Soldiers and leaders filled the bleachers at historic Palm Circle as Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressed the audience during a town hall meeting in late June.Dempsey’s trip to U.S. Army Pacific’s headquarters at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, for a town hall meeting was sparked by his arrival for the beginning Rim of Pacific 2014 Exercise, one of the largest international maritime exercises.The meeting provided a chance for him to listen to soldiers’ concerns in the Pacific and answer questions related to those concerns.Before the meeting began, Dempsey presented...
The Association of the United States Army (AUSA) hosted a reception and cake cutting ceremony celebrating the 96th Birthday of the U.S. Army Warrant Officer Corps on July 14. Senior members of the Army Warrant Officer Corps and senior leaders from AUSA attended this event, held at AUSA HQ in Arlington, Virginia.In showing its support to the U.S. Army Warrant Officer Corps, AUSA will also host a Warrant Officer Professional Development Forum during its upcoming Annual Meeting, as it has done for the last two years.The official birthday of the Army Warrant Officer Corps is July 9, 1918, when an...
Under Secretary of the Army Brad Carson posed 10 questions, dealing with the size and composition of the Army, modernization and readiness.The Army’s 31st under secretary, who has been in office a little more than four months, spoke to members of the Association of the U.S. Army at their monthly Institute of Land Warfare breakfast in late June.He began by discussing the size of the Army, and where it might go in the future before offering questions to ponder."At our height, we had 570,000 people in the Army; today we have 503,000," said Carson, a former member of Congress from Oklahoma.He said...
Former Staff Sgt. Ryan M. Pitts recieved the Medal of Honor from President Barack Obama during a White House ceremony July 21.Pitts became the ninth living recipient to receive the Medal of Honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan. His was for courageous actions during operations at Vehicle Patrol Base Kahler, in the vicinity of Wanat Village in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, July 13, 2008.Obama explained the "extraordinary circumstances" in which Ryan and his team served.At the time of attack, Vehicle Patrol Base Kahler was still being built, Obama said. Wanat had "significant vulnerabilities,"...
Greetings from the Association of the United States Army (AUSA), our Army’s and our soldiers’ professional organization.For all the posts, camps and stations I visit, everyone is looking forward to the upcoming Association of the United States Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition in October here in our nation’s capital.To begin the week’s activities, the 31st Annual Army Ten-miler starts and finishes at the Pentagon on Sunday, Oct. 11, with more than 35,000 highly motivated runners.Then, join us at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Oct. 12 to 14, for three days of professional...
No political or military leader responsible for the lives of citizens who become soldiers ever wants to give the order to put American servicemembers at risk. That desire is even more present after more than a decade of waging and fighting war. The decision to employ American forces should be based upon U.S. interests and an objective assessment of what kinds of forces are needed to achieve the outcome the nation’s interests require, not merely what its leaders desire. The U.S. sustains its military forces to defend itself and its interests. These forces exist to provide options for political...
No political or military leader responsible for the lives of citizens who become soldiers ever wants to give the order to put American servicemembers at risk. That desire is even more present after more than a decade of waging and fighting war. The decision to employ American forces should be based upon U.S. interests and an objective assessment of what kinds of forces are needed to achieve the outcome the nation’s interests require, not merely what its leaders desire. The U.S. sustains its military forces to defend itself and its interests. These forces exist to provide options for political...
Innovative technologies have always offered an avenue of employment for American soldiers of fortune. They honed the skills required in order to use these cutting-edge technologies while serving in the American armed forces. Examples of these technologies include observation balloons, torpedoes, submarines, dynamite, nitroglycerin and the airplane. All were seen as potentially the great equalizers, the weapons that could empower the underdogs in their struggles against their more powerful enemies. Frequently, the employers of these American soldiers of fortune were American arms merchants who...
Innovative technologies have always offered an avenue of employment for American soldiers of fortune. They honed the skills required in order to use these cutting-edge technologies while serving in the American armed forces. Examples of these technologies include observation balloons, torpedoes, submarines, dynamite, nitroglycerin and the airplane. All were seen as potentially the great equalizers, the weapons that could empower the underdogs in their struggles against their more powerful enemies. Frequently, the employers of these American soldiers of fortune were American arms merchants who...
Unlike many academics who venture to post-major conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which are critical to our national security, I experienced the inverse as a military officer visiting Detroit, a city critical to our nation’s economic vitality. Traversing a key transit route linking the northern and southernmost portions of Detroit, I found myself experiencing a visceral reaction I had felt before—in an armored vehicle patrolling cities in Afghanistan and Iraq. I do not intend to oversimplify the cities’ respective challenges. Instead, I offer that there are many noteworthy...
I received a Combat Action Badge because, for a short time in Iraq, I seemed to be a magnet for enemy fire. Years later, explosions still cause me minor discomfort. The sounds of fireworks, gunfire and engines backfiring are unsettling. But was I traumatized by enemy fire? No, I was not.What caused me to suffer some symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) does not actually meet the criteria in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders for this condition. My most significant combat experiences are sewn together with a...
The business world has a term to describe core missions to customers and investors—value proposition—and it is considered crucial to every company’s business strategy. If you can’t distill what makes your organization valuable down to a few compelling points, then maybe it doesn’t have a good reason for existing. Or, maybe you’re in the wrong job.The notion of a value proposition has meaning for any military service trying to preserve its core capabilities in peacetime. That’s especially true in democracies, where political leaders don’t need to use force to stay in power. Unless military...
Does your heart swell with pride when you hear the words profession of arms, or do you find yourself scoffing at its inherent idealism? Presentations on the subject may make us feel proud of our profession, but we might not be meeting the levels of professionalism and esprit de corps that our profession demands. We must have faith in ourselves as professionals to manage our own field of expertise as well as give the community reasons to have that same faith in us.The profession of arms calls for three Cs: character, competence and commitment. We are professing our expertise and professionalism...
Senior leaders and soldiers at Camp Carroll, South Korea, received a surprise visit in early June when the Association of the U.S. Army’s president, Gen. Gordon Sullivan, USA, Ret., and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth Preston, USA, Ret., AUSA’s director of noncommissioned officer and soldier programs, visited Camp Carroll soldiers to discuss some of the hot topics facing the Army today.AUSA is a private, nonprofit organization that acts as an advocacy group for the U.S Army.Its missions include providing support for deployed soldiers, educating the public on the importance of a strong Army, and...
Military families know that with summer comes PCS season. Adding to the stress of moving for many military families, this also means taking a hit to their budgets.When working military spouses move with their service member, they are forced to leave their job and the second income that comes with it.It can be months before military spouses find new employment at their new duty station and those months without pay can have a negative impact on a family’s financial well-being.Unemployment compensation can help ease the transition from two incomes to one, and help fill the void while the spouse...