I still remember the words of a U.S. Army major who worked for me: “Sir, you are tearing this team apart.”

The time was January 2000. The location was Lithuania. I was an Army colonel.

At that point, I had served just over 20 years in the Army on active duty and in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. I had success as a unit commander and staff officer. I had recently left the command of a National Guard infantry battalion of about 850 soldiers. Because of past success, I thought I knew everything there was to know about leading people. I was mistaken.

Wake-Up Call

The major had...

Dear Warrior,

I write this letter as a guide, a beacon for leading in our complex and rapidly changing world. As someone who has navigated these challenges and witnessed firsthand the power of leadership, I am compelled and honored to share these insights with you.

Forewarning: Your journey will be arduous, perilous and humbling. Be prepared to navigate diverse environments, including interconnected ecosystems, unfamiliar territories, paradoxes and difficulties. You also will encounter other humans, each with their own challenges. This path is not navigated by accident, but through...

Robots and machines are reshaping the modern battlefield, and the Army is working hard to adapt the way it fights—one soldier and one unit at a time.

“As a human, we all have to adapt because the world is changing,” said Pfc. Jessica Sesay, who graduated from Infantry One-Station Unit Training at Fort Moore, Georgia, in late 2022 and is now a member of an experimentation force known as the EXFOR that’s focused on robotics and small-unit modernization.

The 23-year-old Sesay hasn’t seen much of the U.S. Army, but she is confident that troops and robots will work well together. “In basic...

An armed conflict between the U.S. and China, Russia or Iran will require the U.S. Army to immediately mobilize active-duty and reserve component forces for large-scale combat operations. Eighty percent of U.S. Army sustainment units required to support warfighting units are in the U.S. Army Reserve and Army National Guard, collectively known as the reserve component.

When preparation and deployment efficiency at home mean lives saved abroad, the mobilization model for reserve component sustainment units fails the soldier.

Requiring all units to assemble at local armories, move to...

Each time the American M1A2 Abrams tanks let loose with their 120 mm smoothbore guns during a multinational live-fire exercise at Bemowo Piskie Training Area in Poland, they are supported with intersecting fire from either side by armored vehicles from Italian, Spanish and German armored units. Officers from those countries, observing the exercise from a nearby tower, nod approvingly after each volley.

This is the kind of event that demands precise timing and communication between forces, and it is largely why all these elements gathered. It’s the fourth day of Saber Strike 24 in April...

Last summer, commanders of the 2nd Battalion, 11th Infantry Regiment, at Fort Moore, Georgia, the unit overseeing the Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course, identified several gaps in their program of instruction. At the top of this list was what was considered the key word in the course’s name: Leader.

As the unit’s commanders assessed leader development in the Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course (IBOLC), they realized that formal leadership was not formally being taught. Knowing each future platoon leader would graduate and assume positions of responsibility to direct and influence...

Last summer, commanders of the 2nd Battalion, 11th Infantry Regiment, at Fort Moore, Georgia, the unit overseeing the Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course, identified several gaps in their program of instruction. At the top of this list was what was considered the key word in the course’s name: Leader.

As the unit’s commanders assessed leader development in the Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course (IBOLC), they realized that formal leadership was not formally being taught. Knowing each future platoon leader would graduate and assume positions of responsibility to direct and influence...

Last summer, commanders of the 2nd Battalion, 11th Infantry Regiment, at Fort Moore, Georgia, the unit overseeing the Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course, identified several gaps in their program of instruction. At the top of this list was what was considered the key word in the course’s name: Leader.

As the unit’s commanders assessed leader development in the Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course (IBOLC), they realized that formal leadership was not formally being taught. Knowing each future platoon leader would graduate and assume positions of responsibility to direct and influence...

Training with partners and allies is critical to building credible and capable relationships between militaries. One way the U.S. highlights its commitment to foreign partners is by combined training during combat training center rotations.

At the October 2023 Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) rotation in Hawaii, four foreign countries operated cooperatively with forces from U.S. Army Pacific, in this case, the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. These American forces included embedded advisers from the 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB)...

Training with partners and allies is critical to building credible and capable relationships between militaries. One way the U.S. highlights its commitment to foreign partners is by combined training during combat training center rotations.

At the October 2023 Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) rotation in Hawaii, four foreign countries operated cooperatively with forces from U.S. Army Pacific, in this case, the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. These American forces included embedded advisers from the 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB)...

Training with partners and allies is critical to building credible and capable relationships between militaries. One way the U.S. highlights its commitment to foreign partners is by combined training during combat training center rotations.

At the October 2023 Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) rotation in Hawaii, four foreign countries operated cooperatively with forces from U.S. Army Pacific, in this case, the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. These American forces included embedded advisers from the 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB)...

The green logbooks were slightly askew in the wooden bookcase—neatly kept, but none stood straight and vertical. Most were heavily worn on the edges; on some, the material was so threadbare that it revealed the thick cardboard underneath.

Handwritten dates lined the spines, a few going back to the 1950s. Maj. Gen. William Zana scanned each until he found the logbook that included March 1991. Opening it, he thumbed its pages. Long before his most recent assignment as the National Guard Bureau’s director of strategic plans and policy and international affairs at the Pentagon, Zana had served...

Heroic Soldiers Tell Their Own Stories

American Heroes book cover.

American Heroes. James Patterson and Matt Eversmann With Tim Malloy and Chris Mooney. Little, Brown and Co. 384 pages. $32.50

By Col. Cole Kingseed, U.S. Army retired

On the heels of their No. 1 New York Times bestseller Walk in My Combat Boots, James Patterson and Matt Eversmann, with Tim Malloy and Chris Mooney, have collaborated on a fitting sequel honoring America’s most gallant service members. Superbly crafted from dozens of interviews with the country’s most decorated military heroes—or, if the warrior is deceased, someone close to...

Each year, the Association of the U.S. Army presents the George Catlett Marshall Medal in recognition of distinguished and selfless service.

First presented in 1960, it is AUSA’s highest honor, and this year’s recipient is a group that for more than two centuries has been known as “the backbone of the Army”—the United States Army Noncommissioned Officer.

“From the American Revolution to today, the United States Army Noncommissioned Officer has been the backbone of the force, training, leading, coaching and taking care of soldiers,” said retired Gen. Bob Brown, AUSA president and CEO.

...

Each year, the Association of the U.S. Army presents the George Catlett Marshall Medal in recognition of distinguished and selfless service.

First presented in 1960, it is AUSA’s highest honor, and this year’s recipient is a group that for more than two centuries has been known as “the backbone of the Army”—the United States Army Noncommissioned Officer.

“From the American Revolution to today, the United States Army Noncommissioned Officer has been the backbone of the force, training, leading, coaching and taking care of soldiers,” said retired Gen. Bob Brown, AUSA president and CEO.

...