Question for the military people - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

vermin · 08-07-2003, 04:04 PM

In the movie Patton there's a scene where George fires a commander and puts the second in command in charge, threatening to fire him too if he can't do the job any better. The scene doesn't indicate whether or not the Gen. even knew the commander's name. I've heard of commanders being relieved in the field and it usually ruins their career. So in a situation like the one in the movie, is the relieved commander supposed to report back somewhere that he was relieved by verbal order? Is this some kind of motivate-the-guy thing where the commander isn't really relieved (just the Gen.'s way of letting him know how serious he was)?
If the Gen. had been killed 5 min. after relieving (for example) a colonel and putting a major in charge, if no one (like the General's aide) was keeping track, could they just forget it ever happened for the sake of the Col.'s career?

I've seen Patton many times and I realize that hollywood glosses over the mundane, boring details of everyday life in favor of the action-packed and/or informative conversation scenes, but this question has been bouncing around in my head for a long time. And never having been in the military, I don't know how these things work.

MikeyChalupa · 08-07-2003, 09:12 PM

It would be Patton's staff's responsibilty to report back to Eisenhower that Patton relieved the commander and assigned the new guy as his relief. The Army would then give the relieved officer a new assignment, probably at a desk in Washington until he retired.

You're right, if this happened today, it would be the kiss of death to an officer's career. I'm in the Navy, and I can think of numerous examples where Admirals have relieved commanding officers of ships or bases (including mine just last year) for various reasons and either temporarily or permanently promoted the XO to command. The relieved CO would either retire immediately, face whatever administrative or judicial punishment was deemed appropriate, or be given some desk job until he did retire. None of these were in battlefield situations, though.

-Mikey

08-07-2003, 04:04 PM	#1 (permalink)
vermin Indifferent to anti-matter Location: Tucson, AZ	Question for the military people In the movie Patton there's a scene where George fires a commander and puts the second in command in charge, threatening to fire him too if he can't do the job any better. The scene doesn't indicate whether or not the Gen. even knew the commander's name. I've heard of commanders being relieved in the field and it usually ruins their career. So in a situation like the one in the movie, is the relieved commander supposed to report back somewhere that he was relieved by verbal order? Is this some kind of motivate-the-guy thing where the commander isn't really relieved (just the Gen.'s way of letting him know how serious he was)? If the Gen. had been killed 5 min. after relieving (for example) a colonel and putting a major in charge, if no one (like the General's aide) was keeping track, could they just forget it ever happened for the sake of the Col.'s career? I've seen Patton many times and I realize that hollywood glosses over the mundane, boring details of everyday life in favor of the action-packed and/or informative conversation scenes, but this question has been bouncing around in my head for a long time. And never having been in the military, I don't know how these things work. __________________ If puns were sausages, this would be the wurst.

08-07-2003, 09:12 PM	#2 (permalink)
MikeyChalupa Squid Location: USS George Washington	It would be Patton's staff's responsibilty to report back to Eisenhower that Patton relieved the commander and assigned the new guy as his relief. The Army would then give the relieved officer a new assignment, probably at a desk in Washington until he retired. You're right, if this happened today, it would be the kiss of death to an officer's career. I'm in the Navy, and I can think of numerous examples where Admirals have relieved commanding officers of ships or bases (including mine just last year) for various reasons and either temporarily or permanently promoted the XO to command. The relieved CO would either retire immediately, face whatever administrative or judicial punishment was deemed appropriate, or be given some desk job until he did retire. None of these were in battlefield situations, though. -Mikey