ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Shi Heng Yi, headmaster of the Shaolin Temple Europe, discussed self-discovery in his 2020 TEDx talk, “5 hindrances to self-mastery.” He asked, “What does the view look like at the top of the mountain?” One can describe what they see. They can even use pictures to share what it was like. However, it is really in the climb to the mountain’s summit that understanding lives. To earn a look at the trees below, the sunset above, to hear the birdsong, brings something hard to capture in a word or graphic. That something is understanding.

The view gained from a reading of history offers something...

I remember as a young paratrooper, standing on a field at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, before one of my first mass tactical parachute jumps. Hundreds of jumpers of all ranks gathered around a raised platform where the senior commander stood and gave us words of wisdom for the jump and subsequent missions for the night.

I do not remember what was said that night, nor can I recall what the senior commander told us on any of the scores of similar nights. When I catch up with my peers and other paratroopers today, we wonder if the leaders who put all that effort into their talks knew we were...

National defense priorities require a fundamental change in the employment of the Army National Guard. By moving past the binary construct of a strategic versus operational reserve, the Guard will contribute more effectively to Army, joint force and local requirements.

Just as 20 years of operations in an irregular warfare environment necessitated transition of the Army National Guard (ARNG) from a strategic to an operational model, the global security environment requires integration of Guard forces to perform a broader spectrum of roles. Following the shift in DoD’s focus from...

The proliferation of drones, long-range artillery and precision missiles is forcing the Army to evolve a key component of the battlefield—the command post. The large, concentrated, tent-based command and control systems that sprawled across the landscape in Iraq and Afghanistan are too easily targeted and attacked using new technologies, rendering them vulnerable in the future operating environment.

Today, commanders are dismantling the tent-based command post and disaggregating it into more mobile—and therefore more survivable—nodes. This achieves two goals. First, it makes command posts...

The proliferation of drones, long-range artillery and precision missiles is forcing the Army to evolve a key component of the battlefield—the command post. The large, concentrated, tent-based command and control systems that sprawled across the landscape in Iraq and Afghanistan are too easily targeted and attacked using new technologies, rendering them vulnerable in the future operating environment.

Today, commanders are dismantling the tent-based command post and disaggregating it into more mobile—and therefore more survivable—nodes. This achieves two goals. First, it makes command posts...

It is well known that on D-Day, June 6, 1944, combat elements of five U.S. Army divisions assaulted German defenses in Nazi-occupied Normandy, France: the 1st, 4th and 29th Infantry Divisions and the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. Less known is that combat elements of a sixth division also landed that day—those of the 90th Infantry Division.

The 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 90th’s 359th Infantry Regiment, which were attached to the 4th Infantry Division, were part of the assaulting force on what was designated as Utah Beach.

Despite frequent recountings of the landings on Utah Beach...

Wars are a complex business. Ending a war always includes more than ending the fighting. As Fred Iklé wrote in his 1971 classic Every War Must End, it’s hard to fight a war, harder still to end one well. Countries that have experienced the intensity of war as Ukraine has do not just turn on a dime and return to so-called normal.

Media attention is primarily on the fighting in Ukraine. This is probably natural, but it shouldn’t be the focus of senior civil and military strategists. U.S. and NATO leaders, in coordination with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration, must...

Recently, I went back to West Point—a place I called home for many years—to celebrate the life’s work of one of the most joyous, selfless and genuine leaders I have ever encountered: Brig. Gen. Rich Morales.

They say a failure is only a lesson on the journey to success. When you’re part of our military tribe, there are folks you remember who were there, especially in the dark moments. Morales was always there for me when I failed, and he treated me the same whether I was a hotshot captain, a congressman or an acting secretary of the Army. I’m not sure if he even knows the positive impact...

Examining American Strategy in Vietnam

Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965–1968. Mark Moyar. Encounter Books. 692 pages. $49.99

By Col. Gregory Fontenot, U.S. Army retired

Mark Moyar’s Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965–1968 is the second in his trilogy on the Vietnam War. This volume covers the period from the insertion of U.S. forces to the aftermath of the Tet Offensive.

Moyar challenges the orthodox view of the Vietnam War that holds the American intervention was “wrongheaded and unjust.” He believes the war “worthy but improperly executed.” The Vietnamese are the...

The year is 2030. A battalion commander crawls silently through the brush with his forward reconnaissance team. The group halts at a muddy precipice, looking out at the jungle canopy below and a sea of jagged mountains fading into the clouds. The commander pulls out his tablet and takes a quick glance at the joint coalition common operational picture and the adversary’s collection capabilities focused on his position. He has small teams positioned throughout the craggy terrain and lethal long-range precision fires and air defense in the rear.

After a minute, he clicks off his tablet. He can...

The year is 2030. A battalion commander crawls silently through the brush with his forward reconnaissance team. The group halts at a muddy precipice, looking out at the jungle canopy below and a sea of jagged mountains fading into the clouds. The commander pulls out his tablet and takes a quick glance at the joint coalition common operational picture and the adversary’s collection capabilities focused on his position. He has small teams positioned throughout the craggy terrain and lethal long-range precision fires and air defense in the rear.

After a minute, he clicks off his tablet. He can...

The Chinese Communist Party cannot picture peaceful coexistence of President Xi Jinping’s rejuvenated China and the United States’ democratic way of life within the liberal world order. Accordingly, the People’s Republic of China continues its work to coercively rewrite norms and underwrite irresponsible behavior that undermines global order, including its own missile launches over Taiwan, North Korean missile tests and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In this environment, many think the U.S. Army plays a small role in a so-called air and maritime theater named for two oceans. At best, these...

America’s First Corps, I Corps, is the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s assigned Army operational command. It has a unique requirement to define how an Army corps must train for, compete with and, if necessary, fight and win a conflict with America’s pacing challenge—China.

Army doctrine defines the corps’ role as setting conditions for divisions to maneuver by employing joint capabilities, maintaining the tempo of operations through sustainment and other rear operations, and defeating enemy midrange fires. Warfighter Exercise 23-1, conducted from Sept. 24 to Oct. 3, was the Army’s first...

America’s First Corps, I Corps, is the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s assigned Army operational command. It has a unique requirement to define how an Army corps must train for, compete with and, if necessary, fight and win a conflict with America’s pacing challenge—China.

Army doctrine defines the corps’ role as setting conditions for divisions to maneuver by employing joint capabilities, maintaining the tempo of operations through sustainment and other rear operations, and defeating enemy midrange fires. Warfighter Exercise 23-1, conducted from Sept. 24 to Oct. 3, was the Army’s first...

Depictions of Army recruits commonly evoke images of recent high school graduates reciting the oath of enlistment, but recruits whose call to service comes later in life could represent an untapped demographic for an Army struggling to fill its ranks. 

After her first year at Western Kentucky University, Mitisha Martin joined the Kentucky Army National Guard, but her heart and head “were not in the right place.”

She was navigating life as a young adult, and she was not ready. Her time with the Guard ended after a month, but her dream to serve never did. “The passion was still always...