Douglas Macgregor Douglas A . Macgregor is a U . S . Army Colonel ( retired ) , author , and consultant . Career . Macgregor was the " squadron operations officer who essentially directed the Battle of 73 Easting " during the Gulf War . Facing an Iraqi Republican Guard opponent , U . S . troops with 10 tanks and 13 Bradley fighting vehicles destroyed almost 70 Iraqi armored vehicles with no U . S . casualties in a 23 minute span of the battle . As Macgregor was towards the front of the battle involved in shooting , he didn ' t " request artillery support or report events to superiors until the battle was virtually over , according to one of his superior officers . " The risks he undertook " could have been criticized had the fight turned ugly . " At a November 1993 exercise at the Army ' s National Training Center ( NTC ) at Fort Irwin , Lt . Col . Macgregor ' s unit vastly outperformed its peers against the " Opposition Force . " The series of five battles usually end in four losses and a draw for the visiting units ; Macgregor ' s unit won three , lost one , and drew one . Macgregor ' s unit dispersed widely , took unconventional risks , and anticipated enemy movements . Macgregor was a top Army thinker on innovation . He " became prominent inside the Army " when he published " Breaking the Phalanx " , which argued for radical reforms . " Breaking the Phalanx " was rare in that an active duty military author was challenging the status quo with detailed reform proposals for the reorganization of U . S . Army ground forces . The head of the Army , United States General Dennis Reimer , wanted to reform the Army and effectively endorsed " Breaking the Phalanx " and passed copies out to generals ; however , reforming the U . S . Army according to the book met resistance from the Army ' s " de facto " " board of directors " — the other four - star Army generals — and Reimer did not press the issue . Many of Macgregor ' s colleagues thought his unconventional thinking may have harmed his chances for promotion . While an Army NTC official called him " the best war fighter the Army has got , " colleagues of Macgregor were concerned that " the Army is showing it prefers generals who are good at bureaucratic gamesmanship to ones who can think innovatively on the battlefield . " Macgregor was also seen as blunt , and to some , arrogant . Despite Magregor ' s top post - Gulf War NTC showing , his Army career was sidelined . The summer of 1997 marked the third time the Army refused to put him in command of a combat brigade , " a virtual death warrant for his Army career , relegating him to staff jobs as a colonel for the remainder of his service . " Macgregor was the top planner for Gen . Wesley Clark , the military commander of NATO , for the attack on Yugoslavia . In the fall of 2001 , Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld , who had read " Breaking the Phalanx " , insisted that General " Tommy " Franks and his planning staff meet with Colonel Macgregor on 16 – 17 January 2002 to discuss a concept for intervention in Iraq involving the use of an armored heavy force of roughly 50 , 000 troops in a no warning attack straight into Baghdad . Macgregor left the Army in June 2004 . He is the vice president of Burke - Macgregor , LLC , a consulting firm based in Reston , Virginia , and he occasionally appears as a guest commentator on television and radio . Education . Magregor received his Ph . D . from the University of Virginia in international relations .