The last few weeks have been incredibly hard to watch. After nearly two decades in Afghanistan, the war has ended. But it did not end with an unconditional surrender and a ticker tape parade, did it? Instead, on live TV, we watched the Taliban rapidly regain control of Afghanistan, ending with a crisis at the Kabul airport as people attempted to flee.
So here we are, two decades later. We are a generation of wartime leaders, who, for a brief moment, have no war to fight. Before we move on, as leaders often do, let’s take a few minutes to talk through what happened, to make an honest attempt to learn through it. By writing this, I offer three simple questions. If you can, take some time today to reflect, think, and discuss.
How are you doing? For many, the end of this war has forced us to address unhealed wounds. We knew the war wouldn’t go on forever when we left in ‘05 or ‘11, but we knew we were contributing to a larger campaign. The war became a constant, something we could point back to and justify the collective sacrifice. Now that the war is over, many are wrestling with the conclusion and wanting to quantify that sacrifice while seeing images of the Taliban inspecting American military equipment.
What did we get right? While we’re working through all of that, it is important to remember what we got right. First, I couldn’t be more proud of how a rapidly formed joint force, including the Devil Brigade, handled a humanitarian crisis at the airport in Kabul. Now, as refugees begin to hit the States, we have ad-hoc teams coming together to welcome them. These efforts should make us all proud. This is the true American spirit, the very ideal we chose to fight for.
Also, many of us “got it right” when we fought in Afghanistan. During my time as a Company Commander in Paktikia Province, we protected the people in our area of operations. We provided them some semblance of stability, giving our enemies no rest as we hunted them through the valleys and into the mountains. Collectively, we gave the Afghan people a taste of freedom, their children watching and learning from our example. We gave their little girls hope. Only history can truly judge the impact of our efforts in Afghanistan.
How can we learn? As we get past the raw emotion of what’s occurred, let’s start talking about what we learned in Afghanistan. At the tactical level, share your experiences and challenges as a leader in combat. For other leaders, it is imperative to discuss our experiences on higher level staffs. These are tough conversations, especially when we discuss our own shortcomings, but they are essential to enabling learning.
This is a tough time, but what do leaders do in the face of adversity? We step up to the challenge and lead. That’s what I am asking each of you to do today. Be a leader and start a dialogue with your network. Together, we can shape how our institution learns and grows.
The relationships between field grade leaders at the battalion level can make or break the ability of a unit to perform in combat. Those who are preparing to take command at the battalion and brigade level owe it to their soldiers to ensure the best possible command climate. With the opening of the AIM Marketplace for the 21-02 movers just a few days ago I thought it might be useful to share my experience. First off, I am not a branch manager nor have I ever worked at HRC and I do not have the information or experience that those professionals have. I am, however, a CSL select Air Defense Officer, slated to take command in the summer of FY21 (21-02 YMAV cycle). Over the last few weeks, the current battalion commander of the unit I will command was gracious enough to allow me to have a large amount of input into who the unit preferences in the AIM Marketplace.
“The formation is never as good as you think it is, but it also is not as screwed up as some may indicate it is to your successor.” 
This year’s Command General Staff College will be graduating and PCSing (hopefully) in the midst of a pandemic that has fundamentally changed the daily lives of people across the world. As these newly minted Majors head back out across the force they are taking the institutional knowledge imparted upon them that will continue to move the Army forward. But it is important to take a look at how COVID-19 has possibly changed some of these lessons learned in the classroom.
We are super excited to announce our guest for this week’s distributed leader professional development session, Lieutenant General Martin, Training and Doctrine Command Deputy Commanding General.
After the better part of a decade researching in the field of adult learning with a focus on military self-development, I have read dozens of definitions of the concept of self-development. I have studied in detail the historical Army definitions and foundational civilian concepts such as self-directed learning or autonomous learning. I could tell you all the contradictions in the current definitions of Army self-development between the FM 6-22 and the DA Pam 350-58. I even spent more than three years on a DoD-supported research study attempting to create a definition that reconciles the gap between the civilian theory of self-directed learning and Army self-development. For all my research, the shortest definition I stumbled upon during my study might be one of the best.
Over the past few days, I’ve made some adjustments to my system based on feedback from this forum. I am a huge fan of testing, refining, and iteratively adjusting personal systems (goals, email, task management, etc). I am still making tweaks to my Outlook inbox, but here are some of the best hacks I’ve discovered:
