erm hitler was a soldier b4 he joined the nazis.
and he was initially pretty smart, adopting tactics like blitzkrieg which was dismissed by the French army who developed the doctrine.
until his ego got the better of him, the war was going good for the germans.

had we ever had an ex-gen as mindef boss? i can't remember.

lol. u do realize most sg cabinet ministers were former military?
lee jr, teo, chan chun sing, tan chuan jian, lui tuck yew etc.
but they all left the service b4 joining govt. in fact, goh chok tong had to coax teo chee hean to leave the navy.

and when goh was defense minister, he remarked that he had too much power even as a civilian minister over the military (even more power than PM) that the law was amended to grant more power over military to the President.