ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

For more than 55 years, former Capt. Larry Taylor has thought about one night in June 1968.

On that moonless night, Taylor repeatedly flew his AH-1 Cobra gunship under heavy enemy fire to save the lives of four fellow soldiers trapped on the ground in Vietnam, surrounded by nearly 100 enemy fighters.

“I’ve thought long and hard about that night, over and over,” Taylor said. “I don’t know what we could’ve done to make it any better, but we didn’t lose a man. Everybody we came with went home with us.”

On Sept. 5, Taylor finally received the honor he was due for his actions on that night...

Warrior Pays Heavy Price in Mogadishu

With My Shield: An Army Ranger in Somali. James Lechner. Osprey Publishing (An AUSA Title). 288 pages. $32

By Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, U.S. Army retired

With My Shield: An Army Ranger in Somalia is a riveting first-person account of the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia. But it is more than that. It is also the origin story of an American warrior, James Lechner, who marched to the sound of America’s guns as often as he could and paid a heavy price for his courage.

Many of us are familiar with the story of Black Hawk Down from the hit movie, if...

Your Association of the U.S. Army has come a long way since its founding in 1950 as a nonpartisan, educational nonprofit dedicated to professional development, advancing national security and promoting greater recognition of the Army’s vital role in American life.

The handful of infantry and field artillery officers who attended the association’s first meeting in a small Pentagon office wanted the Army’s professional association to grow. They couldn’t have imagined that, in 2023, AUSA would have more than 1.3 million members committed to a strong national defense and to supporting the Total...

Today’s Army is “on the right path,” says Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, but that path will be “steep and rocky” for the next couple of years.

“I think we are facing the most dangerous security environment I’ve seen in my professional career,” she said in an interview. At the same time, the Army faces “constrained” resources and a budgetary top line that has been “largely flat,” she said, and a “very, very politicized environment” that makes it difficult to talk through challenges and make decisions.

The biggest hill for the Army to climb is recruiting. The Army is still falling short...

This article was updated after Gen. Randy George was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as the 41st Army chief of staff on Sept. 21.

Facing quickly evolving and ever-deepening threats, the Army must focus on warfighting and being ready for any mission it’s called upon to perform, said Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George.

“The Army faces many challenges today at home and abroad, and there will be more in the years ahead, but this is not new. … Facing down challenges both known and unknown is what our Army is built to do,” George said Aug. 4 at outgoing Army Chief of Staff Gen. James...

Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer has spent most of his career in some of the Army’s most elite special operations units, training for and fighting America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, as the Army’s senior enlisted soldier and one of the service’s most visible leaders, Weimer’s focus has not changed.

“We’ve got some tough, tough times ahead of us with decision-making and resource allocation and how we shape the Army to be able to be ready, like really ready,” Weimer said. “So, where am I going to focus? It starts with warfighting. It goes to being able to project ready forces...

After 20 years of war followed by an unprecedented level of activity at home, the Army National Guard is more integrated than ever with the Total Army and ready to support the joint force, said Lt. Gen. Jon Jensen, director of the Army National Guard.

Fighting overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, then responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread civil unrest during one of the most challenging times in recent U.S. history, the National Guard has become more than a traditional strategic reserve, Jensen said.

The active and reserve components have “come a lot closer, and it’s no longer...

The U.S. Army Reserve is on a strategic path to grow its force, enhance its capabilities and effect the cultural change needed for the Army of 2030 and beyond, the component’s top officer said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when recruiting plummeted and the Army was forced to make big changes to the way it trained soldiers, the Army Reserve saw its troop strength flag, and many of its soldiers were unable to make it to battle assembly weekends.

After weathering the circumstances for more than two years and instilling a new ethos that empowers leaders to forgo repetitive paperwork in...

The Duke of Wellington is quoted as saying: “The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.” As he reflected on the rich, athletic tradition of Eton College in England, Wellington drew a comparison between the qualities of the successful athlete and team, and those of the victorious soldier and army. What were those qualities? Leadership? Teamwork? Esprit de corps? No doubt these and more.

From experience, Wellington understood that hard work and teamwork create winners, and that the fundamentals of readiness and winning are transferable from one challenge to another...

On Jan. 1, after 32 years of service, I officially left the active-duty ranks of the U.S. Army. Like most others who serve for an extended period, I dove into deep reflection on my time spent in the military and the “so what” of it all. Was it worth it? Did I make an impact? Was I a good leader? And did I make a difference?

I would like to think the answer to these questions is a resounding yes. I asked myself two last questions: Would I do it again, and would I change anything? No matter how much time I spent reflecting and how many scenarios I played out in my mind, the conclusions were...

The U.S. Army is at a strategic inflection point. Rapid and unprecedented technological advancements are changing the character of war, demanding aggressive modernization actions to ensure we have overmatch. Threats from across the globe generate a constant demand for soldiers, taxing readiness and increasing operational tempo. Even American society is changing, with younger generations possessing worldviews, workplace expectations and ways of interacting that are incongruent with the way the Army has operated in the past.

All these trends create requirements to maintain readiness...

Maj. Gen. David Meade had seen enough after less than 48 hours on the ground in Somalia, where he had 1,200 soldiers deployed as a quick-reaction force.

The 10th Mountain Division commander reported to his superiors: “We have a war going on in Somalia. From a tactical and maybe operational perspective it is not going well.” In the secret Sept. 15, 1993, memo that has since been declassified, Meade said the security situation was trending in the wrong direction, and Mogadishu “is not under our control. Somalia is full of danger.”

In his memo, declassified in 1994, Meade wrote that he...

Sexual assault and harassment—hereafter referred to as sexual violence—is a serious problem that affects the Army’s readiness and morale. Although the purpose of the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program is to protect victims and discipline abusers, it is not enough for prevention. SHARP is a reactive program that only addresses the symptoms, not the root causes.

If the true goal is to create an environment in which sexual violence cannot survive, a different approach is needed, one that prioritizes the health of the organization by strengthening its professional...

Covering nearly half of the Earth’s surface, scale and noncontiguous landmasses are defining characteristics for land forces operating in the Indo-Pacific Theater. For sustainers, this creates unique challenges for supporting the joint warfighter. Coupled with the ability of China, described by top military leaders as the United States’ pacing challenge, to contest this space with kinetic and nonkinetic capabilities, regional sustainment requires an approach unlike any other theater of operation.

Through Operation Pathways, I Corps, which is headquartered at Joint Base Lewis-McChord...

Covering nearly half of the Earth’s surface, scale and noncontiguous landmasses are defining characteristics for land forces operating in the Indo-Pacific Theater. For sustainers, this creates unique challenges for supporting the joint warfighter. Coupled with the ability of China, described by top military leaders as the United States’ pacing challenge, to contest this space with kinetic and nonkinetic capabilities, regional sustainment requires an approach unlike any other theater of operation.

Through Operation Pathways, I Corps, which is headquartered at Joint Base Lewis-McChord...