Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama has any prominent Army officials advising him, even though the nation is fighting two ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, wars in which the Army is integral.

Instead, McCain, a former Navy pilot, has opted to choose several advisers from his former service, including John Lehman, a former Navy secretary under President Reagan and a proponent of a larger Navy, as well as Richard Armitage, a former Naval Academy graduate and Vietnam vet who later served as assistant secretary of state under Colin Powell in President George W. Bush's administration.

McCain also has associated himself closely with Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent Democrat who is a staunch supporter of Israel, and Randy Scheunemann, who advised former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the lead up to the Iraq war.

One observer classified McCain's brain trust as "pragmatists" rather than neoconservatives, the group of early Bush administration advisers credited with pushing pre-emptive war in Iraq.

"I don't think they're neocons. I think they're pragmatists because they've been right. He (McCain) himself has been proven right about Iraq, and so on Iraq, I think you can say McCain has a strong track record," said Brookings Institution senior fellow Michael O'Hanlon.

On the other hand, Obama appears to be swaying toward the more technical side of the military. One of his closest military advisers is former Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn, a conservative Democrat who specializes in nuclear non-proliferation issues.

Obama also is turning to retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, who supports a withdrawal from Iraq; Gen. Merrill McPeak, also retired from the Air Force; and Anthony Lake, who was national security adviser to President Clinton.

"If I had to characterize the Obama group of national security advisers, it would be sort of the 'Shock and Awe' crowd. By that I mean those who tend not to emphasize boots on the ground or a ground-centered approach to war, but focus more on technology," said retired Maj. Gen. Bob Scales, a former Army War College commandant and FOX News contributor.

"I find it interesting that neither candidate has a sort of boots-on-the-ground approach to warfare. Very few ground service officers, Army and Marine Corps, are part of their inner circle at a time when we're in our fifth year of war where the overwhelming majority of those who are fighting this war are fighting it on the ground," Scales said.

FOX News' Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.