Lt. Col. Todd A. Schmidt, USA, selected as the winner of the 2013 writing contest co-sponsored by AUSA’s Institute of Land Warfare (ILW) and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command’s Army Capabilities Integration Center (ARCIC), was awarded a prize of $1,000 during AUSA’s Annual Meeting and Exposition this past October.

Schmidt’s winning entry, "Design, Mission Command and the Network: Enabling Organizational Adaptation," explains why a cooperative union of Army resources and well-executed principal military theories is an essential element of success for the Army’s future operational environment.

Schmidt addresses the unknown nature of the challenges that the Army will face in the coming years.

As a result of significant and continual developments in technology, the ability to predict and plan for specific conflicts and encounters is increasingly marginalized.

Technology can be used against American forces as well as utilized by them.

Thus, the author advocates a cooperative functioning in movement forward among Army Design Methodology, Mission Command and the increasingly large breadth of capabilities provided to the Army in the developing network of the cyberspace world.

Schmidt is currently serving as the deputy chief of staff, G-5, and chief, strategy and plans, Fires Center of Excellence, Fort Sill, Okla.

He is slated to take a battalion command in 2014.

The paper, published by ILW as Land Warfare Paper 97 in August 2013, is available online at https://www.ausa.org/publications/mission-command-network-adaptation. It can also be ordered at (800)336-4570, Ext. 4630, or by contacting ILWPublications@ausa.org.