Marine LTC Stuart Scheller has began his job at the Department of Defense Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness

Now an SeS, and Stuart Scheller is going to analyze the personnel system specifically as it is related to careerism.

Great announcement from Stuart Scheller (also by his parents CathyStu Scheller), but received from a post by Lieutenant General Mike Flynn on “X” and Facebook 30 April 2025!

If you remember back in August 2021, Stuart Scheller was a Marine Lieutenant Colonel, then in command of the USMC Advanced Infantry Training Battalion East at Camp Garrett, Camp Lejeune, NC. He was the leader who had the moral courage, after the disgraceful retreat from Afghanistan in August 2021, to call out senior leaders and the establishment for not holding anyone accountable for this strategic defeat. After an incredible video, here,

The Marines then jailed him, court martialled, lost his pension, and was given a general discharge, as well as his wife (also a Marine LTC) left him with his sons. He continued on with,

“He was following the orders he was given.” At this point, former Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller despises those words and carries special disdain for officers who use some configuration of the phrase to justify why they did something that ultimately hurt someone or harmed the mission.

In many ways, it was the persistent echo of these words that sparked his (some would say ill-fated) decision to post a YouTube video a year ago this week that eventually landed him in the brig with a special court martial and an abrupt end to a long, promising career in the Marines before his 20-year retirement. It also cost him his wife, separation from his young boys, and rebuke from colleagues and former officers indulging in seeming schadenfreude during the ensuing spectacle.

In his forthcoming book, Crisis of Command: How We Lost Trust and Confidence in America’s Generals and Politicians, Scheller recounts watching the news coverage of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan last August. A lieutenant colonel with 17 years in the Marine Corps, including combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, Scheller had just taken over his first command of the Advanced Infantry Training Battalion in North Carolina in June 2021. He wrote:

I watched multiple units, including my first unit, First Battalion, Eighth Marines, rapidly respond to a situation poorly planned for months. I knew from experience junior service members on the ground would rise to the occasion despite failures at the general officer level, but I remained frustrated at the situation.

Stu sacrificed a lot, but in return for his show of moral courage (a rarity in today’s society, it is called Strength of character), President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave him a job in the Department of Defense. He is now a Senior Executive or SeS (civilian equivalent of general) as an advisor to the DoD’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness or P&R, (basically the DoD’s G1). His first question last night following his months of processing for his job to his followers on “X” and Facebook, is to examine careerism and the evaluation system. He asked last night the following,

“I believe in SecDef Hegseth fully. The military is in desperate need of change and there can be no change without disrupters. For those who criticize, wanting stability and the status quo… you are the real problem. Assessment: The current promotion system leads to military leadership underperforming with a large contingent of “yes-men” for senior leaders.

My immediate leadership in OSD P&R is very sharp, and very busy. That is why I am amazed that for the time being they have afforded me the freedom to pursue what I see as the problem: The military incentivizing careerism (pleasing a boss) more than performance (how effective you are in your trade).

The question I want to solve: How can the United States military build a screening system (competition) for the performance of key leaders. I will start with the service leadership in P&R and then work my way down and into the services. The Army’s Battalion Commander Assessment Program is something I’m particularly interested in. Also Marine Corps SLTE. What works? What doesn’t? Can the successes be replicated? How can this be incorporated into promotion and not just command selection? Does the “I have to please my boss” OPR, OER, FitRep over process need overhauled or at least incorporate a variety of Enders game competition?”

If there is any one piece they should read due to their time being so constricted regarding how to reform the personnel system, it is this piece. I wrote this as a white paper, ironically for then Personnel and Reserve Affairs Chief Ben Carson in 2015. I then turned it into this paper for Project of Government Oversight or POGO there after. If there is any one article or piece to read on how to go about reforming the DoD personnel system, please read this one, I wrote in 2015,

https://www.pogo.org/.../personnel-reform-and-military...

The introduction to this long article,

“Warfare is first and foremost a human endeavor. Wars are fought by people using their minds. Weapons are only tools used to implement people’s ideas. People and the ideas they wield make the difference between a sharp, decisive victory like Desert Storm and a slow, deadly slog like World War I. Fostering the right ideas requires a culture of Mission Command. Harmful personnel practices preclude such a culture in today’s military, however. The United States now has an opportunity to implement key changes to the personnel system that will retain and promote the right kind of people with the right kind of ideas. Not doing so risks America’s ability to be successful on the battlefields of the future.

The U.S. Military must possess the moral courage to identify the numerous bureaucratic obstacles to reform if a culture of Mission Command is ever to succeed. Once identified, these obstacles must be carefully evaluated, either to be reformed or to be eliminated completely. Any attempt at Mission Command without such an effort will never go beyond the rhetorical level, existing as nothing more than buzzwords on PowerPoint slides and empty doctrinal slogans. Empty gestures will be most damaging to the next generation of leaders, who will be quickly disillusioned when they constantly hear one thing and then watch as the institution behaves in a manner contrary to true effectiveness.”

I wish SeS Stuart Scheller the best in his challenging endeavor. My prayers are with him and the team around him, as well as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. I have tried to reform the personnel system from within the system, as well as a retiree, now for 27 years, with some moments of success, only to see them dashed away as the champion who believed in my work, moved on. But it has to be done. If you do not reform today’s personnel management system (the cultural foundation), no other reform is possible.