Also, in the post-WWII era the army bureaucracy mushroomed, and a large percentage of the new slots were support, research and development, etc. As a result, by the time of the Vietnam war, there was an enormous corps of general officers who had never served in the combat arms, and rarely if ever had an overseas deployment. They were essentially civil service supervisors wearing green suits and doing a 9 to 5 job.

The navy had also experienced a growth of bureaucracy and a whole lot of flag officers, but hardly anyone in the navy makes admiral without spending time on a quarterdeck -- at least that's the way it was "in the old navy". Chief, when you were going through boot camp, did you ever imagine that someday you'd be referring to your service as being "the old navy". I never did, but here I am doing it. Unbelievable.