REFLECT
Do We Disdain Intellectual NCOs?
By Chris Melendez Former officer and scholar James Joyner critiqued anti-intellectualism within the U.S. military. Opinions will diverge on Joyner’s assessment on whether such bias exists or whether an ideal balance can be struck between the...
ACFT 3.5: How the Army can Meet Congressional Guidance without Resorting to Gender Discrimination
by Kristen M. Griest I wrote an op-ed through the Modern War Institute in February advocating against the implementation of ACFT 3.0, the latest version of the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT). The new updates to this test include the option to...
Digital Dunkirk: Lessons Learned
On August 15, 2021, I doom-scrolled through social media feeds that tracked Kabul’s fall. By August 31, my phone had thousands of messages from hundreds of people I didn’t know two weeks before, and we’d helped some Afghan allies leave Afghanistan....
The Garrison Command Sergeant Major
By James Brasher You have been waiting for months and, finally, the Centralized Selection List (CSL) results are published. You have been wondering which brigade you are going to assume responsibility for. You open up the CSL, see your name, and...
Professional Fulfillment: How Finding Your Purpose Promotes Unit Cohesion
By Andrew J. Bibb The first time I took the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) I felt as if a massive burden had been lifted off my shoulders. My Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) scores were steadily declining as I aged. I was frustrated...
What are Chaplains For? Five Suggestions on How to Best Utilize the Chaplain
By Caleb Miller There are many guides for officers or NCOs to become better leaders. There are also guides for chaplains to improve. However, I see very little out there helping leaders develop, utilize or rate the chaplains in their midst. This...
Suicide is a Battle, I Could Not Fight It Alone
By Danita Darby On 25 May 2019, in Bagram, Afghanistan, I had reached the end of my rope. I was suspended from my command in February 2019, but that single situation is not why I am writing this. What I am writing about today is the fight I had...
Lessons Learned in Large Scale ACFT Testing
by Sarah Ferreira Since 2018, my unit has been executing the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) on a large scale, meaning that we test large groups of Soldiers continuously throughout a single duty day. We found that we can test a battalion size...
An Aversion to Ambition
by Brennan Randel What is it about open displays of ambition that can cause an eye-roll so deep it results in temporary blindness? Imagine a room full of combat arms second lieutenants on the first day of their basic officer leadership course. To...
A Leader’s Guide to Navigating Social Media in the Military
By Kristy Bell Social media has blurred the lines between our private and professional lives in an unprecedented way, and has also, in some ways, eroded the idea of a “non-partisan military” that shores up our democratic ideals. This came to the...
Would Your Squad Leaders Attend Your Funeral?
By. Colonel Curt Taylor I recently heard General Dave Perkins, the Commanding General of TRADOC, describe a funeral for a senior general officer long retired. At the funeral he noted the attendance of several middle-aged men who had served...
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...
What is Your Guitar Hero?
About a decade ago, I would spend hours a day playing my Xbox 360. I was hooked on one game in particular: “Guitar Hero”. In the game, players have to play hit songs by pressing buttons on a fake guitar. Each day I would continuously...
The Opposite of Fear is Love
The Opposite of Fear is Love is from Chapter 13 of Steven Pressfield’s The Warrior Ethos published by Black Irish Books. The greatest counterpoise to fear, the ancients believed, is love—the love of the individual warrior for his...
Your Landing Attitude and How to ‘Be’ in Transition
By Daniel Hodne Exiting an aircraft flying at 130 knots makes for an unnatural, turbulent, and adrenaline-charged experience. Career change, in many respects, shares similar qualities. In other words, the moment you’ve fully committed yourself to...
Turning Defeat into Development
By Joe Byerly On September 14, 1923, over 80,000 spectators packed into the New York City Polo Grounds to watch one of the most famous prizefights in boxing history. The heavyweight champion, Jack Dempsey, who stood at 6’1 and weighed around 185...
Lead Like a CHAMPION
Public Affairs Supervisor Advanced Leader Course, Class 501–17, posing after a physical fitness test. By SSG Alex R. Ramos The sport of boxing has had a rich tradition in my family. My father used to box, my uncles and cousins were pugilists,...
My Bid Farewell to the Army Blue
By Daniel Hodne This past November, my family and I returned to West Point, New York, for my Class’ 25th Reunion. While I stood alongside my classmates on “The Plain,” and watched the Corps of Cadets execute a...
Developing Deliberate Practices for Leadership Growth
“You are always practicing something, the question is,- What are you practicing” ...
Reflecting on Servant Leadership
By Joshua C. Bowen This past holiday season, I had the good fortune of celebrating Christmas with my family at my sister’s house in Bremerton, WA. She is a Navy Lieutenant (O-3) assigned to an aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis, at Naval...
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Surviving Headquarters Company Command
By CPT Scott Nusom There are few assignments in the Army that produce the same unique leadership challenge as commanding a headquarters and headquarters company (HHC) and what makes the HHC command so challenging is learning how to productively...
Leadership Starts with….Love?
By: Thomas E. Meyer “Regard your soldiers as your children and they will follow you into the deepest valleys. Look on them as your own beloved sons and they will stand by you even unto death.” –Sun Tzu; The Art of War A military leader’s first...
This Ain’t the First Time We Cut the Grass: Military Innovation in the Interwar Period
*This post originally appeared on February 18, 2016 via Tom Ricks’ Best Defense By Joe Byerly and Casey Dean In 1929, William Lassister, a veteran of the First World War, wrote the following: It is terribly difficult for military men to keep...
Don’t Be a Sisyphus: How to Lead Productive Teams
Whether you are a hard-charging company commander or battalion-level “Iron Major”, we all want to lead productive and effective organizations. We don’t want to work late hours, waste people’s time, or create unnecessary workloads and hardships....
Professional Development Opportunity: Future of War Conference
On March 10th the New America Foundation and Arizona State University will host their second annual Future of War Conference. The conference is streamed live, so it’s a great opportunity to take a brief pause in the work week and think about...
Shrinking Army: It’s Time to Focus on the “Why”
Further evidence that the Army is shrinking is found in a recent Army Times article, which announced that 20% of screened captains would be told it’s time to hang up the uniform. For those left behind, it could produce the devastating side effect...
The Evolving Art of Training Management
By David Hodne and Joe Byerly Has the Army lost the art of training management? Recently, I coauthored an article with Colonel David Hodne answering this question. It was published in the February 2016 issue of Army Magazine. Thanks to the...
Mentoring for Integration
Editor’s Note: I recently read LTC Ray Kimball’s book, The Army Officer’s Guide to Mentoring, and while the book in its entirety is a worthy read for self development, I thought LTC Kimball’s section on...
The Art of Giving Negative Feedback
A few years ago, Doctrine Man published a popular list that “decoded” officer evaluation reports (OERs). The sad thing about his humorous jab at OERs, though, is that it wasn’t too far off from reality. Generally speaking, we in the military don’t...
Who are You Calling a Minion? Leadership on Staff
I’m back at the point in an officer’s career again; the point where I am no longer directly leading soldiers. I’ve traded in my map board, weapon, and radio for a laptop, Microsoft Office, and a diet fueled by our brigade chaplain’s finest black...
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