TO THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

For dissolving its Office of Force Transformation. OFT’s lofty and sometimes intangible mission certainly had its critics and naysayers. But the vision it was charged with creating and promoting provided the Defense Department with a valuable long-term perspective at a time when much is focused on the here and now. The real tragedy in OFT’s demise, however, is that it was based less on sound decision-making and more on an apparent lack of visionary talent to match that of former OFT chief Art Cebrowski. In a messy period since Cebrowski’s retirement, the vision that OFT was designed to deliver blurred into a cloud of rumor and question marks over its future until the agency was disbanded on Oct. 1. Now, with the dispersal of OFT initiatives across other Pentagon offices, the bigger picture that comes from a higher vantage point will likely be lost.