The O-6 I work for is lucky she falls into a couple of well-cared-for demographics. If she were a white male, she’d be toast. If the one-and-only commander of 5/2 Stryker BCT had been white male, he’d have been relieved before deploying to Afghanistan.
We have some not-so-awesome people in the higher ranks, unfortunately. From what I’ve seen it’s less “the best and brightest” who make the grade, it’s simply down to “who holds on the longest.”
After our 15-month deployment to Iraq, every officer in our company got out except for the commander (great guy) and our 4th Platoon Leader (absolute idiot). I don’t like those odds (yeah, I stayed in, too, so which category do I fall into?).