How is it that most junior Soldiers claim to have never heard of Colin Powell or Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr?

CH (MAJ) William Beaver Great thoughts. Thank you for sharing.

Worse is what people think they know, but don't.

Sir, I think that this has to do with how young the junior enlisted soldiers are and the lack of actual history or civics taught in our schools. I guarantee that fully half of them can't name the first 10 amendments nor know anything about any historical events save for the revolutionary war, the civil war and WW2. The first gulf war happened years before most of them were born. Your average junior enlisted man was born in 1999. They were still in preschool during the initial stages of OIF. They weren't even in middle school when Obama became president. Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf were commanding haven't been active generals at any point in their lives. Now consider that George H W Bush was a one term president and only had two real accomplishments to speak (as president) and it's understandable that they don't know who they are. Reagan has been maligned by schools since I was in school, so I wouldn't expect any reliable information about him to have been given to the Joe's.

Here's a fun thought experiment. Think back to when you were taught about the red scare of the 1950s. You were probably taught that Sen. McCarthy orchestrated a huge witch hunt and that he was behind the House Unamerican Activities Committee. What if I told you that it was impossible that Senator McCarthy ever sat on the HUAC because he was a Senator? He only said that he was aware that Soviet agents had infiltrated the government. This is easily corroborated by the fact that we definitely know that spies had done so (Julius and Ethel Rosenberg). As you can see, misinformation has been through our educational systems for years.

GENERAL NORMAN SWARZKOPF, JR., AND GENERAL COLIN POWELL: YOU TWO GENERALS ARE SOME OF THE BEST GENERALS THAT WE HAVE EVER HAD; in my humble estimation. CH (MAJ) William Beaver

Men the likes of Swartkoff and Powel are far and few between. I’m retired military and find it difficult to believe that contemporary war-making and all the stuff that goes with it is not openly discussed and effectively analyzed with the goal of portraying the most important role any government can provide; the safety and security of its people. As far as ruffling the feathers of I’ll informed, educators who often fall short in understanding the actual goals of the war-fighter, let them eat cake, I hear it goes well with the crow they often eat.

Why should they? Is American history - particularly military history - taught in schools? No. Are they old enough to remember? No. A 20 year old Specialist of today was born in 1998 - 7 years after Desert Storm ended. Yes, the Army should teach its Soldiers more of its history - at all rank levels. There should be a history component to all professional education courses.
Its just an observation but I have known a fair number of Soldiers and a fair number of military history buffs. Guess what? - there are very few people who are both.
Sure, we should know people like Powell and Schwarzkopf but I honest don't expect too many people to know many famous generals beyond Washington, Grant, Lee, Jackson, Pershing, Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton and Mac Arthur.
Yes, I would like more interest in the likes of Nathanael Greene, Winfield Scott, Zachary Taylor, William Sherman, Nelson Miles and Matthew Ridgeway but I don't see that happening any time soon.

CH (MAJ) William Beaver Unbelievable and disappointing. They should be household names, but they should be taught by the Army leadership as part of U. S. and military history.

Few schools teach ANY history. What they call history is usually some left wing revision or so watered down that it isn't recognizable as a record of past events.

The liberals want these kids to be naive so they have no facts to back their arguments with