I served in the Navy from 1962 until 1966, , I was an Air Traffic controller at Sherman Field (The home of Naval Aviation) in Pensacola, Florida. We handled more traffic in daytime hours than O’Hare did in 24 hours, because military separation was less restricted than civilian separation. We were a 24 hour a day, all weather control tower. We had to be aware of weather conditions and coordinate with the weather operations. We were part of RATCC 18 (Radar Air Traffic Control Center). At times we had to coordinate with them. We had the Blue Angels (their home base) taking off and landing at 6 at a time, andwe even had an RAF Vulcan bomber using Pensacola to fly as a practice tropical weather condition site for a week.
In each of these experiences I, as an 18-21 year old, was controlling millions of dollars’ worth of military aircraft, and people’s lives. I was relaying FAa flight plans to pilots, giving them taxi instructions, or clearing them to take off or landing. These officers had to follow my orders. I never was concerned if they were Republicans or Democrats, what color they were, or who they loved. Even though I never saw combat, most of the pilots I talked to may have seen combat in Vietnam.
None of this makes me or anybody else that I served with, a viable candidate to be the Secretary of Defense.
Pete Hegseth, has in the past, made comment in his books and interviews that he is opposed to women serving in combat, and has made bigot and racist statements that show no respect for a large portion of our service members. This does nothing for morale and/or recruitment. He has called the Democratic Party and liberals as the enemy. The Secretary of Defense should be bipartisan, and represent all of the millions of employees in the department
Good “Character” is a very important attribute that any Presidential cabinet Secretary should possess, but it should not be the major or minor decision-making condition. Qualifications for understanding the entire realm of what the position entails. Especially for the Department of Defense, with over 3 million employees, and a budget of over 800 Billion dollars, that should be the foremost qualifying requirement.
The New York Times reported about Hegseth “that he has been accused of financial mismanagement while leading two small nonprofit organizations from 2008 to 2016. Revenues at Veterans for Freedom plunged during Hegseth’s tenure, from $8.7 million in 2008 to $265,000 in 2010. Hegseth then took a leadership role at Concerned Veterans for America; tax filings show that the nonprofit spent more money than it raised from donations and other avenues during three of the five years he led the nonprofit.”
The DOD secretary also needs to be concerned with working with our allies and strengthening our position in the world. We should not be cutting our ties with NATO.
Kol Haverim 