Don Vandergriff has spent decades on military personnel reform. He told us he learned a few years ago that Chinese military analysts call him the Sun Tzu of the American Army. Mark “Moose” McGrath and I asked him about the reform challenge facing Secretary Hegseth and the size of the officer corps.
Officer bloat
Don says nearly one in five US military personnel is now an officer. He puts the ratio of field-grade to junior officers close to one to one. The most effective forces in history kept officers at 2.5 to 5 percent. Don traces the problem to the up-or-out promotion system after World War II. That system rewards career progression, and it turns the culture inward toward bureaucracy.
High-trust units
We look at the Prussian and German army, the Israel Defense Forces and submarine warfare in World War II. Cohesive units with empowered junior leaders outperformed bloated hierarchies again and again. Einheit, the German word for unit, sits behind the title.
What Don proposes
Don offers concrete fixes. Unit manning keeps teams together long enough to build trust. Reformed professional military education develops independent thinkers. Leaders who show moral courage should rise ahead of the ones who check boxes.
The same lessons apply to any organization that has grown top-heavy and slow to adapt.
Where has your organization added layers that slow your people down?
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