Marshall was good at relieving officers, but he also left us saddled with an officer rotation system that works against systematic learning and troop trust, both of which are critical to COIN, IMO.

Donald Vandergriff has written a fair amount about changes that are needed within our personnel system, and I agree with them. The army that Marshall had to work with had a certain level of officer stability built in. Once the regimental system was destroyed and "career enhancement" and "generalized officers" became the rule of the day, we really lost the ability to grow some of the officers that Marshall had to work with. "Up or out" plays its own nasty role here as well.

And in relation to the "good ol' boy" network...that's exactly what Marshall had. He knew the majority of the pre-war officers because the Army was so small. He knew what wasn't in the official record. These days that's not quite possible.

Brevet systems are subject to their own abuse and confusion. Just take a look at the Army in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War for examples of this.