New officers...

ARTICLE: Army Officer Accuses Generals of 'Intellectual and Moral Failures', By Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post, April 27, 2007; Page A04

This article underscores the reality of the current generational change going on because of Iraq. In short, it won't be led by the Vietnam-era grey beards (retired flags) you currently watch on TV. It will be led, as it was back then (by many of those same grey beards in a younger form) from below.

This is the fundamental reason why I've concentrated my work more with mid-level officers than seniors. They're basically the military's version of the New Core--as in, most incentivized to change and adapt.

So this is a good example, I guess, of "New Officers --> New Rules."

Thanks to the anonymous reader who sent this.

Comments

[J Canepa]

Older then the gray breads, back when, I did attend ROTC, the JAG Officers Training Program and Armor Officers Basic Training. Back then there was a concept that was not taught but everybody understood.

The concept is that officers do not lie. If they do who will follow them in battle?

Today, we have too many liars within the Corps.

The Tillman, Jessica Lynch and and signifciant departures from the truth in the Abu Ghriab scandal indicate a lack of respect for truth.

The basic problem may be that the Corps is being trumped by the Intelligence Community.

[Joe Blizzard]

The WP piece kind of misses the point of Yingling's essay, which, by the way, sounds very familiar:

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/05/2635198"The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 signaled the demise of the Soviet Union and the futility of direct confrontation with the U.S. Despite the fact the U.S. supported insurgencies in Afghanistan, Nicaragua and Angola to hasten the Soviet Union's demise, the U.S. military gave little thought to counterinsurgency throughout the 1990s. America's generals assumed without much reflection that the wars of the future would look much like the wars of the past — state-on-state conflicts against conventional forces. America's swift defeat of the Iraqi Army, the world's fourth-largest, in 1991 seemed to confirm the wisdom of the U.S. military's post-Vietnam reforms. But the military learned the wrong lessons from Operation Desert Storm. It continued to prepare for the last war, while its future enemies prepared for a new kind of war."

[Ray Kimball]

Right back at ya, Doc. The reason why mid-level officers flock to your briefs is because it's not the same old sanitized, buzzword-laden BS that we get subjected to in most of what laughingly passes for military professional writing these days.

[Allen]

Amen to that, Ray Kimball, preach on brother!

I've got to the point where I pretty much roll my eyes and snicker whenever I read something from the corona level in the modern AF. No substance, and precious little style. The paucity of active duty general officer leadership is truly pathetic. I'm hoping that the republic can hold out for another 5-7 years, until we get some of the current crop of Army battalion, Navy ship, Air Force group, and Marine regiment commanders promoted to the 3- and 4-star levels.