ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Rowland “Rand” Hilton Meade IV, the Association of the U.S. Army’s senior manager for exhibits and sponsorship, died Feb. 23 after a long fight with cancer.

Meade joined AUSA in 1999, and was well known to exhibitors.

He played a crucial part in moving the AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition from two hotels in northwest Washington to the new Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

Retired Gen. Gordon Sullivan, AUSA’s past president, said Meade was “a good man.”

“I knew Rand for 17 years and knew of his outstanding ability to establish close professional and personal ties with the huge and ever...

On Feb. 17, the New York Times published a report claiming that national service programs like AmeriCorps are on the list of federal programs that could be eliminated by the administration in its proposed budget.

In the wake of these reports, Service Year Alliance re-released its Enlisting America Pledge, which has been signed by 200 flag and general officers, and more than 50 senior enlisted veterans of the U.S. military in support of making a year of national service a common expectation and opportunity for all young Americans.

Service Year Alliance is proud to have the Association of the U.S...

Over one million steps were counted during the inaugural step-counting competition at the Association of the U. S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exhibition held recently at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Five hundred and fifty participants signed up for the “Blast Off to Better Health” promotion, a partnership between AUSA and the Army’s Office of The Surgeon General’s Performance Triad (P3) initiative.

“The health and wellness of our members and symposium participants are of utmost importance to us,” said AUSA’s Alex Brody, deputy director, meetings.

Adding, “With an average stride...

The recent AUSA Global Force Symposium and Exposition, in Huntsville, Ala., in March brought thousands of attendees and was a prime event for the Redstone-Huntsville Chapter to showcase what its officers and members do to assist the Association and help AUSA work toward its 2017 100,000-member goal.

Col. John Wright, USA, Ret., Redstone-Huntsville chapter president, established important goals for the chapter – both for our symposium week and for the year.

The chapter’s assistance in the planning and execution of the very successful Global Force Symposium achieved the high standard of excellence...

Five months after the start of the new fiscal year and just weeks before the continuing resolution (CR) currently funding the government expires, the House passed the fiscal 2017 defense spending bill.

The legislation, passed on a 371-48 vote, totals $577.9 billion, about $5.2 billion more than the fiscal 2016 budget and $1.6 billion more than the Obama administration had requested.

It now heads to the Senate where it faces an uncertain future.

Senators, mired in efforts to confirm President Trump’s cabinet nominees with a Supreme Court nominee battle on the horizon, are already suggesting that...

First, a quick update on the AUSA resolutions, and then I will explain the chart accompanying this month’s column.

The AUSA Resolutions Committee completed its work at the end of February and submitted the draft of the 2017 resolutions to our president and CEO, retired Gen. Carter Ham.

When General Ham received the draft, he recognized that this year is unusual because the new administration won’t submit its full budget request until late spring or early summer, instead of February, so we have some additional time.

He decided to send the draft resolutions out to the chapter, state and region...

Gary Sinise, an actor and humanitarian who has focused on supporting service members, veterans, first responders and their families, has been selected by the Council of Trustees of the Association of the United States Army as the 2017 recipient of the George Catlett Marshall Medal for sustained commitment to the men and women of America’s armed forces.

Sinise will receive AUSA’s highest award for distinguished public service on Wednesday, Oct. 11, at the Marshall Dinner, the final event of the Association of the U.S. Army Annual Meeting and Exposition. The dinner will be held at the Walter E...

World War I did not make the world safe for democracy, as President Woodrow Wilson hoped when he asked Congress to declare war in 1917. As we now know, the war with Germany that started for the United States on April 6, 1917, did not end all wars. However, it made the U.S. a leading world power and created five important legacies that continue to shape our Army.

Among the war’s lasting legacies:

• Compulsory military service and organization of state militias into an organized federal army deployable beyond the nation’s borders happened because of the Selective Service Act of 1917.
• The concept of a...

April 6 marks the 100th anniversary of the U.S. declaration of war on Germany and the start of our country’s involvement in World War I. This was a seismic event for the U.S., the world and the U.S. Army. The United States, long happily isolated in the Western Hemisphere with a few Pacific interests, found itself thrust onto the world stage as a major player. The Army, long a frontier and briefly an imperial constabulary, found itself committed to face modern high-intensity conflict against an experienced adversary. It proved totally unprepared initially, as the road to war had been no sure...

In fiscal year 1950, the entire Defense Department ran on about $120 billion a year (adjusted for modern inflation rates). The Army received no new equipment, but the Air Force and Navy got new supersonic aircraft and nuclear-powered ships and submarines. Now I read that the Navy is refusing the Pentagon’s efforts to make $17 billion in cuts over the next five years, and a Defense Business Board report says $125 billion in the defense budget can be redirected by using better business practices and management techniques. Surely, better times are upon us if that much can be saved.

When Donald...

Before a culture of Mission Command succeeds, the Army must possess the moral courage to identify countless barriers and then tear them down.

Book Reviews on Topics Including General MacArthur, Disease in Military History, American Foreign Policy, and more.

On a snow-covered golf course in Bend, Ore., Spc. Leonard Korir outkicked former Army Reservist Stanley Kebenei to the finish line to win the U.S. cross country title, a first for an Army runner.

Korir, who placed 14th in the 10k at the Rio Olympics, has been on a tear this winter.

Last month he led the U.S. team to victory at the Great Edinburgh Cross Country International Challenge in England, and followed it up a week later with a win against an elite field of international runners at the Houston Half-Marathon.

An unusually heavy snowfall covered the race course with two feet of snow, but a...

The top U.S. general in South Korea warns the world has entered the “second age” of ballistic missile proliferation.

“This has made for a much more dangerous world,” said Army Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commander of U.N. Command/Combined Forces Korea and U.S. Forces Korea, speaking via video at an Association of the U.S. Army event.

Brooks, who took over the joint command in April 2016, said the growing number of nations will heavily test the U.S. Army’s air and missile defenses.

“Old technology is being mated with new capabilities, which then offer much greater precision on the part of less...

The future of networked mission command faces a number of challenges, chief among them being a current reliance on a variety of different networks – all with their own specialties, systems, and communications methods.

That was the consensus at the Association of the United States Army’s Air and Missile Defense Hot Topic forum discussion panel in Arlington, Va., in February.

Networked mission command in the future should rely on an entirely seamless network that allows for all forces to communicate quickly and easily, across the multi-domain battlefield, said Lt. Gen. Michael D. Lundy, commander...