The Weekly Standard on US Army personnel issues
This article in The Weekly Standard is an excellent discussion of the problems facing the Army with their officer corps. Due to the heavy rotations of tactical forces through Iraq and Afghanistan you now have company grade and field grade officers, those who lead small groups of troops, with a lot more combat experience then their senior officers. One of the other problems is you have so many Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels occupying staff positions at the Pentagon, the various higher headquarters and joint commands that the force is unbalanced. In acquisition the leadership are Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels who are managing weapon programs, while out in the field they would be commanding battalions and brigades. Which is better experience for someone in today’s Army? Is there a need for all of these officers to be running around the Pentagon? In my experience a O5, who would lead a 1000 men in combat, is not allowed to have much responsibility in the Pentagon. If the Army cannot, or will not, promote these officers then ten years from now it will be a mess.
