Thursday, January 28, 2016

For what it's worth, Governor Snyder should have sent in a general

Look, we elect mayors and governors and presidents thinking that whoever it is will be able to handle the office and whatever comes up, but the truth is few of them ever have an opportunity (thankfully) to handle a crisis such as the Flint Water scandal. What we've found in out in Michigan is that Governor Rick Snyder is incapable of crisis leadership. No shame there, most folks would have fouled it up just as bad. Leading a computer company and whatever other business enriched his bank account doesn't qualify him to take the reins in a crisis of this magnitude and lead. In fact, he would have been far better off delegating full authority and responsibility for this crisis back when it first surfaced to my old friend, and now commander of the Michigan National Guard, Major General Greg Vadnais.
During General Vadnais' tenure as Commander, 38th Infantry Division (Mechanized), over 9,000 soldiers were mobilized and deployed to 17 different countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Egypt and to numerous other security missions in the United States and abroad. Greg was the Commander for Joint Task Force-Cyclone in response to Hurricane Katrina providing command and control of the over 14,000 Soldiers and Airmen deployed in Mississippi. When he commanded the 46th Brigade 38th Infantry Division, I was serving as his deputy. I know what he's capable of and he would have definitely kept Snyder's bacon out of the fire. He would have acted decisively and left the studying to the academics.
Instead, General Vadnais was left with cleaning up some of Snyder's mess by commanding water resupply, long after the Governor's damage was done.

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