Four CIVILIANS (tech CTO's) sworn in as Lt. Cols in US Army. I just

[niyad]

found out about this, though it happened in June. (www.military.com, 17 June 2025, Steve Beynon, reporter). from palantir, meta, open ai, and something called thinking machine labs. .and they refuse to recuse themselves from conducting business with DoD.

It may have been discussed here when it happened, but I just now learned about it when a friend sent me a copy of a facebook post.

Am I right to be worried, or am I overreacting?


ETA: As it turns out, this was covered here at the time, including inforrmation about it actually being an initiative of the Biden administraion, along with information about Direct Commission Officers. Having read all of that, and responses here, let me say this. Under President Biden, or President Harris (as it should have been), I could see some possible benefits. HOWEVER, under this current regime of scum aand corruption at every level, I foresee nothing but graft, corruption, possible treason, and evil.

May I be proven wrong (not holding my breath!).

[Walleye]

1. White men?

[niyad]

3. Three are.

[Beowulf42]

16. A slap in the face to every man and woman who has served..

any time and any place with the U.S. military.

[niyad]

21. Exactly.

[Walleye]

23. Yes, I know, they are doing that to a lot of experienced hard-working people. For no real reason, disgusting

[TomSlick]

33. It is not uncommon for fine officers to retire at LTC with over twenty years of dedicated service.

This is insulting to every one of these officers.

[Norrrm]

2. Activate them to go fight crime in the cities.

[niyad]

7. At least then they might be useful. Maybe.

[markodochartaigh]

4. I realize that

there is no accepted definition of fascism, certainly not in the US where all political definitions are ever-changing and thus meaningless in an environment bought and paid for by corporate owners.

But I will just leave this here:
Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.
Benito Mussolini/Giovanni Gentile

[niyad]

8. Terrifying, is it not?

[LoisB]

5. I think you are right to be worried. Someone or some ones appear to have a grand plan that

is far more insidious than anything IT could formulate.

Found this:
"Army Forms Detachment 201 To Bridge Tech And Defense
The executives—Palantir (NYSE LTR) Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, Meta (NASDAQ:META) CTO Andrew Bosworth, OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil, and advisor at Thinking Machines Lab and former OpenAI Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew — will serve in a new unit called Detachment 201, also known as the Army's Executive Innovation Corps."

The purpose is supposedly to help modernize the military.

[niyad]

6. Then they should hire advisors from the Ukrainian Army.

Last edited Mon Sep 15, 2025, 12:16 PM - Edit history (1)

These four get to keep their day jobs with their ginormous salaries, but also draw a military (ie, WE pay them), paycheck?? Because, of course, it would simply be too much for them to simply be consultants. How much of our information, not to mention, highly sensitive military plans, intelligence, resources, etc., will be available to them?

[LoisB]

9. Interesting questions. The answers, of course, will never be known by "we, the people".

[niyad]

10. Sadly, you are quite correct.

[LeftInTX]

11. Here is a link to the article.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/06/27/tech-executives-commissioned-senior-army-officers-wont-recuse-themselves-dod-business-dealings.html

I've never heard of anything like this! It's very concerning.
The last time I heard of rapid promotion was maybe WWII?


I think it was fairly common in the Civil War, when we didn't have a standing army.

[niyad]

13. Thank you for the link. There were several citations when I googled it,

but that was the only military one I saw.

[moonshinegnomie]

12. correct me if im wrong but if they are now lt col's

doesnt that mean they can be prosecuted under the UCMJ for any violations of military rules????especially once the moron is out of office.

[niyad]

14. I have no idea, but what a great question!

[sl8]

17. In general, only when they're on active duty.

https://www.armfor.uscourts.gov/digest/IA3.htm

I seem to recall that there are some other, very specific circumstances when it also applies, but don't quote me on that.

[moonshinegnomie]

22. couldnt in theory a new president order them to active duty?

and then make their lives miserable????

[sl8]

24. Probably. nt

[niyad]

29. Thank you.

[appleannie1]

15. More on it at link

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-why-us-army-100000672.html

[niyad]

30. Thank you.

[LudwigPastorius]

18. What the hell?

Why do these people need to be handed O-5 pay and an oak cluster just to advise on advanced defense tech?

I was under the impression that rank didn’t have that much to do with access to classified secrets.

[Hekate]

19. Talk about a throwback to the Old Country, Colonial times, whatever part of history you want

The “officer class” were upper crust, didn’t need to go to any military academy, had an upper crust education, and were expected to know “how to lead” It worked for centuries, after all. Until it didn’t.

As for civil service (invented by the advanced culture of China, see below for dates) third-world countries have always found patronage works well enough for hiring and promotion, that and bribery.

I think these Lt. Colonels were appointed at the garbage-strewn intersection of the wreckage of American meritocracy for both the civil service and the military.

I think I’ll break into a new version of “Tradition! “

Niyad — we used to be better than this in the modern world, and proud of it.


* The concept of selecting officials by merit rather than by birth began to be used in China as early as the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), but the modern written imperial examination system for civil service was formalized during the Sui Dynasty (581–618 CE). This system became fully developed under the Tang and Song dynasties and provided a merit-based pathway for entering the bureaucracy for nearly 1,300 years, lasting until its abolition in 1905.

Apologies that I am using the so-called AI Overview that popped up, but it accords with my memory of my studies. The Chinese did it first, by a very long shot. But by the time they dropped it in 1905, their empire had rotted and was ripe for revolution in a big way. Let that be a lesson to the rest of us.

[Aristus]

20. Just like the Civil War.

Any politically-connected incompetent can get himself a commission as a 'colonel', I guess.

If only King Jugurtha was here to remind us that in the USA, everything is for sale.

[sl8]

25. It was pointed out in one of the June threads that this was a Biden administration initiative:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220418683#post2

https://nationalcioreview.com/articles-insights/leadership/from-cio-to-commander-u-s-military-to-tap-private-sector-tech-leaders/

[niyad]

31. Thank you for those links and information.

[Deuxcents]

26. Do they take an oath to the Constitution?

[niyad]

32. I would not bet that they did, unless I saw and heard actual video,

and that they did not have their fingers crossed behind their backs.

[Wifes husband]

27. I don't understand this

The government has been paying for civilian consultants for years. The value of them is debatable, but any government supervisor has had to put up with them
They usually write a lengthy analysis of the issue that nobody reads or implements because they take so long to do the study that no one cares anymore.
Don't understand why they were given commissions

[niyad]

28. Access is a good guess.