Does Military Service Automatically Make One Qualified For Public Office?

Mayoral challenger Larry Ryles has been quite vague concerning his plans for a better Park Ridge. But he comes through loud, clear and often regarding his military experience. As a 24 year career soldier, Mr. Ryles makes reference to his former profession whenever possible, even choosing to squander valuable public forum time in order to recapitulate his martial CV.

While Mr. Ryles’ pride in his service is commendable, I propose that military experience doesn’t automatically guarantee one is competent at everything one undertakes, as Ryles seems to take as an indisputable truth.

In fact, I boldly insist that people who have enjoyed military careers are no more or less likely to know to what they are doing in the context of a representative sample of civilian tasks than anyone else. It is not logical to believe military personnel are smarter or more talented than mere tax payers simply by virtue of having served. Some are capable. Some are not. For every General Robert E. Lee, there was a General John Bell Hood. 

Ryles’s alma mater - the U.S Army – sometimes achieves great things but it is also occasionally responsible for major screw ups (giving rise to the well-known military acronym FUBAR). A key component of the Army’s success is a workforce compelled to follow orders regardless of their personal preferences or perhaps, better ideas. Municipal government doesn’t have that kind of workforce, nor does it enjoy the lack of financial accountability characteristic of military budgets. 

In one of his public pronouncements, Mr. Ryles wrote:  “As all career soldiers are, I am my own man and my only wish is to serve the people, as God would want me too.”  I wonder if he thought that statement through. The reality is that as a career soldier, you are “the man” of your superior officers, whom you obey without question and salute by way of visual confirmation.  The whole idea of the Army is that you are someone else’s man, at least until you’re a Five Star General. 

As Mayor, of course, former Command Sergeant Major Ryles would have no superior officer to issue him his marching orders as it were (unless Howard Frimark plans to fill that role). Instead, Ryles would be the commanding officer of a surly, poorly disciplined outfit, unlikely to deliver even a half-hearted salute when he enters Council Chambers. Based on past performance, they would be unlikely to carry out his orders without question.   

As to Mr. Ryles’ statement that God apparently wants him to be Mayor, in the absence of a divine signal, we will have to simply wait for the election.