Mc NAMARA'S PROJECT

[OLDNAVYMCPO]

Today, I was scanning a Veteran's web site dealing with my command during Viet Nam. I ran across the name of a man( just a kid then) who had worked for me during that period. The name instantly brought back a flood of unpleasant memories. You see, he was one of Robert McNamara's Project 100,000 or the "Moron Corps" as they were rudely nicknamed.

Robert McNamara, LBJ's defense secretary, was an intellectually arrogant "whiz kid" who was responsible for some stupid and disastrous acts during the Viet Nam war. One such act was the recruitment of low IQ applicants, we're talking below room temperature(60's). Forty-one percent were blacks which was the root of a lot of racial tensions including race riots aboard ships ( near mutiny on the USS Constellation in '73). Forty percent of recruits were trained for combat and 25 percent were trained for general service.

The general public was unaware of this terrible trick played on the individuals and on the military in general.

Thought you ought to know.

 

[Snapping Twig]

With a middle name of Strange, he just has to be a little bit.

I never respected him.

He gave us the M16 which led to the deaths of so many of our troops.

He knows so much that just isn't so.

Thought he was the brightest light, we knew him as a dim bulb.

 

[Onomea]

More on Project 100,000 here: Project 100,000 - Wikipedia

 

[Cyrano]

A lot of them had criminal records too. I was in a Nike missile battalion; there was literally nothing you could do with them; you didn't want them near a radar, missiles were off limits, put them in the mess hall and everybody got sick, put them in the motor pool and they'd wreck every car there. Years later, I was working with a staff sergeant, he was a good man. His records had Project 100,000 on them, and to avoid the stigma, I had new records made without the Project 100,000. A few of them made good soldiers, but 90% didn't.

 

[LVSteve]

Hadn't heard of the 100,000 project before. I'll add it to my list of McNamara's major felonies that include:-

1) Thinking the F-111 could be a bomber and air-superiority fighter.

2) The M-16 "no need for a chromed chamber" debacle.

3) "Sortie rate" air war planning during the Vietnam war, probably the worst of the lot.

 

[rwsmith]

Not my favorite person.....

The 'brightest and the best' got us into a lot of trouble. I'll say no more for we are treading on political ground.

 

[amazingflapjack]

If I remember correctly, McNamara's 100K was not just degenerates-jail birds, and morons-it was the result of lowering the draft standards. That included people like me who had a physical deferment-in my case deformed feet-who were suddenly just fine for military service. They also accepted 4F's who wanted to volunteer-and looked at those below and above the usual age range that was preferred. The Blackstone Rangers street gang of Chicago fame was rounded up in a sweep by military police and brought en mass to Ft. Bragg for basic along with myself and other degenerate morons; some of who became pretty darn good soldiers-and some of whom gave their lives for their country. But, it was a bad idea-as wars and the things they consist of always are. Shucks...

 

[vonn]

Had not been aware of this before. Explains some things. Further comments will bring out the bell.

 

[Boox]

Oh, I remember it well...I was an instructor in the 5TH CST Brigade at Ft. Dix. The cooks school no less. There were a lot of the project 100,000 that went through the cooks school, they were too dumb for the infantry for crying out loud.
Had to give them 10 minute breaks every hour or so and it was not uncommon for them to be snorting cocaine on the breaks. Many of our trainees seemed to know their way around Newark and Philly, so they often took nightly bus rides to either destination to resupply. The worst part was that once they graduated, they were still to dumb to be cooks so guess where they wound up, most got orders for apo San Francisco destined for certain southeast asian country. then they would disappear while on leave and once caught they were returned to us. We had a separate 'holdover' barracks for them that was a constant dilemma.
Yeah, the good old days!!??

 

[JayCeeNC]

We had one in our unit in Okinawa.
Not sure what his specialty field was, but they put him to work filing papers in alphabetical order in the Orderly Room.
Didn't work out too well; he didn't know the alphabet.
Last I saw him, he was mowing grass around the Squadron area.

 

[eb07]

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Was standing in my Buddy Frank's Gunstore in Ft. Collins, CO.
Frank- retired Navy, Gaudacanal Canal, one of the first Navy Jet Pilots, etc.
Two Navy recruiters come in and they are mad!
They are ranting about this program.
Frank introduces me to them and says, He's active Air Force.
The recruiters say to me say, you are also getting some!
I say something like, I hope we can keep them away from the airplanes.

 

[Ozark Marine]

I didn't know that to enlist in the U.S. military we had to be angels and collage grads. I sure wasn't.
Marine Corps boot camp during the Viet Nam war molded society's H.S. dropouts and gang members into the worlds finest fighting force.
I don't give a hoot about Mc Namara.

 

[Ozark Marine]

A lot of them had criminal records too. I was in a Nike missile battalion; there was literally nothing you could do with them; you didn't want them near a radar, missiles were off limits, put them in the mess hall and everybody got sick, put them in the motor pool and they'd wreck every car there. Years later, I was working with a staff sergeant, he was a good man. His records had Project 100,000 on them, and to avoid the stigma, I had new records made without the Project 100,000. A few of them made good soldiers, but 90% didn't.

Falsifying official government records and military SRB's while still active duty?
Isn't there something in the UCMJ about such actions?

 

[PALADIN85020]

With a middle name of Strange, he just has to be a little bit.

I never respected him.

He gave us the M16 which led to the deaths of so many of our troops.

He knows so much that just isn't so.

Thought he was the brightest light, we knew him as a dim bulb.

He also shut down Springfield Armory, one sterling bastion of small arms development. Now, it's just some old buildings and a museum. Will never forgive the idiot for that.

John

 

[muddocktor]

I was just a kid when McNamara was doing his damage, but do remember seeing him on tv a few times and he struck me as a "legend in his own mind" type. Like he thought his stuff didn't stink. And that's a pretty bad attitude if a kid can pick up on it.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

I was in the Army 1967-1971, the harshest comment on the Army I served came from the Ofiicial Report issued in 1971, which, in addressing the Army's very serious morale problems, especially the problem of drug and alcohol use, made the refreshingly candid admission that:
"Most jobs in the Army require little or no intelligence."
In comparing notes with other veterans from the era it seems the Army we served in was nothing but a giant Detail Force. One veteran who served 1964-1966 said he was in an artillery battalion that was converted to a missile battalion-"We got very little training ." and "I was in the Army for a little over 700 days and I must have been on KP for at least fifty of them."
And I like to quote the retired Colonel Armor I met in 1981 who said "I saw training go from the one thing everybody worried about to the one thing nobody worried about."

 

[OLDNAVYMCPO]

The SOP for the Navy at the time was that if you didn't score high enough on the general intelligence test, you were sent to the fleet without schooling or as we call it, rate training. Then once arriving at the assigned command the non-rate would be assigned to a detail such as mess cooking (kp), laundry, or ship's stores moving boxes of food, munitions or hardware. A typical detail assignment would last three to six months. During that period, the non-rate is expected to study for and test for advancement. Failing that, the non-rate would either remain on that same **** detail or be moved to another such as cleaning or chipping paint. This would continue until the non-rate was promoted or given a General or Administrative discharge.

The problem with those sailors with a low IQ is that they had no hope of getting out of that vicious cycle. Most had no hope of passing a rating exam. If they slacked off or rebelled, they faced disciplinary action. They of course then felt discriminated against. Few just excepted their fate. Many became disciplinary problems to the extent they were forced out, other had such a lack of common sense that they put themselves in harms way and got severely injured or caused a danger to others. Shipboard is a very dangerous place even in peacetime, if you don't keep your wits about you. Many others just couldn't cope and went AWOL.

Its no wonder that McNamara's 100,000 suffered a disproportionate number of combat causalities, close quarters combat requires you to have your wits about you constantly. To do otherwise endangers you and those around you.

I don't fault the individual caught up in these circumstances. The blame entirely falls on the shoulders of the short sightedness of the leadership. My bitch is entirely with McNamara.

 

[the ringo kid]

^^^^^^^^^^The modern day version of those 100,000--are becoming Correctional Officers for the State of Texas increasingly over the last 20 years. Job-seekers with quality were few and far in between, and they needed "warm bodies" to get us up to par. Most of these didnt last long-so we were always very short-handed.

 

[rog8732]

Those "project 100,000" recruits may have been intended to bolster the rank and file soldiers; but from what I know of the way the Viet-Nam debacle was run; more than a few musta found their way into the hierarchy of command.

You sure McNamara didn't bring one or two on staff as his chief advisers ?