Trump is rubbing off on him and not in a good way. That interview with Stephanopolis last weekend was a disaster too.
Trump is having the same effect on most of his staff and cabinet.
My last battalion commander in the Army had the same style of leadership. To curry favor with him, one needed to display an SOB attitude, as if emulating his leadership.
Thankfully, I knew I was resigning my commission as soon as my command tour ended. I was nearing 30 and would be married within a couple of years. I had fulfilled my active duty commitment four years prior, and had no desire to go to Korea, or back to Germany...I was perfectly happy being back in the States.
If I had been judged on the "metrics" of my battery, my OER would have been off the charts: 99% pass rate on the PT test where the median age of my soldiers was approaching 40 (it was a HQs battery, i.e. I had the Commanding General's staff, and five directorates run by Colonels...all five Colonels gave glowing recommendations to my CO, who promptly discarded them), CG's Best Mess Hall, etc.
Instead, I received a less than stellar efficiency report...the next day, filed the papers for my resignation. That set in motion events that kept him from being selected for the War College, as more eyes from the CG's office were directed his way.
I never thought of myself as Sam Damon, but it felt good to halt the general's track for another Courtney Massengale. The reference is from Once an Eagle, by Anton Myrer, a novel used in the curriculum at the Army War College. I read it as a 2nd Lieutenant, and would drop an occasional reference in conversation. If a field grade officer said they'd never heard of it, I would recommend they get a copy and read it before they were selected to the War College.
In my case, my application of my Jesuit university experience often didn't mesh well with a few superiors...lol. I was a bit too "independent" and free thinking for them. It was magic, though, when I worked for a boss who demanded independence and imagination from their officers. So much so that I served with an old battalion commander twice, when we both returned to Fort Bliss around the same time. He installed me as his operations officer, though I was but a young captain in a slot calling for a lieutenant colonel.
It was probably the only job that I ever had with implied power, though I never wielded it. I knew what the "old man" wanted, and could usually anticipate what he was looking for. He was a great leader IMO, and turned a C-3 battalion into C-1 in 18 months...I was proud to be a part of that transformation.
