Wednesday, November 11, 2009

What Hasan Wasn't Taught, Cont'd   [Jonah Goldberg]

From a reader in response to this post (which sparked quite a lot of e-mail. Please see the update at the original post, btw).

Jonah,
 
I was an Air Force physician for 9 years.  While I was Air Force, and not Army and separated in 1999, I doubt if there has been much change in the meantime.  As to the Colonel's questions (some or all of which I suspect are rhetorical):
 
1.  We received very little training in military procedure, protocol, history, and ethics. Officers who come through the service academies (West Point, etc.) live the military for 4 years.  Those who undergo officer training school have weeks or months of intensive training.  When I came into the Air Force, I underwent two weeks of Military Indoctrination for Medical Service Officers.  We called it "Charm School".  We were taught who to salute, how to salute, and how to wear our uniform.  We had a couple of lectures on military tradition, etiquette, etc., but basically they were just trying to give us the basics on how to dress and act like an officer.  I suspect that Maj. Hasan, as a graduate of the Uniformed Services Health Sciences School may have had a little more military training, but probably not much.
 
2. He would not have been allowed to resign his commission.  When the military pays tens of thousands of dollars to educate a physician, they are loathe to release him for any reason.  It would be easy for physicians to get the military to train them for free, then resign their commission and go into civilian life and get a high paying job, otherwise.  If Maj. Hasan would have resigned his commission, he would have been eligible for prison time.  Since he went to USHS, then a military psychiatric residency and MPH program, he probably would have about a 9-11 year initial commitment.
 
3. Physicians in the military are held to be odd ducks. They get away with more insubordination, they wear their hair a little longer, and they, for the most part, do think of themselves as being doctors first and military second.  In fact, in my day, it was considered a (non-punishable) insult for enlisted troops to call a physician by his/her rank rather than Doctor.  Most physicians are biding their time until their enlistment is up so they can get out and pursue their calling in the civilian world.  Of the physicians with whom I worked in my nine years, I am the only one that I know of who didn't have some portion of their medical training funded by the military and owed the military time.  There are a few physicians who make the military their career, but to increase in rank, you have to increase administrative responsibilities, and most docs just want to practice medicine.
 
4.  This is something I've heard a lot on TV over this last week.  As the Colonel knows, to get anything less than a perfect score on the Officer Evaluation Ratings (OER), will doom a career.  Consequently, very few officers get less than a perfect score unless they are a real screw-up. It seems as if Hasan was a real screw-up, so I can't excuse that, but you have to overcome a lot of institutional inertia to give an officer less than a perfect rating.
 
Not only that but, as I learned while rating a couple of my civilian employees, giving anyone less than a perfect score results in tons of headaches, paperwork, and meetings with higher-ups.  It also causes your boss to have headaches, paperwork, and meetings with higher-ups.  It is an enormous headache and it is easier to let some things slide.  That being said, this seems to be an instance where his raters should have taken the more difficult road.
 
Also, in the medical corps, physicians enter as at least Captains.  Five years after graduation from medical school, if you haven't been kicked out, the promotion to Major is automatic.  The physician doesn't go before a review board - if they are in the military and haven't strangled the commander's cat, they are a Major.  Period.
 
5.  Apparently Hasan wanted to be in the Army at some time of his life. If he held Islamist beliefs at that time, all he would have had to do is to not tell his recruiter.
 
All of that being said, it amazes me that Hasan was allowed to remain in the Army.  I remember having to sign a paper saying that I was not now nor had I ever been a member of the Communist Party or its affiliates. It seems to me that we should be at least as concerned about Islamists.

11/11 05:26 PMShare