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Meh, and if we didn't bother trying to improve quality of life on ships and do little things to raise esprit de corps, we'd be able to bring less violence to the enemy because our staffing situation would be even worse. Our personnel levels are by far the largest threat to our operational...

Meanwhile, the engineer in me would like to point out that there is no such thing as exactly 12 inches; no matter how measured, there will always need to be some sort of acceptable tolerance range within which variation is acceptable. 12.00001 inches isn't exactly 12 inches, but you sure as heck...

Despite the protestations of some people on this forum, buttons and bows, pomp and circumstance, shiny boots, silly hats, and marching up and down the parade square aren't actually "everything [the CAF] does and stands for". We have an actual job; it's about bringing violence to the enemy in...

So... to sum up. You think that we need to teach a lot of drill in basic because otherwise no one is going to think it's important enough to bother teaching it at all. Might I suggest that probably just means that it isn't actually important and we could probably do without it?

The institution may have limited control over the facts of life of warfare, but let's face it, that's not what's causing us to be bleeding people. What the institution does have a lot of control over is how it functions when not on operations. Refusal to do so is only going to further...

You can say that. But if the vast majority of the people who we're trying to recruit and retain think differently, that doesn't make it so. The institution needs to adapt to changing social norms. And one of those strongest shifts is the growing focus that people are placing on work life...

We aren't going to change society's attitudes towards work. Those are shifting away from something compatible with the traditional military model, and, well, we need to work with the populace we've got because we can't recruit from other countries, or other eras. It's borderline insulting IMHO...

Let's face it, there's a reason that we diverged, once again, onto fitness, in a thread about ballcaps. Because the concerns that Castus actually has about fitness levels in the forces has basically nothing to do with the actual ability of people to do their jobs, but has everything to do with...

Do we need to focus on the "core demographic"? No. We need to focus on expanding the institution's appeal beyond the core demographic, because relying upon the outdated model of said core demographic clearly isn't working. We're bleeding personnel for a reason. People need to wake up and smell...

No they won't. That hasn't been the case since last September.

Yes, the Navy had a culture of ignoring rules regarding alcohol consumption. But, well, I really do think that everyone here should be very cognizant of the fact that changing culture is at best, a very difficult task, one which requires buy in from all levels. Lord knows that we've seen this...

I really don't think that "accommodates functional alcoholics" is really all that much of a benefit. Certainly doesn't benefit the Navy, and I'd argue it also very much so didn't benefit the members either, what with the whole manner in which it led to alcoholism getting worse not better...

Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people, and also apparently alcoholics.

Guarantee that number's not reflecting folks whose medical issues have rendered them incapable of deploying.

Service before Self is a concept that is absolutely necessary... on operations. When a missile's inbound or bullets are flying, you need to expect everyone will do their duty. It's not, however, an excuse to get people to work themselves to death (or divorce) just because the department can't...

Sure. And they're paid accordingly to do so, on a full time basis. Which means that whatever home units those folks used to work for, who aren't paying said Class B folks anymore, shouldn't have any real expectation of getting any work out of them. It's a very weird expectation that many...

Total force reduction is obviously happening; the real question is if we actually acknowledge that's the case and reduce the total amount of stuff we're trying to do correspondingly.

Honestly, Honestly, I think we really need to be frank here; in many cases the Chiefs are the leadership problems causing those "lower deck concerns". Relying upon layers and layers of of people in a strict hierarchical organization to properly pass along information that makes them, either...

I'm confused. Dude has curly hair, and for some reason people are freaking out?

Oh yeah totally. There's only two people whose opinions I really give a hoot about w.r.t. my hair; mine and my wife's. Fortunately, she loves it too.