Category Archives: Guest Post

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Protect & Defend

#BranchSeries - Military Police

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Back and forth, I paced the floor of my dorm room at Boston College. I was a senior and facing down branching. Finally, when the phone call came in, I was overwhelmed with joy. I was going to be a part of the greatest branch in the Army. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a police officer. Then when September 11, 2001 happened, my dreams shifted towards something larger. I still loved law enforcement, but I wanted to serve in the military as well. What separates the Military Police from every other branch is that we serve those who chose to serve. We embody our motto, “Of the Troops, For the Troops”. Military Police enable other units’ commanders to conduct their missions. We preserve their fighting force and secure their installations or other critical areas.  

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Essayons!

#BranchSeries - Engineer

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Why the Engineer Corps?

The U.S. Army Engineer Regimental motto is Essayons! It is French for, “Let us try”. This isn’t a sympathetic, half-hearted try. It’s a statement of confidence as almost if to say, where others failed, we will succeed. I wanted to be an Engineer because I wanted to succeed where others hadn’t yet. I wanted a diverse mission set that required me to be physically fit and mentally sharp. The Engineer Corps offered it all.

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From Your Future Soldiers

#BranchSeries - Aviation

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There are few things more exciting, more freeing, and more attractive to humans than man-made flight. Many Soldiers have walked the broken ground of combat and looked to the sky. With a mixture of envy and anticipation, they search the horizon for their Chinook ride home, their Blackhawk MEDEVAC, or their Apache close-combat attack support. What does it take to be an Aviation lieutenant? The Aviation community expects its leaders to stay humble, maintain self-awareness, and identify metrics for success. Although these three components do not underpin all of the factors that the Aviation community expects from its young leaders, they do represent key themes that ultimately stress perhaps the best piece of advice I can give: LISTEN AND TALK TO YOUR SOLDIERS. Here is what your future Soldiers want you to know.

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First to Fire

#BranchSeries - Air Defense Artillery

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Everyone that was of age in 2001 has their “9/11 Story”. Mine took place while attending the West Point Prep School, back when it was located on Fort Monmouth, NJ, just across the Hudson River from New York City. I wasn’t even an actual cadet yet, but a “cadet candidate” as we were called as prep students. “Cadet” was a title reserved for actual West Point students. I was just 18 years old with a brand new cell phone; a Sprint flip-phone that was state of the art! If only then I knew the kind of technology and mission I would have years later as a leader in the Army’s Air Defense Artillery Branch.

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Artillery – A Precision Art Form

#BranchSeries - Artillery

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In the summer of 2008, I was waiting on the bleachers at LDAC (now Advanced Camp) in Fort Lewis, Washington for an event called “U.S. Weapons Day”. At that point, I still wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do in the Army. I had some ideas, but no clear first choice. The announcer began describing the systems in front of us, and then an M198 Howitzer fired a 98 lbs projectile, 2 km downrange with a thunderous detonation that reached all the way back to the bleachers. It was absolutely a marketing ploy on the Army’s part, and it absolutely worked on me.

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Humility and Shared Understanding

A Division Commander's Take on Leadership

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Leaders, at every echelon and in every organization, are in the business of creating and communicating shared understanding. I was recently afforded the opportunity to sit down with Maj. Gen. Bill Burleson, the Division Commander of 7th Infantry Division, for a dialogue on leadership and its scope and scalability to the tactical level of war. By the very nature of it being a closely held personal virtue of his, he would not openly describe himself this way – but I will. Maj. Gen. Burleson is perhaps one of the most humble leaders I have met in my career. It was clear that humility and the philosophy of Mission Command are deeply rooted in his leadership style. Below are his thoughts on leadership, Mission Command (MC), and self-development.

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It Can Be Done

Lessons from an HHC TOC Defense Live Fire

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As the company commander of a Headquarters & Headquarters Company (HHC), I was given a tremendous opportunity to conduct a company live fire (LFX) for the first time in the unit’s memorable history. The company had minimal experience in the tactical arena. We struggled with the little things like qualifying on our machine guns and carrying our weapons at the low ready. Leading up to the LFX, we focused on building soldier familiarity with basic skills and the ability to operate tactically in a deployed environment. We knew the experience of conducting a live fire exercise would be beneficial, but we didn’t realize how much we would learn from the process.

The Butcher, the Baker, and the Candlestick Maker – an HHC LFX is rarely “sexy”. It is hard to plan and even more difficult to pack into an already full training schedule focused on preparing lethal squads and platoons. But…it can be done!
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From Fight to FLEP

The Army's Legal Education Program

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It might seem odd to have an article about law school on a site dedicated to technical and tactical excellence. But, success at the company level directly correlates to a civilian legal education. While applying to the Funded Legal Education Program (FLEP), I couldn’t find helpful resources. I wrote this to give other company-grade officers considering the program some perspective on the decision. These lessons will be just as applicable for anyone considering law school as part of their transition to civilian life.

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Learning Agility

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The U.S. Army is in transition after sixteen years of conflict. Previously, the nation leveraged its industrial base to support a decisive edge over the enemy. Material solutions are not enough to maintain the advantage in a future of strategic uncertainty and rapidly adapting peer and near-peer threats. Leadership – the “L” in the DOTMLPF-P construct – is perhaps the most critical asset to our nation. The U.S. Army will establish overmatch by investing into its most valued commodity, the leaders of its irreplaceable soldiers. Learning agility provides the necessary framework to support leader overmatch in the future of conflict.

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A Leader’s Guide to Addressing Suicide

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The typical nature of Army instruction fails to properly address how to handle suicidal soldiers. Serving as a volunteer instructor at the Combat Medic (68W) sustainment course allowed me to develop an approach tackling the difficult subject of suicide in the military. This approach comes for my experiences working as the Deputy State Surgeon of the Nebraska Army National Guard and my experiences working directly with homeless and disabled veterans with the Nebraska Department of Labor. Effectively addressing suicide requires an understanding of the negative impacts of cognitive dissonance, the impact of disease/injury on suicidality, and the resources to assist suicidal soldiers.

The views in this post are of the author and do not reflect official policy of the United States Army or the U.S. Government. They are tips to leaders in understanding and assisting soldiers with suicidal ideations. They are not a replacement for medical or professional attention.