History Main / TheNeidermeyer

** An even more infamous example from the same war and company (and eventual miniseries) is 1st Lt. Norman Dike. He's been accused of delegating all duty to lower officers and [=NCOs=] during his tenure, and for disappearing from the front lines for hours at a time during the Battle of the Bulge; many of the men under (and over) him accused him of simply using the E Company assignment as a way to get "field experience" before continuing his climb up the ladder. Most infamous, however, is his historically documented ''meltdown'' during the assault on Foy, Belgium. While trying to lead E Company on the Foy attack, he completely froze up from terror and was unable to give any commands at all, aside from one order for Easy to halt their advance into the town... in the middle of an open field. He was famously relieved of duty by [[MemeticBadass Ronald Spiers]], who would go on to lead E Company to victory in Foy. After this incident, Dike was quickly drummed out of the Airborne and was lucky to not be kicked out of the Army wholesale. Wiki/TheOtherWiki implies he had fought bravely and well in Normandy and got wounded twice. It is assumable he had become a ShellShockedVeteran. At least one account from the men on the ground in Foy imply that he had been shot which would explain his fear and inaction.

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* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': In Volume 5, Adam Taurus proves to be a ''horrible'' leader when he takes control of the White Fang; he shows a shocking disregard for his own troops, and only cares about what he thinks ''he'' deserves. This climaxes with his attack on Haven Academy; when cornered by Blake's citizen army and the Mistral police, his immediate response is to try to blow them all up, manhandling one of his men when he demands to know what he's doing, and when he's double-teamed by Blake and Sun and his men are being rounded up and arrested, he decides to simply run away. Ilia correctly predicts that after this, ''no one'' in the White Fang will follow or support Adam any longer.
[[/folder]]

** His equivalent (and character model) in the original British series was a Territorial Army soldier (think National Guard) who insisted on his status as Deputy Team Leader after David Brent and who stood on a largely non-existent authority.

* General [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karol_Świerczewski Karol Świerczewski]] was hailed as a hero by post-war Soviet propaganda and made the protagonist of many (completely fictitious) war stories, but in reality, he was an utter GeneralFailure who repeatedly displayed complete lack of strategic skills (employing HollywoodTactics some of which would make [[UpToEleven even the actual Hollywood writers cringe]]) as well as total disregard for the life and well-being of soldiers under his command. On top of that, he was an abject alcoholic who -- according to many accounts -- even led his battles while drunk. The list of his military blunders is too long to put it here, but the worst and most egregious one is arguably the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bautzen_(1945) Battle of Bautzen]], which took place in final days of World War Two. Świerczewski, who was in charge of the Polish Second Army at that time, figured he could seize some glory for himself by capturing Dresden ahead of schedule. To achieve that goal, he ignored the directives given to him by his superiors and rushed his armored divisions forward, seeing no need to keep his forces in formation and close to each other. As a result, he needlessly stretched the entire army and formed huge gaps between separate units. Tanks speeding towards Dresden had no support of infantry, which in turn was left behind and had no protection of tanks, while artillery had no proper cover nor could it render support to other units. No second guesses what happened when Germans launched a counter-attack and their recon noticed those gaps. The resulting bloodbath wiped out over twenty-two percent of entire Second Army in but a few days and is still deemed one of the worst and most humiliating defeats in the history of Polish military. It was salvaged from total disaster only by timely intervention of Marshal Ivan Konev. To make matters worse, Świerczewski [[KarmaHoudini never got his comeuppance]] and was promoted shortly after the battle.

* ''ComicBook/CombatKellyAndHisDeadlyDozen'': In a {{Crossover}} with ''Sgt. Fury'', Captain Conner, the martinet son of a general, is [[TyrantTakesTheHelm given command]] of both the Deadly Dozen and the ComicBook/HowlingCommandos. He cracks under the strain of facing real combat for the first, and his indecision nearly gets both the Dozen and the Howlers killed, forcing Fury to relieve him of command.

* Italy's own [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Cadorna Luigi Cadorna]] was a strict disciplinarian whose main tactic was to have his men charge into the enemy lines... And he was the ''commander-in-chief'' at the start of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, succeeding a much more loved general who had died of a heart attack. For obvious reasons, he got ultimately sacked, and his name is still hated in Italy. Ironically, he also had a large share of the merit for Italy's ultimate victory on their front, as he understood the devastating power of artillery and machine guns from the start and, fighting his own {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s, managed to reform the army to take advantage of the machine guns and equipped it with one of the largest artillery parks in the war, meaning that, by the time he got sacked, all Italy needed to win was a competent general as commander-in-chief, and his replacement was rather good.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': Crashdown attempts to lead a squad on a hostile planet surface. Things go wrong. [[spoiler:He gets two of the squad killed then is shot ''by Gaius Baltar'' when attempting to force a needless suicide mission]].
** Though his fatal flaw is more due to inexperience than anything else. It's not that he doesn't care about those under his command, but rather his incompetence and focus on "accomplishing the tactical mission" no matter how ill-advised that mission might be. When doing his job as an ECO he's not bad at all. He just wasn't cut out for ground combat.

** People who worked for Steve Jobs and left tend to have this view of him, considering his high standards. But since he led Apple from nearly dead in the water to having more liquid assets than the US government in 10 years, people skirt by this.* UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur had the abrasiveness and ego down pat, and his handling of the fall of the Philippines and the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar make his competence in doubt. Though it was not well known at the time (the US media loved portraying him as a messiah), [=MacArthur=] was more concerned with his personal image than ''almost'' anything else. Everything from his famous shades and corncob pipe image to his style of command and administration, from his tenure as Superintendent at West Point to Korea, were designed primarily for his personal glory. As well, he was infamously (within the US Army) prone to shower favor on toadies and surround himself with them and ignore constructive criticism. [[InterserviceRivalry His hatred of the Navies]] under his command was also infamous, and after his victory over Japan and tenure as "Shogun" there, he let a lot of his prior flaws bubble to his head and blow themselves out of proportion, which was a major reason why the early stages of the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar went as badly for the Western Allies as they did. Ultimately, "Dougout Doug" really was that badass on a lot of occasions, and he did truly care for his men, but it had to be pretty bad for those traits to become less visible than his glory-seeking.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/AnimalHouse https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_1screenshot_17.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"'''A PPPLEDGE PPPIN?!? ''ON YOUR UNIFORRRMMM?!'''''"]]

* ''Anime/ValkyrieDriveMermaid'': [[AlphaBitch Charlotte]] is second in authority only to Akira and is this trope to a ridiculous degree. Taking every possible opportunity to KickTheDog, resorting to [[AttackAttackAttack violence]] and [[MurderIsTheBestSolution murder]] for every little thing... [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Akira of all people]] ''really'' should have found a more mentally stable person to be in Charlotte's position.

* [[Manga/SgtFrog Sergeant Keroro]] is a [[DirtyCoward cowardly]], [[TheSlacker lazy]], [[SmallNameBigEgo egotistical]] ManChild who'd rather play with toys all day than actually do his job and conquer the planet. [[SubvertedTrope But nobody]] [[OnlySaneMan except Giroro]] hates him for this.

* In the original ''Creature Commandos'' stories, Lt. Matthew Shrieve is a lot like this, though he's very much a competent soldier. He's cruel towards the "monsters" under his authority, whom he finds disgusting. He's even described them as an affront to God; [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters the feeling is all too mutual]].
* ''ComicBook/CombatKellyAndHisDeadlyDozen'': In a {{Crossover}} with ''Sgt. Fury'', Captain Conner, the martinet son of a general, is [[TyrantTakesTheHelm given command]] of both the Deadly Dozen and the ComicBook/HowlingCommandos. He cracks under the strain of facing real combat for the first, and his indecision nearly gets both the Dozen and the Howlers killed, forcing Fury to relieve him of command.

* In the U.S. Army, this figure is known as a "Courtney Massengale", from the character in the novel ''Once an Eagle'' by Anton Myrer, who fits the trope to a T. For this reason, ''Eagle'' is recommended reading for young officers.
* Captains von Pader and Meier from the novels by Creator/SvenHassel, and quite a few other Nazi officers.
* Seen a couple of times in the Night's Watch in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. Ser Alliser Thorne insults and berates all the boys he's supposed to train, without actually giving them anything in the way of instruction. Meanwhile, the few pages' worth we see of Ser Waymar Royce has him mocking the lower-ranking but more experienced rangers under his command every time they display caution or prudence.

* Deputy Marshal Fetlock in the ''Literature/LauraCaxton'' series at least hovers on the edge of being this. Caxton's allies Clara Hsu and Officer Glauer acknowledge that Fetlock's adherence to the rules isn't a bad thing in itself, and respect that he would have accepted his own sentence if he was ever brought up on the charges that led to Caxton being arrested, but his adherence to the law prevents him from recognising that his strategies won't work when dealing with vampires; his determination to keep his troops alive just means that the vampires are killing innocent civilians instead, his refusal to believe Caxton when she claims the main vampire isn't dead gave her foe two years to make a new plan, and when he finally tries to go after the vampires he gets his entire team killed because he relied on a show of force rather than ask Caxton to help out.

* Captain Queeg of Herman Wouk's ''Literature/TheCaineMutiny'', and the movie and play (''The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial'') based on it, could almost be the TropeNamer. It is often used in media as an alternate name for this trope.[[note]]Queeg himself, however, actually ''[[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs]]'' this trope; while his behavior in the book certainly fits, the climax of the novel reveals that he actually had quite a distinguished career in the Atlantic before transferring to the Pacific Theatre but the long deployment had left him shattered and suffering from extreme [[ShellShockedVeteran "battle fatigue]]," and the crew's mistreatment of him and assuming he was just an insane coward only exacerbated his behaviour, resulting in his indecesion during the typhoon that caused the titular mutiny.[[/note]]
* Lieutenant Bennett from ''Literature/TheCruelSea''. A lazy bully. Instead of being shot by his own men, he fakes illness to get out of the war.
* General George Armstrong Custer in Harry Turtledove's UsefulNotes/WorldWarI AlternateHistory trilogy ''The Great War'' is like this. Although he lacks the "You're all worthless and weak!!" part, he is still more than willing to send the unfortunate men under his command into needlessly costly and bloody offensives that end up gaining little. He constantly tries to seek glory wherever he can and also is more than willing to hog it all and push all the blame on others when something fails. However, by the end of the trilogy, he later proves to be a competent officer when he [[spoiler:disobeys the US general Staff's orders on not using tanks in a concentrated formation. This leads to the US occupying Kentucky and later forces the Confederate States to surrender once other officers begin copying it.]]
** That wasn't being a competent officer. That was being the same idiot he'd always been and happened to get lucky this time. As his aide-de-camp later (frequently) reminisces.
** Boris Lavochkin is the "psychotic hard-ass" version during the Second Great War - a brutal and vindictive officer who didn't have any qualms about massacring civilians or treating his own men with thinly-disguised contempt. He vociferously protested being ordered not to invade Charleston, South Carolina ''even after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city'' because he wanted the glory of capturing the city that sparked the Confederacy.
* Many Orc officers in all versions of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.
** Averted by Shagrat, who cares about his men and is actually shown to be fairly noble. He even gets a good death. Also Uglúk of Saruman's Uruk-Hai.

* In the ''Literature/McAuslan'' books, the sole Neidermeyer in a mess full of SergeantRock types is the hapless Sergeant Baxter. It isn't entirely Baxter's fault: he's just been [[ThePeterPrinciple overpromoted]] and even as a Corporal lacked experience and ability. His inexperience and incapacity for the rank (bestowed after the more able Sergeant Telfer is demobilised) cause problems. It even reverses the usual relationship with his lieutenant: Dand [=McNeill=] is forced to reprimand him at least twice.
* Chief Inspector Snape in the ''Literature/DiamondBrothers'' series towards [[TheDitz Tim Diamond]], who used to work for him in the police force. When Tim gets arrested for acting suspiciously around a dead body in ''Literature/TheFalconsMalteser'', Snape is thrilled to have him locked up.
* The International Fleet is full of them in the second ''Literature/FormicWars'' trilogy (prequels to ''Literature/EndersGame''). Colonel Vaganov is an especially dangerous example because he's very smart and good at playing the career game. He quickly singles Mazer out as a competent marine and does what he can to use Mazer for his own advancement. When Mazer disobeys his self-serving order for the good of humanity, Vaganov has him arrested and treated inhumanely, thinking that Mazer is playing his own career game and is trying to undermine Vaganov, before sending him to be court-martialed by an admiral, who's a good friend of his. WordOfGod is that the authors had to add this element to the prequels in order to stay true to the one-off line about Mazer from the original novel involving him being court-martialed twice and being largely unknown. The only way for someone like him to be court-martialed would be for the IF to be full of corrupt careerists, who resent competent officers and sabotage them. The ''Mazer in Prison'' comic (taking place between the prequels and the original novel) has Mazer holding himself hostage in order to force the IF to replace the careerists with competent officers. It works.
** Notably, there are times when [[JerkassHasAPoint Vaganov isn't entirely wrong]], such as when he sends Mazer and Bingwen into a dangerous situation rather than take the safer option in order to obtain more intel on the Formics. The revised mission ends up discovering that [[spoiler:the Hive Queen is breeding daughters in asteroids in order to serve as local commanders, allowing her to focus on better controlling a smaller number of soldiers. Bingwen manages to kill one of the daughters with a crossbow bolt through the eye and then igniting the hydrogen in the asteroid. This leaves an intact Formic warship with no crew to study]].
** In ''Literature/EndersGame'', Bonzo Madrid, as commander of Salamander Army, proudly overdisciplines his boys (and [[TheSmurfettePrinciple Petra]]) with a sharp tongue and a quick backhand. He is particularly resentful of Ender being assigned to his command as underage and untested NewMeat, and so puts him under strict orders to hang back and do absolutely nothing in battles, with the goal of gaming Ender's efficiency rating (no points will be deducted for missed shots if he never draws his gun) so he will be easier to trade to another army. When Ender sees Salamander losing one battle to Leopard Army--due to poor morale, no less--he springs into action at the last minute and inflicts just enough casualties to prevent Leopard from claiming victory. Bonzo rewards Ender for having turned a loss into a draw by beating him up because "no good soldier ever disobeys."
* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'':
** Porteous Glaves, the newly appointed commander of the 8th Regiment in book two, is an UpperClassTwit who bought his current position with money (a practice thoroughly despised by professional soldiers, but allowed by authorities of Argonath as a source of income) solely and only to further his political career. He spends most of the time throwing his weight around, acting as if his position of commander [[EntitledBastard allows him to do whatever he wants]] and being generally obnoxious and arrogant to everyone around him. When the 8th Regiment is sent on campaign to Ourdh, he quickly proves to be an abysmal and incompetent leader, abusing his troops for little to no reason, showing no commanding skills whatsoever and acting queasy and cowardly when in real battle.
** Turrent is a relatively mild example. He knows the rules and regulations inside and out, is overly strict when it comes to following them and makes sure the dragonboys under his command do everything by the book, no matter how trivial it is. When they fail to appease him -- even by doing something as inconsequential as not cleaning a part of equipment ''nearly'' good enough -- he will gleefully punish them. ''Especially'' Relkin. On the other hand, he used to be a dragon squire himself, so he surely knows what he's doing (unlike his successor Wiliger) and eventually warms up a bit.
** Delwild Wiliger, a new commanding officer of the 109th Dragon Squadron in book four, starts out as this. He comes from an aristocratic family and was transferred to Bazil's unit from an elite regiment at his own insistence, despite having absolutely no previous experience with dragons. As a leader, he suffers from terrible mood swings, switching between being needlessly harsh and overbearing towards his subordinates and outwardly nice and friendly. He also has a very delicate ego, and likes to vent his frustration over any slight (real or imagined) -- no matter how petty it is -- on his troops. However, he is still an experienced soldier in his own right, shows considerable personal bravery in combat and after watching his soldiers getting killed in a horrible manner during the battle at Tog Utbek, he undergoes a change into a genuine FatherToHisMen.

* General George Hammond from ''Series/StargateSG1'' was originally intended to be such a character, as this was how most commanding officers/superiors were treated in other television shows at the time[[note]]except for Creator/DonaldPBellisario's ''Series/{{JAG}}''[[/note]]. After talking with a U.S. Air Force consultant -- who pointed out that a man who rose to Hammond's position wouldn't have got there if he had no respect for his inferiors, and vice versa -- he was rewritten to be the show's ReasonableAuthorityFigure. Multiple times he's shown bending the rules or outright breaking them to get the job done.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In "Valiant", Tim Watters, the Acting Captain of Red Squad, has deluded himself into thinking that he is destined for greatness which causes him to lead his squad of inexperienced cadets on a suicidal mission that gets them all killed. Even worse is his second in command Farris who, instead of demonstrating actual leadership qualities, bullies and berates others into line.

* In ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyBattle'' 3rd Edition scenario "Fornerond's Last Stand", the High Elf general Fornerond Breezenimble (who happens to get killed immediately ''before'' the actual battle) is described to have been a completely incompetent nincompoop.

* In ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'', the Nora brave [[HateSink Resh]] is named acting War Chief of the tribe in the absence of the regular War Chief, Sona, having gone missing during a disastrous reprisal attack against Eclipse after their slaughter at the Proving. Few of the remaining braves and volunteers are happy about it, and certainly not [[PlayerCharacter Aloy]], whom he has a particular beef against because she is an Outcast elevated to a Brave, and then to a Seeker. Thankfully, there is a quest to find Sona and get her back to take command again.

* [[GeneralFailure Pturdd]] from ''Webcomic/SecondEmpire''. He's obsessed with glorious victory (and getting the credit for it) until he's shown, forcefully that he's not fit to lead a parade.
* Bojack from ''WebComic/DragonBallMultiverse'', according to the novelization.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': Admiral Konstantine, an arrogant and incompetent GloryHound who only ever accomplishes anything when someone like [[MagnificentBastard Grand Admiral Thrawn]] is babysitting him, [[UngratefulBastard which he repays with resentment]]. [[spoiler:This behavior ultimately gets him killed and costs the Empire a vital victory; during the siege of Atollon, Konstantine is ordered to keep his ship (an Interdictor not meant for direct combat) in a safe position so the Rebels cannot escape via [[FasterThanLightTravel hyperspeed]], only to instead chase after Commander Sato's cruiser for the sake of recognition. Naturally, it turns out Sato was [[ISurrenderSuckers faking a retreat]] so he could [[TakingYouWithMe turn and ram the Interdictor]], destroying it and killing everyone on-board.]]

* In UsefulNotes/WorldWarII General Lloyd Fredendall was one of the original commanders of Operation Torch (the American invasion of North Africa). Once on the ground in Africa Fredendall had his headquarters built 70 miles behind the front lines, which was viewed as cowardly by both the troops under his command and by his peers and superiors. From there he proceeded to issue unsound commands that showed little grasp of military tactics, including a tendency to place infantry in positions where they could not receive decent air or artillery support. By most reports, Fredendall was a swaggering, cocky man who did not listen to his subordinates. Even more unfortunately, his adversary in the campaign was [[MagnificentBastard General Erwin Rommel]] and his famed Afrika Korps. After the American defeat at Kasserine Pass, Fredendall was relieved of command and replaced by George Patton, after which American forces actually started experiencing success in North Africa. The irony is that Fredenhall was an excellent logistician. He was sent back to Stateside, where he made more for the Army logistics than any other general.
* Patton himself has been accused of being more than a little of a martinet, far too concerned with the dress code in a combat zone (including the fact he demanded, and may even have gotten, front-line infantry to wear their ties), attacking Metz and the Vauban forts without proper preparation and demanding the attack continue after it became clear it was not going to succeed, and finally culminating late in the war with his famous tirade against a soldier who had been shot in the foot for cowardice (said soldier had already won a Silver Star for valor).
** Sergeant Bill Mauldin's ComicStrip/WillieAndJoe called him on his uniform obsession multiple times, eventually leading to Patton threatening to shut down ''Stars and Stripes'' altogether to stop troops from reading the strip. Eisenhower himself stepped in and shut Patton down over this, and ordered Patton to leave Mauldin strictly alone. Eisenhower understood that the Willie and Joe comics (which depicted a pair of low-ranking infantry soldiers on the front lines) were very good for morale [[ProtectionFromEditors and that Mauldin himself was highly regarded by the enlisted men]].
** Despite his dress code obsession, however, Patton was very much AFatherToHisMen in every other area. He displayed high favor to the frontline troops of his command, diverting provisions (such as wine, magazines, and any type of recreational material) to them, preferred leading from the front whenever he could afford to and, when on the few occasions when he realized he was in the wrong (such as the aforementioned accusation of cowardice), he would apologize and try to make things right as best as he could. As well, in spite of being somewhat racist (his family did descend from the Confederate South after all), Patton was among the first US Army commanders to show favor toward the African American troops of his command, both through emphasizing their importance and performance as soldiers to even going as far as having black judges assigned to any court-martials involving black soldiers. Generally (pardon the expression), Patton was more of AFatherToHisMen with some Neidermeyer traits than one or the other.
** Patton's diversion of provisions had a darker side, however, as he diverted them ''[[RightHandVersusLeftHand from other]] [[WeAreStrugglingTogether Allied armies]]''. His own army loved him, but ''everyone else'' hated him for stealing their food and leaving their men hungry... and unable to advance due to petrol and ammo shortages, leaving Patton's troops the only ones able to do so. This would've been alright if he'd been acting in the general interests of the entire Allied war effort, but 'make me look good' and 'win the war' are not compatible [[StrategyVersusTactics strategic-operational objectives]].[[note]]This was a failing common to all commanding generals; UsefulNotes/BernardLawMontgomery, given his chance in the Arnhem offensive, had massive resources diverted to him which temporarily hindered the American generals; General Mark Clark in Italy also saw to it that his Army got the lion's share of resources[[/note]] which Sadly, like [[UsefulNotes/NoMoreEmperors Joseph Stilwell]] and Douglas [=MacArthur=], Patton could not (easily) be fired because he had an extremely cosy relationship with the media and was very popular. Had he not died in an auto accident shortly after the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, he probably would have gone out like [=MacArthur=]. Namely, dismissed for being a political liability who put his own military glory first, and global consequences, no matter how dire, second.
* UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur had the abrasiveness and ego down pat, and his handling of the fall of the Philippines and the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar make his competence in doubt. Though it was not well known at the time (the US media loved portraying him as a messiah), [=MacArthur=] was more concerned with his personal image than ''almost'' anything else. Everything from his famous shades and corncob pipe image to his style of command and administration, from his tenure as Superintendent at West Point to Korea, were designed primarily for his personal glory. As well, he was infamously (within the US Army) prone to shower favor on toadies and surround himself with them and ignore constructive criticism. [[InterserviceRivalry His hatred of the Navies]] under his command was also infamous, and after his victory over Japan and tenure as "Shogun" there, he let a lot of his prior flaws bubble to his head and blow themselves out of proportion, which was a major reason why the early stages of the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar went as badly for the Western Allies as they did. Ultimately, "Dougout Doug" really was that badass on a lot of occasions, and he did truly care for his men, but it had to be pretty bad for those traits to become less visible than his glory-seeking.
** In command of Australians, he had none on his staff. In New Guinea, he never visited the front lines and thus never recognized how difficult the terrain was. Which led, on multiple occasions, to his relieving officers who were just about to win their battles because he felt they were doing it too slowly.
** [=MacArthur=] ''did'' manage to reform West Point, updating its curriculum for the first time in over a century using the lessons learned from UsefulNotes/WorldWarI (in which he was a genuinely effective ColonelBadass). His reforms didn't sit well with the Army establishment, which along with his other activities during the interwar period[[note]]including using force against [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_March World War One veterans seeking early payment of benefits during the Depression]][[/note]], only tarnished his reputation further. As did stealing credit from subordinates who planned and executed successful operations without [=MacArthur=]'s involvement, or undercutting other commanders. [[note]]In particular, the Inchon landing during the Korean War--in which [=MacArthur=] undercut Admiral James Doyle, who did most of the planning, before his immediate superior, and refused to invite ''any'' Marine Corps generals to the planning sessions despite the Marines constituting the bulk of the landing force![[/note]] His own personality didn't exactly help matters either: UsefulNotes/DwightEisenhower, his former aide-de-camp, when asked if he knew [=MacArthur=], replied, "Know him? [[DramaQueen I studied dramatics under him]] for seven years!"

* Captain Bligh had a reputation for this, but it's not really deserved: Yes, he flogged his men, but it was only because flogging was the mandatory punishment in the British Navy at the time. In fact, he was considered ''lenient'' compared to the other officers in the Navy. Yes, conditions were overcrowded on the ''Bounty'', but only because Bligh couldn't say no to friends and relatives who needed jobs for their friends and relatives. And when they finally got to Otaheite (later Tahiti), Bligh let his men run around and do whatever they wanted for the five months they remained. The conditions that led to the famous mutiny were largely made out of a desperate need to get his by-now rather lax crew into some semblance of order and competency. In short, the supposed tyrant's greatest crime was being too accommodating.
** Plus, after their mutiny, the crew returned to Tahiti and began treating the natives little better than slaves. Eventually the natives rebelled and killed nearly all of them.
** The famed Mutiny on the ''Bounty'' was not the last time Bligh faced a mutiny of those under him. His overly strict and by-the-book attempts to enforce discipline when he was made Governor of New South Wales sparked off the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rum_Rebellion Rum Rebellion]].
** Honestly, Bligh actually genuinely aspired to be AFatherToHisMen. He had served under Captain Cook during Cook's famed expeditions to Hawaii and learned much on how to run a ship under him. He packed foods, such as sauerkraut that were reputed to help ward off scurvy, and as noted above, flogged where legally demanded and not "just because", and often commuted capital offenses to flogging when he could. His failings were a very harsh tongue and something of a taskmaster mentality.
** As for competence: After being ejected from the ''Bounty'' with the crew that stayed loyal, Bligh sailed an overcrowded ship's boat with little food and water and the crudest of navigational aids on a massive journey across open seas to reach modern-day Indonesia, with the loss of only one crew member. The other men on the boat acknowledged that it was due to Bligh's nautical skills.
** Bligh's discipline also ensured that the sick and weak were not abandoned to their fate but were the first to get fed when the boat's crew managed to kill a seabird etc.
* Hermann Goering, by 1945, was called the most hated man in Germany because of his obsession with fame, glory, BlingOfWar, and rampant egomania. Given [[ThoseWackyNazis the competition]] at the time, it's quite an achievement. Göring was a perfect example of ThePeterPrinciple. A brilliant AcePilot (22 victories and Blue Max) and a competent wing commander, he found his level of [[GeneralFailure total incompetentness]] as Reichsmarschall. His desire to have ''his'' Luftwaffe deal the killing blow to the [=BEF=] instead of the regular army was one of the reasons they were able to evacuate at Dunkirk to fight another day. His later attempt to resupply the trapped 6th Army at Stalingrad by air despite the Luftwaffe never being designed around such a mission, let alone one at the limits of their own supply chain and incredibly harsh winter weather conditions, only resulted in a disorganized mess that not only failed to save 6th Army but cost large numbers of planes and pilots lost in the effort. When the regime was on its last legs, he unsuccessfully tried to usurp power from Hitler at the last second, and was unrepentant during his trial for war crimes, firmly believing history would vindicate him as a German national hero.
* UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. By the end of the War, many of his own men--particularly his generals--wanted him dead more than the Allies due to his repeated strategic blunders (the Allies stopped trying to kill him, fearing someone ''competent'' would take his place). Indeed, a few senior officers such as Claus von Stauffenberg, (many of them [[OfficerAndAGentleman Junkers]]-contrary to [[NaziNobleman common belief]], the German nobility generally disdained or even outright hated Hitler, who returned the sentiment), participated with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_July_Plot a plot to assassinate Hitler]] in 1944. It failed. [[SarcasmMode On the bright side]], it inspired the film ''Film/{{Valkyrie}}''.
** After the defeat in Stalingrad (a defeat that occurred purely due to Hitler's personal strategic intervention) Hitler went from "makes unreasonable demands and interferes in well-made plans" to "detached from reality". The famous stories from his war room are that he would regularly issue orders to units that no longer existed or were so undermanned they might as well not exist, then when his plans didn't work out, would blame the subordinate who was "responsible". Most Generals were lucky enough that they would simply be demoted or put somewhere out of the way (legendary General Guderian was one example), however some were not so lucky and would be executed for cowardice or "defying orders".
** One well-known story from the war is that when the Normandy invasion began, Panzer groups sat idly by while the Allies invaded. The reason? Because they needed Adolf's ordered permission to get into the battle. He did not give it until late in the day, because ''he was asleep''. And ''nobody'' wanted to be the one to wake him up and tell him the bad news.
* Captain Herbert Sobel, former commander of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101 Airborne. He was incompetent, petty, a DrillSergeantNasty, and a complete {{Jerkass}}. Many say that his MoralEventHorizon was raiding his troop's rooms and confiscating everything from magazines to non-regulation clothing. When he was replaced, [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing everybody was happy]]. While he was almost universally hated by every man who trained under him, those same men almost universally say that it was Sobel who made E Company into the elite unit it was ''because'' of his {{Jerkass}}, overly harsh treatment. (Yes, the portrayal of him in ''Series/BandOfBrothers'' is widely agreed to be ''perfectly accurate''.) That being said, he was good at training troops and logistics but was a failure at leading combat operations and keeping the respect of his men. The horrors of the war and his shame of losing command of E Company and his men's respect (hardly anyone kept in touch with him after the war) lead to a botched suicide that left him blind. He died from neglect while in a nursing facility.
** An even more infamous example from the same war and company (and eventual miniseries) is 1st Lt. Norman Dike. He's been accused of delegating all duty to lower officers and [=NCOs=] during his tenure, and for disappearing from the front lines for hours at a time during the Battle of the Bulge; many of the men under (and over) him accused him of simply using the E Company assignment as a way to get "field experience" before continuing his climb up the ladder. Most infamous, however, is his historically documented ''meltdown'' during the assault on Foy, Belgium. While trying to lead E Company on the Foy attack, he completely froze up from terror and was unable to give any commands at all, aside from one order for Easy to halt their advance into the town... in the middle of an open field. He was famously relieved of duty by [[MemeticBadass Ronald Spiers]], who would go on to lead E Company to victory in Foy. After this incident, Dike was quickly drummed out of the Airborne and was lucky to not be kicked out of the Army wholesale. Wiki/TheOtherWiki implies he had fought bravely and well in Normandy and got wounded twice. It is assumable he had become a ShellShockedVeteran. At least one account from the men on the ground in Foy imply that he had been shot which would explain his fear and inaction.
** Spiers Himself had [[GeneralRipper other issues]]. It was suspected that he murdered several Germans that had been captured. This was especially egregious as one of the captured soldiers was a German American who thought he was doing the right thing by joining his German relatives. He was a bit of a {{glory hound}} willing [[CowboyCop to do anything to get the job done]]. In fact, Spiers's attitude and actions were encouraged by their superiors and led to a lot of questionable decisions both tactically and morally. He almost executed an American soldier without a trial at one point for shooting a respected superior officer. In Spiers's case, his recklessness worked out in his favor but had the army followed regulations he would have been removed and investigated for war crimes.
* This happens often when the former military people end up in the areas where the less straightforward methods are the norm. A good IT example would be Bob Belleville, Apple's Software Manager for the original Macintosh development team. The guy was an alumnus of the same Xerox PARC lab as were most other Mac people, but his stint in the Navy had shifted his priorities somewhat. He once almost fired one of the critical OS developers over a dispute about the crucial part of software he felt was unneeded, and drove the chief OS architect to tears and filing his resignation (during the critical period of the OS development) because of his supposed ''insubordination''. In both cases, only a good chewing-out by Steve Jobs himself made him relent somewhat.
** A common problem with former military ''is'' [[StrangerInAFamiliarLand re-socializing to the civilian world]]. Once you spend a long enough time in, it takes time to get used to the less formal (in appearance) environment of the civilian workforce. There are reasons why former military are often seen in jobs with known chains of command.
** People who worked for Steve Jobs and left tend to have this view of him, considering his high standards. But since he led Apple from nearly dead in the water to having more liquid assets than the US government in 10 years, people skirt by this.

* Similarly, virtually every officer in the pre-Russo-Japanese war UsefulNotes/{{Tsarist Russia}}n military, because of the brutal means of discipline and strict social class differences. Almost all officers came from the privileged nobility, while the enlisted men were almost all [[SlaveMook force-levied conscripts]]. One particular example was Lieutenant Ippolit Giliarovsky on pre-dreadnought battleship ''Potemkin'', whose uppity, cocky and bullying behaviour sparked the mutiny immortalized on Sergei Eisenstein's ''Film/BattleshipPotemkin''.
** Note that this had changed by UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, largely as a result of the reforms that came in the wake of the embarrassing stalemate that was [[UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5]]. In 1913, 40% of the Officer Academies' graduates were landless gentry (i.e. families with titles, but little or no money), and another 40% were of the lower-middle class and peasantry. Only 20% of graduates were from land-owning and/or middle-middle-to-upper-class families. This was a drastically lower proportion than in Germany, wherein the Army's officer corps was overwhelmingly aristocratic. Unlike in contemporary Germany, the Imperial Russian army was actually a means for 'upward' social mobility. The [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy]] officers, who served as liaison officers, were appalled by the Russian Imperial Navy's brutal discipline and the incompetence of the officers. The Russian Imperial Navy used corporal punishments, which had been abandoned already in the Napoleonic times in the Royal Navy. The disaster in the Russo-Japanese war forced the Russians to reform.
** The Soviet military was markedly better, as the Soviet Union placed extremely heavy emphasis on military preparedness after the 22nd of July 1941 (for understandable reasons). However, a culture of ''dedovschina'' ('rule of the grandfathers') developed, whereby senior conscripts were encouraged by the hierarchy to inflict extremely brutal hazing and bullying upon junior conscripts. The practice is responsible for as many as 3,000 deaths per year, although the Russian Defense Ministry classifies most of those as 'suicides'. The practice was partly responsible for the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strozhevoi_mutiny Strozhevoi]]'' Mutiny, the attempted defection of a Soviet frigate to Sweden in 1975. Lowering the mandatory service period from two years to one year has eased the problem somewhat, but it still remains endemic to the Russian military even in the post-Soviet era.
*** The Russian military makes zero attempt to investigate the deaths of or get autopsies on its recruits unless they exceed 3 deaths per 500 personnel per month. [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch Even so, the investigations are not renowned for their thoroughness or impartiality.]]
*** It doesn't help that the Soviet military set the standard for placing "politically reliable" (i.e. regime loyal) officers to high command positions over those who possessed real skills. This resulted in the Soviet General Staff becoming top heavy with Neidermeyers who were more concerned with BlingOfWar and [[MilesGloriosus Miles Gloriosusism]] than commanding soldiers effectively, in turn leading to the stereotype of communist militaries being led by {{General Failure}}s who were either fanatical or had gained their position through Party connections (namely through familial relations). An attempted balance for this was capital punishment (such as firing squads) being the standard reprisal for failure (infamous Dmitry Pavlov, whose Western Special Military District bore the brunt of the German offensive in 1941, as a prime example); however, this practice was abandoned soon after first Soviet defeats in 1941, when Stalin learnt that his supply of competent officers is not unlimited.
** This attitude affected even the competent Soviet Generals, such as Marshal Zhukov. They were aware that if they preserved the lives of their men at the cost of victory, their own necks would be in line. So they would often opt for very costly victories in men and material even for relatively insignificant gains. This would affect their postwar reputations: when Zhukov was in favor, he was the great military leader who won the war; when he wasn't, he was the butcher whose victories were built on a lot of needless sacrifice.
* Soviet General Grigory Kulik had a reputation of being erratic and a murderous buffoon. His personal command motto was: "Jail, or Medal." People under his command who he favored would receive (undeserved) honors, while those he didn't would be arrested for whatever reason he could think of. He would then shout his motto at his 'favored' subordinates to intimidate them if they were starting to displease him. Not only this, he was a stupendously inept officer who had no understanding of tactics and resisted all military innovations (such as tanks, rocket artillery, minefields, and sub-machine guns, all of which were effective). The only reason he survived for so long when other much more competent generals did not was because he himself had the personal favor of Stalin. He finally lost it after the end of WWII, when he was overheard criticizing Stalin. He was soon arrested and eventually executed.
* Second Lieutenant William Calley, commanding officer of the platoon that perpetrated the [[UsefulNotes/VietnamWar My Lai massacre]], was regarded as incompetent (for starters, he couldn't even read a map or compass properly) and there had been discussions already within the platoon of fragging him. It's occasionally been noted that Calley was a product of Robert S. [=MacNamara's=] "Project 100,000," which sought to expand the US Army's numbers cheaply by lowering standards across the board. Had it not been for that failed initiative, most agree that Calley wouldn't have even been allowed in the Army, much less put in charge of anything.
** And his superior, Captain Ernest Medina, was little better. Medina was a martinet who openly harassed Calley, pushing him over the edge. It is suggested Medina himself ordered My Lai to be destroyed. Medina was an [[ThePeterPrinciple excellent NCO but a complete failure as an officer]].
* In the recently-published book ''The Generals'' by Thomas Ricks, the argument is made that the general officer corps of the US Army is overloaded with Neidermeyers (and several from World War Two to Iraq and Afghanistan are described), and it's only because of the competence of the enlisted, [[SergeantRock NCOs]], and [[FatherToHisMen good junior officers]] that this hasn't become more obvious.
** However, the wheels are starting to come off, and it's too late to tighten the lug nuts. Junior officers and senior NCO's, aware that the military is downsizing and completely fed up with incompetent leadership where the Neidermeyer is far too common, are hitting the door in ''droves.'' A great deal of their frustration was succinctly summed up in a devastating article written by an ''active duty'' lieutenant colonel. He boldly and honestly stated that a soldier who lost a rifle faced far greater consequences than a general who lost a battle or a war. Further, he observed that generals and admirals who commit rape and sexual harassment are protected by a "good old boys" system that ensures the worst that will happen to them is retirement with full pay and benefits. He ended the article by saying that junior personnel are fully aware that their leadership will throw them under a bus without a moment's hesitation.
** A huge problem in the modern military now is that hazing and harsh informal punishment is being curbed (which is good), but it's being replaced by sometimes worse legal and negative paperwork issued by petty or incompetent leaders. Such paperwork goes on people's personal record which can cause them to be unable to reenlist or convince to not even try. There's some huge criticism in regards to the fact anyone above the rank of Lt. Col. is promoted by Congress and not actual military personnel. Higher-level officers are often chosen more for their ability to play politics than their ability to lead.
* The term 'fragging' refers to dispatching an unpopular military officer with a fragmentation grenade. The reasoning was that bullets could be traced to individual rifles, but grenades could not, and would destroy other physical evidence. Apparently the process was that a verbal, informal mention of difficulties with an officer would be made. The next step was to place a grenade pin on the officer's pillow or another conspicuous place for him to find. If the message still wasn't coming across, a real grenade WITHOUT a pin would be placed in the general vicinity of the officer. In addition, apparently, the standing orders for a squad in Vietnam if their officer was killed was to return to base. Soldiers on a suicidal or otherwise dangerous mission sometimes were able to figure out the math on that one. They would skip the buildup with particularly incompetent, glory-crazed, or just plain abusive officers; if you were a big enough dick to your men or senselessly jeopardized their lives enough, odds are that a live grenade would just suddenly materialize in your tent and explode out of the blue, and no one would have any insight into how it happened.
* To US Airmen in Tech School (AF advanced training), "Ropes" often fall under this trope. Basically, they are to the USAF what prefects are to British schools - fellow students who come off as GungHolierThanThou {{Rules Lawyer}}s, ''and'' can get you in trouble for [[FelonyMisdemeanor even minor violations]] since becoming a "Rope" gives them a measure of authority to rat their fellow Airmen out to the sergeants.
* [[UsefulNotes/CheGuevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara]] was like this about half of the time more or less, depending on the source. While he was occasionally known for showing reckless bravery and some decent planning, at other times he was notably incompetent, fled from battle, and generally was a burden to his men. And he was verbally abusive to his men almost all the time and generally showed disdain for "Bourgeoise tactics" that hardly helped matters at all. He is perhaps most infamously known for his [[LastStand "last stand"]], where according to most accounts he left the rest of his unit to fight it out against the [[BolivianArmyEnding Bolivian soldiers attacking him]] before surrendering afterwards with two loaded and primed pistols. Though to be fair, he did surrender only after taking two bullets, and his last remaining comrade fought to the end to protect him. Despite leading revolutionaries in Africa, Guevara was overheard disparaging his local African fellow travelers, stating that black people did not have the intelligence to make communism work, and placing Afro-Cubans in his command over the native Congolese.
* A much-disliked pilot in the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, renowned for bratty manner, overloading his crew with irrational and unnecessary demands, and other failings in human management, insisted his hangar crew rename his plane after his girlfriend. He was not nice about it and did not ask - he ordered. The irritated crew painted the name "Phyllis" on the nose of his plane as ordered. The pilot pronounced himself satisfied. After a discreet interval, the letters "SY-" were painted in front of the name. The pilot did not notice. Everyone else on the carrier did.
* Lord Cardigan of UsefulNotes/TheCrimeanWar infamy provides a particularly odious example. He purchased the Lieutenant Colonelcy of the 15th Hussars, despite a complete lack of military experience (bypassing the regiment's senior Major, who'd fought at Waterloo and served for 30 years), and almost immediately transferred to the 11th Hussars through disagreements with his officers. Besides being a harsh drillmaster and disciplinarian he frequently antagonized his subordinates, especially those who'd served in India. He shot one officer in a duel, tried to cashier another for serving moselle at a champagne dinner, and had a secretary record the private conversations of his subordinates. Cardigan's wartime leadership of the Light Cavalry Brigade wasn't especially distinguished, leading them on a pointless reconnaissance that achieved little but exhausting the men and losing valuable horses. While he showed courage during the Brigade's famous charge, he turned back immediately after reaching the Russian guns, believing it ungentlemanly to fight amongst private soldiers. Soon after he returned to England and was KickedUpstairs rather than given another field command.
* Italy's own [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Cadorna Luigi Cadorna]] was a strict disciplinarian whose main tactic was to have his men charge into the enemy lines... And he was the ''commander-in-chief'' at the start of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, succeeding a much more loved general who had died of a heart attack. For obvious reasons, he got ultimately sacked, and his name is still hated in Italy. Ironically, he also had a large share of the merit for Italy's ultimate victory on their front, as he understood the devastating power of artillery and machine guns from the start and, fighting his own {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s, managed to reform the army to take advantage of the machine guns and equipped it with one of the largest artillery parks in the war, meaning that, by the time he got sacked, all Italy needed to win was a competent general as commander-in-chief, and his replacement was rather good.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius_Arnheiter Marcus Aurelius Arnheiter]], dangerously close to a real-life Captain Queeg. Commanding a destroyer escort during the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar, he alienated his crew with bombastic religious services, obsessive attention to detail, and harsh disciplinary actions. Like the fictional Queeg, he so alienated his crewmen that they started keeping a log of his irrational actions. Two particular sore points involved the color of Arnheiter's toilet seat and his apparent breakdown in combat. Eventually, Arnheiter's superiors received enough complaints that they relieved him of command. However, Arnheiter appealed the decision and the resultant legal proceedings and press coverage proved a huge embarrassment to the Navy.

* Lieutenant Wolfe in ''Film/{{Platoon}}'', the leader of the titular platoon. An incompetent coward who is unable to control his own soldiers, he lets Elias and Barnes do as they like (and the only order he gives is to burn down the village). US Army leadership classes have used Wolfe as an example of how a junior officer should ''not'' behave.

* Lieutenant Pavlov Dill in ''Film/StarshipTroopers2HeroOfTheFederation'' was one of these, though he's more incompetent than mean.

* Captain Stillman from ''Film/{{Stripes}}''.

* The TropeNamer is the blowhard ROTC commander Douglas C. Neidermeyer from ''Film/AnimalHouse''. It's doubly ironic because being in the ROTC doesn't make you part of any military branch, meaning Neidermeyer is just a civilian playing pretend. The WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue reveals that he ended up being [[UnfriendlyFire shot by his own troops]] in Vietnam. In the John Landis-directed segment of ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'', we even meet the soldiers who shot him.

* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': In this ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' Franchise/MonsterVerse fanfiction, [[Characters/AbraxasHrodvitnonHumans Alan Jonah]] doesn't start out as this but he quickly ends up this way as his SanitySlippage progresses. Two of Jonah's soldiers are outraged that Jonah doesn't even think about his men's welfare when refusing to get them away from the severed Ghidorah head's BrownNote, and once Jonah's [[spoiler:TestedOnHumans is exposed]], one of the {{Mook Lieutenant}}s is blinded by rage, whilst another of Jonah's troops doesn't need much further prompting bfore she pulls a ScrewThisImOuttaHere.

* ''Film/KongSkullIsland'': [[Characters/MonsterVerseSkullIslandExpedition Lieutenant Colonel Packard]] by the end. While he seems to be AFatherToHisMen, he has no problem with putting his obsession to kill Kong over the safety of whoever remains in his group. His men in turn are at first loyal to him, but once they realize just how far off the deep end Packard has gone and [[spoiler:Slivko is the first one to mutiny]], Packard loses all command over them.

* In ''Film/TheDirtyDozen'', Wladislaw is in prison awaiting execution for shooting his commanding officer, who, according to Wladislaw, was absconding over the hill with all of his unit's medical supplies.

* Captain Harris in the ''Film/PoliceAcademy'' series. Like many other examples on this page, his heart only beats for the thought of a promotion and a chance to fire, or failing that, humiliate the meddlin' upshoots as well as he can. This being a humorous series, [[ButtMonkey he always ends up humiliated himself]].
* Lieutenant Wolfe in ''Film/{{Platoon}}'', the leader of the titular platoon. An incompetent coward who is unable to control his own soldiers, he lets Elias and Barnes do as they like (and the only order he gives is to burn down the village). US Army leadership classes have used Wolfe as an example of how a junior officer should ''not'' behave.
* Colonel Pitts in ''Film/TheEagleHasLanded''. Piqued at being ordered back to the US (he is considered too inexperienced to participate in D-Day) he launches an attack on the church where the German Fallschirmjager (paratroops) are holed up without doing a proper recon, completely missing the germans hidden at various points in the village and wiping out his entire platoon; to top it all he gets killed by Joanna Grey while trying to kill her with a grenade; since they were played by Creator/LarryHagman and Jean Marsh respectively this spawned a thousand t-shirts saying "Rose (from ''Series/UpstairsDownstairs'') Shot J.R! (from ''Series/{{Dallas}}'')"
* Captain Jae-oh in the 2011 UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar film ''Film/TheFrontLine''. He doesn't fare better than the officer he replaced by not listening to valuable advice of the more experienced non-coms, threatening subordinates at gunpoint for not listening to orders, and making terrible tactical decisions as a result. He finally crosses the line when he chooses to hold the line as ordered to by the higher-ups, essentially ordering his men to their deaths. [[spoiler:It's no wonder he ends up with the exact same [[UnfriendlyFire fate]] as the previous captain]].
* Major Erich Kaempffer in ''Film/TheKeep''. He's a ruthless, narrow-minded bully, even by the standards of the insanely brutal SS Einsatzkommando. When German soldiers begin dying under mysterious circumstances, Kaempffer is sent to handle what the SS believes to be the work of LaResistance. His first act on arriving is to have three people shot for unclear reasons, take over from the more experienced Captain Woermann and generally ignore everything he says. Bizarrely, after being led to believe Glaeken can be useful to him in discovering the identity of the keep's owner(s) when Glaeken resists arrest, kills an SS soldier, and is then shot and seemingly killed himself, Kaempffer not only doesn't care about his dead man but also doesn't seem to realize that the ''one'' (as far as he knew) probable link to finding out what he so desperately wanted to know just got shot off of a cliff.
* Lt. Monroe, the quartermaster at Navrin Field in ''Film/{{Fortress|2012}}'', is an asshole in every possible way. Luckily he's only in charge of the supply depot.
* Two in ''Film/HornetsNest'':
** Colonel Jannings, who smugly says that the Della Norte Dam that the Americans want to destroy is impregnable, over the objections of Wehrmacht officer Captain von Hecht. He insists further their "obvious" target is the Grimaldi Tunnel. Surprise, surprise, the dam is in von Hecht's district, while the tunnel is in Jannings'. Although never said outright, Jannings appears to be attempting to discredit the outspoken, anti-Nazi (or at least anti-SS) von Hecht and wrest control from a defanged Wehrmacht by insisting resources and men be sent to ''him'', not von Hecht. We never do get to see what his reaction is when he's told the dam got blown up, sadly.
** Major Taussig, one of Jannings' subordinates. Like his superior, practically everything goes in one ear and out the other, and even when actual evidence comes up, he ignores it if clashes with what he previously believed. [[spoiler:Von Hecht ends up growing tired of his stubbornness and lack of foresight, and just plain frags him, 'Nam style.]]
* The MP sergeant in ''Film/TheIngloriousBastards''. All he has to do is transport the Bastards to a prison, but he has to be an arrogant and abusive jerk about it. When some of the prisoners attempt to escape during a German air raid, the sergeant shoots them in the back. [[spoiler:Tellingly, when the prisoners turn the tables on their captors, the sergeant is one of the only ones they kill]].
* Film/MyWay: Pretty much every single commanding officer Jun-shik follows.
** Colonel Tatsuo forms suicide squads from his garrison and in the face of a hopeless battle against Soviet tanks, refuses to call retreat for the remnant of the Japanese forces.
** A Russian Commissar sends a group of POW conscripts into a kill zone of the German forces, also shooting anyone who tries to retreat.
** At D-Day, a German officer locks Jun-Shik and Tatsuo in a room with two machine guns, forcing them to fight off the American landing.
* Oberleutnant von Nogay from ''Film/CKDezerterzy''. Loudmouthed, abusive and cruel. When his commanding officer, Major Wagner, [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech chews him out for brutalizing the soldiers]], von Nogay goes as far as to threaten him.

* ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985'': Rhodes is this trope to an almost ridiculous degree. Constantly screaming at everyone around, attempting to take control of every situation by force, ordering his men to kill people for minor offenses... they really should have found someone more mentally stable to be in his position. Granted, his command has really only just started as the film opens. As at least one of the CO's above him (Commander Cooper) has just died.
* General Thunderbolt Ross from the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse is one too, only caring about preserving his military career and even viewed with disdain for his disgraceful actions by fellow military members who are also superheroes ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, ComicBook/TheFalcon and ComicBook/WarMachine.
* Col. Owen Devereaux in ''Film/TheManFromColorado'' is regarded by his troops as a terrible martinet. (This is actually another manifestation of the SanitySlippage that is turning him into a BloodKnight.) It is best demonstrated by his arresting Sgt. Jericho Howard for dereliction of duty for drinking instead of being on sentry duty...one the day the war ended!
* Lt. Col Brett C. Shelton, his second-in-command Major Ellis and the headmaster Colonel Cochran in ''Film/ChildsPlay3''.

* ''Series/SpaceAboveAndBeyond'' had a couple appear in different episodes:
** Lt. Col. Ray Butts quickly earns the ire of every member of the 58th when he assumes command, drilling them hard in exercises that seem only to highlight his own skills. Played with, however, in that he is ultimately revealed to genuinely care about the Marines under his command.
** Lt. Herrick zigzags this trope, in that despite his actions and attitude, the men under his command revere him, while those of equal or higher rank are disgusted.

* Lt. Col Brett C Shelton, his second-in-command Major Ellis and the headmaster Colonel Cochran in ''Film/ChildsPlay3''.

* Captain Queeg of Herman Wouk's ''Literature/TheCaineMutiny'', and the movie and play (''The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial'') based on it, could almost be the TropeNamer. It is often used in media as an alternate name for this trope.

** Started a (confirmed) drag race with another destroyer that nearly resulted in a collision; the ships came within 300 feet of each other. A [[http://www.militarycorruption.com/Images/near-miss.jpg photo]] from the deck of Graf's ship shows the vessel heading straight toward the other. To make it worse, when the bridge crew went to sound a collision alarm (so all hands could brace and ready repairs), Graf ordered them to not sound the alarm. Such an alarm, after all, would have to be noted in the ship's logs. That would mean she'd have to explain why she endangered two very expensive ships and a couple hundred lives in a pissing contest.

This trope goes often goes hand in hand with ThePeterPrinciple: the leader has simply advanced, or been promoted, to a level too high for his capabilities.

* ''Anime/ValkyrieDriveMermaid'': [[AlphaBitch Charlotte]] is second in authority only to Akira, and is this trope to a ridiculous degree. Taking every possible opportunity to KickTheDog, resorting to [[AttackAttackAttack violence]] and [[MurderIsTheBestSolution murder]] for every little thing... [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Akira of all people]] ''really'' should have found a more mentally stable person to be in Charlotte's position.

[[folder: FanWorks]]

* Lt. Gorman in ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' certainly qualifies for this, due to his relative inexperience, GeneralFailure at managing the alien attack, [[ArmchairMilitary rear-echelon tactics]] and the resulting lack of respect from his troops. However, this is subverted later in the story in that he tries to apologise for being a bad officer, has no trouble submitting command to a more experienced and competent subordinate and shows great personal bravery, even attempting to save the Marine who despised him the most.

* Captain Ramsey in ''Film/CrimsonTide'' is an enormous jerk to his entire crew aboard the [[UsefulNotes/SuperiorFirePowerMissileSubmarines SSBN]] under his command. When informed by his XO, Lt. Commander Hunter that crew morale is low and that they might need some words of encouragement from their beloved captain, Ramsey takes the opportunity to chew them all out over the intercom for being lazy and feckless. Later, Ramsey goes into full-blown GeneralRipper mode when he is convinced that his orders to fire the missiles has not been countermanded, despite a cutoff in communications right when the counter-order is sent. He is even ready to start shooting officers when most of the crew mutinies to avert a nuclear apocalypse.

** Lt Marty Pascal, the executive officer of the submarine ''Stingray'', gets his comeuppance when he tries to mutiny against Dodge and ''no one'' will stand with him. Dodge and the crew dress as pirates, blindfold him and force him to WalkThePlank - right into the net of a fishing ship that takes him back to base. He ''thought'' they were actually going to kill him, though.
** Rear Admiral Graham counts too. He is only concerned with his career and his idea for what the US Navy should be like. He specifically gives Dodge a RagtagBunchOfMisfits crew he personally selected, all of them rejects from his "perfect Navy" (although one of them is put on the ''Stingray'' because he's ''too'' good at his job). He pulls rank on the commander of the ''Orlando'' and then orders Knox's men around like a bunch of recruits, smugly claiming that "the Admiral has the con". He's also a StrawHypocrite, as he himself cheats his way through war games in order to improve his standing but feels completely justified in that (even though the whole point of this particular exercise is to explore the potential vulnerability of the Navy to an unorthodox terrorist with an old diesel sub).

* Lieutenant Wolfe in ''Film/{{Platoon}}'', the leader of the titular platoon. An incompetent coward who is unable to control his own soldiers, he lets Elias and Barnes do as they like (and the only order he gives is to burn down the village). US Army leadership classes have used Wolfe an example of how a junior officer should ''not'' behave.

* Captain Jae-oh in the 2011 UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar film, ''Film/TheFrontLine''. He doesn't fare better than the officer he replaced by not listening to valuable advice of the more experienced non-coms, threatening subordinates at gunpoint for not listening to orders and making terrible tactical decisions as a result. He finally crosses the line when he chooses to hold the line as ordered to by the higher-ups, essentially ordering his men to their deaths. [[spoiler:It's no wonder he ends up with the exact same [[UnfriendlyFire fate]] as the previous captain]].
* Major Erich Kaempffer in ''Film/TheKeep''. He's a ruthless, narrow-minded bully, even by the standards of the insanely brutal SS Einsatzkommando. When German soldiers begin dying under mysterious circumstances, Kaempffer is sent to handle what the SS believes to be the work of LaResistance. His first act on arriving is to have three people shot for unclear reasons, take over from the more experienced Captain Woermann and generally ignore everything he says. Bizarrely, after being led to believe Glaeken can be useful to him in discovering the identity of the keep's owner(s), when Glaeken resists arrest, kills an SS soldier and is then shot and seemingly killed himself, Kaempffer not only doesn't care about his dead man but also doesn't seem to realize that the ''one'' (as far as he knew) probable link to finding out what he so desperately wanted to know just got shot off of a cliff.

** While not in a military organization, Sergeant Fred Colon quickly becomes this after being promoted to Acting Captain in ''Literature/TheFifthElephant''. By the time Carrot returns to resume authority, Colon has fired or driven off all members of the Watch, with only a handful hanging around informally enforcing the law. Fred's an unusually sympathetic example because he's not a bad man, he's just [[ThePeterPrinciple been handed much more responsibility than he's qualified for]] and he knows it, but he's the most senior sergeant by date of rank and semi-official third in command after Vimes and Carrot so he's kind of stuck with it. The massive amount of stress he's under is impairing his judgement to the point where he's on the edge of a breakdown, and in the last scene from his point of view before the action switches back to Uberwald he's redused to staring at the wall and whispering, [[MadnessMantra "Commander Vimes is going to go spare..."]] [[spoiler:Luckily for Fred, Sam is a bit preoccupied when he gets back, and by the time he arrives to reclaim his office Carrot has sorted it all out.]]
** Vimes hasn't promoted Fred from Sergeant (or Nobby from Corporal) because despite the fact they're senior to almost ''everybody'' in the Watch (Colon even has seniority on His Grace himself), they're perfectly happy in the ranks they hold and '''really''' aren't suited for anything higher anyway.
** Actually, nearly every general in the armies of the Sto Plains (the area in which Ankh-Morpork lies) counts as this, since their general battle strategy is to hurl their men at the enemy and receive "glorious casualties", since apparently the number of fallen men equals how great the battle was for them. If they actually win anything, that's a nice albeit unimportant bonus. They see the famous general Tacticus as a dishonorable military leader because he had the distinct tendency to win battles and wars and bring most of his soldiers back alive. The official metric goes something like this: First, both sides throw their men at each other. Then, you subtract ''your'' casualties from ''their'' casualties, and "if the answer is a positive sum, it was a glorious victory".

* A couple generals in Urtho's army in ''[[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar The Black Gryphon]]''. Troops of all species dread being placed under their command because they're known for using tactics which would be gloriously victorious if they ever worked, but since they never work, are instead suicidally stupid. [[spoiler:It eventually turns out they're traitors, and they plan on losing every time.]]

** That wasn't being a competent officer. That was being the same idiot he'd always been and happening to get lucky this time. As his aide-de-camp later (frequently) reminisces.

* Averted in ''Literature/TheWarAgainstTheChtorr'' ("A Matter for Men"). The hero Jim [=McCarthy=], having just been made an officer after killing a rampaging Chtorran; tries to bully [[HotScientist Dr. Fletcher]] out of some Chtorran specimens. First, she takes him down a peg by showing [=McCarthy=] that the Chtorran he 'killed' is still very much alive. Then she points out that everyone wants to look up to their superiors, so an officer's job is to ''inspire'' people, not boss them about. She finishes by congratulating [=McCarthy=] on his shooting and asks him to bring flowers next time. [=McCarthy=] is highly embarrassed, but learns from the experience. In "A Season for Slaughter" however, when pushed too far by incompetent Major Bellus, [=McCarthy=] doesn't educate this Neidermeyer, he demolishes him. On worldwide live television.

* The International Fleet is full of them in the second ''Literature/FormicWars'' trilogy (prequels to ''Literature/EndersGame''). Colonel Vaganov is an especially dangerous example because he's very smart and good at playing the career game. He quickly singles Mazer out as a competent marine and does what he can to use Mazer for his own advancement. When Mazer disobeys his self-serving order for the good of humanity, Vaganov has him arrested and treated inhumanely, thinking that Mazer is playing his own career game and is trying to undermine Vaganov, before sending him to be court-martialed by an admiral, who's a good friend of his. WordOfGod is that the authors had to add this element to he prequels in order to stay true to the one-off line about Mazer from the original novel involving him being court-martialed twice and being largely unknown. The only way for someone like him to be court-martialed would be for the IF to be full of corrupt careerists, who resent competent officers and sabotage them. The ''Mazer in Prison'' comic (taking place between the prequels and the original novel) has Mazer holding himself hostage in order to force the IF to replace the careerists with competent officers. It works.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** Commandant Mele-on Grayza, as well. She's outright ''incompetent'' in executing her attempt to recapture Moya, totally inept managing diplomacy with the Scarrans, and is harsh and unforgiving of her subordinates, and berates [[AFatherToHisMen Braca]] for actually ''listening'' to what his people are telling him (case in point: Braca accepts the explanation of a Peacekeeper weapons tech who tries to advise him that a Leviathan-killing missile is not ready for active deployment, but Grayza overrules him and forces him to order its use anyway. Sure enough, Moya's crew figures out a way to fool its tracking system. Grayza summarily sends the weapons tech to the Aurora Chair). It culminates at the end of season 4 with Grayza [[HonorBeforeReason ordering her ship to battle]] when her attempts to negotiate with the Scarrans break down (thanks in no small part to [[SpannerInTheWorks Crichton and his crew undermining the whole process to make sure the Scarrans can't get wormhole knowledge from a captive Scorpius]]) rather than go home in disgrace. It's ''really'' telling that when Braca relieves her of command and she orders him to be shot, ''no one'' is even inclined to follow her orders.

** Sgt. Major John "Fucking" Sixta who has more power than either of them -- and uses it to continually insist on personal grooming standards while allowing the company to abandon their ammo supply truck in enemy territory. In the final episode, Sixta [[spoiler:reveals that his psychotic obsession with the men's grooming standards was a Genghis Gambit to give them an outlet for their stress.]]

** Subverted in one episode where a group of British soldiers are brought in. Their wounds aren't life-threatening, but they're in a bad shape and need several weeks to recuperate. Their commanding officer shows up twice demanding that they be discharged and sent to the front as soon as possible, accusing them of laziness and calling Hawkeye a "mollycoddler". The third time he shows up, Hawkeye rushes to intervene, only to find him chatting amicably with the wounded, listening to their letters from home and generally acting like AFatherToHisMen. When Hawkeye asks him what brought on this change, the officer replies that he would never speak the way he had to someone who was dying or seriously injured, and his men know him well enough to realise that, so when he comes in demanding they return to action immediately, it reassures them that they're going to be okay and they don't lose hope, which he describes as "being cruel to be kind". Furthermore, the officer's decency is proved when Hawkeye tells him that giving tea to soldiers with abdominal wounds is giving them peritonitis; he immediately agrees to follow the doctor's advice and stop the practice.

* ''Series/OverThere'': Both of TheSquad's lieutenants. The first is nicknamed "Mad Cow" because "it's a disease that rots men's brains." The later one is shot in the back under ambiguous circumstances, with the finale leaving it open whether he was killed by the SergeantRock.

* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': Though a non-military example, Dr. Kelso is this to the entirety of Sacred Heart Hospital. This trope comes to the fore as a plot device in one episode when he becomes particularly inspired by ''this trope'' when a veteran lands in his hospital's care. The vet tells Kelso of his former sergeant's leadership, though ultimately the sergeant united the troops underneath him through their hate towards him. Against the backdrop of this, the hospital's productivity was falling as the staff were becoming to enveloped by an ongoing, literal coffeehouse debate around the [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror war in Iraq]]. Kelso resolves the issue by suddenly announcing that he was canceling the staff discount for coffee, except for his own. When asked to explain why, his response was "Why the hell not?" and to walk away. However, [[CharacterDevelopment ultimately subverts the trope]] in that he takes it upon himself to be the one they can all hate in order to unite them on a common front. After he retires, he becomes a [[CoolOldGuy pretty nice guy.]]

** Sarge is an awful leader, but a brilliant MadScientist. To date: three robots, one with a 10 megaton nuclear warhead hidden inside of it, one cyborg, one weather control machine, and one successful transfer of cyborg's organs into near-dead human.

** Tepet Lisara also qualifies. Out of jealousy, she got her cousin, an actually competent officer, removed from command, and devised the strategy that effectively ruined her House's standing within the Realm. Though that particular failure is never realized, she is still ReassignedToAntarctica for general incompetence, where she delights in assigning up and coming male officers to menial or suicidal tasks for petty amusement.

** Orson Perrault, the commander of the protagonists' air base, is this as well as corpulent, a horrible shot (he doesn't know that [[spoiler:how emptying the magazine into the doorway where the targets ''were'' when the lights went out is a bad idea]]), and without giving [[spoiler:Wardog Squadron and Pops]] a chance to explain themselves he assumes them all to be spies. Somewhat mitigated by the fact that [[spoiler:Hamilton convinced him that they were spies before they even landed, and that Pops had a past of his own that put him under suspicion.]]

* Admiral Greyfield of ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars: Days of Ruin]]''. A complete coward and a sub par commander who's greatest skills are taking credit for victories, and shifting blame for loses. He threatens executions for any failure to follow his orders to the letter, especially the order to win the battle. His cowardice is so much that he relentlessly hunts down any that don't adhere to absolute rule no matter how many of his own men are sacrificed or caught in the blast of the super weapon used to [[spoiler:[[NoKillLikeOverkill kill a single dissenting captain]]]], even resorting to executing enemies after surrender. [[spoiler:Lin even implied that he was a subpar commander at best and faked his results.]]
** "Captain" Waylon (Note the quotation marks), who unsurprisingly ends up working for Greyfield, is another example. After you rescue him and his unit (and he leaves), his wing men defect and join your unit specifically because he was this but they felt following him was the only way to stay alive in the apocalyptic wasteland.

* Due to the open ended nature of the story, it is entirely possible that both brothers in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' count as this. All of the mercs on both teams start haphazardly next to the other side, and can just run to battle in about 4 seconds, and everybody should die at least once. Given that the announcer seemed to be looking for this setup, it may be the brothers were intended to both become "the Neidermeyer".

* [[GeneralFailure Pturdd]] from ''Webcomic/SecondEmpire''. He's obsessed with glorious victory (and getting the credit for it) until he's shown, forcefullyv that he's not fit to lead a parade.

* Prince Zuko in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' started out the series disliked by his crew, as he constantly pushed them while hunting for Aang. He eventually got a little better when Iroh told the crew about Zuko's seriously messed up backstory, and Zuko risked his life to save a crewmember in the middle of a storm, allowing Aang to escape in the process. Zuko and the crew started to respect each other a little--at least enough for his second in command to stop challenging him to fights to the death.

** However, one incident that is largely forgotten is that Custer almost singlehandedly prevented a massacre when [[GeneralRipper Philip Sheridan]] ordered an assault against the starved, exhausted and defenseless remnants of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House. Custer, realizing that the surviving Confederates were in no physical or emotional condition to fight anyone and were completely encircled, rode in front of the Union Army frantically trying to stop the attack. Custer's actions managed to delay the attack long enough for the famous surrender to be negotiated. Custer may have been a psychotic nut-case but he had nothing on Sheridan.
** Custer led a cavalry force of 700 men to take out Sitting Bull and the 800 natives who had left a reservation. Ignoring his scouts (members of the Crow tribe) who told him the village they spotted had '''thousands''' of women and children and probably an equal number of warriors, he split his force in half to "trap" the enemy. Custer's own group, about 200 soldiers personally led by him, would end up facing at least 1800 Native American warriors, warriors who had just fought off the other half of his armed force which had attacked the village. The only survivor from Custer's group was a horse called Commanche which had nearly a dozen wounds from bullets, arrows and spears.

* In UsefulNotes/WorldWarII General Lloyd Fredendall was one of the original commanders of Operation Torch (the American invasion of North Africa). Once on the ground in Africa Fredendall had his headquarters built 70 miles behind the front lines, which was viewed as cowardly by both the troops under his command and by his peers and superiors. From there he proceeded to issue unsound commands that showed little grasp of military tactics, including a tendency to place infantry in positions where they could not receive decent air or artillery support. By most reports Fredendall was a swaggering, cocky man who did not listen to his subordinates. Even more unfortunately, his adversary in the campaign was [[MagnificentBastard General Erwin Rommel]] and his famed Afrika Korps. After the American defeat at Kasserine Pass, Fredendall was relieved of command and replaced by George Patton, after which American forces actually started experiencing success in North Africa. The irony is that Fredenhall was an excellent logistician. He was sent back to Stateside, where he made more for the Army logistics than any other general.

** Despite his dress code obsession however, Patton was very much a AFatherToHisMen in every other area. He displayed high favor to the frontline troops of his command, diverting provisions (such as wine, magazines and any type of recreational material) to them, preferred leading from the front whenever he could afford to and, when on the few occasions when he realized he was in the wrong (such as the aforementioned accusation of cowardice), he would apologize and try to make things right as best as he could. As well, in spite of being somewhat racist (his family did descend from the Confederate South after all), Patton was among the first US Army commanders to show favor toward the African American troops of his command, both through emphasizing their importance and performance as soldiers to even going as far as having black judges assigned to any courts martial involving black soldiers. Generally (pardon the expression), Patton was more of AFatherToHisMen with some Neidermeyer traits than one or the other.

* UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur had the abrasiveness and ego down pat, and his handling of the fall of the Philippines and the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar make his competence in doubt. Though it was not well known at the time (the US media loved portraying him as a messiah), [=MacArthur=] was more concerned with his personal image than ''almost'' anything else. Everything from his famous shades and corncob pipe image to his style of command and administration, from his tenure as Superintendent at West Point to Korea, were designed primarily for his personal glory. As well, he was infamously (within the US Army) prone to shower favor on toadies and surround himself with them and ignore constructive criticism. [[InterserviceRivalry His hatred of the Navies]] under his command was also infamous, and after his victory over Japan and tenure as "Shogun" there, he let a lot of his prior flaws bubble to his head and blow themselves out of proportion, which was a major reason why the early stages of the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar went as badly for the Western Allies as they did. Ultimately, "Dougout Doug" really was that badass on a lot of occasions, and he did truly care for his men, but it had to be pretty bad for those traits to become less visible than his glory seeking.
** In command of Australians, he had none on his staff. In New Guinea he never visited the front lines and thus never recognized how difficult the terrain was. Which led, on multiple occasions, to his relieving officers who were just about to win their battles because he felt they were doing it too slowly.
** [=MacArthur=] ''did'' manage to reform West Point, updating its curriculum for the first time in over a century using the lessons learned from UsefulNotes/WorldWarI (in which he was a genuinely effective ColonelBadass). His reforms didn't set well with the Army establishment, which along with his other activities during the interwar period[[note]]including using force against [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_March World War One veterans seeking early payment of benefits during the Depression]][[/note]], only tarnished his reputation further. As did stealing credit from subordinates who planned and executed successful operations without [=MacArthur=]'s involvement, or undercutting other commanders. [[note]]In particular, the Inchon landing during the Korean War--in which [=MacArthur=] undercut Admiral James Doyle, who did most of the planning, before his immediate superior, and refused to invite ''any'' Marine Corps generals to the planning sessions despite the Marines constituting the bulk of the landing force![[/note]] His own personality didn't exactly help matters either: UsefulNotes/DwightEisenhower, his former aide-de-camp, when asked if he knew [=MacArthur=], replied, "Know him? [[DramaQueen I studied dramatics under him]] for seven years!"
* There is one story that the sailors aboard a US Navy vessel were lining up for geedunk (ice cream) when two Ensigns shouted "Make way for officers!" and started shoving through. Whereupon [[FourStarBadass Admiral]] [[FatherNeptune Halsey]] who had been waiting his turn patiently with [[AFatherToHisMen every other sailor]] shouted "Get back where you belong!" With appropriate sailorly adjectives no doubt.
* [[https://web.archive.org/web/20100307123328/https://time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1969602,00.html Captain Holly Graf]], commanding officer of the guided missile cruiser USS ''Cowpens'' from 20 March 2008 until her relief as a non-judicial punishment on 13 January 2010. Her Neidermeyer behavior includes:

** The famed Mutiny on the ''Bounty'' was not the last time Bligh faced a mutiny of those under him. His overly strict and by the book attempts to enforce discipline when he was made Governor of New South Wales sparked off the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rum_Rebellion Rum Rebellion]].
** Honestly, Bligh actually genuinely aspired to be AFatherToHisMen. He had served under Captain Cook during Cook's famed expeditions to Hawaii, and learned much on how to run a ship under him. He packed foods, such as sauerkraut that were reputed to help ward off scurvy, and as noted above, flogged where legally demanded and not "just because", and often commuted capital offenses to flogging when he could. His failings were a very harsh tongue and something of a taskmaster mentality.

* Hermann Goering, by 1945, was called the most hated man in Germany because of his obsession with fame, glory, BlingOfWar and rampant egomania. Given [[ThoseWackyNazis the competition]] at the time, it's quite an achievement. Göring was a perfect example of ThePeterPrinciple. A brilliant AcePilot (22 victories and Blue Max) and a competent wing commander, he found his level of [[GeneralFailure total incompetentness]] as Reichsmarschall. His desire to have ''his'' Luftwaffe deal the killing blow to the [=BEF=] instead of the regular army was one of the reasons they were able to evacuate at Dunkirk to fight another day. His later attempt to resupply the trapped 6th Army at Stalingrad by air despite the Luftwaffe never being designed around such a mission, let alone one at the limits of their own supply chain and incredibly harsh winter weather conditions, only resulted in a disorganized mess that not only failed to save 6th Army but cost large numbers of planes and pilots lost in the effort. When the regime was on it's last legs, he unsuccessfully tried to usurp power from Hitler at the last second, and was unrepentant during his trial for war crimes, firmly believing history would vindicate him as a German national hero.

** After the defeat in Stalingrad (a defeat that occurred purely due to Hitler's personal strategic intervention) Hitler went from "makes unreasonable demands and interferes in well made plans" to "detached from reality". The famous stories from his war room are that he would regularly issue orders to units that no longer existed or were so undermanned they might as well not exist, then when his plans didn't work out, would blame the subordinate who was "responsible". Most Generals were lucky enough that they would simply be demoted or put somewhere out of the way (legendary General Guderian was one example), however some were not so lucky and would be executed for cowardice or "defying orders".

* Captain Herbert Sobel, former commander of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101 Airborne. He was incompetent, petty, a DrillSergeantNasty, and a complete {{Jerkass}}. Many say that his MoralEventHorizon was raiding his troop's rooms and confiscating everything from magazines to non-regulation clothing. When he was replaced, [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing everybody was happy]]. While he was almost universally hated by every man who trained under him, those same men almost universally say that it was Sobel who made E Company into the elite unit it was ''because'' of his {{Jerkass}}, overly harsh treatment. (Yes, the portrayal of him in ''Series/BandOfBrothers'' is widely agreed to be ''perfectly accurate''.) That being said, he was good at training troops and logistics, but was a failure at leading combat operations and keeping the respect of his men. The horrors of the war and his shame of losing command of E Company and his men's respect (hardly anyone kept in touch with him after the war) lead to a botched suicide that left him blind. He died from neglect while in a nursing facility.
** An even more infamous example from the same war and company (and eventual miniseries) is 1st Lt. Norman Dike. He's been accused of delegating all duty to lower officers and [=NCOs=] during his tenure, and for disappearing from the front lines for hours at a time during the Battle of the Bulge; many of the men under (and over) him accused him of simply using the E Company assignment as a way to get "field experience" before continuing his climb up the ladder. Most infamous, however, is his historically-documented ''meltdown'' during the assault on Foy, Belgium. While trying to lead E Company on the Foy attack, he completely froze up from terror and was unable to give any commands at all, aside from one order for Easy to halt their advance into the town... in the middle of an open field. He was famously relieved of duty by [[MemeticBadass Ronald Spiers]], who would go on to lead E Company to victory in Foy. After this incident, Dike was quickly drummed out of the Airborne and was lucky to not be kicked out of the Army wholesale. Wiki/TheOtherWiki implies he had fought bravely and well in Normandy and got wounded twice. It is assumable he had become a ShellShockedVeteran. At least one account from the men on the ground in Foy imply that he had been shot which would explain his fear and inaction.
** Spiers Himself had [[GeneralRipper other issues]]. It was suspected that he murdered several Germans that had been captured. This was especially egregious as one of the captured soldiers was a German American who thought he was doing the right thing by joining his German relatives. He was a bit of a gloryhound willing [[CowboyCop to do anything to get the job done]]. In fact, Spiers's attitude and actions were encouraged by their superiors and led to a lot of questionable decisions both tactically and morally. He almost executed an American soldier without a trial at one point for shooting a respected superior officer. In Spiers's case, his recklessness worked out in his favor, but had the army followed regulations he would have been removed and investigated for war crimes.
* This happens often when the former military people end up in the areas where the less straightforward methods are the norm. A good IT example would be Bob Belleville, Apple's Software Manager for the original Macintosh development team. The guy was an alumnus of the same Xerox PARC lab as were most other Mac people, but his stint in the Navy had shifted his priorities somewhat. He once almost fired one of the critical OS developers over a dispute about the crucial part of software he felt was unneeded, and drove the chief OS architect to tears and filing his resignation (during the critical period of the OS development) because of his supposed ''insubordination''. In both cases only a good chewing out by Steve Jobs himself made him relent somewhat.

*** The Russian military makes zero attempt to investigate the deaths of or get autopsies on its recruits, unless they exceed 3 deaths per 500 personnel per month. [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch Even so, the investigations are not renowned for their thoroughness or impartiality.]]

* Soviet General Grigory Kulik had a reputation of being erratic and a murderous buffoon. His personal command motto was: "Jail, or Medal." People under his command who he favored would receive (undeserved) honors, while those he didn't would be arrested for whatever reason he could think of. He would then shout his motto at his 'favored' subordinates to intimidate them if they were starting to displease him. Not only this, he was a stupendously inept officer who had no understanding of tactics and resisted all military innovations (such as tanks, rocket artillery, minefields, and sub-machine guns, all of which were effective). The only reason he survived for so long when other much more competent generals did not was because he himself had the personal favor of Stalin. He finally lost it after the end of WWII, when he was overheard criticizing Stalin. He was soon arrested, and eventually executed.

** A huge problem in the modern military now is that hazing and harsh informal punishment is being curbed (which is good), but it's being replaced by sometimes worse legal and negative paperwork issued by petty or incompetent leaders. Such paperwork goes on people's personal record which can cause them to be unable to reenlist or convince to not even try. There's some huge criticism in regards to the fact anyone above the rank of Lt. Col. is promoted by Congress and not actual military personnel. Higher level officers are often chosen more for their ability to play politics than their ability to lead.
* The term 'fragging' refers to dispatching an unpopular military officer with a fragmentation grenade. The reasoning was that bullets could be traced to individual rifles, but grenades could not, and would destroy other physical evidence. Apparently the process was that a verbal, informal mention of difficulties with an officer would be made. The next step was to place a grenade pin on the officer's pillow or other conspicuous place for him to find. If the message still wasn't coming across, a real grenade WITHOUT a pin would be placed in the general vicinity of the officer. In addition, apparently, the standing orders for a squad in Vietnam if their officer was killed was to return to base. Soldiers on a suicidal or otherwise dangerous mission sometimes were able to figure out the math on that one. They would skip the buildup with particularly incompetent, glory-crazed, or just plain abusive officers; if you were a big enough dick to your men or senselessly jeopardized their lives enough, odds are that a live grenade would just suddenly materialize in your tent and explode out of the blue, and no one would have any insight into how it happened.

* [[UsefulNotes/CheGuevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara]] was like this about half of the time more or less, depending on the source. While he was occasionally known for showing reckless bravery and some decent planning, at other times he was notably incompetent, fled from battle, and generally was a burden to his men. And he was verbally abusive to his men almost all the time and generally showed a disdain for "Bourgeoise tactics" that hardly helped matters at all. He is perhaps most infamously known for his [[LastStand "last stand"]], where according to most accounts he left the rest of his unit to fight it out against the [[BolivianArmyEnding Bolivian soldiers attacking him]] before surrendering afterwards with two loaded and primed pistols. Though to be fair, he did surrender only after taking two bullets, and his last remaining comrade fought to the end to protect him. Despite leading revolutionaries in Africa, Guevara was overheard to disparage his local African fellow travelers, stating that black people did not have the intelligence to make communism work, and placing Afro-Cubans in his command over the native Congolese.

* Lord Cardigan of UsefulNotes/TheCrimeanWar infamy provides a particularly odious example. He purchased the Lieutenant Colonelcy of the 15th Hussars, despite a complete lack of military experience (bypassing the regiment's senior Major, who'd fought at Waterloo and served for 30 years), and almost immediately transferred to the 11th Hussars through disagreements with his officers. Besides being a harsh drillmaster and disciplinarian he frequently antagonized his subordinates, especially those who'd served in India. He shot one officer in a duel, tried to cashier another for serving moselle at a champagne dinner and had a secretary record the private conversations of his subordinates. Cardigan's wartime leadership of the Light Cavalry Brigade wasn't especially distinguished, leading them on a pointless reconnaissance that achieved little but exhausting the men and losing valuable horses. While he showed courage during the Brigade's famous charge, he turned back immediately after reaching the Russian guns, believing it ungentlemanly to fight amongst private soldiers. Soon after he returned to England and was KickedUpstairs rather than given another field command.
* Italy's own [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Cadorna Luigi Cadorna]] was a strict disciplinarian whose main tactic was to have his men charge into the enemy lines... And he was the ''commander-in-chief'' at the start of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, succeeding a much more loved general who had died by heart attack. For obvious reasons he got ultimately sacked, and his name is still hated in Italy. Ironically, he also had a large share of the merit for Italy's ultimate victory on their front, as he understood the devastating power of artillery and machine guns from the start and, fighting his own {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s, managed to reform the army to take advantage of the machine guns and equipped it with one of the largest artillery parks in the war, meaning that, by the time he got sacked, all Italy needed to win was a competent general as commander-in-chief, and his replacement was rather good.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius_Arnheiter Marcus Aurelius Arnheiter]], dangerously close to a real-life Captain Queeg. Commanding a destroyer escort during the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar, he alienated his crew with bombastic religious services, obsessive attention to detail and harsh disciplinary actions. Like the fictional Queeg, he so alienated his crewmen that they started keeping a log of his irrational actions. Two particular sore points involved the color of Arnheiter's toilet seat, and his apparent breakdown in combat. Eventually, Arnheiter's superiors received enough complaints that they relieved him of command. However, Arnheiter appealed the decision and the resultant legal procedings and press coverage proved a huge embarrassment to the Navy.

* General [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karol_Świerczewski Karol Świerczewski]] was hailed as a hero by post-war Soviet propaganda and made the protagonist of many (completely fictitious) war stories, but in reality, he was an utter GeneralFailure who repeatedly displayed complete lack of strategic skills (employing HollywoodTactics some of which would make [[UpToEleven even the actual Hollywood writers cringe]]) as well as total disregard for the life and well-being of soldiers under his command. On top of that, he was an abject alcoholic who -- according to many accounts -- even led his battles while drunk. The list of his military blunders is too long to put it here, but the worst and most egregious one is arguably the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bautzen_(1945) Battle of Bautzen]], which took place in final days of World War Two. Świerczewski, who was in charge of Polish Second Army at that time, figured he could seize some glory for himself by capturing Dresden ahead of schedule. To achieve that goal, he ignored the directives given to him by his superiors and rushed his armored divisions forward, seeing no need to keep his forces in formation and close to each other. As a result, he needlessly stretched the entire army and formed huge gaps between separate units. Tanks speeding towards Dresden had no support of infantry, which in turn was left behind and had no protection of tanks, while artillery had no proper cover nor could it render support to other units. No second guesses what happened when Germans launched a counter-attack and their recon noticed those gaps. The resulting bloodbath wiped out over twenty-two percent of entire Second Army in but a few days and is still deemed one of the worst and most humiliating defeats in history of Polish military. It was salvaged from total disaster only by timely intervention of Marshal Ivan Konev. To make matters worse, Świerczewski [[KarmaHoudini never got his comeuppance]] and was promoted shortly after the battle.

** When the Conservatives under Robert Borden formed government in 1911, Hughes demanded to be made Minister of Militia. Borden had severe reservations about doing so, but felt he owed Hughes a political debt. As Minister, Hughes was infamous for his lavish spending on junkets and patronage. By 1913, Borden was so frustrated with Hughes' SmallNameBigEgo behaviour that he wanted to fire him, but didn't think he could;

** Hughes pigheadedly insisted on retaining the Ross rifle as the major Canadian weapon despite its uselessness. Suggesting that it be replaced became a BerserkButton for him. Hughes' general adminstration was incredibly inefficient and wasteful, and he became loathed by the common soldiers;

** Captain America, a completely incompetent officer who is constantly prone to panicking and giving illogical orders during combat situations. The reporter following the unit confronts Captain America's commanding officer, asking how such an obviously incompetent man could be in his position, but Godfather insists that he's only got the grumblings of lower officers to go on, which isn't enough to remove someone from their position.
** Encino Man loses the tiny amount of sympathy he ''may'' have had in the book, with the actor playing him nailing the concept of the nickname perfectly; a man whose problem isn't lack of experience so much as lack of basic common sense.

** Hughes' HairTriggerTemper led him to insult everyone from the professional soldiers and officers he commanded to civilian critics to even Borden himself, which finally led to Borden firing him. By that point, he had a ZeroPercentApprovalRating with everyone from King George V on down to the common soldiers in the field loudly criticizing him.

* Colonel Henry Favors from ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'' is an especially nauseating Neidermeyer; a cowardly, incompetent DramaQueen who humiliated himself and wrecked his career during the Civil War, he somehow got made liaison to the Wapiti Indian tribe in Ambarino, with hopes that he could keep the peace with them. He instead does everything in his power to anger, hurt, and provoke them in an idiotic attempt to start a war where he can “reclaim his honor” and make himself look like a hero to the brass back in Washington. [[RealityEnsues Instead, they send Officer Lyndon Monroe to find out what the hell’s going on]], and Favours ends up trying to frame Monroe for treason and murder him to keep his plans hidden. [[spoiler:Ultimately, his provocations succeed in causing the war he wanted... [[GoneHorriblyRight only for it to end near-immediately when Favours gets himself (and most of his men) killed in the very first battle]].]]

** While not in a military organization, Sergeant Fred Colon quickly becomes this after being promoted to Acting Captain in ''Literature/TheFifthElephant''. By the time Carrot returns to resume authority, Colon has fired or driven off all members of the Watch, with only a handful hanging around informally enforcing the law.
*** Fred differs from most Neidermeyers in that he is not a bad man, merely a ''very'' bad officer. He didn't want the promotion, and the stress drove him completely bonkers, convinced that if he can find out who is stealing sugar cubes (he's doing it subconsciously, and he's really bad at counting) all the other problems will go away. He's incredibly relieved when Captain Carrot returns and he can be a sergeant again.
*** Vimes hasn't promoted Fred from Sergeant (or Nobby from Corporal) because despite the fact they're senior to almost ''everybody'' in the Watch (Colon even has seniority on His Grace himself), they're perfectly happy in the ranks they hold and '''really''' aren't suited for anything higher anyway.

** He was a glory-seeking general that lost his wits, every man in the Seventh Cavalry, and his life in the campaign that led to Little Big Horn. One thing many forget is that he was no longer a general at that point, a rank he had held during the American Civil War. Since that time he had been demoted to lieutenant colonel. His reckless quest for notoriety and glory and increasingly frantic and frustrated behavior was partly an attempt to regain his old rank, and to turn ''that'' into political advantage, no matter how many tribes or soldiers died to get it!