ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The Army is about halfway through a five-year, $2.8 billion family housing improvement plan. And leaders say they are determined to get it right with aggressive oversight of Army private-sector housing partners and an ear to the ground in the service’s residential communities. 

The activity is happening on 49 installations where housing was privatized more than 20 years ago under the DoD Military Housing Privatization Initiative. The Army’s Residential Communities Initiative (RCI) was a public-private venture that would take the Army out of the business of managing its own housing and...

Armor soldiers and cavalry troopers must thrive in conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty, seeking opportunities to seize, retain and exploit the initiative with the goal of preserving freedom of action for friendly forces while denying options to the enemy.

Soldiers rarely come to the Army instinctively knowing how to accomplish all this. It requires tutelage to transform men and women into armor warriors, to instill the skill and drive required for success. Like every other part of the Army, success means turning people into teams.

In his first message as the 40th chief of staff of...

Armor soldiers and cavalry troopers must thrive in conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty, seeking opportunities to seize, retain and exploit the initiative with the goal of preserving freedom of action for friendly forces while denying options to the enemy.

Soldiers rarely come to the Army instinctively knowing how to accomplish all this. It requires tutelage to transform men and women into armor warriors, to instill the skill and drive required for success. Like every other part of the Army, success means turning people into teams.

In his first message as the 40th chief of staff of...

In May, about two months after the COVID-19 pandemic forced federal government organizations and military installations to maximize telework for their workforces, I took over as head of Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems, a critical provider in the modernization and management of Army network and enterprise business systems.

As I accepted the charter from my predecessor, Chérie Smith, during the official change of charter ceremony, the challenge of the task ahead weighed on my mind. Not only did I need to get up to speed on the work of the office’s 36 program offices...

The U.S. Army Forces Command Foundational Training Approach is designed to ensure small units are staffed, equipped and trained to win at the point of contact. It is important that the Army master the fundamentals to achieve overmatch against any enemy. We at Forces Command see success with this approach; however, we continually assess and refine training, retrain when necessary and develop our company-level leaders, which will ensure victory at the point of contact.

Much like Forces Command (FORSCOM) generates readiness for any contingency, brigade and battalion commanders generate...

Maximizing the strengths of diverse team members is key to success in leadership and amplifying a unit’s ability to accomplish its mission most effectively. So how do Army leaders maximize diversity’s benefits to these ends?

First, we need to understand diversity itself. Many dictionaries define diversity by mentioning ethnicity or gender. But first they point to the state or fact of being diverse and exhibiting a difference or unlikeness, such as diversity of opinion, form or character.

Another key characteristic is diversity of experience and skills, some of which are unique and ones...

Human Elements of Combat Brought Home

Headhunter: 5-73 CAV and Their Fight for Iraq’s Diyala River Valley. Peter Svoboda. Casemate Publishers (An AUSA Title). 228 pages. $34.95

By Lt. Col. Dan Sukman

In 2006 and 2007, the U.S. Army, for the first time since Vietnam, faced a real prospect of operational- and strategic-level defeat on the battlefield. After initial successes during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Army was caught in the midst of a population engaged in a civil war, resulting in mass casualty events on a near-daily basis.

In his first book, Headhunter: 5-73 CAV and...

The U.S. Army’s bold plan to develop and deliver critically needed, cutting-edge capabilities to the force faces a monumental test in 2021 involving funding for the evolving programs.

In a flat budget environment, with a new administration coming into the White House and a more narrowly divided Congress, the Army, more than ever, needs an adequate, timely and reliable source of money to pay for continued development and ultimate production of a new generation of weapons and systems.

Great sacrifices have been made by the Army in cutting existing programs, including legacy weapons systems...

The Integrated Personnel and Pay System–Army is the Army’s 21st century human resources, pay, personnel and talent management system. It will be fielded to all three Army components by December 2021. The idea behind the upgrade is for the system to fundamentally change the culture and practices of human resources in the Army.

Army human resources (HR)—the systems that feed information into a Soldier Record Brief, for example—is a Gordian knot. The Integrated Personnel and Pay System–Army (IPPS-A), like Alexander the Great, cuts that knot apart. The Army’s “knot” has over 200 HR and pay...

The historic signing of the Army People Strategy in October 2019 established a new approach to managing soldiers and families and in some respects represents the culmination of years of reform. Early reforms were not synchronized across the Army and as a result, failed to achieve their potential.

Over the past two years, unique events propelled the Army forward and positioned it on an irreversible path to achieve our vision to build cohesive teams for the joint force. The Army promoted former Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel Gen. James McConville to be the Army’s 40th chief of staff. His...

The May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis while he was in police custody and the associated protests prompted a renewed national discussion over race. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in American cities and around the world to demonstrate their frustration, outrage, fatigue and solidarity, and to demand change. Accordingly, many organizations have taken an inward look at the practices and norms that contribute to their lack of diversity, equity and inclusion. The Army is one such organization.

In June, Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy directed the removal of Department of...

The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) paved the way in night-vision flying nearly four decades ago, but as with any organization, versatility and growth is the metric by which relevance is judged. The concept of “owning the night” carried Army aviation through countless global conflicts and provided a significant advantage over enemies. Near-peer adversaries now possess comparable night-vision technology, narrowing the advantage provided by zero-illumination tactics.

With this in mind, the 160th is developing new advancements in technology, tactics, techniques and...

The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) paved the way in night-vision flying nearly four decades ago, but as with any organization, versatility and growth is the metric by which relevance is judged. The concept of “owning the night” carried Army aviation through countless global conflicts and provided a significant advantage over enemies. Near-peer adversaries now possess comparable night-vision technology, narrowing the advantage provided by zero-illumination tactics.

With this in mind, the 160th is developing new advancements in technology, tactics, techniques and...

The U.S. Army Reserve is not effectively integrated with the Army active component in order to meet peer/near-peer challenges. Today’s great-power competition requires a Reserve force to expeditiously mobilize and support active-duty forces in stride with a developing crisis. Unfortunately, today’s Reserve force would mobilize for a large-scale combat operation with limited prior sustained interaction with the Army active component.

To overcome this problem, the Army should modify the Reserve’s support models of theater sustainment operations, mobilization method and training doctrine...

McMaster on National Security, Not Politics

Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World. H.R. McMaster. HarperCollins Publishers. 560 pages. $35

By Col. Cole Kingseed, U.S. Army retired

Former U.S. national security advisor and retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster delivers a candid assessment of American national security policy over the past two decades in Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World.

Despite his stint in the White House under a most controversial president, Donald Trump, McMaster views himself as “apolitical” in the tradition of Gen. George Marshall...