Applying a Cultural Diversity Metric to the Selection of Armor Brigade Command Selectees

摘要

There is a perception, whether real or perceived, that black Armor officers are marginally successful at gaining the opportunity to command at the tactical level, company through battalion, and unsuccessful at acquiring more senior level commands, brigade and higher. Almost sixty years ago on 26 July 1948, President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which was intended to bring about the end of racial segregation in the US Military. As the U.S. Armed Forces wrestled with the social challenges of integration after World War II it recognized integration was a combat multiplier and not a deterrent to unit cohesion and combat effectiveness. Department of Defense Directive 4120.36 (Equal Opportunity in the Armed Forces) put the military at the forefront of racial integration and how, through empowering commanders, sound integration policies could improve the strategic, organizational and tactical effectiveness of an institution. A paradigm that, arguably, served as a societal change template for the rest of America as it wrestled with the complex issues of racial integration during the 1960s. Now, a fully integrated force the Army should now make a more conscious effort to ensure cultural diversity within its senior ranks.