ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The Army is putting its talent management overhaul to the test via the Army Talent Alignment Process.

The goal is to help the Army better manage its personnel while giving them more visibility and flexibility in their careers, said Maj. Gen. J.P. McGee, director of the Army Talent Management Task Force.

Talent management is a top priority for senior Army leaders as they work to recruit and retain the best people while positioning the force for what officials are calling a renewed era of great-power competition.

The Army’s Multi-Domain Operations concept “is the way forward” in the Indo-Pacific as the service competes in the increasingly contested environment, a senior leader said.

“We do not want to have conflict in the Indo-Pacific region,” Maj. Gen. John “Pete” Johnson, acting commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific, said Oct. 16 during the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition. “It would be catastrophic for the globe if we did that.”

After three days of demonstrations, Lumineye was named the winner of the second round of the Army’s xTechSearch competition.

The Boise, Idaho-based company received $250,000 to continue work on its man-portable wall-penetrating radar.

The announcement was made Oct. 16 during the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C. Officials also named 12 finalists for the third round of the competition—those companies will demonstrate their technologies and a winner will be named during AUSA’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition in March.

Running and road marches are the leading causes of musculoskeletal injuries in the Army, and a pilot underway with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) seeks to determine why some are more prone to those injuries than others.

The injuries are not surprising, “because these are activities we have to do to be prepared for our missions,” Dr. Bruce Jones, a retired Army colonel and senior scientific adviser to the Army Public Health Center, said during a Warriors Corner talk Oct. 16 at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition.

Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs and former Army chief of staff retired Gen. Martin Dempsey accepted the Association of the U.S. Army’s highest award for service to the nation Oct. 16 with a call to the Army and defense industry to be less like colleagues and business partners “and act more like family.”

“We need to build broad and deep public-private partnerships so that we can see, understand, collaborate and execute better and faster than our potential adversaries,” he said.

It’s everyone’s duty to take care of America’s veterans and “make sure we live up to Abraham Lincoln’s vision,” the secretary of Veterans Affairs said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition.

Speaking at the National Partners Luncheon Oct. 16, Secretary Robert Wilkie recounted stories of soldiers, past and present, as well as members of his own family who have served and suffered in America’s wars but sometimes faced difficult experiences when they returned home.

With widespread support among senior leaders, the time is right to overhaul the Army’s personnel management system, but the effort could be imperiled by an ingrained, unspoken culture that influences the way people get promotions and jobs, a military strategist said.

In remarks during “Army Talent Management in 2028,” a panel discussion at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition, Leonard Wong, a research professor of military strategy at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, listed a host of factors that have aligned in favor of reform.

In recognition of the growing importance of cyber, electronic warfare and advanced communications, the Army is changing the way it assesses, trains and manages its cyber and signal personnel, said Maj. Gen. Neil Hersey, commanding general of the Army Cyber Center of Excellence. 

Despite his title, Hersey noted that he runs both the cyber and signal schools and manages the cyber, electronic warfare and signal workforces. That combination is natural because “90% of what we do on the networks is done by the Signal Corps,” he said.

The Army needs talented civilians, and it should streamline how it brings them into the force, panelists said Oct. 16 during a forum at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition.

"We need to shorten the hiring time and improve the acquisition of talent," said Carol Burton, director of the Civilian Human Resources Agency for the Army deputy chief of staff for personnel. Noting that the hiring process for civilians typically takes 180 days – during which time prospective candidates may go somewhere else – Burton said: "It's time to change."