African-Americans Are Highly Visible in the Military, but Almost Invisible at the Top

So the guy complaining about the blah OER and not getting to command a Brigade. Yeah, The line starts over there pal. A mediocre OER and not being selected for O6 is equal opportunity. There is a reason why DA PAM 600-3 says that one needs to consider promotion to LTC as a successful career.

Interesting article. As he said, who you get to choose from is based on decisions made 35 years ago. And for women, none of us were allowed into combat back then and other minorities either chose something else or were guided into something else...

Perception is everything. I don't want to say anything to take away from the hard-won strides of African-Americans in the Armed Forces... but I could just as easily say that we don't see ranks of Native-American, Asian-American, or Hispanic-American general officers either; though to the best of my knowledge, all of the above have worn stars. Maybe it's simply a "numbers game"... let's say it takes thirty years to reach that level... meaning a general officer today, would've had to entered commissioned service sometime in the late 80's-early 90's. Considering that this means they would've feasibly began their journey four to six years before that, and all the prerequisites for obtaining entry into OCS, ROTC, or the service academies...that also means these individuals would've been realistically competing degrees, enlistments, earning Eagle Scout, competing in high school athletics and/or academics when the "New Wave" was truly new. Most of the junior officers who put on second lieutenant or ensign after 9/11 are just now putting on colonel and captain... maybe we should reserve judgement until we see who makes "flag" in the next decade or so.