Me: Why's the flag lowered to have staff?
Him: Haven't you heard the Queen of England died?
Me: Wait, so we lower the U.S. flag for foreign dignitaries? Since when?
Him: We just do what we're told around here.
So am I so country bumpkin that I missed somewhere along the way that we lower our flag for foreign heads of state/dignitaries? Someone please enlighten me.
"Him: We just do what we're told around here."
^^ THIS ^^
Bahh Bahh Bahh Sheeple talk..
Ohh yea, I fully agree w/ you.. I've worked w/ the govt. in my days. But, sometimes it just takes one little seed to grow a mighty oak, and planting such seeds as we flow through our day is something that should be done Govt. workers or not :)
Right, that explains the behavior and actions of the FBI, CIA, DOT, DOE, IRS and whole executive band of tyrants. Written proceedures eh? Right!
Weelllll, yes and no. I get what you're saying but there's a grey area.
Lemme give a little background: 24yrs Retired MSgt. When I retired, they immediately snatched me up as a contractor. Been doing that now since 2012...so about 10-1/2 years. Thats roughly 34-1/2 years of working directly for the military in many capacities.
First, yes: It is true you must generally follow orders, but there is a caveat built into the system rarely used and even less known: the right to refuse an unlawful order as built into the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice). It takes balls to do it...big ones...but I've done it many times while active, and three times while contractor.
Second, No: As mentioned above with the UCMJ, you CAN refuse an order or course of action that is contrary to readiness, deployability, harmful to self or the equipment, etc. This is perfectly lawful under the UCMJ. But, as I said, you have to know WTF you're talking about or you can get a big red-white-and blue cock shoved up your ass for it.
2 quick examples where I refused on topics most should be familiar with:
When I was active: Back in the 90's we were "required" to take Anthrax shots and boosters. After doing research, I found out it was just another experiment because there are MANY variations of Anthrax and the shot only supposedly protects against ONE, not many, and the type Vaxxed against had a very low Area of Operations (AO) probability. They used the same fear hype as COVID to get people to do it. Down side is, it gives life lasting health issues. I refused this, went thru Hell over it, but they still deployed me, still promoted me, etc. I won the battle.
Recent times as a contractor: I refused the COVID Vax, and wearing a mask, for same reasons as above. My company, and military threatened to terminate my employment and I said go for it: You dipshits will lose a highly trained special operations trained asset and a few million dollars on top of it for wrongful termination, discrimination, mental and physical abuse, etc. Said I have zero issues becoming a millionaire over your stupidity. They backed off, never wore a mask nor got the clot shot. 4 others I work with saw this and refused the same way. Everyone else (whom I thought had more brains than they do, did it all. Fuck them.) I stillwork there not because I have to, but because I enjoy what I do. Keeps me busy.
So, yes, generally speaking you have to follow orders UNLESS that caveat pops up....then you can tell them to go fuck themselves and be 100% legal in doing so.
Probably a GS-7 running that PO.