A Navy Lieutenant No More

[Lesforan]

The point I was trying to make had nothing to do with her being ordered to Iraq, but everything to do with her being assigned to another branch of the military than the one she enlisted in. As far as that goes, I think she has a legitimate beef.

If one were to join "the military", if that were really possible, then maybe they would become a generic soldier/sailor/airman with total interchangeability. That may well be the case in nations like Canada that has an homogenzied military.

But in this country, people do not join an organization called "the military", or "National Defense Force". They join either the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, or the Coast Guard. As such, they should have a right to be employed in the particular branch they signed up for, not just anywhere to fill a lack of recruits in any particular group.

In WWII there were draftees sent into the Navy. But even in that case, I don't think they wound up in the Army.

[Werner]

I think you'll find that all changed in 1949.

Lately, the military has been sponsoring a "Blue to Green" incentive program to shuffle more qualified sailors to the Army.

[Rich Mathsen]

This reminds me of an article in the USNI Proceedings several years back, entitled "I Went Joint (But Didn't Inhale)." Because of the "transformation in military affairs" led by former SecDef Rummy, the services (with the exception of the USMC) are all having trouble retaining people, part of the problem being that you get nowhere as an officer if you don't do some joint duty assignment. A lot of people get out because they've become disillusioned with how things are run now. For those that stay, it's a given that you'll do some time with another service. And when they need boots on the ground, the thinking now is that they don't care if those boots are brown, green or blue. In this particular case, the thing that most perplexes me is, what thoroughbred sphincter thought it would be a good idea to send a Jewish woman to handle bribing Arab men?

[NucSub]

Funny, The females gripe about not being allowed into all the available jobs, then she gets one that she doesn't like.....boo hoo. Since when did race, religion, or ethnicity play a part in assignments since the late 1940s?? She is the only one saying she was to have direct contact with the Iraqi's. Sounds more like an admin job signing off on things, not direct negotiations. Even if she were the one with direct contact, aren't we supposed to be showing them "strong females". If we excluded her from the job, she'd be in the news griping that the military was backwards and prejusticed agains females. Joint services tours have been going for as long as I remember. Officers are trained as administrators as well as leaders.
The Navy changed my jobs several times including my duties, locations, and functions. This included many things that I did not "sign up for". Failure to report, beach to the point of being tossed, I think not. She got off lucky. If it were a male officer, he'd have a new address. The Brig.

[Lesforan]

While I don't agree that she was right to refuse her assignment, I still think that she or any other person joining any particular branch should have a reasonable expectation to be assigned service within that branch. If all personnel are considered a pool for any branch to draw on as-needed, they why even have a division of services? Maybe a joint, homogenized national military force would be a more honest way of dealing with the problem.

I would hate to see it come to that. But if the branches are having trouble filling their enlistment quotas, sending people to different branches than the ones they joined (except for special liason situations) certainly won't help.

[Werner]

While I don't agree that she was right to refuse her assignment, I still think that she or any other person joining any particular branch should have a reasonable expectation to be assigned service within that branch. If all personnel are considered a pool for any branch to draw on as-needed, they why even have a division of services? Maybe a joint, homogenized national military force would be a more honest way of dealing with the problem.

I would hate to see it come to that. But if the branches are having trouble filling their enlistment quotas, sending people to different branches than the ones they joined (except for special liason situations) certainly won't help.

We really don't know... it could be that the unit she was to be assigned to was a "joint' unit, in which it would be entirely consistent with current policy to send her. It might have been a Marine Corps unit, in which case her assignment would not even be cross service in nature.

[Gone Asiatic]

She made a bad choice and must now accept the consequences.