The Army Acquisitions Report is a remarkable document. Turned in by the service’s former top weapons-buyer, Gilbert Decker, and the former head of Army Materiel Command, retired Gen. Lou Wagner, these guys know the system inside-out, and their deep familiarity is what makes their study such a bracing read. (If you’re into this sort of thing.) For example, Decker and Wagner know there’s a long history of commissions just like theirs, releasing reports just like theirs, some of which caused a big splash just like theirs but seldom produced long-term change in the Building. They even have a chart showing how often their acquisition-reform predecessors have arrived at the same conclusions! And they revive this classic old chestnut about life in the Five-Sided Funny Farm: “It has been said,” they write, “‘If Sisyphus had a job in the Pentagon, it would be acquisition reform.’”
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