Mike Shekleton

@TwoRulesOfWar The WW2 Army had over 40 x 4-star and 5-star generals. The US has a broader, global mission today and has implemented best practices on jointness from WW2 that increased the number of commands for good reasons.

The point is that the WWII Army was 12.2 million men with 13 active four star general officers. Today it is 1.2 million and 279 general officers. It’s top heavy; which is a sign of the bad combination of administrative bloat and the Peter Principle.

@CrispinBurke @glcarlstrom Shinseki wasn’t fired. He served his term out. He was mostly sidelined.

@glcarlstrom The last time an Army Chief of Staff was fired was Shinseki, who warned the U.S. would need several hundred thousand troops to stabilize Iraq. That said, this might also have more to do with internal politics than anything else.

On the other hand, if you were planning to expand that bombing campaign into a ground invasion with extremely unclear goals and some army generals weren't enthusiastic about it...

@DanielTurnerPTF How does Russia’s invasion of Ukraine factor into this? Is there a reason you didn’t mention this? Do you support high gas prices?

Let’s clarify the SPR. Biden drained nearly 300m barrels in the months before 2022 midterms to lower gas prices and keep the Senate. It worked. The SPR was severely damaged. They aren’t not meant to be empty. They aren’t stainless steel tankers. There’s several years of repairs needed. Replenishing will take years. Just 200,000 barrels going into the reserves every day would have huge market impacts and at that rate we’d need 5 years. The lefty media suddenly discovering SPR is demonstrating their incredible bias and covering Biden’s crimes against the nation. @powerthefuture spoke nonstop about the damage Biden was doing. Not one major outlet reported it. But now it’s Trump’s fault. Because that’s the easiest and most fun spin. The damage done to America by Biden and his team is unforgivable. Energy policy. Domestic policy. Foreign policy. Just criminals. All of them.

@ControlledPairs Poor sleep puts you on a path to dementia and Alzheimer’s. If old you is not you, you’re not growing old together. Make sure to get that checked out.

On the VA disability discussion. I've been on active duty for nearly 15 years. I've spent about 10 years on airborne status, graduated from Ranger school, completed special operations selection and assessment twice, served for 8 years in SOF, deployed to combat 5 times, more work ups, jumps, long range movements, weeks on reverse cycle, hours/days/weeks/months under nods than I can count. Hundreds (thousands?) of breaching charges, mortars, cannons, controlled detonations, Carl Gs, bangers, thermos, frags, and the like. I'm worn out but I'm ok. I ignored and lied about pain and sleep for years so I could keep doing the job. Annual PHA? Good to go, Doc! Send me! I'm finally in a job where I can take care of myself. It still feels like quitting to accept a referral and get checked out. Many of my peers are still in the fight. Many of my dudes got hurt for real. But, at my wife's insistence, I'm slowly but surely making appointments for the bumps and bruises - the wear and tear of a Soldiers' life. After ignoring a spot for a year or more I finally got it checked out last year. Skin cancer. Lucky it was the not-that-bad kind. Surgery. Gnarly scar. I'm fine. Got an MRI on my neck last week. I've had debilitating pain and mobility loss in my neck and down my shoulder/arm for years, it started when I tweaked it in Iraq in 2016. My doc said I have the neck of a 55 year old man. I'm in my mid thirties. Degeneration, arthritis, spurs, nerve canal is pinched and causing the pain down my right side. I'm fine. It hurts, but I'm fine. Surgery is an option. I won't take it. Pain management is an option. I'm not going down the opioid trap. So... physical therapy and continue mission. Knee is next on the list. It hurts but I'm fine. I don't sleep much, but I'm probably fine. I'm fine. I've never considered VA benefits. My calculus for not getting checked out sooner was to continue doing the job I love. I'm getting checked out now because I've promoted out of the job, my wife wants to grow old with me, and I want to meet my grandchildren. Do I deserve compensation for getting to do the job I love all those years? Hardly. Am I entitled to it? Entitled is an easy word to hate. Yet retirement approaches, and with it the decision to file or not file a VA claim. I'm inclined to pass. My wife disagrees. Not sure where I'll land. I suspect most of us are like me. We're fine. It hurts but we're fine. So what, if anything, does a nation "owe" a bunch of dudes who did the job as asked and got a bit banged up as expected? It's a tough question that I have trouble answering. You'll notice that often it's the dudes perhaps most deserving on paper who are least likely to advocate for themselves. Just writing that sentence hurts. We should probably take care of the boys. Especially the ones saying they're just fine.

@thestinkeye @AllThingsCivil @SecWar Who was a better CINC, Abraham Lincoln, a backwoods militia CPT that never faced combat, or Jefferson Davis, with combat experience and former Secretary of War?

In the choice between two otherwise equal candidates for the appointment to the position of @secwar, I am going to choose the one with combat experience every time. I will choose him or her even more enthusiastically if they are a terminal O4 with combat experience. It may not be necessary, but pretending combat experience doesn’t “matter” is not the “hot take” you advertise in your profile.

Arguing that combat experience matters for a civilian job is peak vet bro idiocy. Secretary of Defense is a *civilian* position - civilian control of our military is a fundamental principle of American democracy.

@BradDuplessis *1SG

@BradDuplessis The 1DG and I also helped our soldier get off from a “DUI.” The MPs let him pass through the gate but then tracked him at the barracks where he had been drinking. The DCG ran the Art 15 and after excusing us, crushed the MPs for their incompetence in charging him.

Yes. Ripped it up on the spot.

@USAmbItaly Congrats Pietro!

🇺🇸🇮🇹 I was honored to welcome Italian military leaders to my office following the presentation of U.S. military awards recognizing exceptional service that reflects the strength of the U.S.–Italy partnership. I was pleased to be joined by Gen. Antonio Conserva, Chief of Staff of the Italian Air Force. Among the awardees were @ItalianAirForce Lt Gen Maurizio Cantiello, @_Carabinieri_ Brig Gen Pietro Carrozza recipients of the Legion of Merit, and @_Carabinieri_ Lt Col Vigilio Gheser and Capt Matteo Vampo, recipients of the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.

@BradDuplessis This, the staff is a powerful instrument in the hands of genius, which is the exact opposite of the OP’s argument.

@BradDuplessis Doug Douds has some great podcasts and lectures out there that talk about the huge advantage that the Army of the Potomac staff gave to the AOP. While it did mitigate for lesser commanders, to the OP’s argument, in the hands of a competent commander, it created a huge advantage.

Correct. There is a reason why the S/G/J staff structure has been referred to as the Napoleonic staff.

@awfulannouncing It was clear PI because the defender wasn’t playing the ball. The announcers had it right. It didn’t impact the game since it would have only been a 15-yard penalty (vs. a spot foul).

Gary Danielson and Gene Steratore thought Navy should've been called for pass interference on this Army pass to the end zone just ahead of halftime. 🏈🦓🎙️

@loganclarkhall Keep that up and you’ll be facing friendly fire!

“Sorry babe, I can’t talk right now. I’m busy studying Stonewall Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley campaign.”

@EchoesofWarYT Of the seven American generals offered, Grant.

Who is your favorite American General of all time?

@usawtfm If you want to fence 6-8 hours a week for training, counseling, maintenance, ok. You could even soft close for 30-60 minutes before COB to ensure the day’s submissions are all processed - requires E-6 or above to walk-in - ok. These hours are ridiculous absent an unmanned shop.

Does a Brigade S-1 need hours? Discuss...

@DPunkenstien @jjfThompson The Father of the Constituion, James Madison wrote that secession was not part of the Constitution. There was no need as there was always the natural, moral right to revolution. However, it’s pretty ironic to claim that you need freedom to deny others freedom, no?

@jjfThompson @MikeShekleton Shhhhhh

Once the low Confederate tariff was announced, powerful Northern business interests came out strongly opposed to peace with the Confederacy.  As the pressure for aggression mounted, Lincoln decided to provoke an attack on the fort in order to use the attack as a pretext for invasion and to whip up a majority of the Northern public into a war frenzy against the South.  Lincoln himself later admitted that he provoked the attack so he could use it as justification for waging war. (Francis Butler Simkins, A History of the South, Third Edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963, pp. 213, 215-216; J. G. Randall and David Donald, The Civil War and Reconstruction, Lexington, Massachusetts: D. C. Heath and Company, 1969, p. 174).

@jjfThompson Sure he did. There’s no constitutional authority to secede. And Fort Suter is a terrible line of argumentation. That was federal property and so the US government had every right to resupply it and to garrison it.

@MikeShekleton No the argument is that Lincoln had no constitutional authority to stop secession.

@e_joseph_murphy What is the exact size? Are these in Scranton?

We have one of these extremely large maps for each day of the Battle of Gettysburg and I have no idea what to do with them. My gallery doesn’t have room for them and there’s nowhere to put them anywhere else in the building. Shame they’re just collecting dust.