Fasbruner Letters

30 Jan 2014

My dear Fasbruner,

I appreciate the reports you have provided about those officers who we may want to cultivate. I am concerned with the frequency that I hear the phrase “High Potential Officer” (“HPO”) batted around. If this identification began as a private mechanism for us to cultivate preferred individuals, its leakage into common usage threatens to disrupt its utility. I have now even seen this phrase used officially on performance reports and promotion recommendations. What’s the point of having a secret list of HPOs against which we select the names of preferred officers if the officer performance reports come to us with “HPO” stamped across them for the world to see? This can promptly be addressed with a reminder to Commanders that “there is no such thing as an ‘HPO’” and “all officers should be reported upon based upon their demonstrated merit (etc, etc),” and this will restore the utility of our private lists.

It is a testament to your potential that you grasp at this early age the nature of the mechanisms we establish to both select and groom the right kind of fellow. Structure is the key! Narrow developmental pathways ensure that no matter how brilliant an officer may be, if he is the wrong sort of man he can be eventually eliminated for failing to attain the right credentials. Control the credentials, control the officer. Further, this exquisite system tends to be self-regulating once it begins. The right type of junior officer is selected for the right “stratification,” which earns him the right job, that ensures only he is qualified to receive the next school, which further ensures only he is qualified to have the next “right” job. Commanders who stratify officers not on this path are painfully aware that they are wasting their vote. Most commanders simply accept that the elite officers, selected in their late 20’s, are destined for the star-chamber. Should these men have their eyes opened and become too troublesome to the system, there remain many off-ramps. Should any worthy officer be found late, we retain certain exceptional opportunities to put a late bloomer on the launch-pad.

Even better, this entire mechanism is so simple to explain it practically teaches itself. The commander of today – himself the product of this selection mechanism – truly believes himself to be the best. He therefore does not waste his time looking for top-talent (a credit to top doctrinaires in our educational department), he simply recognizes the up-and-comer who looks most like himself, a naturally gratifying activity. Likewise, the model set by these commanders is quite attainable. While some officers pursue advanced aeronautics certifications, attend professional conferences, study war (and not the approved curriculum we endorse!), and engage in disgustingly deviant “self-improvement;” the model of promotability would rather play golf and watch football. These men are pleasant and pliant. These men have a future.

One thing that can totally scuttle this entire architecture is the alignment of responsibility, authority and accountability. Should any meaningful responsibility fall on the shoulders of our rising star, his performance could become grounds to defy our designs for him. We daily suffer fools, but fools who are exposed as such have committed the deepest sin of embarrassing the organization. (For our own sake, we join in the chorus of disapproval and devour their careers as quickly as we might.) I’ve spoken to you on many occasions about time. Time here is again on our side. If the period of vulnerability for our star is kept brief, if he can wear authority and move upwards again before any adverse result of his actions can be exposed, we can ensure some one else will be accountable for his errors. I’ve lost a few protégés when the burden left by a preceding rising star fell too heavily on a successor. This is an unfortunate side effect of the pitiful capacity of units to indefinitely sustain the demanding pace of busy work we need. (I’ll give you advice another time on how to spot a unit fat with reserves of competence and motivation that can be deliciously exploited by a man with the right sensibilities.)

Foul nature itself ensures all systems accurately locate accountability – the slow prey is eaten, the incompetent device doesn’t sell (outside of military acquisition) – but the crux of our unnatural power is in dislocation of accountability. Money can make time. Rapid promotion creates space. Powerful friends can ensure years of poor performance go unchallenged, and the blissful anonymity of our magnificent system ensures that pleasant, pliant men will go on to the next project. Only accountability can stop that, but we have ways of dealing with that.

Your affectionate mentor,

Uncle Mic