AUSA News - November 2008  

In accepting the Association of the United States Army’s highest award, the George Catlett Marshall Medal, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, “My conclusion is that the Army remains a mighty engine, blessed by strong leaders and high morale — but that even the mightiest engine needs a little maintenance from time to time.”

Gen. David H. Petraeus, just three weeks after leaving Iraq and stepping down as commander of Multi-National Force – Iraq, told attendees at the Association of the United States Annual Meeting that Iraq has made substantial progress toward peace in the last two years, and although that progress is fragile and reversible, it is becoming stronger every day.

In his keynote address to the AUSA Annual Meeting Oct. 6, Army Secretary Pete Geren saluted the Army’s logisticians, noted the anniversaries of the racial integration of the services, the establishment of the all-volunteer force and the end of the Woman’s Army Corps.

Gen. George W. Casey Jr., Army chief of staff, told 3,000 attendees at the Eisenhower Luncheon Oct. 7 that a year after he had warned that the Army was out of balance because of the operational demands of the war on terror, the force was “well on the path” to bringing itself back into strategic balance.