PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY www.ausa.org October 26, 2023 | AUSA Extra 1 Changes coming for Army equipment T he Army is pulling excess equipment out of some of its formations to “reduce the com- plexity” of maintaining and account- ing for gear that’s no longer needed, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George said. In the first round of inventory re- views, he said, excess equipment be- longing to the 82nd Airborne Divi- sion at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, formerly known as Fort Bragg, and the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia, will be removed and taken to a warehouse. “The goal here is to reduce the complexity for our company com- manders and our units that are out there so that they’re not dragging this extra equipment” around with them, George said earlier this month Soldiers with the 3rd Infantry Division conduct a tactical road march with Bradley Fighting Vehicles Oct. 22 during training near Hohenfels, Germany. (U.S. ARMY RESERVE/SPC. WILLIAM KUANG) AUSA Paper Urges Focus on Retention 3 App Aims to Help Soldiers in Cold Weather 4 Book Program Annual Meeting Authors’ Forum 6 Chapter Highlights Eagle Chapters 7 IN THIS ISSUE VOLUME 5 NUMBER 26 OCTOBER 26, 2023 during a news conference at the As- sociation of the U.S. Army’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C. The equipment review is one ele- ment of George’s four focus areas: warfighting, delivering ready com- bat formations, continuous transfor- mation and strengthening the Army profession. “Warfighting is the reason our Army exists,” said George, who was sworn in Sept. 21 as the 41st Army chief of staff. “We are not a Europe Army or a Pacific Army. We are not brigade-centric or division-centric. We’re a global force that fights when called upon at the scale required.” To maintain its focus on the “core purpose” of warfighting, the Army must “ruthlessly prioritize” how it uses time and resources, George said. It also must reduce complexity in how it fights, equips and builds teams. “Soldiers need to shoot, move and communicate, and they need to bond together by tough training and overcoming adversity side by side,” he said. “Technology should facilitate those fundamentals, not encumber them.” It also means trimming excess equipment from units. George cited as an example a company commander in Europe whose property book was 118 pages. “That makes no sense,” George said. “We will take that off commanders’ plates and off soldiers’ plates. They shouldn’t be spending time caring for equipment they don’t need.” See Equipment, Page 5www.ausa.org ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY October 26, 2023 | AUSA Extra 3 Paper urges more attention on retention challenges Spc. Shannon McLaughlin-McFarland, left, of the Army Reserve’s 536th Signal Com- pany, shakes hands with his commander, Capt. Amed Martin, after reenlisting Oct. 15 in Kaiserslautern, Germany. (U.S. ARMY/STAFF SGT. JESSICA FORESTER) A new paper published by the Association of the U.S. Army urges the Army to expand its “Be All You Can Be” recruiting campaign to also focus on retention challenges. “The Army says it has met its re- tention goals for Fiscal Year 2023,” Lt. Col. Amos Fox writes in the pa- per. “Yet, merely accomplishing a re- tention goal does not tell the whole story; such an accomplishment can actually hide personnel challenges.” In “Be All You Can Be: Sugges- tions for Implementation in the Army,” Fox, a doctoral candidate at the University of Reading and a freelance writer and conflict scholar writing for AUSA, recommends that the Army foster community and cre- ate opportunities for growth using “a more forgiving personnel system” to better retain the talent in its ranks. One way to “positively impact re- tention challenges” is to reduce how often a soldier is asked to move to a new duty station, Fox writes. Home- steading also helps the Army build a greater sense of community, Fox writes. He defines homesteading as “allowing Soldiers—and their fami- lies, if applicable—to put roots down at one location for a period of time that exceeds two to three years.” Homesteading in regiments could allow soldiers to work to- gether longer, “build- ing better cohesion and trust,” he writes. “Homesteading within a regimental structure … might help improve some of the challenges of Army life that are causing much of the personnel attrition of more se- nior Soldiers, non-commissioned offi- cers and commissioned officers,” Fox writes. Though homesteading “would not fix all of the problems associated with Army life, ... it would be a small, first step.” In remarks at the recent AUSA An- nual Meeting and Exposition, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer also emphasized the importance of retention. The “retention mission has to mean something because of how quickly we lose those investments in our people,” Weimer said. Army leaders are weighing options to increase retention of talented soldiers, including extending tours to increase stabilization and unit cohesion, mak- ing adjustments to retention control points and provid- ing choice of assign- ments, Weimer said. While recruiting is the Army’s No. 1 priority right now, the service’s “war for talent” includes retaining top-quality soldiers. “We don’t hire talent, we grow talent,” Weimer said. In addition to homesteading, Fox recommends the Army shift from a personnel system that emphasizes attaining key billets to one that is more forgiving. The current “up-or- out promotion system … in many cases inhibits the Army from being all that it can be,” he writes. Instead of this system, creat- ing professional or technical career tracks could boost retention, accord- ing to Fox. “The force should examine ways in which to retain and promote talented individuals, even if their respective career field options have contracted,” he writes. “One such option is to cre- ate professional or technical tracks. The fields might include plans and strategy career tracts, institutional tracts at Centers of Excellence, or within branch-specific schools, or any other number of options.” To ensure soldiers reach their full potential, the Army as an institution must also be all it can be, Fox writes. “While the Army seeks recruits who are interested in being all they can be in the Army, the institution itself should seek out ways that help it to do the same,” he writes. The paper is available here. While the Army seeks recruits who are interested in being all they can be in the Army, the institution itself should seek out ways that help it to do the same.”www.ausa.org4 AUSA Extra | October 26, 2023 Gen. Bob Brown, USA Ret. President and CEO, AUSA Lt. Gen. Leslie Smith, USA Ret. Vice President, Leadership and Education, AUSA Luc Dunn Editor Desiree Hurlocker Advertising Manager Advertising Information Contact: Fox Associates Inc. 116 W. Kinzie St. • Chicago, IL 60654 Phone: 800-440-0231 Email: adinfo.rmy@foxrep.com ARTICLES. Articles appearing in AUSA Extra do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the officers or members of the Council of Trustees of AUSA, or its editors. Articles are expres- sions of personal opinion and should not be interpreted as reflecting the official opinion of the Department of Defense nor of any branch, command, installation or agency of the Depart- ment of Defense. The publication assumes no responsibility for any unsolicited material. Email: extra@ausa.org ADVERTISING. Neither AUSA Extra, nor its publisher, the Association of the United States Army, makes any representations, warranties or endorsements as to the truth and accuracy of the advertisements appearing herein, and no such representations, warranties or en- dorsements should be implied or inferred from the appearance of the advertisements in the publication. The advertisers are solely respon- sible for the contents of such advertisements. MEMBERSHIP RATES. Premium membership rates are $40 for two years or $75 for five years. Lifetime membership is $400 and can be paid in full or in four monthly installments. A special Premium rate of $10 for two years is open to E1–E4 and cadets only. New two-year Basic membership with select benefits is free. Learn more at www.ausa.org/join or by emailing membersupport@ausa.org, phoning 855-246-6269, or mailing Fulfillment Manager, P.O. Box 101560, Arlington, VA 22210-0860. Voice for the Army – Support For the Soldier PERK OF THE WEEK ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY Did you know Tricare health insurance doesn’t cover ev- erything? AUSA can help you get more out of your Tricare benefit. The association’s Tricare Supple- ment Insurance Plan can help fill the gaps left by Tricare, leaving you $0 to pay after all deductibles are met. Learn more by clicking here. Army refining app to help soldiers operate in cold-weather regions I n line with the Army’s efforts to expand its presence and ability to operate in cold-weather regions, the service has developed an app for sol- diers that helps prevent injuries such as frostbite and hypothermia. “Soldiers working in cold weather environments risk sustaining cold- weather injuries such as frostbite and hypothermia,” according to the Army’s 2022 Health of the Force re- port. “Preventing these injuries is critical since Soldiers often train and operate in austere conditions; this is especially true as the Arctic becomes more important to our national se- curity.” To reduce these injuries, the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine has developed an app called the Cold Weather Ensemble Decision Aid, or CoWEDA. The app allows soldiers to input en- vironmental conditions, work activi- ties and clothing to calculate their risk of cold-weather injury. It can also be used to determine how much clothing insulation is needed depend- ing on conditions and the mission, the report says. Reducing cold-weather injuries is key to bolstering soldiers’ health and enhancing mission readiness. “From 2013 to 2021, [soldiers experienced] 382 frostbite injuries, 1,059 non- freezing cold injury casualties, and 409 cases of hypothermia,” according to the report. “These injuries cause ~5 lost duty days per Soldier at a total yearly cost of [about] $4.5 mil- lion, reduce unit readiness and can increase chances of mission failure.” Researchers are working on up- grades for the app that will enable it to perform even more in-depth cold weather injury prevention, “includ- ing complex interactions such as impacts of wetted clothing” and “ac- curately [predicting] frostbite risk in discrete areas of the body,” according to the report. Researchers hope the app will be a useful tool for Army leaders as they balance safety and rigorous train- ing in cold climates. “The [app] is a preventive medicine tool built to pro- vide leadership, clothing developers, and mission planners a quantifiable means to identify the risk of cold in- juries so training and other activi- ties can be conducted rigorously, but safely, in extreme environments,” ac- cording to the report. Read the full report here. Spc. Josh Wyant, with the 11th Airborne Division, patrols on a snowmobile during a cold-weather training exercise at Donnelly Training Area, Alaska. (U.S. ARMY/JOHN PENNELL)www.ausa.org ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY October 26, 2023 | AUSA Extra 5 Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George addresses a news conference during AUSA’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C. (AUSA PHOTO) Equipment From Page 1 The inventory and disposal of equipment also is part of a review to ensure that items and capabilities that have been added to units over the years and slowly filled property books are relevant and needed in the fight going forward, George said. Led by Gen. Andrew Poppas, com- mander of Army Forces Command, and Gen. Charles Hamilton, com- mander of Army Materiel Command, this first effort to trim excess equip- ment is set to take place over 90 days. George said that, in some cases, the amount of equipment to be re- duced will “be fairly substantial,” and the decision for final disposition will be made by Materiel Command because “I don’t want company com- manders and first sergeants to try to figure that out.” “Some of it we may not need it, maybe turn it in, some of it maybe we’ll bring up to standard and store it for future use, some we may use for parts,” George said. “I think we still have to go through that.” Reducing the amount of excess equipment could also help bring more predictability for soldiers’ operation- al tempo by lowering the number of hours required to maintain obsolete equipment.www.ausa.org6 AUSA Extra | October 26, 2023 ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY Book Program authors draw crowds at Annual Meeting Joseph Craig, left, AUSA’s Book Program director; retired Col. George Coan, second from left; Arun Gupta, third from left, CEO of the NobleReach Foundation; and retired Lt. Gen. Leslie Smith, right, the association’s vice president for Leadership and Education, pose for a photo with AUSA authors presenting their books at the 2023 Annual Meeting. (AUSA PHOTO) M ilitary authors were front and center for the Associa- tion of the U.S. Army’s Book Program at this year’s Annual Meet- ing and Exposition in Washington, D.C. Six authors of official AUSA books presented their works to a packed room at the Authors’ Forum Oct. 9. The NobleReach Foundation spon- sored the event—a first for the fo- rum—and its CEO, Arun Gupta, welcomed the au- dience and showed how they could get free copies of the forthcoming book he co-authored, Venture Meets Mission: Aligning People, Purpose, and Profit to Innovate and Transform. AUSA members can get Gupta’s book for free by clicking here and filling out the form. It will be published Jan. 9. Gupta then passed the mic to re- tired Col. George Coan, former di- rector of AUSA National Security Studies, to moderate the panels. C- SPAN recorded the proceedings for broadcast later this year as part of its BookTV programming. The first panel centered on the challenges of command. Retired Maj. Gen. Gregg Martin grabbed the au- dience’s attention by discussing his new book, Bipolar General: My For- ever War with Mental Illness. Mar- tin, who capped his 36-year Army career as president of the National Defense University, shared candid details from his experiences and detailed his new work as a mental health advocate. Retired Lt. Col. William Stuart Nance followed with a profile of an unheralded but wildly successful command team as seen in Command- ing Professionalism: Simpson, Moore, and the Ninth US Army. Nance, a former armor officer, teaches at the Command and General Staff College. His previous book, Sabers through the Reich: World War II Corps Cav- alry from Normandy to the Elbe, also is an AUSA title. Book Program The third presenter was retired Col. Daniel Morgan, who worked with Kelly Eads to write Black Hearts and Painted Guns: A Battalion’s Journey into Iraq’s Triangle of Death. The authors served together in the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, and Mor- gan emphasized all the challenges commanders and their soldiers faced, both on the battlefield and at home. The forum’s second panel focused on the sharp end of deterrence. Eric Setzekorn began with a discussion of security in the Pacific, as detailed in his book Arming East Asia: Deterring China in the Early Cold War. Setze- korn worked at the Army’s Center of Military History and now teaches at George Mason University and the University of Maryland, Global Campus. Then, in another case of current events bringing a spotlight back onto the subject, retired Col. L. Scott Lin- gamfelter recounted his Middle East service in a time of heightened Arab- Israeli tensions in his book Yanks in Blue Berets: American UN Peace- keepers in the Middle East. Lingam- felter’s previous work, Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War, also is an official title in the AUSA Book Program. Retired Lt. Col. James Lechner wrapped up the event with his first- hand account of Operation Gothic Serpent, 30 years after the Black Hawk Down incident. Lechner cur- rently serves as a war correspondent in Ukraine. With My Shield: An Army Ranger in Somalia is his first book. In addition to presenting their work at the forum, the authors were posted throughout the Annual Meet- ing at the new AUSA Membership Pa- vilion. This year’s record attendance kept them busy meeting attendees, posing for pictures and signing cop- ies of their books. To order their titles, please visit www.ausa.org/books. Joseph Craig is AUSA’s Book Program director. A soldier asks a question during the Au- thors’ Forum at AUSA’s Annual Meeting and Exposition. (AUSA PHOTO)www.ausa.org ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY October 26, 2023 | AUSA Extra 7 Eagle Chapters The following chapters attained Eagle status for September by showing positive membership growth. The number of consecutive months of growth since July 1 is shown in parentheses. Allegheny-Blue Ridge (3) Arizona Territorial (3) Arkansas (3) Arsenal of Democracy (3) Benelux (3) Capital District of New York (3) Central Ohio (3) Chattahoochee Valley-Fort Moore (3) Corporal Bill McMillan-Bluegrass (3) Delaware (3) Denver Centennial (3) Des Moines Freedom (3) Dix (3) First Militia (3) Florida Gulf Stream (3) Fort Leonard Wood-Mid Missouri (3) Fort Liberty (3) Fort Pitt (3) Fort Riley-Central Kansas (3) Fort Sheridan-Chicago (3) Francis Scott Key (3) Gem State (3) GEN Creighton W. Abrams (3) George Washington (3) Greater Atlanta (3) Greater New York-Statue of Liberty (3) Greater Philadelphia (Penn and Franklin) (3) Hellenic (3) Henry Leavenworth (3) Houston Metroplex (3) Indiana (3) Isthmian (3) Last Frontier (3) Magnolia (3) Major Samuel Woodfill (3) Massachusetts Bay (3) MG Harry Greene, Aberdeen (3) MG William F. Dean (3) Milwaukee (3) Minutemen (3) National Training Center-High Desert (3) Newton D. Baker (3) North Texas (3) PFC William Kenzo Nakamura (3) Picatinny Arsenal-Middle Forge (3) Rhode Island (3) San Diego (3) Silicon Valley (3) Suncoast (3) Texas Capital Area (3) Thunderbird (3) Tobyhanna Army Depot (3) Tri-State (3) Virginia Colonial (3) West Point Area (3) Western New York (3) Alamo (2) Captain Meriwether Lewis (2) Carlisle Barracks-Cumberland Valley (2) Catoctin (2) Central Virginia (2) COL Edward Cross (2) Columbia River (2) Connecticut (2) CSM James M. MacDonald-Keystone (2) Emerald Coast-Big Bend-So. Georgia (2) Ethan Allen (2) Fort Campbell (2) Fort Huachuca-Sierra Vista (2) Fort Jackson-Palmetto State (2) Fort Novosel-Wiregrass (2) GA Omar N. Bradley (2) GEN John W. Vessey, Jr (2) GEN Joseph W. Stilwell (2) GEN William C. Westmoreland (2) Greater Augusta-Fort Gordon (2) Greater Kansas City (2) Greater Los Angeles (2) Japan (2) Joshua Chamberlain (2) Korea (2) Marne (2) MG John S. Lekson (2) MG Robert B. McCoy (2) Mid-Palatinate (2) Mission Trails (2) Northern New Jersey (2) Northern New York-Fort Drum (2) Potomac - Liberty (2) Puerto Rico (2) Redstone-Huntsville (2) San Francisco (2) SGM Jon R. Cavaiani (2) Space Coast (2) St. Louis Gateway (2) Sunshine (2) Tucson-Goyette (2) UAE (2) Utah (2) Polar Bear (1) Topeka (1) White Sands Missile Range (1)Tune-in at: WWW.AUSA.ORG/PODCAST Interested in advertising on Army Matters? Email podcast@ ausa.org for more information. AUSA’s Army Matters podcast amplifies the voices of the Total Army—one story at a time. Join hosts LTG (Ret.) Les Smith and SMA (Ret.) Dan Dailey every other Wednesday as they interview the modern chroniclers of the Army experience to discuss inspiring leadership stories, current issues faced by Soldiers and our military families’ journeys.Next >