[ARC5] Command Set Trivia

[Robert Eleazer]

In my Air Force career I was told by USN officers that the tasks of acquisition management, R&D, and the like, were not considered to be "real" jobs in the Navy.  As one Navy officer put it to me, "You have to go drive something for a while before they let you do acquisition work."   And that was in the period of the mid-70's through the late 90's.  I am sure that in the WWII era "driving something" was emphasized even more.  And I was told on occasion by defense contractors that they thought the USAF and USA did a good job in acquisition but not the USN; I guess that's the difference between dedicated professionals and people who are merely waiting to go "drive something" again. 

In my professional acquisition education I thought that the Army's way of doing things was a bit strange but at least understandable.  But I found the USN's methods to be baffling, and my subsequent experiences merely reinforced that viewpoint.     

The Army and the Air Force were, and to an extent still are, far more inclined to allow officers to concentrate on engineering, scientific, and acquisition management careers.  However, they are considerably less so now, following the huge downsizing of the 1990's.    

Wayne