No one snapped to attention at the sight of Mike Diamond approaching as he strolled the downtown offices of Asynchrony Solutions on Wednesday morning.

Nor did they salute, defer or address Diamond as anything other than "Mike."

Truth be told, the software developer's employees were so focused on the tasks at hand that the vast majority barely noticed the company's new vice president.

Diamond, his status as a recently retired general with the U.S. Army Reserve notwithstanding, wouldn't have it any other way.

Douglas MacArthur's observation about old soldiers just fading away?

Nevermind.

Even a "ribboned officer" has to keep working if he falls into what Diamond jokingly calls the "gray area" requiring reserve personnel to wait until the age of 60 before collecting retirement benefits.

Diamond being a case in point.

"I'm out of the service and I have gray hair," he explained. "But I'm not 60."

Not that his age matters since, a few months removed from 59, the native Alabaman doesn't meet anyone's standard of the retiring sort.

Asynchrony, a software architect that designs complex information technology programs for the defense, health care and financial services industries, has a penchant for military brass.

Last month, the company announced the appointment of retired U.S. Army Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, the former head of the coalition effort in Iraq, to its board of directors.

The military bent seems to run counter to the distinctly nonregimented working environment fostered by Asynchrony.

A champion of joint, creative thinking, Asynchrony encourages its free-spirited techies (envision retro canvas sneakers) to develop projects cooperatively.

The upshot is a beehive, where employees huddle around computers in groups of two or three creating a slice of Silicon Valley on Washington Avenue.

An atmosphere that at first blush may seem unorthodox, said Diamond, in fact replicates the esprit de corps he witnessed and embraced for more than 35 years in the military.

Diamond himself reported for duty on Washington Avenue four months ago (sans the retro canvas sneakers).

Far from his first foray as a civilian employee, Diamond held several positions in the telecommunications field during periods he wasn't serving active duty.

He acknowledges that information technology, the force driving 10-year-old Asynchrony, is not exactly his field of expertise.

Fortunately, Asynchrony last year had cast a net for a vice president to oversee planning and logistics.

And who better to fill the role than a commander who spent 19 months overseeing 27,000 troops routing supplies from Kuwait to military units in Iraq?

Diamond's background may be military, but his inspiration goes to a role model he met while working as a sportswriter for his college newspaper, the Crimson White.

For it was from the legendary Alabama football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant that he drew the philosophy that once led troops along the supply chain and, since last year, has guided planning efforts on behalf of Asynchrony:

"Management plus caring equals leadership."

"What most managers don't get is the caring part," he said. "If you're going to be a leader then you have to care about people. The army entrusted me with caring about the people serving under me. And I did."

Diamond pointed to the wall where he hung the iconic photograph of Bryant leaning on a goalpost, the trademark hounds-tooth fedora cocked jauntily on his head.

"That," he said, "I learned from that man right there."

Diamond may no longer wear the uniform. But taking a cue from the lifelong allegiance former Crimson Tide players had to Bryant, Diamond said an honorable discharge did nothing to diminish the way he feels about his troops.

On the domestic front, he worries over a job market that has disproportionately turned aside veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As reported in the Post-Dispatch last week, the unemployment rate for so-called "young veterans" is more than 2 higher than that of the general population.

Diamond and career experts agree the multiple deployments that have forced National Guard personnel and reservists to repeatedly leave the work force contributes greatly to the gap.

Technically, he noted, the law mandates that companies hold the place of deployed reservists.

"But, and that's a big B-U-T, we all know companies have a way of working around those laws," Diamond said.

The best defense, Diamond advised, is to take "advantage of all educational possibilities" — starting with the GI Bill.

Diamond, meanwhile, said his own transition to civilian employment has been relatively smooth.

The kind of place where he goes to work each morning may have changed, Diamond said. But the way he conducts himself once he gets down to business hasn't.

"I'm a participative manager," Diamond said. "I roll up my sleeves just like the rest of the guys."