What Price Glory, Captain Flagg? Leader Competency in the American Expeditionary Forces

This study examines how the American army trained and developed its company-level leaders during the First World War. It highlights the prewar army's concepts of leadership and explains the limitations of the army's system for selecting and training officers and noncommissioned officers. When the United States entered World War I, the army was unprepared to expand the officer and noncommissioned officer corps to lead a mass army in a modern war. This unpreparedness forced the army to adopt ad hoc measures to select and train junior leaders that compromised leadership competency and professional development. The systemic problems of mass mobilization and the need to rapidly deploy an army to Europe further hindered efforts to build competent junior leaders both stateside and in France. The army's failure to properly train and develop its junior leaders ultimately blunted the combat effectiveness of the American Expeditionary Forces, adversely affected unit cohesion, and caused unnecessary casualties on the battlefield.