Me:
Indeed, and isn't that where Commanding Officers should step into the limelight to...uh, command?
Wuh:
Yes, perhaps they should - but often the COs aren't aware of these problems - for a myriad of reasons. The Army Welfare Servioce are typically tasked to deal with these problems,
Well, not so tasked by the COs that "aren't aware of these problems - for a myriad of reasons" presumably.
I know that BOF's like me, forever starting out with "In my day...", are less than welcome here and understandably so, but if one has personally seen a system that on the whole worked one feels compelled to speak out when it so obviously doesn't work now.
So, in my day... CO's, subordinate and otherwise, had much greater powers and discretion than now. No doubt "human rights" and "financial reality" have much to do with that change, but at the cost of military effectiveness I would maintain, and at real costs I would guess.
My CO's in turn:
Took on the NAAFI monopoly for trading (or in this case refusing to) on MOD property and won.
Took on the DHSS on behalf of a pilot paralysed for life following an accident while on detachment and lost.
Personally drove a wife from Hullavington to BN to catch the VC10 to Washington, having obtained Compassionate Authority as she had been informed the same morning that her father had died. Once on her way he contacted BDLS Washington to have her met and taken across Washington to board her prebooked flight to MIA, where she was met and travelled on with her brother. Finally my Boss (you've probably worked that out by now) sent a signal to me at Lajes informing me of all this, and finally was first aboard on arr at LYN, anxious that what he had done was OK by me!
Would any of this happen now? Could any of this happen now? The important spin-off to these initiatives (even those that failed) is that they were around the Squadron in a thrice, and everyone new that their boss was prepared and able to go out on a limb for any one of them. Loyalty was thus a two way street and morale was thus enhanced. Military effectiveness hence greater and tiers of pedestrian bureaucracy avoided.
Of course there were good bosses and bad ones. It was always thus, but good bosses were effective bosses as well. Are they now? Can they be now?
As to Station Commanders, they were effectively Town Mayors with almost absolute control over their command, including civilians. The boss who saw off NAAFI was able to do so because his Station Commander endorsed his claim that the Operational Effectiveness of his Squadron required the provision of refreshments to his First Line Night Shifts. The CoC empowering rather than neutering its subordinate commanders. Does that still happen? Can it still happen?
I only asked...