[A Simple Soldier]

You win stupidest post of the day.

Re: His wearing of the Parachutist Badge. Airborne school is both a technical skill school and a leader development school. A man who will jump out of a perfectly good airplane with a parachute on his back, packed by a complete stranger, shows a disposition toward confidence, trust and physical courage.

Re: His going to graduate school and earning a Masters Degree, consider this quote,

"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."
-Thucydides

Thucydides wrote a book. Try reading it.

[quadrant]

Rubbish!!
There have been plenty of great generals - Army and Marine -who never learned to jump from airplanes.
The list is long but I'll mention Patton, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Vandergriff, Puller, Geiger, Raymond Davis.
And was Creighton Abrams a paratrooper? If he wasn't, he certainly learned how to lead somewhere.
These men knew how to lead, and they didn't learn it running around Fort Bragg chanting, "I want to be an airborne soldier," or whatever the silly chant currently in vogue.
Of course, you can always cite William Westmorland as a general with paratroop wings, but do you really want to match his leadership qualities with Raymond Davis' or Creighton Abrams'?

I may be mistaken, but I don't think any of the generals on my list had a Masters Degree. And can you think of a better scholar than Douglas MacArthur? And lets remember that MacArthur wasn't even a college graduate because West Point didn't offer degrees until about 1927 or so.
Lets not forget that William Westmorland had an MBA from the Harvard Business School, a tour of duty that really qualified him to serve as COMUSMACV.
This quest for advanced degrees - like paratroop wings - is a ticket punching device that entered the Army in the 1950's and has sadly infected the other services.

Finally, Thucydides was a great historian, but I don't recall him winning a lot of battles.

[quadrant]

By the way, I could tell you were in the Army, even if "a simple soldier" didn't give it away.

I've noticed among soldiers that quotations from famous people (like Thucydides) often serve as substitutes for serious thought and analysis.

[Eagle Eye]

I have to agree with you regarding your opinions on education, training, leadership and someone's stupid post.

There is no reason that Flag or other officers shouldn't be very highly educated.

There is no reason NOT to attend other services schools even if the utility is not immediately apparent.