Good grief. How many admirals do we even have?

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

Mr. Slowguy would have a precise figure. I think around 220 or so.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

One for every boat.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Ouch! That hurts, sir. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I found many different sources for the number of total admirals (one-star through four-star) serving on active duty bouncing around out there. These ranged from a claimed statutory limit of 160 to the linked website's 221 as of 2017. This included 10 four-star (or "full") admirals, the highest rank achievable since 1946, when the last five-star fleet admiral served.

I'm actually amazed at the number of flag officers (admirals) the Navy has, given the size of the fleet and the number of uniformed personnel the Navy hosts, which is way off what it had in WWII, when the sea service had 18 admirals of various rank, plus 6700 warships and 3.4 million uniformed personnel. Personally, I remember there being fewer admirals back in my junior officer days, when we'd peaked at 600 ships and approximately 500,000 officers and Sailors.

Some argue today that the increasing complexity of the Navy's equipment, technology and missions mandates a greater number of admirals than has been the case in the past, and there's no doubt the Navy's more "technical" and skills-based than when I first enlisted back in the late-1970s.

• Total military personnel of the U.S. Navy 2016-2018, by rank | Statistic

This website (Cutting America’s Defense Budget:. U.S. Navy has 216 Admirals Today, More Than Ten Times as Many as in WWII | Global Research - Centre for Research on Globalization) says the biggest reason for the "explosion" in the flag officer ranks is "grade creep," something I'd heard about of among force planners in D.C. a number of years ago. It's "a tendency in the Pentagon to increase the rank for a particular job." I remember reading a Navy Times article or three that lamented grade creep, and this was back in the early-1990s.

The retired Navy captain (paygrade O6, on a scale of O1 to O10) interviewed for the article above had some other suggestions for "right-sizing" the Navy, including ditching those uniform boards that constantly tinker with the Navy's uniforms. He goes on to note the Navy's fascination with Total Quality Management -- which of course became "Total Quality Leadership" in the sea service -- something I was swept up into back when I was but a young Bull Ensign. This Navy captain sounds a bit like a cranky old salt. In other words, my kind of guy. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

The USAF (and the rest of the military) is a lot smaller now than it was in 1985 during the peak of the "Reagan years". (Remember Lehman and the 600-ship US Navy? The USAF had 134 fighter squadrons in 1991, and it now has 55 fighter squadrons.)

But the total number of flag officers for all of the services has only declined from 1050 in 1985 ((0.05% of the total force) to 909 in 2015 (0.07% of the total force). The number of 4-stars has increased from 36 to 38.

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R44389.pdf

Flag officers never want to eliminate their own positions.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

For the novelty of replying to Kahuna almost 5 years later,....Fat Leonard is on the run.

The man responsible for taking down more than 30 Navy officers in one of the biggest scandals in the service's history has managed to elude the U.S. Marshals, leaving behind his GPS monitoring bracelet, just weeks before he was due to be sentenced. He was apparently super stealthy, given that the neighbors of his multi-million dollar San Diego home report having seen U-Haul trucks coming and going in the days before he disappeared.


'Fat Leonard,' set to finally be sentenced in long-running Navy bribery scheme, is on the lam - The San Diego Union-Tribune (sandiegouniontribune.com)

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

Nice dig into the past and a shout out to BK.

Roger stealth Uhaul trucks. I did not see reporting on passport possession. How long before he surfaces in Singapore working the docks again?

Ed Olczyk has gained weight.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

I see where he was facing 25 years. And for whatever reason he never actually testified. So maybe he wasn't getting as good a deal as he hoped.

If I'm facing 25 years and can get away, you are probably going to have to catch me too.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

So has anyone ever seen Fat Leonard and BK in the same room?

Part of his deal to be released to house arrest in 2018 was that he pay for his own 24-hour surveillance. Sounds like he got his money's worth but I wonder who was doing the surveillance and where they are now.

The claim is that he was "out to lunch".

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

That was the claim from a previous incident where there was a three hour lapse in security coverage.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

If you want to disappear South America is the way to go but not so for Fat L

https://news.usni.org/...ng-to-flee-to-russia

If I were successfully hiding out in S. America, I'm not sure I'd be looking forward to flying to Russia. Not exactly the vacation destination one might look for in their elderly felon retirement years.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

Tough situation all around. The U.S. apparently doesn't have any formal diplomatic ties right now, so extradition may be difficult. Venezuela is likely just keeping him as a bargaining chip. But the U.S. is unlikely to give up much, and backdoor negotiations through some 3rd country would be long and tedious.

If things don't go anywhere, and FL still has access to 7-digit assets, he may be able to negotiate to some degree.

This is just a new chapter.....

Yeah, I'm not sure the $40,000 reward for his capture is going to be enough for Venezuela.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

Fat Leonard is coming home!

Venezuela to send ‘Fat Leonard’ to U.S., release American prisoners - The Washington Post

Hot take, is this sounds like a good deal for the U.S. 10 Americans, six with unlawfully detained status. 21 Venezuelans, mostly dissidents. A few others in the system.

All for clemency for one dude for money laundering. I bet when that dude gets home, he's going to be writing some massive checks to Maduro & Friends, because they gave up *a lot* for one dude. I hope he has a good stash of money, either laundered or not.

Edit: Unless it's not about money, and they don't want Saab continuing to leak information to the U.S.



Thanks, Biden!

Edit: Ha, already darts being thrown "“Disgraceful decision,” (Rubio). I don't know how you call bringing 10 Americans home, criminal or otherwise, "disgraceful".

Guessing no ankle bracelet this time.

It is. I did not support the exchange for Griener but this is a good deal.