I’ve written a small bit about the purge of the military that occurred under Obama. If you were a warfighter (especially a proven warfighter/leader), didn’t embrace making the military a social experiment, or otherwise didn’t toe a very progressive line, you were gone. While most focus on the officer corps, the NCO ranks also were thinned out.
There is far less data on the enlisted loss, but the purge — and there is no better word — of the officer corps was unprecedented. There is some bitter fruit to come from that purge, as I am very concerned that despite a lot of effort on the part of Chaos and others, the rot could cost us dearly on many levels.
Bookworm has two excellent pieces you need to read. The first one is here, and the second one is here. Read them. Also, read Jim Hanson’s take here.
The uniform matters. It matters on many levels. On that note, I leave you with some extremely unpalatable food for thought. I would also add my thoughts that with the purge and the rise of those like Vindman, that our troops face peril because they will not be up to the task of leading in real conflict.