Palantir, Meta, OpenAI Execs Appointed Lieutenant Colonels in US Army (2025)

100 pointsposted 16 days ago
by alexmorley

58 Comments

fudged71

16 days ago

The tech industry is falling in line just as expected. Disgraceful. Don't take orders from a LtCol with zero military experience.

shikshake

16 days ago

To me it reads the other way around, the big money folks in the tech sector are pushing their influence into the military.

SketchySeaBeast

16 days ago

Yeah, this reads as the oligarchy further consolidating power.

pessimizer

16 days ago

You seem to be confused. When the tech industry starts appointing people to the military, it's America that is falling in line to them.

jasonfrost

16 days ago

Direct commission is a long standing practice, especially for technical fields like medical and now electronic warfare. Surgeons may direct commission to varying field-grade ranks as well, with bonus structure to be competitive with private practice. Military outsources these technical degrees to bring in blood in these voids.

Gud

16 days ago

Electronic warfare is typically done by employed soldiers.

petcat

16 days ago

Nobody is taking orders from these guys. They're advisors.

ceejayoz

16 days ago

They're advisors with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

petcat

16 days ago

Sure. The US military has done this for decades to prevent brain-drain around emerging technologies to the private sector.

ceejayoz

16 days ago

They could make them plain old Lieutenants for that, yes?

petcat

16 days ago

Distinction without a difference. They're advisors.

ceejayoz

16 days ago

Then why do they need the elevated rank?

mothballed

16 days ago

I have a dumb question but is it possible to arrange exec-tier or at last officer-tier pay for something like a private?

ceejayoz

16 days ago

No level of normal military pay is gonna be meaningful to these folks, at any rank.

stronglikedan

16 days ago

They're right above Privates, so still no one (of consequence) is taking orders from them.

ceejayoz

16 days ago

What? Per https://www.army.mil/ranks/, they outrank all enlisted and warrant officers, plus Second Lieutenants, First Lieutenants, Captains, and Majors.

Only full Colonels and the 1-5 star Generals outrank them.

user

16 days ago

[deleted]

zouhair

16 days ago

You assume they don't agree.

LunaSea

16 days ago

Maybe they can also get FIFA Peace prizes next?

leosanchez

16 days ago

They should get UEFA peace prize to temporarily get off Greenland.

beauzero

16 days ago

For context. This is how it was done during the Manhattan Project. https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Peopl...

rawgabbit

16 days ago

The article you cited said it was done during wartime. It was a way to keep the scientists and technicians who were drafted into military service... so they can keep working in the laboratories they are already working in.

As a solution, the Manhattan Engineer District (MED) in May secured authorization to establish the Special Engineering Detachment (SED) to which technical and scientific personnel could be assigned upon being drafted

Teever

16 days ago

This was also why Werhner Von Braun was made an officer in the SS.

AndrewThrowaway

16 days ago

It looks like I am sharing all of my data with US Army!

leosanchez

16 days ago

Almost everyone in the world is doing that except maybe China and some other countries.

gruturo

16 days ago

This is nothing new. The Army has been doing this forever. A certain General Failure was reading my C: drive all the way back in the 80s.

I'll show myself out..

macrocyclo

16 days ago

Did this mean less Russian propaganda bots or more American propaganda bots?

dismalaf

16 days ago

The comments here are hilarious. Every competent military in the world has DCO programs... Otherwise they'd never be able to attract talent for specialised fields.

gordonhart

16 days ago

Way too easy to stir the pot here. Dig up some plausibly tech-themed political news from a few months ago, post, and watch the piranhas start nipping at it.

robbbed

15 days ago

This seems fine. The question is will these execs still have ties to the tech companies they're supposedly leaving.

mothballed

16 days ago

Why does the army tuck their pants into their boots like that? Do they like wicking and trapping moisture into their shoes?

mistrial9

16 days ago

horse riding magazine, someone liked the look?

chrisjj

16 days ago

Complete with costumes! My ...

jMyles

16 days ago

I'm normally very reluctant to cheer most comparisons us the US political situation to nazi germany, or to fascism in general.

But events like this (and the Intel stake) seem like an exact implementation of what has come to be called The Third Position[0], which, if I understand correctly, was the etymology of the world 'fascism' itself.

Mussolini's 1913 Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria was apparently named after 'fasci', or corporate syndicates, his vision of which is basically exactly what we're seeing here: the state owning stakes in the means of technocratic production, and corporate leaders in positions of military command.

And although "The Third Position" is usually called a _neo_-fascist movement, I believe that Mussolini articulated it, more or less in its entirety, some time in the early 1920s?

I'm more of a political scientist than a historian, so it's possible I have this wrong.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Position

timacles

16 days ago

SMHing my head at my country right now. What have we become.

agumonkey

16 days ago

And as usual the USA fell better and faster than his peers

user

16 days ago

[deleted]

cookszn

16 days ago

If you looked it up, it’s been the same since manhattan project. They don’t give orders but rather are “advisors/consultants” - prevents wasting billions. Or you can just SMH yourself out the country.

leosanchez

16 days ago

SMH? Shaking my head my head ?

user

16 days ago

[deleted]

Wojtkie

16 days ago

Does this mean the execs are now also under the UCMJ?

stoneman24

16 days ago

I wonder if the executives have realised this

ceejayoz

16 days ago

Their legal teams will most certainly have been involved.

buellerbueller

16 days ago

Old (2025), but TOTALLY not fascism at all.

For more context: https://www.npr.org/2025/07/03/1255164460/1a-army-07-03-2025

So, we have a sitting US Senator/astronaut/Navy Vet who is being harassed by the "Secretary" of Defense for making a video telling troop that they can (and must) refuse unconstitutional orders. This tells us a bit about how the administration and DoD view the constitution versus chain-of-command.

Thusly, I can only assume that these "Lieutenant Colonels" are there to be ordered to do things which they cannot refuse if constitutional, and will still be expected to do if unconstitutional.

Totes not fascism.

aaronbrethorst

16 days ago

Secretary of “War”

buellerbueller

16 days ago

Trump can't change the name of the Department, only the letterhead. Congress would have to change the name. There is no Secretary of War in the USA.

rl1987

16 days ago

It got to the point that now there is a "SSecretary" of War.

burnt-resistor

15 days ago

All that is left on my bingo card is for them to outright invent a religious cult (they're already a cult of a different sort) to both get tax exempt status and actually zealously believe in it too.

tibbydudeza

16 days ago

I thought CCCP deploying PLA soldiers at Chinese tech companies was a problem. I guess the US is trying the fascist approach to things now :).

user

16 days ago

[deleted]

SilverElfin

16 days ago

Old news but worth revisiting. There has been and continues to be open corruption in the Trump administration. If you donate to them and support their political positions blindingly, you get contracts or regulatory help or maybe a lack of regulatory trouble.

A good example is Jensen Huang donating to the ballroom project and Nvidia’s Groq acquisition not being blocked for antitrust. But you see this with many other leaders too. The All In podcast is basically a MAGA podcast now. Many VCs are silent about current events as they hope their portfolio companies get defense contracts.