ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Wars are a complex business. Ending a war always includes more than ending the fighting. As Fred Iklé wrote in his 1971 classic Every War Must End, it’s hard to fight a war, harder still to end one well. Countries that have experienced the intensity of war as Ukraine has do not just turn on a dime and return to so-called normal.

Media attention is primarily on the fighting in Ukraine. This is probably natural, but it shouldn’t be the focus of senior civil and military strategists. U.S. and NATO leaders, in coordination with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration, must...

Recently, I went back to West Point—a place I called home for many years—to celebrate the life’s work of one of the most joyous, selfless and genuine leaders I have ever encountered: Brig. Gen. Rich Morales.

They say a failure is only a lesson on the journey to success. When you’re part of our military tribe, there are folks you remember who were there, especially in the dark moments. Morales was always there for me when I failed, and he treated me the same whether I was a hotshot captain, a congressman or an acting secretary of the Army. I’m not sure if he even knows the positive impact...

Examining American Strategy in Vietnam

Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965–1968. Mark Moyar. Encounter Books. 692 pages. $49.99

By Col. Gregory Fontenot, U.S. Army retired

Mark Moyar’s Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965–1968 is the second in his trilogy on the Vietnam War. This volume covers the period from the insertion of U.S. forces to the aftermath of the Tet Offensive.

Moyar challenges the orthodox view of the Vietnam War that holds the American intervention was “wrongheaded and unjust.” He believes the war “worthy but improperly executed.” The Vietnamese are the...

The year is 2030. A battalion commander crawls silently through the brush with his forward reconnaissance team. The group halts at a muddy precipice, looking out at the jungle canopy below and a sea of jagged mountains fading into the clouds. The commander pulls out his tablet and takes a quick glance at the joint coalition common operational picture and the adversary’s collection capabilities focused on his position. He has small teams positioned throughout the craggy terrain and lethal long-range precision fires and air defense in the rear.

After a minute, he clicks off his tablet. He can...

The year is 2030. A battalion commander crawls silently through the brush with his forward reconnaissance team. The group halts at a muddy precipice, looking out at the jungle canopy below and a sea of jagged mountains fading into the clouds. The commander pulls out his tablet and takes a quick glance at the joint coalition common operational picture and the adversary’s collection capabilities focused on his position. He has small teams positioned throughout the craggy terrain and lethal long-range precision fires and air defense in the rear.

After a minute, he clicks off his tablet. He can...

The Chinese Communist Party cannot picture peaceful coexistence of President Xi Jinping’s rejuvenated China and the United States’ democratic way of life within the liberal world order. Accordingly, the People’s Republic of China continues its work to coercively rewrite norms and underwrite irresponsible behavior that undermines global order, including its own missile launches over Taiwan, North Korean missile tests and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In this environment, many think the U.S. Army plays a small role in a so-called air and maritime theater named for two oceans. At best, these...

America’s First Corps, I Corps, is the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s assigned Army operational command. It has a unique requirement to define how an Army corps must train for, compete with and, if necessary, fight and win a conflict with America’s pacing challenge—China.

Army doctrine defines the corps’ role as setting conditions for divisions to maneuver by employing joint capabilities, maintaining the tempo of operations through sustainment and other rear operations, and defeating enemy midrange fires. Warfighter Exercise 23-1, conducted from Sept. 24 to Oct. 3, was the Army’s first...

America’s First Corps, I Corps, is the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s assigned Army operational command. It has a unique requirement to define how an Army corps must train for, compete with and, if necessary, fight and win a conflict with America’s pacing challenge—China.

Army doctrine defines the corps’ role as setting conditions for divisions to maneuver by employing joint capabilities, maintaining the tempo of operations through sustainment and other rear operations, and defeating enemy midrange fires. Warfighter Exercise 23-1, conducted from Sept. 24 to Oct. 3, was the Army’s first...

Depictions of Army recruits commonly evoke images of recent high school graduates reciting the oath of enlistment, but recruits whose call to service comes later in life could represent an untapped demographic for an Army struggling to fill its ranks. 

After her first year at Western Kentucky University, Mitisha Martin joined the Kentucky Army National Guard, but her heart and head “were not in the right place.”

She was navigating life as a young adult, and she was not ready. Her time with the Guard ended after a month, but her dream to serve never did. “The passion was still always...

Among the U.S. military installations in the Republic of Korea, one stands out.  

Situated approximately 40 miles south of Seoul and nestled along Korea’s western coast is the largest and most extensive U.S. overseas military base—U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys. 

As the Army’s home in Korea, USAG Humphreys has been called “the largest power projection platform in the Pacific,” and it boasts the Army’s most active overseas airfield, Desiderio Army Airfield. This year, it’s expected that the USAG Humphreys population will grow to more than 38,000 U.S. and South Korean personnel who live or...

When Paris Davis joined the ROTC unit at Louisiana’s Southern University and later the Army, the nation was still divided by segregation.

Signs on bars read, “Whites only.” Some seats on buses were off-limits to African Americans. Schools, streets and shops were still divided. And just 14 years had passed since President Harry Truman had desegregated the military. Davis was warned, “Are you sure you want to join?”

Davis didn’t listen. He became one of the Army’s first Black Special Forces officers—and his service and ensuing actions in Vietnam would come full circle on March 3 as he...

Speaking to the Costs of Close Fighting

Understanding Urban Warfare. Liam Collins and John Spencer. Howgate Publishing. 392 pages. $29.95

By Lt. Col. Russell Glenn, U.S. Army retired

That more of Earth’s population now lives in urban areas than elsewhere is well known. The implications for those conducting warfare in these environments are less so.

We need only look at recent conflicts to recognize that cities and their populations will constitute vital terrain even in theaters typified by rurality. Ukraine demonstrates that urban populations are likely to suffer a...

I took command of an infantry company in the 28th Infantry Division of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in 1985. The company I commanded was designated Company A, 2nd Battalion, 109th Infantry Regiment, and the unit had an authorized strength of 144 soldiers. I was honored to have an opportunity to lead the commissioned officers, NCOs and soldiers assigned to the outfit.

I remember reading an Army leadership manual earlier in my career before taking this command. In the manual, there was a statement I will never forget. It said a military unit, and any organization, for that matter...

In June 1775, the Continental Congress commissioned George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental Army. He led the Army for the duration of the American Revolution and during two years of uncertainty following the cessation of armed conflict.

Many Americans fought the British for 6½ years, from 1775 to 1781. Some were present at the beginning and fought in militia companies at the battles of Lexington and Concord, both in Massachusetts, in April 1775. Most Americans assumed a decisive victory over the British had been secured at the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781...

Many junior Army leaders describe the art of command and the science of control as if they lay diametrically opposed along a single axis. Mission Command is the Army’s command and control doctrine that emphasizes decentralized execution based upon mutual trust. In dynamic and uncertain environments, many leaders rationalize that eliminating as much control as possible is necessary to facilitate independent action.

This line of thinking supposes that the skillful commander achieves Mission Command by eliminating controls in order to accomplish the mission. The antithesis of this, the risk...