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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the reason the Army struggles so much with its culture is because senior leaders have done everything possible to destroy the branch-centric culture artifacts within the Army. I’ll die on this hill because I am right (as usual). 1/ https://twitter.com/cavrtk/status/1291102955219886080
The Army’s CGSC curriculum talks about culture in the org leadership course, and makes specific mention of the roles artifacts play in sustaining culture and communicating it to new members. 2/
Culture is the learned result of a group experience. It comes from repeated success in solving a certain set of problems, which leads to a learned response and a set of assumed behaviors. Cultures have subcultures, which are just as vital. 3/
The subculture of armor is different than the subculture of the infantry, and both are different from aviation or artillery or the engineers. Heavy and light units differ. For generations we used official and unofficial artifacts to signal which subcultures we all belong to. 4/
Unofficial artifacts abounded. Tanker boots. Jump boots. Red/white Cav flash nametags for aeroscout pilots. A flechette through the brim of the Stetson. “Ranger rolling” the patrol cap. Air Assault badge sewn above the Parachutist badge. Non-subdued Big Red One on the BDUs. 5/
Official artifacts are just as important. Take branch insignia on the collar. The Army has been divided into branches since its creation. They’re signified, codified, and color-coded. But some senior leaders in 2005 nixed branch insignia as part of the ACU debacle. 6/
The Army has been a branch-centric culture since Jesus was a corporal. In one act of jealousy over the Marines’ fancy camo, a cultural artifact was destroyed by a group of leaders who learned everything B-schools said about innovation and none of what they said about culture. 7/
It was even worse for Warrant officers, who had their precious Eagle Rising insignia stolen in favor of wearing branch insignia...which was subsequently deep-sixed as well. The we started treating them like baby commissioned officers, dividing them into company/field grades. 8/
Senior leaders love to pay lip-service to culture. But they have systematically tried to stamp out cultural artifacts across the service. Through CARS they destroyed Regiments in favor of brigades, making a Regiment a pointless number to which no meaning can be ascribed. 9/
They stole berets from special units and gave one to everybody. They outlawed flight suits because they couldn’t stand pilots looking like they fly aircraft. They nixed aircrew patches. They dumped an iconic PT uniform in favor of nylon & polyester “reflective A” trash. 10/
The answer has long been change at the expense of culture, and then filling in the cultural hole with stolen machismo. First it was berets. Now it’s the “crush cap”—a cultural affectation of USAAF bomber pilots who fought a war with their covers on. 11/
Artifacts matter. They signal our belonging within a culture or subculture. The more you strip away artifacts, the more you have to work to fill in the cultural holes left behind. You end up with a fake, force-fed attempt at culture no one really buys—see “Warrior Ethos.” 12/
Senior leaders have ignored the Army’s actual cultural landscape for going on 20 years now. Official and unofficial artifacts have been stripped away and replaced with sad, garish facsimiles. The results have not been good. /fin
