ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The Department of Defense budget request for fiscal 2017, formally unveiled Feb. 9, includes reforms to several military personnel programs including TRICARE and military retirement. 

Again this year, the department seeks to add new fees for TRICARE and TRICARE For Life; however, the budget also seeks to reorganize the current military health care system. 

The plan would provide TRICARE beneficiaries with two health care alternatives: TRICARE Select, an HMO-like (managed) option that would be centered on Military Treatment Facilities (MTF), or TRICARE Choice which would function more like a PPO...

American Corporate Partners (ACP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting U.S. veterans in their transition from the armed services to the civilian workforce. 

ACP’s Veteran Mentoring Program connects post-9/11 veterans and transitioning service members with mentors from Fortune 500 companies for free year-long mentorships based on their career objectives and professional experiences. 

ACP currently has numerous openings available to work with a corporate mentor in your career field of interest. 

To apply, visit http://www.acp-usa.org/mentoring-program/program-overview. 

The mentoring...

Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) officials have announced, effective immediately, Association dues for both new and renewing members have been reduced for 2016.

"This is the lowest rate for new and renewing individual members in our history, and it makes it easier to become a part of the Army’s professional Association.

"In today’s tight economy, your buying power just went up." officials said. 

Adding, "Our goal is to attract and retain many more individual members to ensure that our Association remains a strong, well-respected professional organization that continues tell The Army Story and...

John Gifford 
Director Government Affairs 

I write this, the president has just released his last budget request. 

The amount requested for defense was limited by last year’s Bipartisan Budget Act, but at least that limit was higher than if sequestration were implemented. 

Still, defense hawks are saying the amount isn’t enough, and budget hawks are saying it spends too much. 

The truth depends on your assumptions.

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 was a band-aid measure to prevent further damage by the Budget Control Act (BCA) and sequestration for fiscal years 2016 and 2017. 

When the BCA was...

The National Commission on the Future of the Army (NCFA) made its recommendations public Jan. 28 at the Hall of States in Washington, D.C. 

The NCFA was tasked by Congress to examine the structure of the Army and policies related to size and mix of the force. 

The team of eight commissioners and about 40 staffers began meeting in April 2015, and were given until Feb. 1, 2016, to deliver their recommendations. 

Lawmakers and the Army will decide which of the recommendations to implement and how.

Drawdown too deep

The Regular Army expects to draw down to 450,000 soldiers by the end of fiscal 2018. 

Th...

Rebuilding Army readiness will take years, with sweeping technological advances that could change how wars are fought not appearing until 2025 and beyond.

In the 25 years since the First Gulf War, it’s clear that the lessons learned in that conflict are plentiful and have had implications for strategy, technology, training and how a superpower uses force.

It was a conflict that came unexpectedly, as the Cold War had just ended, Communist walls were falling, and “No More Vietnams” was a chant among both hawks and doves. The success of Operation Just Cause in Panama provided a model for fast, simple military operations that included an exit strategy, completely unlike the experience in Vietnam of fighting an insurgency. The military challenges...

An ambitious Army plan to boost the quality and respect of its expansive professional education network attempts to capture the symbolism of America’s big-name schools. If university systems like Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and Princeton hold prestigious positions in society because of their rigorous admission, accreditation and academic standards, Army leaders hope they can do the same with symbolic and substantive changes in military education called Army University.

Army University is a brand, with officials sometimes calling it The Army University but also referring to it as ArmyU. Like...

Leaders talk about trust as a component of team building and a requirement for Mission Command, but what are some of the elements that help build trust?

One of the most common and effective ways to build trust is to “lead from the front.” However, that means different things in different contexts. One of the easiest and most effective ways to lead from the front is to be present during training exercises by either participating or providing decisions and guidance as necessary. However, it is not practical to be present at all of these events, and doing so might actually be harmful. To build...

Leaders talk about trust as a component of team building and a requirement for Mission Command, but what are some of the elements that help build trust?

One of the most common and effective ways to build trust is to “lead from the front.” However, that means different things in different contexts. One of the easiest and most effective ways to lead from the front is to be present during training exercises by either participating or providing decisions and guidance as necessary. However, it is not practical to be present at all of these events, and doing so might actually be harmful. To build...

Alcoholics Anonymous has a 12-step program for beating alcohol addiction. The first step can be paraphrased as: Recognize that you have a problem and confess it in some public way. Applying the 12-step process to my own circumstances, here goes: I was a member of a toxic team.

This toxic team no longer exists. A majority of the members moved on. For some members, this meant incurring large financial costs as they changed locations, although they stayed with the same organization. For others, it meant looking for new work and for a few, it meant staying on and working with the new team to create...

From virtual reality gaming and color-coded traffic maps to tomorrow’s weather forecast via radar image and the televised reality of football first-down lines, simulation technologies have become ubiquitous elements of modern life. It’s not surprising, then, that today’s soldiers are also encountering the expanded use of simulation technologies across the military experience.

Historical foundations for the Army’s embrace of simulation systems and technologies can be traced to the early 1930s and the Army Air Corps’ acquisition of the first pilot trainers from the Link Co. In parallel with the...

Where were you on 9/11? What were you doing when you first saw that unbelievable footage of passenger planes crashing into the World Trade Center? At what point did the awful reality of that day dawn on you?

Sept. 11 is one of the most seminal events in U.S. history and for many people—especially those of us who have deployed and fought in Afghanistan or Iraq—it is the most seminal event to occur in our lifetime. Understanding Sept. 11 and its cultural impact is crucial to understanding almost every foreign policy and military decision that has happened since. Sept. 11 is critical not only to...

Despite the harsh winter weather, around 3,000 refugees a day are still arriving on the shores of Greece, fleeing the wars in the Middle East. At the beginning of the year, I followed their journey through Europe. I started out at Edomeni, near the Greece-Macedonia border.

At a nearby gas station, some young Afghan men sat in the cafe. They gave the names of the cities and provinces they came from in Afghanistan. I had visited each place during my deployment to their country but did not tell them so. I pulled up a chair at a table outside in the cold with some Syrian men and their kids.

One told...

Words matter, for they reflect the quality of thinking and affect the judgments we make and the actions we take. In our everyday speech about the Army and what it does, the term “decisive” is often used as an absolute. For example, “The Army is the decisive force.” The problem is, decisive is a relative term in three important and relevant senses. First, decisive is relative to context; second, to combinations; and third, to proper use.

Every branch of service claims it is decisive. Most of the time in war, though, each service contributes importantly to achieving objectives. “Jointness” is the...