Officer Rot in the Unites States Air Force
Here’s an interesting read we found recently posted on Robert Avrech’s web site. Apparently, it’s from a current, active duty Air Force officer. That makes it all the more interesting. It’s pretty easy to sit on the outside of a military service and carp about these kinds of issues. It’s equally easy to question this writer’s angle. But, as he mentions here, careerism is an age old problem in the military and when it happens, someone needs to point it out. I think some time ago a guy named Billy Mitchell did just that. Well, maybe it’s back.
Introduction
First I'd like to thank Robert for the opportunity to scribble on his page. When you have a writer as accomplished as Robert asking you to fill space on his website... well, that's quite an honor. I'll do my best not to wreck the place.
Robert and I frequently talk military. And as I'm sure you readers already know, Robert is no slouch when it comes to the art of war. Though I grew up a Navy brat, got my degree in military history from an Army college, serve in the USAF, and generally think I know it all, Robert's knowledge frequently humbles me.
Which is why I'm grateful for the opportunity to relay this extension of a chat we had on the general state of things in the USAF.
—A U.S. Air Force Officer
Marshall's Men*
First, a little history lesson on one of the towering figures of the 20th Century, General George C. Marshall.
General George C. Marshall (1880 – 1959). Churchill dubbed Marshall “the organizer of victory”. In truth, Marshall made the ally victory inevitable before the war by ridding the army of officers who were wedded to static World War I tactics, and replacing them with officers who understood that the next war would be fast-paced, mobile, and highly mechanized.You see, it wasn't Patton's tanks or Hap Arnold's bombers or Nimitz's Navy that won World War II. It was a commandant at the Fort Benning Infantry school in the 1930s, then Lt. Col. Marshall, who won the war before it even started.
The US Army in the 1930s was in a sad state of affairs (though the depression was raging, and everything was in a sad state of affairs). But the Army's plague transcended supply issues. After World War I, careerism started to take its heavy toll on the force. Generals advanced cronies who walked like them, talked like them, and thought like them. Those men in turn advanced subordinates who fit their image and likeness, and so the process went.
Let’s get this straight. The only thing that men should synchronize is a military operation, a synchronized attack. You know how that works. “OK men, synchronize your watches. Ready, ready, hack.” When men are involved in sporting events they’re on teams or they go it alone. They are on offense or defense. They attack another’s goal or strenuously protect their own. They take advantage of an opponent’s weakness. They try to obliterate their adversary’s score. They do not synchronize or harmonize. 
