European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 6, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 letters the stars and stripes Friday november 6, 1987 of spouse pressure Issue draws comments i am writing in response to the article headlined. Probe finds wives were pressured but of in t Pun Ishing the article relates to the Story of two officers who suffered setbacks to their careers be cause their wives chose to work full time instead of doing Volunteer work with their husband s units. In the worst of the two cases a brigadier general directly linked the nomination of the husband Tor a vice com Mander position to having his wife quit her Job. Unless i am mistaken the air Force was not paying the wife a salary nor had she taken an oath to vol perhaps the general needs to look up the word Volunteer in the dictionary. However it seems that the air Force was not unhappy with his policy because he received a promotion and a new assignment. The investigation ordered by the air Force Only after the Story received Media attention resulted in no punishment for the offending officers and a Lam statement from a spokesman who said that no written regulations had been violated. This sort of discrimination on the part of senior officers and the air Force is incredible and sad. Wives of officers who want to Volunteer in unit activities should be allowed that Freedom. But wives who want to work full time must also be Given that Freedom. Must the air Force insist on turning wives and Hus bands against one another and Force one of them Tolose out so that the other can gain the air Force position makes it Clear that the woman s Job is not As important As the Man s Job. The policy of forcing wives to Volunteer can do nothing but Chase away Good officers and their families. If the air Force and the military in general Are serious about ending sexual discrimination then the sort of treatment Given to the women in the incident above must Stop and those responsible must be punished and not promoted. The wimpy statement issued by the Secretary and chief of staff of the air Force which still says that wives Are expected to Volunteer is not enough. I Challenge the senior leadership of the military to make it Clear that this sort of sexual discrimination will not be tolerated. James w. Baker Frankfurt. The real Issue is should the spouse of a senior officer end her career and devote her energies to activities that commanders say will further her husband s career my stand is this a commander is harming the serv ice when he impedes the advancement of an officer whose wife works. We need the Best leaders we can officers should be judged on their professional qualities rather than the number of own meetings their wives attend or the amount of time they give to charitable organizations. In opposition to the findings of the air Force investigation at Grissom fab i think commanders who prevent Quality leaders from the Opportunity to Lead because of this Issue should be held accountable for the damage they do to inc service. Maj. Curl re can main a Germany i have been following with some interest the a Balc Over the proper role of an air Force wife in her Hus band s career. So what s the big Deal it can t be whether the irate wives arc Correct. Of course they Are. The military and a lot of other bureaucracies has Long functioned thai Way. Of course it s not fair. Life Sel Dom is. The real problem is that some people expect advancement in bureaucracies and the military to Only a big bureaucracy to be based solely on individual Merit when that is very Seldom the Case. Look around any organization you re a part of and figure out How the people at the top got to the top. Your leaders May be capable they often Are. But the Odds arc that they arc no More capable and often less than substantial numbers of other people who might have risen to the top in their place. Lots of factors arc More important than pure Merit. Wives activities arc important in some organizations. In others Friendship cronyism attendance at the right parties dumb Luck nepotism unabashed bootlicking or some combination of these. This in t necessarily bad. We really can t measure Merit in any objective manner. And who is to say that a pure meritocracy would function any better than what we have now it s really never been tried. So what s the answer simple Don t play the game unless you can accept the rules. Remember the alcoholic s prayer lord Grant me the courage to change what i can the serenity to accept what i cannot change and the Wisdom Polinow the this in t such terrible advice. There is a level in every bureaucracy you can reach without playing the in the military it s o-5 or o-6. For civilian service it s os-12 or os-13. So finish your career As a lieutenant colonel or a gs-12. It s a Good wage you can do meaningful work serving your country with your personal integrity 100 percent in tact. You Don t have to be a general or in the senior executive service to be Happy. If you can t take it goodbye and Good Luck. You re a Good candidate for the private sector. But remember Don t apply at ism general motors or Bell Tele phone. Except for the uniforms you can t Tell the civil Ian bureaucrats from the military ones. A. Richard Gibbs Heidelberg. In the Wake of unfavourable press coverage the military bureaucracy knee jerked with pavlovian predictability Crocodile astonishment and a task panel armed with travel claims and Boondoggle funds will spend 2v months studying the obvious. The study will necessitate touring Europe if the Tea publishes its foregone conclusions before departing for Europe it can get in some whirlwind Christmas shop Ping maybe fill up a c-141 coming Home. Throughout my limited career of 18 years of Mili tary service i have found the attitude of this particularly Greish commanding officer pervasive. What i unusual is the extent of his arrogance and willingness to ride roughshod Over the ladies. While traditionally the wife s support was always expected it was More tactfully covertly exacted. For example the brag sheets the raw material for officer performance evaluations until recently carried a Block loosely titled social functions attended by you or your in the space below you d dutifully record the teas parties card games or boxing smok ers attended by you or the missus. If you had serious career pretensions you kept a log of you and your wife s command performances. Not wanting to obscure my military performance with my Savoire fair in the parlor arts i always entered an not applicable in the space and went on to provide More relevant criteria elsewhere. So what harm docs it do to Corral a Bevy of military wives into coffees luncheons and social events first of All it s dishonest who knows whether a Genu Ine social fabric exists or whether everyone else has been equally intimidated into attending. Is the social ambiance convivial geniality or Stockholm syndrome military social life May be being artificially sustained at a larger scale than it need be. Remove the intimidation Factor and we might weave sincerity Back into the social fabric. The practice of pompous warlords impressing offi cers wives into social service is absolutely Feudal in its abuse of Power. The spouse is never directly compensated for her service to the Force ably contrived military Community. Only the husband directly reaps any tangible benefits while she receives such Token remuneration As invisibly wearing his rank and inwardly glowing As she carries his Lineal number to Lawn parties and croquet tourneys. Her real compensation is contingent upon his liberality or niggardly Ness. Her self esteem identity and self concept arc vicariously derived and biblically cleaved to her husband s career successes and coups. I once had a commanding officer who cancelled or Ders on an incoming executive officer because the prospective officer s wife was t going to accompany him to the overseas site. Several reasons for the Cancella Tion around the base it was Only fair that the executive officer s family experience the same austerities As the rest of the military Community. Or that the social Agenda was More than the commanding of tier s wife wanted to Cope with and she needed her own to from the distaff to split the whatever the reason one officer did t get an important career ticket punched at that base at least be cause a recalcitrant wife preferred to stay in the heart land and shop scars rather than support her husband s career. What about the officer who has no wife or worse yet has a wife who is a reclusive autistic Nymph who lives in valium Valley painting landscapes with an air Brush writes zen Haiku and does t even know what her husband does for living except that he talks with his hands at parties the unsupported officer May be a Stroker at work volunteering for Midnight Low Levels through foggy Buffer zones but he s competing against the Guy whose glib wife can juggle a croissant and a demitasse and Cut a Bridge deck with one hand. Is the taxpayer getting a fair shake when we inadvertently promote one Man Over another because of his wife. The taxpayer wants a Strong defense not Good Coffee cake. And what about the military in general. Today s front runners graduating from College arc marrying their female counterparts aggressive women with professional and material aspirations equal to their Hus bands. Playing the demographic percentages we Aren t Likely to get Many front runner couples in which the woman is prepared to professionally Martyr herself for her husband s career. We May end up recruiting from the dimmer end of the intellectual spectrum. The courtly Days of Camelot and Versailles Are Over. The Trade deficit runs a brisk si5 billion per Mont hand the Federal deficit looks like Avogadro s number yet the lords of military Manors press to revive the trappings of a More affluent yesteryear when the com manding officer s wife had a legion of ladies in wait ing. Afternoons would find inc officers wives club placidly Dealin Bridge inwardly musing on the next promotion Board results and Swilling Tea. Those Days Are gone with the wind. As Gramm Rudman reminds us there is no free we also remind com manding officers there is no free wives it. Cmdr. Phillip w. 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