Shannon Foraker

drothgery wrote:

Esox wrote:Thank you Duckk.
Having read that I am convinced that having Sonja and Shannon as co-heads would be a disaster. Sonja doesn't play well with others.

She didn't play well with others twenty years ago. But she couldn't have accomplished what she has since then (including a reasonably successful stint as wartime fleet commander, but especially what she's done as head of BuWeaps) without getting a lot better at that.

Our glimpse into Sonya's past in the latest e-arc has really given us a lot more perspective on her character. She's a very direct personality, with little patience for people who can't keep up or get in her way. She was also put in a very uncomfortable position in that she knew her ideas were being explored at the highest level and yet couldn't talk about them other than as pie-in-the-sky concepts. This shaped her character through her early career, then came Basilisk, Hancock and the Pavel Young trial. Not to mention the complete and utter failures of her own cousin (or uncle I always forget) with Janacek's failures during the High Ridge Interregnum.

I wonder if she has ever had regrets for Paul Tankersley's murder. It was, after all, her vote that allowed Pavel Young to live long enough to hire his killer. That and Janacek's corruption has to have made an impact on her support for the Conservative Association. That has to kicked that ego in the head a bit.

Speaking of the Young Court Martial, I wonder what ever happened to Lemetrie and Jurgenson. Hopefully they were in command of a couple of the forces destroyed under Thunderbolt.

After the transition to SEM tech is up and working, Adm. Foraker could become available for a space command.

She may want to be the "Adm. Rickover of the RHN". If that is what she wants, with prolong, she can have it for almost as long as Rickover had it.

But, Foraker started on the tactical track that generally leads to command. If she wants a space command, she should be available for it.

And, the SEM practice may influence the RHN. The SKM tradition was to rotate in and out of spaced command. Getting to go out and play with her toys between bouts of building them could have a lot of appeal. Didn't Hemphill have a space command at the time of Fourth Yeltsin?

And, speaking of Hemphill, Honor's time on the Weapons Development Board with Hemphill seemed to be agreeable. Honor would not have been passive if Hemphill was treating folks "horribly". I suspect Hemphill has grown a bit along the way.

waddles for desert wrote:And, speaking of Hemphill, Honor's time on the Weapons Development Board with Hemphill seemed to be agreeable. Honor would not have been passive if Hemphill was treating folks "horribly". I suspect Hemphill has grown a bit along the way.

There is also some evidence of this in SftS when Adm. Hemphill is briefing Adm. Gold Peak about the new Apollo missile system. Her efforts to ensure Adm. Gold Peak is properly aware the caliber of officer Lt. Cmdr. Edwards without falling into the trap of nepotism are a good indication that she actually does have people skills.

waddles for desert wrote:But, Foraker started on the tactical track that generally leads to command. If she wants a space command, she should be available for it.

She skipped all the levels where you show you can hack it. IIRC, she has no ship or squadron command. She's been a staff officer or running essentially a depot her whole career. There are very few people who have never had a major combat command who get given a fleet or an army going into combat.

Biggest problem I see with Hemphill being given command of Bolthole is that Bolthole is a Havenite base! I don't care how close two allies get to each other, you don't give your base commands to people in someone else's military. Honor is a bit of a special case because she is considered a member of both the Grayson and the Manticore militaries. She did command the unified fleet with Haven; in a battle someone has to be in the top slot but that's very different than giving a base command to someone who isn't in your military, or even a citizen of your nation.

CMac wrote:Biggest problem I see with Hemphill being given command of Bolthole is that Bolthole is a Havenite base! I don't care how close two allies get to each other, you don't give your base commands to people in someone else's military. Honor is a bit of a special case because she is considered a member of both the Grayson and the Manticore militaries. She did command the unified fleet with Haven; in a battle someone has to be in the top slot but that's very different than giving a base command to someone who isn't in your military, or even a citizen of your nation.

Indeed, that just wont be happening.
Foraker has already shown that she does the job exceptionally well, she will likely stay in command until she doesn´t want to remain. Although she might just be moved to a highend HQ position, but stuck in Bolthole is more likely.

CMac wrote:Biggest problem I see with Hemphill being given command of Bolthole is that Bolthole is a Havenite base!

Easy solution: Hemphill will be in overall command of the RMN people at Bolthole, but Foraker remains base commander. This will be established at their first meeting. Hemphill will say "Admiral Foraker, we are your guests here" or something similarly noble, and Foraker will in turn see to it that the Manties are treated as guests, with the proper respect that entails. Theisman will have told her that she should treat them exactly the way they expect the Manties at Saganami Island to treat Havenite Academy and ATC students (and after his visit to the Crusher before 2nd Manticore, I'm sure he wants to get that going yesterday if not sooner).

If Foraker doesn't want to pursue a particular research project, but Hemphill does, then RMN personnel can do that project. Similarly, if Foraker likes a project that Hemphill thinks is a waste of resources, that can be done by a purely Havenite team. If they both like it, they'll each contribute team members. Some projects will be headed by a Manty, others by a Havenite. They'll work it out just like Manty commanders assign Graysons and other Alliance members to positions where other Manties have to take orders from them.

And if they're smart, they'll follow the Google model and tell their researchers to spend a certain amount of time each week on things they have not been ordered to work on, provided that they document everything they do and report to the higher-ups on what they're working on. From time to time these side projects will look promising enough to be assigned formal teams.

kzt wrote:

waddles for desert wrote:But, Foraker started on the tactical track that generally leads to command. If she wants a space command, she should be available for it.

She skipped all the levels where you show you can hack it. IIRC, she has no ship or squadron command. She's been a staff officer or running essentially a depot her whole career. There are very few people who have never had a major combat command who get given a fleet or an army going into combat.

A posting on someone else's staff as operations officer might be a reasonable path to command. And, it would at least put her in the field to get a firsthand appraisal of hardware, software, training and doctrine.

While it is true that Admiral is too senior for a ship command, she could accept a commission in the IMN as a Captain. If it was good enough for Honor, it is good enough for Shannon.

Esox wrote:While it is true that Admiral is too senior for a ship command, she could accept a commission in the IMN as a Captain. If it was good enough for Honor, it is good enough for Shannon.

Total waste of talent.
Sorry y'all, I'd like to see her in command as much as the next person, but realistically, it ain't gonna happen.
She is too good, too useful, and too much needed right where she is to go traipsing around just because we would like her to. It's like wanting to see Honor back in captain's chair.
If we had the pleasure of reading something a few decades down the slip, sure; right now it's just wishful thinking.