Military Minute 22 Jan 24

I’m Papa Penguin and this is your Military Minute.

If you really want to get your blood boiling just go read GAO-23-105797, the report GAO put out in September of 2023 where they acknowledge barracks have been an issue since the mid 90s (pg 7). How many Senior Enlisted Advisors (SEAs) have we had since then?

None of them have brought this problem front and center to fix the issue. Pretty sure I read somewhere their job includes making sure their own folks aren’t living in squalid conditions.

We’re dedicating a whole episode to talk about the SEAs being scheduled to talk in front of Congress at the end of the month because this is a topic I care about.

Someone told the Congress critters they can get frank and honest talk from these folks while testifying on the record and being televised for the entire world to see. No, that’s not a joke.

Those who have reached the rarified air of being a SEA for an entire branch of service aren’t stupid and aren’t going to say anything that could come back and bite them in the ass.

Chief amongst the problems they are scheduled to discuss are barracks issues. These issues aren’t anything new. I’m fairly certain Longinus lived in the crack barracks at 52 Area in San Mateo.

Everyone of these SEAs has seen shitty barracks at some point in their career. And I’m sure they’ve gotten complaints more than once about the conditions of the barracks. What have they done to fix the issue? A whole lot of nothing. Not even a peep of acknowledgement there is a problem.

The SEA billet above the operational level started out as a good idea. It’s now become a waste.

How about we just shit can the whole idea of SEAs above the operational level. Replace them with SEAs sent TAD.

https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105797.pdf

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/01/18/top-enlisted-leaders-each-service-set-testify-quality-of-life-issues-house-hearing.html

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-news/2023/09/we-lost-the-bubble-defense-officials-acknowledge-chronic-underfunding-thats-caused-health-and-safety-risks-in-military-barracks/slide/1/