Research Areas
Focused enough to go deep. Flexible enough to follow the evidence.
MRG currently concentrates on three overlapping research lanes. They provide direction without becoming permanent limits on future inquiry.
01 · Foundational specialty
U.S. Army NCO History
This is MRG’s foundational area of expertise. Research includes the history, evolution, education, institutions, traditions, personalities, ranks, professional development, and experiences of U.S. Army noncommissioned officers.
The work ranges from institutional history and professional military education to biography, enlisted heritage, historical documents, Sergeants Major of the Army, NCO professional development, and the evolution of the NCO corps.
Much of the supporting source collection is maintained at NCOHistory.com.
02 · Professional inquiry
Army Leadership & Institutional Development
This lane examines Army leader development, professional military education, organizational evolution, enlisted development, institutional change, and related applied research.
It connects historical inquiry with selected contemporary questions about how the Army develops leaders, structures professional education, identifies competencies, adapts institutions, and translates research into practice.
Current professional discussion and shorter-form analysis primarily appear through the MRG Substack.
03 · History on the ground
Military History in Place
This lane examines military history through communities, landscapes, institutions, cemeteries, archives, military sites, Federal authority, preservation work, and local experience.
Current attention includes Bell County and Texas during the Civil War and Reconstruction, Federal occupation, the Freedmen’s Bureau, military units, veterans, cemeteries, preservation, and related military or military-adjacent subjects.
Texas is an important current field of study, not the permanent geographic boundary of MRG.
Research approach
Evidence before conclusion.
Primary sources are preferred whenever practicable. Documented fact, interpretation, and inference should remain distinct. Uncertainty should be acknowledged, and new evidence should be allowed to change earlier conclusions.
The goal is not to sound certain. The goal is to get as close to the historical record as the evidence permits.