Small Wars Journal

Inside the Pentagon Personnel Feud that's Roiled the Military's Most Senior Leaders

Sun, 05/15/2016 - 2:41pm

Inside the Pentagon Personnel Feud that's Roiled the Military's Most Senior Leaders by Andrew Tilghman, Military Times

Internal Pentagon drama is strangling Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s signature initiative to make the military’s promotion system function more like a Fortune 500 company, leaving the controversial reform effort unlikely to succeed during the Obama administration's final months.

The Defense Department's most senior military and civilian leaders have spent months debating a detailed plan to rewrite the policy governing how military officers are promoted, part of a slate of reforms known as “Force of the Future.” The idea is to end the “up-or-out” rules that force mid-career officers to leave the military if they fail to be promoted along rigid timelines, providing flexibility to pursue non-traditional career tracks or focus on developing technical expertise. But now the effort has stalled amid acrimony, finger pointing and disagreements…

Read on.