Several witnesses will testify today:
- Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman
- Jennifer Williams
- Kurt D. Volker
- Timothy Morrison
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Is is just me, or is Vindman not a very good liar? Maybe he’s just not a good actor. He certainly seems coached
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Yes correct Stella.in addition this Squirrel is not a whistle blower. The first phone call, April, the transcript(read out) was changed by him. Second phone call was his disagreement over policy with the CIC.
I’m quite surprised the Convening Authority has not started a 15-6 investigation into this Squirrels conduct, performance of his duties. When you tell a foreign power or troops within your preview not too listen too the CIC, that sedition, maybe Mutiny.
Guess this Squirrel was on sick call, at West Point, Politics Science 101, the Constitution states; the President has three constitutional responsibilities, CEOof the Executive Branch, conduct Foreign Policy, and CIC of the Arm Forces.
This Squirrel is one of many in “Middle Management”, We as a country have a problem not only in the military, in civilian world with this type of individual. The only thing saving his butt now is he is a West Point graduate, so I was told.
Maybe Gen.Mark will select me for doing the 15-6 investigation. And Czar, standby your on the interview team….
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Colonel, how does this guy stay in the military and continue to receive good Fitness Reports?
Surely the troops would have seen through this guy by now and taken care of him.
Just not understandable, imo. None of the enlisteds with whom I served would ever have trusted this guy, let alone allow him to continue clear up to Light Colonel.
Heck, they barely tolerated me, until my mettle was proved over and over.
I don’t get it.
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Gotta remember, OERs are written by an officer’s bosses and if the writer gives the writee a bad one the writer sure as heck better have a full papertrail to show how said rater not only noticed these deficiencies but busted butt trying to correct them. PERSCOM, or whatever they’re calling it now, also keeps a record of acrating officer’s ratings of underlings and if there’s a noted departure from the rater’s norm or the ratings of like officers that’s a red flag, better to give an OER above questionable but below ‘glows in the dark’ and be safe.
Writing OERs is a PIA too, takes up alotta time in an already full calendar, ain’t unusual for an officer to not get one for a year or two if s/he isn’t up for promotion. A promo package being forwarded meahs ‘OH OH!’, someone in the 1-shop has to burn that midnight oil cleaning up those packages for forwarding or heads will roll. My 1st job in the first 2-star command I was assigned to was in the 1-shop where a W-2 and I (I was then an E-7) had to get over 50 officer files ready for forwarding to a promotion board. Most were missing one or more OERs and some had even come to us missing OERs. We wrote them one and all, selected officers signed them and in some cases we don’t know who those persons were who signed them……. (whistling sounds)
This later came back to bite me in the butt as I was assigned to a couple of Joint Commands hosted by the *&^%$# Air Force. I had Air Force E-9s as my supervisors and as for their writing mandatory EERs for me it would have been easier for me to get blood out of a turnip – I’ve seen Greek statues with less inertia than they had. I was told to ‘write them myself and someone would sign them’ and I told them to go stuff their idea where the runway lights don’t shine. I ended up short 3 EERs in my promotion file and by the time I just said ‘&^%$#@ it’ and wrote them up E-9 slots in my MOS were disappearing as Clinton was gutting the military. By the time Bush II was in I was out of the promotable age zone.
So yeah, those Efficiency Reports are an iffy thing for all concerned. They can damage the writer as well as the writee so they can easily be pencil whipped or just ignored.
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Oh I know about writing, counseling, an placement on OERs. Well I’ll just promote you too CSM well deserved!!! Hey send me the order and I’ll sign it……
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I turned down the last direct commission in 5th Army, ’88 I believe it was, as I loved my job and at that time the Army was grabbing every stray officer they could to make them loggie officers. I wasn’t going to drop engineer/intel, I hsad (I thought) a blue chip in my back pocket and was looking at E-8 and SGM was on the table.
Then came Clinton…
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And yes, in hindsight, I do regret turning down that direct commission.
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Ma Soeur wrote all the Fitness Reports for her husband, a WO4. She actually knew the guys better than he.
But Ma Soeur would have been brutally honest, and her husband never questioned her judgement..
One would still think, though, that guy’s enlisteds would have taken him out. My guys sure did.
But indeed, it was a different time. Carter was busting all our battlefield Commisioneds back to Master or Top Sgt.
Thanks for the info, czar, much appreciated. Never too late to learn new things.
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There were 0-5s and 0-6s in that unit who owed their promotions to the four of us who ginned those OERs up. This was in early-Reagan 1st election and I didn’t know these guys from Adam, I just put them all in the 85% area except got a few who were college/university profs or engineers with hard-science degrees, them guys got ‘walks on water’.
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Jeans I would have too check his assignments, the RI in ranger school called him lazy, and chow hound……
You have raised some memories for me during my last command tour before I was retired. Just could nor understand the motivation of younger officers, like this Squirrel…..
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He was a ticket puncher, an Ivy League officer most likely crossing egos with ring knockers. If you look at his ‘accomplishments’ and his assignments he’s a ticket puncher. Ranger school but no assignments. A 5-jump-chump, a tour as a platoon leader, the CIB (Iraq) and the EIB (another ticket) – then straight off to the military-political world. I’ve seen his type before, gets a taste of military power and a sniff of political power and – whoosh – he’s off.
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My guys would have taken a bullet for the likes of you, Sir. No question.
That Vindman guy…well, I think you know where the bullet would have landed.
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Seeing this cast of characters just reminds me of what an incredibly good liar and emotion manipulator James Comey is, he really is a man with no conscience.
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Vindman says he only met Zelensky once and that was at a meet and greet held sometime before the phone call between Trump and Zelensky. Apparently he thinks it appropriate to speak to the Ukrainian President about policy at what was essentially a party to help the various attendees get a handle on the people they would be working with? He also danced around whether or not his superiors attending the M&G knew he was going to speak in such a manner to Zelensky.
When Vindman warned Zelensky about the Russians and not to interfere with U.S. politics, what language was he using? Ukrainian, Russian or English? Why is that important? Because his superiors, if they hadn’t given him permission to address policy (which I think is the case), they might not have understood what he was saying to Zelensky. If he did not have their permission, I wonder when they found out he was trying to interfere with policy on his own.
The guy seems to me to be one of those people who try to make their position more important than it really is and his influence bigger than it is. In other words, a blowhard, self-aggrandizing annoyance. There are also rumors among his colleagues that he is not well-liked.
Someone the other day at CTH mentioned that Vindman’s rating, if he were a truly valuable asset after 21 years, would and should be one up from where he is. Is there the possibility that this self-important little baby-face knows he will not be upped but retired instead and is using his new-found political fame to get the powers-that-be to reconsider? You military folk can confirm whether this is a valid observation or not.
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I had read or heard, after this assignment, this Squirrel is scheduled for the Army War College. Which is right down the road from me………
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Oh, good grief…just the place where he can indoctrinate other officers and get paid for it.
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That may just be a terminal assignment.
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I think squirrel is the perfect descriptor ! Thank you for bringing your insight to the conversation Sir.
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And regarding Jennifer Williams…she seems to be the third person in Pence’s camp who has turned out to be against Trump. Remember the guy who was Pence’s right-hand man who has a wife Peter and Lisa were referencing about trying to get insider info? Then there was a woman who was fired for leaking. Now Jennifer, who apparently knew both Mike and his wife prior to his becoming VP.
I’m not saying anything against Pence. I like him. But I also think he is not clever and perhaps people can pull the wool over his eyes because he is trusting of how they present themselves to him which may not be how they really are.
Jennifer needs to resign her position and return to the State Department where Pompeo can put her on a “resignation” list of his own.
It all comes down to a battle of wits that our side cannot lose.
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Just a small personal comment…my final boss before I retired was the founder and chairman of his corporation. It took me a while to recognize who was being nice to me because of who he was, and those who befriended me because they appreciated me and not what I could possibly do for them. Not until I retired did some show which it was.
I did, however, enjoy the suck-up gifts they gave to me at holidays. Does that make me bad? LOL!
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