Rating: 
Summary: A Modest Proposal
Review: Path to Victory is extensively researched, concisely written, and wonderfully appropriate to the current debate over the future transformation of the Army. MAJ Vandergriff has written a book that all senior Army leaders should read, and anyone who follows civil-military relations or current events should own.
Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for the 21st Century military professional
Review: This work is a tour de force, perhaps best shown by Secretary of the Army Tom White's enthusiastic adoption of its ideas. Vandergriff ably identifies the Army's longest-lasting and most serious systemic problem -- human resources mismanagement as it affects training, deployment, cohesion, and effectiveness in battle. Based on extremely extensive research (meticulously documented), he ably describes the evolution of the problem and presents the promised "path to victory."Despite the effectiveness and timeliness of this book, it does have a couple of significant (and related) weaknesses. First, despite the meticulous endnoting, it is difficult to sort out which ideas are Vandergriff's own and which derive from his multitude of sources. The sorting can be done, but, if done thoroughly, would require the reader actually to construct an "idea matrix" from the endnotes as he goes along. Second, this is a work with 796 (!) endnotes -- but with no bibliography at all. All in all, Presidio Press has made the book quite difficult -- unnecessarily difficult -- to use as a reference. This does detract somewhat from its value as a synthesis of ideas and guide for follow-on work. Fortunately, these weaknesses detract very little from the overall message. Highly recommended. (But if there's a second edition, could we please have a good solid bibliography?)
Rating: 
Summary: More Balls Than I Did!
Review: Vandergriff exemplifies what Sec Def Rumsfeld says he wants-innovation & moral courage! I was in from 59 to87-Right on target-cease fire! Great research, little hard to read, I beat Vandy is very intense, intelligent, passionate, but with a temper? I know the type-great troop leader, poor administrater. Anyway-good work Van. They wll force you out-run for office-on the truth ticket. Must buy-shuold be a legacy book.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the read
Review: While I have a great many disagreements with the author over the specifics of how the personnel management system of the army should be rebuilt, I still recommend this book highly. I have been greatly concerned with the lack of professional developement and professionalism in the US army officer corps ever since I joined the Army in early 1997. This book goes far inexpleining th situation, and then proposes some radical solutions.
The first part of the book, detailing how the army developed its current unprofessional officer corps is insightful and useful, if a tad repetitive. Anyone who wants to understand how the current system developed needs look no further.
Vandergriff's subsequent arguments about fixing it are where I disagree. They are based around building a far more effective "heavy" army designed to defeat other armies in high intensity conflict. For the most part he does an excellent job of this, but he falls into the normal Army trap of assuming that the high-intensity portion of war needs to be the primary focus of the Active Componant (AC), and that the Guard (NG) and Reserve (AR) can carry the burden of the "constabulatory" and peacekeeping missions. Unfortunately, the modern threat environment is composed of mostly low-intensity and transitional intensity conflict potential (a major land war against China is unlikely, and all the other scenarios seem even less plausable).
Additionally, Vandergriff makes the normal Armor officer mistake of trying to keep the heavy forces in the AC and making the NG and AR "light". This has three flaws:
1) it results in the AR and NG bearing the brunt of deployments, since most call for light or medium (at most) forces.
2) More importantly, it fails to take into account the fact that light forces are almost impossible to maintain at high levels of readiness in the NG and AR. The type of continual day-in and day-out training that only the AC can carry out is precisely what makes light forces viable. Tankers and Mech on the other hand can maintain their skills better in an AC and NG environment than lighter forces.
3) It fails to take into account that any future conflict that requires a large amount of heavy forces will have to involve a large buildup period a la Desert Storm. That build-up time can be used to refresh the training of AR and NG units. Deployement s for light and medium forces are far mor likely to be "be there tomorrow" missions, requiring troops that are ready yesterday, not next month.
I still highly recommend this book despite my differences with it. It is refreshing enough to see a US Army officer exmine how the existing officer corps got into its present prediciment, and then propose some radical solutions. It is only through academic debate by military professionals that the problems will be fixed, and this book is a big step in the right direction.
| 
