The Hollow Army: How the U.S. Army Is Oversold and Undermanned (Contributions in Military Studies)

William Darryl Henderson maintains that despite highly successful marketing efforts to sell the image of a new quality army to the American public, the Congress, and to the U.S. Army itself, the Army has, in fact, not risen above mediocre performance levels. Henderson dispels the myth of today's quality army, and explores the long buried and avoided MPT (manpower, personnel, and training) issues that are expanded on in succeeding chapters. The 24 charts, 13 tables, and 9 chapters of this compelling and timely investigation factually demonstrate the real army story. Henderson insists, in an introductory chapter, that everything, even the bad news must be told. Chapter 2 suggests that the nature and significance of the army's mission are changing and gaining in importance and the exploration of the actual number of combat troops in Chapter 3 concludes that the most important principle of war can no longer be effectively employed by the U.S. Army. The vital areas of training, personnel, and the small combat unit are addressed in the next four chapters. Chapter 8 details the unfocused character of the Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) Corps. The final chapter suggests that if the army is to perform its stated function and achieve maximum value for the manpower and funds allocated, a rigorous structural-functional systems analysis and a searching review of underlying assumptions must be undertaken. This ambitious and eye-opening examination should be required reading not only for students and scholars of defense and military studies but for Congressional members, government officials, army personnel, and U.S. taxpayers as well.William Darryl Henderson is the author of 'The Hollow Army: How the U.S. Army Is Oversold and Undermanned (Contributions in Military Studies)', published 1990 under ISBN 9780313268748 and ISBN 0313268746.