more on US Military cognitive dissonance hitsa new low

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Steve Crocker <steve () stevecrocker com>
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 09:28:23 -0500
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: <[IP]> more on US Military cognitive dissonance hitsa new low

Dave,

The article cited by Stephen Poe announcing the Unified Command
Structure looks pretty good.  For readers who do not want to plow
through its details or who are not familiar with the basic concept of a
"unified command," let me offer a quick picture.  (I am *not* an expert
on this and the following explanation is about 30 years old, so I
apologize if it's wrong in minor details.  However, I did find it
extremely helpful when I had it explained to me at the time, and your
readers may too.)

There are two org charts in the U.S. military.  One is the budget
allocation and organizational management structure.  The military force
is divided at the top level into the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine
Corps.  Each Service is headed by a Chief of Staff, i.e. the highest
ranking four star general or admiral who runs the entire Service.  Each
of these Services is subdivided through many layers pretty much as you
would expect.  The second org chart is the action oriented organization.
The top level units in action oriented org chart are called Unified
Commands.  Each Unified Command is headed by a senior officer -- I think
they're all four stars -- and each has elements from more than one
Service.  The Commands are organized primarily along geographic lines.
For example, the Pacific Command (PACOM) is headquartered in Hawaii and
has Navy and (FLEETPAC?) Air Force (PACAIR) elements.

The Unified Commands all report to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).  The
JCS consists of the chiefs of the Services, mentioned above, and a four
star officer who heads the JCS.  He's the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff.

Commanders of the Unified Commands and the Chairman of the JCS are
chosen from various Services, usually rotating over time.

Each Service Chiefs reports to his respective civilian Secretary, e.g.
the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of the Air Force, etc.  The
Secretaries all report to the Secretary of Defense.

In contrast, the JCS reports directly to the Secretary of Defense, and
through him to the President.  The President is, among other things, the
Commander in Chief.

Minor tidbits: The Navy uses different nomenclature for the same
concepts.  The head of the Navy is the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO).
There used to be "Unified and Specified Commands."  A Specified Command
was similar and parallel to a Unified Command except it only had
personnel from a single Service.  The Strategic Air Command (SAC) was
the sole Specified Command.  It had the long range bombers and missles
poised to drop nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union.  The SAC commander was
also a top level general in the Air Force management tree, so he had
access to both sides of the equation.  (In matrix management terms, he
owned both a row and a column.)  He was a very powerful force to reckon
with and during budget battles he got pretty much anything he wanted.

Hope this helps.  The article gives more details and is obviously more
current.

Steve



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