Statement on Reclaiming the Validity of the Legends Induction Process

Hello all. For those who came into this community after I left it, my name is Bluesockwa1. You may or may not have heard of who I was and what I did, but allow me to give a brief summary. My chief involvement in the warfare community was through army media; I worked for CPA Central from 2011 until 2014, overseeing the site for three of those four years, and helped to modernize and stabilize it during that time. I also had a heavy hand in the consolidation of small army media over the past few years, continue to advise councils and projects of that sort, and post editorials and other pieces of writing on this site when the mood strikes me. Above all, I continue to work with the people on this site through my conglomerate, CP Army World Media, to ensure the preservation of journalism in the army community.

When I first assumed the rank of CPA Central CEO in July of 2012, one of my chief concerns soon began the reformation of CPA Central’s various pages. While the standardization of the Armies and Leaders pages were easy, the reformation of the Legends Page (often considered the most important page on this site) was a more difficult matter. The fully-Athenian democratic process that had elected army legends to the site for almost a year now had stopped working; to put it simply, a popularity contest, one in which no one won, was reigning supreme.

This led to the creation of the CP Army Legends Council, which was created by myself and Boomer 20 after a series of conversations we had with xiUnknown and SaW. They questioned the validity of the system where someone like either of them, who was not the common popular leader, but had done a great deal to change warfare, was not being inducted — and I agreed with their challenge. The subsequent committee, which Boomer 20 oversaw, was comprised of many retired legends with whom Boomer still had contact, the acting CEOs of CPAC, and a few community individuals who Boomer thought had a special grasp on army history.

After Boomer fully left the community and the Legends Council fell into my hand, I removed the group of historians, and so the Council became a collection of only army legends and CPAC CEOs. This process worked for a long time; however, after I retired, control of the Legends Council was handed over to Zakster, who chose to pack the Council with members of the CPAC administration. The result of this was, quite unsurprisingly, that it became extremely easy for a member of the CPA Central Staff to be inducted to Army Legend. I find the reality that as of two weeks ago, seven of the eleven CEOs of CPA Central had been inducted to Legend Status to be insulting. It is especially insulting to someone like me, who was only the second CEO to be inducted to Legend Status (after this site’s founder, Woton). I was inducted to the Legends Page for doing, real, meaningful work that changed the army community, and to sit on this page while anyone and everyone who ever held the title I cherished is given my status is insulting.

I can only imagine that army leaders feel the same way. We are all for the induction of the visionaries that come after us; we will never stand for the bastardization of a title that we had worked so hard to grasp. This is not to say that the only problem in the Legends Council is a bias toward CPAC, either, though that certainly is a problem. So many retired legends, who originally served on the Council and created balance in it, have since retired; with their retirement, I fear, has come a Council that fails to accurately execute its duty. For that reason, we will also reconsider the members of the committee to ensure that it is one of fairness, balance, and common sense.

In addition, I will be reclaiming my position of Chairman of the Legends Council for the month of January to hold a special election. In this election, the public will be given an opportunity to submit the names of individuals who they do not believe are worthy of their Legend Status. Members of the committee, whom I will vet for this special election, will also be able to submit names if at least three committee members support the motion. Further details of this process will be outlined in early January. Let it suffice to say, for the time being, that the viewers are not wrong or misguided in their outrage. The true legends of this community stand with you, and will not allow this bastardization of a title we hold so dear to continue. Thank you for your time; I hope you continue to support CP Army World Media as we attempt to correct this fundamental error with the way in which we elect our community’s greats. 

B1