals our support and interest in the civil and military maritime services in Central and South America. Our Maritime Strategy raises the importance of working with international partners as the basis of global maritime security. This change increases our emphasis in the region on employing naval forces to build confidence and trust among nations through collective maritime security efforts that focus on common threats and mutual interests.”
– Adm. Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations
After extensive consideration and consultation, the Secretary of the Navy and the CNO have concluded that there are clear and compelling reasons to re-establish Commander, U.S. Fourth Fleet Headquarters as dual-hatted with Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command.
Conducting the Maritime Strategy in a dynamic maritime region
A Fourth Fleet headquarters would be more effective in conducting the full spectrum of Maritime Strategy missions which promote and strengthen coalition building, develop partner nation capabilities and deter aggression.
• The command will provide enhanced support to U.S. Southern Command’s (SOUTHCOM) Operational and Contingency Plans, which are primarily maritime missions.
• As we have seen in other areas of the world, forward presence of naval forces provides regional stability and understanding of our local partners. The nation has vital interests in this dynamic region and economic stability is an imperative.
Ensuring optimal support to SOUTHCOM
Re-establishing a fleet-level staff will ensure optimal support to U.S. Southern Command through:
• Improved alignment for implementation of the Maritime Headquarters with Maritime Operation Center (MHQ/MOC) to enhance operational collaboration and exchange of information with regional maritime partners to improve regional maritime security activities.
• Operational compatibility with other Fleets including force management and resource allocation.
Demonstrating commitment to the SOUTHCOM region
SOUTHCOM is a maritime theater with more than 30 countries and about 15.6 million square miles of water.
• Designation as a numbered U.S. Navy fleet signals to civil and military maritime services in Central and South America our recognition of the importance of maritime security in the southern Western Hemisphere.
• Recent deployments to the region in 2007 include USNS Comfort, the USS Wasp Expeditionary Strike Group, HSV Swift Global Fleet Station pilot, and Partnership of the Americas (POA).
• Current and upcoming deployments include humanitarian assistance/disaster response deployment Continuing Promise and the ongoing POA 2008 which includes the annual multinational exercise UNITAS, hosted this year by Brazil and Peru; and FA PANAMAX, hosted each year by Panama.
Key Messages
Facts & Figures
• A Fourth Fleet headquarters will be more effective in conducting the full spectrum of operations to promote and strengthen coalition building, develop partner nation capabilities and deter aggression.
• The United States has vital national interests in this dynamic region of the world. Regional economic stability is a must.
• Re-establishing the Fourth Fleet elevates the attention this area will receive.
• Approximately 40% of U.S. trade and 50% of oil imports are within this hemisphere, including more than 33% of U.S. energy imports.
• Approximately 50% of Latin American exports go to the United States.
• The command will initially be in Mayport, Fla. and use existing infrastructure and personnel.
• Fourth Fleet will not control ships in Mayport.
Writing an employee evaluation? Try these 101 helping sentences.
Academia and the Army have one thing in common.
Yes, there is something. Your Business Blogger(R) is a former Armor Cavalry Officer and is currently an Adjunct Professor of Management, so I was surprised to learn of some overlap.
The results of an employee evaluation
should never be a surprise
Courtesy: Toothpaste for DinnerPerhaps the only intersection is the willingness to share with fellow servicemen or teachers various helps needed for the efficient and effective transference of knowledge.
It is all, well, collegial. For the life of the (military) mind.
A college has two goals — the business of teaching and preparing the student for life.
An Army has two goals — the business of teaching and preparing the soldier for war.
It follows that there are the only two missions that the military should have:
1) Learning to fight and kill and break things, or
2) Fighting and killing and breaking things.
(Sounds like either a firefight or a faculty meeting…)
I recently had a client who was struggling to come up with just the right verbiage for an employee evaluation. I reminded him that this did not have to be an original work of art.
It simply had to be sincere, even if the words were lifted elsewhere. Authentic, even if borrowed.
(This all makes sense when coming from a high priced consultant.)
Your Business Blogger(R) suggested using an old Army briefing book. Remember, it worked for Mitt Romney’s father, George W. Romney who once remarked about being “brainwashed” after a military presentation during Vietnam. It worked for him. It can work for you, too.
For your employees, I mean.
An efficiency report will comment on the employee’s commitment, attention to detail and follow-up.
The best evaluations will outline a sample example of an achievement with a department problem, a solution and the measurable result of the staffer.
One Hundred and One Helping Sentences.
USA Support Command, Saigon Regulation 672-1 Headquarters, USASUPCOM, Sgn 9 Sept 1970, G. White, Armor
[Language has been updated somewhat for our modern times.]
1. Through his untiring efforts, devotion to duty and professional knowledge, NAME has accomplished TASK which increased the effectiveness of DEPARTMENT.
2. The timely guidance he gave to all personnel ensured the maintenance of a high standard of SALES/NOUN of DEPARTMENT.
3. The outstanding record of performance by NAME is due to his attention to detail in all aspects of his duty assignments and to his desire for zero defects.
Your Business Blogger(R): and
Your Circle of Friends When Your Business Blogger(R) served a tour of duty in government, I learned the harsh reality of what academics called "Multiple Points of Accountability."
I thought that my boss was my only constituent.
Nope. I learned that I had better pay attention to the press, to other department silos, to numerous associations (aka lobbyists), other political appointees, elected officials -- and finally: The Voters.
There is no difference between management in government and business. The basics are constant.
The first thing every manager learns is that he has multiple points of accountability. Points outside his silo.
The manager must nurture multiple points of accountability to turn these to multiple points of support.
He’s got to turn his silo into a circle -- of friends.
Management Training for Church Leaders:
The QuestionsYour Business Blogger(R) would often tease Preachers about their work-load.
After all, they only work one hour a week. On Sunday.
Pastors always laugh at that old joke. Diplomacy is part of their discipline.
But as managers, Pastors have double duty.
They have the work of an individual contributor.
They have the responsibilities of management.
Between the christening, marrying and burying, they really do have the hardest job on this side of eternity.
***
The Christian Church which shepherds believers and their faith worldwide, is nevertheless much like any organization in terms of order and structure. Basic management principles apply.
Pastors often must focus on numbers: numbers: attendance, budget, seating, parking, programs.
But the Pastor as manager doesn’t manage numbers, he manages behaviors.
If not of the congregation, then hopefully of his staff.
The following questions concern management strategies. The numbers will follow once skills are in place.
All church organizations and staffs experience personnel challenges and management concerns. The following questions concern management strategies and skill building for pastor-managers who can benefit from knowing that the numbers will follow once the staff is trained and trusted, and skills are in place.
Remember:
The Pastor leads people and manages behaviors.
The Pastor doesn't manage numbers; he manages behaviors.
The Pastor doesn't manage staff; he leads people.
The YouTube video presents 5 common questions. Here are the 5 answers and bonus solutions to many church management problems.
1. What does the church leader, the manager really do?
Plan, Lead, Organize, Control, Motivate.
The pastor’s focus must be on both the congregation and his staff. This requires skill building and continuous learning as the pastor also undoubtedly must commit serious time and attention to study and sermon preparation.
Here the Pastor is radically different from the manager in business and government. In business there are many areas of which the manager will know little or nothing. But he depends upon department heads to support him.
A great deal of the Pastor's time is consumed in the research and review of the sermon. This is work that only the Pastor can do -- this is vocational time.
The Pastor is one of the few managerial disciplines that has considerable management time and the vocational-knowledge responsibilities of an individual contributor.
For most managers the formula is simple: Knowledge plus Network equals Success. The manager's success is dependent on getting his network...to work. To succeed, the manager needs the support of his Ruling Board, outside peers, and staff.
2. What does the individual contributor do?
The work. The individual contributor does the hands-on work -- in business it would be the accountant, brick layer, college professor. This is the vocational, the knowledge-worker.
The manager, in a routine management position, has few vocational duties.
Except for the Pastor.
His is one of the few positions requiring both extensive hands on -- sermon writing -- and management skills. Little wonder Pastors run out of time.
3. Pastors, why were you hired?
If management wasn’t mentioned, that’s not unusual. Indeed, the search committee had a list of KSA’s (knowledge – skills – abilities), but often they don’t delve into management maturity or the candidates ability to garner support of his network. Pastors usually are hired for their wisdom and judgment.
Traditionally, seminaries haven’t focused on the day-to-day management challenges. So even pastors over 50 may only have the management maturity of a twenty something. Henry Ford once said that, "If you take all the experience and judgment of men over fifty out of the world, there wouldn't be enough left to run it."
4. Can the church manager be a victim?
Many Church leaders feel this way – but the Pastor must have impact on his church and the community. The manager must be in control of events or favorably influence outcomes.
The successful Pastor- manager is able to develop a team that is proactive. The Pastor and his staff are on the "offensive" for good. For example, a church received visits by the police for violating noise level ordinances. That church was on defense.
The best Pastor-manager and his team would have anticipated any community friction and worked out solutions.
5. What happens when the team/church staff is angry?
Even if the staff displays no emotion because they are “people of faith,” they still need
a trusted manager to whom they can turn and who knows how to deal with their concerns and get to the bottom of the matter. The worst outcome of an angry staffer in a church work environment is not disobedience, but incentive-stifling compliance. Such negative attitudes, in turn, damage the manager who will often need his team to protect him from (his) mistakes.
In the army the cliché was, “Take care of the troops and they will take care of you. And if you don’t take care of the troops, they will take care of you – the troops always get even.” But even if the staff displays no emotion, the manager will often need his team to protect him from (his) mistakes. The worst outcome of an angry staffer is not disobedience, but supervise compliance.
Of course church staff aren't really into vengeance; they just hurt, withdraw, and stay
out of sight as much as possible. This is especially true for staff with a distracted pastor-boss and it is why staff-building events, lunches, silly contests and required prayers together seldom work.
Your Business Blogger(R) and Charmaine
and the Penta-Posse on Easter Sunday
2005 Grand Canyon6. Who are the church ‘constituents’ and ‘customers’?
This is the classic dilemma in the non-profit world – the disconnect between who gives and who gets. The constituents, who tithe in the pews, are not the customers; recipients of charity from the pastor’s discretionary fund or outreach budget are the actual customers.
These ‘customers’ probably are not even members of the church. This poses unique challenges for church managers and staff, who need skills and understanding. Many church employees, especially the young, don’t know that the dynamics they find frustrating are the result of working for a non-profit.
7. When is counsel, coun-‘sell’?
A council of advisors - akin to a church’s Administrative Board or Vestry - should ‘sell’ counsel, advice to the pastor. The pastor can buy the advice or not and making the best decision is the wisdom of mature management.
If the senior pastor isn’t trained to make good decisions by asking for recommendations, people at all the other levels will suffer the consequences and have no opportunity to express themselves.
8. What is the most important concern for the church staff? The work/ministry, the people/congregation or the boss/Pastor?
The Pastor. (Staff and Pastors always get this wrong – staff thinks it has the answer and gives the wrong answer. Pastors know the right answer and give the wrong answer, out of embarrassment…)
Even in the atmosphere of 'servant leadership' the Senior Pastor is the final arbiter, the final decision maker and sets the tone for decisions made by subordinates.
Here again, the church leader is quite different than other business leaders. In any other 'industry' some managers might prefer to be low profile. Pastors do not have this option; commanding a pulpit three times or more a week puts him, well, front and center whether he wants to be seen or not.
It is the Pastor's direction that counts in making decisions on the strategic direction of his church. Every church staff member, of course has his work to do.
The staffer does not have his own agenda.
Only the Pastor.
9. Is office politics good or bad?
Politics is the normal interaction of people and power and position and process. Office politics in a church setting is a tool to be acknowledged and used by church management.
10. Is it better for the church leader to have the answers, or to ask the questions?
Neither. It is best for the church leader to have competent staff who anticipate questions, research alternatives and present recommendations. Why does the pastor have to think of everything? (I know, I know…I’m sorry to ask.)
But if the structure only allows for a few associate pastors – those who insulate the church leader or senior pastor – to offer information, the intelligence and experience of other staffers who work in different parts of the church is wasted.
The subordinate should bring not only questions, but suggested answers. The church leader can then grade the answers and make decisions on staffer’s recommendations.
11. How does the Pastor know when he is managing well?
The best church staff will bring a memo/course of action/decision that will require nothing more than the Pastor’s signature.
There is friction if communications channels aren’t in place. Many challenges may not even be known to some staffers who could make a difference; the manager should be looking for input.
12. Does the Associate Pastor have the “right” to church resources?
Nope. The mere position of authority may or may not command compliance from the church bureaucracy. It has to be earned.
Church managers, like mid-level managers in any organization, do not have a "right" to assets or support from his peers in sister departments -- even if the manager's position warrants.
The professional manager nurtures his network.
13. Who is the boss? Who is the subordinate? How can an observer tell if the Senior Pastor they trust as their spiritual leader is the one really making the decisions?
The military has the template. There is a term for a subordinate in the Army called, “Action Officer.” There is no doubt when the superior officer and junior officer work together, that the action, the next steps remain with the lower ranking Action Officer. Management training teaches managers and staff to understand who is tasked with an assignment and what the follow-up will look like. Training reviews the understanding of clean lines in the chain of command and who has the next move.
14. Is there a relationship between the time a manager ‘works’ and the results?
No. The manager should see himself, not just as the captain of a ship – but as the helmsman with a light touch on the rudder. Where the slightest movement, the smallest effort moves the rudder and can direct the largest vessel.
15. What is the Pastor responsible for?
All that his church does, or fails to do.
Even if The Senior Pastor delegates to another pastor and gives him both the responsibility and the authority, the congregation will likely still demand that the Senior Pastor do it instead: the christening, marrying and burying.
16. What makes for the best Associate Pastors?
If the Associate Pastor, or any staff, waits until being told what to do or has to ask what to do, the senior pastor is not running a healthy organization -- he is running a kids-daycare center for adults. Associate Pastors need to know what to do, how to do it, and when. Training and discipline preparation for them is not unlike the Army’s definition: Prompt obedience to orders or the initiation of appropriate action in the absence of orders.
Every Senior Pastor’s deam.
Every Senior Pastor should be training his successor.
17. When should the church leader raise his voice? – When should the church leader not take counsel?
When the sanctuary is on fire. And a fire-and-brimstone sermon, to be sure.
Emergencies are the few times that a direct order -- or direct shouting -- is required. And maybe not even then if you’re Presbyterian…
In most instances the Pastors should make a moment to take council of the mature adivsors. Seldom in any situation will the manager need to raise his voice.
Professional managers know well that Knowledge can be nil in the formula and the manager can still be successful.
The Pros know that, if given a choice between Knowing and Getting -- for example, the hiring manager evaluating a candidate for a management slot -- chooses the ability to garner support.
Even more than knowledge.
A manager can know nothing -- but as long as the net in his network is well constructed, he will not be let down.
The transcript is at the jump.
Knowledge plus Network equals Success
The Penta-Posse (-) and Einstein
at Princeton University
Monkey Business
Management
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
*Your Business Blogger(R) is an Adjunct Professor of Management in Business Technologies at the Northern Virginia Community College.
Press Release: The William Oncken Corporation Announces Licensed Marketing Agreement With Management Training of DC, LLC
Dallas, Texas, July 4, 2007 – The William Oncken Corporation (WOC) is pleased to announce it has signed on Management Training of DC, LLC, (MTDC) to launch an initiative to broaden the world-wide reach of WOC’s leadership training products.
Since 1961, The William Oncken Corporation, (WOC) a management consulting company, has trained more than one million managers and leaders. WOC’s flagship seminar, Managing Management Time™, was specifically designed for those individuals in an organization who are valued as much, if not more, for their judgment and influence than for their time and personal effort.
For more on William "Bill" Oncken see bio at the jump.
Is Obama Wright? - Pastor Jeremiah Wright & Senator Barack
forwarded by Soren DaytonFellow Blogger Soren Dayton forwarded an outstanding video that weaved Barack X. Obama's words and actions and pictures.
We live in the sight and sound generation. Where our preferred medium of communications is the moving picture.
A recent human resource management survey revealed that some 80% of influencers and decision makers in hiring will view a video of a job applicant. If you are applying for a job -- send a YouTube.
This is what Soren Dayton did. The video Soren Dayton forwarded is a type of job application for Obama and the presidency.
It is compelling! It is creative! It is brilliant!
Soren Dayton is fired. The McCain campaign threw Soren under the bus.
So Soren Dayton is out of the campaign gig. Which makes him available. Hire Dayton for your next project.
Dayton will get you noticed...
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
Join the Support Soren Dayton! group on Facebook. Your Business Blogger(R) did. I'm member number 61, I believe.
Soren Dayton volunteered his time and good name to support John McCain's candidacy for the Presidency. When he linked, via his Twitter account, to a hard-hitting video mashup against Barack Obama, the McCain campaign dumped Soren, and a national media conflagration ensued.
The purpose of this Facebook group is twofold:
1) To express support for Soren Dayton.
2) To let the McCain campaign know that we expect them to FIGHT, not roll over at the merest hint of controversy.
Trinity United Church of Christ/Religion News Service
Sen. Barack Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright God D@mn America,
God D@mn America,
God D@mn America...
The "Reverend" Jeremiah Wright cussing for the congregation.
"We started the AIDS virus...
America is still the No. 1 killer in the world...
We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians"
Barack Hussein X. Obama tithed some $22,000 to Wright's church to enable him to use other profanities such as "SH!T" from the preacher's podium.
Goodness.
"Elmer Gantry" Wright gives new meaning to "Bully Pulpit."
Charmaine will have a one on one interview with Neil Cavuto to discuss the impact of Obama's pastor's statements and whether it will negatively impact Obama in the general election. Check local cable listing for Your World with Neil Cavuto.
Ronald Reagan said that personnel is policy. Obama is constantly telling us that he would surround himself with capable advisors. Because "Reverend" Wright has been one of them, the country should be worried.
Anyone who gets recruited for a top management job is hired for his wisdom and judgment. Obama admitted he's not old enough to display any wisdom to compete with McCain. Now Obama is demonstrating he doesn't have any judgment either.
Hit time is scheduled for 4:05 eastern. Please email us and let us know what you think. Your thoughts will be added to the comments section once our platform is repaired.
###
Charmaine at Princeton UniversityThank you (foot)notes:
See RONALD KESSLER's article in The Wall Street Journal. At the jump, Mr. Obama consulted Mr. Wright before deciding to run for president. And now Obama doesn't wear an American flag lapel pin. Mrs. Michelle X. Obama is not too happy with America either. Watch the video.
If Obama doesn't win and McCain does, Wright's first sermon might well be To H3LL With The Chief...
William Tecumseh Sherman. National Archives Our friends at Military.com have a short, four question test to determine which military model of leadership you might fit.
No wrong answer.
No bad answers either.
Your Business Blogger(R) tests out as Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman.
Well.
I married into a Georgia family with deep Confederate roots. Poor back then, they would remind me when we visit near Atlanta, No slaves.
They are still mad about Sherman's March to the Sea. They'all are not going to appreciate my test results.
When in the south, do not say "Civil War." It was technically, "The War Between The States." We just wanted to leave, say my southern kin. The North wouldn't let us be and came after us.
But if you are thankful for our current, reunited uniformed services, you might consider the Grateful American Coin. It is a Challenge Coin to present to veterans. Neat gift. 100% of Net Proceeds Benefit Wounded Veterans.
Why are we doing all of this? ...The answer is gratitude.
Grateful American Coin was founded on the belief that it is out of a deep sense of gratitude that we should honor and acknowledge the sacrifices of members of the U.S. military. In doing so, we should individually do what we can, however small, to help those service men and women who have sustained the most severe injuries.
We feel that there are a great many Americans who share our sense of gratitude and are looking for an ideal way to express it.
Grateful American Coin is a non-profit organization and has submitted a 501(c)(3) application.
Grateful American Coin is based outside of Tampa, FL and is entirely staffed with non-paid volunteers.
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
Thanks to John Howland at USNA at Large for the referral to Grateful American Coin. Unpaid link.
Your Business Blogger circa 1979
courtesy: US Army "A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon," Napoleon Bonaparte.
Sometimes a piece of paper will do.
The largest, most effective human resource management machine in the world, the US Army, knows that the best motivator is appreciation.
The Department of Defense is issuing the Cold War Certificate.
"Members of the armed forces and federal government civilian employees who faithfully served the United States during the Cold War era, from Sept. 2, 1945, to Dec 26, 1991," are eligible for recognition.
You will need the following:
1. Forms from U.S. Army Human Resources Command
2. DD214 (don't know? don't ask)
3. Fax machine. Send to 1.800.723.9262.
4. Patience. Wait is six months.
There is no charge. DoD has budgeted about a million-five for the printing.
Yoest ROTC
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
In Harm's Way even in the motor pool.
Charmaine, right at her Little Rock office The Face That Launched Me A 1,000 miles.
Chip Saltsman's office is next door on right. Saturday nite Huckabee came in three points down in South Carolina. So close -- a mere field goal. But still a loss.
Charmaine's leave of absence had come to an end. This meant one thing to Your Business Blogger's household:
Road Trip.
We started packing up the Penta-Posse after Huckabee's Saturday evening concession speech and set the alarm for 0:darn-thirty, military time and left Virginia for Little Rock on Sunday morning. We arrived at Charmaine's office some 16 hours later late last night.
Nobody got hurt. (This trip anyway.) (We've got the best kids on the planet.)
We knew that the campaign would fly Charmaine home, but we thought we could drive home and visit kin along the way. A little delayed Christmas and New Year's -- Charmaine worked through both this year. We would also be implementing a lesson from World War II and Vietnam:
To Decompress.
After WWII the returning troops returned via slow ship transport with their buddies and slowly adjusted from combat to the idea of civilian life and regular sleep, regular food. And adjust to the idea that nobody was gunning for you.
Much like a presidential campaign...
Vietnam vets had no such decompression. They went from battlefield to seat 3B to USA tarmac in 24 hours. No wonder a few had such difficulty with re-entry. There was no time to cry.
We wanted to drive some 2,000 miles to learn from the wars. And learn from the war.
While I was a-driving cross country with the Hucka-Truck full of MacDonald's wrappers, Charmaine was eating steak with Ed Rollins, Chairman; Jim Pinkerton, Senior Adviser and David Polyansky the Chief Operating Officer. They were saying goodbye.
Ed picked up the check. He's a class act.
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
Ed bought the steaks instead of watching some football game. Where the NY Giants beat the Packers 23 to 20 in overtime. Ed has his office in New York. He gave up watching the playoff game to huddle-adieu. Ed knows how to coach a team...
Mike Huckabee is preparing for the next debate on Thursday in Florida. We will continue to cheer him on in any way possible.
We look forward to rejoining our Cherrydale Baptist bible study!
Bare Knuckles and
Back Rooms
by Ed RollinsMike Huckabee is announcing today in New Hampshire that Ed Rollins will be joining Huckabee campaign. Nobody knows politics like Rollins. He is The Strategist in America who can advise on how to work with and unite social and economic conservatives.
Alert Readers will remember Ed Rollins debating Charmaine on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 in November -- of 2006. This is a long campaign season.
Watch the short segment here and let me know what you think.
Ed Rollins Ed Rollins was the political advisor for Ronald Reagan in 1984. Ed Rollins is a genius who knows how to win and win big.
Our friend Rich Lowry, from National Review has endorsed another presidential candidate. Lowry tells us on Laura Ingram's talk show that Huckabee has the challenge of bringing the economic and social conservatives together. And that,
"Huckabee has been running his campaign out of his back pocket, and has done it extremely well. There's a reason, though, that serious candidates surround themselves with policy experts...."
Ed Rollins is another of the experts Huckabee has hired. This hire renders moot each of Lowery's concerns.
There was only one Ronald Reagan. We cannot bring back the Gipper, but we can bring back his winning team.
Personnel is policy.
###
Thank you (foot)notes: Charmaine and Ed never met during the Reagan years. Alert Readers will remember that Charmaine had the honor of working for President Reagan (in a more modest position).
The press release,
Presidential Candidate, Governor Mike Huckabee Names Ed Rollins as National Campaign Chairman
Little Rock, AR -- Former Arkansas Governor and Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee has named Republican political strategist Ed Rollins as his National Campaign Chairman.
"I am proud to announce the addition of Ed Rollins as my National Campaign Chairman," said Governor Huckabee. "Ed is an unparalleled strategist and is well-known as the man who directed the most successful Presidential campaign in the history of the United States. Ed’s experience and track record building winning coalitions within our party bringing together social, economic and foreign-policy conservatives, and even reaching across party lines, makes him a good fit for our campaign."
Rollins served as the National Campaign Director to Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential election in which Reagan won 49 states.
"I am honored to be joining Governor Huckabee’s remarkable campaign,” added Rollins. “I have always said that I want to work for candidates with convictions who can communicate those convictions. And Governor Huckabee is that candidate. He has the ability to change the political conversation in this country. Among the presidential contenders, he is also the one with the most executive experience. I look forward to working with the Governor over the coming year on the road to the White House."
Mr. Rollins served in the administrations of Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan, joining the Reagan administration as one of the President's top advisors in the role of Assistant to the President for Political and Governmental Affairs. He is currently the Chairman of the Rollins Strategy Group, a communications and crisis management firm with offices in New York and Washington, D.C.
Charmaine just flat out says Giuliani has no chance and then proceeds to twist the knife around a bit by proclaiming that with his views he should run against Hillary as a democrat.
Ronald Reagan and Charmaine
Your Business Blogger has an on-line subscription to National Review. And has been published by NRO.
Charmaine at the
New America Foundation Charmaine recently spoke at the New America Foundation on The Politics of Parental Leave. Her talk was based on her research at The University of Virginia. Her work was funded with a quarter million dollar grant from the Sloan Foundation.
Your Business Blogger found her findings most interesting. In particular, Charmaine discovered that when female academics take parental leave, women use the time off for parenting: to change diapers. Men took the time off to write a book; their wives still changed the diapers.
Who knew male academics were so...traditional?
Charmaine's topic title was, The Politics of Parental Leave: Is Paid Parental Leave an Effective Means of Promoting Gender Equity in the Workplace? From the New America Foundation website by Paul Testa, Research Associate to the Health Policy Program,
"U.S. political candidates are beginning to produce work and family policy positions in response to what most Americans feel -- that work and family balance is a major issue facing American families. Women in particular struggle with such balance and with achieving equality in the workplace. From the floors of Congress to the campaign trails Mandating paid parental leave has often been suggested as a possible solution to such struggles. But is this approach best for women as a whole?
To further this debate, Rev. David Gray, director of the Work Force and Family Program at New America Foundation welcomed Dr. Charmaine Yoest of the Family Research Council for a timely discussion of the politics of parental leave.
Dr. Yoest presented research from her time as the Project Director of the Family, Gender, and Tenure research project at the University of Virginia, which focused on the effectiveness of paid parental leave in academia.
...academia was “crucial case,” to assess whether paid parental leave could really level the playing field for women. “If there’s going to be any place in America where you’d expect paid leave to work, it would be in academia,” she said.
Dr. Yoest’s research centered on a survey of assistant professors with children under the age of two in tenure track positions at universities that offered paid leave policies. Her results questioned several of the traditional assumptions about paid parental leave.
Universities with paid parental leave policies did not have higher levels of female faculty and that paid parental leave policies were not associated with higher rates of promotion for women to more senior faculty positions.
In fact, Dr. Yoest argued paid leave policies may have been detrimental to leveling the playing field. The majority of leave-taking women felt they had less-time for research and writing when they returned and were more likely than their non-leave taking peers to consider dropping off the tenure track. The majority of leave-takers felt such policies made almost no difference in their efforts to receive tenure and some suggested there was a stigma associated with taking a paid leave.
Based on these findings, Dr. Yoest concluded that, “Paid leave may operate as a political fig leaf. The institutional results indicate that the policy by itself does not result in higher levels of achievement for women, making the use of political capital to establish the policy, a poor investment.”
[Her] provocative presentation was followed by lively round of question and answers."
The New America Foundation has professionally included a video of her 60 minute talk and an audio and her Powerpoint on their site.
Charmaine will be giving a presentation on The Politics of Parental Leave: Is Paid Parental Leave an Effective Means of Promoting Gender Equity in the Workplace? at the New America Foundation.
Start: 11/15/2007 - 12:30pm to 1:30pm
at New America Foundation
1630 Connecticut Ave, NW 7th Floor
Washington, 20009 New America Foundation
From the New America Foundation web site,
U.S. political candidates are beginning to produce work and family policy positions in response to what most Americans feel - that work and family balance is a major issue facing American families. Women in particular struggle with such balance and with achieving equality in the workplace. Several bills have been introduced in Congress to mandate paid parental leave to help women achieve better balance and more equality. But is this approach best for women as a whole?
Dr. Charmaine Yoest of the Family Research Council served as the Project Director of the Family, Gender and Tenure research project at the University of Virginia. The research is the only study of its kind to examine the effectiveness of paid parental leave in the United States.
The University of Virginia
Dr. Yoest's experience as a researcher, policy advocate and mother of five give her an important perspective on this current debate. Join the New America Foundation's Workforce and Family Program for a provocative discussion on paid parental leave.
Kinglsey Brown Alert Readers will know of Your Business Blogger's endorsement of Professor Kingsley Brown and his research. Brown is on faculty at Wayne State University teaching law.
He writes to John Howland with USNA At Large,
“Co-ed Combat: The New Evidence that Women Shouldn’t Fight the Nation’s Wars” is due out on November 8, although it can be pre-ordered now on Amazon...
My book examines physical and psychological differences between the sexes and their implication for integration of combat forces. This examination includes not just individual traits -- such as strength, endurance, risk-taking, physical aggression, fear, courage, and other traits that affect both combat motivation and combat performance -- but also the effect of psychological sex differences on the functioning of groups. As you know, individuals do not fight wars; groups do, and the sex composition of groups has a substantial impact on how the group functions.
As you have yourself noted, trust is the “coin of the realm” in combat groups. It appears that men are not “designed” to easily trust women in dangerous situations. I’m sure that you and the other At-Large members have had the experience of knowing leaders whom you would be willing to follow through the gates of Hell and others whom you would be reluctant to follow across the street. Some people trigger trust in their comrades, and others –
Women in Combat
no matter what kind of training they have had – simply cannot do so. I suggest in my book that women generally do not trigger that kind of trust in men, no matter how much men like and respect women. This is not a criticism of either women or men; it is simply the way our psyches work. As the continued opposition to women in and near combat suggests, this is not a problem that can be solved simply through “leadership” and “training,” which are usually invoked as the solution to problems with sexual integration.
My book also chronicles a number of other impediments to sexual integration, many of which are well known, such as problems of pregnancy, double standards, political correctness, and so forth.
Jesse Brown My friend and mentor Jesse Brown died on 15 August 2002.
I'm not sure I thanked him enough while he lived.
So I acknowledge him every August since he passed.
He died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. But, for the Hand of Divine Providence, he should have died decades earlier in Vietnam.
He survived and devoted his life to service to others and mentoring goofs like Your Business Blogger. And also accomplished much more in the federal government.
The combat wounded Marine was able to do two things few bureaucrats have been able to do:
Close a government facility, and
Say No to President Clinton.
Jesse Brown managed something many government watchdogs felt impossible: He worked with veterans' lobbies and closed out-dated or non-performing Veterans' Administration medical facilities. These days when a government building or base needs to be closed, a special commission is set up to spread the guilt and minimize finger pointing.
Jesse Brown closed government buildings. Unbelievable. And he was a Democrat.
But an even bigger achievement was his ability to refuse Bill Clinton. Over lunch he told me the story of how he tactfully, adroitly rebuffed the chief of staff and the president's "requests" to cut the VA budget. Jesse Brown did not succumb to Clinton's charms and other lieschallenges.
As Jesse Brown tells the story, the chief of staff, Leon Panetta, I believe, instructed Jesse to offer a cut in his budget and take the political heat, sparing the president. Brown declined.
Panetta puts Clinton on the phone to work his charm...
[Your Business Blogger once worked with a beautiful young woman from Arkansas -- a rock-ribbed conservative -- who met Bill Clinton. "It was the strangest thing," she said. "He ignored the whole rest of the room, looked deep into my eyes and asked for my vote."
Your Business Blogger didn't move. It wasn't too hard to see where this was going. "What did you say?" I asked.
She said, "I told him 'yes.' It was like he hypnotized me. I said yes..."
She wouldn't be the last.]
...Panetta knowing that no one could resist Bill Clinton; no one could say 'no.'
So Bill and Jesse have an extended conversation and Clinton oozes all all-round the topic -- but never makes a direct statement; never a directive. Bill was simply smarmy and Jesse was un-seduced.
"Great talking with you Jesse," said Clinton.
"Great talking with you Mr. President," said Brown. And White House Signal signed off.
He was wounded by enemy sniper fire in Vietnam leaving his right arm and hand partially paralyzed. This never slowed him down. People who knew Jesse always extended a left hand for a hand shake in greeting. His right wasn't serviceable.
I once asked him when he was at the pinnacle of his career what drove him to work so hard. Money, I thought; status, celebrity? No. "I just want to help my friends," he said.
His passion for service helped him become the Veteran's Affairs Secretary for Bill Clinton.
And yet he helped me, a nobody who worked for a Republican, a Republican governor.
Jesse is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, not far from my dad. Two warriors to whom I owe so much.
My good friend Bob Miller has a compelling article on women in combat that deserves a wide audience.
Female sniper,
United States Air Force In September of last year, the Naval Institute Proceedings commemorated thirty years of sex-integration at the U.S. Naval Academy with a Commentary by Sharon Disher, USNA ’80, entitled “Women CAN Fight.” As a member of the first sex-integrated Naval Academy class, Disher wrote in conspicuous contradiction of former Marine combat hero, and now Senator, James Webb’s (USNA ‘ 68] then-troublesome 1979 Washingtonian Magazine essay: “Women Can’t Fight.”
Well of course women CAN fight. In Iraq, US military women have fought and still do fight bravely and selflessly. These armed daughters, sisters, wives and mothers can also become wounded, maimed, captured, abused and killed. In fact one hears military women, in particular, declaring their willingness to "die for my country," words far less often heard from men.
And women can kill; there's no doubt about it.
But please, put aside for a moment the tendency to rationalize, trivialize, scoff or scorn a cautionary perspective in order to reflect with candor on what this unarguably historic innovation of the "woman as warrior" may signify about a phenomenal cultural trajectory.
The stakes are high.
Read his entire article at the jump.
Robert H. Miller, CAPT, USN ret
Hope For America
PO Box 1007
Willow Grove, PA 19090
hfa@aol.com
When a person of note is covered by the media in Your Nation's Capital, three questions are asked by the victim:
1) Is there a picture?
2) Is it above the fold?
3) Is the story running on the weekend?
Lurita Alexis Doan If the newspaper publishes a picture of the person above the fold, then the media outlet is creating the "legs" that the story will take. The media outlet is helping to make the story, the story. And bleeding will follow. Because...
If it bleeds, it leads.
Lurita Alexis Doan, the top executive of the General Services Administration came to DC to make a difference after making a buck. In her old position running a for-profit technology company, she was most familiar with selling to the government and creating wealth and generating jobs.
She knows how to create wealth with efficient and effective management. But there was one skill set her new job in Government required that few for-profit businesses cover in management training:
Multiple points of accountability.
It was not enough for Doan to lead the billion dollar agency, manage her staff, boss and peers, and customers. She also had to manage the press, the public perception, and now, as we have all read, she must deal with the initiative-killing-congress in the person of Henry Waxman.
Representative Waxman is accusing Lurita Doan of a laundry list of offenses, but the most interesting is violating the Hatch Act.
Alert Reader Tom Commented,
Please accurately present facts, in particular the provisions of the Hatch Act. You clearly omit the prohibitions relevant to Ms. Doan's violation: that no employee may engage in political activity while on duty or in a government office. The Hatch Act prohibits far more than the 3 actions you list...
Lurita Doan's Hatch Act "violation" is no worse than driving down Constitution Avenue with a Bush bumper sticker.
Your Business Blogger knows a bit about the line that separates public service as a govenment appointee receiving a government paycheck, and electioneering.
Lurita Doan has been coloring well within the lines of The Hatch Act. At least much better than Your Business Blogger.
Because, unlike Lurita Doan, I inadvertently fudged the line. At least according to the Richmond Times Dispatch.
A number of years ago I sent out an invitation to friends to attend a fund raiser, from my spacious government office. Your Business Blogger,
Used a government computer
Fund raised for a particular candidate
In an election
I goofed. As RTD's Tyler Whitley quickly wrote. But it was not above the fold, there was no picture, and the article was mid-week, but, thankfully, small. I was a dummy and got off light.
Doan is innocent and being condemned under The Hatch Act.
The Hatch Act of 1939 is arcane; difficult to understand and frightfully easy to misinterpret. Think IRS regulations.
But, there was no attempt on her part of using the agency or anything else to compel employees to do any partisan activities.
She made a statement that 6 people apparently heard and 30 people did not.
It was not her meeting, it was set up by her White House liaison and she was not aware of its contents beforehand. She readily admits she should have asked more questions. Of course, these are political appointees and they are allowed leeway in meetings at government buildings. She should have understood the nature the meeting before attending or making any statements. She has since taken steps to make sure all meetings are vetted through counsel and through her ethics staff.
No, Doan is not in violation. This is simply a witch hunt on the part of Democrats to get to the White House. And Democrats imply that only the GOP is being political. Lurita Doan has been caught in the middle of participating in this meeting and possibly making the statement on helping candidates -- remember: Doan does business, not politics. But, she certainly has not advocated or pushed the GSA employees to do anything in an election.
An election that is still a year and half away.
The issue is more than any confusion over The Hatch Act. The Democrat attack machine sees Lurita Alexis Doan as a two-fer:
1) A George Bush appointee, and
2) A business person.
The liberal media and liberal Democrats don't care for either.
Dan Gainor
Director Business and Media Institute I had lunch the other day with Dan Gainor, pictured at left, below the fold, who is the The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow and Director of the Business and Media Institute -- a part of Brent Bozell's Media Research Center. I ask him about the liberal bias -- the media bias against businessmen. "Nearly every businessman is shown by Hollywood to be a crook, or worse," says Gainor. Portraited as monsters. Or hypocrites, like, say, a church-going thief. As he writes in Bad Company: For the American Businessman, Primetime is Crimetime,
One enduring American cultural image is the man in the gray flannel suit. A businessman, with briefcase in tow and tie crisply knotted, who left the family for an honest day's work and eventually returned home worn and weary. But TV long ago abandoned that icon and replaced it with the stereotype of corporate evil.
And Democrats believing this script -- and all that flickers for truth in Hollywood -- hate Bush, hate capitalism, hate businessmen.
Lurita Alexis Doan knows how to make money in the Free Market and is on the Bush management team. Making Doan the (immediate) target.
Capitalism bested communism. But Capitalism and Business will have a bigger challenge with liberal Democrats like Henry Waxman in Congress.
On 13 June, the Wall Street Journal printed an op-ed piece by former congressman Bob Barr entitled “Don’t Ask, Who Cares” in which he argued that barring homosexuals from openly serving in the military was unfair, un-American and counterproductive. Mr. Barr writes that he has become deeply impressed with the growing weight of credible military opinion which concludes that allowing gays to serve openly in the military does not pose insurmountable problems for the good order and discipline of the services. With all due respect to the two authorities that he refers to, ex Senator Simpson and General Skalikeshveli, both of whom I greatly admire and respect, neither of them have any first hand idea of the sociological problems of going to sea in a man of war.
I strenuously disagree with Mr. Barr and his military authorities, and I would like very much to offer “The other side of the story”. Since I am a retired naval officer, I shall write to what I know well and that is going to sea in a man of war. I served in eleven ships of the Navy and had the unique honor of commanding four combatants including the heavy guided missile cruiser Albany all of which, by the way, were at the time considered among the finest combatants in the Fleet.
In a combatant ship our bluejackets are literally packed into berthing compartments, typically holding about 40 men. They are afforded minimum privacy even under the most enlightened habitability standards. As a nod for the need for some human privacy the modern enlisted bunks are fitted with a privacy curtain which they may close. Public nakedness is the reality of enlisted life in Navy ships and that pertains to the heads, and wash and shower rooms as well.
Our ships get underway for months at a time. The typical deployment when I was in the Fleet was for nine months and I understand that that is still typical. Thus, those compartments become the bluejackets’ home for very long periods of time. There is no such thing as going home ashore after your watch or if you are in a liberty section so that you may enjoy the company of your homosexual partner. There are of course occasional liberty ports but liberty for enlisted personnel usually expires in the late evening. The Fleet doesn’t even enter port for replenishment. All of that is done underway.
Now assign a few homosexuals into that living compartment when all of them including the homosexual are very young and when their hormones are at their most powerful and you have an invitation to disaster. It would be akin to inserting a few heterosexual males into an all female compartment where nakedness is a way of life and sending them off for months at a time. Impossible! And thus it would be exactly the same for the homosexual in a heterosexual male compartment.
As Mr. Barr correctly points out, the homosexual has as fine an intellect as the heterosexual. They thus eventually and inevitably they will be advanced in rating. As petty officers they will be in a position of powerful authority over men of lesser rating and thus in a position to exert exquisite sexual pressure on their subordinates.
For these very apparent sociological reasons it would be a disaster to change the present policy. It would reap havoc on the fighting efficiency of the Fleet and good order and discipline so necessary in a man of war. It just cannot happen.
Allan Slaff
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
Allan Slaff submitted this letter to the editors of The Wall Street Journal.
Following is from a Naval Aviator. The Dude, pictured on left with Baby Boo a few years ago at the Air Force Academy, loves jets and jet noise and wants to fly. 
Charmaine will be giving a presentation on The Politics of Parental Leave: Is Paid Parental Leave an Effective Means of Promoting Gender Equity in the Workplace? at the 
