“Dumb Rule”

Now the Army management corps has struck again, this time doing away with a long- (and I mean long) standing tradition of letting tank crews name their tanks. Unless they perform on the gunnery range (under the range’s necessarily artificial—peacetime safety constraints, and all that—conditions) well enough to suit those in the management corps.

One former Army officer said [brackets in the original],

Sounds like a dumb rule that has [command sergeant major] written all over it[.]

Indeed. The alleged motivation for the change is to allow only those crews performing at the top on the gunnery range to name their tanks as motivation for being allowed to name their tanks. Never mind that there’s already a natural competition among tank crews, and not only on the gunnery range. Never mind that another—better—way to improve tank gunnery is to increase maintenance and training rates, including the frequency of live fire exercises. (‘Course that would take more money than the real dollar cut in defense spending President Joe Biden (D) wants.)

No, this is a rule for the sake of having a rule. As an ex-Air Force officer, the change sounds to me like a new kid on the block, whether CSM or Commanding General, was desperate to find material for his upcoming Performance or Efficiency Report.

New Kid Material is widespread and long-standing enough already, but this is the sort of nonsense that woke-ism in the SecDef’s and JCS’ offices is producing.

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