'Thought police' displeased by general's memo.Senior Pentagon Pentagon Huge five-sided building (1941–43) in Arlington, Va., that is the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense. Designed by George Edwin Bergstrom, it was, on its completion, the world's largest office building, covering 34 acres (14 hectares) and offering officials were not amused a·muse tr.v. a·mused, a·mus·ing, a·mus·es 1. To occupy in an agreeable, pleasing, or entertaining fashion. 2. when a memo written by the U.S. general in charge of Army Reserve forces was leaked to the news media last December. The memo by Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly James R. "Ron" Helmly is a Lieutenant General in the United States Army, and, until May of 2006, was the commander of the United States Army Reserve. On December 20, 2004, Helmly authored a memo in which he described the policies for mobilizing the Reserve "dysfunctional. criticized the current reserve mobilization mobilization Organization of a nation's armed forces for active military service in time of war or other national emergency. It includes recruiting and training, building military bases and training camps, and procuring and distributing weapons, ammunition, uniforms, process--in place since 1952--as out of step with the times. The Army, he wrote in the summer of 2002, is "burdened by industrial-age mobilization policies." After the memo turned up on major newspapers' front pages, Helmly's executive officer got a call from the Pentagon "thought police," he recalls during a speech to an industry conference. The unnamed official accused Helmly of a "direct attack" on the Defense Department by calling the mobilization process "industrial-age." "The thought police didn't want the 'industrial-age' term used," says Helmly. However, he adds, "I was vindicated 18 months later when I saw the secretary of defense on CSPAN CSPAN Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network attacking the industrial-age mobilization process." |
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