This report describes the professional experiences and other characteristics general and flag officers in the military services tend to share due to each service's approach to personnel management, and potential implications of those approaches.

The authors identify useful steps toward modernization of officer career management in the military, examine constraints on reforms, and propose mitigating strategies and ways forward.

Increased use of the reserve component has renewed interest in the question of the appropriate number of reserve component general and flag officers. RAND researchers conducted a review of requirements for reserve component general and flag officers.