“These slides are principally made because briefings are so integral to U.S. military culture, and PowerPoint emerged as a really easy way to create the visual component that was a smaller part of briefings historically—the map, the chart, the graph, the list,” said Elspeth Van Veeren, a professor at the University of Bristol and an expert in U.S. security cultures and policies. By 2000, PowerPoint already had such a high rate of usage in the U.S. military that Gen. Hugh Shelton, who was then chairman of the joint chiefs, issued a militarywide order to cut down on the visual bells and whistles in PowerPoint presentations. A few months after PA Consulting defended its chaotic slide, Special Forces officer Col.