Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno threw down with Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) over deployment of a computer intelligence system in the field.
A former marine, Representative Hunter excoriated the top ranking General over high costs of the Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS), citing comparable private sector systems available for much less. Another complaint of Hunter was the bureaucratic distribution of the $10 billion system.
Things got interesting when Representative Hunter stood to leave after ending his tongue lashing, General Odierno fired directly back at Rep. Hunter:
“I object to this. I’m tired of someone telling me I don’t care about our soldiers.”
He continued by calling the Congressman’s evidence “anecdotal,” claiming, “we have more capability now in our intelligence than we’ve ever had!”
After several minutes of shouting over each other, Chairman Buck McKeon tried to quell the fireworks with a gavel and a smile.
“You’ve both had your word on this now.”
If this gets any more aggressive, we’re going to need a bell, some mouth guards, and a referee.
Watch the video of the exchange below.
Pretty classless of the general to wait until Congressman Hunter was getting up to leave before returning (verbal) fire.
Pretty classless of the congress person to try and run from the room and not let the General respond to his attack.