McMaster Gets Star, ARCIC Directorship
H.R. McMaster has been officially nominated by the president for brigadier general and is “currently enroute to serve as director, concepts development and experimentation, Army Capabilities Integration Center, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Fort Monroe, Virgina.”
Foreign Policy‘s Blake Hounshell reports that,
The ARCIC is a relatively new center that has the potential to be very influential in setting Army doctrine. As the Washington Post‘s Ann Scott Tyson suggests, the promotion indicates that the counterinsurgency types in the Petraeus mold are gaining the upper hand against the big war crowd.
While I’m not entirely sanguine about involving ourselves in more small wars, I nonetheless hope we’re reading the tea leaves correctly on this one. Regardless of whether doing counterinsurgency and stability ops is a good idea, it’s rather clear that we have a bipartisan tendency to engage in them. We may as well do them right, then. And putting highly competent men like McMaster in charge is a huge step in that direction.
Photo: PBS Frontline
James- Any of the officers you served with ever make the General list? I always look for familiar names, and seem to never find any. Although my Regimental Co was A. James Bacevich and my 1st Sergeant was the current Sergeant Major of the Army, Kenneth O. Preston (amusingly enough, he is from an hour away from where I live. He grew up in Preston County, West Virginia).
Peter Vangjel, who was a major and my battalion XO, is now the 2-star commanding general of Fort Sill and the Field Artillery School.