I served at the same time as Macgregor. I became aware of him shortly after the Gulf War. He is not one of my favorite people.
He has, in the public mind at least, successfully claimed credit for the victory at the battle of 73 Easting (First Gulf War) where he was actually a squadron operations officer. Yes he participated and had a meaningful job, but the battle was conducted by the 2nd ACR commander COL Holder and the man at the point of the attack was Captain H.R. McMaster. Holder and McMaster were both eventually promoted to Lieutenant General while Macgregor never made Brigadier and retired as a colonel.
Shortly before retiring, he wrote a book called "Breaking the Phalanx" which generated some discussion in the Army. He advocated reorganizing the Army around battalion-sized combat groups and largely doing away with Brigade and Division structure - bold recommendations from a savant who had never commanded a brigade or division. As I noted, the book was interesting, the CSA even recommended reading it, but no one found it particularly compelling. Our every experience since has confirmed the notion that the brigade is the smallest practical self-sustaining combat formation.
He then began to peddle his theories internationally where he could more easily find an audience interested in his criticism of the US defense establishment. As the Russian Federation Army went through its reorganization, a design that looked remarkably like Macgregor's concepts (i.e. the Russian Battalion Tactical Group) he found an audience on Russian State TV where he invariably lauded the Russian Army and criticized NATO armed forces.
At the start of this conflict, Tucker Carlson had him on regularly where he would intone in his John Kerry like voice that 'Ukraine has already lost this war" while offering constant praise for Russian performance in the conflict. Tucker is starting to look ridiculous giving him airtime. But then there are uninformed people who believe him rather than their lying eyes because it fits what they want to believe about the administration.
The organization model he triumphed is being destroyed by a nation with a third of Russia's population, but trained in the Western way of war and using US concepts of organization for combat - the Brigade Combat Team. I know of no senior American officer, who has had any real responsibility commanding large formations of troops, who takes him seriously.
To put it bluntly, were he to walk into a room in which I was sitting, I would walk out.
Lest they be forgotten, one of his brilliant assessments back in March.
Douglas Macgregor Declares Russian Victory: 'The War Is Really Over for the Ukrainians. They Have Been Grounded to Bits'
Ret. United States Army Col. Douglas Macgregor declared Ukraine has lost the war with Russia and that the country has been "grounded to bits."
www.mediaite.com
To remind, over the last 72 hours the Ukrainian Army has handed Russia another crushing defeat around the city of Lyman - an enclave the dictator in the Kremlin wanted held at all costs.
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