Kerry Thinks Soldiers Dumb
Dr. Michael Ford
1 November 2006
	When I entered my last two years of High School, my
plan had been to spend my last two summers drilling
with the Navy headstart program, and enter the Marine
Corps upon graduation. One of the things immediately
impressed upon me was how well educated Navy personnel
were. Many were not only highly trained in their
specialties and cross-trained in others, they were
also involved in a lot of other interests that
unlearned people do not participate in.
	Later on, when I was immersed into a military that
was in those days not all volunteer, I began to learn
about the professional military man as opposed to the
drafted and even the enlistee. In that time people
were not usually thought of as career people until
they had at least four years service under their
belts. Officers had, as a rule, at least a four-year
bachelor degree. There was a hierarchy among officers
with Military Academy graduates heading the list.
Regular commission officers were ahead of Reserve
officers, who could lose their rank or commission more
readily. Warrant Officers were in a nether world, not
quite real officers and no longer enlisted men, but
technically expert.
     What most civilians and many junior officers did
not realize was that a great many senior NCOs were as
well or better educated than the officers who lead
them. Some had been too old to get a commission by the
time they got their education, others chose to be
Non-commissioned officers out of a disdain for many of
the officers they had to deal with. One of the reasons
was that in those days many NCOs had tailored their
formal education to make them better equipped to
function in their professional military jobs. Many
officers, like Senator Kerry, had educations that had
little to do with what they were about in the
military.
     As we recovered from the Vietnam War’s damage and
weeded out riffraff like Senator Kerry, many military,
officer and enlisted, worked hard on increasing
general standards. At the same time many were working
on their own educations, often at their own expense,
so they could be the best they could possibly be.
These people were smarter than Kerry. The proof is
they don’t have his record of dumb remarks.