What to do about General Ward ?

Background:  See the following link to Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E._Ward for a very good run down of his impressive and distinguished career.

But his career is not the central fact in his current situation, General Ward is under investigation for numerous allegations the he spent or authorized the spending of several hundred thousand dollars allowing unauthorized individuals including family members to fly on aircraft operated by or for the United States Government, and spent or authorized the expenditure of excessive amounts of funds on travel expenses, and or failed to follow DOD policies and procedure in the spending or authorizing of these expenditures.  Additional he spent or authorized the expenditure of excessive amount of funds on other uncategorized activities.

These charges were serious enough that The Office of the Inspector General U.S. Department of Defense conducted a 17 Month investigation into the allegations and forwarded a 99 Page report with recommendations to the Secretary of the Army for his consideration and “appropriate action”.  The Secretary of the Army recommendation of “appropriate action” is unknown, but the report and the Secretary of the Army recommended “appropriate action” was forwarded to the Secretary of Defense, for his decision on the matter.  The matter currently resides in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Recently The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey has voiced his opinion that General Ward should not be punished and be allowed to retire with the Rank of General.  General Dempsey is not in General Wards direct chain of command, since the Joint Chiefs of Staff do not exercise any direct operational command function, they are theoretically an advisory group to advise the President and the Secretary of Defense on Policy matters, he can therefore voice his opinion.

To me General Dempsey pronouncement is a trial balloon to see how and if the American People, Member of Congress, and the Members of the United States Armed Forces will react to the possibility that General Ward will be allowed to skip on these charges.

If this were a lowly solider, sailor, airman, or marine and comparable charges had been alleged and the required UMCJ investigations had be held, that poor unfortunate soul would be lucky if they let them out of the service with anything less than a Bad Conduct Discharge.  If they were unlucky enough to get a Bad Conduct Discharge and if the maximum sentence that could be assigned to the charges exceed 1 year of confinement then this individual would gain the additional benefit of have to report that they have felon conviction on their record.

If General Ward is allowed to skip on these charges and retire at his last highest held grade (General) it sends a message that there is at least a two tier, if not three a tier justice system in the Department of Defense.  It would announce that there is justice system for Flag Grade Officers, and a justice system for the all of the other military personnel.  Some will argue that there are in fact three tiers in the UMCJ as it is currently practiced.  One tier for Flag Grade Officers, Another tier for Senior NCO, Warrant Officers, Company Grade Officers, and Field Grade Officers, and a third tier for lower grade NCO and enlisted personnel.

There is a series of public announcement spots on the Armed Forces Network, called “That not what right looks like” which are attempts to highlight daily situations were personal integrity, or walking the talk are important to an individual, especially when that individual is in some type of leadership position.  The troops are not dumb, they watch their leadership, the have their leaders disconnects between words and deeds memorized.  Just sit in a DFAC and listen to some of the conversations, it can be a truly mind altering experience.

If General Ward is allowed to skip and retire with out any consequences, and to this writer that is what it appears to be happening, then the Department of Defense should save taxpayers money and stop playing lip service to “That not what right looks like”, and a host of other public announcements that are dispensed to members of the armed forces

If General Ward is allowed to skip, it will be another rock added to officers who have displayed lack of integrity and corruption pile.  It could be a sign to other that this behavior is acceptable.  Yes, it was just a little over the line, after a while there is no line, then what.

When the troops do not believe their officers, they will not follow them.  We do not want that to happen with our United State Military, but it could and General Ward’s case could just be the start of our journey down that slippery slope, then again we could already be some distance down that slope.

Please note that individuals in the Operational Chain of Command, and General Ward’s chain of command have not voiced any public opinions of this matter, for it would be criminal on their part to do so.

To Secretary of Defense, by allowing General Ward to have his day in court so sunlight can be shown on the charges, the evidence, and the verdict could go some distance in reestablishing confidence in the system, after all it is said that  “Sunlight is said to be the best disinfectant” Louis Brandeis.

General Ward has a great deal to risk by having his day in court, he could be found guilty of all or some of the charges and specifications, and if found guilty he could face the full extent of punishment that the law allows, and could end up with nothing.  But by the same token he has a great deal to gain by having his day in court, he could forever remove the blotch on his distinguished career.

General Ward could go silently into the night and accept a retirement at a lower grade, but this could result in the placement of an asterisk by his name, like with baseball statistic where the use of drugs was suspected in enhancing a player performance.

If General Ward does not want his day in court to refute the allegations, and clear his besmirched name then the Secretary of Defense must not reward him by allowing him to retire at his highest grade of rank.

Enlist Personnel and Officers of the United States Armed Forces should to be held to higher standards then the ordinary American citizen.  Officers should be held to higher standard then members of the enlisted ranks.  Flag officers should be held to higher standards than members of the company and field grade officer corps.  Flag officers are the leaders of the armed forces leadership.  If any individuals’ actions should be circumspect it should be these individuals for who the United States Government has appointed and entrusted the lives of citizens to.

Every now and then even I surprise my self

I was reading an article on the Harvard Endowment found at the following link http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-20/can-timber-rebuild-harvards-endowment.  In the article there was a graphic that compared the Harvard endowment 10 Year Annualized Return to 7 of it peer endowments (Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, Penn, and Cornell).  The 10 Year period of comparison for this report was June 2001 through June 2011.   And as one would expect all of the Endowments achieved these results via the efforts of some very highly competent and compensated professional money managers.

Entity	10 Year Annualized Return
Yale	10.1 %
Columbia	9.9 %
Princeton	9.8 %
Harvard	9.4 %
Me	8.6 %
Brown	7.7 %
Dartmouth	7.0 %
Penn	6.8 %
Cornell	6.4 %
Annualized S&P 500 Return (Dividends Reinvested)	2.3 %

I added the 10 Annualized SP500 as an additional reference, one should have an impartial bench mark.  I suspect that the respective endowment manager report their portfolios relative progress versus this benchmark to their respective Universities.  The 10 Year Annualized Return for the SP500 used in this comparison was calculated using the calculator provided on the site http://dqydj.net/sp-500-return-calculator/

Granted I do not have all of the high price talent, connections and resources that they have, and I certainly pale in comparison as to amount of funds that I have to invest, but all in all I feel that I have done reasonably well in comparison considering what I do and don’t have or know.   My 10 Annualized Rate of Return was calculated by Quicken accounting program, so you might want to take it with a grain of salt.

The average 10 Year Annualized Return for this group of Universities for the period in question is 8.39 Percent.  This groups average and individual 10 Year Annualized Return when compared to the 10 Year Annualized Return for the SP 500 is remarkable (3 to 5 times that of the benchmark).  Then again it could be a very poor benchmark, I don’t know.  For the same period my Quicken calculated 10 Year Annualized Return was an impressive (Well I consider it impressive) 8.6 Percent, not bad for an old retired Physicists/Engineer.

All that I am claiming, if I am claiming anything is that I consider my self to be very lucky and fortunate.  I feel that I am just another data point in the tale of the old blind hog finding another acorn or truffle.

My portfolio is an equal blend of three different model passive portfolios (Aronson, Yale, and Second Grader) that all invest in passive index mutual funds that have low if not the lowest management fees available to the average investor.  The particular on the various portfolios can be found at the following site http://www.marketwatch.com/lazyportfolio.  I do owe a sincere debit of gratitude to Paul B Farrell who generated the articles, and marketwatch.com for publishing them.

Now for the obligatory verbiage I am not currently nor have I ever been nor is it likely that I will ever be an employee of the Marketwatch.com or any of subsidiaries, or controlling corporations.  I do not know, nor have I ever met Paul B. Farrell, and to the best of my limited knowledge I do not know or ever met any of his family.  I am not currently nor have I ever been, nor is it likely that I will ever be an employee of The Vanguard Group.  I do have vested interest in the various mutual funds that make up these model portfolios since I own shares in them.

Finally and most important past performance is no guarantee of future performance.  But you do have to be in the game if you ever expect to have any chance.

Can Mitt Think on his feet?

Several notable members of the press have proposed a theory that Mitt Romney is “rhetorically at his weakest when forced to improvise or handle unexpected questions or situations.” James Fallows national correspondent for the Atlantic being just one of the press/media cohorts make this claim.

I have been on this earth for some 60 years and to date from my limited, and yes poorly sampled study of one, it appears that most of my life I have been expected, required, and forced to improvise or handle unexpected questions or situations.

Is not the ability to improvise or handle unexpected questions or situations that is at the heart of what the POTUS is expected to do?  I do not know about you the reader, but for me this is the most salient issue that I use to determine who I want to vote for in this office or for that matter any other office.

Do “We the People” of the United States of America not expect and not require that the individual who we elect to be POTUS have the ability to handle unexpected questions or situations?  Again, I do not know about you the reader, but for me I do vote for the individual who I expect and require to handle these questions and situations.

Do we also not expect and require that these events be handle in a controlled, confident, and effective manner?  The short answer is YES.

Are not these tasks the 3 o’clock in the morning situations?  Again the short answer is YES.

Can one spreadsheet your way out of these situations?  Not to my limited knowledge.

Can one find the answer/solutions to these situations in books of case law review and/or cited precedent?  Again to my limited knowledge I believe the answer to be NO.

Under laying this situation is the fact that he or she has volunteered to run for the elected office in order to be allowed to perform these tasks with our blessing, acquiescence and or approval, provide they have duly won the election.  This is an important office and “We the People” require an individual who has the where with all (intelligence, composure, instinct, experience, and humanity) to handle the pressure and hazards of the office, to effectively represent us not just in good times but especially to effectively represent us in the perilous times.

Does it appear that Mitt has what it takes to be a corporate officer?  YES, a corporate officers scope and area of concern are by design rather limited, to what is good for the corporation, its management, and its shareholders.  On the surface Mitt appears to be spot on for this job.

Does it appear that Mitt has what it takes to be POTUS?  From my vantage point the answer is a resounding NO.  The scope and area of concern for this office appear to be too broad and too different from his past experience and skill set in business.

To answer the question first offered in the title of the little essay, “Can Mitt think on his feet?”  I would say that he like all individuals he has some abilities in the area, but if his and/or my life really depended on his ability think on is feet, I am not sure that we would survive.

Along the same line of thought, I am not sure that Mitt really understands the term “We the People”, to date most of his actions would indicate that he does not, he can talk a good game, but it appears that he has no muscle memory, which would imply that he has never practice it.  I feel that Mitt understands the term “We, some of the People”, and it would appear that he has a great deal of muscle memory, which would imply that he has practice this exercise a great deal.  Which might just be the reason that it appears that he cannot think on his feet.

Sometimes you just want to Scream!

After reading Allen B West Marketwatch.com Outside the Box (and this was outside of the box) post of  Sept 18, 2012 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-republic-cannot-survive-so-much-dependency-2012-09-18 which contain some very remarkable words from a man about dependence on the Government, this from a man who from all appearances has been dependent on the Government from birth in 1961.

His father was a career military, so he was suckling the breast of the People and the Government of the United States of America from his first breath on this planet.  His mother was a civilian employee of the United States Marine Corp, is that double dipping of dependancy, again another dependency on the People and the Government of the United States America.  His parents were receiving retirement checks from the time they either retired from the military or civil service until their deaths from the People and Government of the United States of America; it appears that for a significant portion of their lives they were dependent on the People and Government of the United States of America.

After graduation from college University of Tennessee (dependent on the People and Government of Tennessee, and indirectly on the People and Government of the United States of America), probably on an ROTC scholarship (unknown by this author and only speculation based on his dates in his biography), (Would that be another dependency on the People and Government of the United States of America?), but at the very least possibility enrolled in an ROTC program, joins the United States Army, and servers 22 Years before retiring after an Article 32 investigation, which results in an Article 15, rather than an Article 39. (Again is that another dependency on the People and Government of the United States?).  While on Active Duty completes a Master Program in Political Science (Kansas State University (dependent on the People and Government of the State of Kansas and indirectly on the People and Government of the United States of America) and a Master of Military Arts and Science (United States Army Command and General Staff Officer College) paid for by the People and Government of the United States of America, again is that another dependency on the People and Government of the United States of America?

In 2004-2005, while drawing his retirement pay (dependency on the People and Government of the United States of America?) teaches US History and coaches Track and Field Deerfield Beach High School (dependency on the People and Government of the State of Florida and indirectly on the People and Government of the United States of America ?).

In 2006-2007, while drawing his retirement pay from the United States Government (dependency on the People and Government of the United States of America?) works for Military Professional Resources Inc., a defense contractor (again dependency on the People and Government of the United States of America) support United States operations in Afghanistan.

In 2008, while drawing his retirement pay from the United States Government (dependency on the People and Government of the United State of America?) runs for United States House of Representatives, he loses.

In 2010 while drawing his retirement pay from the United States Government (dependency on the People and Government of the United States of America?) run for the United States House of Representatives, and wins.  Now joins the incoming class of Representatives in January 2011, start drawing another paycheck with benefits from the People and Government of the United States of America.

These are words from an individual who for all intent and purpose has been dependent directly or indirectly on the People and Government of the United States of America for all of his life.  It is a clear case of not eating what you kill, of what is good for the goose is NOT good for gander. A clear case of do what I say NOT as I do.

Only God knows if Allen B West would be where he is today if not for being dependent on People and Government of the United States of America.

To paraphrase Shakespeare Julius Caesar 

“Yet Allen B West say many of us are dependent on the Government; and Allen B West is an honorable man; so are they all, all honorable men;”

Buffalo soldier speak with forked tongue, you are the poster child for people dependent on the People and Government of the United States of America, to be honest sir we all are poster children of people dependent of the People and Government of the United States of America, that is the whole bloody point to Government.

Something Different

I had the unexpected Honor and the Privilege rendering honors to those who as Abraham Lincoln had so eloquently said in the Gettysburg Address “they gave the last full measure of devotion”

My family and I travel to Bastogne to visit parts of this very large battlefield.  On the way home we stopped at the Luxembourg American Cemetery, located in Hamm, Luxembourg.  The remains of 5000 plus American are interred along with markers for 371 missing in action and 101 unknowns.  Among the dead are 22 sets of brothers who died in the Battle of the Bulge.

We have made it a family mission to visit as many of the American Cemeteries in Europe as possible while we are deployed in Europe.  The first thing that hits you is the sight of the number of white stones crosses that spread out before you, it is sobering.  I get this feeling/sensation at everyone of the military cemeteries that I have had the honor and privilege of visiting, some more so than others, but there is always a feeling that some part of their spirit is there.

My son has asked why do we come here?  I tell that we are there to honor these men and women.  That we are there as proxies for their loved ones who are unable to come and remember them.  I ask him to just pick one headstone and remember that individuals name so that for now this individual will not be lost to time.  I suspect that he is sure that from time to time that I have lost my mind.

As we were walk through the site, I noticed that one of the cemetery’s staff member had taken down the Stars and Stripes by herself, and I asked if she would like some help with folding the Flag, she responded in the affirmative.

It has been at least 30 years since I was on a color guard detail, but it is a very funny feeling that after all of the years, the hours of drills came back, a little rusty, but the knowledge was there.  My two task masters; Sargent Major Stewart and Master Sargent Howard were very possibly looking down at me with a smile.  It was these two departed gentlemen who had significant parts in my journey from childhood to adulthood.

It was not until almost the end of folding the Flag that I looked into the eyes of the staff member, and the way that she was looking at me that caused me to start to lose my composure.  It was a look that was a cross between wonder, compassion, pride and joy; it was then that the magnitude of what I just done and who was watching hit me.

I never thought in my life that this simple act of folding the Stars and Stripes would have this type of emotional effect on me, all of the times in the past had never elicited this effect but off course I had never done this act on Hallowed Ground, with 5000 plus spirits watching.  It took me several minutes to gather my composure and get ready for the drive home.

So what I am asking is that if you travel to a foreign country and there is an American Military Cemetery located in that country, take sometime to visit the departed who have given " the last full measure of devotion” all it will cost you is just some time.

Something that we should all think about.

A talk given by General  Petrus J.M. "Peter" van Uhm  Chief of Staff Netherlands Defense Staff, at the TED conference in Amsterdam in 2011.

http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_van_uhm_why_i_chose_a_gun.html

What makes this message even more compelling is that General van Uhm family has paid the ultimate price for keeping the peace in the world with the loss of their son 1st Lt. Dennis van Uhm on 8 April 2008 to an IED in Afghanistan.

His are not hollow words.

Yet Another Rectal Bleed

The story in Europe just keep getting better, now there is a story about language being removed from the proposed/draft EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility) Bond Prospectus.   This particular language deals with an “explicit warning to investors that the euro could break apart or even cease to be a “lawful currency” entirely.”

This particular language had been inserted by the lawyers charged with drafting this document, what were they thinking?  They were probably confused since they were used to drafting prospectus for commercial entities, where the documents are legally required to convey germane, pertinent, and fiduciary facts to prospective purchasers.

The report goes on and states that management, who ever they are, had not approved the clause, no surprise there; the surprise appears to be for the purchaser.  Well what a welcome breath of fresh air on the part of the European Union in particular the people associated with this program.  Why would any one in their right mind purchase any of these instruments at any where close to par value?  These instruments are nothing more than unsecured junk.  I might be inclined to look at these investment if they were discounted such that their yield was somewhere north of 15 percent.

The EFSF is a “Special Purpose Vehicle”, word that should strike terror into the heart of every citizen.  The 27 member states of the European Union agreed in May 2010 to create this monster via incorporation, and it only exists as long as it has debt outstanding.   The European Investment Bank (EIB) was chosen as agency to provide treasury management services and administration support through a service level contract.

Theoretically the emission (bonds or some other type of instrument) would be backed by full faith and credit of the European Central Banks primary members, those that share in the profits that the bank generates.  The 17 National Central Banks (Germany (18.9%), France (14.2%), and Italy (12.5%) are on the hook for 45.6%) in proportion to their share of paid-up capital.  There are other members of the bank, they do not share in the profit of the bank, but do have funds deposited at the bank, primarily for international banking account transactions, clearances and guarantees.

Every day Europe is looking more and more like a house of cards.