As the U.S. Army continues to face challenges in Iraq and in Afghanistan – the longest war the United States has fought with an all-volunteer force – the U.S. Army remains in the forefront of not only military operations, but also stabilization, humanitarian, peacekeeping and nation-building efforts during these threatening and uncertain times.As these global missions evolve, the Army – active, Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve – must develop the leaders of today and tomorrow who must be trained to adapt to these changes not only in the unique battle spaces of the 21st century, but also in a variety of cultural climates where they may be called on to serve.Army doctrine now calls for leaders who must be able to operate in joint, interagency and multi-national environments and, further, be culturally astute and capable to use this awareness and understanding to conduct operations innovatively in an uncertain future.The bottom line is to build and sustain an Army – through its leaders and its "Profession of Arms" – that has the right blend of diverse cultural capabilities "to facilitate full-spectrum operations," as the nation, as well as the armed forces, face a period of constrained resources.Since becoming secretary of the Army, John M. McHugh has undertaken as his "key project" transforming the institutional force and the role of its future leaders by giving them the tools to allow them to "hedge against that uncertain future" by becoming "adaptive, innovative, thinking officers … who can intellectually rise to any challenge and who will operate with competence and confidence in an environment of uncertainties."Speaking to the over 270 Reserve Officers’ Training Corps cadets at the U.S. Army Cadet Command – George C. Marshall ROTC Awards and Leadership Seminar at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), Lexington, Va., in mid-April, McHugh told the senior cadets, "This Army can outfight any enemy on the face of the earth, but we have to do more than just fight the enemy."Adding, "We have to develop the thinkers to out plan, to out plot, to overcome the enemy militarily not only with force, but intellectually as well."Maj. Gen. Mark McDonald, commanding general, U.S. Army Cadet Command, who is responsible for training and producing more than 60 percent of the commissioned officers for the U.S. Army through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and, since October 1998, the federal Officer Candidate School (OCS), has, by all standards, an awesome task."We don’t just pass out scholarships. We go after high-quality individuals," McDonald said. "We are looking for young people who are the whole package, what we term the scholar, athlete, leader."Cadet Command was stood up in 1986, and McDonald, an ROTC graduate from the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, who was commissioned a second lieutenant of field artillery, is its ninth commander.McDonald is the first commander to lead Cadet Command from its new headquarters at Fort Knox, Ky., moving from its original home of 25 years at Fort Monroe, Va., due to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) legislation.The command’s senior program is located at 273 host institutions – with an additional 1,066 partnership schools of higher education affiliated with host schools, across America and in U.S. territories – with the ROTC program.There are more than 36,000 cadets in the college-level program.The Junior ROTC program, also under Cadet Command, has units on 1,731 high school campuses around the world to include Germany, Japan, Korea, Guam, Puerto Rico and American Samoa.There are over 308,000 high school students in this program that promotes and develops good leadership and citizen skills.This year, 43 schools were added to the program and, depending on future budget considerations, the command hopes the junior program will continue to grow into the future.McDonald is the first Cadet Command commander that is a product of both the senior and junior ROTC programs. He credits his course in life to the three retired NCOs who mentored him when he joined Junior ROTC as a high school freshman."When I saw these three men, how they carried themselves, how they conducted themselves, I knew there was something special about them," McDonald recalls 30 years later.Adding, "And I knew that whatever made them the way they were – men of purpose, who knew what they wanted to do, and how to accomplish it – whatever made them the way they were, I wanted to be a part of it."The federal OCS program is currently conducted exclusively at Fort Benning, Ga., the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence (formerly the U.S. Army Infantry School and Center). Vision statementIn an interview conducted during an event at the 2011 Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio, Texas, McDonald told reporters that his vision for Cadet Command centered on three important principals:Accomplishing the mission by commissioning high-quality officers and running the nation’s premier citizenship program in high schools.Taking care of people by setting cadets up for success – educating them, training them and giving them the resources and opportunities to accomplish the mission.Maintaining the important mindset of being deployment-ready and helping cadets prepare for deployment. History of successTo meet these objectives and to ensure that Cadet Command, as the leader in training and growing the culturally-aware officers – the Army’s future leaders of the 21st century – the command must produce the number of second lieutenants necessary to meet the Army’s manning levels.For example, in 2009, the command’s mission was to commission 4,500 cadets. The demands of the service increased with time, resulting in the Fiscal Year 2011 and 2012 missions increasing to 5,350 commissioned.McDonald feels strongly that this mission will be accomplished, and this will result in 3,050 officers for the active component; 1,300 for the Army National Guard; and 750 for Army Reserve."We grew from the mission in 2005 of commissioning 3,900 to today’s mission of 5,350 commissioned," McDonald said, "To accomplish that rapid growth we changed the way we did our business."Adding, "We received more funding, we instituted a lot more four-year scholarships and we spread out our recruiting efforts all across the country. We are making our mission now and we will be making it in the future."The number of three-year and two-year scholarships has also increased over the years, attracting highly-competitive, academically-oriented young men and women to the program.Cadet Command, officials said, is also seeing a higher retention rate with the recipients of an ROTC scholarship. Although analyzing the data from a brief period of current time, those who accept a scholarship are showing a "greater propensity to stay in the program.""We’re in good shape," McDonald said. Quality of cadetsAs the number of cadets to be commissioned grows to meet the Army’s leadership needs, McDonald said, "it’s not just about numbers, it’s about quality."Emphasizing that the quality of the cadets recruited and entering ROTC has not diminished and it has not been sacrificed for quantity, McDonald said, "Cadet Command is much more that a recruiting organization. Recruiting is just the first step."Continuing the time-tested "Scholar – Leader – Athlete" criteria approach, Cadet Command today seeks high-quality applicants who have excelled academically, physically and have exhibited the potential for leadership.Army officials have said that when the service examines applicants’ national scholarship statistics – the SAT scores and the GPAs (grade point averages) – they are all showing a steady rise. Because all ROTC scholarships are merit based, there is, therefore, a higher quality applicant.McDonald said the Army is also placing emphasis on attracting and retaining cadets who will become officers with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) backgrounds.The Army is building the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Innovative Asset vehicle designed to attract not only future officers, but also soldiers and civilians with STEM qualifications to its ranks.The Army will unveil this vehicle at the 2012 Army All-American Bowl on Jan. 7."So it’s more than just quantity," McDonald said. "Quantity versus quality, it’s the quality you need, and that’s what we are really after. I’d rather have 4,800 ‘quality’ than 5,350 ‘non-quality.’" ‘CULP’Another program that trains the Army’s future leaders to make them more culturally adept and proficient in dealing with nation building efforts in diverse cultures is CULP.CULP – the Cultural Understanding and Language Proficiency program, sends cadets to a foreign country and actually immerses them in the culture and the language.Cadet Command formed a partnership with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2006 to deploy academy and ROTC cadets overseas.In October 2009, Cadet Command, realizing the program’s potential, stood up its Culture and Language Division in its G-3 Directorate and officially chartered the CULP pilot program for three years.Cadets are sent all over the world – including Africa, Taiwan, and South America – to cite a few. This immerses the cadets and allows them to work and live in another culture.This extra dimensional training program for the Army’s future leaders is done during the school year, but some are sent during the summer months.The CULP program is, however, flexible. For example, cadets were sent to Taiwan during their winter break.Army officials said, "The timing worked out well. These cadets actually gave up their winter holiday to go on one of our cultural immersion deployments."The cadets in the program have very specific objectives they must achieve while they are deployed, and when they return, they have a very specific list of requirements that are part of their AAR – After Action Review – of the trip.Upon their return, cadets are required to present written and oral reports that are shared with their professors of military science (PMS) personnel and their fellow cadets.In addition to the cultural awareness aspect of this leadership training program, there is the important language component.The Defense Department, according to Army officials, has identified a list of critical languages – such as Arabic, Chinese, Pashto, Urdu, and Farsi, to cite a few.To incentivize cadets, the service subsidizes the cost of studying the critical languages. As the cadet becomes more proficient in the language, the language then melds into the cultural awareness aspect of the training.In June 2009, Cadet Command began paying cadets a Culture and Language Incentive Pay – Bonus of $250 a credit hour – up to $3,000 a year.This far exceeded expectations and, as a result, the Army predicted this trend should increase steadily in the future.Cadets are now expected to select a region of the world and begin training to a level of competence both in the region’s culture and its languages to meet the established goals prior to graduation and commissioningIf there are cadets studying Chinese, for example, they will be selected to go to the Taiwan cultural immersion training program. They will be immersed in the culture; immersed in the language.Not only is CULP a successful program by Defense Department and Department of the Army standards, it is rapidly becoming very popular as a goal to pursue among the most important audience – ROTC cadets.This program is considered so important, Cadet Command now has a cultural awareness component at the Leader Development and Assessment Course (LDAC) – Operation Warrior Forge – the 29-day training event at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. (See related story on Page 11)"Our LDAC course," McDonald said, "is a very progressive training scenario – very hands-on. It has a lot of opportunities to evaluate our cadets’ leadership potential while they demonstrate the skills they have studied."Adding, "This process ensures that they have the military competencies the Army needs." Bottom lineThe Army is training, producing and growing future leaders through the ROTC program who possess the right blend of warfighter, language and cultural skills required to support global operations in a state of persistent conflict now and well into the 21st century."Our key challenge," McHugh said, "is to make sure the [cadets] have the education, the training, the time necessary to retain the challenge in this fight."Adding, "In Iraq and Afghanistan, right now, the United States Army has provided authorities and flexibilities to our young officers in a way that’s unprecedented. And, they have responded beautifully."Freakley said, "Make a difference for your soldiers by being a leader in character, knowing your stuff, training your soldiers properly and going forward to serve – not to be served."