ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

“Every death of a soldier is a tragedy. Every death by suicide is even more tragic,” said James Helis, director of the Army Resilience Directorate. “It has cascading effects across the unit, to the battle buddies, to the squadmates, to the family, to the leaders. This is a problem that we have to stay on top of all the time.”

Speaking March 8 during an Association of the U.S. Army Noon Report webinar, Helis said that soldiers who die by suicide tend to be young, junior enlisted men experiencing a crisis.

On-time and adequate funding, as well as programs focused on people, modernization and readiness, remain top advocacy efforts for the Association of the U.S. Army.

John Davies, the longtime director of Membership for the Association of the U.S. Army, will retire and assume the new role of senior adviser Jan. 1.

AUSA’s new Membership director will be retired Command Sgt. Maj. Troy Welch, who currently serves as the association’s director of NCO and Soldier Programs. 

A new Association of the U.S. Army Land Warfare paper cautions that the evolving Multi-Domain Battle concept and resulting doctrine may not succeed without clearing a major obstacle. 

“There is, to put it mildly, no broad consensus on what MDO is,” says the paper written by Lt. Col. Marco Lyons, who has tactical and operational experience in the Balkans, the Middle East, Afghanistan and the Western Pacific, and retired Col. David Johnson, a widely published researcher and Army strategist who died just before the paper was published. 

As it has done for more than 380 years, the Army National Guard will meet the mission, but the author of a new paper cautions that citizen-soldiers could be “overworked” if the component is made to mirror the Regular Army. 

Examining National Guard 4.0, a program launched in 2017, author Maj. Roye Locklear Jr. lays out the evolution of the Guard’s organizational framework since 1636 and the modern-day challenges faced by the Army’s second-largest component. 

In the run-up to the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2022 Annual Meeting and Exposition, the association’s Center for Leadership hosted a half-day staff ride focused on the importance of building trust in military and business settings. 

The Association of the U.S. Army is offering a new no-cost membership option to soldiers, family members and anyone interested in supporting and learning more about America’s Army.

This free Basic Membership is designed to give those who haven’t yet joined the Army’s professional association a chance to become a member at no cost and see firsthand what AUSA does in support of the world’s most powerful land force.

The Association of the U.S. Army is releasing three new podcasts in October as part of a major relaunch of its “Army Matters” series.

First launched in February 2019, the podcast is undergoing some major changes, with new show music, increased storytelling chops and a focus on leadership lessons across the total Army that will be officially introduced Oct. 10.