Unfortunately, I started this post quite a while back. Since February, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has been single-handedly blocking all senior military promotions.
The details of the “senatorial hold” that Tuberville is using aren’t all that important. Suffice it to say that the rules of the Senate give enormous power to every individual Senator – power that is seldom used by either party and power that has NEVER been used to block the historically bipartisan approvals of senior military promotions as requested by the Pentagon.
Tuberville disagrees with the military’s policy of granting leave and covering travel expenses for military personnel who cannot legally obtain an abortion in the state where they are stationed. He strongly opposes abortion under any circumstances. Others of us strongly believe that government should play no role in restricting a woman’s right to control her own body. The Supreme Court weighed in to make it a state-level issue and, regardless of how either side feels about that decision, that’s the law.
The problem is that military personnel can’t control where they and their families are stationed.
My father was a career Army officer who served in WWII and in Korea. As an Army Brat (using the term we proudly use to describe ourselves), I always understood that my family and I were as much in the Army as my father. While we received benefits from that service, they came with obligations and sacrifices. We moved often; sometimes to wonderful places, sometimes to places not so wonderful. We moved where we were told. Are military personnel to be penalized for being where they are told to be?
Beyond the political arguments, however, is the damage that is being done to the military. There are currently over 270 personnel actions being blocked by Tuberville and numerous senior posts are unfilled. For example, we don’t have a Marine Commandant, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for the first time since the Civil War. Soon, we won’t have a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Less experienced personnel are being forced to assume the duties of senior positions. Military readiness is suffering, and military lives are being used to score political points.
Promotions are often necessary for personnel to assume certain leadership posts and those moves are also on hold. Importantly, their family’s lives are on hold as well. The military tries to move personnel between school years so as to not disrupt their children’s education. So much for that. A man who never served a day in the military is comfortable screwing over military personnel and their families for a political stunt. There is simply no excuse for this crap.
So, what can be done? Well, not much. Procedural tools to get around Tuberville do exist, but they simply aren’t practical.
Alternatively, here’s a thought.
President Biden just this week reversed a decision made in the previous administration that would have moved the U.S. Space Command Headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama from its current location in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Tuberville is, of course, positively apoplectic about the decision to deprive his state of the HQ. While I truly believe that keeping Space Command in Colorado was independently the correct choice, I’ll admit to being awash in schadenfreude… and I think we should take things even further.
Huntsville is currently the home of the Army’s Redstone Arsenal. It includes the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command, which falls under Space Command. It’s also the place where the U.S. dumped a ton of WWII chemical agents (both Allied and Axis), and considerable groundwater and soil contamination is still a problem.
So, I propose that Space Command leaves the contaminated base to Alabama and moves the Redstone Arsenal to Fort Carson, Colorado. That puts it in close proximity to Peterson Space Force Base – the home of Space Command. It also means that Army personnel at the relocated Redstone Arsenal would then be subject to Colorado law.
Let’s see how Alabama likes losing the money that comes with hosting a major military base. Maybe they can influence their Senator.