More Comments on the Rick's Strategic Influence Discussion

Tom Rick's continues to draw comment from folks in the Navy regarding the lack of strategic influence in the post 9/11 world.

One inside view from a junior officer, who I note, chooses to blog anonymous for reasons not unrelated to this topic.

Also, from the inbox.

Have you heard the urban legends about how Rickover used to give prospective nukes bizarre tests in his interviews? A guy told me one time about how Rickover used to tell candidates to make him angry -- just that -- and how one young nuke in his office picked up a model of the Enterprise and smashed it into a thousand pieces on the floor. Who knows if it's true, but, according to the story, even though Rickover was pissed, he approved the guy because he'd demonstrated he could think laterally and creatively. What's more, it was a senior personality recognizing a subordinate personality and furthering the senior one's creative culture in the service. But from what I see, today's officer corps is bred to say nothing and think nothing but what it's been told. So when it has to innovate it never can, because it never has.

I can confirm this isn't an urban legend. One of my lodge brothers worked for Rickover, and has told this story as an example of leadership several times.

The way he tells the story, Rickover stood up and almost said something, but paused, sat down, mumbled a few select curses quietly, and later said he wants officers like that who are willing to take risks, think quickly to execute the task at hand, and execute orders in the spirit of the instructions without further explanation.

And yes, in every version of that story I have heard, Rickover was very pissed off.