According to the "underground", in (I think) 1997, 27 Generals marched in unison (!) to Secretary Cohen and resigned in protest of what the Clinton White House has done to the US Military. According to this report, DOD Secretary Cohen made them keep this hush-hush (classified now). It seems Cohen didn't want this getting to the media.

Is this just part of the "great right-wing conspiracy", or is this true?

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@anonymous.com), March 25, 1999

Answers

...hee, hee...

-- Y2K Pro (2@641.com), March 25, 1999.

The U.S. military is top-heavy. 27 generals is a drop in the bucket for the total number we have, probably 1000 or more. Generals also come in 4 varieties - one star through three stars. I would not consider this entirely important until it is determined what ranks and services they are, and what positions they hold. Many of them holding positions at the pentagon verge on being high paid office workers. Maybe this is somewhat biased, but if even one of them is a Marine Corps general, of any grade, it would be of concern. Marines don't do that kind of shit.

Sincerely, Apple

-- Apple (villarta@itsnet.com), March 25, 1999.

Apple,

You're right on the money. I visited Ft Hood in Texas once, and the topic of general officers came up. At the time, there were 64 generals in the entire Marine Corps. One of the soldiers looked at me in disbelief and said, "Hell, we've got more generals than that on this base! (they did, too!)

"Marines don't do that kind of shit." I love it!

Semper Fi. . .

-- Hardliner (searcher@internet.com), March 25, 1999.

Any officer who stays in the US Army long enough and keeps a clean record will become a general in time. That is how it was presented to me by a major who wanted me to take ROTC and join up. They do weed out quite a few between promotions, and quite a few more retire before making it, but those who stick it out become generals. And yes, we have far too many officers at all ranks.

I am certain that you can find at least one general officer in the US military in charge of day care procurement or some such thing.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), March 25, 1999.

Anon99: Uh, relevant hotlinks and/or verification please? Without at least one source, this must be relegated to unsubstanciated rumor. With a source, at least we can discuss the credibilty of the source.

-- Arnie Rimmer (arnie_rimmer@usa.net), March 25, 1999.

One of my favorite "general" stories took place on Ft Meade, Maryland, where the Commanding General of the Army Dental Corps lived. It seems that the name and address sign in the front yard of his quarters had been stolen. As he was a dentist, the sign was in the form of a giant toothbrush with his name, rank and address painted on the handle.

The MPs were pressured unmercifully to locate the culprit but were having no luck whatsoever.

One morning, about a week later, the toothbrush was returned and re-mounted, but with a large painted "note" attached. The note read, "Thanks!" and was signed, "The Jolly Green Giant".

-- Hardliner (searcher@internet.com), March 25, 1999.

They may have, then again, it might be unsubstantiated rumor.

If 27 did resign, at least they more moral courge than any did during the Vietnam era - when no credible "brass stars" protested openly against the DC propaganda. The protests then were by very low ranking officers

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), March 25, 1999.

Anonymous:

by federal law General officers can't resign. In fact they can't ever quit being generals or remove themselves from being subject to military discipline under the uniform code of military justice. All they can do is retire from active duty...and in reality their status in retirement is a lot closer legally to someone who is on a sabbatical than it is to what civilians consider to be 'retired'.

If a bunch of generals did retire simultaneously, even if they did so after making a common appeal to the SecDef, the absolutely could not *ever* claim to have done so as an organized group, or they would be immediately subject to an Article 32 investigation (military equivalent of a grand jury) for conspiracy. Moreover they would endanger both themselves and their friends if they were to ever leak this information in a manner which could be documented.

which is the long way of saying: you'll probably never find out what happened in this case.

P.D. sorry Paul, but they lied to you (you can tell when they're lying to you in ROTC 'cause their lips are moving). even in today's Army, actual accession to O-7 (brigadier general) is less than one percent. Now granted that isn't neccessarily the top one percent, but it still is more than slightly selective.

Arlin Adams

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), March 25, 1999.

"Anon99: Uh, relevant hotlinks and/or verification please? "

I wish. I picked this up on "talk-radio" (the one advertised on WorldNetDaily for their Noon broadcast via internet). Since the Generals were reportedly told to keep quiet, and the issue was "classified", there would be no hot-links on the Web! Consider this rumor at best.

As Arlin pointed out, I think they "retired early" as opposed to "resigned". I was going on memory when I posted.

BTW, for you fellow "right-wing conspiracy" types out there, the WorldNetDaily link is good listening all day (RealAudio). It is not actually WorldNetDaily - they just have the noon hour. I pass on the 8:00 religious hour. Other than that, it is good stuff (unless you LIKE Clinton-style World Socialism).

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@anonymous.com), March 25, 1999.

If you look at a post I answered on 3-23-99 about May 1, 2000 the things that was coming up. These resignations are just Generals that would make news. Wait until pilots,captains, majors, privates and orders start going into the wrong batch. The people will find out that this president and his crew may not have a military under their command to move around like toy soilders.

Lon

-- Lon (lon1937@aol.com), March 25, 1999.