Service Culture Effects on Joint Operations The Masks of War Unveiled - Study of Pre-Goldwater-Nichols Act Operations, Eagle Claw (Desert One Iranian Hostage Rescue) and Urgent Fury (Grenada Invasion‪)‬

This report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. Knowing oneself is critical to efficient and effective operations in any sphere of human endeavor. This is particularly important in the endeavor of warfare where human life is the medium of exchange and the fate of nations lies in the balance. Currently, U.S. military forces are involved in the largest and most important operations since the Vietnam era while simultaneously attempting to affect the most radical transformation perhaps in American military history. Within the U.S. military services a thorough and clear self awareness is absolutely essential to the success in both these efforts. A key aspect of self awareness, successful joint operations, and effective transformation requires a thorough understanding of the component service cultures and their potential to effect operations. This paper proposes that unique U.S. military service cultures exist, that they have effects on operations, and that understanding the unique service cultures is an important component in planning operations as well as planning transformation. RAND corporation analyst Carl Builder's central thesis in his 1989 work The Masks of War is that each service is influenced in its actions by an inherent service culture. This culture is a product of the service's history and the personality types of its key leaders. Service culture manifests itself in a variety of ways including the service's budget priorities, doctrine, officer training, evaluation and assignment. The cultural phenomenon described by Builder eighteen years ago is inherently at odds with the U.S. military's developing vision to operate in an integrated, inter-service way. Joint operations yield benefits by capitalizing on service strengths in an efficient and synergistic manner. The emphasis on service integration has increased greatly since Builder first explained his thesis. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to evaluate the current validity of Builder's arguments given the ever increasing emphasis on jointness since the inception of the Congressional mandates outlined in the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986.

In Chapter two Builder's argument for service culture and its relationship to joint operations is explained and summarized. Carl Builder's thesis is that the U.S. services each have a unique service culture and that these cultures influence all service operations including joint operations. He believes that awareness of these cultures can be used to predict how services will act in the future. Chapter Two lays out Builder's thesis in detail and briefly summarizes the Goldwater Nichols Act of 1986. This analysis will primarily be derived directly from Builder's 1989 work The Masks of Command. This analysis will be supplemented by reference to another important work by Builder written in 1994, The Icarus Syndrome: The Role of Air Power theory in the Evolution and Fate of the U.S. Air Force. Several other history sources are used to lend additional support to the conclusions regarding service culture reached by Builder. This analysis continues with the systemic issues identified and the response of the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act. The passage of Goldwater-Nichols occurred three years prior to the publishing of Carl Builder's book in 1989. The two issues are related because Builder's view is that his thesis is a major factor contributing to the difficulty of U.S. joint operations which Goldwater-Nichols addresses. The prime sources for this review is the legislation itself. Another source, James R. Locher III's work, Victory on the Potomac, is an in depth analysis of the Goldwater-Nichols Act legislative process. It provides key insight to policy makers perceptions of joint culture. Several articles are also used to support the author's analysis of the significance and intent of the act.