REFLECT
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...
Gains Disguised as Losses
By Joe Byerly Have you ever been knocked off your feet? I’m not talking about getting sucker-punched in a 1 a.m. bar fight or settling an old high school grudge by the flagpole. I mean those moments when life takes a swing and sends you sprawling....
Does Power Corrupt?
By Joe Byerly Thousands of years ago, as Emperor Marcus Aurelius sat in his tent on the front lines of war, he faced a far more dangerous enemy: himself. He had heard stories of what power could do to men. Rome’s history was littered with rulers...
Breaking Trust and How to Deal with It
By Oren Rosen It was a typical day in ROTC when one of my students walked into my office. He had just returned from National Guard hurricane recovery operations and wanted to stop by for a quick chat. I was happy to see him and was ready to ask him...
Strength in Solitude: My Journey From Latchkey Kid to Introverted Leader
By Albert D. Keever Jr. Leadership is often associated with bold, charismatic individuals who can electrify a room with their words or galvanize a team with their commanding presence. These figures typically seem larger than life, embodying...
Transitioning Well
by Mike Martino Fresh off a promotion to Major, with a golden ticket to the Army’s Command and General Staff Officer Course, I left active duty after ten years as an Infantry Officer. Leaving the Army was one of the toughest decisions I have ever...
Unlock Your Potential Through Journaling
By Melissa A. Czarnogursky “The brain enjoys writing. It enjoys the act of naming things, the process of association and discernment.” –Julia Cameron I had the wrong perspective on journaling. Throughout my military career, mentors...
Weaponize the Neurodivergent
by Dr. Katy Davis, Lt. Col. Erik Davis, and Lt. Col. Nick Frazier. While the US Army hit its recruiting goal for 2024, the target is much lower than previous years, and following a deficit of 25,000 recruits from the previous two years One...
The Critical Role of Presence in Leadership
By Command Sgt. Maj. Brian A. Hester and Master Sgt. Katie Smith Presence is undeniably powerful. As a Soldier with 34 years of experience, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative impact of a leader’s presence. Traditionally, this presence...
Adaptive Problem Solving: Leadership Tools for the Modern Battlefield
by Chris Duncan Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine represented a paradigm shift for the way the world fights wars. For the units who were activated on an Immediate Response Force (IRF) deployment to Poland in anticipation of this threat, the...
Staying in Touch: How to Make Networking a Little Less Awful
by John Goetz It was a normal Monday morning as I opened my Outlook inbox to review the emails received over the weekend. As the messages populated, an unexpected wave of excitement washed over me as I zeroed in on one name. A former commander of...
#DAweek: Welcome to Atropia
By: James King Large columns of dust rise up from the desert floor as a hundred T-80 tanks and BMPs are on the move. The commander of the Donovian Operational Strategic Command South (OSC-South) has just given the order to invade Atropia. Supported...
#DAweek Getting Intelligence to Move at the Speed of Decisive Action
By: Alex Morrow and Michael Dompierre “To find, know, and never lose the enemy”– Military Intelligence Creed At the outset of the Army’s return to Decisive Action and Unified Land Operations, National Training Center (NTC) Command Sgt Major...
#DAweek Winning the Fight To See
By Alan Hastings Our Cavalry formations have a maneuver problem. Somewhere between the line of departure and the reconnaissance objective, our reconnaissance stops. In our efforts to conduct reconnaissance, we find ourselves falling well short of...
#DAweek: The Survivability Mix
By: Remy Hemez In today’s rapidly evolving security environment, and after years of COIN operations, our armies are shifting their focus towards combined-arms maneuvers, which enables them to better prepare for combat against a wider array of...
#DAweek Anticipating Transitions to Seize and Maintain the Initiative
By Gary Klein As an observer-coach trainer at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC), a recurring after action review comment during decisive action rotations was the training unit’s ability to handle transitions.[1] The hybrid threat...
#DAweek: The Principles and Art of Sustaining Decisive Action
By David Beaumont ‘In war, mistakes and normal; errors are usual; information is seldom complete, often inaccurate, and frequently misleading. Success is won, not by personnel and materiel in prime condition, but by the debris of an organisation...
Decision Point Tactics and Decisive Action
By Ryan Kranc In my 2 years at the National Training Center two things separated good rotational units from great rotational units and opposing forces focused on these differences to achieve the upper hand. Whether mission rehearsal exercise...
#DAweek: How Will We Train for a Hybrid War
By Peter Apps Should tensions with Russia ever “go hot” in Eastern Europe or the Baltic states, the potential consequences could be catastrophic. For all the attention that will inevitably be paid to hotline diplomacy and presidential, however, it...
Mission Command and Detailed Command – It’s Not a Zero-Sum Game
By Alan Hastings Recent debate among military professionals on the subjects of mission command and detailed command has highlighted a common misunderstanding about each’s role in tactical operations. While we cannot expect to seize, retain, and...
An Old Marine’s First Ten Thoughts on Combat
Editor’s Note: It’s an honor to feature this guest post. Below are Lt. Gen Van Riper’s reflections on combat after he retired from the Marine Corps in 1997. By Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper, USMC (ret) Pray before...
Pay It Forward: Mid-Career Moolah for Continued Service
by Sara Roger Picture this: it’s the summer of 2025, and you just finished company command. As you pack up your office, you reflect on the last 18 months: the late-night calls and emails, the last-minute taskings, the oversaturation of...
The Three C’s of Leader Development Relationships
by Tom Dull Leaders in the U.S. Army profession must deliberately prioritize leader development relationships in our units and organizations. Leader development relationships enable our subordinate leaders to maximize their personal and...
Looking Down Under and Within: Three Recommendations to Address the Recruiting Crisis
by Aaron Pucetas Over the past couple years, the Army has been unable to meet its recruiting goals. In a highly competitive labor market with record low unemployment rates, some argue that the Army must immediately improve its compensation package...
Communicate Your Staff Estimates in the Language of Risk
by Tom Gaines and Micah Stedman “Gentlemen, we have run out of money; now we have got to think.” – Winston Churchill Somewhere out there is the perfect unit. The commander’s intent is perfectly understood by every member of this...
Building Mutual Trust: Candor, Clarity, and Curiosity
by Ryan Cornell-d’Echert In our organizations, how comfortable are people admitting they do not know? How often do we respond with, “Sir, I don’t have that information. I’ll take it as a due-out,” or “Ma’am, we should have thought of that. We’ll...
A Brittle Force: Grappling with Surging Military Suicides
by Greg Wall and Jacob Mays As we near the end of the calendar year, it seems that 2023 is likely to go down as the deadliest year in history for self-directed violence in the US military. In 2022 the DoD reported the highest Q1 suicide rate since...
Social Media is an Essential Tool For Modern Army Leaders
By Michael Everett Leaders in the 2023 military need to interact on social media. Period. Whether you like it or not, modern leadership has spilled over into the digital domain. If you fight the social media current, you will almost certainly meet...
Prioritizing Realistic Tactical and Operational Training for Maintainers
by Melissa Anne Czarnogursky Behind every Army vehicle, weapon, night vision device and communication equipment is a maintainer ensuring our fighting force is prepared to execute complex operations on an ever-changing battlefield. Equipment...
Improve Your Reporting in Five Simple Steps
by Jacob Loftice Reporting drives military operations. It consists of developing and providing various information that guide leaders’ understanding of their formations’ capabilities, priorities, and assessed risk. Despite how common and important...
Welded Into a Fine Unit of Teamwork: The Role of Recreational Sports
By Shayne Harrell In December of 1946, my grandfather, Private First Class Peyton E. Harrell, received a letter of appreciation from Colonel Percy E. LeStourgeon, commander of the 349th Infantry Regiment. The letter recounts the outcome of the 88th...
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