Related Link: http://douglasmacgregor.com/Douglas A. Macgregor is an independent defense and foreign policy consultant with the firm, Glenside Analysis, Inc., based in Ashburn, Virginia. He is also a retired Colonel who left the Army on 1 June 2004 after 28 years of service, most of which was spent in armor, mechanized infantry and armored cavalry formations. Macgregor was commissioned in the US Army in 1976 after one year at the Virginia Military Institute and four years at West Point. On completion of airborne and ranger training, Macgregor served in a variety of command and staff assignments.
In 1991, Macgregor was awarded the bronze star with "V" device for valor for his leadership of combat troops in the 2nd Squadron, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, the lead element of the VII Corps during the advance into Iraq of February 1991. Colonel Macgregor's crowning achievement in Desert Storm was his personal leadership of the two cavalry troops from 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment that destroyed a full-strength Republican Guard Brigade in less than 30 minutes on 26 February 1991, that became known as the Battle of the 73 Easting.
After the Gulf War, from June 1992 to July 1994, Colonel Macgregor commanded the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry in the 1st Infantry Division (mechanized) at Fort Riley, KS. In November 1993, Colonel Macgregor's cavalry squadron decisively defeated the Opposing Force of the National Training Center in four major battles that became the focus of a 1994-1005 RAND study on high performance units. His unit was identified as the high performance unit in this study of over 40 rotations since the first Gulf War. His unit's remarkable accomplishments included the one and only action in the history of the National Training Center during which the Opposing Force was totally annihilated. The squadron's performance has not been equaled since November 1993.
After serving for a year as the Director of the Battle Command Battle Laboratory at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was involved in the early phase of the Force XXI digitization initiatives, Macgregor was assigned to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in November 1997 as the J5, Director of Strategic Planning for the Balkans. During this period he was responsible for the strategic planning that led to the Kosovo Air Campaign. In October 1998, Macgregor became the Director of the Joint Operations Center at SHAPE where he supervised the conduct and planning of operations with a staff of 240 officers and noncommissioned officers from 19 NATO nations throughout the Kosovo Crisis until January 2000.
In addition to his latest work Transformation Under Fire (published by Praeger, 2003), Colonel Macgregor is the author of two other books, Breaking the Phalanx: A New Design for Landpower in the 21st Century, (published by Praeger, 1997), and The Soviet-East German Military Alliance, (published by Cambridge University Press, 1989). His work has been featured in numerous publications, including the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Stars & Stripes, Newsweek, and the Army Times. He has also appeared on the Lehrer News Hour and ABC World News Tonight as a commentator on current military operations in Iraq.
