Life-Cycle Manning

The first brigade to pass through the three-year life-cycle manning system (the former 172nd Stryker Brigade, Fort Wainwright, Alaska) is back from Iraq and, understandably, the object of considerable scrutiny. Reviews are mixed. The avowed goal, unit cohesion, was certainly achieved, as were high standards of mission performance. The debit side included such impediments to individual professional development as newly promoted sergeants with nowhere to serve as NCOs, schools and positions deferred or denied and skewed rank structures disproportionately junior at the beginning and disproportionately senior at the end. Three years is a long time. Life-cycle manning seems a success, but will …