Sometimes Sayings.

Lang,

I'm disappointed, my wife said I resemble almost all of those comments!

And she's always right.

Some harsh comments there Lang.
Fortunate to have mostly competent and respected officers in our National Service time.
My report on exit from recruit training said good soldier, tries too hard. Took that on as advice.

Yes Paul but even in the army with its continual competitive selection, testing and weeding out the Peter Principle holds true

The Peter Principle is an observation that the tendency in most organizational hierarchies, such as that of a corporation, is for every employee to rise in the hierarchy through promotion until they reach a level of respective incompetence.

PS Well done on your report. I had to write many of those as a 3TB Platoon Commander. Pretty hard for a 19 year old to make judgements on 60 blokes (twice the size of a normal platoon) minimum age 20 through to 23. Luckily the final judgement was after Corps training to see how they went in the real jobs they were going to do but our reports had a big say in what corps suited their talents.

Lang the Peter Principle was with the NSW Police Force when I was there. When I joined it was Promotion by Seniorority. This changed to Promotion by Merit. That's when the rot set in. It was referred to as Success by Suction or Like smoking dope.... the harder you suck, the higher you get.

I am very much in favour of promotion by merit so long as it is done openly and obvious to all concerned. Promotion by seniority is a ridiculous way to run any organisation. The incompetence of Army and Navy officers during centuries of promotion by influence, heritage or just straight purchase resulted in death and misery for countless millions of soldiers and sailors.

My wife's cousin was in the police force for 40 years in the seniority period. He was the biggest non-event I have ever met but finished up as a senior sergeant running the lost property (they probably call it the evidence room) for his last 20 years in a major station creating a roadblock for up and coming stars

That is why at the start of a war career officers often do very badly and within a very short time you have 24 year old Lt Col running battalions and 22 year old Squadron Leaders running fighter squadrons. Of course they all get the boot or demoted to their original rank after the war no matter how good they did.

Some absolute classics there!
Some of the best put-downs I've heard in years!
Dave

Sharp lad, sharp as a bowling ball.

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.!

Franklin D. Roosevelt.