American Military History, Volume 2 by Richard W. Stewart

The dramatic events of the post–Cold War world focused the senior Army leadership on changing the Army to meet these new challenges. When General Eric K. Shinseki became the thirty-fourth Army Chief of Staff in June 1999, he was already committed to a dramatic transformation of the Army.

He had commanded a heavy division and had served as Commander of USAREUR and SFOR in Bosnia. He had been Vice Chief of Staff of the Army when the Army was bruised by press and congressional criticism concerning how long it took to deploy TF HAWK to Albania. In his opinion, the heavy divisions were too heavy to get where they might be needed quickly and the light forces lacked the staying power to stand up to a capable adversary.