Military Review English Edition July-August 2015 | Page 47

ENTERPRISE LEADERS

The words written by retired Army Col. Lloyd J.
Matthews in 2002 still ring true: “For today, … time with
troops has become the ultimate measure of worthiness
for promotion to the highest ranks. Many of today’s
generals are thus very good with troops, but, lacking a
broader repertoire, they often find it difficult to adapt at
higher staff and ancillary positions.”10
Anti-intellectualism. In 1992, Trefry noted, “warriors have a tendency to dismiss or deride formal schooling … . The soldier understands that formal schooling is
continuing education and … a hallmark of a profession.”11
A decade later, Matthews offered the following anecdote:
A distinguished Army four-star general, now
retired, once boasted to me that he never read
anything but the contents of his in-box. The
Army culture that produced this sort of swaggering, know-nothing complacency simply
has to give way to a tough insistence that our
senior leaders be whole men and women.12
More recently, the Army culture has embraced
deferring school assignments during over a decade of
conflict. Professional military education became unnecessary for promotion and selection to key assignments
for majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels.13
Egalitarianism. The Army views itself as a meritocracy, but an egalitarian aspect of its culture evolved after
the Cold War drawdown and as a consequence of Officer
Personnel Management System (OPMS) III, which was
designed to provide functional branch officers a path to
career advancement. In the 1990s, then Chief of Staff
Gen. Sullivan decided not to target specific individuals for
separation or retention. With the expansion of the force in
the twenty-first century under the “Grow the Army” initiative, there was an increased requirement for personnel at
specific grades. Therefore, retention of gross numbers was
more important to meet downstream requirements of the
officer pipeline. This coincided with near-term staffing of
operational and joint headquarters as well as tactical units
(brigade combat teams). To meet operational demands,
higher-than-traditional promotion rates to field-grade
r