Americas Defense Meltdown - IT Acquisition Advisory Council

Col. G.I. Wilson & Maj. Donald Vandergriff • 77In deciding what to keep and what to replace or reform, leaders of the DefenseDepartment must always focus on the probability that in the future, wars may be veryshort and intense, requiring rapid and important decisions by many different levels ofcommand. Much depends on proper planning and preparation to ensure that leadersand their units can perform in the best way possible during the critical initial days ofcombat. The Army, the military and nation may not have three years to prepare.The Army, or any service for that matter, may not have sufficient time to organizeto organize, so the Army (and DOD) needs to be ready beyond what technology canprovide us. Such complex change requires leadership by extraordinary civilian andmilitary leaders possessing vision. Our leaders must provide the beginnings to arevolution of change that is even more dramatic than the ones conducted by ElihuRoot and George Marshall. Indeed, we need a generation of mavericks.No one makes a better case for military mavericks than Secretary of Defense Gatesand retired Col. Mike Wyly, U.S. Marine Corps. Gates and Wyly recognize the brillianceof one of DOD’s most stellar mavericks, the late Col. John Boyd. Wyly wrote inthe Armed Forces Journal of July 2008 of how Gates, inspired by “Genghis John” Boyd,called upon a gathering of young uniformed officers to be like the irreverent Boyd.Gates, using Boyd’s own words, challenged these young officers to be principled, creativeand reform-minded leaders who “want to do something, not be somebody.” Wylynotes that for a defense secretary to quote the maverick Boyd, who left the Air Forceas a pariah in the minds of some, was an incredibly bold and risky step. Nevertheless,Wyly lays bare how, today, we need brilliant mavericks throughout all the serviceswith the abilities “to overcome bureaucratic resistance and institutional hostility.”Endnotes1 Background for this paper began in 1998 with research for the book Path to Victory: America’sArmy and the Revolution in Human Affairs (Presidio, 2002), and continued with the self-imposedstudy “Raising the Bar: Developing and Nurturing Adaptability to Deal with the Changing Faceof War,” (March-May 2005), which in turn formed the foundation for the book by the same name(Washington, D.C., Center for Defense Information, November 2006).2 Friedman, T. L., The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century (New York: Farrar, Strausand Giroux, 2006).3 Alan S. Blinder, Paying for Productivity (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1999),13.4 Peter F. Drucker, “Management’s New Paradigms,” Forbes Magazine, October 5, l998, 152.5 Officer Personnel Management System, “Council of Colonels 25-26 Oct 06,” unpublished briefing,(Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army (October 2006), 213-214.6 John Tillson, “Reducing the Impact of Tempo,” (Alexandria, VA: Institute of Defense Analyses(IDA), 1999), S-3.7 Rick Mustion, “Personnel Strategy Considerations,” briefing, (Carlisle, PA: U.S. Army War College,2001).