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The Magazine of the Association of the United States <strong>Army</strong><br />
ARMY<br />
March 2016 www.ausa.org $3.00<br />
<strong>Stimulating</strong> <strong>Simulation</strong><br />
Realism Expands in Soldier Training<br />
<strong>Army</strong>U<br />
Education System Could<br />
Gain Respect, Prestige<br />
Page 27<br />
Reserve Generals<br />
What Professionalism<br />
Means for Part-Timers<br />
Page 30
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ARMY<br />
The Magazine of the Association of the United States <strong>Army</strong><br />
March 2016 www.ausa.org Vol. 66, No. 3<br />
DEPARTMENTS<br />
LETTERS....................................................3<br />
SEVEN QUESTIONS ..................................5<br />
WASHINGTON REPORT ...........................7<br />
NEWS CALL ..............................................9<br />
FRONT & CENTER<br />
The Risk of Another Unsuccessful War<br />
By Gen. Frederick J. Kroesen, USA Ret.<br />
Page 13<br />
Definition of ‘Decisive’<br />
Depends on Context<br />
By Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik, USA Ret.<br />
Page 14<br />
Refugees Display Courage<br />
To Move Forward<br />
By Emma Sky<br />
Page 16<br />
Draft a Bad Idea, With<br />
Or Without Women<br />
By Lt. Col. James Jay Carafano, USA Ret.<br />
Page 17<br />
Bond of Brothers: Infantrymen<br />
Stand Alone but Are Uniquely United<br />
By Col. Keith Nightingale, USA Ret.<br />
Page 19<br />
Millennials: Understanding This<br />
Generation and the Military<br />
By Capt. David Dixon<br />
Page 21<br />
In Mideast Conflicts, at What<br />
Price Victory?<br />
By Lt. Col. Thomas D. Morgan, USA Ret.<br />
Page 22<br />
HE’S THE ARMY......................................26<br />
THE OUTPOST........................................57<br />
SOLDIER ARMED....................................59<br />
HISTORICALLY SPEAKING.....................61<br />
SUSTAINING MEMBER PROFILE ...........64<br />
REVIEWS.................................................65<br />
FINAL SHOT ...........................................72<br />
ON THE COVER<br />
FEATURES<br />
<strong>Army</strong> University: Will Education System<br />
Earn Prestige With Improvements<br />
And a New Name?<br />
By Rick Maze<br />
<strong>Army</strong> University is an ambitious plan to<br />
boost the quality and respect of the<br />
service’s expansive professional education<br />
network with symbolic and substantive<br />
changes. Page 27<br />
Reserve Component Generals: True Professionals<br />
By Brig. Gen. Raymond E. Bell Jr., USA Ret.<br />
General officers of the<br />
<strong>Army</strong> Reserve and<br />
<strong>Army</strong> National<br />
Guard have<br />
successfully<br />
served for<br />
extended<br />
periods on<br />
active duty in an<br />
array of challenging<br />
positions, including<br />
combat. Page 30<br />
<strong>Stimulating</strong> <strong>Simulation</strong>:<br />
Technology Advances and<br />
Upgrades Boost Realism in<br />
Soldier Training<br />
By Scott R. Gourley<br />
With simulation technologies a<br />
ubiquitous element of modern life, it’s<br />
not surprising that today’s soldiers are<br />
encountering the expanded use of<br />
simulation technologies across the<br />
military experience. Page 36<br />
Cover Photo: Pfc. Shante Sapp, Headquarters<br />
and Headquarters Company,<br />
35th Engineer Brigade, Missouri <strong>Army</strong> National<br />
Guard, uses the Dismounted Soldier<br />
Training System during a virtual training<br />
simulation at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Pfc. Samantha J. Whitehead<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 1
Germany Committed to Common Defense<br />
By Lt. Gen. Jorg Vollmer<br />
The German <strong>Army</strong> chief of staff describes how and why<br />
his country is fully committed to NATO and the<br />
common defense of Germany’s partners. Page 32<br />
32<br />
40<br />
12-Step Plan for Curing a Toxic Team<br />
By Keith H. Ferguson<br />
A toxic team is a group of people who<br />
conspire to work against the direction<br />
desired by leadership. The first step<br />
toward fixing a toxic team is to admit the<br />
problem exists. Page 40<br />
For Brain-Injured Vets,<br />
COMPASS Offers Direction<br />
By Mitch Mirkin<br />
A VA research program called Community<br />
Participation through Self-Efficacy Skills<br />
Development, or COMPASS, is aiding<br />
veterans with brain injuries by teaching<br />
them skills that help them manage their<br />
condition. Page 43<br />
Peer Pressure: Attorney Evaluation<br />
System Might Benefit All Officers<br />
By Col. William M. Connor<br />
An <strong>Army</strong> Reserve officer who is an attorney<br />
in civilian life describes how the legal<br />
profession’s system of peer evaluation<br />
offers an efficient, fair and equitable<br />
alternative for military use. Page 47<br />
47<br />
43<br />
Facebook Embedded in Family Life<br />
By Rebecca Alwine<br />
Military families use Facebook for myriad reasons,<br />
including staying in touch with family and friends,<br />
obtaining up-to-the minute news, and gathering<br />
information to help with transitions and moves.<br />
Page 52<br />
52<br />
Counseling Can Uncover Oppressive Climate<br />
By Capt. Gary M. Klein and 1st Lt. Brock J. Young<br />
Regular counseling not only builds trust but can also<br />
uncover command climate issues. Page 54<br />
54<br />
49<br />
Reading: The Key to<br />
Critical Thinking<br />
By Lt. Col. C. Richard Nelson, USA Ret.<br />
As part of the process of<br />
connecting ends and means,<br />
<strong>Army</strong> leaders must be broadly<br />
educated and read accordingly—<br />
beyond briefing books prepared<br />
by their staffs. Page 49<br />
2 ARMY ■ March 2016
Letters<br />
A Fight We Can’t Afford to Lose<br />
■ Usually, in boxing, a one-two punch<br />
is good for a knockout, but the one-twothree<br />
punch in the first three articles in<br />
the Front & Center section of the January<br />
issue should certainly foster a wakeup.<br />
Retired Gen. Frederick J. Kroesen<br />
(“America: Step Up, Wake Up, Wise<br />
Up”), Emma Sky (“What Lessons<br />
Should We Take From the Iraq War?”)<br />
and retired Lt. Col. James Jay Carafano<br />
(“Syria Operations Sending All the<br />
Wrong Signals”) put in perspective the<br />
absolutely critical situation that faces<br />
our country, the dangers thereof, and<br />
the tough road to recovery. Such discussions<br />
are long overdue and, unfortunately,<br />
muted.<br />
I have been around for 93 years and<br />
have seen the results of our lack of preparedness<br />
in two world wars, and I do<br />
not want it to happen again. You have<br />
made a good start with these splendid<br />
articles, but the bugle must be sounded<br />
louder. Please take a deep breath before<br />
the next issue.<br />
Maj. Gen. Chet McKeen, USA Ret.<br />
Fort Worth, Texas<br />
Recruiting Saw Many Changes<br />
■ In his January article, “Let’s Solve<br />
the <strong>Army</strong>’s Recruiting Challenges,” retired<br />
Col. Bob Phillips omits mention of<br />
a third advertising campaign that preceded<br />
Maj. Gen. Maxwell R. Thurman’s<br />
arrival as head of the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Recruiting<br />
Command. Recruiting always gets<br />
tougher when the economy improves and<br />
inevitably, advertising is looked to as a<br />
partial solution. I was deputy director of<br />
advertising and sales promotion for Recruiting<br />
Command from June 1973 until<br />
January 1993 and believe knowledge of<br />
earlier hits and misses can be helpful to<br />
those now in charge of using advertising<br />
to help provide the strength.<br />
The advertising program effectively<br />
began in 1971 with a campaign designed<br />
to make young people rethink traditional<br />
objections to <strong>Army</strong> life. The slogan “Today’s<br />
<strong>Army</strong> Wants to Join You” suggested<br />
a kindlier welcoming than the average<br />
new recruit was liable to encounter,<br />
and aspirations of the <strong>Army</strong>’s Modern<br />
Volunteer <strong>Army</strong> office that were never<br />
widely implemented were publicized.<br />
Old soldiers saw it as a threat to good<br />
order and discipline. Civilian critics wondered<br />
if it was a misrepresentation. It was<br />
pulled after two years and replaced with<br />
“Join the People Who’ve Joined the<br />
<strong>Army</strong>,” which ran until 1978. That it did<br />
so without controversy was mostly because<br />
lessons learned with the earlier<br />
campaign had been taken to heart by the<br />
advertising agency and <strong>Army</strong> officials responsible<br />
for approving the ads, but also<br />
because it was less visible. “Today’s <strong>Army</strong>”<br />
had burst on the scene with a major television<br />
buy, but Congress kept <strong>Army</strong> advertising<br />
off TV, the most intrusive (and<br />
effective) medium, from 1973 to 1978.<br />
Then, <strong>Army</strong> recruiting was put on the<br />
defensive by a congressional staff report<br />
containing quotes by soldiers in Europe<br />
alleging lies by recruiters and misleading<br />
impressions in the advertising. The contract<br />
advertising agency, N.W. Ayer, addressed<br />
the problem by creating the<br />
“This is the <strong>Army</strong>” campaign, which<br />
promised a “warts and all” view of <strong>Army</strong><br />
service. This approach was welcomed in<br />
the Pentagon and the halls of Congress<br />
but found few fans among struggling recruiters,<br />
who observed that some of the<br />
“warts” were mainly helpful to their<br />
competitors in the other services.<br />
This was the advertising that Thurman<br />
found when he arrived at Recruiting<br />
Command. In an early meeting, he<br />
told agency executives he wanted it replaced<br />
with something more upbeat to<br />
match the many changes in recruiting he<br />
was about to introduce. They outlined,<br />
and he approved, an approach that entailed<br />
best industry practices and catered<br />
to his formidable analytical demands.<br />
Unlike his predecessors in command, he<br />
took an intense interest in the yearlong<br />
process, reviewing progress in grueling<br />
monthly sessions and educating the<br />
agency in important aspects of the “product,”<br />
notably the <strong>Army</strong> modernization<br />
program that would make credible the<br />
copy line: “In the <strong>Army</strong>, the Cavalry flies,<br />
the Infantry rides, and the Artillery can<br />
hit a fly in the eye 15 miles away.”<br />
The somewhat dispirited recruiters<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong> National Guard/1st Lt. Jessica Donnelly<br />
Members of the South Carolina <strong>Army</strong> National Guard graduate from the Recruit Sustainment Program.<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 3
Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, USA Ret.<br />
President and CEO, AUSA<br />
Lt. Gen. Guy C. Swan III, USA Ret.<br />
Vice President, Education, AUSA<br />
Rick Maze<br />
Editor-in-Chief<br />
Liz Rathbun Managing Editor<br />
Joseph L. Broderick Art Director<br />
Ferdinand H. Thomas II Sr. Staff Writer<br />
Toni Eugene<br />
Associate Editor<br />
Christopher Wright Production Artist<br />
Laura Stassi Assistant Managing Editor<br />
Thomas B. Spincic Assistant Editor<br />
Contributing Editors<br />
Gen. Frederick J. Kroesen, USA Ret.;<br />
Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik, USA Ret.; Lt.<br />
Gen. Daniel P. Bolger, USA Ret.; and<br />
Brig. Gen. John S. Brown, USA Ret.<br />
Contributing Writers<br />
Scott R. Gourley and Rebecca Alwine<br />
Lt. Gen. Jerry L. Sinn, USA Ret.<br />
Vice President, Finance and<br />
Administration, AUSA<br />
Desiree Hurlocker<br />
Advertising Production and<br />
Fulfillment Manager<br />
ARMY is a professional journal devoted to the advancement<br />
of the military arts and sciences and representing the in terests<br />
of the U.S. <strong>Army</strong>. Copyright©2016, by the Association of<br />
the United States <strong>Army</strong>. ■ ARTICLES appearing in<br />
ARMY do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the officers or<br />
members of the Council of Trustees of AUSA, or its editors.<br />
Articles are expressions of personal opin ion and should not<br />
be interpreted as reflecting the official opinion of the Department<br />
of Defense nor of any branch, command, installation<br />
or agency of the Department of Defense. The magazine<br />
assumes no responsibility for any unsolicited material.<br />
■ ADVERTISING. Neither ARMY, nor its pub lisher,<br />
the Association of the United States <strong>Army</strong>, makes any representations,<br />
warranties or endorsements as to the truth and<br />
accuracy of the advertisements appearing herein, and no<br />
such representations, warranties or endorsements should be<br />
implied or inferred from the appearance of the advertisements<br />
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Membership, of which $9 is allocated for a subscription to<br />
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Manager, P.O. Box 101560, Arlington, VA 22210-0860.<br />
got a preview of the new campaign in<br />
mid-December 1980, a few weeks before<br />
the first commercials aired, in the form<br />
of a short film that began with Thurman<br />
outlining his vision for the recruiting future<br />
and proceeding to display the first<br />
two TV spots. They tolerated the lecture<br />
and applauded the commercials. Spirits<br />
all around were lifted when jingle writer<br />
Jake Holmes was heard singing the little<br />
anthem he had composed, scored and<br />
recorded over a weekend after the winning<br />
slogan had been chosen.<br />
“Be All You Can Be” evolved over the<br />
next 20 years—a long run for an ad campaign—and<br />
played an important part in<br />
recruiting success. In its millennial issue,<br />
Advertising Age ranked it No. 18 among<br />
the best 100 ad campaigns of the 20th<br />
century.<br />
But the <strong>Army</strong> is given a large advertising<br />
budget for finding the very best way<br />
to convince young people they should<br />
meet with a recruiter. That must remain<br />
the main focus of the effort.<br />
Capt. Thomas W. Evans,<br />
U.S. Naval Reserve retired<br />
Mundelein, Ill.<br />
AUSA FAX NUMBERS<br />
ARMY magazine welcomes letters to<br />
the editor. Short letters are more<br />
likely to be published, and all letters<br />
may be edited for reasons of style,<br />
accuracy or space limitations. Letters<br />
should be exclusive to ARMY magazine.<br />
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acknowledgment impossible. Please<br />
send letters to The Editor, ARMY magazine,<br />
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email to armymag@ausa.org.<br />
Take Mideast Warnings to Heart<br />
■ It was interesting to find the sharp<br />
contrast in the Middle East perspectives<br />
of Emma Sky, director of Yale World<br />
Fellows, and retired Lt. Col. James Jay<br />
Carafano, a Heritage Foundation vice<br />
president, in the January issue of ARMY<br />
magazine.<br />
In “What Lessons Should We Take<br />
From the Iraq War?” Sky stated that she<br />
was opposed to the 2003 Iraq War and<br />
then without specifying blame, succinctly<br />
wrote a factual sequence of the events<br />
and consequences. She then provided insightful<br />
suggestions that are conducive to<br />
discussion and reflection.<br />
Carafano wrote an exceedingly critical<br />
critique of U.S. involvement in the Middle<br />
East in “Syria Operations Sending<br />
All the Wrong Signals.” The focus and<br />
target of his criticism was specific, with<br />
over a dozen references to President<br />
Barack Obama and “the administration.”<br />
Carafano referenced the leadership styles<br />
of eight presidents, starting with George<br />
Washington and ending with Ronald<br />
Reagan, but neglected to mention the<br />
administration that passed on to Obama<br />
two active wars and an economy that was<br />
in the greatest recession since the Great<br />
Depression.<br />
It is a complex world. It is my hope<br />
that all commanders in chief, in concert<br />
with the American people, will take<br />
Sky’s warning to heart: “If we don’t learn<br />
anything from the Iraq War, then all<br />
that sacrifice, all that loss of blood and<br />
treasure, will have been for nothing.”<br />
Col. Tyrone L. Steen, AUS Ret.<br />
Colorado Springs, Colo.<br />
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ARMY (ISSN 0004-2455), published monthly. Vol. 66, No. 3.<br />
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4 ARMY ■ March 2016
Seven Questions<br />
Scarce Resource for Soldiers: Good Night’s Sleep<br />
Lt. Col. Ingrid Lim is the sleep lead for the <strong>Army</strong>’s Performance<br />
Triad Division, System for Health Directorate.<br />
1. When did the <strong>Army</strong> start studying soldiers’ sleep, and why?<br />
There is a long tradition of sleep research going back to the<br />
1950s at the Walter Reed <strong>Army</strong> Institute of Research looking<br />
at sleep deprivation, fatigue modeling,<br />
and the impact of various patterns of<br />
sleep restriction on cognitive performance.<br />
The <strong>Army</strong> recognized that sleep<br />
is a valuable resource. Scientific studies<br />
and tools are required to optimize soldiers’<br />
performance.<br />
The current interest in studying clinical<br />
sleep disorders with soldiers came to<br />
the forefront recently for several reasons.<br />
Sleep is markedly disturbed from wounds<br />
sustained in combat such as traumatic<br />
brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder,<br />
and orthopedic injuries with associated<br />
pain. Further, the operational tempo<br />
of combat operations was such that soldiers<br />
frequently obtained insufficient<br />
sleep and lacked standard education on<br />
sleep management and countermeasures.<br />
2. What have been some of the major<br />
findings about soldiers’ sleep habits?<br />
Overall, it is fairly common for soldiers to forgo sleep for military<br />
duties, poor sleep practices, or the inappropriate perception<br />
that sleeping is for lazy or weak individuals.<br />
Texting, watching television or using the computer before<br />
bed, or not having a bedtime routine, add to the challenges of<br />
obtaining healthy sleep. Excessive caffeine intake from energy<br />
drinks, sodas and coffee also plays a role. … Soldiers who perform<br />
non-daytime duties may choose to spend time with their<br />
family instead of sleeping.<br />
3. What methods does the <strong>Army</strong> use to study sleep?<br />
Traditional methods used in a sleep lab include observation;<br />
actigraphy [continuous monitoring by means of a body-worn<br />
device, often on the wrist] and polysomnography [recording of<br />
brain waves, oxygen levels in the blood, heart rate and breathing,<br />
and eye and leg movements]. Sleep is also studied based on<br />
self-report questionnaires regarding various aspects such as<br />
sleep quality and duration.<br />
4. What are some of the next steps planned as a result of the<br />
findings?<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Medical Research and Materiel Command, the<br />
Walter Reed <strong>Army</strong> Institute of Research, and the Biotechnology<br />
High Performance Computing Software Applications Institute<br />
are developing tools for individual soldiers and units to<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong><br />
Lt. Col. Ingrid Lim<br />
help them better manage fatigue and implement sleep-management<br />
strategies down to the squad level. The <strong>Army</strong> is also<br />
determining ways to prevent sleep loss, identify sleep problems<br />
and sleep disorders, and optimally treat and manage sleep disorders<br />
in soldiers.<br />
Despite increased awareness regarding the importance of<br />
sleep, it is clear that further education is<br />
required on the health and performance<br />
benefits of sleep—education that will lead<br />
to recommendations for <strong>Army</strong> policies<br />
that establish appropriate guidelines for<br />
sleep duration in soldiers, as well as safetyrelated<br />
policies when adequate sleep is not<br />
obtained.<br />
5. What have the Iraq and Afghanistan<br />
wars shown us about sleep?<br />
The wars have demonstrated the effectiveness<br />
of sleep-management planning.<br />
When soldiers are provided with guidance<br />
on appropriate sleep management,<br />
they tend to get better sleep and perform<br />
their military duties better. A soldier who<br />
sleeps well is more resilient.<br />
6. What partnerships has the <strong>Army</strong><br />
formed in the study of sleep?<br />
We currently have several partnerships<br />
both within and outside of the <strong>Army</strong>,<br />
and are working to proliferate sleep knowledge that is intuitively<br />
easy to access. The Office of the Surgeon General recently<br />
hosted a Sleep Summit with representation from major<br />
<strong>Army</strong> commands; civilian and <strong>Army</strong> scientists; clinicians; and<br />
academics from Harvard University, the University of Pittsburgh,<br />
the University of Virginia and RAND Corp. This collection<br />
of renowned sleep experts not only identified specific<br />
sleep priorities within the <strong>Army</strong> but developed a way forward to<br />
accomplish these priorities.<br />
7. Can you predict what sleep science will look like in the<br />
coming years?<br />
As Yogi Berra once observed, “Predictions are hard, especially<br />
about the future.” It is likely that the future of sleep research<br />
will include an increased focus on the long-term effects of<br />
sleep loss on health and an ever-expanding array of issues such<br />
as post-traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer<br />
and autoimmune disorders; the short-term negative consequences<br />
of sleep loss and the positive effects of sleep enhancement<br />
and/or supplementation on resilience to both psychological<br />
and physical trauma; and the increased development and<br />
improvement of technologies that can maximize soldiers’ alertness,<br />
performance, health and well-being.<br />
—Thomas B. Spincic<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 5
Washington Report<br />
Commission: Rough Terrain Ahead for <strong>Army</strong><br />
The final report of the National Commission on the Future<br />
of the <strong>Army</strong> fuels a growing concern in Washington, D.C.,<br />
that the <strong>Army</strong> and the nation could be in trouble and without<br />
any short-term fixes.<br />
“Even with budgets permitting a force of 980,000, the <strong>Army</strong><br />
faces significant shortfalls,” the report says, adding that current<br />
and planned “aviation assets cannot meet<br />
expected wartime capacity requirements.”<br />
There are no short-range air defense<br />
battalions in the Regular <strong>Army</strong>, and many<br />
assets in the National Guard are dedicated<br />
to protecting the nation’s capital, “leaving<br />
precious little capability for other global<br />
contingencies, including high-threat areas<br />
in northeast Asia, southwest Asia, Eastern<br />
Europe or the Baltics,” the report says.<br />
Shortfalls also exist in military police,<br />
field artillery, fuel distribution, water purification,<br />
missile defense, tactical mobility<br />
and watercraft; and with chemical, biological,<br />
radiological and nuclear capabilities.<br />
“Remedying these shortfalls within a<br />
980,000-soldier <strong>Army</strong> will require hard<br />
choices and difficult trade-offs,” the report says.<br />
Retired <strong>Army</strong> Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, president and CEO<br />
of the Association of the U.S. <strong>Army</strong>, said he believes the report<br />
“provides a rare opportunity to address risky capability<br />
shortfalls, reinforce the Total Force concept, and convince a<br />
skeptical Congress and American public there are limits to<br />
how small the <strong>Army</strong> should shrink.”<br />
The commission, headed by retired Gen. Carter F. Ham,<br />
was established by the National Defense Authorization Act for<br />
Fiscal Year 2015. It was tasked with examining the size and<br />
force structure of the <strong>Army</strong>’s active and reserve components.<br />
For political and budgetary reasons, the report says it is “unlikely,<br />
at least for the next few years,” for the <strong>Army</strong> to have<br />
combined active, <strong>Army</strong> Guard and <strong>Army</strong> Reserve forces of<br />
more than 980,000 soldiers. The smart course may be to take<br />
two infantry brigade combat teams out of the Regular <strong>Army</strong> to<br />
free active-duty space for the expanded manning of aviation,<br />
short-range air defense and other capabilities in short supply.<br />
Shifting soldiers doesn’t solve all of the problems, the report<br />
says. “Even if end-strength constraints can be met, the <strong>Army</strong><br />
will need significant additional funding,” it says. The <strong>Army</strong> will<br />
be in a better position to ask for and receive money if it works<br />
with DoD, the White House and Congress on cost-cutting initiatives<br />
to reduce redundancies and improve efficiency. These efforts<br />
“will not be enough” to pay for everything. “Added funding<br />
will eventually be needed if major shortfalls are to be eliminated.”<br />
The other members of the panel were retired Sgt. Maj. of<br />
the <strong>Army</strong> Raymond F. Chandler III; retired Gens. Larry R.<br />
Ellis and James D. Thurman; retired Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz;<br />
Thomas R. Lamont, a former assistant secretary of the <strong>Army</strong>;<br />
Robert F. Hale, a former undersecretary of defense; and<br />
Kathleen H. Hicks of the Center for Strategic and International<br />
Studies.<br />
“Although the commission acknowledges<br />
the impossibility of precisely predicting<br />
the future, the commission is certain<br />
that U.S. leaders will face a variety of simultaneous,<br />
diverse threats to our national interests<br />
from both state and non-state actors<br />
as well as natural and man-made disasters,”<br />
the report says.<br />
The commissioners also warn against any<br />
deeper cuts. A total force of 980,000 uniformed<br />
personnel “is the minimum sufficient<br />
force necessary to meet the challenges<br />
of the future strategic environment,” the report<br />
says, listing six things the <strong>Army</strong> could<br />
emphasize to be better ready to tackle the<br />
unknown:<br />
■ Adaptive and flexible leaders are<br />
needed to respond to new technology and unanticipated enemy<br />
action. “<strong>Army</strong> leaders will need to adapt available capabilities<br />
and technology to unexpected missions,” the report says.<br />
■ Cyber capabilities need to be improved “due to the<br />
<strong>Army</strong>’s increasing reliance on computer networks and the<br />
growth of cyber capabilities by state and non-state actors.”<br />
■ Capabilities need to be expanded for urban warfare and<br />
operations in big cities.<br />
■ Flexible and smaller unit formations are needed for future<br />
operations.<br />
■ Defenses against air, rocket and missile attacks need to be<br />
improved.<br />
■ More investment is needed in “game-changing technologies,”<br />
and also in preparing leaders to know how to exploit the<br />
new technologies to the fullest advantage.<br />
A crucial part of the report deals with relations between the<br />
Regular <strong>Army</strong> and the reserve components, a situation soured<br />
by tight budgets that have caused competition for resources<br />
and attention. The commission has a novel idea for having<br />
everyone get along, proposing a pilot program that would integrate<br />
recruiting of active, <strong>Army</strong> National Guard and <strong>Army</strong><br />
Reserve forces into a single effort. This might result in the<br />
components better understanding each other, and may also<br />
save money.<br />
A tight budget led the <strong>Army</strong> to cancel combat-training rotations;<br />
as a result, four <strong>Army</strong> National Guard units were not<br />
deployed overseas in 2013, the report notes.<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 7
News Call<br />
U.S. Air National Guard/Master Sgt. Toby Valadie<br />
Weather, Events Keep National Guard Busy<br />
From helping people deal with extreme<br />
weather to providing security for<br />
the visiting pope and other special events<br />
in the U.S., 2015 was a busy year for the<br />
<strong>Army</strong> National Guard. And 2016 is<br />
keeping pace.<br />
Extreme weather alone made 2015<br />
the National Guard’s busiest year since<br />
2011, but the start of 2016 suggested it<br />
might equal or even eclipse 2015 in<br />
terms of weather conditions requiring<br />
National Guard assistance, with a historic<br />
blizzard blanketing the mid-Atlantic<br />
states and a shift in the El Nino<br />
weather pattern bringing record rain<br />
and historic flooding to states from California<br />
to Louisiana.<br />
“On average, about 1,500 Guard<br />
members were on duty each day” in 2015,<br />
said Gen. Frank J. Grass, chief of the<br />
National Guard Bureau.<br />
In January, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder<br />
activated his state’s National Guard<br />
to distribute drinking water and filters to<br />
the residents of Flint, a city with a population<br />
of about 100,000. The city had<br />
switched its supply source from Lake<br />
Huron water treated by the Detroit Water<br />
and Sewerage Department to Flint<br />
River water treated at the Flint water<br />
treatment plant. The plant did not add<br />
corrosion-control chemicals to the water<br />
A stuck ambulance gets help from Maryland <strong>Army</strong> National Guard troops during Winter Storm Jonas.<br />
and it was rendered undrinkable when it<br />
was contaminated by lead leaching into<br />
it from pipes and fixtures.<br />
The National Guard manned five distribution<br />
sites at fire stations in Flint,<br />
and was planning to stay active as long as<br />
necessary.<br />
Also in January, Winter Storm Jonas<br />
dropped more than 2 feet of snow and<br />
packed 70 mph wind gusts in the mid-<br />
Atlantic region, closing the federal government<br />
as well as local governments<br />
and hundreds of schools for days. Governors<br />
from 11 states including Georgia,<br />
North Carolina, New York and<br />
New Jersey called up more than 2,200<br />
National Guard personnel. The soldiers<br />
transported medical patients and<br />
providers and helped transport emergency<br />
responders to their calls.<br />
The year 2015 began with snowstorms<br />
smothering the South and Midwest<br />
while Western forests burned to the<br />
ground. Storms raged through Massachusetts,<br />
Virginia and Tennessee. Spring<br />
brought a record fire season in states<br />
from North Dakota to New York, and<br />
more flooding in Texas and Oklahoma.<br />
In September, National Guard units<br />
in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey<br />
and Washington, D.C., helped provide<br />
security and traffic assistance for Pope<br />
Francis’s visit. National Guard members<br />
from several other states including<br />
West Virginia, Massachusetts, Alaska,<br />
With flooding expected in January, soldiers from<br />
the Louisiana <strong>Army</strong> National Guard repair a levee.<br />
Maryland <strong>Army</strong> National Guard<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 9
Kentucky, Delaware, Nebraska, Maryland<br />
and California also supported the<br />
mission.<br />
As 2015 ended, National Guard soldiers<br />
from New Mexico to Missouri<br />
were still cleaning up snow, transporting<br />
patients to doctors, and fighting flooding.<br />
More than 600 members of the<br />
Missouri National Guard assisted emergency<br />
responders in that state. Then, a<br />
series of record storms dropped snow<br />
and rain on California, sparking flash<br />
floods and mudslides.<br />
The El Nino phenomenon, when the<br />
central Pacific Ocean warms, disrupted<br />
established weather patterns around the<br />
world. Meteorologists have rated the<br />
current El Nino as strong as the one that<br />
occurred in 1997–98, when California<br />
and Southern states were deluged and<br />
the Northern half of the country suffered<br />
record-breaking cold.<br />
Report: Delaying Modernization<br />
Leads to Higher Price Tags<br />
A new report about the affordability of<br />
military modernization programs projects<br />
the <strong>Army</strong> will increase weapons<br />
spending 28 percent by fiscal year 2022,<br />
with an increase in spending on ground<br />
systems but a “sharp reduction” in aircraft.<br />
The Center for Strategic and International<br />
Studies report, by analyst Todd<br />
Harrison, discusses the so-called “bow<br />
wave” effect of constantly delaying weapons<br />
modernization, resulting in the cumulative<br />
price tag slowly rising. “The<br />
modernization bow wave cannot be pushing<br />
into the future indefinitely,” Harrison<br />
warns in “Defense Modernization Plans<br />
Through the 2020s: Addressing the Bow<br />
Wave.” “Difficult choices lie ahead if the<br />
modernization bow wave proves too<br />
steep to climb,” he writes.<br />
<strong>Army</strong> acquisition funding is low because<br />
of the cancellation of the Future<br />
Combat Systems and the Ground Combat<br />
Vehicle, and the winding down of<br />
building MRAPs, Harrison writes. Now,<br />
the <strong>Army</strong> is ramping up funding for five<br />
major vehicle programs over the next five<br />
years and modernizing several communications<br />
systems. The Joint Light Tactical<br />
Vehicle program is the largest program,<br />
with production expected through fiscal<br />
year 2040 at a rate of about 2,200 vehicles<br />
a year.<br />
SoldierSpeak<br />
On Challenges<br />
“I distinctly remember challenging myself to work harder, to be as fast or as<br />
strong or as skilled or as smart as many of you. It was a healthy competition that inspired<br />
me to be better every single day,” said Brig. Gen. Diana M. Holland upon<br />
assuming command as the first female officer to serve as commandant of cadets at<br />
the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.<br />
On Leading the Pack<br />
“We need resilient, mentally and physically fit soldiers of character who can become<br />
competent, committed, agile and adaptive leaders who can perform for<br />
these cohesive teams of trusted professionals and represent the diversity of America,”<br />
said Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1, Lt. Gen. James C. McConville during a visit<br />
to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. “Young people want to be on a team that does important<br />
stuff. They’re the type of soldiers we want in our <strong>Army</strong>.”<br />
On Family Role Models<br />
“I want to feel the same pride and responsibility as my father has shown,” said<br />
Kerrigan B. Head as her dad, a 10th Mountain Division chief warrant officer, swore<br />
her in at a Military Entrance Processing Station in Syracuse, N.Y. “I enlisted in the<br />
<strong>Army</strong> out of all the other branches because I’ve already lived the <strong>Army</strong> life since I<br />
was 3 years old, and I have seen what can be offered to me through the work of my<br />
father. I want to continue my education and create my own adventures.”<br />
On Imagination as Secret Ingredient<br />
“I wish I had these dishes in basic” training, said Pvt. Yorby Fernandez, a culinary<br />
specialist with the 145th Maintenance Company, New York <strong>Army</strong> National<br />
Guard, and a judge in a contest for Hudson Valley high school students to<br />
turn randomly chosen MRE components into creative, tasty meals complete with<br />
drink and dessert. “They did an amazing job,” Fernandez said.<br />
On Being Prepared<br />
“The worst thing you can ever do in any situation is not do anything at all,” said<br />
Spc. Jake Planatscher, a medic with the 705th Military Police Detention Battalion,<br />
Fort Leavenworth, Kan., who was named a “Hero of the Month” for his<br />
contributions to the Joint Regional Correctional Facility for military inmates.<br />
On Helping Neighbors<br />
“What I’ve enjoyed the most is seeing the reactions from the senior citizens and<br />
all veterans we’ve been helping,” said Pfc. Nestor Renteria when the 717th<br />
Brigade Support Battalion, New Mexico <strong>Army</strong> National Guard, based in<br />
Roswell, helped fellow residents and local emergency services recover after a<br />
historic blizzard crippled the town.<br />
On Suicide Intervention<br />
“A person at risk feels like they have nothing to live for,” said Sgt. Charles<br />
Stokes, motor transport operator with the 1st Armored Division, who was recognized<br />
at Fort Bliss, Texas, for successful suicide interventions. “So you have to<br />
help that person find a turning point, a reason to live. You find that from hearing<br />
out their story.”<br />
On Unmanned Aerial Systems<br />
“One of the drawbacks is that UAVs can’t get people to come out because they<br />
can’t see them,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jason Richards, a Kiowa pilot with<br />
the 82nd Airborne Division, during the helicopter’s last rotation at Fort Polk, La.<br />
“They see us and we scare them, and that forces them to come out and fight, then<br />
we shoot them.”<br />
10 ARMY ■ March 2016
GENERAL OFFICER CHANGES*<br />
Maj. Gen. M.A.<br />
Bills from CG, 1st<br />
Cavalry Div., Fort<br />
Hood, Texas, to<br />
Asst. CoS, C-3/J-3,<br />
UNC/CFC/USFK,<br />
ROK.<br />
Maj. Gen. J.C.<br />
Thomson III from<br />
Cmdt. of Cadets,<br />
USMA, West Point,<br />
N.Y., to CG, 1st<br />
Cavalry Div., Fort<br />
Hood.<br />
Brigadier Generals: P. Bontrager from Cmdr.,<br />
TAAC-S, RSM, NATO, OFS, Afghanistan, to Dep.<br />
CG, 10th Mountain Div. (Light) and Acting Senior<br />
Cmdr., Fort Drum, N.Y.; D.M. Holland<br />
from Dep. CG, Spt., 10th Mountain Div., Fort<br />
Drum, to Cmdr. of Cadets, USMA.<br />
■ CG—Commanding General; CoS—Chief of<br />
Staff; OFS—Operation Freedom’s Sentinel;<br />
ROK—Republic of Korea; RSM—Resolute Support<br />
Mission; Spt.—Support; TAAC-S—Train Advise<br />
Assist Cmd.-South; UNC/CFC/USFK—United<br />
Nations Cmd./Combined Forces Cmd./U.S. Forces<br />
Korea; USMA—U.S. Military Academy.<br />
*Assignments to general officer slots announced<br />
by the General Officer Management Office, Department<br />
of the <strong>Army</strong>. Some officers are listed at<br />
the grade to which they are nominated, promotable<br />
or eligible to be frocked. The reporting<br />
dates for some officers may not yet be determined.<br />
<strong>Army</strong> Fatalities in Iraq<br />
The following U.S. <strong>Army</strong> soldier<br />
died supporting Operation Inherent<br />
Resolve from Jan. 1-31. His<br />
name was released through DoD;<br />
his family has been notified.<br />
Sgt. Joseph F. Stifter, 30<br />
<strong>Army</strong> Fatalities in Afghanistan<br />
The following U.S. <strong>Army</strong> soldier<br />
died supporting Operation Freedom’s<br />
Sentinel from Jan. 1–31.<br />
His name was released through<br />
DoD; his family has been notified.<br />
Staff Sgt. Matthew Q. McClintock,<br />
30<br />
Also in development is the Armored<br />
Multi-Purpose Vehicle, a replacement<br />
for the Paladin 155 mm self-propelled<br />
artillery, upgrading Abrams tanks, and<br />
improvements in Bradley Infantry Fighting<br />
Vehicles. “Together these programs<br />
will increase funding for the <strong>Army</strong>’s major<br />
ground systems learning threefold between<br />
FY 2015 and FY 2021,” Harrison<br />
writes.<br />
Aviation funding is declining, Harrison<br />
says, because several major aircraft<br />
programs are ending, including the MQ-<br />
1C Grey Eagle, CH-47F Chinook,<br />
AH-64E Apache and UH-60M Black<br />
Hawk. The <strong>Army</strong> is still spending on<br />
aviation procurement, with upgraded<br />
turbine engines for the Apache and<br />
Black Hawk helicopters and development<br />
of vertical lift helicopters.<br />
The <strong>Army</strong> is just a small part of acquisition<br />
expansion, Harrison says, noting<br />
there are 120 major programs underway<br />
or planned to start in the next 15 years,<br />
not including classified programs.<br />
‘Health of the Force’ Report<br />
Prescribes Performance Progress<br />
Active-duty soldiers could greatly improve<br />
their personal performance—and<br />
with it the <strong>Army</strong>’s readiness—by getting<br />
more sleep, increasing their physical activity,<br />
and eating healthier foods, according<br />
to the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Medical Command.<br />
The first-of-its-kind report, called<br />
Health of the Force, tracks chronic disease,<br />
obesity, tobacco use and numerous other<br />
health factors as well as the Performance<br />
Triad of sleep, physical activity and nutrition<br />
to create a snapshot of soldiers’<br />
health across 30 major installations.<br />
The <strong>Army</strong> focuses on the Performance<br />
Triad, or P3, as a way to proactively promote<br />
health and prevention instead of<br />
dealing with chronic problems that develop<br />
over time. Given 100 as a perfect<br />
P3 score, the <strong>Army</strong> targeted 85 as an acceptable<br />
score for soldiers. No installation<br />
made the cut. They averaged 67 in<br />
sleep, 81 in activity, and 69 in nutrition.<br />
The lack of any one of the three critical<br />
factors has a major impact on <strong>Army</strong><br />
readiness. More than a third of newly accessioned<br />
soldiers fail to complete their<br />
first enlistment term. About 17 percent<br />
of active-duty soldiers cannot be medically<br />
ready to deploy with three days’<br />
notice; simple failure to keep up with<br />
dental and medical checkups accounts<br />
for one-third of that number. Each<br />
month, some 1,400 soldiers are unavailable<br />
to deploy due to medical factors.<br />
According to the report, which uses<br />
2014 data and was released in December,<br />
78,000 soldiers are clinically obese,<br />
and it costs the <strong>Army</strong> more than<br />
$75,000 per new recruit to replace soldiers<br />
discharged due to weight control.<br />
Briefs<br />
Driverless <strong>Army</strong> Trucks Appear<br />
At North American Auto Show<br />
The U.S. <strong>Army</strong> had an attention-getting<br />
display at the 2016 North American<br />
International Auto Show in Detroit: two<br />
example of driverless technology exhibited<br />
by the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Tank Automotive<br />
Research, Development and Engineering<br />
Center.<br />
There was, of course, a Google autonomous<br />
car at the show, but the <strong>Army</strong><br />
showed off its own driverless vehicles.<br />
They are a Peterbilt Class 8 semitractor<br />
commercial vehicle and an M915, a heavy<br />
truck used for long-distance logistics.<br />
The Warren, Mich.-based <strong>Army</strong> automotive<br />
command has been testing driverless<br />
truck technology for several years.<br />
Rather than starting from scratch, the<br />
<strong>Army</strong> has joined in research with commercial<br />
truck manufacturers and automakers<br />
that also see a future in driverless vehicles,<br />
if a few hurdles can be overcome. The<br />
<strong>Army</strong> has been making steady progress in<br />
research, with hopes of fielding the first<br />
driverless convoy around 2025.<br />
The U.S. <strong>Army</strong> has had convoys of<br />
self-driving vehicles in testing for years.<br />
Sending driverless vehicles into combat<br />
creates problems that don’t appear on<br />
interstate highways, but the <strong>Army</strong> continues<br />
to explore the possibility of selfdriving<br />
trucks to deliver supplies on humanitarian<br />
missions and resupply some<br />
troops in the field, with the potential of<br />
lower costs and fewer accidents.<br />
Paul D. Rogers, director of the <strong>Army</strong><br />
program, has described driverless vehicles<br />
as a potentially significant safety<br />
measure. That is because many attacks<br />
on soldiers happen along supply routes.<br />
A convoy of driverless vehicles could deliver<br />
the same amount of material as a<br />
convoy with drivers, without concern<br />
about fatigued soldiers or injuries.<br />
First Multicomponent <strong>Army</strong> Unit,<br />
2nd BCT Support Inherent Resolve<br />
The headquarters of 101st Airborne<br />
Division (Air Assault), the first multicomponent<br />
unit in the <strong>Army</strong>, and the<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 11
COMMAND SERGEANTS MAJOR<br />
and<br />
SERGEANTS MAJOR CHANGES*<br />
*Command sergeants major and<br />
sergeants major positions assigned to<br />
general officer commands.<br />
Command Sgt.<br />
Maj. M.T. Brady<br />
from U.S. <strong>Army</strong><br />
WTC to RHC-A (P),<br />
Fort Belvoir, Va.<br />
Sgt. Maj. J. Cecil<br />
from PRMC Ops.,<br />
Honolulu, to MED-<br />
COM G-3/5/7,<br />
Falls Church, Va.<br />
Command Sgt.<br />
Maj. M.L. Cosper<br />
from USAG Fort<br />
Hood, Texas, to<br />
JTF-Guantanamo<br />
Bay, Cuba.<br />
Command Sgt. Maj.<br />
V.G. Culp from 7th<br />
Transportation Bde.<br />
(Expeditionary), Fort<br />
Eustis, Va., to U.S.<br />
<strong>Army</strong> Transportation<br />
Corps and School,<br />
Fort Lee, Va.<br />
Command Sgt.<br />
Maj. D. Curry from<br />
311th Signal Cmd.<br />
(T), Fort Shafter,<br />
Hawaii, to NETCOM,<br />
Fort Huachuca, Ariz.<br />
Command Sgt.<br />
Maj. H.E. Dunn<br />
from 20th CBRNE<br />
Cmd., APG, Md., to<br />
Sgt. Maj., FORSCOM<br />
G-3, Fort Bragg, N.C.<br />
Command Sgt.<br />
Maj. R.C. Luciano<br />
from PRMC, Honolulu,<br />
to DHA, Falls<br />
Church.<br />
Command Sgt.<br />
Maj. L. Thomas Jr.<br />
from USAR to Sgt.<br />
Maj., Senior Enlisted<br />
Advisor to<br />
the ASD (M&RA).<br />
Command Sgt.<br />
Maj. J.P. Wills<br />
from 99th Regional<br />
Support Cmd., JB<br />
McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst,<br />
N.J., to USAR.<br />
■ APG—Aberdeen Proving Ground; ASD (M&RA)—Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs; Bde.—Brigade; CBRNE—Chemical, Biological,<br />
Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives Cmd.; DHA—Defense Health Agency; FORSCOM—U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Forces Cmd.; JB—Joint Base; JTF—Joint Task Force; MEDCOM—U.S.<br />
<strong>Army</strong> Medical Cmd.; NETCOM—U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Network Enterprise Technology Cmd.; PRMC—Pacific Regional Medical Cmd.; RHC-A (P)—Regional Health Cmd.-Atlantic<br />
(Provisional); T—Theater; USAG—U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Garrison; USAR—U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Reserve; WTC—Warrior Transition Cmd.<br />
SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE<br />
ANNOUNCEMENTS<br />
G. Garcia, Tier 2,<br />
from Exec. Dir., ITA,<br />
OAASA, to Dir. for<br />
Corp. Info., Office<br />
of the USACE,<br />
Washington, D.C.<br />
D. Jimenez, Tier 2,<br />
from Exec. Technical<br />
Dir./Dep. to the<br />
Cmdr., HQ, ATEC,<br />
APG, Md., to Asst.<br />
to the DUSA/Dir. of<br />
Test and Eval., Office<br />
of the DUSA,<br />
Washington, D.C.<br />
Tier 1: G. Kitkowski to Regional Business Dir.,<br />
USACE, Pacific Ocean Div., Fort Shafter, Hawaii.<br />
■ APG—Aberdeen Proving Ground; ATEC—<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Test and Evaluation Cmd.; DUSA—<br />
Deputy Undersecretary of the <strong>Army</strong>; ITA—U.S.<br />
<strong>Army</strong> Information Technology Agency;<br />
OAASA—Office of the Administrative Assistant<br />
to the Secretary of the <strong>Army</strong>; USACE—U.S. <strong>Army</strong><br />
Corps of Engineers.<br />
2nd Brigade Combat Team are deploying<br />
this spring to support Operation Inherent<br />
Resolve and will train Iraqi security<br />
forces in the fight against the Islamic<br />
State group. Last June, about 65 members<br />
of the Wisconsin <strong>Army</strong> National<br />
Guard became part of the 101st’s headquarters,<br />
and in January they boarded<br />
buses to Fort Campbell, Ky., to take part<br />
in predeployment training there.<br />
Joining them at Fort Campbell were<br />
53 intelligence soldiers from the Utah<br />
National Guard who are also part of the<br />
new unit and will provide technical support.<br />
Approximately 500 101st soldiers<br />
complete the headquarters, which is part<br />
of the <strong>Army</strong> initiative to integrate reserve<br />
component soldiers with activeduty<br />
soldiers while increasing specific<br />
areas of expertise or filling gaps in specialties<br />
such as intelligence. The 2nd<br />
BCT will deploy with about 1,300 soldiers;<br />
the deployment is a routine rotation<br />
of nine months.<br />
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter spoke<br />
to the soldiers in January at Fort Campbell.<br />
He outlined an accelerated campaign<br />
against the Islamic State that will include<br />
retaking their headquarters city of Mosul.<br />
The task “will not be easy, and it will not<br />
be quick,” Carter said. “The training you<br />
will provide … will be critical.”<br />
AUSA Simplifies Membership<br />
Fees, Offers 2-Year Discount<br />
The Association of the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> has<br />
announced a new, streamlined membership<br />
fee structure, one that allows new<br />
and renewing members to pay $30 for a<br />
two-year membership and $50 for a fiveyear<br />
membership.<br />
The cost of an AUSA Life membership<br />
is $300. A discounted rate of $10 for two<br />
years is available for E-1s to E-4s (private<br />
through corporal/specialist), and for U.S.<br />
Military Academy and ROTC cadets.<br />
AUSA is a 66-year-old educational<br />
nonprofit organization supporting the<br />
<strong>Army</strong>, including soldiers and civilian<br />
workers, all active and reserve component<br />
members, veterans and retirees, family<br />
members and defense industry partners.<br />
“Now more than ever, America’s <strong>Army</strong><br />
needs AUSA, and AUSA needs your<br />
membership support,” said retired Sgt.<br />
Maj. of the <strong>Army</strong> Kenneth O. Preston,<br />
director of AUSA’s Noncommissioned<br />
Officer and Soldier Programs, noting the<br />
turbulent times facing the <strong>Army</strong> and the<br />
many national security risks facing the<br />
United States.<br />
AUSA hosts national and local programs,<br />
including professional development<br />
forums and exhibitions. Membership includes<br />
subscriptions to the nationally<br />
recognized ARMY magazine and AUSA<br />
News, and weekly email updates about<br />
<strong>Army</strong>-related news and events.<br />
—Stories by Toni Eugene<br />
12 ARMY ■ March 2016
Front & Center<br />
The Risk of Another Unsuccessful War<br />
By Gen. Frederick J. Kroesen, U.S. <strong>Army</strong> retired<br />
The Jan. 10 New York Times Magazine<br />
article “The Empty Threat of ‘Boots<br />
on the Ground’” raises again the question<br />
of how to fight modern wars, comparing<br />
two “very long, very costly … not<br />
very successful wars”—Iraq and Afghanistan—with<br />
1995, when President Bill<br />
Clinton “managed to end the fighting<br />
in Bosnia … through air power alone.”<br />
Upon reading that, retired Gen. Gordon<br />
Sullivan, president and CEO of the<br />
Association of the U.S. <strong>Army</strong>, added,<br />
“but only when the NATO allies had<br />
fielded a 57,000 NATO implementation<br />
force ready to invade the area.” The air<br />
campaign set the stage and the cease-fire<br />
precluded an immediate combat assault,<br />
but that NATO force then crossed the<br />
Bosnian border, quelled the conflict and<br />
achieved the objectives initially sought.<br />
Final success depended on occupying the<br />
land and controlling the population.<br />
Nevertheless, “boots on the ground”<br />
ever since have had to deal with the perception<br />
that air power such as bombing<br />
and drone strikes can win modern wars.<br />
Boots on the ground promise a return to<br />
long, drawn-out conflicts, serious casualty<br />
rates for both soldiers and civilians,<br />
and inconclusive declarations of mission<br />
accomplishment. The wars in Korea,<br />
Vietnam and Iraq are examples of such<br />
campaigns.<br />
The argument is not new. It began a<br />
century ago when the fledgling air forces<br />
of the World War I Allies demonstrated<br />
long-range bombers, sank a U.S. warship,<br />
then promised that air power could<br />
win World War II. Even after the end of<br />
hostilities in Europe, air power advocates<br />
believed that a few more months of the<br />
air campaign would have negated the<br />
need for the land forces’ D-Day invasion.<br />
Then the atomic bombs ended hostilities<br />
with Japan, but the war objectives<br />
were achieved only during the five years<br />
of occupation that followed.<br />
The land power argument is anchored<br />
on the realization that wars are won<br />
when soldiers occupy terrain, dominate<br />
populations, and achieve the political objectives<br />
of their parent government.<br />
Cease-fires, truces, armistices and even<br />
surrenders do not end wars; only the creation<br />
of new governments or new lasting<br />
allegiances bring finality to the total<br />
campaign. Conquest is the ultimate solution,<br />
but it’s not always the objective.<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Spc. Steven Hitchcock<br />
Land power advocates point to World<br />
War II, Operation Just Cause in Panama<br />
and Operation Desert Storm as examples<br />
of when properly organized, manned,<br />
equipped and trained forces ended conflicts<br />
and achieved objectives in good<br />
time and with minimum casualties—<br />
though minimum is a relative term.<br />
Compare, for example, the casualty<br />
count from 1939 to May 1944 with<br />
those of the next year, when land power<br />
forces adequate to the task had been<br />
built and committed.<br />
Resolution of the argument is not imminent,<br />
but an understanding of the<br />
costs, time required and objectives associated<br />
with any contemplated military<br />
campaign is vital in today’s world. The<br />
presidential candidates for our upcoming<br />
election are all being asked about their<br />
solutions for the current Middle East situation.<br />
Their answers offer carpet bombing,<br />
no-fly zones, varying ground force<br />
scenarios, or a continuation of current<br />
actions. None seems to give evidence of<br />
understanding the need to identify the<br />
objectives to be sought, the costs, the<br />
forces necessary, and the time to prepare<br />
for a major effort.<br />
Presidents never ask “Are you ready?”<br />
They should understand that the current<br />
<strong>Army</strong> can respond to a crisis overnight,<br />
but that sustaining a major operation requires<br />
an immediate start to build the total<br />
force essential for the campaign. In<br />
World War II, that took two and a half<br />
years. For the Kuwait liberation, it required<br />
six months to organize the allied<br />
force of more than 500,000 that finished<br />
its combat job in 100 hours. For the Iraq<br />
invasion, when then-<strong>Army</strong> Chief of<br />
Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki expressed a<br />
need for 300,000 soldiers to satisfy the<br />
mission requirements, his recommendation<br />
was rebuffed and the Iraq War<br />
never reached a satisfactory conclusion.<br />
The Afghanistan War is being pursued<br />
in like fashion, and its conclusion will<br />
most likely end in like fashion.<br />
This article is not an effort to influence<br />
a political decision to initiate or<br />
participate in a military campaign in the<br />
Middle East. It is not an attempt to reconcile<br />
the differing views concerning air<br />
and land force campaigns. It is, instead, a<br />
hope that those who generate conceptions<br />
for conducting our next military excursion<br />
will fully consider the costs, the<br />
forces, the sustaining means, the time,<br />
the risks to achieving the objectives desired,<br />
and the pre- and post-activities<br />
that will be required to ensure we will<br />
not be adding another “not very successful<br />
war” to our list.<br />
■<br />
Gen. Frederick J. Kroesen, USA Ret., formerly<br />
served as vice chief of staff of the<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong> and commander in chief of<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Europe. He is a senior fellow<br />
of AUSA’s Institute of Land Warfare.<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 13
Definition of ‘Decisive’ Depends on Context<br />
By Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik, U.S. <strong>Army</strong> retired<br />
Words matter, for they reflect the<br />
quality of thinking and affect the<br />
judgments we make and the actions we<br />
take. In our everyday speech about the<br />
<strong>Army</strong> and what it does, the term “decisive”<br />
is often used as an absolute. For example,<br />
“The <strong>Army</strong> is the decisive force.”<br />
The problem is, decisive is a relative<br />
term in three important and relevant<br />
senses. First, decisive is relative to context;<br />
second, to combinations; and third,<br />
to proper use.<br />
Every branch of service claims it is decisive.<br />
Most of the time in war, though,<br />
each service contributes importantly to<br />
achieving objectives. “Jointness” is the<br />
idea that in any given tactical or operational<br />
situation, a commander should<br />
select the service capabilities necessary<br />
to achieve the objectives assigned, but<br />
these capabilities are only sufficient<br />
when they are combined and employed<br />
properly.<br />
This reminds us all that each service’s<br />
capabilities and the proper employment<br />
of these capabilities are most often necessary,<br />
but not sufficient. Individually,<br />
each can rarely guarantee the outcome,<br />
but together they can. They are decisive<br />
only in properly used combinations.<br />
When the term decisive is used in an<br />
absolute way, it hides the reality of<br />
fighting.<br />
Everything said of jointness is also<br />
true of combined arms warfare. Many<br />
tactical matters are settled only by a<br />
proper mix of direct and indirect fires,<br />
and of fire and maneuver. Further, producing<br />
a definite result in tactical matters<br />
often rests on the quality and use of<br />
intelligence and effective logistics planning<br />
and execution. Fire, maneuver, intelligence<br />
and logistics are each absolutely<br />
necessary, but they are sufficient<br />
only when properly combined.<br />
At this point, many veterans of Iraq<br />
and Afghanistan would be right to point<br />
out that in multiple cases, fighting was<br />
resolved only when kinetic, combined<br />
arms were mixed with nonkinetic action.<br />
In these cases, even properly mixed<br />
combined arms could not be decisive in<br />
the sense of producing a definite result;<br />
depending on the objective, nonkinetic<br />
actions were also necessary.<br />
Simply put, decisiveness is a function<br />
of at least these elements: the level of<br />
war, the type of war, the aim or objective,<br />
and the period of the war. Perhaps<br />
equally important, producing a decisive<br />
result requires not only the right component<br />
capabilities—military and nonmilitary—but<br />
also their proper use. With respect<br />
to decisiveness, the quality of the<br />
decision and its execution matter as much<br />
as having the right parts.<br />
Level of War<br />
Even though complexity and ambiguity<br />
at the tactical level are often quite<br />
high, tactical examples are relatively easy<br />
to grasp. Actions that have decisive results<br />
at the tactical level do not, however,<br />
merely aggregate to the operational<br />
or strategic levels. The art, science and<br />
logic of good tactics are different from<br />
campaigning at the operational level,<br />
and different still at the strategic level of<br />
war. A good tactician is unlikely to succeed<br />
as an operational artist if he or she<br />
merely expands tactical thinking and<br />
procedures to campaigns.<br />
Military campaigns unfold over time.<br />
The dynamic nature of war assures that<br />
the conditions at the start of a campaign<br />
will not be the same as those at the end.<br />
So proper use of a particular campaign’s<br />
elements requires an adaptive decisionmaking<br />
process. Such a process involves<br />
the ability to sense the gap between the<br />
realities unfolding on the battlefield and<br />
the desired outcomes of the campaign,<br />
and then the issuing of instructions to<br />
adapt actions to reality.<br />
A military campaign is designed to attain<br />
part of a strategic aim, or set the<br />
conditions for the attainment of a strategic<br />
aim. So decisiveness at the operational<br />
level may mean not settling a<br />
matter, but producing a definitive result<br />
that, in turn, sets the conditions for<br />
other acts—whether military or not—to<br />
settle an issue.<br />
Decisiveness at the strategic level is<br />
even more difficult. Strategic leaders use<br />
campaigns, but the art, science and logic<br />
of attaining strategic aims are different<br />
from that of campaigning. Settling a war<br />
involves much more than settling a fight.<br />
The elements necessary to produce a decisive<br />
wartime strategic result include,<br />
but are not limited to, military capabilities.<br />
And the proper use of strategic elements<br />
requires information gathering<br />
and analysis, decisionmaking processes<br />
and adaptive methodologies wider than<br />
just military. Further, because war is essentially<br />
dynamic, using existing bureaucracies—inherently<br />
not good at doing<br />
anything new or fast—often decreases<br />
the quality of strategic-level understanding,<br />
deciding, acting and adapting.<br />
Types of War<br />
Decisive actions, or actions that produce<br />
a definitive result and settle a matter<br />
at each level of war, change with the<br />
type of war that is being waged. In a<br />
conventional war, military force—<br />
whether combined arms or joint—can<br />
often be decisive at the tactical and operational<br />
levels. Such a use of force can<br />
settle much of the matter at hand and<br />
set the conditions for complete settlement<br />
at the strategic level. But not all<br />
wars are conventional.<br />
In many irregular wars, military<br />
force—regardless of how skillfully used—<br />
is merely necessary but not sufficient<br />
even at the tactical and operational levels.<br />
In an irregular war, decisive force<br />
takes on an entirely different hue. The<br />
meaning of “force” itself changes to<br />
“forces”; that is, military force becomes<br />
one of many types of forces necessary to<br />
produce a decisive result—diplomatic,<br />
economic and informational forces, for<br />
example. The term “proper use” also<br />
changes. An irregular war requires that<br />
the varieties of forces involved be sufficiently<br />
integrated from the tactical<br />
through the strategic levels because in<br />
irregular war, the levels of understanding,<br />
deciding, acting and adapting differ<br />
from those of conventional wars.<br />
Aim or Objective<br />
Unconditional surrender, the aim relative<br />
to both Germany and Japan in<br />
World War II, differs from the Korean<br />
War’s aim of re-establishing the 38th<br />
Parallel border between North and<br />
14 ARMY ■ March 2016
South Korea. These two aims differ<br />
from enforcing the Dayton Accords in<br />
Bosnia or sustaining a free, democratic<br />
and non-Communist South Vietnam—<br />
and all differ from the aim of destroying<br />
al-Qaida or the Islamic State group. As<br />
military strategist Carl von Clausewitz<br />
explains in On War, “The smaller the<br />
penalty you demand from your opponent,<br />
the less you can expect him to try<br />
and deny it to you; the smaller the effort<br />
he makes, the less you need to make<br />
yourself. … The political object … will<br />
thus determine both the military objective<br />
to be reached and the amount of effort<br />
it requires.”<br />
Producing decisive results—whether<br />
at the tactical, operational or strategic<br />
level—differs according to the war’s aim,<br />
as do the elements necessary to produce<br />
those results. Different aims also require<br />
adjustments to methodologies and organizations<br />
necessary to understand, decide,<br />
act and adapt.<br />
Period of War<br />
Wars have a beginning, middle and<br />
end, and decisiveness changes at each<br />
point. The Iraq War provides a good example.<br />
The actions necessary to produce<br />
decisive results at the beginning of the<br />
war, which was the period focused on<br />
removing the Saddam Hussein regime,<br />
changed when that task was accomplished.<br />
The Surge of 2007–08 provides<br />
another good example. The mix of<br />
forces—military and nonmilitary—that<br />
were tactically and operationally decisive<br />
could not be decisive strategically. Yet<br />
because many leaders equated war with<br />
fighting, the belief was that the war was<br />
over when the fighting seemed to be<br />
mostly over.<br />
This false belief was fed by at least<br />
three intellectual errors: not recognizing<br />
that tactical and operational decisiveness,<br />
in this case, meant only that<br />
the conditions were set for strategic<br />
decisive action; not recognizing that<br />
tactical and operational decisive action<br />
closed the middle of the war, but not<br />
the end; and not recognizing that to<br />
achieve decisive action strategically and<br />
end the war, both the mix of forces and<br />
how they would be used should have<br />
changed.<br />
Having the right mix of military and<br />
nonmilitary forces is one thing; proper<br />
use—in other words, using them well—<br />
is quite another. Whether at the tactical,<br />
operational or strategic level, using forces<br />
involves at least three dimensions.<br />
The first is an intellectual dimension.<br />
Here, the task is to align the objective<br />
with the ways and means that success at<br />
attaining that objective requires. The<br />
second, an organizational dimension,<br />
recognizes that plans have to be turned<br />
into action and thus, includes the need<br />
for proper organizations and methodologies<br />
for understanding, deciding, acting<br />
and adapting. Execution matters,<br />
and unity of effort in execution does not<br />
happen by chance. War is dynamic at<br />
each of its levels so regardless of level,<br />
having systems and organizations in<br />
place that will allow continual realignment<br />
of ends, ways and means and sufficiently<br />
cohesive action throughout increases<br />
the probability of success.<br />
Last, proper use includes the dimension<br />
of moral and social legitimacy. Americans<br />
hold soldiers and their leaders responsible<br />
for the decisions and actions they take<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 15
even in the midst of battle. In combat, the<br />
hardest decisions are often made by those<br />
on the spot, under the harshest conditions<br />
and at the highest risks. Certainly, some<br />
circumstances might mitigate judgment,<br />
explaining why we might accept behaviors<br />
in combat that would be unacceptable in<br />
other situations.<br />
Mitigations Prove the Rule<br />
These mitigations, however, prove the<br />
rule. Reactions to the My Lai Massacre<br />
in Vietnam, the abuses in the Abu<br />
Ghraib prison in Iraq, the killing of civilians<br />
in the Iraqi city of Haditha, the “kill<br />
team” murders in Afghanistan and the<br />
Marines urinating on Taliban corpses<br />
also highlight the rule, not the exception.<br />
We not only held responsible those who<br />
committed these acts, but also their leaders<br />
who knew of these actions but did<br />
nothing to prevent them or said nothing<br />
afterward. We may understand the difficulty,<br />
uncertainty and urgency under<br />
which soldiers and leaders make difficult<br />
decisions and take actions, but this understanding<br />
has limits and does not erase<br />
the expectation of moral agency.<br />
Legitimacy has a strategic aspect, too.<br />
The American people expect senior political<br />
and military leaders to succeed.<br />
According to research done by multiple<br />
scholars in 2005 and 2006, Americans<br />
will support a war and the casualties it<br />
produces under three conditions: They<br />
generally believe the war is right, that we<br />
can succeed, and that we are making<br />
progress toward success. Legitimacy on<br />
the battlefield and in the capital are<br />
equally important.<br />
For the use of force to be decisive, all<br />
elements must come into play as a sufficiently<br />
coherent set. No doubt achieving<br />
decisive results at all levels of war is<br />
complex and difficult, but complexity<br />
and difficulty don’t change the reality of<br />
leadership requirements. Understanding<br />
decisiveness accurately matters in how<br />
the military profession teaches itself and<br />
prepares leaders to fulfill their responsibilities.<br />
An accurate understanding is helpful,<br />
too, in constructing education and training<br />
programs as well as in making decisions<br />
about force structure and composition.<br />
It is also helpful in how senior<br />
leaders offer military advice to their<br />
civilian bosses. And an accurate understanding<br />
of decisiveness is very helpful<br />
in waging war well. Words matter. ■<br />
Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik, USA Ret.,<br />
Ph.D., is a former commander of Multi-<br />
National Security Transition Command-<br />
Iraq and a senior fellow of AUSA’s Institute<br />
of Land Warfare.<br />
Refugees Display Courage to Move Forward<br />
By Emma Sky<br />
Despite the harsh winter weather,<br />
around 3,000 refugees a day are still<br />
arriving on the shores of Greece, fleeing<br />
the wars in the Middle East. At the beginning<br />
of the year, I followed their journey<br />
through Europe. I started out at Edomeni,<br />
near the Greece-Macedonia border.<br />
At a nearby gas station, some young<br />
Afghan men sat in the cafe. They gave<br />
the names of the cities and provinces<br />
they came from in Afghanistan. I had<br />
visited each place during my deployment<br />
to their country but did not tell<br />
them so. I pulled up a chair at a table<br />
outside in the cold with some Syrian<br />
men and their kids.<br />
One told me he was a Kurd from Dera<br />
who had escaped to Iraqi Kurdistan,<br />
across Turkey, to Greece. He had been<br />
on the road for a month. He was running<br />
short of money but hoped to make<br />
it to Germany. The other, a Syrian Arab,<br />
told me he was against both the Syrian<br />
regime and the Free Syrian <strong>Army</strong>. “They<br />
are all bad,” he said.<br />
The refugees’ hopes and dreams appeared<br />
to be so basic: to live their lives,<br />
feel safe, feel wanted. One of the Syrians<br />
offered me a cigarette. No thank you, I<br />
declined. He insisted, but I refused.<br />
Even there, in the cold unknown, the<br />
Syrians tried to show me, the stranger in<br />
their midst, the hospitality of home.<br />
I approached the border crossing,<br />
watching as refugees walked down the<br />
railway tracks and into a tent to have<br />
their papers checked. A flap of the tent<br />
lifted and a girl, perhaps about 8 years<br />
old and wearing a red hijab, poked her<br />
head through.<br />
“What’s your name?” I asked her.<br />
“Raghed,” she responded. “Where are<br />
you from?” “Iraq!” she said before she<br />
disappeared again into the tent.<br />
Minutes later, I watched her and her<br />
family exit the tent through a barbedwire<br />
corridor and cross over the rail<br />
tracks and into Macedonia. Only Syrians,<br />
Iraqis and Afghans were being allowed<br />
to cross the border into Macedonia.<br />
The rest were sent back to Athens.<br />
After the shambles over the summer, a<br />
more systematic way had been found to<br />
control the movement of refugees—and<br />
to stop them from going to places where<br />
they were not welcome. They no longer<br />
needed to walk. Now, they were being<br />
provided with transport to move quickly<br />
onward, at staggered intervals, to countries<br />
that had agreed to take them in.<br />
Once in Macedonia, the refugees were<br />
put on buses that took them across the<br />
country to Serbia. In Serbia, they were<br />
then bused through to the town of Sid,<br />
west of Belgrade, and transferred to<br />
trains on toward Croatia.<br />
It was dark and snowing by the time I<br />
crossed the Croatian border and found<br />
the refugee transit camp at Slavonski<br />
Brod, thanks to the precise directions of<br />
an official from the United Nations<br />
refugee agency, UNHCR. The refugees<br />
had disembarked from the train and entered<br />
a tent where they were fingerprinted<br />
and processed before being allowed<br />
to travel on to Slovenia. In a larger<br />
tent, a number of nongovernmental organization<br />
workers were handing out<br />
cups of hot tea, a satchel to one child per<br />
family, and warm clothes and blankets.<br />
Each refugee was handed a bag that contained<br />
food and water.<br />
It was well below freezing, but the<br />
refugees showed tremendous resilience<br />
and good spirits. I saw lots of young men<br />
in small groups. Some were related,<br />
some had gotten to know each other on<br />
the road. I also saw husbands and wives<br />
with their young children. There were<br />
very few old people and very few teenage<br />
16 ARMY ■ March 2016
girls or unmarried women. The most<br />
vulnerable refugees were identified and<br />
given extra care. Children were mostly<br />
well-wrapped in warm coats, hats and<br />
scarves. A couple of women looked exhausted.<br />
One wanted to find a place<br />
where she could breastfeed her baby.<br />
Most of those I talked to were from<br />
Syria, but one or two were Iraqi.<br />
They had all fled to Turkey, taken boats<br />
to Greece, and from there had bused and<br />
trained up to here. “Weren’t you afraid of<br />
the sea?” I asked one man. “Yes, I was<br />
very afraid,” he responded. Most had used<br />
their savings to pay smugglers to take<br />
them in small dinghies from Turkey to<br />
the Greek islands. This trip was perilous,<br />
with thousands drowning. But still they<br />
came. As the Kenyan-born, U.K.-based<br />
poet Warsan Shire wrote in “Home”:<br />
You have to understand,<br />
that no one puts their children in a boat<br />
unless the water is safer than the land.<br />
Little official information seemed available.<br />
But details went back and forth over<br />
the mobile messaging app WhatsApp<br />
with relatives and friends who had made<br />
the trip before them. When I asked<br />
refugees where they were headed, most<br />
had their eyes set on Germany.<br />
In 2015, Germany accepted over a<br />
million migrants, half of whom were<br />
Syrians. In her New Year’s address, German<br />
Chancellor Angela Merkel urged<br />
Germans to welcome refugees and to be<br />
“self-confident and free, humanitarian<br />
and open to the world.” She told them<br />
not to listen to racists who harbor “hatred<br />
in their hearts.” She acknowledged<br />
that coping with immigration will cost<br />
Germany “time, effort and money,” but<br />
she pledged that handled right, the challenges<br />
of today would be the “opportunities<br />
of tomorrow.”<br />
Merkel did not make the decision to<br />
accept so many refugees based on opinion<br />
polls or to curry favor. She is doing<br />
what she believes is the right thing to do,<br />
consistent with her values as well as Germany’s<br />
long-term interests to address<br />
their declining population numbers. The<br />
path ahead is fraught with risks from<br />
fearmongers opposed to immigration, as<br />
well as from terrorists who might hide<br />
among the refugee population. However,<br />
if the integration of the refugees is successful,<br />
Merkel will be remembered for<br />
her great courage, and Germans for their<br />
generosity and humanity.<br />
When I arrived back at John F.<br />
Kennedy International Airport in New<br />
York, I was picked up by my regular taxi<br />
driver, a former Iraqi fighter pilot. He<br />
had arrived as a refugee in the U.S. with<br />
$700 to his name, but through hard<br />
work had succeeded in buying a house<br />
and a car. He had built a life for himself<br />
and his family here, safe from the violence<br />
ravaging the Middle East but far<br />
from the grave of his son, who had been<br />
murdered in the civil war. As we drove<br />
E<br />
very<br />
toward Connecticut, I thought how<br />
much refugees and veterans have in common:<br />
the sense of alienation, the experience<br />
of trauma, and the courage to move<br />
forward with their lives. ■<br />
Emma Sky, director of Yale World Fellows,<br />
is author of The Unraveling: High Hopes<br />
and Missed Opportunities in Iraq. She<br />
served in Iraq from 2003 to 2004 as the<br />
governorate coordinator of Kirkuk, and<br />
from 2007 to 2010 as political adviser to<br />
Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, then-commanding<br />
general of U.S. Forces in Iraq.<br />
Draft a Bad Idea,<br />
With or Without Women<br />
By Lt. Col. James Jay Carafano, U.S. <strong>Army</strong> retired<br />
year or two, the draft comes in<br />
from the cold as a matter of public<br />
discussion. In December, Defense Secretary<br />
Ash Carter’s announcement that the<br />
Pentagon was opening all combat roles<br />
to women immediately raised the question<br />
of whether the Selective Service Act<br />
should be revised to include women.<br />
But the draft is not warfare, and including<br />
women in the draft is an issue<br />
quite distinct from—and with far different<br />
considerations in play—than the issue<br />
of placing women in combat. Each issue<br />
should be considered on its own merit.<br />
One fact is pertinent to both issues: The<br />
Selective Service Act is largely an anachronism<br />
that has scant relevance to how<br />
America fields its modern military. From a<br />
practical standpoint, it makes little difference<br />
whether women are included or not.<br />
Indeed, the debate over whether<br />
women should be included in the draft is<br />
just the latest example of calls for national<br />
service that are more referenda on<br />
American culture and social attitudes<br />
than policy geared to field an effective<br />
military as efficiently as possible.<br />
Four months before Carter’s announcement,<br />
retired Gen. Stanley Mc-<br />
Chrystal and John McCain, R-Ariz.,<br />
chairman of the Senate Armed Services<br />
Committee, floated another trial balloon.<br />
In a commentary for CNN.com, they argued<br />
for compulsory national service.<br />
Debates over the draft or other forms<br />
of compulsory service are nothing new.<br />
President James Madison wanted a military<br />
draft in 1812 to defend the young<br />
republic from the British invasion. Congress<br />
said no. The government did authorize<br />
conscription during the Civil<br />
War; draftees accounted for less than 10<br />
percent of the Union <strong>Army</strong>.<br />
In 1917, barely a month after the U.S.<br />
entered World War I, Congress enacted<br />
a law establishing the national Selective<br />
Service. During that conflict, more than<br />
half of the 4.7 million Americans in uniform<br />
were conscripts.<br />
In 1940, Congress once again authorized<br />
the use of the Selective Service System.<br />
About 10 million were called during<br />
the course of World War II. At the<br />
height of the war, draftees comprised<br />
about half of the more than 16 million in<br />
uniform.<br />
After World War II, the nation had<br />
its fullest debate over creating a requirement<br />
for Universal Military Training.<br />
Gen. George C. Marshall Jr. argued that<br />
all young males should be required to<br />
serve in the military for one year. President<br />
Harry Truman agreed, but Congress<br />
didn’t. Marshall tried again during<br />
his tenure as secretary of defense. Again,<br />
Congress said no.<br />
Congress did reinstate the Selective<br />
Service System in 1948 as concerns<br />
about the Cold War heated up. Of the<br />
approximately 5 million in uniform during<br />
the Korean War, about 1.5 million<br />
were draftees.<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 17
Over the next decade, the draft was<br />
used to help fill out the ranks of the armed<br />
forces, but that was not the primary purpose<br />
intended by the 1948 law. The goal<br />
was to build a larger pool of manpower<br />
with military experience that could be<br />
brought back if the U.S. had to fight<br />
World War III with the Soviet Union.<br />
Relatively few draftees fought or died<br />
during the Eisenhower presidency. Indeed,<br />
only a very small proportion of the<br />
eligible population was actually drafted.<br />
Consequently, conscription was generally<br />
tolerated by a public worried about<br />
the red menace behind the Iron Curtain.<br />
A little over 9 million served in the<br />
armed forces during the Vietnam War;<br />
total draftees for that period were under<br />
2 million. This was not a disproportionate<br />
number compared to other modern<br />
wars. Nevertheless, the controversy over<br />
conscription proved unprecedented.<br />
In To Raise an <strong>Army</strong>: The Draft Comes<br />
to Modern America, John Whiteclay<br />
Chambers argues that the draft became a<br />
contentious issue because then-President<br />
Lyndon Johnson and his national security<br />
managers overextended use of it beyond<br />
the consensus established in the world<br />
wars and the early Cold War. As the<br />
Vietnam War became increasingly unpopular,<br />
the draft became the major focus<br />
of dissent. President Richard Nixon<br />
ended the draft in 1973, though the Selective<br />
Service System remains in force.<br />
There are two important points to extract<br />
from the American conscription experience.<br />
First, the argument for it was<br />
based on military necessity: generating<br />
the forces necessary for the government<br />
to fulfill its obligation for the common<br />
defense. For example, Marshall made<br />
the case for Universal Military Training<br />
based on operational requirements. He<br />
assumed the military model employed<br />
for the next world war would be similar<br />
to that of the first two: Armed forces<br />
would be drastically reduced in peacetime,<br />
then rapidly mobilized for war.<br />
Marshall saw Universal Military Training<br />
as an efficient way to speed mobilization<br />
for future conflicts.<br />
Second, conscription works when<br />
there is broad, bipartisan support for it.<br />
The draft riots of 1863 reflected, in part,<br />
growing frustration with President Abraham<br />
Lincoln’s handling of the war, similar<br />
to the backlash that built up against<br />
the Johnson administration in the 1960s.<br />
The argument for the all-volunteer<br />
force laid out by the Gates Commission<br />
in 1970 was that an all-volunteer military,<br />
with a mix of active and reserve component<br />
armed forces, was more efficient as<br />
well as more cost-effective than sustaining<br />
a peacetime draft. The rationale of the<br />
commission remains largely sound. Generally,<br />
the U.S. military does not have a<br />
recruiting and retention problem.<br />
While it is true that the cost of human<br />
capital is spiraling uncomfortably<br />
upward, the draft is not a credible<br />
solution for this problem. Shortservice<br />
conscripts are not going to meet<br />
the high-performance standards required<br />
of today’s military personnel.<br />
Conscription is a manpower model designed<br />
for mass mobilization.<br />
Nor is there anything resembling a<br />
national consensus that would tolerate<br />
national service. In 2001, in the wake of<br />
the horrific terrorist attacks on New<br />
York and Washington, D.C., Rep. Nick<br />
Smith, R-Mich., introduced a bill requiring<br />
Universal Military Training and<br />
Service. It went exactly nowhere.<br />
That’s telling. The American polity is<br />
far more divided now than it was in the<br />
aftermath of 9/11. If Smith’s idea was a<br />
nonstarter then, it is even more of a<br />
nonstarter now.<br />
What makes McChrystal and Mc-<br />
Cain’s idea even worse is that it’s not<br />
based on a practical rationale. They see<br />
national service as a mandatory tool for<br />
teaching citizenship. They believe national<br />
service would serve as a “civic rite<br />
of passage.”<br />
There is certainly a case to be made<br />
that civic virtue is a vital component of a<br />
healthy society. That notion is infused in<br />
the Greco-Roman tradition of civil society.<br />
But by the time of America’s founding,<br />
liberal philosophers had concluded<br />
that the best way to build a virtuous civil<br />
society is to maximize the freedom of the<br />
individual.<br />
The concept of freedom that was established<br />
in the liberal ideas of thinkers<br />
like John Locke and Adam Smith remains<br />
relevant today. Habitual conscription<br />
has no role in sustaining a free society.<br />
That was certainly the conclusion<br />
reached by the Gates Commission. Economist<br />
Milton Friedman, who served on<br />
the commission, argued that rather than<br />
inspire civic virtue, the draftee model inspired<br />
quite the opposite. Friedman saw<br />
as key the distinction between being<br />
forced to serve and volunteering to serve.<br />
McChrystal and McCain argue for<br />
more than just another government program.<br />
They advocate a fundamental reimagining<br />
of the government’s role in<br />
creating a healthy society. That’s a big<br />
step. They are spot-on in recognizing<br />
that national service offers an important<br />
venue for those who wish to live a life of<br />
service. But there are plenty of opportunities<br />
for national service, including paid<br />
and volunteer programs like Teach For<br />
America and the Peace Corps.<br />
Still, there does seem to be a lack of<br />
young people who want to pursue some<br />
form of national service. According to<br />
government statistics, in 2013, the number<br />
of people in government service under<br />
30 years old hit an all-time low—just<br />
7 percent, compared to over 25 percent<br />
in the private sector. “Without a pipeline<br />
of young talent,” Rachel Feintzeig reported<br />
in The Wall Street Journal in June<br />
2014, “the government risks falling behind<br />
in an increasingly digital world.”<br />
Arguably, the decline of youth interest<br />
in national service has more to do with<br />
the nature of it rather than a lack of civic<br />
virtue. Government hiring practices and<br />
human capital management are arcane<br />
compared to those of cutting-edge companies<br />
in the private sector. Mandatory<br />
federal service could well exacerbate the<br />
problem. If government doesn’t have to<br />
compete for people, it will lose incentives<br />
to improve recruiting and retention,<br />
making it more likely that talented youth<br />
will flee federal jobs as soon as they can.<br />
Further, it is far from clear how<br />
mandatory national service would teach<br />
civic virtue. Arguably, the act of voluntarily<br />
participating in federal service is<br />
an act of civic virtue. That suggests the<br />
inculcation of the nature and responsibilities<br />
of citizenship happens mostly<br />
before individuals enter the workforce.<br />
Also, making service mandatory removes<br />
the signature opportunity for<br />
youth to make the individual commitment<br />
to serve others.<br />
In addition, there is the issue of the<br />
appropriateness and effectiveness of giving<br />
government the preponderance of<br />
responsibility for defining and teaching<br />
18 ARMY ■ March 2016
civic virtue. There is already a raging debate<br />
in the nation over federal government<br />
intruding ever more deeply into<br />
the state and local role in education. National<br />
civics training would generate<br />
even more controversy. Indeed, that is<br />
just what happened when Truman proposed<br />
Universal Military Training. Reacting<br />
to the proposal, historian Charles<br />
Beard told Congress that it would “violate<br />
every liberty to which our nation has<br />
been dedicated” since its foundation.<br />
During the anxious years of the early<br />
Cold War, the <strong>Army</strong> tried to take a<br />
greater role in engineering patriotism<br />
among service members to prepare them<br />
for the long struggle against communism.<br />
Despite the best of intentions, the<br />
results were largely a disaster, Lori L.<br />
Bogle concludes in The Pentagon’s Battle<br />
for the American Mind. The <strong>Army</strong> abandoned<br />
the program after it became apparent<br />
its impact was to spur the formation<br />
of right-wing activist groups at<br />
some military installations.<br />
There were many reasons the program<br />
bogged down, including controversies<br />
over what to teach and how<br />
to teach it. Without question, a federal<br />
program that sought to take on the responsibility<br />
of inculcating civic virtue<br />
would face similar challenges.<br />
Finally, a debate on national service<br />
can’t be held without considering fiscal<br />
issues. Will youth displace federal workers?<br />
Will they compete with nonprofits<br />
and philanthropic organizations? What<br />
costs would a national program incur? In<br />
a 2013 study of the demise of Universal<br />
Military Training, historian John Sager<br />
noted that once the potential costs of the<br />
program became apparent, congressional<br />
support for the notion diminished.<br />
Is there a need to build greater civic<br />
virtue among future generations? That’s a<br />
debate well worth having. But rather than<br />
start with an answer—“mandatory service<br />
for all”—there ought to be a much broader<br />
discussion of what is to be accomplished<br />
and the options for achieving those goals.<br />
Faith, family, education, physical fitness<br />
and mentoring all play a role in building<br />
better citizens. Why aren’t these practices<br />
and institutions front and center in the<br />
conversation of what produces the most<br />
virtuous citizen?<br />
■<br />
Lt. Col. James Jay Carafano, USA Ret., a<br />
25-year <strong>Army</strong> veteran, is a Heritage<br />
Foundation vice president in charge of<br />
the think tank’s policy research in defense<br />
and foreign affairs.<br />
Bond of Brothers<br />
Infantrymen Stand Alone but Are Uniquely United<br />
By Col. Keith Nightingale, U.S. <strong>Army</strong> retired<br />
The media reports daily on actions in<br />
Fallujah, Iraq; or Marjah, Afghanistan;<br />
or Location X. These reports are<br />
usually quite impersonal, allowing us to<br />
ignore the humanity behind the news.<br />
But at every location, named and unnamed,<br />
mortality is a daily and instantaneous<br />
issue, and the reason for the report<br />
is usually the actions of an infantryman.<br />
The people behind those humanless<br />
reports have borne our national bayonet<br />
since our founding. They have a name.<br />
They are a person. They are us.<br />
We owe them the decency and courtesy<br />
to try and understand who they are,<br />
though we may not know their names<br />
other than as a group: combat soldiers,<br />
infantrymen, grunts. Why they do what<br />
they do is because of their commitment<br />
to us. That is one of our greatest national<br />
strengths, misunderstood and underappreciated<br />
as it may be.<br />
Unlike the rest of our nation, the infantryman<br />
has no race, color, creed or<br />
specific origin. He is totally colorless and<br />
transparent. He has become a unique entity<br />
called “infantry.” This is a transformation<br />
he will retain the rest of his life,<br />
regardless of external attempts to recover<br />
and remold him to whatever niche people<br />
may have assigned to him before.<br />
He and his brothers were thrown into<br />
a group that never would have naturally<br />
coalesced in our society. They have been<br />
bonded and transformed by their mutual<br />
environment and become a family that<br />
will transcend any future noncombat relationships.<br />
He and they are a unique society<br />
open only to themselves.<br />
One percent of our nation’s population<br />
supports 100 percent of the present<br />
military structure. This is truly a small<br />
band of brothers and sisters that we<br />
send off to preserve whatever national<br />
interest du jour may arise. Though it is<br />
ostensibly open to all, the people who<br />
populate the very small percent of the 1<br />
percent that we call infantry are a<br />
unique set of Americans.<br />
While we owe them immeasurable reward—and<br />
we consistently say that—we<br />
probably do not really understand them.<br />
They are different, unique onto themselves<br />
and a true cult. Their experience in<br />
this microcosm of America is relatively<br />
short but forever changes them. When<br />
they assimilate back into the 99 percent,<br />
much of what they have become will go<br />
with them, albeit subliminally.<br />
The infantryman has no interest or<br />
valuation in the preceding individual<br />
makeup of his unit. His sole interest is in<br />
the quality and reliability of the present<br />
members. They are his insurance for return,<br />
and he for theirs. He is remarkably<br />
unaffected by our historic societal prejudices<br />
but is ruthlessly judgmental about<br />
any weak, hesitating or undedicated<br />
member of his immediate clan. He<br />
clearly understands teams and goes to<br />
great lengths to ensure he is on one.<br />
The infantryman believes that if any<br />
self-declared enemy of America encounters<br />
his unit, it will be the worst day in<br />
that person’s life insofar as he and his<br />
unit can make it. In his lexicon, someone’s<br />
health record will get a lot thicker<br />
or be closed out entirely.<br />
He deeply believes it without the<br />
slightest concern for its meaning. Mortality<br />
of the enemy is viewed as his salvation<br />
and managed as a common bodily<br />
act. It’s all very simple.<br />
Within his small unit—and all combat<br />
is small unit—he and his companions are<br />
immutably steadfast and consistent on<br />
any given subject regardless of what you<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 19
Soldiers from the 178th<br />
Infantry Regiment,<br />
Illinois <strong>Army</strong> National<br />
Guard, patrol a road<br />
in Kapisa Province,<br />
Afghanistan, in 2009.<br />
think or care—and he will tell you “with<br />
the bark on.” Quality of work, dedication<br />
and demonstrated effort are the simple<br />
lodestones of his life.<br />
If the term “politically correct” is mentioned,<br />
you can expect an expletive followed<br />
by a clear description of how he<br />
would adjust that political correctness. In<br />
his quiet solitude, he will hold any PCcentric<br />
personality in pure disdain. In his<br />
environment, crystal clarity and intent<br />
are sacrosanct. There are no feelings, nor<br />
interests, beyond survival issues.<br />
He gathers personal strength from his<br />
unit and develops a certain rigidity toward<br />
executing actions and holding<br />
thoughts. He looks at occasional temporary<br />
entrants to his space with great caution<br />
and concern for his own survival in<br />
their presence. He is contemptuous of<br />
people who bend with the wind while<br />
looking as confused as a dog watching a<br />
ceiling fan, knowing their lack of focus<br />
and hesitation could get him killed. Visiting<br />
leadership is particularly susceptible<br />
to this judgment.<br />
He considers that the honor of his unit<br />
and his immediate associates, tempered<br />
in combat, is a personal and sacred trust<br />
for him to defend. He wields an inviolate<br />
emotional shield for their protection; this<br />
will remain with him for his lifetime.<br />
He takes some pride and satisfaction<br />
that 99 percent of the U.S. population<br />
doesn’t have a clue as to what makes him<br />
tick. That was forged when he was asked<br />
to function on the very tip of the nation’s<br />
bayonet and earned the spot. If we did<br />
know his thoughts of the moment, they<br />
would probably be very unsettling. This<br />
is a defense mechanism, and one of the<br />
tools that keeps him functioning in a<br />
dysfunctional environment.<br />
He takes further pride in knowing<br />
that dozens of his friends at home have<br />
said they would want to be like him and<br />
do what he does but do not possess the<br />
inner heart to actually make it happen.<br />
This builds an even stronger bond with<br />
his immediate brothers.<br />
He and his associates have their own<br />
language, rituals, tattoos and customs<br />
that could never be transferred to a nonmember.<br />
These will remain for a lifetime,<br />
to be renewed by an unexpected<br />
encounter in a bar or at a sports event or<br />
otherwise peaceful gathering. He will<br />
never altogether be at peace, nor will his<br />
associates with the same language and<br />
accoutrements. While things may be<br />
suppressed, they can’t be forgotten.<br />
The deepest and most pointed personal<br />
insult is the common mother’s<br />
milk of their bonding. The association<br />
and the camaraderie of the shared experience<br />
form the deepest love a man may<br />
hold. These people in this place will remain<br />
forever etched in the deepest and<br />
most visceral aspects of his mind.<br />
He and his element have developed a<br />
catlike sensitivity to impending danger<br />
or events. At the slightest electrical<br />
impulse, the unit goes on primordial<br />
alert and maneuvers itself as if guided by<br />
a strong but unseen source.<br />
If observed in action, he is able to<br />
transmit myriad actions, requirements<br />
and orders with simple grunts, eye gestures<br />
and simplified signals. Conversations<br />
are transmitted absent the most basic<br />
of sounds. He has a subtlety of<br />
sensing that no actor’s studio could replicate.<br />
Silence is often its own reward<br />
compared to the alternative.<br />
His acceptable comfort levels and personal<br />
expectations are both exceedingly<br />
low by an outsider’s standards. This is a<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Spc. Phoebe R. Allport<br />
condition created by repetitive experience<br />
and the necessity to endure that<br />
which he cannot control.<br />
Some aspects of his culture and cult<br />
will remain forever, both to identify him<br />
as a member and for him to use as identifier<br />
with others. They are used in the<br />
heat of battle to acknowledge an order or<br />
as part of a more elaborate password and<br />
challenge to both a perimeter and a life’s<br />
passage. These stay well beyond the uniform<br />
and the government check.<br />
He will always take care of his brothers<br />
in arms, well past any mandated obligation<br />
to do so. On a rainy, stormy afternoon,<br />
he will be at a graveside or a bedside<br />
without the slightest hesitation.<br />
Family events will take second place in<br />
any conflict of events. He will always<br />
have his extended brother’s 6 o’clock—<br />
sometimes to his spouse’s chagrin.<br />
His ability to communicate or receive<br />
communication with noninfantry is highly<br />
truncated. Anyone associating with him<br />
will know immediately where he or she<br />
stands. In his world, there is no gray or<br />
middle ground. There are only missions,<br />
objectives and facts. Clouding those with<br />
additional dialogue only irritates him.<br />
While he appreciates technology on the<br />
battlefield, he is not led by it. Humans<br />
lead him, and he wants to see a face and<br />
look into the eyes of a superior who is<br />
sending him on a mortal mission. If he<br />
doesn’t see that face, doesn’t understand<br />
the eyes behind the order and can’t judge<br />
the quality of the person transmitting, his<br />
ability to perform becomes significantly<br />
reduced. Combat is always primordial and<br />
very much a people program. Technology<br />
is not always helpful in this regard.<br />
Instinctively, he appreciates that America<br />
holds him and his unit members in<br />
the highest esteem and that they know<br />
they can count on him to locate, close<br />
with and destroy those who would harm<br />
us. He may not have understood that<br />
when he agreed to join but he knows it<br />
now, and that is as ingrained as is breathing.<br />
This is a source of the greatest inner<br />
pride and drive. He cannot enunciate<br />
that, but he knows that. And this is all<br />
that matters.<br />
He may appear to the 99 percent to be<br />
cocky, but it is really newly earned confidence.<br />
He has been places and done<br />
things no one else can go or do, and<br />
these have changed him forever. What<br />
20 ARMY ■ March 2016
is seen by some as arrogance is instead a<br />
manifestation of hard-won personal capability.<br />
On the home front, some may accuse<br />
him and his brethren of being radical<br />
and extreme. He will take great satisfaction<br />
in that and consider it a compliment<br />
from those who are clueless. He is<br />
not dangerous; he is just clear and uncompromising.<br />
Over time, he may soften<br />
the externals but internally, he remains<br />
stark in his judgments.<br />
He reads the various service publications<br />
in his deployed outpost and reaches<br />
a conclusion shared by his friends: No<br />
amount of uniform change, headgear,<br />
brassard or tool will make the slightest<br />
difference in fighting efficiency, morale<br />
or competence. What he is doing with<br />
what he is wearing and holding are the<br />
only items that develop, test and prove<br />
true combat quality.<br />
Unlike many, he will never wonder<br />
throughout his life if he made a difference.<br />
He knows he did. His last vision<br />
will include the small circle of faces he<br />
saw in a far distant place under trying<br />
circumstances so long ago. He knows<br />
that now but cannot say it.<br />
He is an infantryman first and always<br />
will be. Regardless of age, race, creed,<br />
color, sex and national origin, if you<br />
were with him, you are forever in his<br />
mind and one of his deepest loves. It<br />
doesn’t matter how long you served,<br />
what rank you held or whether your<br />
post-service goals were achieved. What<br />
deeply matters is that you were part of<br />
something larger than yourself, did your<br />
very best, and gained personal associations<br />
with him for a lifetime. What he<br />
did and who he did it with are immutable<br />
to death.<br />
In later years, he will be humbled to<br />
walk among his newer peers, and they<br />
with him. The enemy and the terrain<br />
will be different, but the service and the<br />
character it creates are the same—points<br />
appreciated by both. He and his brethren<br />
throughout our history are truly the glue<br />
that has bound our nation. ■<br />
Col. Keith Nightingale, USA Ret., commanded<br />
four infantry companies as well<br />
as three battalions and two brigades.<br />
His military career included two tours<br />
in Vietnam; the Dominican Republic<br />
and Grenada invasions; and the reconstitution<br />
of Panama. He also served in<br />
several classified counterterrorist Middle<br />
East and Latin American operations.<br />
He is the author of two books.<br />
Millennials<br />
Understanding This Generation and the Military By Capt. David Dixon<br />
Where were you on 9/11? What were<br />
you doing when you first saw that<br />
unbelievable footage of passenger planes<br />
crashing into the World Trade Center?<br />
At what point did the awful reality of<br />
that day dawn on you?<br />
Sept. 11 is one of the most seminal<br />
events in U.S. history and for many people—especially<br />
those of us who have deployed<br />
and fought in Afghanistan or<br />
Iraq—it is the most seminal event to occur<br />
in our lifetime. Understanding Sept.<br />
11 and its cultural impact is crucial to<br />
understanding almost every foreign policy<br />
and military decision that has happened<br />
since. Sept. 11 is critical not only<br />
to understanding policy, but also to understanding<br />
an entire generation: the<br />
millennials, or those born in 1982<br />
through 2004.<br />
At first glance, the idea may seem absurd.<br />
What does a group of Islamic extremists<br />
flying planes into buildings have<br />
to do with understanding a generation<br />
often knocked for being entitled and<br />
spending far too much time on their<br />
smartphones? What do al-Qaida’s actions<br />
on a beautiful Tuesday in September<br />
have to do with the new soldiers in<br />
my troop wanting to “friend” me, their<br />
troop commander, on Facebook? The<br />
answer isn’t obvious but with a little perspective,<br />
it makes perfect sense.<br />
Almost everyone understands that the<br />
Vietnam War changed the country. Repeated<br />
disconnects between what citizens<br />
heard from the president and saw<br />
on the evening news called into question<br />
the reliability and trustworthiness of the<br />
U.S. government. For the youth who<br />
fought in Vietnam, questions about the<br />
purpose and the bloody cost piled up<br />
without answers and left a generation<br />
bitter and cynical about the government,<br />
the <strong>Army</strong>, the press—or all three. Understanding<br />
the cultural impact of Vietnam<br />
is a key to understanding the baby<br />
boom generation.<br />
So, too, with 9/11 and the millennial<br />
generation. There have been other surprise<br />
attacks in U.S. history—Pearl Harbor<br />
comes to mind—but none has been<br />
so visceral, so shared, as Sept. 11. The<br />
entire country watched it happen in real<br />
time on television. People filmed the<br />
Twin Towers coming down, filmed other<br />
people’s reactions to the attack, and<br />
filmed their own reactions. Email and<br />
cellphones collapsed distances of both<br />
time and space. Everything was magnified,<br />
expanded, analyzed and looped.<br />
Sept. 11 happened in a continuous collective<br />
“now” that was not possible before<br />
the current age.<br />
Many millennials say Sept. 11 was the<br />
day they “grew up,” even though most<br />
were in high school or elementary school<br />
at the time. Is it any surprise that the<br />
generation that came of age on that fateful<br />
day was permanently imprinted—for<br />
good and bad—by the experience?<br />
Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely<br />
Loud and Incredibly Close describes the<br />
Sept. 11 experiences of one boy, but the<br />
book’s title is relevant to an entire generation.<br />
For millennials, the 9/11 attacks<br />
were a cultural moment magnified in<br />
their parents’ fear and shock and by the<br />
national media’s relentless focus. For the<br />
millennials, all history turns with that<br />
September day as its axis.<br />
They are a generation steeped in what<br />
the Pentagon once called, in a moment<br />
of remarkable honesty, The Long War.<br />
Millennials are a wartime generation but<br />
unlike the silent generation (born mid-<br />
1920s through early 1940s) of World<br />
War II and the baby boom generation<br />
(born 1946 through 1964) of Vietnam,<br />
millennials have been bombarded with<br />
information about the dangers and messy<br />
realities of warfare and its aftermath. In<br />
World War II, news from the front was<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 21
generally sanitized for public consumption;<br />
during the Korean War, it was<br />
much the same. Even Vietnam, America’s<br />
first televised war, had far fewer<br />
photos and videos of the average soldiers’<br />
experience than are available today.<br />
Millennials have access to more<br />
combat footage on the U.K.-based video<br />
sharing website LiveLeak alone than<br />
their parents ever saw from Vietnam<br />
and, via other Internet resources, unfettered,<br />
uncensored and immediate access<br />
to soldiers’ attitudes and frustrations<br />
while deployed.<br />
Previous generations like to bring up<br />
differences between service rates among<br />
the silent generation or the baby boom<br />
generation and millennials as an illustration<br />
that the millennials “just don’t get<br />
it.” But the criticism falls less on millennials<br />
than on baby boomers. Their political<br />
actions in both the streets and voting<br />
booths undid the draft and ushered in<br />
the all-volunteer force. Unsurprisingly,<br />
the baby boom generation’s participation<br />
in the military was 18 percent, compared<br />
to the silent generation’s 35 percent, according<br />
to U.S. Census Bureau figures.<br />
For Generation X, or those born in<br />
1965 through 1984, military participation<br />
ranges from 5 to 7 percent, making<br />
millennials’ lower service rates—approximately<br />
3 percent—not an anomaly, but<br />
part of the trend that began with the creation<br />
of the all-volunteer force.<br />
Perhaps even more important, consider<br />
where Sept. 11 is in the millennial consciousness.<br />
At their generation’s defining<br />
moment, government leaders said everyone<br />
should continue with their daily lives<br />
as if nothing had happened—and keep<br />
shopping. So the country did. The millennial<br />
generation has continued to do as<br />
asked.<br />
Boomers and Gen Xers also like to<br />
criticize millennials for being too involved<br />
in social media, for not understanding<br />
professional distance, and for<br />
wearing their emotions and desires too<br />
much on their sleeves—what the millennials<br />
might call “oversharing.” The millennial<br />
term for what previous generations<br />
consider too much information is<br />
particularly apt, though, because seen<br />
through the lens of 9/11, millennials are<br />
not revealing too much. Instead, they are<br />
sharing. During their generation’s moment,<br />
there was no such thing as “too<br />
much information.” Instead, the media<br />
shared stories of victims’ final phone<br />
calls, last acts—every intimate, personal<br />
detail that can be imagined. With an<br />
outpouring of shared grief and emotion<br />
as the millennials’ earliest cultural touchstone,<br />
is it any wonder they continue the<br />
practice?<br />
Some have criticized the millennial<br />
generation as being too entitled, as<br />
acting as if they are somehow special in a<br />
way that previous generations were not.<br />
Why should they not act that way? Their<br />
generation’s first collective memory was<br />
of the world changing, of the beginning<br />
of an era of American cooperation and<br />
shared resolve that was not simply to defeat<br />
the enemy but permanently make us<br />
better, more thoughtful, more loving<br />
people. Their first cultural memory is<br />
“the day the world changed.” Is that any<br />
different than the dawning of the Age of<br />
Aquarius?<br />
The millennial generation is accused<br />
of never growing up; “30 is the new 20”<br />
is not a reassurance but an indictment.<br />
This criticism misses the point that the<br />
generation “grew up” too young—on<br />
that fateful day in September, which the<br />
country collectively remembers in a<br />
shared outpouring of emotion and ceremony<br />
every year. The millennials are a<br />
generation stuck in time, at that point<br />
where their childhood disappeared into<br />
adulthood with flashes of flame and<br />
black smoke against a clear blue sky.<br />
Want to understand millennials if<br />
you’re a Gen Xer, like me, or a baby<br />
boomer? Want to know why those “kids”<br />
in your troop or squadron or firm act the<br />
way they do? Before writing off an entire<br />
generation as entitled or overly emotional,<br />
think back to those days in September<br />
over a decade ago and the mood<br />
of the country—and look at yourself.<br />
The millennials, with all their faults and<br />
promise, will be staring back at you. ■<br />
Capt. David Dixon, South Carolina <strong>Army</strong><br />
National Guard, served as an armor officer<br />
after graduating from the U.S. Military<br />
Academy in 2003. He deployed three<br />
times to Iraq as a platoon leader, military<br />
transition team officer and troop commander.<br />
In Mideast Conflicts, at What Price Victory?<br />
By Lt. Col. Thomas D. Morgan, U.S. <strong>Army</strong> retired<br />
We are in the centennial observance strength and resolve in the face of Adolf<br />
days of World War I. Perhaps Hitler’s aggression 25 years later, and<br />
some of the lessons from that great we can see some similarities in the current<br />
Middle East conflicts, including in<br />
struggle still apply. The 10-month battle<br />
in 1916 for the fortress town of Verdun Afghanistan. The price of our post-9/11<br />
was key to the French defense against military actions in the Middle East<br />
the German invasion. To quote France’s threatens to weaken the U.S. beyond redemption—especially<br />
because of the<br />
then-president, Raymond Poincare, “If<br />
Verdun is taken one day, what a disaster!<br />
If it is saved, how can we ever forget erations in that part of the world.<br />
tremendous cost of pursuing military op-<br />
the price?”<br />
The Iraq War has cost us over $2 trillion,<br />
$25 billion alone since 2011 when<br />
Well, France was saved, and France<br />
has never forgotten the price. The cost we started to build up a 200,000-man<br />
of saving Verdun fueled the nation’s Iraqi army that fled from the Islamic<br />
State group and abandoned the equipment<br />
the U.S. had given them as soon<br />
as they went into combat. We may<br />
never forget that price. In Afghanistan,<br />
the waste and corruption involving U.S.<br />
funds have prompted Marine Corps<br />
Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman<br />
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to say<br />
that we still have years of work ahead of<br />
us in that forlorn country.<br />
Where did all the money go in Iraq<br />
and Afghanistan, and what did we get for<br />
it? When World War I started, France<br />
was confident of victory and had prepared<br />
22 ARMY ■ March 2016
for a short war. Although ultimately victorious,<br />
France sacrificed the lives of its<br />
young, exhausted the nation’s resources,<br />
and mortgaged its future. In our case, we<br />
are mired in expensive combat and combat<br />
support operations in both Iraq and<br />
Afghanistan—although both wars are<br />
now “officially” ended and we are supposedly<br />
just helping our allies—and we are<br />
getting involved in Africa.<br />
It is estimated that Afghanistan will<br />
cost the U.S. $10 billion in fiscal year<br />
2016, at least $20 billion in fiscal year<br />
2017, and anywhere from $10 billion to<br />
$15 billion a year after that for the foreseeable<br />
future. Part of that expense will<br />
be buying Afghanistan about 48,000 new<br />
tactical vehicles at a cost of approximately<br />
$3.4 billion. In view of the past<br />
and present rampant corruption in<br />
Afghanistan, do we really think those vehicles<br />
will be used effectively against the<br />
Islamic State by the Afghan government,<br />
or will the warlords use them to further<br />
their narcotics trade? According to John<br />
Sopko, the U.S. inspector general overseeing<br />
U.S. reconstruction efforts there,<br />
“Corruption undermines every single endeavor<br />
we undertake in Afghanistan.”<br />
Also very questionable and inappropriate<br />
is an estimated cost of almost<br />
$150 million for private villa accommodations<br />
and security arrangements for<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Spc. Tia P. Sokimson<br />
visitors to Kabul, bypassing government<br />
facilities that have already been constructed.<br />
This comes on the heels of the<br />
Pentagon spending $572 million for<br />
Russian military helicopters that the<br />
Afghans can’t even fly.<br />
Iraq is also a financial sinkhole. During<br />
the last dozen or so years, we have<br />
plowed billions into that failed state, and<br />
the country isn’t even grateful for the<br />
handout. The Iraqis complain that we<br />
have not given them enough. Plus, the<br />
Senate Armed Service Committee thinks<br />
someone in U.S. Central Command has<br />
cooked the intelligence books to make it<br />
look as if our efforts there are succeeding,<br />
according to several news reports.<br />
War is more complex than just “shock<br />
and awe” or “surgical.” When the guns<br />
begin to speak, coalition warfare is not<br />
what it is cracked up to be. About all we<br />
really control in Iraq is the 104-acre,<br />
billion-dollar U.S. embassy in Baghdad.<br />
We also have been expanding our<br />
presence in Africa. Officially, we have<br />
only one major base: Camp Lemonnier,<br />
in Djibouti. However, we have been establishing<br />
for future operations a network<br />
of “lily pad” bases, compounds and other<br />
sites. These are called cooperative security<br />
locations and are located throughout<br />
Africa—especially in the Sahel, south of<br />
the Sahara. All of this is going on as our<br />
overall troop strength is declining because,<br />
we are told, we cannot afford it.<br />
Land Warfare Papers<br />
• LWP 108 – Are U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Capabilities for<br />
Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction at<br />
Risk? by Thomas C. Westen (September 2015)<br />
• LWP 107 – Integrating Landpower in<br />
the Indo–<br />
Asia–Pacific Through 2020: Analysiss of a Theater<br />
<strong>Army</strong> Campaign Design by Benjamin A. Bennett<br />
(May 2015)<br />
• LWP 106 – American Landpower and the<br />
Two-war Construct by Richard D. Hooker,<br />
Jr.<br />
(May 2015)<br />
• LWP 105W – Operations Research and the<br />
United States <strong>Army</strong>: A 75th Anniversary<br />
Perspective 1 by Greg H. Parlier (January 2015)<br />
National Security Watch<br />
• NSW 16-1 – African Horizons: The United States<br />
<strong>Army</strong> Working Toward a Secure and Stable<br />
Africa by Douglas W. Merritt (February 2016)<br />
• NSW 15-4 – These Are the Drones You Are<br />
Looking For:<br />
Manned–Unmanned Te<br />
eaming and<br />
the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> by Richard Lim (December 2015)<br />
• NSW 15-3 – Innovation and Invention:<br />
Equipping<br />
the <strong>Army</strong> for Current and Future Conflicts<br />
by Richard Lim (September 2015)<br />
• NSW 15-2 – Malaysia,<br />
Singapore and the United<br />
States: Harmony or Hegemony? by Richard Lim<br />
(May 2015)<br />
• NSW 15-1 – U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Regionally Aligned<br />
Forces: An Effective Way to Compensate for<br />
a Strategy/Resourcess Mismatch by Thomas C.<br />
Westen (February 2015)<br />
NCO Update<br />
• Brainpower is the Next Frontier in <strong>Army</strong>’s<br />
Arsenal 2 (1st Quarter 2016)<br />
• Mark Milley,<br />
39th Chief of Staff, <strong>Army</strong> 2<br />
(4th Quarter 2015)<br />
Special Reports<br />
• AUSA + 1st Session, 114th Congress = Some<br />
Good News<br />
(Decembe<br />
er 2015)<br />
• Profile of the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> 2014/2015: a reference<br />
handbook (October 2014)<br />
• Your Soldier,<br />
Your <strong>Army</strong>:<br />
A Parents’ Guide<br />
by Vicki Cody (also available in Spanish)<br />
Torchbearer National Security Reports<br />
• U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Integrated Air and Missile Defense<br />
Capabilities:<br />
Enabling Joint Force 2020 and<br />
Beyond (May 2014)<br />
Torchbearer Issue Papers<br />
• Strategically Responsive Logistics: A Game-<br />
Changer<br />
(October 2015)<br />
• The U. S. <strong>Army</strong> in Europe: Strategic Landpower in<br />
Action (October 2015)<br />
• Rapid Equipping and the U.S. <strong>Army</strong>’s Quick-<br />
Reacti<br />
on Capability<br />
(October 2015)<br />
• Enabling Reserve Component Readiness to<br />
Ensure<br />
National Security (September 2015)<br />
• The U. S. <strong>Army</strong>’s Expeditionary Mission Command<br />
Capability:<br />
Winning in a Complex World<br />
(September 2015)<br />
Defensee Reports<br />
• DR 16-1 – Until They All Come Home! The<br />
Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action<br />
Accounting Agency (February 2016)<br />
• DR 15-2 – Building Readiness to Sustain Global<br />
Responsiveness and Regional Engagement<br />
(April 2015)<br />
Landpower Essays<br />
• LPE 15-1 – Strategic Landpower in the 21st<br />
Century:<br />
A Conceptual Framework by Brian M.<br />
Michelson (March 2015)<br />
To<br />
order these and other ILW<br />
publications, visit the Institute of Land Warfare at<br />
the AUSA website (www.ausa.org); send<br />
an e-mail to ILWPublications@ausa.<br />
org; call (800) 336-4570, ext. 4630; or write to AUSA’s Institute of Land Warfare,<br />
ATTN: Publication Requests, 2425 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA<br />
22201-3326.<br />
All publications are available free of charge at:<br />
www.ausa.org/publications/ilw.<br />
1<br />
2<br />
Available ONLY on the AUSA website at www.ausa.org/ilw.<br />
Lead story.<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 23
We have wasted billions in seeking<br />
high-tech solutions to relatively<br />
low-tech military problems: $20 billion<br />
on Boeing’s failed future combat system<br />
concept, $6.9 billion on the Comanche<br />
armed helicopter that never flew, and<br />
further billions on the gigantic “spy in<br />
the sky” aerostat that was supposed to<br />
keep Washington, D.C., safe, but blew<br />
away in a windstorm last October.<br />
Defense equipment seems to cost way<br />
too much. The military industrial complex<br />
is making a killing with the horrible<br />
cost of the F-35 fighter-bomber and<br />
the estimated $500 billion to develop<br />
and produce a new B-52 replacement<br />
called the long-range strike bomber.<br />
Now, the <strong>Army</strong> is trying to launch a<br />
ground combat vehicle program. It’s<br />
also attempting to repair the damage<br />
done in 2004 when it reorganized combat<br />
brigades into a new “modular” configuration<br />
at a cost of about $75 billion.<br />
All of this cannot be laid at the feet of<br />
the generals, but they do share a lot of<br />
the responsibility. Many have never<br />
seen a new plane, gun system or vehicle<br />
that they did not like.<br />
In World War I, military costs were<br />
defined in millions of dollars, francs and<br />
pounds. Now, we are talking billions for<br />
the same types of things. Gen. Joseph<br />
Joffre, chief of the French General Staff<br />
from 1911 to 1916, prepared to fight a<br />
short offensive war with drafted soldiers.<br />
His doctrine stated that only offense<br />
would break the will of the adversary<br />
and ensure victory. But there were<br />
problems with this theory and doctrine.<br />
The French had not prepared for a<br />
long, destructive and costly war. It took<br />
a couple of years of fighting to figure<br />
out how to win, and that almost bankrupted<br />
the country.<br />
We need to take a long, hard look at<br />
that history and decide if our Middle<br />
East wars are worth it, and if the tactics<br />
we are using without a viable strategy<br />
are just noise before defeat. Will our<br />
current conflicts turn into what historian<br />
Robert Doughty called a “Pyrrhic<br />
victory” of the French and the mess<br />
Great Britain made of the Middle East<br />
after a world war?<br />
Our enemies in the Muslim world<br />
want us to overreach and go overseas to<br />
fight. Drawing us into conventional battles<br />
plays to their long suit, not ours.<br />
Sending more troops to fight them will<br />
only keep their home fires burning, supporting<br />
their cause.<br />
Our overall strategy is not clear. It is<br />
someplace between a minimalist approach,<br />
where other nations step up to<br />
help us; and going into Iraq full-bore<br />
alone, letting the U.S. really assert itself.<br />
If we do either of those, what’s next? Do<br />
we expend the resources to revisit a place<br />
that does not seem to be concerned<br />
about its own long-term interests, or do<br />
we save ourselves from another Pyrrhic<br />
victory? Just as perhaps Britain should<br />
have stayed out of World War I, we<br />
should get out of the Middle East. ■<br />
Lt. Col. Thomas D. Morgan, USA Ret., is<br />
a West Point graduate who served in field<br />
artillery, Special Forces, civil affairs, community/public<br />
affairs and force development.<br />
He also worked as a civilian contractor<br />
for the Battle Command Training<br />
Program until retiring in 2002. He is the<br />
recording secretary/photographer of the<br />
Society for Military History.<br />
24 ARMY ■ March 2016
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He’s the <strong>Army</strong><br />
Military Is This Soldier-Novelist’s Muse<br />
When Capt. Frank Wacholtz isn’t soldiering, he writes. A<br />
logistics planner in U.S. <strong>Army</strong> South, G-4 plans, at<br />
Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Wacholtz<br />
has already written and self-published three science-fiction<br />
and fantasy novels and is currently writing his fourth.<br />
Wacholtz was deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 as part of a<br />
security force assistance team. “I forced myself to sit down and<br />
write for at least two hours a day … at least four days a week,”<br />
he said. “You’d be amazed how much that piles up over the<br />
course of a deployment.”<br />
Wacholtz, who grew up mostly in Colorado Springs, Colo.,<br />
developed a love of stories at a young age. “I come from a long<br />
line of language people, and I’ve always loved books,” he said.<br />
His father, a retired Air Force colonel, would tell highly embellished<br />
river-rafting stories before putting Wacholtz and his<br />
two brothers to bed at night, and “these might have been what<br />
really ingrained my love for stories,” he said. “I still remember<br />
when my dad read me The Hobbit when I was just 10.”<br />
J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy, which was first published<br />
in 1937, had a profound impact on Wacholtz, who cited<br />
Tolkien as the strongest influencer of his style. His brother<br />
Luke, a well-known video game creator also known as Lun<br />
Calsari, “is the one who taught me editing.” (Wacholtz’s other<br />
brother, Matthew, is an <strong>Army</strong> chief warrant officer 1 and helicopter<br />
pilot.)<br />
Wacholtz, 37, has been serving in the <strong>Army</strong> since 2008. He<br />
said military service has not only taught him to push himself<br />
as a soldier but also has added more realism to his writing.<br />
Getting hit on the head in basic training and bruising a rib in<br />
the combatives competition during Officer Candidate School,<br />
for example, gave him an idea of what his characters might experience<br />
in a fight. “I would frequently pose myself while writing<br />
just to make sure certain maneuvers could be realistically<br />
done,” he said.<br />
Duty is lived and breathed in the <strong>Army</strong>, and Wacholtz understands<br />
how much of a motivator it can be. “Taking care of<br />
people is the core of what we do,” he said, though it’s “not always<br />
in the most obvious ways. … I don’t think I could avoid<br />
including it” in his writing, “even if I tried.”<br />
And just as some soldiers fare better than others in real life,<br />
the same is true of Wacholtz’s characters. Wacholtz also incorporates<br />
some of the less brutal details of being a warfighter<br />
into his novels. “My time in a beautiful valley in Afghanistan<br />
also inspired the desert town” in his third book, End of Innocents.<br />
“I even borrowed some of the language for names and<br />
places.”<br />
Wacholtz is married and has four children. While he loves<br />
being a soldier and a father, he acknowledged that juggling the<br />
two roles can be demanding. “If I want reality, I simply open<br />
Capt. Frank Wacholtz<br />
my eyes,” he said, adding that sci-fi and fantasy are “an escape,<br />
so to speak.”<br />
Writing also allows him to go somewhere he’s never been<br />
before. “The other real advantage of sci-fi and fantasy is that it<br />
allows you to present concepts that would ordinarily be rejected<br />
upon contact if written in nonfiction historical style,” he<br />
said. “People enter your universe with a natural suspension of<br />
disbelief that makes this possible.”<br />
As for future pursuits, he has an idea for a short nonfiction<br />
work drawing on his experiences with his four children and<br />
people in general. “They have taught me a lot over the past<br />
few years,” he said.<br />
Wacholtz said his father instilled in him the belief that he<br />
should spend time on things that matter, and it’s evident in<br />
how he feels about his soldiers, his writing and his family. He<br />
even has continued his father’s tradition of reading aloud.<br />
“At night, I read to my four children a chapter out of the<br />
Bible in my reader’s voice—I can sound like the guy from the<br />
training videos, when I want to—and explain it to them,” he<br />
said. “This naturally calms my own mind before bed and allows<br />
me to sleep well, wake up refreshed, and do it all again<br />
with a smile.”<br />
—Thomas B. Spincic<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong><br />
26 ARMY ■ March 2016
<strong>Army</strong><br />
University<br />
Will Education System Earn Prestige<br />
With Improvements and a New Name?<br />
Joe Broderick<br />
By Rick Maze, Editor-in-Chief<br />
An ambitious <strong>Army</strong> plan to boost the quality and respect<br />
of its expansive professional education network<br />
attempts to capture the symbolism of America’s<br />
big-name schools. If university systems like<br />
Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and Princeton hold prestigious<br />
positions in society because of their rigorous admission, accreditation<br />
and academic standards, <strong>Army</strong> leaders hope they<br />
can do the same with symbolic and substantive changes in<br />
military education called <strong>Army</strong> University.<br />
<strong>Army</strong> University is a brand, with officials sometimes calling<br />
it The <strong>Army</strong> University but also referring to it as <strong>Army</strong>U. Like<br />
major national universities that have a wide reach of affiliated<br />
colleges and schools, <strong>Army</strong> University will provide big-name<br />
identity to a collaborative network of 70 separate schools and<br />
additional independent research libraries, while also working<br />
with more than 90 public and private colleges and universities.<br />
Its “campuses” will range from basic training classes to education<br />
classes for officers, warrant officers, NCOs and civilians—<br />
basically everything under control of the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Training<br />
and Doctrine Command, plus a few additions.<br />
There are three key parts to <strong>Army</strong> University, according to<br />
planning documents:<br />
■ Increasing academic rigor and relevance is a goal for institutions<br />
that <strong>Army</strong> officials concede have sometimes seemed<br />
more interested in test scores and attrition rather than preparing<br />
soldiers for real-world problems. This requires faculty development,<br />
curriculum changes, and perhaps even different<br />
ways of accessing educational performance. It also means<br />
working to become accredited.<br />
■ Improving respect and prestige has many benefits, including<br />
encouraging soldiers to attend the schools, helping to<br />
recruit talented faculty, and aiding in the transition to civilian<br />
life by giving more credit to graduates.<br />
■ Better and shared management practices could make the<br />
<strong>Army</strong>’s education system more efficient, with savings poured<br />
back into making the schools better.<br />
Because nothing is ever simple when making sweeping<br />
changes, there are outliers in the <strong>Army</strong> University consolidation.<br />
For example, the U.S. Military Academy is not under the<br />
<strong>Army</strong> University umbrella. It is described as an<br />
“affiliate,” following the overall plan of building<br />
world-class faculty and relevant curriculum along with taking<br />
other steps to gain more prestige for the already well-regarded<br />
institution.<br />
The <strong>Army</strong> War College, located in Carlisle, Pa., will remain<br />
a separately accredited college, but the commandant<br />
will be vice chancellor for strategic education of <strong>Army</strong> University,<br />
shaping education and research programs.<br />
Name Recognition Needed<br />
Name recognition is a big part of the change. Though<br />
training and education are a core part of the <strong>Army</strong>, the number<br />
and variety of schools as well as diverse approaches to education<br />
and credit have resulted in soldiers and outsiders undervaluing<br />
the education system, according to a white paper<br />
on the <strong>Army</strong> University concept. <strong>Army</strong> University, with the<br />
name and accompanying changes, is an attempt to get soldiers<br />
who attend the schools and the faculty who teach at<br />
them the respect <strong>Army</strong> leaders believe they are due.<br />
One element of building prestige is for soldiers to have an<br />
<strong>Army</strong> University transcript listing the academic credit received<br />
across all education programs. That transcript will be part of a<br />
soldier’s military record to show accomplishments; it also will<br />
be useful outside the <strong>Army</strong> to show in one document all the<br />
education a soldier achieved during his or her military career.<br />
It is not easy. The prestige of attending and completing<br />
<strong>Army</strong> schools has not had the same standing as education<br />
from nonmilitary schools, something the white paper says is<br />
partly the result of the lack of name recognition and partly<br />
because <strong>Army</strong> programs lack the academic rigor of civilian institutions<br />
and often are not accredited. Less than a quarter of<br />
<strong>Army</strong> education programs are accredited by agencies recognized<br />
by the U.S. Department of Education.<br />
Brig. Gen. John S. Kem, provost of <strong>Army</strong>U, said improving<br />
faculty is a key part of improving the reputation of <strong>Army</strong><br />
schools. “Better faculty means a better outcome in the classroom,”<br />
he said. “We have said you have to be good to teach<br />
for us. We have never said that you have to have a certain<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 27
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Dan Neal<br />
Brig. Gen. John S. Kem, provost of <strong>Army</strong> University, speaks to educators during a<br />
symposium at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.<br />
level of academic credentials.” Having better-qualified faculty<br />
members who are recognized as experts in their respective<br />
fields makes the education more prestigious and helps with<br />
accreditation, Kem said.<br />
Accreditation and faculty quality are important to soldiers,<br />
<strong>Army</strong> officials said, because not being accredited means soldiers<br />
don’t get credit for military education and training.<br />
“This generates an enormous hidden cost as soldiers pursuing<br />
degrees must complete courses in civilian institutions similar<br />
to instruction that they already mastered in the military,” the<br />
white paper says. “It is not uncommon to find career noncommissioned<br />
officers with ample credit hours of education but no<br />
academic degree because those credit hours were acquired<br />
across a career in different programs at different<br />
installations.”<br />
Having credits earned by <strong>Army</strong> University would<br />
reduce this problem, although it wouldn’t necessarily<br />
guarantee that public and private schools would agree<br />
to apply those credits toward a degree.<br />
‘Most Fundamental Change … Since 1881’<br />
“We want to better <strong>Army</strong> education, provide accredited<br />
sources for our present and future soldiers,<br />
and increase the quality of our faculty,” said Lt. Gen.<br />
Robert B. Brown, commanding general of the U.S.<br />
<strong>Army</strong> Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth,<br />
Kan. Brown also serves as commandant of the Leavenworth-based<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Command and General Staff<br />
College, an institution established in 1881. In the<br />
<strong>Army</strong> University integration of schools, Brown is the<br />
executive vice chancellor for training and education.<br />
At a December conference about the initiative,<br />
Brown said, “This is the most fundamental change<br />
in <strong>Army</strong> education since 1881.”<br />
A big part of the effort is aimed at enlisted soldiers,<br />
attempting to get them more credit—especially<br />
college credit—for military education.<br />
Separate from the <strong>Army</strong> University effort, the<br />
<strong>Army</strong> also has a backlog of about 14,000 soldiers<br />
overdue to attend leadership classes. <strong>Army</strong>U is<br />
working on ways to better manage these classes. Completing<br />
advanced and senior leadership courses is becoming a mandatory<br />
promotion requirement. In 2016, completion is a prerequisite<br />
for promotion to sergeant first class. In 2017, it will be<br />
a requirement for promotion to master sergeant.<br />
The U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss,<br />
Texas, will be one of the first programs to attempt accreditation,<br />
Sgt. Maj. of the <strong>Army</strong> Daniel Dailey said. “We have a<br />
five-year plan to accredit the academy at the master’s degree<br />
level,” Dailey said. “Our academy has 1,490 hours of academic<br />
exposure time. How many graduate-level students have that<br />
level of exposure to their professors? I don’t think there are any.”<br />
Fuller Hall at Fort<br />
Leavenworth, Kan., is<br />
the headquarters of<br />
the <strong>Army</strong>U provost.<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Dan Neal<br />
28 ARMY ■ March 2016
Command sergeants major work<br />
on problems during a course at<br />
Fort Leavenworth, Kan.<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Jonathan ‘Jay’ Koester<br />
Accreditation of the academy, which has graduated more<br />
than 120,000 soldiers since its founding in 1972, is “long<br />
overdue,” Dailey said. “For years, we’ve been providing excellent<br />
training to our soldiers by way of tactical and technical<br />
education, but we haven’t done them justice in regards to certifying<br />
those courses within the equivalent civilian certifications<br />
and college credits. <strong>Army</strong> University is going to help us<br />
accomplish that goal.”<br />
Representatives of about 80 colleges and universities attended<br />
a December symposium to talk about ways of getting<br />
more credit for soldiers for the professional education they receive<br />
and how to increase rigor in training. Another meeting<br />
is planned for June.<br />
Schools represented at the meeting are already involved<br />
with training soldiers, with some offering distance-learning<br />
courses for college credit and others operating on-post. One<br />
of the vexing and unresolved issues facing soldiers is that<br />
credits earned through <strong>Army</strong> training and from schools affiliated<br />
with the <strong>Army</strong> do not always transfer to other colleges<br />
and universities, especially prestigious four-year schools. Improving<br />
the academic standing of the classes available to soldiers<br />
is seen as a way of trying to resolve this problem.<br />
<strong>Army</strong> Not Alone<br />
However, this is not an <strong>Army</strong>-only problem. Nonmilitary<br />
students transferring from community colleges to four-year<br />
schools face similar problems receiving full credit for courses<br />
already taken. A 2015 Pell Institute study on inequities in<br />
higher education in the U.S. says transferring from one college<br />
to another is one of the factors affecting equity in education.<br />
The report called for state governments and schools to<br />
“do more to ensure that students can transfer across higher<br />
education institutions without loss of academic credit.”<br />
Columbia University’s Community College Research Center<br />
reports that students who transfer credits in efforts to earn<br />
a bachelor’s degree are less likely to complete the degree and<br />
take longer to complete the degree if they do finish, a problem<br />
well-known to soldiers who<br />
move from post to post collecting<br />
college credits. Taking longer to<br />
complete a degree is part of a nationwide<br />
trend that goes beyond<br />
the <strong>Army</strong>. A November report<br />
from the National Student Clearinghouse<br />
Research Center found<br />
just 53 percent of students who<br />
enrolled in college in 2009 completed<br />
a degree within six years.<br />
There are gains in getting credit.<br />
For example, the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Prime<br />
Power School at Fort Leonard<br />
Wood, Mo., provides up to 38<br />
college credits in math, applied<br />
physics, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering for<br />
graduates, something possible because the instructors are professors<br />
from nearby Lincoln University. The partnership created<br />
at Prime Power is an example of what the <strong>Army</strong> wants<br />
to duplicate in other professional education courses.<br />
<strong>Army</strong> University is not a new idea. It was first raised in 1949<br />
by Lt. Gen. Manton S. Eddy, a former instructor and later<br />
commandant of the <strong>Army</strong>’s Command and General Staff College,<br />
who pushed the idea to the War Department’s Military<br />
Education Board as part of a postwar overhaul. The Air Force<br />
had created Air University in 1946, essentially for the same<br />
reasons the <strong>Army</strong> is considering today.<br />
“It was hoped that the re-designation would help to correct<br />
the numerous problems that plagued the pre-war military education<br />
system,” according to Air University’s official history.<br />
“The schools that comprised the old system had operated independently<br />
and were poorly coordinated in scope, doctrine<br />
and curriculum.” Marine Corps University was established in<br />
1989; like <strong>Army</strong>U, it includes professional education for both<br />
officers and enlisted personnel.<br />
It is no coincidence that the <strong>Army</strong>, like the Air Force, is<br />
undertaking a postwar transformation of its education system.<br />
“History reveals that some of the best and longest-lasting<br />
transformations in military education occur in the aftermath<br />
of sustained conflicts,” the white paper notes. “The <strong>Army</strong> today<br />
is a veteran force with real-world experience derived from<br />
years of sustained combat. This experience informs our judgment<br />
and gives us a deep appreciation for the complex and<br />
unpredictable challenges ahead.”<br />
Since the <strong>Army</strong> isn’t building a physical university, costs for<br />
the initiative are low: around $4 million in fiscal 2016 and $3.7<br />
million in FY 2017, according to the business plan estimate.<br />
Dailey said he hopes for quick improvements. “I want to<br />
accomplish these goals in 18 months,” he said of the effort to<br />
get the Sergeants Major Academy accredited. “That’s really<br />
aggressive, but I feel like we are 240 years behind on this.” ✭<br />
—Ferdinand H. Thomas II contributed to this report.<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 29
Reserve Component Generals:<br />
Can <strong>Army</strong> National Guard and <strong>Army</strong> Reserve generals<br />
be considered professional military officers at this<br />
critical time in the war on terror? General officers of<br />
the two <strong>Army</strong> reserve components have served for<br />
extended periods on active duty in an array of challenging positions,<br />
including combat. They have been called on to perform<br />
at the same level of competency as their counterparts in<br />
the active <strong>Army</strong>. While some have failed, many others have<br />
performed well enough to have greatly erased a perceived<br />
stigma of past years.<br />
Consider Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. He graduated from the<br />
U.S. Military Academy in 1843 and fought in the Mexican-<br />
American War before resigning his commission in 1854. When<br />
the Civil War broke out, he volunteered for military<br />
duty and served as colonel of the 21st Illinois<br />
Volunteer Infantry before rising to brigadier<br />
general of U.S. Volunteers. He became not<br />
only the <strong>Army</strong>’s highest-ranking Civil<br />
War general, but president of the U.S.<br />
for two terms. Was he a professional<br />
general in spite of limited active duty in<br />
the regular <strong>Army</strong>?<br />
Another two-term president, Gen.<br />
Dwight D. Eisenhower, graduated<br />
from West Point in 1915 and had one<br />
command in peacetime, but saw no combat<br />
until 1942. Few will contest this activeduty<br />
general’s professionalism at the highest<br />
level. Did his lack of battle experience diminish<br />
him as a professional military officer when he was put<br />
to the ultimate test?<br />
The comparison between the professionalism of general officers<br />
who serve on active duty for their entire career, and<br />
those who may have actively served for a few years and then<br />
left for civilian life while serving in the reserve components, is<br />
deserving of serious consideration. In any case, active-duty<br />
generals’ professionalism serves as the benchmark for reserve<br />
component generals.<br />
Before the early 1980s, there was no specific requirement in<br />
either the <strong>Army</strong> National Guard or <strong>Army</strong> Reserve for a general<br />
officer to have anything more than a basic military education.<br />
Even today, with regard to the <strong>Army</strong> National Guard, a<br />
governor can appoint anyone for the position of his or her<br />
state’s adjutant general regardless of the candidate’s military<br />
education (except in South Carolina, Vermont and the District<br />
of Columbia).<br />
Federal Recognition Required<br />
<strong>Army</strong> National Guard generals who command units or hold<br />
general officer positions must be federally recognized to draw<br />
U.S. government pay. Such generals are usually nominated by<br />
the state adjutant general, confirmed by the governor, and<br />
federally recognized at the Department of the <strong>Army</strong> level after<br />
U.S. Senate confirmation. Yet in the 1970s, there was no<br />
specific requirement that general officers receive a high-level,<br />
senior service professional education.<br />
Nor was high-level, professional education development a<br />
requirement for <strong>Army</strong> Reserve generals. Attendance at one of<br />
the war colleges was not a prerequisite for promotion to general<br />
officer, although it was desirable. Actual residential attendance<br />
at one of the war colleges in the 1970s was relatively rare.<br />
Admittance to the <strong>Army</strong> War College for a reserve component<br />
officer was possible, but not easy. Early in the 1970s, a<br />
first-time applicant to attend the nonresident course was often<br />
rejected. Those who were admitted had to devote a large<br />
amount of time to it, including submitting many papers<br />
that were graded and commented on in great detail<br />
by the resident faculty. It was very easy for<br />
a nonresident student to get behind in the<br />
work; the dropout rate was by no means<br />
small. But since attendance at the war<br />
college level was not required to be eligible<br />
for promotion to the rank of general<br />
officer, there was no stigma attached to<br />
not completing the demanding course.<br />
Unfortunately, a common opinion<br />
among active <strong>Army</strong> general officers in<br />
those days was that reserve component<br />
generals were not “real” generals. If they<br />
were not “real” generals, then, could they be<br />
considered professional general officers?<br />
By 1978, however, two <strong>Army</strong> reserve component<br />
officers were attending the resident course of the National<br />
War College: an <strong>Army</strong> Reserve lieutenant colonel who had already<br />
completed the <strong>Army</strong> War College’s nonresident course<br />
and an <strong>Army</strong> National Guard brigadier general.<br />
Significant Progress<br />
In the next decade, significant progress in managing reserve<br />
component general officer selection was made. For example, a<br />
command eligibility list for promotion to reserve component<br />
general officer positions was established in 1989. One of the<br />
criteria was for the selectee to either have commanded at the<br />
reserve component battalion level for two years, or to have<br />
submitted a letter stating that he or she had held a position<br />
equivalent in responsibility at the colonel level, such as division<br />
chief of staff. There was still no requirement for a war<br />
college-level education, although both the <strong>Army</strong> National<br />
Guard and <strong>Army</strong> Reserve nominated selected officers to<br />
attend the resident senior service college.<br />
Operation Desert Shield saw brigade-level <strong>Army</strong> reserve<br />
component units being activated for federal service. However,<br />
this did not mean that reserve component generals commanding<br />
major formations under programs such as the active<br />
30 ARMY ■ March 2016
True Professionals<br />
By<br />
Brig. Gen. Raymond E. Bell Jr.,<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong> retired<br />
<strong>Army</strong> division “round-out” brigades, or echelons above corps<br />
units such the 352nd Civil Affairs Command and 335th Signal<br />
Command, would necessarily be called up to deploy with<br />
their units.<br />
The <strong>Army</strong> National Guard round-out brigades were kept<br />
stateside and did not deploy for the subsequent Operation<br />
Desert Storm. The rumor was that the <strong>Army</strong> chief of staff did<br />
not want any reserve component generals in the combat theater.<br />
While some of these generals were accused of deliberately<br />
avoiding deployment, a noticeable exception was Brig. Gen.<br />
Joseph F. Conlon III, the commanding general of the 800th<br />
Military Police Brigade, which was responsible for enemy<br />
prisoner of war operations.<br />
A Vietnam combat veteran, he and his command<br />
performed brilliantly and won universal praise<br />
for how the thousands of Iraqi prisoners were<br />
handled. If a case could be made for <strong>Army</strong><br />
reserve component generals being professional<br />
military officers capable of performing<br />
well in a combat environment,<br />
Conlon certainly proved it to be true.<br />
New Set of Scenarios<br />
After Operation Desert Storm, there<br />
was a reshuffling of <strong>Army</strong> reserve component<br />
units with a downsizing of the<br />
entire U.S. <strong>Army</strong>, which resulted in the<br />
elimination of commands. Reserve component<br />
general officer professionalism was not<br />
soon to be tested again but when it was, entirely<br />
different circumstances were obtained. After the Sept. 11<br />
terrorist attacks, a whole new set of scenarios presented themselves.<br />
In the meantime, the active <strong>Army</strong> was busy in Bosnia<br />
and Kosovo, where the <strong>Army</strong> reserve components were not<br />
yet major participants.<br />
When Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched in 2003, the<br />
<strong>Army</strong>, now downsized but still the most potent fighting force in<br />
the world, did not foresee a major role for the reserve components.<br />
However, the attitude toward these units had changed<br />
markedly. Reserve component general officers had yet to prove<br />
themselves in combat, but there was little doubt they had become<br />
more professional. Part of this was because of the decreased<br />
size of the active <strong>Army</strong>. Captains with combat experience<br />
who had left the active <strong>Army</strong> found themselves sought<br />
after in reserve component formations. There, they became battalion<br />
commanders and then commanders at the brigade level.<br />
Brig. Gen. Raymond E. Bell Jr., USA Ret., is a 1957 graduate of<br />
the U.S. Military Academy. He commanded the 220th Military<br />
Police Brigade and the 5th Psychological Operations Group. He<br />
holds a master’s degree from Middlebury College and a Ph.D.<br />
from New York University.<br />
How, then, has the present situation affected the professionalism<br />
of general officers in the <strong>Army</strong> reserve components?<br />
First, there is a closer integration of the active <strong>Army</strong> with the<br />
reserve components. For example, the presence of civil affairs<br />
units, previously in the <strong>Army</strong> Reserve, has been markedly increased<br />
in the active <strong>Army</strong>. Professionalism required by such<br />
integration is now demanded equally in members of all components,<br />
so there is also greater opportunity for those in the active<br />
<strong>Army</strong> to accept reserve component generals as professionals.<br />
Under Constant Scrutiny<br />
Second, reserve component generals are now compelled to<br />
perform with competence commensurate with that of active<br />
<strong>Army</strong> generals. They are under constant scrutiny by<br />
their active <strong>Army</strong> counterparts, and risk relief and<br />
demotion for failing to perform. Reserve component<br />
generals must meet high standards<br />
of performance and conduct to be viable.<br />
Third, selection of reserve component<br />
general officers is more centralized<br />
than it previously had been. <strong>Army</strong><br />
National Guard generals are nominated<br />
by state governors, while those<br />
in the <strong>Army</strong> Reserve are nominated at<br />
the Department of the <strong>Army</strong> level upon<br />
application for a general officer position<br />
by qualified colonels, before U.S. Senate<br />
confirmation. Federal recognition is still accorded<br />
at the Department of the <strong>Army</strong> level for<br />
both the <strong>Army</strong> Guard and Reserve.<br />
Also, because an <strong>Army</strong> Reserve general may serve anywhere<br />
in the U.S., the competition for these positions is much<br />
greater than it was when the pool of selectees was usually limited<br />
to a specific geographical location and the individual’s<br />
availability at that location. Because the operational tempo is<br />
much greater today than it was when the <strong>Army</strong> reserve components<br />
were basically a strategic reserve, those selected for<br />
general officer positions must be able to devote much more<br />
time to their jobs. In fact, for many, occupying a general officer<br />
position is a full-time occupation.<br />
Finally, with greater quotas for reserve component lieutenant<br />
colonels and colonels to attend senior service schools, professional,<br />
high-level military education is now readily available to<br />
those who are able to take the time away from their civilian occupations.<br />
Candidates for general officer positions who formerly<br />
had to have only a baccalaureate degree now must compete<br />
not only with senior service school graduates but also with<br />
those having master’s degrees and even doctorates.<br />
What this all adds up to is that today’s <strong>Army</strong> National<br />
Guard and <strong>Army</strong> Reserve generals have no choice to be anything<br />
but professional military officers. They cannot afford to<br />
be anything less.<br />
✭<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 31
Germany Committed to<br />
The deputy secretary general of NATO, Alexander<br />
Vershbow, describes the security challenges facing the<br />
Euro-Atlantic community after the collapse of the<br />
Soviet Union as follows: “The world had changed. ...<br />
The specific threat had subsided—from a real and present<br />
danger, to a more abstract notion of a potential threat from an<br />
unknown aggressor.”<br />
This uncertainty led to a significant shift from collective defense<br />
in Europe to a much more flexible global deployment of<br />
armed forces. This also applied to the German <strong>Army</strong> as reflected<br />
in its deployments to Somalia, in 1992; Bosnia and Herzegovina,<br />
in 1996; Kosovo, in 1999; and Afghanistan, in 2001.<br />
Since 2014, however, largely due to Russia’s aggressive demeanor,<br />
the operational environment has become substantially<br />
more complex and thus, more difficult. At the NATO summit<br />
in Wales that year, NATO gave a clear and unanimous answer:<br />
The commitment to a combined will for collective defense<br />
was convincingly communicated by NATO’s Readiness<br />
Action Plan and the regular presence of NATO forces from<br />
several member states in Poland and the Baltic States.<br />
NATO’s objective is to increase responsiveness and, at the<br />
same time, show our partners in the East with our regular<br />
presence that NATO still stands as one, in solidarity with its<br />
Bundeswehr/Wilke<br />
Bundeswehr/Bienert<br />
32 ARMY ■ March 2016
Common Defense By<br />
Lt. Gen. Jorg Vollmer<br />
PIZ Kunduz<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Cpl. Ali Cooley<br />
Clockwise from top left: A German infantry combat vehicle patrols with<br />
Afghan villagers in Kunduz Province in 2007; then-Lt. Gen. Donald<br />
Campbell Jr. places a U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Europe shoulder patch on the uniform<br />
of Brig. Gen. Markus Laubenthal, the first German officer to serve as the<br />
command’s chief of staff, in August 2014; a German soldier, left, and a<br />
U.S. soldier meet on the road in Afghanistan; German and peshmerga<br />
soldiers train in northern Iraq in May.<br />
friends. I assume that the continuance of this commitment<br />
will be one of the topics of the NATO summit in July in<br />
Warsaw, Poland.<br />
At the same time, however, we are threatened by terrorism<br />
fed by Islamic extremism and fostered by poor governance and<br />
state disintegrations, from the Middle East to the African<br />
Maghreb. As a consequence, we have witnessed a dramatic<br />
refugee movement toward Europe and a direct threat to our<br />
security by Islamic terrorists. Europe and its partners are not<br />
indifferent to this threat.<br />
Challenges Have Consequences<br />
The resulting challenges have consequences, particularly for<br />
the German <strong>Army</strong>. The challenges start with the implementation<br />
of land forces-focused measures agreed upon by NATO<br />
in Wales. A multitude of units and formations of the German<br />
<strong>Army</strong> deployed in exercises and training missions in Poland<br />
and the Baltic States are aimed at demonstrating our presence,<br />
increasing the capabilities of allied partners and enhancing interoperability.<br />
The most important project of these initiatives is the very<br />
rapid response force of NATO, the so-called Very High Readi-<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 33
Bundeswehr/Neumann<br />
German and Malian soldiers prepare for urban warfare training during a European Union training<br />
mission in Koulikoro, Mali.<br />
ness Joint Task Force. In a 2015 test phase, the focus was on the<br />
German-Netherlands corps with maneuver units from Germany,<br />
Norway and the Netherlands.<br />
In this phase, the German <strong>Army</strong> demonstrated its capability<br />
to set up, train and deploy a task force within a short period of<br />
time. The findings gained in this project serve as the basis for<br />
repeating this task. This time, over a period of three years starting<br />
in 2018, an army brigade in different NATO readiness<br />
states will be identified and certified as a rapid response force.<br />
Norway and the Netherlands have already indicated their general<br />
willingness to make a contribution again. This demonstrates<br />
that Europe is increasing its response capability within<br />
the alliance.<br />
At the same time and prior to the upcoming NATO summit<br />
in Warsaw, the Multinational Corps North East in Szczecin,<br />
Poland, was augmented to become a high-readiness headquarters<br />
with a regional focus on commanding forces deployed in<br />
exercises and missions in the east of the NATO territory. These<br />
include the newly formed NATO force-integration units that in<br />
peacetime serve to prepare the reception of reinforcement<br />
forces. The German <strong>Army</strong> has made substantial contributions<br />
by its very rapid provision of qualified personnel. Full readiness<br />
was achieved prior to the NATO summit in Wales.<br />
In 2015, approximately 4,700 German <strong>Army</strong> service members<br />
were repeatedly employed in exercises, joint training,<br />
training support missions or as part of bilateral cooperation<br />
projects—some of them for several months in Estonia,<br />
Lt. Gen. Jorg Vollmer is the German <strong>Army</strong> chief of staff. Since<br />
joining the Bundeswehr, his assignments have included commanding<br />
a paratroop battalion, a mechanized infantry brigade<br />
and the Specialized Operations Division. Twice, he commanded<br />
the International Security Assistance Force Regional Command<br />
North in Afghanistan. He participated in the Advanced Operational<br />
Art Studies Fellowship at the School of Advanced Military<br />
Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.<br />
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland—to<br />
fulfill national and alliance defense<br />
tasks. This contribution will be continued<br />
this year.<br />
Simultaneously, in its missions<br />
abroad, the German <strong>Army</strong> contributes<br />
to countering the direct threat<br />
to our common security interests.<br />
In Mali, we take part in a European<br />
Union training mission to support<br />
the Malian armed forces—again as<br />
lead nation until later this year. Our<br />
commitment with the U.N. Multidimensional<br />
Integrated Stabilization<br />
Mission in the north of Mali will be<br />
increased to relieve Dutch forces.<br />
Given the considerably increased<br />
threat situation, such a commitment<br />
will require a substantially more robust<br />
mandate for our forces.<br />
In Iraq we have, on very short notice,<br />
given our consent to support the<br />
Kurdish peshmerga in their fight against the Islamic State<br />
group by conducting training in Erbil as well as in Germany.<br />
The good training results have exceeded our expectations; we<br />
will continue this training mission.<br />
Afghanistan Mission Continues<br />
In Afghanistan, we will continue our commitment started<br />
in 2001. It is important to continue the successful buildup of<br />
the Afghan National Security Forces achieved in the preceding<br />
years. We will support them on a long-term basis to enable<br />
them to independently provide for security in their country.<br />
The shift toward Operation Resolute Support that started<br />
in early 2015, and in which we will continue to make a significant<br />
contribution as a framework nation, constitutes an important<br />
prerequisite for achieving this goal. We even increased<br />
forces in our area of responsibility.<br />
In Kosovo, we are making a major contribution to stabilizing<br />
a region that has not found peace. Our commitment guarantees<br />
that diplomatic and civil-societal measures still take effect<br />
to ensure a long-lasting peaceful future in Europe for<br />
Kosovo and its neighbors.<br />
Our NATO commitments and our missions remain the<br />
German <strong>Army</strong>’s main effort. Taking over additional tasks in<br />
coping with the refugee situation will not change this. <strong>Army</strong><br />
members, along with a large number of volunteer helpers, do<br />
excellent work in supporting civilian institutions.<br />
Finally, the German <strong>Army</strong> is an important actor for multinational<br />
cooperation in Europe. This comprises the cooperation<br />
with France that has lasted more than 25 years; the mutual<br />
attachment of units of the Dutch and Polish armies; and<br />
an intensive cooperation with U.S. forces stationed in Europe.<br />
The U.S. remains our most important partner within NATO<br />
as well as in our missions abroad.<br />
This U.S.-German partnership, on one hand, manifests itself<br />
in the very close cooperation of our land forces, mainly in<br />
Afghanistan, with the U.S. supporting German operations in<br />
34 ARMY ■ March 2016
the north with high-value capabilities. The U.S. also draws on<br />
German <strong>Army</strong> capabilities that it no longer has available in<br />
Europe, as is the case with the M3 Amphibious Rig. In joint<br />
exercises such as Swift Response 2015, both nations again and<br />
again gave proof of their increased efficiency through effective<br />
partnership.<br />
A unique highlight of the mutual trust that has grown over<br />
the decades of close cooperation is the appointment of a German<br />
general as chief of staff to U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Europe headquarters<br />
in Wiesbaden. Additionally, both nations synchronize<br />
their efforts in their support of other states.<br />
The Transatlantic Capability Enhancement and Training<br />
Initiative, with the U.S. and Germany jointly coordinating<br />
their training and equipment initiatives for other NATO<br />
member states, is an important part of these efforts. In this<br />
context, Germany is notably supporting Poland with Leopard<br />
2 main battle tanks, and we are supporting Lithuania with<br />
modern, self-propelled howitzers.<br />
Multinational cooperation, however, is not an end in itself.<br />
Rather, it aims to enhance interoperability with our most important<br />
partners as it constitutes an indispensable prerequisite<br />
for successful joint missions. We have to step up efforts to<br />
prove this in exercises.<br />
We are capable of accomplishing the tasks arising from all<br />
these obligations because of our robust structure that, although<br />
developed under entirely different framework conditions<br />
in 2011, still proves to be right on target and so will thus<br />
be maintained until 2017.<br />
With six mechanized brigades subdivided into two mechanized<br />
divisions—the German elements of the Franco-German<br />
Brigade and the Rapid Response Forces Division—we are capable<br />
of accomplishing and sustaining all tasks, including national<br />
crisis prevention. In addition, brigades and divisions are<br />
the direct link to international cooperation. Currently in<br />
peacetime, for example, the Rapid Response Forces Division<br />
is in command of a Dutch airborne brigade. Our participation<br />
in three multinational corps activities allows the conduct of<br />
complex operations under German command as well.<br />
<strong>Army</strong> an Attractive Employer<br />
Our personnel are prepared for these tasks. The decision to<br />
suspend universal conscription has proven right. All doubts<br />
concerning quantity and quality of our personnel were unfounded.<br />
In fact, the army now has in its ranks experienced<br />
and rank-and-file soldiers who, following their training, remain<br />
in their units for a longer period of time. With a current<br />
average service time of nine years, they constitute the backbone<br />
of our German <strong>Army</strong> and are led by senior NCOs and<br />
officers experienced in missions and combat. The German<br />
<strong>Army</strong> is an attractive employer.<br />
Structure and personnel, however, can have the desired effects<br />
only if the army is equipped with modern materiel<br />
needed to fulfill its tasks. In operations, this is ensured at any<br />
time. It is in support of our operations that we can draw on<br />
the world’s latest generation of combat vehicles. They have<br />
stood the test, especially in Afghanistan.<br />
Modern equipment is available to the German <strong>Army</strong> for national<br />
and alliance defense, although not always in sufficient<br />
numbers. What is required is equipment adapted to our structure<br />
and our tasks. The additional procurement of 100 Leopard<br />
2A7 main battle tanks and the BOXER Multirole Armored<br />
Vehicle, and the fielding of the Puma Armored Infantry Fighting<br />
Vehicle, will provide relief in this area. Even though this<br />
goal might not be achieved overnight, we are on the right track.<br />
We must better reflect alliance defense in training. We will<br />
continue fulfilling tasks across the entire spectrum of missions<br />
abroad, from stability operations to training missions. When<br />
we train our men and women we have to focus, above all, on<br />
basic military skills. Physical and psychological resilience are<br />
just as important as soldier fundamentals.<br />
Units and formations must be able to conduct traditional<br />
types of operation—attack, defense and delay—as part of composite<br />
land force operations. Those<br />
who create a solid basis will be capable<br />
of mastering other tasks in<br />
operations of lower intensities as<br />
well. The fact that we can do so,<br />
even in peacetime, in conjunction<br />
with U.S. <strong>Army</strong> units stationed in<br />
Europe, is an important prerequisite<br />
for successful operations.<br />
The number of missions will not<br />
decrease. Nor will they become<br />
easier. We must prepare for them<br />
in the best possible way; prepared,<br />
we will be.<br />
✭<br />
Bundeswehr/PIZ Heer<br />
A Leopard 2A6 main battle tank powers<br />
through a waterway during an exercise.<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 35
<strong>Stimulating</strong> <strong>Simulation</strong><br />
Technology Advances and Upgrades<br />
Boost Realism in Soldier Training<br />
By Scott R. Gourley, Contributing Writer<br />
From virtual reality gaming and color-coded traffic<br />
maps to tomorrow’s weather forecast via radar image<br />
and the televised reality of football first-down lines,<br />
simulation technologies have become ubiquitous elements<br />
of modern life. It’s not surprising, then, that today’s<br />
soldiers are also encountering the expanded use of simulation<br />
technologies across the military experience.<br />
Historical foundations for the <strong>Army</strong>’s embrace of simulation<br />
systems and technologies can be traced to the early 1930s<br />
and the <strong>Army</strong> Air Corps’ acquisition of the first pilot trainers<br />
from the Link Co. In parallel with the dramatically changing<br />
technologies over the past eight decades, the <strong>Army</strong>’s appreciation<br />
for the value of simulations—both in initial training and<br />
proficiency maintenance—has also grown exponentially. Today,<br />
the <strong>Army</strong> is expanding and upgrading its use of simulations<br />
in both individual and organizational environments<br />
while simultaneously crafting the supporting architectures<br />
that will change the nature of military training in the future.<br />
One example can be found in <strong>Army</strong> small arms training.<br />
For several years, the first time a young soldier encountered<br />
simulation was likely with the Engagement Skills Trainer<br />
(EST) 2000. Manufactured by Cubic Corp., the system was<br />
fielded at the <strong>Army</strong>’s five initial entry training sites in the mid-<br />
1990s to provide initial weapon instruction before soldiers<br />
went to live-fire ranges. The system,<br />
which replaced an earlier Weaponeer<br />
marksmanship training aid, was subsequently<br />
expanded to other sites across<br />
the <strong>Army</strong>.<br />
According to Darren Shavers, director<br />
of subject matter experts for Meggitt<br />
Training Systems, the <strong>Army</strong>’s embrace<br />
of EST 2000 was a significant milestone<br />
in that it marked the first time a small<br />
arms simulator experience was mandated<br />
for basic trainees.<br />
“They learned it in the simulator, and<br />
then they went out and applied what<br />
they learned on the real-world ranges,”<br />
he said.<br />
Upgraded Replacement System<br />
The next milestone in <strong>Army</strong> small<br />
arms simulation was the arrival of a replacement<br />
system, EST II. Meggitt received<br />
the <strong>Army</strong>’s EST II contract in June 2014 and is delivering<br />
initial systems for customer acceptance testing starting this<br />
month.<br />
“The EST II will bring some pretty significant upgrades,”<br />
Shavers said, citing the elimination of the weapon tether as<br />
greatly enhancing things like the quick-reaction drills that have<br />
been part of initial training over the last decade. New BlueFire<br />
weapon simulation technology “talks to the system wirelessly,”<br />
he said.<br />
Other enhancements that will be delivered under EST II<br />
range from a new Crytek 3-D visual environment to instructor<br />
tablet devices. The EST II’s new 3-D visual environment<br />
“not only gives you higher-fidelity pictures, but also provides<br />
a moving eye point. In the past, you always had the target<br />
move to the shooter. But now, with Crytek, we can actually<br />
move the target to the shooter and move the shooter to the<br />
target by simulating that moving eye point through the<br />
scene,” Shavers said.<br />
The money the <strong>Army</strong> has already spent on Bohemia Interactive<br />
<strong>Simulation</strong>s’ Virtual Battlespace 3, or VBS3, is being<br />
leveraged “by using VBS3 as our collective engine,” he added.<br />
VBS3 is a 3-D, first-person games-for-training platform that<br />
provides realistic semi-immersive environments; large, dynamic<br />
terrain areas; hundreds of simulated military and civilian enti-<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong><br />
36 ARMY ■ March 2016
Clockwise: Soldiers practice marksmanship<br />
using an Engagement Skills Trainer 2000;<br />
Air Cavalry Leaders Course students use<br />
simulation technology in Virtual Battlespace<br />
3; the Link Trainer, an early flight<br />
simulator, in 1942.<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Doug Schaub<br />
entities; and a range of geotypical, or generic, terrain areas as<br />
well as geospecific terrains from U.S. <strong>Army</strong> areas of operation.<br />
As the <strong>Army</strong>’s flagship training game, it has been accredited<br />
to support more than 100 combined arms training<br />
tasks from the individual soldier level to company collective.<br />
“The <strong>Army</strong> already has terrains and scenarios built in<br />
VBS3, so we’re going to use that in things like force-on-force<br />
training,” Shavers said. Also, the new EST II instructor tablets<br />
provide real-time feedback and an automatic coaching tool to<br />
help improve student marksmanship.<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Kelly Morris<br />
‘We Can See if You Are Breathing’<br />
“Our system knows what you are doing<br />
all the time,” he said. “We can see how<br />
you aim at the target. We can see if you<br />
are breathing or not. We can see how you<br />
manipulate the trigger. And we can see<br />
how you put the weapon on your shoulder.<br />
And since we can see all that now, I<br />
can tie it to <strong>Army</strong> doctrine and tell the<br />
student what they were doing wrong.”<br />
The tablets will not only “flag” individual<br />
shooter variance from the marksmanship<br />
fundamentals found in <strong>Army</strong><br />
Field Manual 3-22.9, Rifle Marksmanship,<br />
but also provide a video clip of the<br />
specific corrections needed.<br />
Based on the result of upcoming customer<br />
acceptance testing, it is anticipated<br />
that the <strong>Army</strong> will order between<br />
842 and 900 EST II systems. That’s just<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 37
one example of the growing use of simulation in support of<br />
soldier training and proficiency.<br />
Another example is seen in programs like the Dismounted<br />
Soldier Training System, or DSTS. According to system developer<br />
Intelligent Decisions Inc., this is the first fully immersive<br />
virtual simulation training system for soldiers. It includes a helmet-mounted<br />
display with integrated head tracker, stereo<br />
speakers, voice and radio communications, a computer backpack<br />
for processing and projecting the 3-D virtual environment<br />
within the helmet-mounted display, sensors for tracking body<br />
position, and instrumented weapons. It allows soldiers to operate<br />
in a virtual environment with members of their squad, platoon<br />
or company.<br />
for unique platform skills. They’re used for dozens of other<br />
skills and capabilities as well as convoy, vehicle-maintenance,<br />
flight and helicopter-maintenance training.<br />
<strong>Simulation</strong> is also present in military immersive environments<br />
including the Joint Fires and Effects Training System<br />
at the <strong>Army</strong>’s Fires Center of Excellence at Fort Sill, Okla.<br />
This system provides a suite of state-of-the-art immersive virtual<br />
reality environments designed to help soldiers make critical<br />
decisions under stress, and allows for collective team training<br />
and cultural awareness lessons. Developed by the University<br />
of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies,<br />
Training as a Unit<br />
“We train 30,000 soldiers a year on DSTS,” said Clarence<br />
Pape, vice president of simulation and training for Intelligent<br />
Decisions. The <strong>Army</strong> had been looking at the concept “for<br />
the better part of 10 years, as they looked to find a virtual<br />
training device for soldiers to train as a cohesive unit,” he<br />
said. “And they wanted it to be mobile, so it wouldn’t be a<br />
fixed capability,” he said. “It could be moved around as the<br />
<strong>Army</strong> needed it.”<br />
That basic concept was followed by requirements definition<br />
and further concept development and creation. Accompanied<br />
by industry partnering, the final design included a combination<br />
of commercial off-the-shelf hardware and custom-developed<br />
equipment.<br />
“From requirements through first delivery was about a year,<br />
and we’ve been deploying it ever since,” Pape said. Fifty-one<br />
DSTS systems have been deployed across the total <strong>Army</strong> in<br />
both standard and enhanced versions.<br />
Asked about the unique abilities the system provides to<br />
warfighters, Pape highlighted “the ability to shoot, move and<br />
communicate as a cohesive squad in a virtual environment. And<br />
they can take it wherever they want. We have actually had it being<br />
used in the field right before a live-fire training exercise.”<br />
The system also allows soldiers to “practice the various tactics,<br />
techniques and procedures—things like defensive postures,<br />
patrols, reaction to fire or ambush. You can do a medevac.<br />
You can do a [helicopter] insert and extract. You can get<br />
inside a vehicle and do force movement, and then dismount<br />
the vehicle in the virtual environment and do ground tactics. It<br />
allows you to do myriad infantry-level tactics.”<br />
The system is not used just for infantry task training, Pape<br />
said. It’s employed in both engineer and military police training<br />
as well.<br />
“Those types of combat service support folks use it to refine<br />
their tactical capability,” he said. “It helps with their communication.<br />
It helps with their understanding of the environment.<br />
And certainly it helps them to practice how they would<br />
move as individuals and as a group.”<br />
Broader Applications<br />
The broad U.S. <strong>Army</strong> application of simulation technologies<br />
is hardly restricted to individual and small-group training<br />
and proficiency. In addition to those representative examples,<br />
simulation systems are used for driver training and modified<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Rachael Tolliver<br />
Cadets use a virtual simulator to<br />
practice patrolling as a squad.<br />
the program was successfully transitioned to the <strong>Army</strong>’s Program<br />
Executive Office for <strong>Simulation</strong>, Training and Instrumentation<br />
(PEO STRI) in 2008.<br />
Another area of significant simulation growth and emphasis<br />
over the past several years involves medical simulation. A<br />
stand-alone software application called Tactical Combat Casualty<br />
Care <strong>Simulation</strong> was delivered to the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Medical<br />
Department Center and School at Fort Sam Houston,<br />
Texas, in 2007.<br />
Frank Colletti is vice president for training and education at<br />
Engineering & Computer <strong>Simulation</strong>s, the company that fulfilled<br />
the software application contract. According to Colletti,<br />
the software focuses on the “functionality that would be used<br />
by a medic or combat lifesaver to practice the ‘what and when’<br />
38 ARMY ■ March 2016
of treating casualties: Given what you see in front of you, what<br />
do you do and when do you do it?”<br />
Launching a demonstration on a nearby desktop, Colletti explained,<br />
“Here’s a soldier that has just sustained an injury. We’ll<br />
‘walk’ over to him and see what happened. In this case, it might<br />
involve a traumatic amputation. As the caregiver, I point to the<br />
leg, and I am given a screen interface that allows me to make a<br />
decision as to what to do. It gives me a number of possible actions—all<br />
of which are valid, but some are better than others.”<br />
Colletti demonstrated a series of selected interventions,<br />
from tourniquet application to ascertaining the extent of other<br />
injuries through a “blood sweep” of the wounded soldier, all<br />
while maintaining tactical situational awareness.<br />
Shared Gaming Environment<br />
One recent company effort has moved the capability from a<br />
stand-alone use into a shared gaming environment, Colletti<br />
said.<br />
“We took that functionality and created a plug-in that can<br />
be embedded into VBS3,” he said. “Now the soldiers are<br />
working through this virtual engagement, and an incident<br />
happens: A sniper engages them, or an IED detonates. We<br />
have six different injury types that can occur within the context<br />
of the VBS3 simulation.”<br />
A more immersive approach to medical simulation is seen<br />
in PEO STRI’s medical simulation training centers. Located<br />
at 18 <strong>Army</strong> installations, the centers deliver effective medical<br />
training through an immersive platform that includes a standardized<br />
family of supporting component systems and supporting<br />
training devices.<br />
Related training devices include the Virtual Patient System’s<br />
tetherless, “bleed-breathe” mannequin that is weighted<br />
and airway-equipped; partial task trainers; the Instruction<br />
Support System; Medical Training Command and Control<br />
System; and the Medical Training Evaluation System.<br />
The <strong>Army</strong>’s medical simulation emphasis isn’t limited to<br />
human needs. One example of the specialized training and<br />
proficiency possible through medical simulation was seen at a<br />
recent modeling and simulation gathering, where TraumaFX<br />
highlighted its K9 HERO medical trainer, a 50-pound medical<br />
mannequin sculpted to mimic a Belgian Malinois shepherd.<br />
It enables military working dog handlers to practice on a<br />
simulator many critical lifesaving tasks for canines, including<br />
maintaining an airway, CPR, tracheostomy and bandaging.<br />
Three Environments Linked<br />
In parallel with the growth of simulation technologies in the<br />
virtual world, the last few years have witnessed <strong>Army</strong> training<br />
planners increasing their emphasis on the development of socalled<br />
live, virtual and constructive (LVC) capabilities, in<br />
which live training is combined with training in virtual as well<br />
as constructive, or computer-generated, environments. The simultaneous<br />
linkage of these three environments is widely seen<br />
as offering significant cost and performance benefits for military<br />
training and proficiency retention.<br />
One key to this vision has been the development of something<br />
called an LVC-Integrating Architecture. However, the<br />
program executive office is also looking beyond this architecture<br />
and toward the development of “leap ahead” technologies<br />
to integrate the LVC spectrum.<br />
“Our ultimate goal is to enhance realistic training in complex<br />
environments to help build cohesive teams who not just survive,<br />
but thrive in conditions of chaos and ambiguity,” said Maj.<br />
Gen. Jon Maddux, PEO STRI’s program executive officer.<br />
The main effort to achieve that ultimate goal is bringing a<br />
new program into the training portfolio called the synthetic<br />
training environment, which will enhance the currently fielded<br />
LVC-Integrating Architecture and provide a center of gravity<br />
for the <strong>Army</strong>’s future.<br />
The synthetic training environment “will include ‘leap ahead’<br />
and ‘disruptive’ technologies not available in the current LVC-<br />
[Integrating Architecture] program to facilitate the creation of<br />
the complex conditions found in any operational environment,”<br />
Maddux said, “enabling commanders to develop agile, adaptive<br />
leaders and versatile units capable of operating in any complex<br />
situation.”<br />
The synthetic training environment will converge the virtual,<br />
constructive and gaming training environments into a single<br />
environment that will provide training services to ground, dismounted<br />
and aerial platforms and command post operations.<br />
Additionally, PEO STRI is exploring cybersecurity training<br />
and the challenges and possibilities involved in cyber simulation.<br />
✭<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 39
12-Step Plan<br />
For Curing<br />
A Toxic Team<br />
By Keith H. Ferguson<br />
Alcoholics Anonymous has a 12-step program for beating alcohol addiction.<br />
The first step can be paraphrased as: Recognize that you have a<br />
problem and confess it in some public way. Applying the 12-step process<br />
to my own circumstances, here goes: I was a member of a toxic team.<br />
This toxic team no longer exists. A majority of the members moved on. For<br />
some members, this meant incurring large financial costs as they changed locations,<br />
although they stayed with the same organization. For others, it meant<br />
looking for new work and for a few, it meant staying on and working with the<br />
new team to create a better atmosphere and a productive team.<br />
For me, it meant moving away. More than a year later, I<br />
still lament the breaking up of the team. I have spent this time<br />
studying toxic teams and what causes them.<br />
Although there are many times when a group of people work<br />
together, this togetherness doesn’t necessarily constitute a team.<br />
“Team” indicates there is a conscious effort by members to<br />
identify themselves as part of a collective with common goals.<br />
The <strong>Army</strong> understands the concept of teams well; it takes<br />
many teams of people working together to meet the mission.<br />
There are many different performance skills, but the task or<br />
the mission can be completed only through the coordinated<br />
efforts of many people.<br />
A true team member subverts personal wishes and identifies<br />
with the team goal. There are times when the team’s goal<br />
seems contrary to one’s personal wishes, but that member puts<br />
aside pride and redirects his or her self-interest for the good of<br />
the team. This is not always an easy thing to do.<br />
What Is a Toxic Team?<br />
A toxic team is a group of people who conspiratorially work<br />
together counter to the direction that leadership desires. A<br />
toxic team is constantly at odds with leadership, and seeks to<br />
undermine the direction that leadership attempts to move them.<br />
A toxic team may still have the perspective of benefiting the<br />
organization or meeting organizational goals but is subversive<br />
nevertheless. Toxic teams have their own agendas, and actually<br />
sabotage some short-term goals of leadership or an organization.<br />
This sabotage may not be a formal and planned conspiracy,<br />
but the lack of formality does not lessen the teamwork involved<br />
in the toxicity. Team members may not have discussed<br />
their negative influence, but there is a sense of camaraderie. A<br />
toxic team will justify its bad behavior and blame the organization<br />
or leadership as being completely responsible for the<br />
problems that exist.<br />
Several factors can influence or move a team toward toxicity.<br />
The first is a lack of trust in leadership. If a majority lacks<br />
trust in leadership, these team members will band together in<br />
a negative way. Team members feel that they can trust each<br />
other and have each other’s backs, but for some reason fail to<br />
find leadership as having their best interests in mind. A lack of<br />
trust will undermine a leader’s ability to lead.<br />
A second influencer is the feeling of powerlessness. If team<br />
members feel they have nowhere to go to express their concerns,<br />
they will lament collectively that they have no place to<br />
go. By banding together, they hope to accomplish what an individual<br />
is unable to accomplish.<br />
Third, a lack of communication or meaningful dialogue<br />
with leadership also contributes to team toxicity. Communication<br />
is one of the most important things that leadership can do<br />
for a team. The perception that leadership does not communicate<br />
reinforces bad attitudes. Failure to communicate indicates<br />
that leadership doesn’t consider team members important<br />
enough to be part of a larger dialogue about organizational direction<br />
or new initiatives.<br />
Another issue is perception of a lack of support. When a<br />
team member feels abandoned, it is better to be part of a<br />
group than to suffer as an individual. If more than one team<br />
member feels similarly, the perception snowballs and becomes<br />
larger than life.<br />
Finally, reinforced negative perceptions of leadership will<br />
grow if team members can find repeated examples of negative<br />
leadership behavior that support team premises. Team members<br />
will play and replay examples that they see, and will feed those<br />
negative perceptions with stories from other team members.<br />
40 ARMY ■ March 2016
There may be many other factors contributing to team toxicity.<br />
These were the main ones that had direct influence on<br />
the toxic team of which I was a member.<br />
Keith H. Ferguson has been an educator for more than 30 years.<br />
He is a staff and faculty instructor and developer for <strong>Army</strong> Logistics<br />
University, Fort Lee, Va., where he was named ALU<br />
Civilian Instructor of the Year for 2015. He received his master’s<br />
degree from Plymouth State College and has been involved in<br />
experiential education with the <strong>Army</strong> and the New Hampshire<br />
Police Standards and Training Council.<br />
U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Shawn Weismiller<br />
Spread Positivity<br />
Perception is not necessarily reality. Individual team members<br />
must remember that people view the world from their<br />
own perspective. It is as if every toxic team member has on a<br />
pair of dark glasses and instead of seeing the world through<br />
rose-colored glasses, sees only blackness or dimmed reality.<br />
Team members need to individually remove the dark glasses<br />
and change their own perspective of the job they hold. The<br />
darkness a member sees clouds vision. Just because you see<br />
something one way doesn’t mean it really is that way. Team<br />
members need to work to illuminate areas where there are<br />
problems, and recognize their own role within the problem.<br />
Like alcoholics, the first step toward fixing a toxic team is to<br />
admit that the problem exists. It takes time for teams to become<br />
toxic. No team member made a purposeful decision to<br />
become a toxic individual. If you see that you personally have<br />
become toxic or extremely negative, take responsibility for<br />
your own behavior and determine that you will not individually<br />
contribute to overall negativity.<br />
Negativity and negative cliques can thrive in an office culture<br />
and can spread from individual to individual. Bruna Martinuzzi<br />
of Clarion Enterprises Ltd., a business consulting<br />
company, says unchecked negativity can impact an entire organization.<br />
Just as negativity can spread, so can positivity. Individuals<br />
need to decide to become part of a positive culture.<br />
Open communication and honesty within the team will<br />
open doors to discuss perceptions within the group and with<br />
leadership. Teams often fail to communicate with leadership.<br />
A decision needs to be made that only open and honest communication<br />
can solve this type of problem. Team members<br />
need to divorce themselves from strong emotional attachments<br />
to the opinions and perspectives they hold individually. Although<br />
we all have emotional attachments to our own particular<br />
position, we need to view the situation dispassionately so<br />
we can see reality as it is. Separate opinion from facts, and then<br />
deal with only the facts.<br />
Teams should also strive to think strategically rather than<br />
locally. Large organizations such as the <strong>Army</strong> need to look at<br />
the big picture so that missions can be accomplished. Teams<br />
tend to be myopic, seeing only their immediate needs while<br />
discounting the needs of others. Teams need to stand back<br />
and look beyond their own realm to get the big picture. They<br />
need to put themselves in the shoes of their leadership so they<br />
can understand all the problems that must be addressed. Recognize<br />
that leadership must prioritize problem-solving and<br />
that your team’s specific problem may not be the most important,<br />
even though it seems to you that it is.<br />
Seek Mutuality<br />
Perhaps the most important thing a toxic team can do to fix<br />
its own negative culture is to look for mutuality. Mutuality<br />
means focusing on the similarities of your team goals with the<br />
goals of leadership. You might be surprised at how similar<br />
they are. Many people have a tendency to focus on the differences<br />
rather than the similarities. Find places where you can<br />
have mutual respect for people in leadership and their positions.<br />
Maintain this respect even when it is difficult to do.<br />
Recognize that all people—including you—have weaknesses.<br />
If you look for a commonality, you will make a major step toward<br />
detoxifying your team.<br />
Lastly, overcome paranoia. People have a tendency toward<br />
self-centeredness; we often think that everything is about us.<br />
Management is not out to get you, even if that is your perception.<br />
Diminish your own unrealistic self-importance and look<br />
outside yourself. Everyone has challenges at work; very few<br />
people like everything about their job. You will have problems,<br />
but they are solvable if you are willing to work to solve them.<br />
I don’t know everything there is to know about toxic teams,<br />
but I do know my own story of being part of one. Our team<br />
was very talented, had a lot of experience, and was particularly<br />
creative and intensely loyal to each other. However, the myopia<br />
of seeing only our own team and our own needs damaged<br />
us beyond repair.<br />
Over time, we became toxic and as a result, we were miserable.<br />
None of us acknowledged our individual contributions to<br />
the problem. Had we dealt with some of the problems as suggested<br />
here, we may have been able to detoxify. We, and the<br />
organization, would have been better for it. ✭<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 41
For Brain-Injured<br />
Vets, COMPASS<br />
Offers Direction<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong><br />
By Mitch Mirkin<br />
For Brian Hart, missed medical appointments used to<br />
be the norm. The former staff sergeant recalls showing<br />
up at a VA community-based outpatient clinic near his<br />
Maryland home, only to be informed he was supposed<br />
to be at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center that<br />
morning.<br />
“They told me I had to cancel, that I was a no-show,” recalls<br />
the lanky, soft-spoken 37-year-old, who was<br />
medically retired in 2008 after 13 years of<br />
service and five deployments. “I said<br />
to myself, ‘Something’s not right.’ I<br />
thought I was on top of it. I sat<br />
in the car and just cried.”<br />
Hart knew he had a mild<br />
traumatic brain injury. An<br />
IED had struck his Humvee<br />
during a supply run<br />
near Fallujah, Iraq, in<br />
2005. But coming to grips<br />
with the impact on his<br />
daily life was another matter.<br />
“I was in denial,” he<br />
admits.<br />
These days, Hart is more<br />
self-aware—and he is gaining<br />
tools and skills to better manage<br />
the condition. Part of that is thanks<br />
to a VA research program he enrolled<br />
in. The program is called Community Participation<br />
through Self-Efficacy Skills Development,<br />
or COMPASS. The study is funded through VA Rehabilitation<br />
Research and Development and is the brainchild of<br />
VA psychologist Alexander Libin. His team described it in the<br />
journal Military Medical Research in November.<br />
Setting Goals<br />
In a nutshell, the program teaches goal-setting, breaking it<br />
down step by step and reinforcing the skills with a coach.<br />
Ideally, veterans leave the program not only able to implement<br />
the skills on their own, but also motivated<br />
to do so.<br />
“We’re teaching them how to set<br />
up their goals,” Libin said. “The<br />
entire framework is based on this<br />
idea. It’s like driving: If you teach<br />
someone how to do it, he can drive<br />
any car.”<br />
Most people go about goal-setting<br />
without any conscious effort, Libin said.<br />
The process is basic to life, and we do it<br />
all the time. “This is how we move<br />
through life as humans. Regardless<br />
of whether we’re aware of it or not,<br />
we’re setting goals every day,<br />
every hour.”<br />
Traumatic brain injury, or<br />
TBI, can disrupt the thought<br />
process required for goal-setting<br />
because it often damages the<br />
frontal lobe, the main brain area<br />
involved in making plans and carrying<br />
them out. The process can<br />
also be jammed by sheer emotional<br />
stress. Libin believes that in most<br />
TBI cases, a person’s innate goal-setting<br />
capacity stays intact and can be reengaged.<br />
He said brain pathways unaffected<br />
by the trauma come into play.<br />
“COMPASS basically takes this automatic process,<br />
slows it down, and fleshes it out step by step,” he said.<br />
The program doesn’t aim to specifically treat depression,<br />
anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), although<br />
these issues are often in the mix for the veterans who participate.<br />
Many are concurrently receiving various treatments.<br />
“The approach is generally compatible with treatment,” said<br />
study coordinator Ellen Danford. “Virtually all the veterans in<br />
the program are involved with something, either on the physical<br />
side or on the psychosocial or mental health side.”<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 43
Mitch Mirkin<br />
VA psychologist Alexander Libin<br />
Sometimes, improvements are also seen in areas such as depression<br />
or PTSD, even for study participants who are not in<br />
treatment per se.<br />
Dr. Joel Scholten, who directs the polytrauma clinic at the<br />
Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center and serves as a coprincipal<br />
investigator for COMPASS, called this “the beauty<br />
of COMPASS. It focuses on a symptom or issue the participant<br />
is interested in improving and is not dependent on the<br />
underlying diagnosis.” (Manon Schladen, an implementation<br />
scientist, is the study’s other lead investigator, along with Libin<br />
and Scholten.)<br />
For research purposes, the study excludes those who, at<br />
baseline, are taking medication to treat severe mental health<br />
conditions. The philosophy of COMPASS, though, is to not<br />
wait for participants’ clinical challenges to be solved before<br />
they get on with their goals and thereby re-engage with everyday<br />
life. That also goes for TBI symptoms such as poor memory<br />
or attention.<br />
Flipping the Paradigm<br />
“Some clinicians think, how can these veterans do goal-setting?<br />
That’s a high-level cognitive process,” Libin said. “They<br />
Mitch Mirkin, based in Baltimore, is the senior writer and editor<br />
for the VA’s Office of Research and Development.<br />
say we need to first fix their brains, fix their memory. We say<br />
that isn’t necessarily so. You find a goal, the person gets engaged.<br />
All the other things will fall into place. In the process<br />
of working toward their goals, they will work on those areas of<br />
function. We’re turning around the community reintegration<br />
paradigm.”<br />
Though participants like Hart report progress, COMPASS<br />
is still being studied. Libin’s team will analyze the outcomes of<br />
COMPASS participants against those of a control group. The<br />
team will also compare the outcomes with those obtained<br />
from other rehab approaches, such as one emphasizing physical<br />
activity as a path to social engagement.<br />
COMPASS aims to enroll a total of 110 volunteers. All<br />
must be veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan who have a history of<br />
mild TBI and deficits in their day-to-day function.<br />
According to an August report from the Congressional Research<br />
Service, approximately 327,000 deployed and non-deployed<br />
troops have suffered a TBI since 2000, with 82 percent<br />
of those injuries classified as mild. Most mild TBIs resolve after<br />
a few months with no lingering symptoms, but some veterans<br />
will continue to experience problems long after—even 10<br />
or 20 years down the road.<br />
“Memory, that’s the No. 1 complaint,” said Hart, who<br />
started his <strong>Army</strong> career as a military policeman and then<br />
switched to logistics after a couple of years. “When I think<br />
back to the [military] schools I’ve been to and the training I<br />
had, there’s no way I could have done that [with a TBI]. In logistics,<br />
and in the MP corps, one thing you’ve got to have is a<br />
good memory.”<br />
He said since his TBI, he has a hard time recalling names<br />
and faces. “If I look back to when I first came in, some people<br />
that I deployed with or that I was an MP with, or the ones I<br />
went downrange with and did certain missions, I can’t place<br />
them at that point. I place them at Fort Knox [Ky.] instead,”<br />
he said.<br />
Job Struggles<br />
Post-military, Hart has struggled with jobs and relationships.<br />
Amid the TBI and several surgeries, most of which<br />
were related to his blast injury, Hart strained to keep up. His<br />
most recent job was as a civilian logistics analyst at a defense<br />
agency in Northern Virginia. He lasted a few years but resigned<br />
when he felt he could no longer keep up. He felt himself<br />
becoming socially isolated and floundering in the office.<br />
“I wasn’t doing well. I was sinking. I would get in early and<br />
leave late and was still falling behind,” he said. “I was getting<br />
aggravated and letting little things bother me. And then anxiety<br />
started building up. I just crashed one day.”<br />
Like a lot of other veterans with mild TBI, Hart has also<br />
struggled with headaches, insomnia and balance problems. He<br />
started to make some progress working with VA clinicians.<br />
The study moved him further along.<br />
“I got some good tools from VA in general,” he said. “The<br />
COMPASS program sharpened it.”<br />
The veterans in the program meet with a coach, also known<br />
as a participant adviser, once a week for eight weeks. The<br />
coach follows a loosely scripted manual based on motivational<br />
interviewing. The aim is to get at what the client is interested<br />
44 ARMY ■ March 2016
in achieving. Together, coach and client hash out goals.<br />
“After we had a couple of conversations, time management<br />
seemed to be a big issue,” COMPASS coach Dwan Bruner<br />
said of her work with Hart. “He was not getting enough sleep.<br />
He was missing appointments.”<br />
She helped him find a useful calendar app for his phone,<br />
with an alarm feature. Together, they identified other areas<br />
where he could tweak his time-management skills, such as<br />
limiting the length of phone conversations when appropriate.<br />
The process relied on planning sheets, charts and logs in<br />
which Hart could write his daily and weekly objectives and<br />
make notes on what he accomplished and how he could do<br />
better next time.<br />
“Each participant decides which tool works best for him or<br />
her,” Bruner said, but the main goal is to instill goal-setting<br />
habits.<br />
“They decide on a task, commit to the details of it, and then<br />
reflect on what worked and what didn’t,” Bruner said. “Then<br />
they discuss it with the adviser and begin to learn the skill of<br />
repeating what works best for them and making it into a routine.<br />
We want to give them skills they can use going forward.”<br />
Therapist Is Partner<br />
The give-and-take between coach and client is different<br />
than what happens in therapy sessions, Libin said. “The sessions<br />
build on the person’s reactions,” he explained. “It’s almost<br />
like a dialogue between coach and patient. When you go<br />
for psychotherapy or even mindfulness, the therapist is more<br />
like a teacher, teaching you techniques and skills. In our case,<br />
[the therapist] is your partner. You’re sort of on the same level.<br />
It’s a two-way process.”<br />
The goals span areas such as relationships, health, career<br />
and daily responsibilities. The veteran learns to break down<br />
each goal into objectives that are “SMART”: significant, measurable,<br />
affirmative—“I will” instead of “I won’t”—realistic<br />
and time-limited.<br />
‘Memory Pad’ Helps<br />
For Hart, building some stretching into his daily routine<br />
and eating right were two other important goals. The timemanagement<br />
routine he’s now settled into involves his phone, a<br />
monthly calendar he carries around folded up in his back<br />
pocket, and a small notebook he calls his memory pad.<br />
“The notebook helps me a lot,” he said. “I don’t try to commit<br />
anything to memory anymore. I look at the pad all the<br />
time. I’ll put simple things on there like ‘work out,’ ‘drink water.’<br />
It reminds me to do different things I wasn’t doing. As<br />
soon as I look at the pad, I know what I have to do. I’ll put the<br />
date when it was completed, or write in parentheses ‘working.’”<br />
Libin’s team doesn’t rely on anecdotal reports from Hart<br />
and the other participants. They administer a battery of validated<br />
tests and questionnaires before a veteran’s participation<br />
and twice afterward, measuring everything from TBI- and<br />
PTSD-related symptoms to progress in areas including work<br />
and relationships. Libin hopes the data will support a wide<br />
rollout of the program across VA.<br />
Relationships is one area where Hart feels he has made<br />
gains. He said that by regularly writing down in his pad “call<br />
Mom” or “reach out” to his brother, he has done a better job<br />
of staying in touch with those who matter most to him.<br />
“My mother lives in North Carolina,” he said. “When I<br />
would start calling her more, she was surprised. She’d say, ‘Are<br />
you OK?’ I’d say, ‘Yeah, Ma, I just realized I haven’t been calling<br />
you like I should.’”<br />
✭<br />
Mitch Mirkin<br />
COMPASS coach Dwan Bruner, left, works with <strong>Army</strong> veteran Brian Hart.<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 45
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Peer Pressure<br />
iStock<br />
Attorney Evaluation System<br />
Might Benefit All Officers<br />
By Col. William M. Connor<br />
In a 2003 letter to the leadership of the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> War<br />
College, then-Secretary of the <strong>Army</strong> Thomas White<br />
wrote: “Given an institutional objective to establish and<br />
maintain effective command climate, how can the <strong>Army</strong><br />
effectively assess leaders to prevent those with destructive<br />
leadership styles?”<br />
Many articles have since argued for a better method of<br />
evaluating <strong>Army</strong> leaders, particularly officers, but published<br />
studies have shown a critical problem: Relying solely on superior-officer<br />
evaluation is insufficient as a means of determining<br />
best leadership potential.<br />
In 2008, the <strong>Army</strong> began the Multi-Source Assessment and<br />
Feedback (MSAF), a “360-degree assessment.” In 2011, MSAF<br />
initiation became mandatory for all officer evaluations.<br />
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year<br />
2014 directed the secretary of defense to assess “the feasibility<br />
of including a 360-degree assessment approach … as part of<br />
performance evaluation reports” and report back to Congress<br />
with the findings. The RAND Corp. was commissioned and<br />
produced the 2015 report “360-Degree Assessments: Are<br />
They the Right Tool for the U.S. Military?” This study involved<br />
extensive research on the subject of 360-degree assessments<br />
like the MSAF.<br />
The overall findings by RAND recommended against using<br />
the 360-degree assessment for purposes of evaluation. Indeed,<br />
multiple studies have shown that MSAF is suitable<br />
solely for self-development and not for evaluation.<br />
“Based on our research on 360s, both within and outside a<br />
military setting, we advise against incorporating 360s in the<br />
officer evaluation system at this time,” RAND said.<br />
Need to Prevent Sabotage<br />
Various studies, including RAND’s, stress the importance<br />
of moving beyond superior-only evaluations to better choose<br />
leaders. The 360 evaluations were found to create problems<br />
with trust and unit cohesion. Due to congressional mandates<br />
and DoD regulations, any documented evaluation used by the<br />
rating or senior rating officer would also be provided to promotion<br />
boards. An issue comes with the opportunities for<br />
disgruntled subordinates or “enemy” peers to sabotage an officer’s<br />
career or establish an incentive for those with clear bias<br />
in favor of the rated officer. Further, the results of the MSAF<br />
would substantially increase the number of documents in<br />
front of boards, becoming impractical with the limited time<br />
available to review each file.<br />
Fortunately, the legal profession, which is my civilian career,<br />
has a solution to the most efficient, fair and equitable<br />
way to conduct peer evaluations. It’s a method that alleviates<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 47
the issues inherent with using the MSAF for evaluation, yet<br />
with a far better way to determine our best future leaders and<br />
help end what the <strong>Army</strong> refers to as toxic leadership.<br />
The legal profession’s system of peer evaluations is a simple<br />
albeit proven one that negates many of the problems with using<br />
the MSAF and other 360-degree evaluation. How does it<br />
work? Martindale-Hubbell is perhaps the largest and bestknown<br />
agency administering attorney peer evaluations. These<br />
reviews are generated on the voluntary request of an individual<br />
attorney. Attorneys are not required to request a peer review.<br />
The rating becomes public record, establishing credibility<br />
to the attorney among clients and the bar.<br />
Most requesting attorneys will not achieve the scores required<br />
to receive one of the two best ratings (BV or AV): On<br />
a scale of 1–5, a “BV Distinguished” rating is 3.0–4.4. B denotes<br />
superior competency, and V means top in ethics. The<br />
top ratings in ethics and competency are achieved with a<br />
peer-review score of 4.5–5. This is the rating of “AV Preeminent”:<br />
A for top in competency, and V for top in ethics.<br />
The ratings are determined by the evaluations of a number<br />
of fellow attorneys, and judges, who must have personal<br />
knowledge of those they are evaluating. The evaluators must<br />
have practiced with the attorney in their respective jurisdiction,<br />
and must attest to personal knowledge of his or her abilities<br />
and ethics. Attorneys send multiple evaluation requests.<br />
Usually, they select those whom they have tried cases against,<br />
or otherwise worked together. Lawyers within an attorney’s<br />
own firm cannot complete evaluations.<br />
Peer Pool Is Wide-Ranging<br />
Applying this system to the <strong>Army</strong> would diminish the<br />
chances of any disgruntled “enemy” destroying the ranking.<br />
Yet the peer pool is wide-ranging enough for a fair evaluation<br />
by those who know the officer best. It also would eliminate<br />
issues with trust and cohesion, as those rating the officer<br />
could not sabotage his or her career. Again, not attaining a<br />
rating would be the norm, and boards would not be able to<br />
put greater weight on whether or not an officer requested a<br />
peer evaluation.<br />
In my case, I requested a peer evaluation after six years of<br />
practicing law. The resulting AV Preeminent ranking has<br />
been quite helpful. Though I chose which peers would rate<br />
me, the ratings were anonymous, and all I was able to view<br />
later were anonymous comments. On the flip side, I’ve had<br />
no reason not to provide the most objective assessment I<br />
could muster when I have been asked to rate fellow attorneys.<br />
This system could readily be adapted by the <strong>Army</strong>. Officers<br />
would be permitted, but not required, to apply for a peerevaluation<br />
rating for each rank, with the rating in place until<br />
Col. William M. Connor, USAR, is on the South Carolina Emergency<br />
Preparedness Liaison Team under Region 4 Defense Coordinating<br />
Element, U.S. <strong>Army</strong> North. In civilian life, he is an<br />
attorney. While on active duty, he deployed twice to the Middle<br />
East and once to the Sinai. As an infantry officer in the <strong>Army</strong><br />
Reserve, he has served as senior intermediate-level education<br />
instructor and state coordinator for South Carolina. He is a<br />
graduate of The Citadel.<br />
the officer reaches the next rank. The ratings could be similar<br />
to the Martindale-Hubbell system of multiple ratings—possibly<br />
three levels up to pre-eminent peers. If an officer requests<br />
a peer evaluation without receiving a rating, neither the superior<br />
officer writing the officer evaluation report nor the boards<br />
would be provided with the results. However, the rated officer<br />
would not be eligible for another peer evaluation until rising<br />
to the next higher rank. The boards would be offered guidance<br />
to give the same weight on peer evaluations to all officers<br />
without a peer-review rating. This provides incentive for officers<br />
to apply for peer evaluations, as they would not be penalized<br />
for trying.<br />
If an officer attained a superior peer-evaluation rating, that<br />
information would be provided to the officer’s promotion<br />
board as a supplement to traditional officer-evaluation reports.<br />
This would not necessitate a new officer evaluation report,<br />
but would require an outside agency, or a body within the<br />
Human Resources Command, to help administer the peer<br />
evaluations. The boards would not have to review anything<br />
more than the documentation that is currently reviewed.<br />
However, they would have notice of any peer-review rating<br />
an officer had attained. That rating could be considered along<br />
with the officer evaluation reports and other standard board<br />
material concerning the officer.<br />
What we call the peer-evaluation ratings and the metrics<br />
used to determine them could be specified by the Human Resources<br />
Command. This would require more analysis, but the<br />
command should be able to follow the same pattern as that<br />
used by Martindale-Hubbell for attorney peer reviews.<br />
‘Career Suicide’ Not a Risk<br />
It’s important to reiterate that officers would not risk career<br />
suicide due to retaliation by a disgruntled peer or subordinate.<br />
The average officer would not obtain a peer-evaluation ranking<br />
but could still remain competitive. When competing for<br />
the ranks of lieutenant colonel and above, boards would likely<br />
consider the lack of rating. The critical positive is that boards<br />
would have a useful tool with which to choose the very best<br />
leadership.<br />
A clear advantage to boards would be the additional information<br />
for evaluating performance and potential. Those who<br />
“spotlight” for superiors would not be likely to obtain superior<br />
peer-evaluation ratings. Additionally, those officers who may<br />
have experienced the proverbial “personality conflict” with a<br />
superior could survive a marginal evaluation. The board<br />
would be able to consider the full circumstances of a top peerevaluation<br />
rating with the anecdotal evaluation by a superior,<br />
along with other evaluation records. It would be much easier<br />
to recognize when the board should not put weight on one<br />
marginal officer evaluation report.<br />
Clearly, enacting this system would require more analysis<br />
to determine how to best adapt it to the needs of the current<br />
personnel and promotion system. It would require clear metrics<br />
and decisions about ratings we would use for peer<br />
reviews. But it is time to fix what potentially may be fueling<br />
any toxic leadership. The legal profession has an effective and<br />
equitable way to make peer evaluations work. Our soldiers<br />
deserve nothing less.<br />
✭<br />
48 ARMY ■ March 2016
Reading:<br />
The Key<br />
To Critical<br />
Thinking<br />
By Lt. Col. C. Richard Nelson, U.S. <strong>Army</strong> retired<br />
Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, former chairman of the Joint<br />
Chiefs of Staff, posed the rhetorical question, “They<br />
can read, can’t they?” during a meeting with the assistant<br />
commandant of the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Command<br />
and General Staff College in the mid-1970s. Taylor had been<br />
invited to address students and prior to his presentation, he was<br />
briefed on recent changes in the curriculum. These changes reflected<br />
a new focus on tactical-level operations, with a corresponding<br />
reduction in strategic studies and other subjects.<br />
Taylor became agitated during the briefing and finally interrupted<br />
with a comment that in his opinion, the college was<br />
going in the wrong direction. The assistant commandant defended<br />
the curriculum changes by arguing that new technologies<br />
and weapons were not familiar to most of the students.<br />
Taylor, who had experienced the <strong>Army</strong> evolving from horse<br />
cavalry to nuclear weapons, was not impressed. “My God, they<br />
can read, can’t they?” Taylor responded forcefully.<br />
Of course they could, but Taylor’s question reflected a nagging<br />
concern that officers may not be reading as much as they<br />
should. More than a lack of reading, however, Taylor was reacting<br />
against a tendency in the <strong>Army</strong> to focus on the battlefield<br />
at the expense of strategic thinking. Taylor noted that the<br />
college traditionally prepared officers to serve at the next two<br />
higher levels of responsibility.<br />
One of the consequences of focusing on the tactical and operational<br />
levels is that the U.S. has excelled at winning battles,<br />
but not at winning wars. In retrospect, challenges like Vietnam<br />
and Iraq were not well thought through. Our top-level leaders<br />
too often seem to suffer from strategic shortsightedness.<br />
Unfortunately, too many colonels and generals continue to<br />
think like captains. Higher ranks require broader and more integrated<br />
thinking. Captains should think primarily about<br />
fighting battles. Colonels and generals must think about priorities,<br />
task-organizing formations, providing support for the<br />
captains, and selecting decisive objectives.<br />
In addition, colonels and generals are responsible for providing<br />
their best thoughts on critical linkages between the battlefield<br />
and the national purpose. As part of the process of<br />
connecting ends and means, colonels and generals must be<br />
broadly educated and read accordingly—well beyond briefing<br />
books prepared by their staffs.<br />
Working with civilian leaders, colonels and generals should<br />
think about what, exactly, is meant by winning a war and,<br />
more importantly, what it takes to win a sustainable peace.<br />
Gen. George C. Marshall Jr. was already thinking about winning<br />
the peace in the early stages of World War II when he<br />
established the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Civil Affairs School to deal more<br />
effectively with the aftermath of war, in part by learning from<br />
the mistakes made in concluding World War I. Similarly,<br />
when he was <strong>Army</strong> chief of staff, Gen. Eric Shinseki thought<br />
beyond the battlefield in estimating the size of the residual<br />
force needed in Iraq. Unfortunately, his thoughts were not<br />
welcome because higher-level thinking focused almost exclusively<br />
on regime change.<br />
Taylor’s concern about the lack of appropriate reading was<br />
Joe Broderick<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 49
Books included on the<br />
<strong>Army</strong> Chief of Staff’s<br />
Professional Reading<br />
List are shelved together<br />
at the Camp<br />
Casey library, Dongduchen,<br />
South Korea.<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Staff Sgt. Mark A. Kauffman<br />
on target. That concern lingers, reinforced by a persistent bias<br />
in American culture that views reading as an intellectual pursuit.<br />
This bias is reflected in the prevalence of false dichotomies<br />
such as “doers vs. thinkers,” and stereotypes of scholars sitting<br />
smugly in “ivory towers” out of touch with realities such as war.<br />
Institutionally, the <strong>Army</strong> is not anti-intellectual. In fact, the<br />
<strong>Army</strong> highly values education and encourages soldier-scholars.<br />
<strong>Army</strong> officers are likely to spend more time in school than<br />
many other professionals. Senior officers are likely to have<br />
graduate degrees.<br />
Reading List for Professionals<br />
Nevertheless, an unofficial anti-intellectual bias remains<br />
that undervalues reading. In addressing the problem, then-<br />
Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno highlighted the important<br />
connection between critical thinking and reading<br />
when he wrote the introduction to his Chief of Staff’s Professional<br />
Reading List. Critical thinking is necessary to think<br />
through complex problems well. Indeed, Marshall believed the<br />
capacity for independent thought was the most important criterion<br />
in selecting officers for promotion to brigadier general.<br />
According to the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Center of Military History,<br />
Shinseki started the reading list in 2000 and made the center<br />
the executive agent for the program. The program previously<br />
existed as the Contemporary Military Reading List, which began<br />
in 1959.<br />
Lt. Col. C. Richard Nelson, USA Ret., Ph.D., was late in acquiring a<br />
reading habit after serving in Vietnam and on the <strong>Army</strong> Staff, and<br />
teaching at the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Command and General Staff College.<br />
The West Point graduate earned a master’s degree from the University<br />
of Michigan, and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas.<br />
Reading can help critical thinking in many ways. Reading<br />
can compensate for a lack of firsthand experience in addressing<br />
the wide range of circumstances confronted by national security<br />
operations. Furthermore, reading is essential to understanding<br />
the constantly changing environment. Reading also<br />
provides opportunities to become knowledgeable about adversaries<br />
and the political context of a conflict. Finally, reading<br />
provides a time- and cost-efficient way of learning.<br />
The Chief of Staff’s Professional Reading List is a good<br />
starting point. Merely reading, however, is not enough. When<br />
Odierno was chief of staff, he recommended that the list be<br />
used to stimulate critical thinking by subjecting the ideas<br />
raised in these books to careful and reflective thought, discussion<br />
and debate. Different individuals reading the same text<br />
are likely to derive different understandings. Reading groups<br />
can help hone critical thinking skills.<br />
The reading list provides many resources for improving critical<br />
thinking (although often in the form of examples of the<br />
lack of such thinking) such as Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster’s<br />
Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the<br />
Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam. Although<br />
it is natural to blame those in charge for major failures, it is<br />
not sufficient. Beyond blaming responsible individuals, we<br />
should examine both conceptual and institutional factors that<br />
contributed to ultimate failures.<br />
Examples of sound critical thinking at the strategic level are<br />
relatively few, but they do exist. One instructive example is<br />
Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway’s conclusion in 1954 that Vietnam<br />
was devoid of decisive strategic objectives at a time when the<br />
U.S. was being pressured to help French forces besieged at<br />
Dien Bien Phu. Ridgway disagreed with the other joint chiefs,<br />
who favored more direct U.S. intervention including the possi-<br />
50 ARMY ■ March 2016
le use of nuclear weapons. Even President Dwight D. Eisenhower<br />
was concerned about the domino effect of losing Vietnam.<br />
But Ridgway’s argument prevailed. He had sent a team to<br />
Vietnam to study the situation, and had thought the problem<br />
through in a more convincing manner than the other chiefs.<br />
Fifteen years later, a different set of generals and admirals<br />
came to a different conclusion about appropriate U.S. roles.<br />
Their shortsighted “can-do” attitude prevailed in an atmosphere<br />
focused on the battlefield and almost devoid of critical<br />
thinking about the long term.<br />
To be successful, generals must be able to think through<br />
complex issues at the highest levels. Eisenhower was exceptionally<br />
insightful at this. In his first few months as president,<br />
he developed a competitive, long-term Cold War strategy that<br />
pitted the strengths of the U.S. and its allies against the weaknesses<br />
of the Soviet Union in a manner that was sustainable<br />
indefinitely. This grew out of a rigorous process of thinking<br />
through options in his Solarium Project.<br />
Pfc. Kyle Somerlot of the 82nd Airborne Division enjoys a book while waiting<br />
to make a jump during an airborne insertion exercise.<br />
Too Soon Old, Too Late Wise<br />
Reading is an acquired habit. However, for too many military<br />
professionals, reading becomes a significant habit only after<br />
we retire. By then, it may be too late to make a real difference.<br />
Nevertheless, even retirees can encourage more reading.<br />
Some people say finding time to read is a challenge. Smartphones<br />
and tablets are helpful but also distracting. About half<br />
of American adults own a tablet or electronic reader, and more<br />
than 76 percent have read a book in the last 12 months, according<br />
to the Pew Research Center. The typical American<br />
adult reads about 12 books each year; about half of readers<br />
read only printed books. Of those reading books electronically,<br />
87 percent also read printed books, suggesting that hard copy<br />
remains the main source for more thoughtful reading.<br />
Of course, reading on its own will not provide simple solutions<br />
to the complex problems we face. But reading can provide<br />
a broad background for placing challenges into perspective.<br />
What we read should not be limited to sources that share<br />
our own biases. And thoughtful reading can help us think<br />
more critically—like Ridgway about decisive strategic objectives,<br />
Eisenhower in terms of long-term competitive strategies,<br />
and Marshall about winning the peace. Otherwise, the<br />
norm will be shortsighted generals. Given the tragic consequences<br />
of poorly informed decisions, our soldiers deserve to<br />
be led by better-informed critical thinkers. ✭<br />
U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Angelita M. Lawrence<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong> National Guard/Sgt. William Hill<br />
Vietnam veteran<br />
Terry Whittaker<br />
hands out donated<br />
books at Camp Atterbury<br />
Joint Maneuver<br />
Training Center, Ind.<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 51
Facebook Embedded in<br />
Military families and Facebook<br />
seem like a perfect<br />
match. Military families<br />
want a lot of information,<br />
both official and unofficial, and<br />
they want it immediately. And Facebook<br />
is one of the Internet’s most<br />
popular sites for accessing all kinds<br />
of information.<br />
“I’m really not sure what I would<br />
do without Facebook,” said Ashley<br />
McCarty, an <strong>Army</strong> veteran and military<br />
spouse whose husband is stationed<br />
at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. Besides<br />
being a useful site for official<br />
information, “I love Facebook because<br />
I am able to stay in touch with<br />
family,” she said. Through posting<br />
photos, “my family is able to see my<br />
kids and family grow.”<br />
She can also stay in touch with her<br />
husband when he deploys, and check<br />
out unit updates and photos on the<br />
unit’s official Facebook page. In addition,<br />
“I love knowing I can ask other spouses who are stationed<br />
at the same place as me questions about things that are<br />
going on and [for] updates on things,” said McCarty, who<br />
searches for unofficial spouse group pages on Facebook and<br />
then makes friends with those spouses.<br />
An informal tour of official <strong>Army</strong> websites shows the service<br />
recognizes the importance of reaching all ages, demographics,<br />
families and soldiers with effective communication. That communication<br />
is clearly made much easier through social media<br />
sites, particularly Facebook. According to The Associated<br />
Press, Facebook is the world’s most popular social network.<br />
“By engaging our audiences in social media, we get a good<br />
sense of what is working well in the community” and what<br />
isn’t, said Tanja Linton, media relations officer in the Fort<br />
Huachuca Public Affairs Office, which launched its Facebook<br />
page in 2009. Social media also “allows people to bring concerns<br />
to our attention that we may not have been previously<br />
aware of,” Linton said.<br />
In a crisis like the Monument Fire in 2011, which destroyed<br />
almost 30,000 acres across the Huachuca Mountains in Arizona,<br />
social media “proved to be particularly useful in a community<br />
where the nearest TV stations are 75 miles away, in<br />
Tucson, and there is no live radio coverage in the afternoon<br />
and evenings,” Linton said. During the fire, Fort Huachuca<br />
residents turned to the post’s Facebook site for up-to-theminute<br />
information on which neighborhoods were being evacuated.<br />
This reduced hours of telephone calls and knocking on<br />
doors to keep people informed.<br />
Military spouses use Facebook for several reasons. The most<br />
common is to connect with family and friends, including those<br />
deployed or stationed overseas. Facebook makes it easier to stay<br />
connected despite moves every few years that require frequent<br />
home telephone number and address changes, spouses said.<br />
Cyndi Smucker has been an <strong>Army</strong> wife for eight years; she<br />
joined Facebook shortly after her marriage. Now stationed at<br />
Fort Belvoir, Va., Smucker uses Facebook to keep in touch<br />
with family. “The grandparents are not able to participate in<br />
our kids’ lives as much as we would like since we are a military<br />
family,” Smucker said, she so posts “a lot of pictures and<br />
videos of the kids so they can feel a little more connected.”<br />
And when Smucker’s husband travels, either for temporary<br />
duty or deployment, she can keep him up-to-date with pictures<br />
and information via Facebook.<br />
Helpful for Moves<br />
During transitions and moves, military spouses on Facebook<br />
said they especially rely on the Facebook pages maintained by<br />
privatized housing companies; the Directorate of Family,<br />
Morale, Welfare and Recreation; local schools; <strong>Army</strong> Community<br />
Services; and even medical and dental commands.<br />
Other reasons why <strong>Army</strong> families use Facebook vary, but<br />
common ones are to access official information quickly, research<br />
their next duty station, search for jobs, and advertise<br />
their business. Melissa Mulloy, owner of Bee Gifted Boutique,<br />
uses Facebook and other social media platforms to promote<br />
her home-based business, which offers custom-made gifts.<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Sgt. David Bruce<br />
52 ARMY ■ March 2016
Family Life By<br />
Rebecca Alwine, Contributing Writer<br />
She enjoys working from home and looks forward to taking<br />
her business with her when her husband, a captain recently<br />
named to the major list, is transferred from Fort Huachuca.<br />
It Really Is That Popular<br />
Facebook statistics show that in 2015, 82 percent of people<br />
ages 18–29 who were online accessed Facebook daily. Significant<br />
percentages of Facebook users were also seen in other age<br />
groups that were online: 79 percent of people 30–49, 64 percent<br />
of those 50–64, and 48 percent of people over the age of 65.<br />
In 2014, 70 percent of all Facebook users accessed the website<br />
daily, with 45 percent of them doing so several times a day,<br />
according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which<br />
studies social media use.<br />
In the <strong>Army</strong>, community information used to be conveyed<br />
during a monthly meeting, often hosted by the garrison. It<br />
served as a place for all organizations, units and groups to discuss<br />
upcoming events. With Facebook, these meetings are fading<br />
away, according to conversations with community leaders<br />
at Fort Huachuca. The assumption is that everyone is checking<br />
Facebook at regular intervals for information.<br />
Now, protocol offices send electronic invitations to events.<br />
Installations update residents on the status of road conditions<br />
and closures via Facebook pages. News events break on Facebook,<br />
with casualty assistance officers rushing to beat social<br />
media to deliver notifications.<br />
Not everyone is a Facebook fan. For example, one general’s<br />
spouse is not on Facebook, Twitter or social media of any kind,<br />
and she doesn’t plan to join.<br />
“I’ve been a spouse for over 20 years, and I’ve never understood<br />
why I need to be on Facebook in order to receive information,”<br />
she said. “I always received reliable information via<br />
phone trees and official [Family Readiness Group] emails, and<br />
I’ve heard about the drama on Facebook. I don’t need that.”<br />
As of now, she has no way to get information through<br />
channels other than her spouse.<br />
A ‘Time-Waster’<br />
<strong>Army</strong> spouse Lindsay Jobe, whose husband is stationed at<br />
Fort Huachuca, deactivated her Facebook account because she<br />
felt it was a time-waster. However, “I do feel like I miss out on<br />
some things that are accessible through Facebook, such as<br />
<strong>Army</strong> events and information, interest groups, and networking<br />
and meeting people,” she said.<br />
Another senior spouse acknowledges that Facebook is helpful<br />
in difficult situations: “It’s much easier and faster to keep in<br />
touch when there are urgent needs. But it should not be relied<br />
upon as the only way to get official information,” she said.<br />
“Official information should be given to everyone, regardless<br />
of their choice to use Facebook. They should be contacted via<br />
other channels to ensure that everyone receives it.”<br />
Others are concerned about posting sensitive information.<br />
“I feel like we share a little too much when it comes to security<br />
issues, soldiers and families alike,” said Chastity Kishpaugh,<br />
an <strong>Army</strong> wife stationed remotely. “Even posts that seem<br />
harmless can reveal information.”<br />
The <strong>Army</strong> has written guidance about social media and on<br />
the official Facebook page of Joint Base Lewis-McChord,<br />
Wash., there’s a list of things that should not be posted. The<br />
list was written in conjunction with DoD, the <strong>Army</strong> and Air<br />
Force. Information that is considered to be in violation of operational<br />
security includes casualty information, classified information,<br />
information protected by the Privacy Act or the<br />
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, personally<br />
identifiable information and sensitive information, according<br />
to the DoD Social Media User Agreement.<br />
Reliability, Relevance Concerns<br />
With spouses looking to <strong>Army</strong> public affairs and official Facebook<br />
pages comes additional concerns about the reliability and<br />
relevance of things being shared. Laurel Frock at Fort Huachuca<br />
has been an <strong>Army</strong> wife for nine years, and has seen the good and<br />
the unreliable when it comes to official Facebook pages. “A great<br />
example of a highly professional Facebook page is Fort Meade<br />
[Md.]. I don’t question anything they post because they’ve<br />
proven their reliability and relevance. When I see pictures celebrating<br />
National Cat Day from other garrison Facebook pages,<br />
it’s harder to take them seriously when they post about real<br />
topics. It’s all about presentation and professionalism.”<br />
However, National Cat Day may be part of a successful social<br />
media plan. According to the Social Media Examiner:<br />
Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle, a website for businesses,<br />
engaging followers increases the visibility of a Facebook<br />
page. Constant, relevant and engaging posts keep people<br />
coming back to the page, which is imperative in the case of<br />
emergencies.<br />
One example of using Facebook in an emergency was during<br />
Hurricane Joaquin in fall 2015. The 3rd Battalion, 60th<br />
Infantry Regiment “River Raiders” at Fort Jackson, S.C., had<br />
to cancel graduation. The unit posted the news on its official<br />
Facebook page and fielded questions and comments. It also<br />
used Facebook to update families, soldiers, civilians and the<br />
general public about school closures, curfews, and which gates<br />
would be open immediately following the storm.<br />
The Public Affairs Office at Fort Huachuca utilizes other<br />
social media outlets, outside of Facebook, in order to connect<br />
with people who may not have Facebook accounts, Linton<br />
said. These include YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, Pinterest and<br />
Flickr.<br />
However, “if there is a plan to communicate with me outside<br />
of social media, I don’t know about it,” one spouse at Fort<br />
Huachuca said. “I’ve never been asked for my phone number<br />
or email since moving here a few years ago. I’m not sure how<br />
they would contact me.”<br />
✭<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 53
Counseling Can Uncover<br />
By Capt. Gary M. Klein and<br />
1st Lt. Brock J. Young<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Capt. Cody Gallo<br />
Leaders talk about trust as a component of team building<br />
and a requirement for Mission Command, but what are<br />
some of the elements that help build trust?<br />
One of the most common and effective ways to build trust<br />
is to “lead from the front.” However, that means different<br />
things in different contexts. One of the easiest and most effective<br />
ways to lead from the front is to be present during training<br />
exercises by either participating or providing decisions and<br />
guidance as necessary. However, it is not practical to be present<br />
at all of these events, and doing so might actually be<br />
harmful. To build trust, leaders must balance supervision with<br />
autonomy and create opportunities for subordinates to exercise<br />
their initiative and operate independently.<br />
A recent article on The Military Leader website offered a<br />
number of recommendations for establishing trust, including<br />
building personal and professional relationships, recognizing<br />
hard work, and counseling.<br />
What effect does counseling have on trust? What about senior<br />
rater counseling? If done correctly, the counseling process<br />
builds trust and creates a positive command climate because it<br />
strengthens relationships. It is important to remember that<br />
building relationships is an art, though, with different solutions<br />
for each leader, organization and situation. Therefore,<br />
leaders must learn to calibrate their counseling style and leadership<br />
instead of seeking a one-size-fits-all solution.<br />
Many leaders struggle to conduct routine, quality counseling.<br />
According to Field Manual 6-22, <strong>Army</strong> Leadership, and <strong>Army</strong><br />
Techniques Publication 6-22.1, The Counseling Process, counseling<br />
is the process used by leaders to review with a subordinate<br />
the subordinate’s demonstrated performance and potential.<br />
Counseling: Just Do It<br />
Regardless of how leaders counsel, or how effective we are<br />
at counseling, the most important thing is to do it. According<br />
to <strong>Army</strong> Regulation 623-3 Evaluation Reporting System, all<br />
NCOs, warrant officers and chief warrant officer 2s, lieutenants<br />
and captains must receive initial counseling within 30<br />
days of the beginning of the rating period, and quarterly thereafter.<br />
However, leaders should be careful to avoid making<br />
counseling a check-the-block exercise.<br />
The time needed to conduct counseling has to compete<br />
with myriad mandatory and priority tasks. Combined with<br />
minimal training in counseling and the counseling process,<br />
leaders often lack the communication skills and experience to<br />
counsel effectively. These are not excuses; they are reality.<br />
There is no question that counseling is important, evident<br />
54 ARMY ■ March 2016
Oppressive Climate<br />
Clockwise from far left: <strong>Army</strong> leaders<br />
mentor soldiers during a live-fire exercise<br />
at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif.; in Southern<br />
Afghanistan; and in Iraq.<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Sgt. Ashley Curtis<br />
by the fact that nearly half of <strong>Army</strong> leaders—46 percent of the<br />
active component, and 47 percent of the reserve component—<br />
indicate that they receive performance counseling too infrequently.<br />
Additionally, 39 percent of leaders say counseling has<br />
small, very little or no positive impact. If we honestly assessed<br />
our own performance in regards to counseling, most of us<br />
would admit that we have room to improve.<br />
Capt. Gary M. Klein is a small-group leader at the Maneuver Captains<br />
Career Course. His previous assignments include headquarters<br />
troop observer/coach trainer at the Joint Readiness Training<br />
Center, and cavalry troop commander in the 101st Airborne Division.<br />
He has served combat tours in Iraq, Afghanistan and<br />
Africa. First Lt. Brock J. Young is the full-time operations officer<br />
for the 185th Military Police Battalion, California <strong>Army</strong> National<br />
Guard. His previous assignments include military police<br />
platoon leader and aide-de-camp, and he was an NCO prior to<br />
becoming an officer. He served a combat tour in Iraq and peacekeeping<br />
deployments in Kosovo and Bosnia, and was assistant officer<br />
in charge of a detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.<br />
Uncovering Toxic Leadership<br />
Considering our challenges with counseling, what should we<br />
think about senior rater counseling, something that happens<br />
even less frequently? Though there is no regulatory requirement<br />
to conduct senior rater counseling, it does have benefits.<br />
The most obvious one is the greater breadth of experience that<br />
a senior rater can share, but another potential benefit is uncovering<br />
and addressing toxic leadership.<br />
For example, let’s say a company commander (rater) regularly<br />
counseled his or her platoon leaders (rated officers) to review<br />
their performance and potential. One platoon leader consistently<br />
performed above and beyond the commander’s expectations,<br />
so the commander rated this platoon leader as “most<br />
qualified.” However, the company commander did not have an<br />
accurate understanding of the platoon’s command climate, so<br />
this evaluation was based primarily on results. Unfortunately,<br />
and unknown to the commander, this platoon leader achieved<br />
these results at the expense of his or her soldiers, creating an oppressive<br />
and toxic command climate within the platoon.<br />
How would this scenario change if the commander conducted<br />
senior rater counseling with the platoon sergeant? If that same<br />
company commander regularly conducted senior rater counseling<br />
with his or her platoon sergeants, this might have revealed<br />
the command climate issues. More importantly, if these issues<br />
are discovered early in the leader’s career and/or rated period, the<br />
chain of command can coach corrections to assist subordinates in<br />
learning and experimenting with leadership styles. The same<br />
concept applies at all levels of command with the realization that<br />
the earlier these potential issues are identified, the better.<br />
Preventing and combating toxic leadership is a significant<br />
and complex challenge, similar to and related to the challenges<br />
of counseling and building trust. Senior rater counseling alone<br />
will not solve the problem of toxic leadership, but it is a benefit<br />
that leaders might not have considered previously. ✭<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Staff Sgt. Mark Burrell<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 55
The Outpost<br />
Despite Theatrics, Safwan Didn’t Settle Much<br />
By Lt. Gen. Daniel P. Bolger, U.S. <strong>Army</strong> retired<br />
We often hear that wars don’t end the way they once did.<br />
Just as our enemies today prefer to wear civilian clothes,<br />
hide among restless villagers and resort to ambushes and<br />
booby traps, so it has become hard—some say impossible—to<br />
find a hostile leader willing to come in and sign a quit slip. We<br />
can kill some; we can capture others. But we can’t seem to get<br />
the rest to stop. President Barack Obama summarized it well<br />
in a May 23, 2013, speech at Fort McNair in Washington,<br />
D.C., when he said, “Our victory against terrorism won’t be<br />
measured in a surrender ceremony on a battleship.” His predecessor<br />
had said much the same thing.<br />
Yet within the experience of men and women still in uniform,<br />
there has been just the kind of event that our current<br />
strategic leaders see as so unlikely. A quarter-century ago, an<br />
American-led coalition confronted and smashed a hostile armed<br />
force of a half-million men. It seemed to wrap up nice and neat,<br />
in the traditional way. But even when we got some of our enemies<br />
to admit they were beaten, we missed the bigger picture.<br />
An old-school formal surrender was part of our style of warfare,<br />
not theirs. They knew it. We found out the hard way in the<br />
wake of our smashing victory in Operation Desert Storm.<br />
When the cease-fire came on Feb. 28, 1991, after just 42 days<br />
of conflict in Kuwait and Iraq, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf<br />
Jr., commander in chief of U.S. Central Command,<br />
moved immediately to meet with the enemy commander. He<br />
chose a site near Safwan, Iraq, a crossroads just north of the<br />
Kuwaiti border. In truth, Schwarzkopf’s counterpart was Iraqi<br />
supreme leader Saddam Hussein himself. Like his idol Adolf<br />
Hitler did in the Nazi German Wolfschanze (Wolf’s Lair)<br />
bunker in mid-1944, sticking pins in the map and issuing detailed<br />
orders to individual battalions as Allied forces closed the<br />
ring, Saddam ran the whole show. In what he grandiosely labeled<br />
“the mother of all battles,” Saddam alone directed the<br />
movements of Iraqi units great and small. He owned this disaster.<br />
In a just world, he would have answered for it.<br />
Yet as an ultimate survivor, Saddam did not trust Schwarzkopf’s<br />
flag of truce. The Iraqi dictator did not wish to risk<br />
getting snagged in Safwan, clapped into handcuffs, zipped into<br />
an orange jumpsuit and follow the likes of former Panamanian<br />
strongman Manuel Noriega into the docket of a U.S. courtroom.<br />
Already beset with rebellions in the Kurdish north and Shiite<br />
Arab south, the Iraqi president squatted safely in his Baghdad<br />
enclave. He dispatched two senior representatives: Lt.<br />
Gen. Sultan Hashim Ahmad, deputy chief of the general staff,<br />
and Lt. Gen. Salah Abud Mahmud, commander of III<br />
Corps—or what remained of it. It wasn’t quite the Japanese<br />
motoring out to the battleship USS Missouri to meet Gen.<br />
Douglas MacArthur on Sept. 2, 1945, but it would do.<br />
At half past 11 on the morning of March 3, the two Iraqis<br />
arrived to meet Schwarzkopf and Lt. Gen. Khalid bin Sultan,<br />
the Saudi Arabian co-commander. American soldiers of the<br />
1st Infantry Division, the famous “Big Red One,” escorted the<br />
Iraqis. The cowed opponents walked past lines of U.S. tanks<br />
and tracked infantry carriers. Ranks of hard-eyed GIs fronted<br />
the slab-sided armored vehicles. Apache attack helicopters<br />
clattered overhead. To the wary Americans, the Iraqi generals<br />
looked small, old and nervous.<br />
The Iraqis walked into the designated meeting tent and sat<br />
where they were directed. Behind the Iraqi generals, a few of<br />
their subordinate staff officers, notebooks in hand, crowded<br />
into folding chairs. Schwarzkopf and Khalid entered and took<br />
their seats. They also had their people arrayed behind them.<br />
After some photographs for posterity, the big American<br />
spoke first. It was 11:34 a.m. “The purpose of this meeting,”<br />
Schwarzkopf said, “is to discuss and resolve conditions that we<br />
feel are necessary to ensure that we continue the suspension of<br />
offensive operations on the part of the coalition.” The agenda<br />
adhered to military matters. Someday, Schwarzkopf assumed,<br />
the diplomats would hammer out a true peace treaty or a pact<br />
or a convention, or whatever. It never happened.<br />
“We are authorized,” Ahmad replied, “to make this meeting<br />
a successful one in an atmosphere of cooperation.” He spoke<br />
deliberately, careful to make eye contact.<br />
Schwarzkopf nodded and pressed on. He talked about the<br />
cease-fire boundary, referring to a map. The Iraqis leaned forward<br />
as the American confirmed their fears. The coalition<br />
held the southern fifth of Iraq. Schwarzkopf made it clear that<br />
the U.S. had no permanent territorial designs as long as the<br />
Iraqis met their obligations regarding withdrawal of the surviving<br />
Iraqi forces, return of prisoners, transfer of the dead,<br />
and marking of minefields. “But until that time, we intend to<br />
remain where we are,” he said.<br />
Discussion continued for a while on details of unit positions<br />
and movements, then broadened into the other agenda items as<br />
Schwarzkopf went down the list. Those present remembered<br />
that the U.S. general did almost all of the talking. The Iraqis<br />
listened. Subordinates took notes. The tent heated up. The air<br />
grew stuffy. Finally, Schwarzkopf completed his points.<br />
Ahmad spoke up. He pressed on the prisoners. How many?<br />
“We have, as of last night, 60,000,” Schwarzkopf replied,<br />
“60,000-plus.” Ahmad looked stunned.<br />
His comrade Mahmud, who had watched his units get<br />
pounded by U.S. Air Force and Navy jets and shredded by<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong> and Marine battalions, offered: “It’s possible. I<br />
don’t know.”<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 57
Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr., commander<br />
in chief of U.S. Central Command, left, and<br />
Saudi Arabian co-commander Lt. Gen. Khalid<br />
bin Sultan discuss cease-fire conditions with<br />
Iraqi generals at Safwan, Iraq.<br />
An awkward silence ensued. Schwarzkopf<br />
broke it, trying to wrap up. “Are<br />
there any other matters the general<br />
would like to discuss?”<br />
Ahmad did. “We have a point, one<br />
point.”<br />
Schwarzkopf waited.<br />
“You might very well know,” Ahmad<br />
continued, “the situation of our roads<br />
and bridges and communications.”<br />
Schwarzkopf definitely knew. On his<br />
orders, coalition airmen had severed<br />
most of those links.<br />
Ahmad went on. “We would like<br />
to agree,” he offered, “that helicopter<br />
flights sometimes are needed to carry<br />
officials from one place to the other because the roads and<br />
bridges are out.” That seemed reasonable, but it was anything<br />
but an idle request.<br />
Thus far, the Safwan conference had been all about sticking<br />
it to the Iraqis in a most public way. It featured Vietnam<br />
veteran Schwarzkopf making sure that this time, war ended<br />
in the old style, with the beaten foe hangdog and helpless at<br />
the mercy of the victor. Americans had suffered through the<br />
humiliation of North Korean and Chinese propaganda ploys<br />
at the truce talks in Panmunjom, Korea, in 1951–53; and the<br />
North Vietnamese bluster and circumlocutions in Paris from<br />
1968–1973. In those endless meetings, working from battlefield<br />
parity or worse, the Americans got bamboozled and<br />
hoodwinked over and over, strung along, embarrassed, and<br />
played for fools and suckers by the much more savvy enemy<br />
negotiators who followed a simple formula: What was theirs<br />
was theirs, but what was the U.S.’s was negotiable. Well, in<br />
Desert Storm, the U.S. had crushed Iraq. This time, nobody<br />
would play Schwarzkopf for a fool or sucker. Or would they?<br />
The Iraqis were placing markers for a much longer game.<br />
They saw an opening. Ahmad and Mahmud, well-briefed in<br />
Baghdad, figured on a bit of magnanimity from Schwarzkopf<br />
as long as they asked for only one thing. After all, in the<br />
iconic surrender at Appomattox, Va., on April 9, 1865, hadn’t<br />
Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant allowed Confederate Gen.<br />
Robert E. Lee to let his men keep their horses for the spring<br />
Lt. Gen. Daniel P. Bolger, USA Ret., was the commander of Combined<br />
Security Transition Command-Afghanistan and NATO<br />
Training Mission-Afghanistan. Previously, he served as the<br />
deputy chief of staff, G-3/5/7, and as the commanding general,<br />
1st Cavalry Division/commanding general, Multinational Division-Baghdad,<br />
Operation Iraqi Freedom. He holds a doctorate<br />
in Russian history from the University of Chicago and has published<br />
a number of books on military subjects. He is a senior fellow<br />
of the AUSA Institute of Land Warfare.<br />
plowing? The Iraqis wanted to keep their modern horses, the<br />
helicopters. But they wouldn’t be used for agriculture.<br />
Schwarzkopf walked right into the snare. “As long as the<br />
flights are not over the part we are in, that is absolutely no<br />
problem.” Ahmad pushed a bit: “So you mean even armed helicopters<br />
can fly in Iraqi skies?” Schwarzkopf agreed. “You have<br />
my word,” he said. That settled it.<br />
As the meeting concluded, Ahmad saluted and offered his<br />
open palm. Schwarzkopf returned the salute and shook the<br />
Iraqi general’s hand. “As an Arab,” Ahmad said, “I hold no<br />
hate in my heart.”<br />
He did hold those helicopters, though. The Americans were<br />
leaving. The Iraqis weren’t going anywhere. Soon enough, as<br />
the U.S. and coalition forces backed out, Iraqi heliborne<br />
troops went in hard against Shiite rebels in the south and Kurdish<br />
militias in the north. Within a few days, the U.S. and its<br />
allies, notably the neighboring Turks, imposed a no-fly zone<br />
up north to protect the Kurds. The Kurds became grateful<br />
American friends from 1991 until the present.<br />
It took until well into 1992 for a similar, and less effective,<br />
aerial screen to go up over the Shiite south. By that time, the<br />
Iraqi Shia communities had lost tens of thousands, and the<br />
survivors resented and distrusted the Americans as quick to<br />
encourage revolt but way too late to help.<br />
Their fellow Shiites next door in Iran proved much more<br />
sympathetic. That unhappy relationship also persists. A lot of<br />
bad things flowed from one concession by an American general.<br />
More trouble followed. Because he had weathered Desert<br />
Storm and the rebellions that followed, Saddam proclaimed<br />
himself the victor of the 1990–91 war. When the 1992 U.S.<br />
election saw President George H.W. Bush turned out of office,<br />
wags snorted. “Saddam still has his job. How about you?”<br />
Twelve years of shadowboxing, threats, “incidents,” air patrols<br />
and airstrikes followed. Iraq remained unfinished business.<br />
Despite the theatrics, the armistice meeting at Safwan<br />
hadn’t really settled all that much. There would be another<br />
round. It would not end well for either side. ✭<br />
DoD<br />
58 ARMY ■ March 2016
Soldier Armed<br />
Assault Breacher Vehicle By Scott R. Gourley, Contributing Writer<br />
Some say that it looks like something out of a James Bond<br />
movie. Others tie its appearance to Mad Max. Regardless<br />
of first impressions, the Assault Breacher Vehicle provides U.S.<br />
<strong>Army</strong> warfighters with an exceptional capability to conduct<br />
mounted breaching of minefields and other combat obstacles.<br />
First, what it’s not: The Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV) is<br />
not the <strong>Army</strong> Grizzly Breaching Vehicle. The Grizzly requirement<br />
had emerged, in part, from lessons learned during<br />
the First Gulf War. There were similarities. For example,<br />
based on an M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank chassis, the Grizzly<br />
would have integrated multiple subsystems to provide instride—or<br />
maneuvering on the move—underarmor breaching<br />
capability for heavy divisions. At one time, the <strong>Army</strong> envisioned<br />
buying up to 900 Grizzly vehicles, with the first unit to<br />
be equipped in fiscal year 2004. However, that program was<br />
canceled in 2001.<br />
Not a Grizzly Replacement<br />
“I certainly wouldn’t call the Assault Breacher Vehicle the replacement”<br />
for the Grizzly program, said Lt. Col. Jeff Biggans,<br />
<strong>Army</strong> product manager for bridging. “But it’s definitely<br />
the affordable and economic version.” Biggans said the ABV<br />
“doesn’t do everything that Grizzly was supposed to do. But<br />
in some cases, it does even more.”<br />
According to Eric Noyes, program integrator for assault<br />
bridging in the product management office, the ABV system<br />
consists of an M1A1 tank hull with a unique turret that is fabricated<br />
at Anniston <strong>Army</strong> Depot, Ala. That basic chassis is then<br />
equipped with interchangeable front-end equipment, including<br />
a full-width mine plow and combat dozer<br />
blade, an integrated vision system with<br />
day/night cameras and a 360-degree field<br />
of view, a lane-marking system, and two<br />
mine-clearing line charge (MCLIC) linear<br />
demolition systems atop the turret.<br />
“This really allows the combat engineers<br />
to keep up with their maneuver<br />
brothers and sisters,” Biggans said. He<br />
added that typically, combat engineers<br />
had M113s, or armored personnel carriers,<br />
towing a trailer with an MCLIC on<br />
it. The MCLIC’s reliability “wasn’t all<br />
that great,” he said, “and the maneuverability<br />
of the M113 trying to keep up<br />
with its Abrams and Bradley partners was not that easy to do.<br />
But now, this piece of equipment allows them to be at the<br />
leading edge of the breaches and assaults.”<br />
Two rocket-launched, 1,700-pound plastic explosive line<br />
charges on the rear of the hull are examples of a capability that<br />
was not part of the Grizzly concept.<br />
Today’s ABV design emerged from a 2002 Marine Corps<br />
requirement to provide in-stride breaching for the Marine<br />
Air-Ground Task Force, the basic organizational concept of<br />
the Marine Corps. The M1A1 base hull was selected because<br />
the Marines wanted something common with their tank fleet.<br />
“Then the <strong>Army</strong> saw it,” Noyes said, and in 2006 formally<br />
adopted it as a requirement.<br />
The program characterizes “the goodness of government,”<br />
Biggans said. It highlights cooperation not only with the Marine<br />
Corps but also with Anniston <strong>Army</strong> Depot, which manufactures<br />
the vehicles, and the depot’s “capability development<br />
colleagues” at the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Engineer School at Fort<br />
Leonard Wood, Mo.<br />
Industry participation includes the government-furnished<br />
equipment that is purchased by the product management office<br />
and then delivered to Anniston <strong>Army</strong> Depot for integration.<br />
For example, Pearson Engineering LLC provides the<br />
mine plow, dozer blade and obstacle marking system used on<br />
the ABV.<br />
But if you’re looking for a manufacturer of the ABV, that<br />
would be Anniston <strong>Army</strong> Depot. The depot’s range of capabilities<br />
become quickly apparent—not only to the <strong>Army</strong>, but<br />
also to the Marine Corps.<br />
Three ‘arms’ with ski surfaces attached to the<br />
front of an Assault Breacher Vehicle provide<br />
depth control.<br />
Scott R. Gourley<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 59
Scott R. Gourley<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Spc. Erik Anderson<br />
Above: An Assault Breacher Vehicle clears a path for assault forces training at Fort<br />
Benning, Ga.; left: a newly manufactured ABV turret at Anniston <strong>Army</strong> Depot, Ala.<br />
According to Joey Edwards, ABV program manager at Anniston,<br />
the Marine Corps contacted the depot in 2002 “to newly<br />
manufacture turrets and convert M1A1 chassis into a prototype—which<br />
was the breacher vehicle as it’s known today.”<br />
Anniston started with technical drawing packages for<br />
unique components and in fiscal year 2006 manufactured five<br />
prototypes for Marine Corps testing. Successful testing led to<br />
full-rate production of 52 ABVs for that service. The last of<br />
those vehicles came off the Anniston production line in February<br />
2012. Meanwhile, <strong>Army</strong> ABV production began in FY<br />
2009 for a total of 111 vehicles.<br />
“Basically, we’ve been manufacturing 12 to 15 of the <strong>Army</strong><br />
vehicles each year,” Edwards said, adding that as of December,<br />
104 had been delivered.<br />
According to Edwards, vehicles initially arrive at Anniston<br />
<strong>Army</strong> Depot’s Combat Disassembly and Overhaul Facility as<br />
an M1A1 Abrams chassis. Workers “overhaul all legacy components<br />
and then do ABV-unique conversion and modification<br />
to the hull,” he said.<br />
As part of the process, the original M1A1 turret is eliminated,<br />
and a new ABV turret is manufactured in-house.<br />
“It’s not a gun-type turret,” Edwards said. “It’s basically a<br />
command-type, central location turret with a mine-clearing<br />
line charge on the back. So they launch the MCLIC from inside<br />
the turret.”<br />
Asked how the <strong>Army</strong> and Marine Corps vehicles differ,<br />
Edwards pointed to the services’ different communications<br />
system and the Marines’ decision to install a stabilized commander’s<br />
weapon station not found on the <strong>Army</strong>’s version.<br />
Warfighter ‘Pit Crew’<br />
“Anniston <strong>Army</strong> Depot is tremendously proud to be known<br />
as the original equipment manufacturer for the ABV,” said<br />
Col. Martine Kidd, commander of Anniston <strong>Army</strong> Depot.<br />
“We know the important capability this vehicle provides to<br />
our ground forces and are focused on ensuring sustainable<br />
readiness for our <strong>Army</strong>—not only this platform, but for all of<br />
the combat vehicles we repair. All of our employees are honored<br />
to serve and to be known as the pit crew of the American<br />
warfighter.”<br />
When fielded, three ABVs are delivered to each of the two<br />
combat engineer companies of an armored brigade combat<br />
team’s brigade engineer battalion.<br />
To see what might be of further interest to the <strong>Army</strong>, the<br />
<strong>Army</strong> product office is monitoring some Marine Corps ideas<br />
and is also working with the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Engineer School.<br />
“We work closely with the M1 Abrams product office team<br />
as well,” Biggans said. “And as they are doing their engineering<br />
change proposals to modernize and upgrade their platforms,<br />
we keep pace as appropriate for this M1A1-based platform.”<br />
He also said there is significant “partner-nation interest” in<br />
the ABV that could lead to international sales.<br />
Biggans highlighted unique aspects of system employment<br />
by the combat engineers, including the tactical, operational<br />
and maintenance challenges of operating the system with a<br />
crew of only two soldiers, instead of three or four, on a tank.<br />
To address these challenges, the engineer school has created<br />
a new program of instruction to train operators on the Assault<br />
Breacher Vehicle, M9 Armored Combat Earthmover and Armored<br />
Vehicle Launch Bridge. Successful course completion<br />
results in the additional skill identifier B6.<br />
Noyes said an additional capability of the engineer school<br />
“involves six ABV simulators. They are based on the common<br />
driver trainer platform, and the simulators are ostensibly for<br />
training drivers.”<br />
“But it’s the driver who operates the plow and dozer blade,”<br />
he said. “And then the vehicle commander can participate<br />
from desktop. And they can link the simulators together,<br />
which is a big benefit for training ABV crews.” ✭<br />
60 ARMY ■ March 2016
Historically Speaking<br />
250 Years Later, Declaratory Act Still Relevant<br />
By Brig. Gen. John S. Brown, U.S. <strong>Army</strong> retired<br />
March 18 marks the 250th anniversary of “An Act for the<br />
better securing the Dependency of His Majesty’s Dominions<br />
in America upon the Crown and Parliament of Great<br />
Britain.” This is also known as the American Colonies Act of<br />
1766, but it is best known as the Declaratory Act. Whichever<br />
title is chosen, the act and American reaction to it proved an<br />
important waypoint in our evolution as a nation.<br />
Within a decade, we ceased to think of ourselves as a discrete<br />
number of colonies each separately connected to the<br />
mother country, and instead thought of ourselves as a common<br />
people with a shared destiny. This turn of mind may<br />
have come within a relatively brief span of time, but the approach<br />
march to it had taken generations—as did bringing its<br />
consequences to fruition. Mindfulness of this episode in our<br />
own past may make us a bit more wary if trying to quickly<br />
conjure up robust national identities in others.<br />
In 1763, Great Britain emerged triumphant in the French<br />
and Indian War, the North American component of the<br />
globe-straddling Seven Years’ War (1754–63). The Peace of<br />
Paris evicted France from North America and Spain from<br />
Florida. British possession extended from the Atlantic Ocean<br />
to the Mississippi River in what is now the U.S., and to the<br />
Rocky Mountains in what is now Canada. Frontier security<br />
was disturbed by Pontiac’s Rebellion, also in 1763, but for the<br />
vast majority of English colonists, the existential threat posed<br />
by France or Spain had disappeared. For generations, the<br />
colonists had been utterly dependent upon Great Britain to<br />
secure them from being crushed as the tectonic plates of empires<br />
ground against each other. Now there was only one<br />
plate, and it was British.<br />
It was true that Pontiac and other hostile American Indians<br />
continued to pose risks to Western settlers on the frontier, but<br />
the colonists were equivocal as to the extent and nature of the<br />
British military assistance they still desired. Absent French or<br />
Spanish collusion and support, the tribes were far less of a<br />
threat than they had been before. Ever-increasing numbers of<br />
well-armed settlers would prove more than a match for them.<br />
Prompted by British colonial officials, King George III issued<br />
a proclamation forbidding colonial settlement beyond the<br />
crest of the Appalachian Mountains. The idea was to keep the<br />
settlers and the Indians out of each other’s way, and to protect<br />
the fur trade. British troops stationed beyond the Appalachians<br />
would, of course, be expected to enforce the edict. This<br />
did not sit well with the rising tide of settlers aspiring to carve<br />
homesteads out of what they perceived as wilderness.<br />
Wherever the British troops were stationed, someone would<br />
have to pay for them. British Prime Minister George<br />
Grenville and Parliament made the reasonable assumption<br />
that the colonists should contribute to their own defense. The<br />
need to raise money was rendered particularly acute by the expenses<br />
of the Seven Years’ War, which had doubled the national<br />
debt. The Sugar Act of 1764 imposed new duties on<br />
colonial imports of sugar, indigo, coffee, pimento, wine and<br />
textiles. The Currency Act of 1764 prohibited the colonies<br />
from using their paper money<br />
as legal tender. The Stamp Act<br />
of 1765 taxed legal documents,<br />
newspapers, almanacs, playing<br />
cards and dice. The Quartering<br />
Act of 1765 stipulated that<br />
colonies in which British troops<br />
were quartered had to provide<br />
them with quarters; candles;<br />
vinegar; salt; bedding; and beer,<br />
cider or rum. Given the taxes<br />
that already existed in Great<br />
Britain at the time, none of<br />
these was regarded by Parliament<br />
as particularly onerous.<br />
Library of Congress<br />
A wood engraving depicts colonists<br />
in Boston protesting the Britishimposed<br />
Stamp Act of 1765.<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 61
Library of Congress<br />
This 1767 etching emphasizes America’s poverty as a result of the Stamp Act.<br />
Beyond not wanting new taxes—few do—the colonists<br />
were particularly upset by several aspects of Grenville’s program.<br />
They had not been allowed to participate in the process<br />
whereby the taxes were derived. This was “taxation without<br />
representation.” Infractions of the Sugar and Stamp Acts were<br />
to be tried in British admiralty courts. These featured royally<br />
appointed judges and no juries.<br />
A representative government and trial by jury were concepts<br />
highly prized by the colonists. They considered them among<br />
their rights as Englishmen. Established with local legislatures<br />
in an era of loose, ramshackle and permissive royal governance,<br />
the colonists now faced centrist parliamentary governance<br />
determined to assert itself. As Parliament became more<br />
organized and effective, the colonists became more estranged.<br />
The term “Americans,” curiously derived from the contributions<br />
of Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci, was used to<br />
describe American Indians alone for over a century. Its first<br />
recorded use in English to describe European settlers, “English-Americans,”<br />
was in 1648.<br />
Over the 18th century, the term compressed to Americans,<br />
and was increasingly used to describe British colonists and their<br />
descendants. This usage was hardly universal, however. As late<br />
as the Albany Congress in 1754, Americans identified far more<br />
strongly with their individual colonies than with each other.<br />
Collective sentiment was minimal. Outrage over Grenville’s<br />
taxation plans changed that.<br />
A transcolonial Stamp Act Congress met in New York in<br />
October 1765. It declared “all due subordination” to Parliament,<br />
but avowed that this did not include taxation without<br />
representation or trial without jury. Many colonists avoided<br />
Brig. Gen. John S. Brown, USA Ret., was chief of military history<br />
at the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Center of Military History from December<br />
1998 to October 2005. He commanded the 2nd Battalion, 66th<br />
Armor, in Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf War and returned<br />
to Kuwait as commander of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division,<br />
in 1995. Author of Kevlar Legions: The Transformation<br />
of the U.S. <strong>Army</strong>, 1989–2005, he has a doctorate in history from<br />
Indiana University.<br />
business that would have required stamps. Even more boycotted<br />
British goods, as did prominent merchants. Mob violence,<br />
much of it under the auspices of the self-appointed Sons<br />
of Liberty, broke out to intimidate officials attempting to enforce<br />
the Stamp and Sugar Acts. British troops policed restive<br />
cities rather than colonial frontiers.<br />
Grenville was dismissed. His successor, Charles Watson-<br />
Wentworth, the Second Marquess of Rockingham, listened to<br />
English merchants stung by the economic perturbations and<br />
committed to make peace. The Stamp Act was repealed and<br />
the Sugar Act gutted.<br />
The colonists exulted in the happy results of their collective<br />
efforts and seemed well on the way to reconciliation with the<br />
mother country. However, Parliament did not recognize the<br />
forest as it dealt with individual trees. It accompanied the removal<br />
of the offending legislation with a Declaratory Act stipulating<br />
that it alone had the authority to “make laws and statutes<br />
… to bind the colonies and people of America … in all cases<br />
whatsoever.” It ignored core American concerns with respect to<br />
representation, trial by jury, and the rights of Englishmen, and<br />
instead tinkered with details of what to tax and when. It did not<br />
help that the Declaratory Act was an almost verbatim lift from<br />
the Irish Declaratory Act of 1719, which colonists viewed as<br />
having reduced Ireland to servitude and penury.<br />
Colonial opinion leaders instinctively opposed the Declaratory<br />
Act, but most colonists were content to leave well enough<br />
alone as long as the act remained hypothetical. They had already<br />
acted together to sweep away one assault on their rights<br />
and were emboldened by the success of their collective efforts.<br />
The Declaratory Act became a fuse waiting to be lit. When<br />
Parliament actually acted on the theory that it could tax the<br />
colonists without consulting them and abridge such rights as<br />
jury trial or representative government, the pushback was immediate<br />
and formidable. Confrontation spiraled in the face of<br />
the successive Townshend Acts, Intolerable Acts and Quebec<br />
Act. A decade after the Declaratory Act, the Second Continental<br />
Congress declared an independent United States of<br />
America.<br />
Lessons from the Declaratory Act should remain with us.<br />
From the British perspective, these could include hubris, failure<br />
to appreciate local sentiment, and imperial overreach.<br />
From the American perspective, these could include the long<br />
slog toward a shared national identity, ideological pivot points,<br />
and the significance of shared values to nation-building.<br />
Now we are a mature and powerful nation. We might do well<br />
to remember how the world looked to us when we were not. ✭<br />
Additional Reading<br />
Blum, John M., et al., The National Experience: A<br />
History of the United States (New York: Harcourt Brace<br />
Jovanovich, 1981)<br />
Middlekauff, Robert, The Glorious Cause: The American<br />
Revolution 1763–1789 (Oxford: Oxford University<br />
Press, 2007)<br />
Wood, Gordon S., The American Revolution: A History<br />
(New York: Modern Library, 2003)<br />
62 ARMY ■ March 2016
AUSA Sustaining Member Profile<br />
PRIDE Industries<br />
Corporate Structure—President and CEO: Michael Ziegler.<br />
Headquarters: 10030 Foothills Blvd., Roseville, CA 95747.<br />
Telephone: 800-550-6005. Website: www.prideindustries.com.<br />
PRIDE Industries provides outsourcing solutions that<br />
meet the manufacturing and service needs of Fortune 500<br />
companies and government agencies nationwide while<br />
creating meaningful employment for people with disabilities,<br />
including our nation’s veterans.<br />
Founded in 1966, PRIDE Industries operates in 14 states<br />
and the nation’s capital and employs more than 5,300 people,<br />
including more than 2,900 with disabilities. As a<br />
501(c)(3) nonprofit entity, PRIDE embraces a model of social<br />
enterprise, preparing and placing individuals with disabilities<br />
in employment in its business enterprises<br />
and with community partners.<br />
PRIDE Industries’ full range of services<br />
and capabilities are specifically designed<br />
to support distinct customer needs—<br />
from small businesses and local government<br />
offices to Fortune 50 companies,<br />
large federal agencies, and secure military<br />
installations across the country.<br />
Because client operations are diverse and complex, customized<br />
service offerings span several categories that work<br />
independently or together. Customer expectations are met<br />
with continuous process improvement, a relentless focus<br />
on customer satisfaction, and comprehensive capabilities<br />
that deliver measurable results.<br />
Every project begins by developing an in-depth understanding<br />
of a client’s unique requirements. Service solutions<br />
are designed to match specific needs. Quality systems,<br />
measured results and constant communication ensure that<br />
services remain aligned with mission-critical needs and objectives<br />
in ever-changing landscapes.<br />
PRIDE provides a full line of facilities services to publicand<br />
private-sector customers including federal, state,<br />
county and municipality, college and university, industrial<br />
and aviation. PRIDE provides critical support in both the federal<br />
and commercial arenas for the <strong>Army</strong>, Air Force, Marine<br />
Corps and Navy. An experienced operator in secure installations,<br />
the company’s services include facilities maintenance,<br />
military base operating support services, commercial custodial,<br />
cleanroom, transportation, and a wide variety of specialized<br />
services such as commissary operations, food service,<br />
grounds maintenance, administrative support services<br />
and shipboard provisioning.<br />
Technology drives efficiencies and plays an integral role<br />
in the consistent delivery of services including asset-management<br />
systems with customer visibility, customer-integrated<br />
systems and Web-based monitoring systems. Both<br />
social responsibility and sustainability have a central focus at<br />
PRIDE, which has helped leading companies achieve national<br />
LEED and EPA recognition for environmentally<br />
friendly maintenance and waste-reduction programs.<br />
PRIDE offers comprehensive, ISO-registered contract<br />
manufacturing solutions including contract packaging and<br />
fulfillment, electronics manufacturing and medical device<br />
manufacturing. These service offerings provide full life cycle<br />
supports including global supply chain services together<br />
with forecast and demand planning, inventory management,<br />
logistics and distribution activities. Quality systems<br />
are both ISO 9001 and 13485 certified, ensuring that customer<br />
expectations are consistently met and comply with<br />
regulatory requirements.<br />
PRIDE maintains more than 700,000 square feet of inventoried<br />
warehouse space and processes more than 150,000<br />
parts a month, shipping to over 37 countries. The company’s<br />
award-winning supply chain and fulfillment services<br />
achieved global recognition in 2010 when Hewlett-Packard<br />
Co. named PRIDE Industries its Global<br />
Service Supplier of the Year and led<br />
PRIDE to achieve the 2012 ML100 Manufacturing<br />
Leadership Award for cutting-edge<br />
technology.<br />
PRIDE’s manufacturing expertise is<br />
leveraged companywide. PRIDE brings<br />
technology expertise in Tier 1 Enterprise<br />
Resource Planning system management<br />
to integrate supplier management, inventory control<br />
and accountability, production order processing and<br />
material requirements planning.<br />
PRIDE Industries is also a partner of the AbilityOne Program,<br />
a federal initiative to create employment opportunities<br />
for individuals with significant disabilities through the<br />
federal government’s procurement of goods and services.<br />
Accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation<br />
Facilities, PRIDE provides a wide range of individual<br />
and group service supports that help prepare, place and<br />
ensure long-term success in employment. This support extends<br />
to veterans with disabilities who often face multiple<br />
barriers in transitioning to the civilian workforce. PRIDE’s<br />
proven human service programs assess needs, connect veterans<br />
to resources, and provide the tools required to build<br />
on or transition using existing workplace skills.<br />
A dedicated veteran liaison and program staff work in<br />
unison to recruit candidates, identify needs, and ensure<br />
that each veteran receives appropriate support and placement.<br />
In particular, PRIDE’s contracts on military installations<br />
provide a welcome and familiar environment for veterans<br />
where they can enhance their skills and careers while<br />
still serving their fellow soldiers. PRIDE’s programs and partnerships<br />
with veteran and community organizations help<br />
those who have served find their place in the workforce<br />
with honor, dignity and understanding.<br />
PRIDE’s vision is to be the premier employer of people<br />
with disabilities, the vendor of choice in the markets served,<br />
and a recognized leader in meeting the needs of individuals<br />
with disabilities to overcome barriers to employment. For<br />
almost 50 years, the organization has been committed to<br />
creating opportunities for individuals with disabilities, one<br />
job at a time.<br />
64 ARMY ■ March 2016
Reviews<br />
1862 West Point Class Serves As Case Study<br />
For How the Civil War Divided the Nation<br />
For Brotherhood & Duty: The Civil<br />
War History of the West Point Class<br />
of 1862. Brian R. McEnany. University<br />
Press of Kentucky. An AUSA title. 508<br />
pages. $45.<br />
By Col. Cole C. Kingseed<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong> retired<br />
In recent decades, a number of prominent<br />
authors including John C. Waugh<br />
and Michael Haskew have written excellent<br />
histories of individual West<br />
Point classes. Retired Lt. Col. Brian R.<br />
McEnany, a 1962 graduate of the U.S.<br />
Military Academy, adds his literary talents<br />
to the mix in For Brotherhood &<br />
Duty: The Civil War History of the West<br />
Point Class of 1862. McEnany’s work is<br />
part of the American Warriors Series,<br />
which is designed to promote a deeper<br />
and more comprehensive understanding<br />
of the U.S. armed forces.<br />
Why this particular class? McEnany,<br />
who has written historical articles about<br />
West Point during the Civil War era,<br />
writes that he became interested in the<br />
Class of 1862 while searching for information<br />
about the class that graduated<br />
100 years before his own. After exhaustive<br />
research in the cadet archives in the<br />
West Point Library, McEnany discovered<br />
a group of extraordinary young men<br />
who sparked his interest. One of the<br />
original members of the class, Henry S.<br />
Farley, was a second lieutenant when he<br />
fired the first round at Fort Sumter,<br />
S.C.; classmate Lt. Col. William C.<br />
Bartlett accepted the surrender of the last<br />
Confederate unit in the mountains of<br />
North Carolina. Another, Maj. Gen.<br />
George Gillespie, was a first lieutenant<br />
when he performed the battlefield actions<br />
that led to the award of the Medal<br />
of Honor in 1897, and he helped design<br />
the medal that is awarded today.<br />
Between Abraham Lincoln’s election<br />
to the presidency in November 1860 and<br />
the end of the summer of 1861, the Class<br />
of 1862 saw their superintendent and<br />
commandant change three times and half<br />
their classmates resign. The 28 cadets<br />
who remained witnessed their class motto<br />
embodied in the words “In Causam Communem<br />
Conjuncti”—translated as Joined<br />
in a Common Cause—and were severely<br />
tested in the crucible in combat.<br />
McEnany divides the story of the<br />
Class of 1862 into two parts. The first<br />
section describes life at West Point during<br />
the class’s cadet years; the second<br />
summarizes the actions and exploits of<br />
16 classmates over the course of the<br />
war. In writing the second half, McEnany<br />
concentrates on 12 Union and<br />
four Confederate classmates during various<br />
campaigns. Two key protagonists<br />
are portrayed multiple times. Ranald S.<br />
Mackenzie, the No. 1 graduate of the<br />
Class of 1862, ended the war as a Union<br />
brevet major general of cavalry. James<br />
Dearling resigned in April 1861 to serve<br />
as an artilleryman in the Confederate<br />
army, ending the war as a brigadier general<br />
of cavalry.<br />
McEnany is superb in analyzing the<br />
West Point experience on the eve of<br />
the Civil War. He posits that John<br />
Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, W.Va.,<br />
in October 1859 was the critical event<br />
that “polarized the cadets.” The voices<br />
and views of Southern cadets became<br />
more strident after Brown’s raid, and<br />
cadets frequently settled their political<br />
differences with fists. Emotions then<br />
escalated following Lincoln’s election<br />
and the Confederate bombardment of<br />
Fort Sumter, S.C., in April 1861.<br />
In outlining the class’s participation in<br />
the conflict, McEnany notes that the<br />
West Point class served as junior officers<br />
in both command and staff assignments.<br />
The most distinguished member of the<br />
Class of 1862 was undoubtedly Mackenzie,<br />
whom Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant<br />
touted as “the most promising young officer<br />
in the <strong>Army</strong>.” Wounded six times<br />
during the war and once during later cavalry<br />
campaigns in the Southwest, Mackenzie<br />
“was appointed brigadier general<br />
in the regular <strong>Army</strong> within two years of<br />
graduation and brevetted to major general,<br />
[U.S. Volunteers], in command of a<br />
cavalry division before the war was over.”<br />
To facilitate the reader’s comprehension<br />
of the contributions of the class,<br />
McEnany includes an appendix that<br />
features biographical sketches of each<br />
of the original class members. Not only<br />
does this appendix greatly enhance<br />
McEnany’s text, but it also provides a<br />
complete listing of Civil War assignments<br />
of every classmate. Of particular<br />
interest is Tully McCrea, who graduated<br />
14th and retired as a brigadier general 41<br />
years later. He returned to West Point in<br />
1864 to teach mathematics while recovering<br />
from a serious wound. McEnany<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 65
notes in his preface that McCrea “was a<br />
prodigious letter writer—more than 250<br />
of his letters are held by the Special Collections<br />
and Archives Division at the<br />
West Point Library.” In compiling this<br />
history, McEnany relied extensively on<br />
McCrea’s correspondence.<br />
By the time McCrea departed West<br />
Point for a subsequent assignment in<br />
June 1866, he recorded that “the senior<br />
professors had completed their review of<br />
the war and strongly believed that the institution’s<br />
core principles were validated<br />
by the war.” In a sense, the American<br />
Civil War validated West Point as an institution,<br />
and the Class of 1862 contributed<br />
mightily to that legacy.<br />
McEnany offers his personal assessment<br />
of his class’s centennial alumni.<br />
“On balance, the Class of 1862 was a<br />
gallant bunch—courageous and dedicated<br />
to restoring the Union,” he writes.<br />
“The brotherhood that was born at the<br />
outset of the war truly served their country<br />
well and in a manner that made them<br />
more than worthy of the current motto<br />
of the U.S. Military Academy: ‘Duty,<br />
Honor, Country.’”<br />
Col. Cole C. Kingseed, USA Ret., Ph.D., a<br />
former professor of history at the U.S. Military<br />
Academy, is a writer and consultant.<br />
Tips Offered for Facing Life’s Challenges<br />
Three Points of Contact: 12.5 Ways to<br />
Jumpstart Your Life and Weather<br />
Any Storm. Gregory Q. Cheek. Create-<br />
Space. 269 pages. $14.95.<br />
By Lt. Col. Chad Storlie<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong> retired<br />
Gregory Q. Cheek has an impressive<br />
resume as an author, speaker, college<br />
professor, retired <strong>Army</strong> officer and<br />
DoD employee. It is another resume<br />
item as Stage III cancer survivor that created<br />
his drive and passion to help others.<br />
In Three Points of Contact, he endeavors<br />
to inspire readers to strength, action and<br />
compassion.<br />
The three points of contact in Cheek’s<br />
motivational and self-help book are optimism,<br />
visualization and action. Most<br />
importantly, enthusiasm and a love of<br />
life and learning flavor Three Points of<br />
Contact throughout. This book is more<br />
than a typical self-help book. It is first<br />
and foremost a story of inspiration,<br />
passion and zest of a life well-lived.<br />
Cheek aims to teach others to adopt<br />
the strength that propelled him from a<br />
suffering Stage III cancer patient to a<br />
person with boundless energy and optimism.<br />
The audience for this book is anyone<br />
who is about to undertake a transforming<br />
life or health challenge. Cheek writes<br />
about how he conquered and overcame<br />
his cancer and suffering over a period of<br />
years. If you have never experienced the<br />
fear and gnawing dread of an unknown<br />
and unseen enemy (cancer or another<br />
life-threatening ailment), then Cheek’s<br />
advice could easily be ignored. Anyone<br />
who is going through such a life challenge<br />
will undoubtedly appreciate and<br />
take to Cheek’s advice.<br />
The book’s organization and simplicity<br />
make it a fun, easy and actionable<br />
read. Each of the 13 chapters starts<br />
with a motivational quote from a leading<br />
business person, politician, author<br />
or celebrity. Each chapter contains immediate,<br />
easy to understand and useful<br />
information illustrated with Cheek’s<br />
life experiences. Then, each chapter concludes<br />
with a summary and five key points<br />
for action.<br />
The book’s other strength is its advice<br />
on life’s common challenges. Cheek offers<br />
tips on how to be a better, more<br />
powerful public speaker, including the<br />
importance of rehearsal. I found his advice<br />
on how often to write effective<br />
thank-you notes to be one of Three<br />
Points of Contact’s best pieces of advice.<br />
Finally, Cheek’s love of travel brought<br />
back great memories of when I first<br />
saw the cobblestones of small German<br />
towns, and I really enjoyed his piece on<br />
Budapest, Hungary.<br />
Cheek’s writing style is fast and powerful.<br />
Readers who enjoy authors who<br />
take several pages to develop their concepts<br />
in a slow, methodical and meticulous<br />
manner may not enjoy Cheek’s style<br />
of simplicity, personalization and immediacy.<br />
Additionally, a reader who is not<br />
as well-traveled or worldly as Cheek may<br />
struggle to see the connection to health<br />
and well-being as Cheek rapidly ties disparate<br />
concepts of German language,<br />
yoga, meditation and Eastern philosophies<br />
into a unique worldview focused<br />
on positive thought, health, well-being,<br />
and action directed toward personal happiness.<br />
At heart, Cheek is a teacher who<br />
wants to help others understand that a<br />
major health challenge can be a transformative<br />
opportunity leading to even<br />
greater successes and happiness after the<br />
crisis.<br />
Lt. Col. Chad Storlie, USA Ret., is a retired<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Special Forces officer<br />
with more than 20 years of active and<br />
Reserve service. In addition to teaching,<br />
he is a midlevel marketing executive and<br />
has worked for various companies, including<br />
General Electric, Comcast and<br />
Manugistics. He has a bachelor’s degree<br />
from Northwestern University and a<br />
master’s degree from Georgetown University.<br />
66 ARMY ■ March 2016
Veteran’s Strength Makes for Inspiring Story<br />
Tough as They Come. SSG Travis Mills<br />
with Marcus Brotherton. Convergent<br />
Books. 272 pages. $25.<br />
By Maj. Joe Byerly<br />
Today, we are constantly bombarded<br />
with images of the negative impacts<br />
of war on our veteran community. Television<br />
news stories, magazine articles<br />
and movies all depict a population struggling<br />
to make sense of their experiences.<br />
These snapshots combine to create the<br />
narrative of the veteran who no longer<br />
connects with society. Fortunately, medically<br />
retired Staff Sgt. Travis Mills has<br />
provided readers with a counternarrative,<br />
one of triumph over adversity that<br />
shows that our wounded warriors are<br />
not damaged goods; they can be sources<br />
of inspiration.<br />
Tough as They Come is Mills’ autobiography,<br />
co-authored with Marcus Brotherton.<br />
The book tells the first-person story<br />
of Mills’ remarkable recovery from losing<br />
all four limbs during combat action in<br />
Afghanistan. Mills is one of only five soldiers<br />
who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq<br />
to survive a quadruple amputation.<br />
The narrative is told through Mills’<br />
voice and is complemented by excerpts<br />
from his wife’s diary and statements<br />
from his family and friends. Mills does<br />
an excellent job of setting the stage for<br />
his military service by spending some<br />
time discussing his teenage years. Most<br />
readers in uniform will quickly connect<br />
with Mills because his story is so similar<br />
to many of those who joined the military<br />
following either high school or college.<br />
He did not join the <strong>Army</strong> because that<br />
was the only option available to him; he<br />
joined because he felt something was<br />
missing in his life. “Joining the military<br />
felt like joining a sports team. With the<br />
military came camaraderie. The job itself<br />
took a lot of drive,” he writes.<br />
Many autobiographies from the wars<br />
in Iraq and Afghanistan make the authors<br />
seem like they are 10 feet tall and if<br />
the U.S. would have only followed their<br />
lead, we would have been successful in<br />
both conflicts. It is for this reason that<br />
Tough as They Come will appeal to readers.<br />
Mills shares his highs, his lows, and<br />
even some comedic moments throughout<br />
his deployments. At no time is he<br />
critical of the U.S. role in Afghanistan<br />
and he sticks to the deployments as he<br />
experienced them—at the squad level.<br />
His biography reflects the strength of the<br />
NCO corps and his humility as a leader.<br />
In the portions of the book covering<br />
his injury and subsequent recovery, Mills<br />
does not pull any punches. Readers get a<br />
raw glimpse into the mind of a soldier<br />
who’s coming to grips with the fact that<br />
his way of life is forever altered. He discusses<br />
the dark moments following his<br />
medical evacuation from Afghanistan<br />
Efficiency Guru McNair<br />
Managed <strong>Army</strong> Growth<br />
General Lesley J. McNair: Unsung<br />
Architect of the U.S. <strong>Army</strong>. Mark T.<br />
Calhoun. University Press of Kansas.<br />
429 pages. $39.95.<br />
By Col. Gregory Fontenot<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong> retired<br />
Mark T. Calhoun’s biography of Gen.<br />
Lesley J. McNair is both overdue<br />
and timely. McNair’s contribution is often<br />
misunderstood and maligned. Mc-<br />
when he was too embarrassed to see his<br />
wife, because he felt helpless for the first<br />
time in his life. Some of the more emotional<br />
moments of the book take place in<br />
his hospital room at Walter Reed National<br />
Military Medical Center when he<br />
describes interactions with his parents,<br />
wife and baby daughter. Just as quickly as<br />
the tone of the book goes dark, Mills<br />
emerges with accounts of his inspirational<br />
recovery.<br />
Tough as They Come is the perfect book<br />
for young service members to learn about<br />
leadership in combat, selfless service and<br />
resiliency. For those who have suffered a<br />
major life setback, this book provides an<br />
inspirational story of overcoming the<br />
odds. Finally, for those who have not<br />
served in the military, Mills’ story provides<br />
a counternarrative to the fractured<br />
veteran. Even after he lost his arms and<br />
legs, he continued to serve his country by<br />
helping others.<br />
Maj. Joe Byerly is an armor officer and the<br />
operations officer for the 2nd Squadron, 1st<br />
Cavalry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade<br />
Combat Team. He also has commanded a<br />
cavalry troop and a headquarters company<br />
at Fort Stewart, Ga. He holds a bachelor’s<br />
degree from North Georgia College and<br />
State University and a master’s degree<br />
from the U.S. Naval War College. He frequently<br />
writes about leadership and leader<br />
development on his website, www.From<br />
TheGreenNotebook.com.<br />
Nair had the dubious and fatal distinction<br />
of being one of the few general officers<br />
routinely too far forward when visiting<br />
troops. His determination to see for himself<br />
resulted in wounds in North Africa<br />
and death in Normandy. The youngest<br />
man promoted to brigadier general in<br />
World War I, McNair lagged behind officers<br />
who were effective self-promoters.<br />
He was a brilliant analyst, effective trainer<br />
and critical thinker committed to achieving<br />
efficiency and effectiveness.<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 67
In some ways, McNair resembled<br />
Navy Adm. Joseph Mason Reeves, the<br />
man responsible for conceiving carrier<br />
tactics, in operating outside and above<br />
service politics. He, too, was comparatively<br />
taciturn. And, like Reeves, McNair<br />
left little in the way of personal records.<br />
Calhoun’s effort to illuminate McNair’s<br />
thinking and how he affected the <strong>Army</strong><br />
suffers as a consequence.<br />
Calhoun became an associate professor<br />
at the U.S. <strong>Army</strong> School of Advanced<br />
Military Studies after a 20-year<br />
career as an <strong>Army</strong> aviator and operational<br />
planner. Despite the lack of direct<br />
sources, he delivers a workmanlike<br />
account. This is a good narrative,<br />
though primarily focused on McNair’s<br />
work during World War II. McNair’s<br />
convictions about organization, along<br />
with training and equipping the <strong>Army</strong><br />
during the war, deserve deeper consideration.<br />
As commander of <strong>Army</strong> Ground<br />
Forces, McNair managed astounding<br />
growth of the force with far fewer resources<br />
than his counterparts in the<br />
<strong>Army</strong> Air Forces and Services of Supply<br />
demanded.<br />
McNair’s career warrants review today<br />
because many of the same institutional<br />
hurdles to organizing and equipping<br />
effectively remain. Low manning<br />
levels, branch parochialism, and muddled<br />
lines of responsibility challenged<br />
McNair during the transition from the<br />
interwar period and can be seen at work<br />
today. When mobilization began, Mc-<br />
Nair served as chief of staff of the <strong>Army</strong><br />
General Headquarters (GHQ). Organized<br />
to “oversee the organization, training<br />
and equipping of all mobilizing field<br />
forces with the continental United<br />
States,” then-<strong>Army</strong> Chief of Staff Gen.<br />
George C. Marshall Jr. initially commanded<br />
the GHQ.<br />
According to Calhoun and the official<br />
history, Marshall intended for McNair to<br />
command. The War Department General<br />
Staff effectively precluded him from<br />
having the authority to do as Marshall<br />
asked. The staff worked vigorously to<br />
weaken GHQ and ultimately get rid of it.<br />
What is remarkable is how much Mc-<br />
Nair managed without the requisite authority<br />
to do what Marshall imagined.<br />
McNair’s experience raises a question for<br />
today. Does the <strong>Army</strong> achieve synergy<br />
among the staff, U.S. <strong>Army</strong> Training<br />
and Doctrine Command and U.S. <strong>Army</strong><br />
Forces Command, or do unnecessary<br />
friction, redundancy and bureaucratic infighting<br />
remain?<br />
In 1942, the <strong>Army</strong> eliminated the<br />
GHQ in favor of three functional commands,<br />
including the <strong>Army</strong> Ground<br />
Forces. As commander of <strong>Army</strong> Ground<br />
Forces, McNair organized, equipped<br />
and trained the field <strong>Army</strong>. Calhoun argues<br />
convincingly that McNair developed<br />
insight and the approach to the<br />
task in the long years between the wars.<br />
McNair’s work first in testing new artillery<br />
weapons, examining structure as<br />
part of a study redesigning the division in<br />
the late 1930s, and commandant at Fort<br />
Leavenworth, Kan., equipped him for the<br />
task he confronted during the war.<br />
McNair succeeded brilliantly, not in<br />
producing the very best organization or<br />
fielding the best weapons, but in getting<br />
the job done as effectively and efficiently<br />
as the scale of the problem permitted. At<br />
one point during the war, McNair expanded<br />
the <strong>Army</strong> threefold with a staff<br />
that was a fraction of the size of the current<br />
<strong>Army</strong> G-3—and without the “benefit”<br />
of PowerPoint.<br />
This book is a must-read for those<br />
seeking context to contemporary problems<br />
in force structure. Calhoun effectively<br />
describes the man at the center of<br />
much of the history central to how the<br />
<strong>Army</strong> organizes to this day.<br />
Col. Gregory Fontenot, USA Ret., commanded<br />
a tank battalion in Operation<br />
Desert Storm and an armor brigade in<br />
Bosnia. A former director of the School of<br />
Advanced Military Studies and the<br />
University of Foreign Military and<br />
Cultural Studies, he is co-author of On<br />
Point: The United States <strong>Army</strong> in<br />
Operation Iraqi Freedom.<br />
Advisor Was National Security<br />
Fixer, White House Strategist<br />
The Strategist: Brent Scowcroft and<br />
the Call of National Security. Bartholomew<br />
Sparrow. PublicAffairs. 752<br />
pages. $37.50.<br />
By Lt. Col. Todd J. Johnson<br />
The national security advisor is arguably<br />
one of the most important appointments<br />
in any presidential administration.<br />
The NSA, officially known as<br />
assistant to the president for national security<br />
affairs, is not subject to Senate<br />
confirmation and is a vital member of<br />
the National Security Council, responsible<br />
for controlling the flow of debate on<br />
security issues while simultaneously serving<br />
as a highly influential adviser to the<br />
president. Since the position was created<br />
in 1953, only 24 men and women have<br />
served in this critical staff billet.<br />
During that time frame, only one person<br />
has served two presidents as the<br />
NSA, and he is widely considered by<br />
many national security professionals—<br />
both Democratic and Republican—to<br />
be one of the most successful practitioners<br />
in the history of the United States.<br />
He is retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Brent<br />
Scowcroft.<br />
Bartholomew Sparrow, a government<br />
professor at the University of Texas, has<br />
produced The Strategist: Brent Scowcroft<br />
and the Call of National Security. This en-<br />
March 2016 ■ ARMY 69
gaging and well-documented tome—<br />
with over 100 pages of footnotes encompassing<br />
primary and secondary sources as<br />
well as scores of oral interviews—is about<br />
a man who has been at the epicenter of<br />
some of the most critical U.S. national<br />
security decisions over the last 50 years.<br />
Sparrow’s ambitious endeavor is successful<br />
because it sheds light not only on<br />
Scowcroft as a transformative figure in<br />
the policy arena but also on the events<br />
and institutions that made up this environment.<br />
Written in chronological order, the<br />
early portion of the book chronicles<br />
the exploits of Scowcroft as a young<br />
man in Utah, his time as a cadet at West<br />
Point, and his early career as an airman<br />
in the <strong>Army</strong> Air Corps.<br />
A seminal event during this time frame<br />
was Scowcroft’s admission to graduate<br />
school at Columbia University and his<br />
subsequent tour as a professor at West<br />
Point. Exposed to a “sophisticated realm<br />
of ideas and a larger intellectual universe,”<br />
including classes on the realist<br />
school of international affairs, Scowcroft<br />
blossomed as a student. He forged relationships<br />
with many prominent members<br />
of the faculty before graduating<br />
with a master’s degree in economics, but<br />
his time in school really served as the<br />
catalyst for his subsequent career as a<br />
foreign and military policymaking professional.<br />
Assignments in Yugoslavia and at the<br />
U.S. Air Force Academy and the Pentagon<br />
enabled Scowcroft to put into action<br />
what he learned and taught at school.<br />
The Pentagon posting was especially<br />
valuable because he learned how to be an<br />
effective staff officer and also learned the<br />
intricacies of working in a bureaucracy,<br />
lessons he was able to apply later on in<br />
his career.<br />
The book then shifts to Scowcroft’s<br />
early years in the White House, where he<br />
served in multiple administrations. He<br />
started as military assistant to President<br />
Richard Nixon in 1972; a year later, he<br />
became deputy assistant for national security<br />
affairs under Henry Kissinger; and<br />
in 1975 was named the NSA for President<br />
Gerald Ford. Scowcroft retired from<br />
the Air Force in December of that year.<br />
During this turbulent time in geopolitics,<br />
Scowcroft earned a well-deserved<br />
reputation for being a team player as well<br />
as being one of the hardest workers on<br />
the staff. It’s also when he learned how<br />
to be “a policy implementer and bureaucratic<br />
operator—a ‘fixer’—before he became<br />
a strategist.”<br />
Following Ford’s defeat, Scowcroft focused<br />
his energies on consulting, writing<br />
on national security issues, and serving<br />
on multiple commissions including the<br />
Commission on Strategic Forces in 1983<br />
and the Tower Commission, which examined<br />
the Iran-Contra scandal, in<br />
1986. However, Scowcroft’s contributions<br />
to the nation were not over.<br />
Scowcroft’s four-year stint as the NSA<br />
for President George H.W. Bush is<br />
where Sparrow does his best work. He<br />
captures Scowcroft’s decisionmaking,<br />
leadership, resoluteness, quiet resolve<br />
and attention-to-details approach during<br />
this dynamic period in American foreign<br />
policy, which included the Tiananmen<br />
Square protests, the end of the Cold<br />
War, the reunification of Germany and<br />
the Gulf War.<br />
Sparrow writes that Scowcroft’s “sense<br />
of organizational politics, his willingness<br />
to act as the president’s agent, the control<br />
he exercised” on the National Security<br />
Council process, and “his respect for<br />
the views of others in government had,<br />
in combination, that much more effect<br />
because his actions were infused by his<br />
ability as a strategist.”<br />
Scowcroft’s approach produced many<br />
positive results, but there were other issues<br />
around the globe that flared up, including<br />
the humanitarian crisis in Somalia,<br />
terrorism concerns in Afghanistan,<br />
and the breakup of Yugoslavia.<br />
While Scowcroft addressed these<br />
problems by stating that “the administration<br />
‘didn’t have a comprehensive strategy’<br />
for the world that was developing all<br />
too quickly,” it must be remembered that<br />
the construct for American policy from<br />
1945 up to Bush’s term was viewed<br />
through a Cold War lens. As we have<br />
seen in recent actions in both Iraq and<br />
Afghanistan, it can be a challenge for the<br />
U.S. government to formulate and implement<br />
a grand strategy in a short period<br />
of time.<br />
Sparrow’s volume is a significant contribution<br />
to the national security arena.<br />
However, the addition of detailed maps<br />
covering Europe, the Middle East,<br />
Southeast Asia and Africa would have<br />
enhanced readers’ understanding of the<br />
challenges facing Scowcroft and other<br />
U.S. policymakers during and after the<br />
Cold War period.<br />
Some potential readers may be intimidated<br />
by the breadth of this biography. If<br />
they are willing to put in the time, they<br />
will be rewarded with a comprehensive<br />
understanding of a man who has left an<br />
indelible mark on the national and foreign<br />
security affairs arena.<br />
Lt. Col. Todd J. Johnson is an instructor in<br />
the National Security Affairs Department<br />
at the U.S. Naval War College. His<br />
most recent <strong>Army</strong> assignment was commanding<br />
a battalion in the 25th Infantry<br />
Division, and he served in various<br />
other command and staff positions. A<br />
graduate of Ripon College and the School<br />
of Advanced Military Studies, he has<br />
written for multiple publications and<br />
professional journals.<br />
1-855-246-6269<br />
That’s the toll-free number to call<br />
AUSA national headquarters. The AUSA<br />
Action Line is open 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday<br />
through Thursday, and 8 a.m.–1:30<br />
p.m. Friday, except holidays. If you have<br />
a question about AUSA, give us a call.<br />
70 ARMY ■ March 2016
ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY<br />
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With the AUSA Platinum Visa from First Command Bank,<br />
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For more details visit Members Only Benefits and Services at www.ausa.org<br />
or contact Member Support at membersupport@ausa.org or 855-246-6269 / 703-841-4300
Final Shot<br />
U.S. <strong>Army</strong>/Staff Sgt. Lance Pounds<br />
Maj. Gen. Darryl A. Williams, U.S. <strong>Army</strong><br />
Africa commanding general, gets a<br />
two-year renovation project off to a<br />
smashing start for his command’s<br />
new headquarters in Vicenza, Italy.<br />
72 ARMY ■ March 2016
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