A significant aspect of the enduring trust the American people have in their military is an expectation of mission accomplishment while “doing the right thing”—acting ethically. This expectation is not new. While there have been challenges...
The Army’s new leaders feel momentum is on their side as America’s foundational force shifts from 18 years of counterinsurgency operations to preparing to face large and growing global threats by creating revolutionary new capabilities. Secretary of...
Two generations ago, as the Vietnam War drew to a close, the U.S. Army faced daunting challenges. Although it had painfully learned the hard lessons of counterinsurgency, those lessons came too late to maintain the support of the American public for...
Just months into his appointment as the 40th Army chief of staff, Gen. James McConville, right, has fully embraced people not just as the “top priority” military leaders often espouse, but as a valuable resource to be carefully nurtured. The 60-year...
Robots and autonomous systems. Artificial intelligence and machine learning. Quantum computing and big data. We treat these as inevitable features of the modern battlefield, and for good reason. The rapid pace of technological development and...
In the complex world of government contracting, it is important to ensure that all processes and practices meet standards for transparency and appropriate use of resources and funds. One of the largest projects in modern history for the U.S. Army...
How Army Doctrine Got Us Here From There Military Realism: The Logic and Limits of Force and Innovation in the US Army. Peter Campbell. University of Missouri Press. 390 pages. $50 By Lt. Col. Jessica Grassetti In Military Realism: The Logic and...
The battle of Kham Duc is one of the least known—and least understood—major battles of the Vietnam War. Kham Duc was a U.S. Army Special Forces camp near the Laotian border. From May 10–12, 1968, it and the nearby patrol base of Ngok Tavak were...
The interwar years between the Great War and World War II were a precarious period when industrialized military powers struggled to innovate with doctrine and tactics even as they incorporated emerging technologies. Though Britain, France, Italy and...
“What are we waiting for?” a Ranger student stutters to his squad leader. “The RTO is still getting comms. We’ll push forward in just a second,” the squad leader responds. Their radio telephone operator has been trying to gain communication, or...
U.S. Army Col. Daniel Rice, the command inspector general of the Georgia National Guard, summed up his team’s success in assisting the former Soviet republic of Georgia in building its own inspector general capabilities. “This is how we train an IG...
In the private sector, companies sponsor data science competitions to solve stagnating problems, outsource difficult work and advertise to the labor market. Netflix announced the first major data challenge in 2006 in hopes of improving its...
Collection Gives Close-up View of the Services Redefining the Modern Military: The Intersection of Profession and Ethics. Nathan K. Finney and Tyrell O. Mayfield. Naval Institute Press. 264 pages. $29.95 By Lt. Col. Robert L. Bateman, U.S. Army...
Maj. John W. Spencer, U.S. Army retiredCol. Liam Collins
Over 100 years ago, during the summer of 1919, dozens of members of that year’s West Point graduating class were sent to Europe to tour World War I battlefields. They walked on ground left deeply scarred by the conflict that had ended just months...
Authors and editors for six new Association of the U.S. Army Book Program titles were available at the association’s 2019 Annual Meeting and Exposition to greet attendees, answer questions and auto-graph copies of their books. They also presented...
