PSMS Ryan I Capuchino

ALPHA COY 2021-02

PSSLC

Reaction Paper on the movie The Pentagon Wars by Col. James G. Burton, USAF

The movie is about the M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle and its development under Major General
Partridge which took 17 years and 14 billion dollars until Colonel Burton was sent to observe its
testing.
The BFV (Bradley Fighting Vehicle) was constantly being modified and sent back for design flaws;
initially it was too big and made it hard to see from the inside. Adding a turret to solve the issue
meant they would go over budget. The group of generals in charge of the development of the BFV
demanded more changes in spite of their being impractical: they wanted the BFV to be amphibious
resulting in the loss of units, they said that the armor is to be made out of aluminum for the reason
that it would be too slow if it was heavy and had demanded bigger armament placed on it.
We could call these generals “Armchair Generals” because they had little to no actual experience
in the military yet they had these modifications made on the BFV without prioritizing casualty or
relying on the real military experts. Their motives towards the development of the BFV were
corrupted and they used their position of power within the organization for their own benefit.
When Colonel Burton came for the testing, they knew they could lose the BFV project if they will
not manipulate its testing. During the vulnerability testing, they put the uniforms in a fire-proof box
and showed the unscathed uniforms afterwards to Colonel Burton but were caught driving away with
the burnt mannequins. They also filled the tanks with water instead of fuel. And in the vaporifics test,
they also drove away with the dead sheep that were put in the BFV to hide evidence that the testing
failed. Colonel Burton also found out that the ammunition used in the initial live fire testing of the BFV
was ineffective and requested that they use a stronger quality of ammunition, yet he was denied by
Major General Partridge.
There are obvious practices from the film and our organization that are similar, for example,
when Major General Partridge tried to force Colonel Burton to rewrite his report on the testing of the
BFV when he exposed a ‘failure in the chain of command’ and ‘manifest deficiencies’. Another
similarity could be pointed out in the blind eye of the higher-ups, as the corrupt officers still earned
their promotion despite their manipulation. It proves that any long-standing organization cannot be
defeated.
Yet, I learned from this story that a good officer must stand firm in what he must fight for. At the
end of the movie, the BFV was finally approved for a proper live-fire test and this prevented the loss
of many lives. If it took one good officer; imagine what more would do to make a change.