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All organizations must be concerned with the growth, retention, and utilization of their best and brightest. Call them what you will – the Iron Majors, the Strategic Corporals, the go-to desk officers and field operators – they are the backbone and future of all of our organizations, and our aces-in-the-hole for the Long War.
Our bright and dedicated professionals have a passion to fight to win. Unfortunately, their enthusiasm, flexibility, and innovation often collides with the inertia of the status quo, which is frequently manifest in legacy attitudes, organizational rice bowls, and careerism and bureaucracy that still linger amongst the leadership establishment. Today’s personnel systems at best fail to support employing all of our manpower in ways that our missions require, and at worst impair our up-and-comers who somehow find a way to contribute anyway in the arena where needed, rushing to the action while others stay comfortable.
It is a fine line between over-indulging the new breed, and resting too comfortably on our old laurels. Sometimes we mature the next generation, sometimes we squash its innovation and drive it under a rock or out the door in either acquiescence or frustration, losing our most valuable assets of skilled and dedicated people at a time when most needed. At all times, in times of great organizational stress like we have today, we have a tension between the old and the new. Wake up calls are never easy for organizations.
That brings us to the following e-mail we received from one of those young Turks, someone who is well known to us and has a history of serious professional contributions. This is professional hope and frustration, not idle gossip or whining. We publish it here at the author's request under the pseudonym Epictetus, but only after verifying that Epictetus was in a position to experience first-hand the issues commented upon, and that there is an issue to raise here rather than just an axe to grind. This case involves the DIA, but it could be any of many of our organizations struggling with their new realities...
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