Initial Officer Selection

[Pete]

SethB: We have a veritable horde of Generals; same rough number we had at the end of WW II and in the 80s with an almost 800K Army ...

Part of the reason for that is not the personnel guys' fault; rather it is the perverse logic of the TDA Army, in which nobody will treat you seriously unless the CO of your organization is of equivalent rank to that of my CO or my staff-weenie boss in Washington. It turns into "my Dad can beat up your Dad" situations. Thus we have TDA organizations that could be ably commanded by lieutenant colonels which instead have one- or two-stars in charge.

If we ever decide to trim back the Army we should take a serious look at the vast TDA organization empires that have grown up since 1945. Many of them would function more smoothly with less people.