Wednesday, December 21, 2011

ICAF

My youngest brother, not the one who sometimes comments here, is a graduate of what is know as "The House of Commons", the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF).  House of Commons, in contrast to its next door neighbor, the National War College, or House of Lords.  This terminology from British Government irritates the faculty from ICAF.  (The other brother, Lance, was sent by Uncle Sugar for a course at the Kennedy School, down county.)

At any rate, John sent along this item from the National Defense Authorization Act:
SEC. 2861. REDESIGNATION OF INDUSTRIAL COLLEGE OF THE ARMED FORCES AS THE DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER SCHOOL FOR NATIONAL SECURITY AND RESOURCE STRATEGY.

(a) REDESIGNATION.—The Industrial College of the Armed Forces is hereby renamed the "Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy".

(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Paragraph

(2) of section 2165(b) of title 10, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:

"(2) The Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy.".

(c) REFERENCES.—Any reference to the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in any law, regulation, map, document, record, or other paper of the United States shall be deemed to be a reference to the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy.
Yes, Dwight D Eisenhower was a graduate if ICAF or, actually, it's predecessor, the Army Industrial College.  He was one of the first to attend the school, to study the issues of mobilization for war.  Incidentally, Financial Wizard Bernard M. Baruch was one of the early proponents of the school and the large auditorium, inside Eisenhower Hall, is named for him.

All that said, this name change falls into the category of "Fraud, Waste and Abuse".  What were the Congresscritters thinking?

First, it was a waste of the time of Congress to even entertain this idea.  If there were hearings, it was a waste of the time of those who testified, of those who put together the testimony and approved the testimony.  I bet lawyers were involved.

Second, all the name changing will mean changes to signage and to directories.  These things cost money.  Costing money is bad, unless some Congressman is trying to send some recession recovery money to some firms in Maryland or Virginia.  Then it is still bad, but for a different reason.

Third, it is just more abuse of us, the voters and the taxpayers.

Regards  —  Cliff

5 comments:

  1. Your younger brother, not the youngest is a graduate of ICAF, albeit via correspondence.

    And I don't mind DDE being honored in this manner, though it is slightly ironic since he expressed his concern about the military industrial complex.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I thought everyone was a graduate by correspondence. I finished up sometime around 1970.  It was a great introduction to the economy and our governmental system.  Too bad it died in the early 1990s.

    That said, if I were king, I would resurrect it and offer it to people involved in local, state and federal government.  I would add in roving instructors to go from city to city, meeting with clusters of students for weekend seminars.

    Regards  —  Cliff

    ReplyDelete
  3. I presume you are talking about the economy and our governmental system when you speak of it dying in the early 90's.....or was that just a coincidence?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just a coincidence.  I was talking about the ICAF Correspondence Course.

    Regards  —  Cliff

    ReplyDelete
  5. John, himself, backchannelled me...

    "By the way, I'm a "Blue Book Graduate," also.  I probabaly graduated in around 1984.   My recollection is somewhat different than yours.   Some of the books were undoubtedly excellent, even superior.   However, others were not so good.   My recollection of one dealing with natural resources still calls to mind far, far to much information about deciduous trees in Georgia."

    I remember that book, and thought it was interesting, remembering that the de HavillandMosquito was all wood construction.

    Regards  — Cliff

    ReplyDelete

Please be forthright, but please consider that this is not a barracks.