Not sure how the author developed a perception that the Commandant of the Marine Corps had greater powers than the other service chiefs; but a quick review of Title 10 sections 3033 (CSA), 5033 (CNO), and 8033 (CSAF) one will note that the statutory powers of the Commandant, Title 10 section 5043, are identical to the aforementioned sections.

isn't Petronius Arbiter that Roman guy that said he was constantly getting formed-up into different teams, being reorganized, and went on further to discuss the demoralization and confusion it all caused. . .just saying?

Well, better I leave this to the Army and observe comments from the high ground . . . And hey, how about that .30cal Browning in the photo above? I saw one converted by those sylphlike folks up in Hanoi to shoot their meat getting caliber.

That machine gun looks to me like a cal. .30 Govt. M1919 A6? It amazes me that we were equipping troops with this heavy and clumsy thing in Korea when the Wehrmacht showed us ten years earlier what a first rate light machine gun looked like in the form of the MG42!

Do not institute a regulation/policy/or law that is merely a thinly veiled attempt to validate the insecure need of some people to tell others what to do. Pockets were invented for a reason and the top 90% of servicemembers know they can leave the military after their 4 rather than put up with that petty crap.

"Do nothing in the Army that does not build soldiers' and officers' confidence in themselves and their units."

Are there really 61 more of these? jk

Seriously: I like the other ones. I was a little confused about the CSA one - I thought he already had commandant-like authority. But, hey, I'm no expert on the Army staff.

- Get rid of the APFT as a unit fitness metric, get rid of height weight, if you pass the APFT you are good to go

- Pre Deployment Training should focus on Shoot, move, communicate only; stop distracting with non-METL non-mission focused training; three days of mandatory language training isn't helping anyone

- 7 Month Deployments ala USMC

- Hold Officers accountable at all levels for misconduct similar to the level for NCOs and Enlisted

- FSO rotations at all CTCs

- Don't fall victim for the any one person model for officers ie the Petreaus Model or Odierno Model of development for officcers

- Move all medical non deployables to TD&A units or out

Thought my comments a few hours earlier would be up here but I don't see them. The Chinese must be doing one of their cyber attacks again.

APFT suffers from a lack of external validity: it doesn't measure what it claims to measure (fitness for soldiering / combat); but the establishment whines that it's cheap and easy to administer. Well, nuking Iraq would have been cheaper than invading, would be easier to administer than to invade - doesn't mean it's the right answer.

Ht/Wt is a total joke and I'd be willing to bet that for every person in the Army that's over screening weight, there's an equal amount that are actually over fat that pass tape as there are people that are not over fat but fail tape. It's the most inaccurate method available to assess body composition. That the Army believes it's reasonable to decide someone's career fate by a literal roll of the dice is deplorable. It amazes me that a Soldier somewhere hasn't sued the Army once discharged.

I agree though: if you pass the APFT (or a better measure of fitness), then you're good to go.

By the way, the PRT program is a joke too. Conditioning Drill 1, seriously? And why is it that units like the Ranger Regt, SF etc come out with their own brand of conditioning programs, they utilize the FMS tests to screen and prescribe exercises etc, but the rest of the Army is not allowed, and why doesn't the CSA clamp down on that and tell them to buck up and do the same nonsense the rest of us have to do? Well, it's because of that nonsense with having rules that are not applied.

Oh yeah, did anyone catch the photo on the AKO homepage a few months ago with that big time CSM (Corps CSM maybe?) throwing out the first pitch at some baseball game? This guy's gut was ENORMOUS! No way he's passing tape. But I guess it's ok because he's a CSM. Who's going to bust the CSM for busting tape?

Pre-deployment training needs overhaul. Won't happen though, we're closing down the wars. Wait till the next war and have to give it at least five years of high OPTEMPO before you're allowed to bring up that topic again.

I disagree on the deployments, especially if we're in a theater where we mingle with the populace a lot. I'd like to see the deployments last longer with more frequent trips home for troops to compensate for that, and keep units assigned to the same AOs. Our current deployment cycle creates an environment where each BN and BCT Cdr comes in with his own campaign plan and most of the time they do nothing to carry the ball further down the road. They are there for 12 months to check the box on their own OER support form and call it a day. It's a bad system. Perhaps we should go back to a Div-centric structure and stop deploying BCTs alone.

Only way the shorter deployments work is if units are anchored to a given AO so that some continuity is established and that's iffy, in my opinion.

I agree on officer accountability. Take a misfit MAJ and send him back down to CPT, let him start over, send the CPT back to 1LT, send the COL back to LTC etc. No need to purge people because of one mistake but there's no reason to sweep it under the rug either.

One person models don't work, enough said.

Non-deployables, hard one there. But yes, any status keeping you non-deployable for more than 100 days probably needs to have you sent to a TDA type of unit so you can get well and get back in the Force. Problem is backfill.

I've heard senior leaders call the CSA a "staff officer" vice commander. Hell, I have no idea what the CSA does, except send out powerpoints with new catchphrases etc. For that matter, I don't know what the purpose of the SMA is either. Newest Army Times says the SMA has dictated that you are to slim down or get out. That should work out fine, he's going to empower our large population of crooked, unscrupulous company command teams to just purge their ranks with the most inaccurate measure in the Army and I love how the Soldier being taped can't even see the tape, so the taper person can basically say anything he or she wants. Next time a senior leader wants to talk about ethics, they should stand up and defend the ethics of using such a flawed measure. Maybe an empowered CSA can tackle that before the SMA gets out of control.

The Army only admits mistakes when they have a fall guy, preferably someone that can't fight back or doesn't have the clout to fire back - see Wanat and the blame that 1LT took.

Has anyone up in the head shed admitted to a mistake with the ACU? Of course not. Worst uniform design & quality - ever!

I like "NCO lane" and "Officer lane" and I like the idea of Sergeants Time - it makes sense. But, officers and NCOs need to put aside the barriers where they try to keep others out of their lane entirely. That doesn't work and it's not productive. A lead effort is good, exclusion is not.

You will never get to a point where we only do what builds confidence etc - it defies the wishes of the senior leaders. They must have their dog & pony shows, a lot of them can't resist the urge to spotlight, etc. The O4/E7 levels and below generally get it, but O5/E8 and above are living in a different world.

I disagree on the deployments, especially if we're in a theater where we mingle with the populace a lot. I'd like to see the deployments last longer with more frequent trips home for troops to compensate for that, and keep units assigned to the same AOs. Our current deployment cycle Greg Tims creates an environment where each BN and BCT Cdr comes in with his own campaign plan and most of the time they do nothing to carry the ball further down the road.