REFLECT
Garrison Command: Lessons Learned as a Strategic Leader
By Chad R. Foster This might not be the outcome you expected or wanted. You might be shocked, excited, disappointed, or angry – perhaps all four at once. Regardless of what you know (or think you know), you are going to find that Garrison Command...
Sprinting the Marathon: Lessons Learned from an Advanced Individual Training Commander
by David G. Moehling Commanding an Advanced Individual Training (AIT) Company presents unique challenges vastly different from those in conventional units. The training calendar is cyclic and repetitive, the property book is minimal, and...
Accepting Risk in a Postmodern Military: Reducing Dependency on Information Through Creative and Critical Thinking
by Marc Meybaum The radio squawks to life, a message flashes on the screen in front of you, and your cell phone vibrates on the dash. As you sit in your vehicle during a field training exercise you cannot escape the seemingly endless requests for...
Faithful and True: Lessons Learned at Combined Resolve XVI
by Samuel “Joe” Nirenberg During the past nine months, I was fortunate to command 1-5 FA while it served as a part of the rotational ABCT in support of Atlantic Resolve. Up front, I will say that the Atlantic Resolve mission allows...
The Top 10 Things I Learned as a Battalion Commander at the National Training Center
by Ethan Olberding Editor’s Note: Over the next week, we will be running a series of articles from 4-70 AR on their lessons learned at the National Training Center (NTC). Each article is unique in that it will present a different perspective from...
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...
Does Popularity Get You Promoted?
A few months ago I heard Mitch Prinstein on the Art of Manliness podcast and then read his book Popular: The Power of Likability in a Status-Obssessed World. I reached out to him and asked him about his thoughts on popularity’s linkage to...
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” ...
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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...
The Two Most Important Qualities of Followers
When it comes to looking for lessons on leadership, I believe most of us stick within our own institutions. In doing so, we miss out on a great body of knowledge that exists throughout ALL of our Sister Services....
Learning from our Generals…When They Were in Our Boots
As a military officer, I believe that many of us like to think our good ideas are original and that the Army had to wait for us to come along before finally doing something “new” and “innovative”. This point is evidenced by the myriad of blog posts...
Preparing Leaders for the #Future of War: Leveraging Communities of Practice
This post first appeared on March 13, 2015 via the Strategy Bridge as part of the Preparing Leaders for the #FutureofWar Series. Recently, we tuned in for New America Foundation’s Future of War conference and watched as the military took some hits...
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