ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

On July 9, the U.S. Army announced a new physical fitness test – the Army Combat Fitness Test, or ACFT. The test is designed to replace the APFT with a gender- and age-neutral assessment that will more closely align with the physical demands soldiers will face in combat. Field tests for the ACFT will begin in October 2018, and by October 2020 all Regular Army, Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve soldiers will be required to take the test.

Here, the U.S. Army Center for Initial Military Training answers some of the most common questions that soldiers, veterans and civilians had about the...

We set out with a vision to remain the premier voice for America’s soldiers here in Harford, Cecil, and surrounding counties located in the general area of Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), Md., and to remain a dedicated team committed to building the best professional and representative association for the world’s best Army.

We’ve done that. Here are just a few of the highlights from the last year.

We remained very active throughout the year, supporting programs ranging from our tradition of holding the Army Birthday celebration – we held one for the Army National Guard as well – to the annual...

Soldiers of the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps (MSC) paid tribute to its history and accomplishments in supporting the entire Army Family during its 101st anniversary.

For those who are not familiar with the corps and its battlefield and garrison operations, the Medical Service Corps is an essential part of Army Medicine.

“The specialties within the corps include comptrollers, information technology, logistics, optometry, podiatry and pharmacy,” said Col. Aatif Sheikh, the deputy commander for patient support at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The professionals in this career...

The 2018 Association of the United States Army Medical Symposium (MEDAUSA) was held on June 26-27, in San Antonio, Texas, to educate government, academic, civic and veteran-advocates on Army Medicine initiatives, issues and future plans in today’s operating environment.

The event is one of two key annual AUSA-sponsored communication events for Army Medicine.

Lt. Gen. Nadja Y. West, U.S. Army surgeon general and commanding general, U.S. Army Medical Command said, “It is really important as our Army moves forward in the future to remember as our Army goes, so does Army Medicine.”

“It’s important...

Lt. Gen. Max W. Noah, who retired from as the Army on June 30, 1988, after 35 years of service, died June 15 at the age of 86 at Fort Belvoir, Va.

He served from July 1984 to his retirement as comptroller of the Army.

An Association of the Army life member, Noah, when retired, served for many years as the chairman of the AUSA Finance Committee.

A West Point graduate, class of 1953, Noah would distinguish himself in peace and war, in all levels of command, as a combat and civil engineer while serving in the United States, Korea, Vietnam and Panama.

As commandant and commanding general of the U.S...

The ability to think at the enterprise level—across the entire enterprise—is crucial for Army leaders. While many of us may not become enterprise leaders, we can become enterprise thinkers who appreciate and understand the big picture and act in the best interests of the overall enterprise—the Army.

We all encounter opportunities in our work and daily lives to engage medium and ill-structured problems requiring strong thinking skills. The stronger our thinking skills, the greater our chances of success in supporting strategic and enterprise leaders. Many of us spend the initial stages of our...

The 117-year-old U.S. Army War College has been a launching pad for many of the nation’s most talented strategists and leaders, among them former President and five-star General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Colin Powell, and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer.

World War I leader Gen. John J. Pershing, World War II’s General of the Army Omar N. Bradley and Persian Gulf War commander Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. are all graduates of the educational institution founded to teach lessons to future leaders...

Before commanders can approve a concept of operations, direct proper planning and preparation of a battle or campaign, provide guidance for future branches and sequels, or set in place the right intelligence, command and control, or logistics networks, they must be able to visualize the operation at hand. The degree to which a plan and its execution are successful is often related to the quality of the commander’s ability to visualize. Therein lies the rub: With respect to megacities (cities of over 10 million people), commanders cannot visualize what they haven’t seen or experienced.

When I...

Multi-Domain Operations are an increasingly discussed topic in the Army, highlighting trends and developments on the battlefield. While counterinsurgency remains relevant, the Army acknowledges it also will likely face enemies with equal or near-equal battlefield capabilities in the future.

Recent events reveal potential enemies with growing capabilities in precision-guided munitions (PGMs), longer-range artillery, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), electronic warfare systems and sensors, and cyber warfare capabilities. These developments reveal forces with increasingly integrated and even...

In public and professional military circles, discussion continues about America “winning” past wars compared to recent failed endeavors. What these discussions lack is a baseline for the definition of winning.

War is complex. Victory is diversely defined, can be influenced by society, and in the end is founded on a common understanding of how a conflict is supposed to end. Is a war won by the armed forces of one side capitulating and laying down their arms? In a traditional sense, a war is won by a signature on a piece of paper. For some wars, victory means deposing the other side’s political...

“University of Pennsylvania was home to one of the first computers,” Peter Lynch recalls, referring to ENIAC, the world’s first general-purpose electronic computer. This might seem a non sequitur in a conversation about military service, but the original function of this general-purpose machine was, as Lynch points out, to calculate firing solutions for Army and Navy artillery.

Like his graduate school’s historied computer, before Lynch would achieve success in the civilian sector, write three bestselling books and manage the $14 billion Fidelity Magellan Fund, he traces his early development...

It’s a nightmare scenario. An enemy unmanned aerial vehicle monitors the cellphone signals of troops below, identifies their location and sends the coordinates to a headquarters, which launches an artillery strike against the unsuspecting troops.

This is the capability Russia brings to the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region. And it’s a capability the U.S. Army has not had to contend with during the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result, the Army has much to learn—and in some cases, relearn—about electronic warfare. Observing how the Russians use electronic warfare in...

Co-authors

• Joseph King, Braxton Bragg Chapter
• Joseph Voboril, Braxton Bragg Chapter
• Allisha Lee, Fort Campbell Chapter

Greetings from the Association of the United States Army (AUSA), our Army’s association for education and professional development, and a major supporter of the Army’s Soldier for Life efforts.

I had the opportunity to visit both Fort Bragg, N.C., and Fort Campbell, Ky., this past month to focus on our Army’s emerging leaders and young professionals.

To start, Fort Bragg is one of those special Army installations where everyone in uniform seems to rotate through the installation on...

After nearly two weeks of stops and starts, the Senate voted to invoke cloture on the fiscal 2019 defense authorization bill.

Cloture, a procedure used by the Senate to end debate on a bill without also rejecting the bill, was necessary because of Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ken., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, who sought votes on amendments related to indefinite military detention of U.S. citizens.

In response, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., objected, causing Paul and Lee to object to consideration of other amendments thus creating an impasse.

Once cloture was invoked, the Senate voted to pass the John S. McCain...

While reflecting on the Army’s nearly two-and-a-half centuries of defending the nation, Secretary of the Army Mark T. Esper said he also remains optimistic about the future of the service he leads.

“We are modernizing the force. We also have a new vision ... that tells us where to go, how to get there, and when. And I’m confident with this vision,” Esper said.

That vision, he said, ensures that even a decade from now, the U.S. Army will retain its place as “the most dominant, the most lethal fighting force in history.”

In the courtyard of the Pentagon on June 14, Esper was joined by Deputy...