Articles
Harmony and Chaos: Navigating the BSB-DSSB Tug of War
by Tony Grajales Power corresponds to the human ability not just to act but to act in concert. – Hannah Arendt Spartans, Raiders, and the Pyramid In the U.S. Army, sustainment operations are more than support functions; they are a battlefield...
A Cat, a Hat, and the Benefit of Constraints
By Joe Byerly In 1957, Theodor Geisel’s publisher challenged him to create a children’s book with characters, a plot, and all the trappings of a great story using only a first-grade vocabulary list of less than 250 words. He produced The Cat...
From Problem to Prototype: Innovating Dental Care for Large Scale Combat Operations from the Ground Up
By FiSamuel Reggans As the First Sergeant of a Dental Company Area Support (DCAS), I’ve long understood how critical dental readiness is to combat power, and that is no different in Large Scale Combat Operations (LSCO). However, the doctrine and...
Skip Band of Brothers, Watch Andor!
By MAJ Proto and 2LT Phocas It would not be much of an exaggeration to say that nearly every junior officer has seen at least some part of the HBO hit Band of Brothers during their formative professional military education. It might even be safe to...
Advocating for Apathy
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 13: U.S. Army (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images) By Nathan A. Ballinger If everything is important, then nothing is. – Patrick M. Lencioni I’ve spent enough years as a senior noncommissioned...
Lay Your Ego Down (The Lumineers’ Version)
By Joe Byerly I caught The Lumineers in Raleigh this week. During the show, Wes Schultz mentioned that he and his bandmate Jeremiah Fraites have been writing and playing music together for over two decades. If you are a music fan like me, you...
Ep 160- Surviving Separation: Deployments and Relationships with Dr. Galena Rhoades
Dr. Galena Rhoades, coauthor of Fighting For Your Marriage, returns to From the Green Notebook to talk with Joe about the strain that deployments, training, and time apart place on military marriages—and how couples can stay...
The Day I Took Command: Leading Through Crisis and Learning Command in Real-Time
By Joe Hap The call came late. My commander had been in a serious accident. Suddenly, everything I thought I knew about leadership changed. In an instant, I wasn’t preparing for command—I was living it. No ceremony. No speeches. Just a...
Ep 159: Army Directive 2025-18 with Sergeant Major of the Army
In this special Notebook Notes episode, Joe sits down with Sergeant Major Urzua and Sergeant Major Brady to discuss the Army Directive 2025-18, with a guest appearance from Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Weimer. The intent behind the...
The Power of Patience
by CPT Benjamin L. Kenneaster Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is “timing”. It waits on the right time to act, for the right principle and in the right way.-Fulton J. Sheen A Forgotten Principle An article from...
Why Aren’t There More Books About Communication On Military Reading Lists?
By Megan Jantos Leadership is communication, and communication is leadership. Don’t believe me? Try influencing others by providing purpose, direction, and motivation without communication. On the flip side, people naturally follow those who...
Become an Innovation Insurgent!
This post originally appeared on Linkedin here. By: William Treseder We love learning at BMNT. There are always ways to improve, and books are a fantastic source of distilled wisdom that you can apply in real-world situations. Below is a...
Getting the Cannons to Boston: Henry Knox
You’re reading an excerpt from Serial Box and the Associated Press’s new series, 1776: A World Turned Upside down Learn more about this project here. Between chatting up customers, Knox was also reading all he could lay his hands on about...
Bookish, Bold, and Jolly: Henry Knox
You’re reading an excerpt from Serial Box and the Associated Press’s new series, 1776: A World Turned Upside down Learn more about this project here. Paine provided the intellectual and emotional flint to spark colonists’ feelings into flames, Knox...
The Founding Failure: Part 2
You’re reading an excerpt from Serial Box and the Associated Press’s new series, 1776: A World Turned Upside down Learn more about this project here. After his most recent failure of employment, Paine was contemplating forming a “Salt-Peter...
The Founding Failure
You’re reading an excerpt from Serial Box and the Associated Press’s new series, 1776: A World Turned Upside down Learn more about this project here. The Founding Corset-Maker Tom Paine had been a dabbler at many things, a failure...
The Army Field Grade Starter Kit
“The Major runs on coffee and hate…and I think he’s out of coffee.” -Some Poor Staff Captain at NTC Last year I completed S3/XO time and there were a couple of things I wish I would have had in my cargo pocket when I walked...
How to Read More Books in 2018
We all can probably agree that reading is good for the brain. Leaders from George Washington to General Patton leaned on books to fill their knowledge gaps, and their efforts paid off on the battlefield. Defense Secretary James Mattis...
2017 in The Books
At the end of every year, I compile all the books I read in twelve months into a year-end reading list. Here are ones from 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. This year I didn’t even come close to reaching my reading goal. However, the books I did...
25 Podcasts to Build Your Library
Whether you are traveling on a long car trip, commuting to work, or going for a long run/bike ride, there is no better way to pass the time and grow your brain than to listen to a podcast. After canvassing my network and pulling from my own...
You Built a System. Did You Build Any Leaders?
By Sara Roger Nine business days into this new job, and just one more day before I begin a three-week training exercise with a brand-new team in a different country. Needless to say, the stress is present: I’m against the clock in getting spun up,...
Find Your Power and Use it for Good: Why I Stayed for a Career
by Ryan Cornell-d’Echert “Are you getting what you want from what you do?” One of my colleagues asked that to his students and protégés; it’s a powerful question that has stuck with me. Because military service is an enormous commitment, it is...
It’s All Theory Until We Do It
By Joe Byerly We can have the best of plans. We can have the greatest of intentions. But until those plans and intentions collide with reality—it’s all just theory. Theories aren’t reality. They’re untested. They live in our minds—with plot lines...
Serving Until the End
by Chris Mulder Why I Joined the Air Force: A Family Legacy of Flying “You should serve as long as you can,” an old boss advised me while I contemplated my future. As I considered his advice, I reflected on why I entered the Air Force in the first...
Betting on Yourself
By Joe Byerly Before I had kids, I used to enjoy placing bets. I played blackjack at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas when I was stationed out on the west coast. I threw down friendly wagers on the game at Super Bowl parties. When I lived at Fort...
FM 1: A Primer to Our Profession of Arms and to Professional Development
By: Michael Villahermosa In 2008 when I arrived at 30th AG, Replacement Battalion, I was handed the IET Soldier’s Handbook (TRADOC Pamphlet 600-4). For the next 16 weeks, I carried this dry read about the Army Values, Warrior Ethos, and using...
Reflections of a Specialty Platoon Leader (and Why You Should Do It)
by William Moorhead As an Infantry Lieutenant, your time as a Platoon Leader (PL) is the peak of your first four years in the Army. You will train for it, stress over it, and only begin to appreciate it once you are out of the seat and begin...
Don’t Let the Colors Touch
By Joe Byerly Wake upSlog down a cup of coffeeBrush teeth and shaveGranola barGrab my bagFlip the office light onEmailsPhysical trainingShowerMeetingsTrainingMore meetingsLast minute emergenciesEmergencies that shouldn’t be last minuteGrab my...
From Gatekeeping to Growth: Culture Change Lessons from an RTB Commander
by Jace Neuenschwander “I learned the hard way. Sometimes the best way to change a culture is to stop trying to change it.” A former Battalion Commander said these words to me, and his advice has stuck with me for years. This former Commander led...
Risk, Data, and Leader Presence: A Better Way to Combat Corrosive Behavior
By Kyle D. Popelka On a characteristically comfortable December day in southern Arizona, commanders and senior enlisted advisors from across Fort Huachuca gathered to discuss risk reduction and combating harmful behaviors within the force. Leaders...
The 1,000,000 Lessons Milestone
In Ancient Rome, miliariums were stone obelisks that first appeared along the famous Appian Way and became central to the Roman road networks. They helped citizens get from one point to another, marking the distance traveled. Eventually, the...
How to Organize Your Notebook For Success
By: Jeremiah Hurley I grew up in an Army where pen and paper were as important uniform items as your pants. In the right hands, a pen and paper are powerful tools. As great as you think your memory may be, it’s not perfect – you need to take...
Army PAOs and the Often-Overlooked Strategic Seat ‘At the Table’
By Captain Kevin Sandell When U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched into Syria this past April, it was a Navy Mass Communications Specialist who captured the viral footage shown on national and international news networks. It was an Army...
How Good Leaders Communicate: Conduits vs Reservoirs
By: MAJ Ryan C. Boileau, Sr Over my 25-plus year military career, I have benefitted from mentors who shared their knowledge with me. A common trait in all great leaders is being a conduit of knowledge – disseminating and sharing what they know to...
If You Want To Write, Collaborate!
By Gary Klein At some point in time, all of us have written for school, our jobs, or publication. However, chances are, most of us have done this alone. Admittedly, writing by yourself simplifies the process of prewriting, drafting, revising,...
Iron Major, Meet Your PAO
By Dave Butler and Dave Chace In the Information Age, how your actions are interpreted are as important as the actions themselves. This applies not only to the battlefield but to the local community, the greater military enterprise and your...
Why Every Leader Should Carry a (Green) Notebook
By Joe Byerly There are several great articles (here, here, or here) about the importance of writing for publication, but what about the importance of writing for yourself? From Marcus Aurelius to George Patton and Leonardo da Vinci to Bill Gates,...
#AUSADIGITAL: Social Media and the Future of Leader Development
By Joe Byerly In 1920, as commander of 3rd Squadron, 3d Cavalry, then Colonel George S. Patton Jr. held a series of sixteen lectures in which we he imparted the lessons he had learned from a mixture of self study and his own experiences in...
Commanders As Communicators
From ARMY Magazine, Vol. 66, No. 4, April 2016. Copyright © 2016 by the Association of the U.S. Army and reprinted by permission of ARMY Magazine. By Dave Hodne Among the many rewards of commanding at the brigade level, the opportunity to...
Above and Beyond the Green Notebook
From ARMY Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 3, March 2017. Copyright © 2017 by the Association of the U.S. Army and reprinted by permission of ARMY Magazine. By Joe Byerly Walk into any organization in our Army and there is one thing I...
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