>>aspenm+(OP)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/army-reserve-tech-executives-meta-p...

https://archive.is/pGSZO

>>aspenm+(OP)
Don’t forget there was already a team of industry-sourced (non-commissioned) tech experts in the Pentagon, the Defense Digital Service, that operated for almost a decade before being sidelined by DOGE:

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/15/pentagons-digital-r...

>>neilv+yd1
Yes, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_commission_officer

And for individuals with the right skills and experience, O-5 isn't unusual.

EDIT: Here's a random example:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Military_Medicine/comments/1468l1f/...

>>aspenm+(OP)
They are part time and this is just another revolving door between the military and industry. They are literally there to sell their products (and brag about "having served").

What are other nepotistic initiatives?

https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2024/10/10/...

"The Army in March 2021 awarded Microsoft a 10-year contract worth up to $21.9 billion for IVAS, but the initial version of the system experienced technical difficulties with a number of soldiers experiencing dizziness, headaches or nausea after wearing the goggles."

>>aspenm+(OP)
https://archive.md/fDLHK

>>aspenm+(OP)
Comments merged from :

U.S. Army bringing in big tech executives as lieutenant colonels - >>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 - >>44270660 - June 2025 (55 comments)

>>theore+F02
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.

>>bgwalt+Bf1
Long ago the British Army used to sell commissions. A form of highly institutionalalized corruption. Mostly about social status.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchase_of_commissions_in_t...

Maybe it's going to be a system for allowing tech companies to deploy their personal defense battalion against riots?

>>aspenm+(OP)
Are they being run through the Direct Commission Officer Course?[1] That's a six-week boot camp.

[1]https://www.army.mil/article/106407/direct_commission_course...

>>0xbadc+1D2
> He was named "Horatio" after his godfather Horatio Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (third creation), (1723–1809), the first cousin of his maternal great-grandmother Anne Turner (1691–1768). Horatio Walpole was a nephew of Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, (second creation) the de facto first prime minister of Great Britain. [1]

Horatio Nelson

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Nelson,_1st_Viscount_N...