I have argued for a divisional system before and fully support this article. It will assist in retention, in family stability, in unit cohesion, and in the effectiveness of our Army.
Divisional assignment would allow most soldiers to spend their careers at one post. Armies with regimental systems have much stronger retention. Besides for the commitment it creates, it also allows spouses to have real careers and children to attend the same school.
Under our current system, units have no institutional memory. After two years, they have completely changed their personnel like the Ship of Theseus changes its wooden boards. Lessons are lost. Units following Sisyphean training cycles to maintain readiness due to constant churn.
The constant moving eliminates the sense of a “Band of Brothers,” uproots our soldiers, and prevents them from developing meaningful connections and establishing a place in society. It is a policy of forced anomie. Emile Durkheim attributed the increase in suicide in modern society to anomie, the unmooring of a person from their place in society. I believe that the constant increase in Army suicides since 2011 is due to anomie. They have increased even as combat deployments decreased and mental health resources increased. Soldiers, like any person, needs to have a place in a community.
I would go even further and use the division system to decentralize personnel policy. Divisions should promote from within or directly hire form without (as done with DA Civilians). It would allow flexible careers and eliminate the need for corrosive, competitive ranking, which the private sector has long abandoned. It would break the dehumanization and careerism produced by the centralized personnel policies adopted in the 1940s.
https://lnkd.in/dDDsntfY
