Mixed views on mentors

[Regarding "Military's ‘senior mentors' cashing in," Nov. 23]: Excuse me, but it seems private industry and the military are simply using their resources to attract the best talent. As mentors, they are selling their services at the best salary they can garner. That's what we call capitalism.

The American public has, for decades, been trained to find fault with our military. But I wonder if Federal Times would consider writing an article of equal length about politicians on Capitol Hill who do the same thing.

— Retired Navy Cmdr. Richard Maffeo, Gig Harbor, Wash.

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I contend that the Army's Senior Mentor Program, far from being scandalous, is indispensable from an operational perspective.

The purpose of the Senior Mentor Program, which employs not only general officers but also retired field-grades and command sergeants major, is to advise the senior leadership of soon-to-deploy units during command post exercises. I have seen one of these mentors in action during a command post exercise for a deploying brigade headquarters. His impact was invaluable for the deploying unit's senior leaders.

Most critics accept the value of the program. The problems they are vocal about are the pay and the potential conflict of interest. Three hundred dollars an hour is a lot of money. But compared to what these officers with 30-plus years experience can make as corporate senior executives or board members, it's not excessive.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others argue that these retired officers should take on the responsibility for training deploying commanders out of a sense of duty and patriotism. I agree, but as the average yearly wage of a Fortune 1000 board member is $850,000, I would argue that agreeing to train deploying commanders for less than a third of that amount displays considerable patriotism and a well-developed sense of duty.

The conflict of interest concern is valid. In the unlikely event a general officer defrauds the government, then he should be treated like any other crook. But saying that no retired general may do this job because someone somewhere might break the rules makes no sense.

The training these retired officers and command sergeants major provide is a bargain at three times the price. Instead of being embarrassed by this successful program, we should be defending it.

— Army Maj. Marcus White, 4th (Vanguard) Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.