The Obsolete Divide: We Need a New Rank System for the Future Fight
Mike Cartier | 06.20.25
The Obsolete Divide: We Need a New Rank System for the Future Fight
“Eliminate the red trousers? Never! The red trousers are France!”
— French Minister of War Eugène Étienne, 1913
When the French Army went to war against Imperial Germany in August 1914, it did so with a military absolutely convinced of the superiority of its military traditions on the modern battlefield, of which the traditional red trousers worn by its soldiers were the most literally and figuratively obvious. Despite evidence that more inconspicuous uniforms were necessary, any proposals to change something viewed as foundational to the French Army’s legacy and heritage were fiercely opposed, despite the obvious need for a change. It was only after hundreds of thousands of casualties at the Battle of the Marne—at least some of which were attributed to the ease with which Germans could spot French infantry—that the French Army finally retired its red trousers from the battlefield. The reluctance to abandon practices borne of tradition is a strong one across military establishments, which often resist change until the realities of war force it upon them. In an era of increasingly rapid military innovation and adaptation, and renewed rivalry between the great powers, members of the American defense community should ask: What is our pantalon rouge?
As then Air Force chief of staff (and subsequent chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) General Charles Q. Brown described in 2020, the US military faces an imperative to “accelerate, change, or lose” the coming fight. This clarion call underscored the need for the Department of Defense to embrace bold, transformative thinking in its approach to innovation. Our service chiefs have since initiated significant reforms to force employment concepts, organizational structure, and the incorporation of new technologies, reflecting a bold yet disciplined embrace of progress that seeks genuine improvement over change for its own sake. While each service reconsiders its doctrine, organization, and technological capabilities to better confront emerging threats, one orthodoxy remains sacrosanct: the joint force’s anachronistic officer-enlisted divide. If it wants to remain the world’s premier military force, the Department of Defense must expand the aperture of its innovative reforms to unlock the full leadership potential of the modern force, establishing a unified military hierarchy and rank system, instituting competitive, merit-based promotions across all ranks, and significantly broadening the direct accessions program to draw upon the unparalleled pool of talent in America’s civilian workforce.
The officer-enlisted divide that characterizes America’s rank system has historical roots in the most successful military forces of the eighteenth century: the British military under King George III, the French military of King Louis XVI, and the Prussian military of King Frederick II. Their dual-track, class-based rank systems were modeled after the societies from which they drew their manpower, with aristocrats and landed gentry commanding large numbers of conscripted peasants and urban laborers, employed in large formations on an open field of battle or the high seas. So distrusted was the general population from which the conscripted masses were drawn that Sir Arthur Wellesley blatantly expressed his sentiment in 1813: “We have in service the scum of the earth as common soldiers.” Officers were gentlemen for whom a commission was a marker of prestige, while conscripts were often impressed from the streets and were generally expected to flee at the first sign of battle if not under the harshest possible discipline enforced by members of a higher caste. Enlisted conscripts with a university education were virtually unheard of, and the primary requirement to succeed in the enlisted ranks was the ability to march in step and the mechanical memorization and drill required to load and fire a musket. While the lessons of eighteenth-century conflict can be extraordinarily informative at the strategic level, the tactical realities of twenty-first-century warfare bear little resemblance to the line formations and marching in step of Saratoga or Waterloo. And yet, the United States is still employing a rank system inherited from the monarchies of the premodern Europe.
https://mwi.westpoint.edu/the-obsolete-divide-we-need-a-new-rank-system-for-the-future-fight/
