agip wrote:
This is really interesting. I'm no expert on the military but my understanding is that Walz rose through the armed forces meritocracy from the bottom to a very high officer rank, while most officers go through the academies or OTC school. Which means he had his stuff together in a major way.
Hertling:
Many followers not familiar with the military are asking me “so what’s the big deal about a command sergeant major?”
Walz joined at 18 as a private. Rose through the NCO (sergeant) ranks, each requiring extreme competence at increasingly demanding jobs with more people & responsibility at every rank.
When you reach “Master Sergeant” you are selected to serve as a First Sergeant (1SG) of a unit…if you’re good enough. Then, those 1SGTs compete for selection to Sergeant Major. Only the best Sergeant Majors are selected for Command Sergeant Major (CSM) billets.
CSMs serve as the senior enlisted person in the unit and the advisor to Commanders at battalion and above. Having served with dozens of CSMs as my unit & command “battle buddy” I will attest they were all awesome.
They know what they’re doing. They uphold standards. They speak their minds to all ranks (private to generals). They’re not afraid of getting bad news because they know how to fix things when they go wrong. And they serve the command (their commander and their soldiers) with a selfless integrity and a complete dedication.
During social events and informal occasions, they’re usually a whole bunch of fun. And they always have great stories. But they’re always professional.
So, those are my thoughts
on Command Sergeants Major. While I don’t know the details of @GovTimWalz
career wearing the cloth of our country, just the fact that he volunteered to serve and wore the CSM rank tells me a lot about him.
Kind of ironic that Walz was able to rise up through the military meritocracy because of his competence and now he and Ms. Harris will do away with that meritocracy and instead do the DEI crap.
