zlacker

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."

>>bgwalt+(OP)
Yup, I’d expect a data scientist or equivalent programmer commissioning as a captain, not a c-suite executive that is more of an MBA graduate. It all seems fishy.

>>fancyM+j
I have never been an officer, but the C-suite in the military is like "flag rank" which is above Colonel (Brigadier General.) Colonels are more like high management. But they likely won't be promoted, won't have an actual command, and rank means little more than the title.

>>bgwalt+(OP)
>They are literally there to sell their products (and brag about "having served").

Gets you free priority boarding on all flights you take.

>>Vector+kp
Not sure it’s relevant in the cloths these guys take

>>gexla+t1
If private industry were the military, most companies would be headed by O5 or O6; the scope of duties and responsibilities of an eg VP or CFO are actually quite comparable to a lt colonel or navy commander, CEOs are fairly like captains & colonels. These ranks are enough to head a large ship, air base, or training facility with hundreds or thousands under their command. Only extremely large companies (50k+ employees) have anything with a role comparable to admirals or generals.

>>Vector+kp
Some airline someday is going to figure out that if you guarantee overhead luggage space, people will pay more to get on the plane last instead of first.

>>fancyM+j
Making military doctors and dentists colonels is mostly about putting them on an equivalent place on the pay scale to where they would be in civilian life.

>>bgwalt+(OP)
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?

>>rjsw+eT
The pay scale isn't really equivalent. For military doctors and dentists the typical lure is they will pay off all your student loans for a specific time commitment to the military.

>>giraff+EP
CEOs are more like high ranking general officers, not O-6 level (Navy Captain, Army/Air force full bird colonel)

O-5 (Lt Col, Navy Commander) would be VP / GM level stuff, GS-13 through GS-14 in the federal government

O-6 equivalent in the civilian world equates to a GS-15 in the federal government, and a senior VP in the corporate world

O-7 (brigadier general) would be an EVP level position, C-level large org

O-8 (general) would be CEO

>>pjc50+sZ
Notably, it was not formally possible to buy a commission in the British Navy. This is because the British Empire was an island and so their Navy actually mattered and couldn’t be lead by a bunch of idiots with vanity titles.

>>blanto+g01
I think you’re just assuming the highest corporate role must be equivalent to general and working back from that.

For understanding their actual scope of responsibility I think my model is more useful.

>>dmd+kR
I've long thought this for economy tickets.

But if you really want to pay more, and are flying on higher fares, getting on the plane first turns back into a perk cause you get some free booze. And your seat is now more comfortable than the airport seats (even many airport lounge seats, where the best seats can go quickly when it's busy).

>>giraff+EP
Former U.S. Navy Surface Warfare Officer. This checks out, based on my experience working as a civilian since 2004.

>>bee_ri+k61
Before the Royal Navy was professionalized, there were plenty of officers who were mostly useless. Rich people in high society used connections and favors to get the role, and this gave them higher standing in society. In fact, it was kind of the point: "gentlemen" were expected not to have a profession, as that would lower their social standing. They were just supposed to sit around being wealthy, and at some point lead troops into battle.

It was only at the end of the 17th century that Samuel Pepys introduced the officers apprenticeship, which of course, was mostly open to (again) high-born kids and people who got favors from the crown, but at least they had to have years of experience first and pass an exam. So the Royal Navy Officers were still literally nepo babies.

>>dmd+kR
First class effectively has guaranteed overhead space, and you still see them boarding first so they can get champagne.

>>0xbadc+qn1
> 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...

>>fancyM+j
None of these people are MBA types. They’re also not “data scientists or equivalent,” but quite hands-dirty operators nonetheless.

>>rjsw+eT
Army colonels make $100k-$150k. Fresh MDs make more than that, everywhere.

>>IAmBro+T55
Technically no, because you are a resident after MD. But yeah most specialties are higher paying elsewhere.