I worked for the Army for decades. One thing that stood out, the quality of the personnel and especially the career NCO’s was much improved over those I encountered while on active duty during the Viet Nam era. The AVF after some very rocky early years really did produce the opposite of what critics and pundits predicted, a large, high quality volunteer military establishment. Unfortunately the endless and seemingly purposeless nature of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has created a fatigued and nearly exhausted Army and tired USMC. Also, while most soldiers are professional and outstanding, there are too many disturbing characters in uniform. This is another effect of apparently interminable combat missions. The Army in particular has often had to accept what was available in enlistees. The last time I was at Ft Bragg and Ft. Hood before I retired in 2007 it seemed to me every fifth soldier or so was an individual I would have found uneasy to be alone with on a street. This is not disrespect to the armed forces , but a reflection on what the consequences of the game playing, pecuniary interests and incoherent thinking those who call themselves our national leadership have inflicted on the ground combat forces.
They have a chest full of ribbons and maybe only 5 or 6 of them mean anything. They have masters degrees they get for attending BS service schools. Half of them have their under grad in some mushy soft science, few actually lead by example... Seriously, many of them are not the mental heavy weights one would expect because the DoD grooms and promotes people that fit a certain mold, they promote people based on their performance as company grade or lower field grade officers, which is tactical, but that doesn't really include the intelligence, mental agility or any sort of strategic thinking capacity that you might want from someone in the higher ranks. But- most of them can run fairly well (sarcasm)
What there is no lack of, is ego, narcissism, self ingratiation, a willingness to sacrifice anyone and any principal for ones own career. The urge to show power and have others bow down to the king, that they have a lot of. Realize, most of these folks didn't stumble into that position, and they had stars in their brain for many years. Most of them are ate up with themselves and they all like to write a book when they retire because the world should really hear what they have to say.
Probably 1/2 the generals in our military do not deserve to have anyone’s kids under their command and frankly when dealing with COLs it's not much different.
The real cream of the crop they lose early on. The engineer who has opportunities elsewhere, these are the guys that get out once their time is up (ROTC/Academy commitment), and the so called best of the best are the ones with the history degrees simply willing to do “anything” and sacrifice anyone that stick around long enough to eventually get promoted.