Dear God. I tried to out-ridiculous the EU and failed. Who would have guessed that "Look Sir, Droids" was in fact the only man in the Empire who noticed that AT-ATs could be tripped by cables, and his career was sandbagged because of it.

This story has been widely misinterpreted by people who think that totalitarian militaries reward Western values like creativity. Felth wasn't the only person who knew of this vulnerability. It's pretty clear Veers knew, too--and probably everyone else--but he didn't want his vehicle commanders making up doctrine on the spot. The Empire would rather lose AT-ATs or suffer mission failures than push new training out across the force. And they'd rather not have free-thinkers in command of their vehicles, lest said free-thinkers break with the party lines in other ways. As Davin Felth eventually did.

I'm not sure how this is any more ridiculous than space wizards with laser swords, and a lot of it would ring true here, in the real world. Many militaries place doctrine above creative thinking, especially among the other ranks and junior officers. I myself saw a fairly important capability wasted in part because no one was taking advice from line personnel, and higher and supported commands were getting bad information about this capability. In a totalitarian dictatorship, I might have suffered Felth's fate.