The Army’s Newest Recruits: Tech Execs From Meta, OpenAI and More
wsj.com246 points by aspenmayer 3 days ago
246 points by aspenmayer 3 days ago
Comments merged from :
U.S. Army bringing in big tech executives as lieutenant colonels - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44273067 - June 2025
Related thread (not merged but down-weighted to avoid more overlapping discussion):
I'm the CTO of Palantir. Today I Join the Army - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44270660 - June 2025 (55 comments)
> [...] the four executives will all attend the Army’s six-week Direct Commissioning Course at Fort Benning, Georgia [...]
Sometimes known as "fork and knife school". I can't speak specifically for the Army, but a particular personal incident comes to mind.
When I attended AFROTC field training at Maxwell AFB, in a lot of ways it was a fairly typical boot camp experience, with roaming enlisted training instructors ready to very promptly and firmly correct any deviations from standard in a memorably expedient fashion (much less swearing than Full Metal Jacket, as it's the Air Force). One day during this fine summer camp I found myself on the receiving end of one such chewing out from a TI, for walking around the wrong side of a table in the dining facility.
It was in the midst of this comically scathing tirade (something about him threatening to crawl up my nose and living in my nightmares if I dared try it again) that this Technical Sergeant abruptly stopped, wheeled around and was about to tear into another hapless cadet that took the same detour I did. But instead, without a whit of the seething rage he was pouring out just a second before, he calmly patiently explained to this trainee that she was to take a different route, punctuating the instructions with a "right over there, ma'am". It was at that moment that I noticed that she did not have cadet insignia on her lapels, but captain's bars. It turns out she was a proper M.D., fresh from med school, directly commissioned and immediately outranking the sergeant that was giving me the what-for and her polite guidance.
So by Direct Commissioning, it is indeed direct.
I remember my grandfather’s descriptions of WWII in the pacific. One was a Marine who made a number of landings and was involved in a lot that “I wish I could forget”.
The other was a Navy doctor. An officer, but really because he was a doctor.
Their experiences were wildly different. Not so much about risk but the Marine was a grunt and his description oozed what it meant to be at that level of rank. The doctor ... his description was that doctors, while they had rank, were largely left alone to their own devices to do what they needed to do. Rank wasn't really relevant to their daily lives.
> One was a Marine who made a number of landings and was involved in a lot that “I wish I could forget”.
My grandfather landed at Tarawa. He only talked about privately, it to family members that were in the service.
> The doctor ... his description was that doctors, while they had rank, were largely left alone to their own devices to do what they needed to do. Rank wasn't really relevant to their daily lives.
From my experience, military doctors tend to be doctors that happen to wear a uniform. They already have the skills actually needed by the service (unlike most military jobs, where it's assumed that you know little to nothing of the job), the direct commissioning training is mostly so they can function and fit in that environment.
> military doctors tend to be doctors that happen to wear a uniform. They already have the skills actually needed by the service
Sure, most of them join either during med school or during residency, with Uncle Sam picking up the financial obligations.
Funny story - good friend was an army doc and we managed to both get time off at the same time/location. Hanging out along the ocean and come across a little kid that got hurt. So he goes into doctor mode and talks soothingly to the kid, who is very apprehensive. He says “I know you’re not so sure I’m a doctor. It’s because I haven’t asked your parents for their insurance info yet” and smiles at the mom and dad.
Later on he says that never dealing with insurance is one of the perks of being a doctor in the military.
> Later on he says that never dealing with insurance is one of the perks of being a doctor in the military.
Despite not being anything close to an MD, a social media app I use has determined that I am. I get recruiting ads from the Navy that says this, in effect: "Don't worry about malpractice or insurance, just your patient". It's a pretty good sales pitch, I imagine.
> "Don't worry about malpractice or insurance, just your patient". It's a pretty good sales pitch, I imagine.
If only the rest of government aspired to that. :)
In my corner of the DoD, we absolutely aspire to work like that.
It's beyond frustrating to have politicians use us as rhetorical punching bags. The stereotypes they espouse about civil servants are largely inaccurate. I say this from having worked decades inside the DoD an in non-defense private sector.
Amen, similar experience here. There are parts of the US federal government that aspire to and excel in the way you have described.
Of course the opposite is true too. But it bothers me that much of the discourse on both sides tend to ignore the high functioning projects and sectors. It’s a cool professional experience to take part in.
Agreed. I was unclear, but I meant to refer to government policies around healthcare (especially insurance companies), not about civil servants.
They kind of do, only their sales pitch is
> don’t worry about your constituents nor breaking the law, just your own self interest.
It really is about time politicians were locked up for their equivalent of malpractices.
I think that would lead to even less civilized relationships between politicians and parties. Politicians throwing their rivals into courts and prison is not usually an aspect of a healthy civil society.
Politicians being above the law is not an aspect of a healthy civil society.
Throwing politicians into courts and prison after due legal process for crimes they actually commit is an aspect of a healthy civil society.
If your judicial system is so corrupt that every accusation against a politician is a ruse manufactured by their enemies and no fair trial is possible, then you don't have a healthy civil society either way.
And here I am thinking the threat of malpractice, and malpractice insurance costs, are part of the reason healthcare is so expensive in the USA
It's a small fraction: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3048809/#:~:text=Ov...
The bigger reason is profit-minded middlemen taking advantage of inelastic demand to jack up prices, a problem that does not exist in other countries.
It actually seems like an interesting bit of phrasing.
I think the ad, and you, are talking about malpractice insurance and other documentation to prove that you didn’t do malpractice.
The comment you replied to is actually taking about the underlying act of malpractice.
The first line of defenses against actual malpractice is that professionals are supposed to have some self-respect and standards. But of course our society is structured against professionalism. The insurance company or hospital admin doesn’t care if you are a real professional who does the right things when nobody is looking, that’s too hard quantify.
The ad is offering the opportunity to be a professional.
What happens in other countries when the doctor amputates the wrong leg or operates on the wrong patient? Does the government pay damages arising from malpractice?