Tuesday, August 31, 2010

From a Shipmate at Prospective Commanding Officer (PCO) School in Newport, Rhode Island

As students of leadership and as individuals who love the Navy, we have been trying to gain greater understanding for ourselves and for our contemporaries of the causal factors behind the actions of some of our Commanding Officers. They are studying this in PCO school and I am very happy about that.

“In short, too many of the perpetrators of the violations we have recently witnessed are men and women of strong personal integrity and intelligence – men and women who have climbed the ladder through hard work and ‘keeping their noses clean.’ But just at the moment of seemingly ‘having it all,’ they have thrown it away by engaging in an activity which is wrong, which they know is wrong, which they know would lead to their downfall if discovered, and which they mistakenly believe they have the power to conceal. This, in essence, is what we have labeled the ‘Bathsheba Syndrome.’” (p. 267)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A comment from SB that I agree with completely...

"Any CO that has gotten relieved for personal behavior --- don't fool yourself for one second --- they have been engaging in said behavior for a long time. They just never caught before. They got away with it for so long, they thought they were too smart to get caught!"