🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 24 April 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

April presses on — and so does the reading list.

This week’s Formation covers the full spectrum: landpower in contested maritime environments, AI accountability in lethal decisions, irregular warfare’s structural failures, China-Iran intelligence cooperation, and hard lessons from Ukraine’s front lines. There’s something in here for every echelon.

A note from me: this is my last issue for a few weeks as I PCS. SFC Marcel Blood will be holding down the Formation while I’m on the move. He’s got it covered — keep reading, keep writing.

Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

Mops & Moes: The Human Demands of Modern Combat

Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond; Guest: MG (Ret) John Kline — Mops & Moes

A conversation with a combat-proven general officer on what sustained high-intensity warfare actually asks of Soldiers and leaders — physically, psychologically, and institutionally. Essential listening for anyone thinking seriously about readiness.

What Does Landpower Bring to an Air and Naval Fight?

John Spencer — MWI

A timely examination of the Army’s indispensable contribution to joint warfighting, making the case that landpower is not a supporting player but a decisive one even in air and maritime-dominant scenarios.

Lessons from the Eastern Front

David McCammon — The Cove (Australian Army)

A hard-hitting, firsthand-informed account of what the war in Ukraine actually looks like at the front — written for soldiers by a combat-tested leader. The lessons here transcend nationality and speak directly to any Army preparing for high-end conflict.

⚔️ Warfighting

🗺️ Mind the GAPP: Strategic History and the Case for Western Hemisphere Command

Joshua Dulaney — MWI

Draws on strategic history to argue for a dedicated Western Hemisphere Command — a case that is gaining urgency as near-peer competition reaches into America’s own backyard.

🏔️ Lessons from the Eastern Front

David McCammon — The Cove (Australian Army)

A second-hand account of the reality of war in Ukraine, distilling front-line observations into lessons applicable across allied armies preparing for high-intensity conflict.

🤖 Designing Lethal Decisions: AI Accountability and the Future of Military Judgment

Michael A. Santoro — MWI

Tackles the hard question of moral and institutional accountability when AI is embedded in lethal decision-making — a framework every military leader will need.

🌐 What Does Landpower Bring to an Air and Naval Fight?

John Spencer — MWI

A clarifying argument for land power’s decisive role even in contested maritime and aerospace environments — essential reading as joint force design debates intensify.

🔧 Designed to Lose: The Institutional Features That Undermine US Irregular Warfare

Andrew Rolander — MWI

A structural critique of how American institutions systematically undercut irregular warfare effectiveness — identifying the cultural and organizational roots of repeated failure.

🇮🇷 China-Iran Intelligence Cooperation and the 2026 War

Tahir Mahmood Azad — IWI

Examines the intelligence dimensions of China-Iran cooperation and what those ties mean for understanding the current conflict and U.S. strategic positioning.

💸 Insurfare: Economic Warfare in the Global South

Tom Johansmeyer and Matthew Flug — IWI

Introduces the concept of ‘insurfare’ — the weaponization of insurance markets as a tool of economic coercion — and its implications for irregular and gray-zone competition.

🎙️ Geoeconomics of Irregular Warfare: Iran and the Global Ripple Effects (Part VII)

Gianni Koskinas, Hamlet Yousef, and Matt Flug; Moderator: Jackie Giunta — IWI

Continues the IWI series on economic dimensions of the Iran conflict, mapping the cascading effects across global markets and security architectures.

🎙️ What the Hell Is Irregular Warfare Anyway?

Host: Alisa Laufer; Guests: Chris Tripodi, Eric Robinson, and LTG (Ret) Mike Nagata — IWI

A foundational conversation that revisits the definition and scope of irregular warfare with three practitioners who have lived it at the highest levels.

🏝️ On Islands, Straits, and Strategy: The United States, Iran, and the Islands of the Persian Gulf

Jacob Stoil — SSI

A rigorous strategic analysis of the geographic chokepoints and island terrain at the center of the Iran conflict — and their implications for naval and joint operations.

🌍 Unrestricted Warfare Without War: China’s Below-Threshold Strategy in Latin America

Alexander Anderson — SWJ

Maps how China is applying below-threshold tools of influence and coercion across Latin America in ways that circumvent traditional deterrence frameworks.

🎯 The Limits of Leadership Decapitation

Ron MacCammon — SWJ

Critically examines the strategic logic of leadership targeting and makes the case that decapitation strategies consistently underperform against adaptive adversaries.

💻 Assessing US Cyber Power

Joshua Spooner — SWJ

A sober assessment of American cyber capabilities and gaps — where the U.S. leads, where it lags, and what the implications are for integrated deterrence.

🕵️ Drowning in Data: Solving the Data Overload Problem in OSINT

Jared Martin — SWJ

Addresses the practitioner’s real challenge in modern intelligence: too much signal, not enough sense-making. Offers frameworks for OSINT analysts and commanders alike.

🇷🇺 The Decimation of Russia’s Specialized Troops and Its Effects on the Ukraine War

Julian McBride — SWJ

Tracks the attrition of Russian elite forces and what that erosion means for Russian operational capacity and the broader trajectory of the war.

🌏 A Formal Defense Pact in the Indo-Pacific Is the Wrong Answer

Ryosuke Hanada — War on the Rocks

A counterintuitive argument against formal alliance structures in the Indo-Pacific — contending that rigid pact architecture could undermine the flexible deterrence the region demands.

🔫 Five Questions for a General: GEN (Ret) Daniel Allyn

Host: Cadet Nik Badinelli; Guest: GEN (Ret) Daniel Allyn — MWI

A cadet-led interview with a former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army that covers leadership, readiness, and the enduring demands of senior command.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

📊 The Command Friction That the Army’s Division-Centric Warfighting Approach Must Overcome

Michael Carvelli — MWI

Identifies the organizational and doctrinal friction points created by the Army’s shift to division-centric warfighting — and what commanders must do to master them.

🎙️ Standing Up the Strategic Competition Corner

Antulio J. Echevarria II and MAJ Brennan Deveraux — SSI

Introduces SSI’s new Strategic Competition Corner and frames the intellectual work ahead for Army strategists operating in a contested great power environment.

📡 NGC2 at the Tactical Edge

COL Tyler D. Olsen — Army Sustainment

Examines how Next Generation Command and Control is changing the information architecture at the tactical edge — and the sustainment implications that follow.

📋 Sustainment Proactivity

2LT Nicholas R. Thierfeldt — Army Sustainment

A junior officer’s case for shifting sustainment culture from reactive to anticipatory — actionable thinking for any lieutenant standing up a logistics section.

🎙️ LogStat: SEAM & NextGen OCIE Management

Host: CPT Garett Pyle; Guest: COL Adam Seibel

Digs into the latest OCIE management innovations and the SEAM initiative — practical sustainment content with direct applicability for S4s and logisticians across the force.

🚁 Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems

CW3 David D. Tyo — Aviation Digest

A practitioner’s look at C-sUAS from an aviation perspective — the threats, the tools, and the TTPs that aviation units need to integrate now.

🔬 Efficiency Buys Flexibility

Fred Kelso, Kenny Lee, and Jack Schaefer — Army AL&T

Makes the acquisition case that efficiency in resourcing isn’t just about savings — it’s about creating the flexibility to respond to emerging requirements faster.

🪖 Soldier-Led Solution

Brianna Clay — Army AL&T

Highlights a case where Soldiers drove a capability solution from the bottom up — a model for how the force can generate innovation without waiting for institutional permission.

📦 Manage the Load

COL Matthew G. Clark and LTC Edwin Kolen — Army AL&T

Addresses the persistent challenge of Soldier load management and brings new data to a problem that has killed effectiveness for generations of infantrymen.

🔩 Miniature But Mighty

Brian B. Feeney — Army AL&T

Explores the outsized operational impact of miniaturized technologies being fielded across the force — small footprint, large effect.

🎙️ Doctrine Debrief: A Leader’s Guide (Episode 100)

Host: LTC Derek Thompson — Combined Arms Command

The 100th episode of Doctrine Debrief covers how leaders at every level can engage with doctrine as a living tool rather than a shelf document.

🏋️ Mops & Moes: The Human Demands of Modern Combat

Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond; Guest: MG (Ret) John Kline — Mops & Moes

What does sustained high-intensity combat actually demand of Soldiers and units? A general officer who has seen it makes the case for a more rigorous, honest approach to readiness.

👁️ Eyes in the Sky

CPT Patrick M. Elsenbast — Infantry

Practical lessons on integrating aerial ISR at the company and battalion level — how junior leaders can maximize the value of assets they often receive but rarely master.

🏥 Innovation at the Speed of Relevance

75th Ranger Regiment Brain Protection Task Force — Infantry

The Ranger Regiment’s Brain Protection Task Force shares their approach to TBI mitigation and human performance innovation — a model for how units can lead from the front on Soldier health.

🔬 Predictive Analytics for Force Health Readiness

Dr. Anders Wallqvist and Dr. Jaques Reifman — Infantry

Applies predictive analytics to Soldier health and readiness data — a look at where data science can give commanders early warning before readiness degrades.

🎯 Moving to Survive

CPT Vincent Verdile — Field Artillery

The imperative of displacement and maneuver for fires units on the modern battlefield — why staying still means dying, and the TTP discipline required to move and shoot.

🎮 Wargames

CPT Benjamin Harrell — Field Artillery

An artillery officer’s case for wargaming as a deliberate training tool at the battery and battalion level — how to make it rigorous rather than theatrical.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

💰 Seeing the Cyber in Economic Statecraft

Jason Blessing — War on the Rocks

Connects the worlds of cyber operations and economic statecraft, arguing that practitioners in both domains are missing critical integration points that adversaries are already exploiting.

🛡️ Resilience Without Capacity: The Fatal Flaw in America’s New Cyber Strategy

Jesse Humpal, Alexander Noyes, and Emily Valentine — War on the Rocks

A sharp critique of the current U.S. cyber strategy, arguing that resilience framing without commensurate offensive capacity creates structural vulnerability.

🇮🇷 Why Iran Metabolizes the Pressure That Broke Venezuela

Rashed M. Aba-Namay — War on the Rocks

Explains Iran’s structural resilience to economic coercion by contrasting its experience with Venezuela’s — a framework for understanding why sanctions-based strategies face limits.

📖 Book Review: Flawed Strategy — Why Smart Leaders Make Bad Decisions

McKayla Swan — SWJ

A review of a timely new volume on strategic miscalculation — why high-IQ leaders still make catastrophic choices, and what institutional safeguards can help prevent it.

🎙️ War Room: Twins (Rebroadcast)

Derek Baird, TJ Baird, and Ron Granieri — War Room

Revisits a rich conversation on military strategy and competition through the lens of two practitioners who’ve thought deeply about institutional change.

🎙️ War Room: Military Might and the Defense Marketplace (Rebroadcast)

Jennifer Mittelstadt and Jacqueline E. Whitt — War Room

Examines the political economy of defense acquisition and what the relationship between military and market means for readiness and transformation.

🎙️ War Room: TIADS

Host: Tom Spahr; Guest: Sean Heidgerken — War Room

A focused conversation on the Tactical Intelligence and Acquisition Data System and its role in integrating intelligence into the acquisition process.

🤖 Stop Looking Up: Organic Brigade...

John Bismark-O’Brien — Field Artillery

Argues for pushing fires integration authority down to the brigade level — a doctrinal shift with significant implications for how combined arms teams fight.

🏹 Gunnery Branch C92

Weapons and Gunnery Branch — Armor

A technical update on Armor gunnery standards and Branch training priorities — essential reading for tankers and leaders managing crew certification.

🔌 Designating the Electromagnetic Spectrum

CW2 Jeff Newsome and CW2 Travis M. Whitesel — Warrant Officer Journal

Makes the case for treating the electromagnetic spectrum as a maneuver space requiring deliberate designation and control — a doctrinal argument with operational teeth.

🏛️ Strengthening the Profession

🏛️ Build the House: How a Simple Drawing Conveys Mission Command

Rich Creed and Scott Pence — Center for Junior Officers

A visual and intuitive tool for teaching mission command to junior leaders — simple enough to use in the field, powerful enough to change how a platoon thinks.

📡 Offsite Fosters Discussion

Laura Levering — Army Communicator

How deliberate leader development offsites can break organizational stagnation and create the shared understanding that transforms good units into great ones.

🇺🇸 Once a Patriot, Always a Patriot

Laura Levering — Army Communicator

Profiles the Patriot community’s enduring professional identity — and what it means to sustain that culture across generations of Soldiers.

📏 Military Standards Dropped

MSG Stephen Tackett — Army Communicator

A non-commissioned officer’s candid assessment of standard degradation and the professional responsibility of every leader to hold the line — wherever they stand.

🎖️ More Than a Uniform

1LT Su M. Nandar — Army Communicator

Reflects on what it means to serve in an Army that is larger than any individual identity — and how that understanding shapes professional purpose.

🪖 What Is Next Generation Command and Control?

CSM Waylon D. Petty — NCO Journal

A command sergeant major’s primer on NGC2 — written for the NCO corps to understand not just what the system does, but how leaders must adapt to it.

🎯 Building the Lethal Sergeant Major

SGM Jermaine Render — NCO Journal

Lays out a framework for developing Sergeant Majors who are tactically lethal and institutionally effective — a guide to the senior NCO the Army actually needs.

💪 Once the Backbone

CSM Nancy Weinberger — NCO Journal

Reflects on the evolving role of the NCO corps and makes a spirited argument for why the backbone of the Army must grow stronger, not more comfortable.

📖 Resources & Calls

· CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

· Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

· Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

🧰 TL;DR

· Quick Read: Lessons from the Eastern Front

· Deep Dive: What Does Landpower Bring to an Air and Naval Fight?

· Listen: Mops & Moes: The Human Demands of Modern Combat

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 16 April 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

April moves fast. The Iran conflict reshapes strategic calculus in real time. Unmanned systems are redefining what it means to hold ground. And the profession keeps asking its people to think harder, write better, and lead with more precision than ever before.

This week’s Formation covers the full spectrum: strategic competition with China, the IRGC’s financial center of gravity, unmanned systems doctrine, sustainment modernization, and the hidden career markets shaping officer trajectories. Plus a full slate from the branch journals and a strong showing from the NCO Journal.

The profession doesn’t wait. Get after it.

Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

🎙️ Ep. 176 — The Hidden Markets Shaping Your Career, with Judd Kessler

Host: Joe Byerly; Guest: Judd Kessler — From the Green Notebook

A behavioral economist joins Joe Byerly to unpack the informal, often invisible markets that govern officer career progression — essential listening for anyone trying to navigate the talent management system with clear eyes.

🔑 Leadership Initiative

Josh Bowen — 3x5 Leadership

A practical examination of what it means to take initiative as a leader — not just acting first, but acting with purpose and ownership in the face of ambiguity.

🧠 Brains, Heart, and Courage: What Leaders Really Build

Jakob Hutter — Military Mentors

Hutter reframes leadership development around three enduring attributes — intellect, character, and moral courage — arguing that what leaders really build in others is the capacity to act rightly under pressure, not just competently under orders.

⚔️ Warfighting

🪙 The Foundational Metal of War: Aluminum, the Middle East War, and America’s Strategic Vulnerability

Morgan Bazilian, Jahara Matisek, and Macdonald Amoah — MWI

Traces how aluminum dependency links domestic industrial capacity to battlefield readiness and strategic exposure — a resource-competition argument with direct implications for how the U.S. sustains a protracted fight.

🤖 Aerial Drones Change How Wars Are Fought — Unmanned Ground Vehicles Will Decide Who Wins Them

James Chaney — MWI

Argues that while aerial drones have transformed tactics, unmanned ground vehicles represent the decisive next frontier — a forward-looking assessment of where robotic competition is actually headed.

💀 The Dead Zone and the Empty Battlefield

Kevin T. Black, Tarik Fulcher, and Joshua Ratta — MWI

Examines how sensor saturation and lethal drone coverage create a ‘dead zone’ that forces dispersion and rethinks how forces mass, move, and survive on the modern battlefield.

🛡️ Tactical Success, Strategic Failure: Washington Walks the Path to Defeat in Iran

Ryan Evans — War on the Rocks

A sharp critique arguing that U.S. tactical gains in the Iran conflict are masking a strategically incoherent campaign — a sobering read on the gap between winning engagements and winning wars.

🇮🇷 From Rejection to Acceptance: Why Iran Agreed to a Ceasefire

Arsalan Bilal — Small Wars Journal

Unpacks the political, military, and economic pressures that brought Iran to the ceasefire table and what the agreement’s terms reveal about the conflict’s trajectory.

🛢️ Oil Revenues as the IRGC’s Center of Gravity

Lance Gordon — Small Wars Journal

Identifies IRGC oil revenue as the financial engine sustaining Iran’s military and proxy network — and argues this economic center of gravity has been systematically under-targeted.

☠️ Silent Killers, Not Signals: Why States Use Poison in Assassinations

Naomi Rio and Glenn Cross — War on the Rocks

A rigorous analysis of state-sponsored poisoning as a covert tool — examining why poison is chosen over other means and what it signals (or deliberately obscures) about state intent.

🌍 The Limits of Leadership Decapitation

Ron MacCammon — Irregular Warfare Initiative

Challenges the strategic effectiveness of targeting enemy leadership and examines under what conditions decapitation actually degrades an adversary’s capacity to fight.

🌍 Syria Detention Crisis: Al-Hol and the Risk of Collapse

Sam David — Irregular Warfare Initiative

Assesses the security and humanitarian crisis at Al-Hol detention camp and the cascading risks if the situation deteriorates further — a looming irregular warfare problem with strategic consequence.

🗺️ Conflict Memory and Local War Trajectories

Steven M. Radil and Olivier J. Walther — Irregular Warfare Initiative

Explores how communities remember past conflict and how that collective memory shapes the likelihood and character of future violence — a ground-level lens on conflict recurrence.

🇵🇰 How the Baloch Insurgency Threatens U.S. Strategic and Economic Interests

Kiyya Baloch — Small Wars Journal

Links the Baloch insurgency to broader U.S. strategic equities in South Asia, including CPEC infrastructure and regional stability — an underreported conflict with outsized implications.

🔒 GRU Lessons for Digital Force Protection

Christopher Moede — Small Wars Journal

Draws operational security lessons from GRU tradecraft to inform how Army units should approach digital force protection against sophisticated adversaries.

🇮🇱 The Demise of Strategic Planning in Israel

Shimon Arad — War on the Rocks

A frank institutional autopsy of how Israel’s strategic planning capacity eroded over decades — and what that failure meant when put to the test in October 2023 and beyond.

🇨🇳 Strategy Without Hubris: How China Rose by Managing America’s Reaction

Luis Simón — War on the Rocks

Argues that China’s rise was enabled by strategic patience and deliberate management of U.S. perceptions — a framework that carries direct implications for how Washington should approach competition going forward.

🔭 PLA Army Places Growing Emphasis on Tactical Indirect Firepower with New Grenade Launcher

Joaquin Camarena — SSI

Examines China’s fielding of new indirect fire systems at the squad and platoon level and what this doctrinal shift means for U.S. forces who may face a PLA-equipped adversary.

🎙️ Intelligence Revolution

Host: Tom Spahr; Guest: Jeff Rogg — War Room

Explores how the intelligence community is being reshaped by AI, open-source collection, and data proliferation — and what that transformation demands of commanders and analysts.

🇺🇳 Three Rings

MG David S. Doyle and MAJ Lam Nguyen — Military Review

A practitioner’s framework for understanding the three concentric rings of influence that shape operational environments and how commanders can navigate each.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

🤖 Transforming in Contact: The Army Needs an Unmanned Systems Command Now

James Peterson — Small Wars Journal

Makes the institutional case for a dedicated Army Unmanned Systems Command — arguing that the velocity of UAS/UGV integration outpaces the current organizational structure’s ability to manage it.

📡 NGC2 at the Tactical Edge

COL Tyler D. Olsen — Army Sustainment

Examines how next-generation command and control capabilities are being pushed to the tactical edge and what sustainment commanders must do to keep pace with the digital battlefield.

🏭 Forward Fabrication: Strengthening Autonomous Vehicle Support

CPT Jack Orion Harden-Ploeger — Army Sustainment

Explores how additive manufacturing and forward fabrication capabilities can sustain autonomous vehicle fleets in austere environments — a logistics adaptation for the unmanned future.

📦 Modernizing Army SSA

CPT Danielle M. Turner and CPT Timothy R. Maginn — Army Sustainment

A ground-level look at what it takes to modernize Army Supply Support Activities and the institutional and procedural barriers that slow transformation.

⚡ Sustainment Proactivity

2LT Nicholas R. Thierfeldt — Army Sustainment

Argues for a proactive sustainment mindset over reactive logistics — making the cultural and procedural case for anticipatory supply chain management at the junior leader level.

🚗 Replacing the Humvee

MAJ Scott Wolfe — Army Sustainment

Assesses the strategic and tactical implications of transitioning away from the Humvee platform and what the replacement calculus means for unit readiness and logistics planning.

🌐 Distributed C2

MAJ Adam Black and MAJ Nathan Tarter — Army Communicator

Examines the architecture and leadership requirements for effective distributed command and control — essential for units operating in degraded and contested communications environments.

📊 Data-Driven Future

Candy C. Knight — Army Communicator

Charts the Army signal enterprise’s shift toward data-centric operations and what leaders must understand about the infrastructure driving modern battle command.

🔧 Beyond the Immediate Fix

MAJ Ryan G. Tintera — Army Communicator

Challenges the Army’s tendency toward short-term technical patches and makes the case for deliberate, enduring communications architecture investment.

📡 Beyond the Static

SGT George Mattison — Army Communicator

An enlisted practitioner’s perspective on how signal Soldiers must evolve beyond traditional radio operations to serve as versatile integrators on the digital battlefield.

🔗 Integrating ATP

CPT Daniel M. Horoho — Army Communicator

A practical guide to integrating Army Technical Publications into unit training and operations — making doctrine work at the point of application.

❄️ Breaking the Ice

Rebecca Wright — Army AL&T

Examines Army acquisition challenges in the Arctic environment and how the acquisition community must adapt to support operations in extreme cold-weather conditions.

💻 Better Off With CEDS

Kelly Burkhalter — Army AL&T

Makes the case for the Common Equipment Data System as a readiness multiplier — and what full implementation could mean for Army property accountability and lifecycle management.

🎯 FODA Pt. 1: Fire and Forget — Fires in the Operational Deep Attack

LTC Westly T. Lafitte, CW3 Jerrad W. Rader, and CW2 Jon R. Delima — Field Artillery Journal

Part one of a two-part series examining fires integration for deep operational attack — with specific attention to targeting timelines, sensor-to-shooter chains, and long-range precision fires employment.

🎯 FODA Pt. 2: Deep Attack Execution

LTC Westly T. Lafitte, CW3 Jerrad W. Rader, and CW2 Jon R. Delima — Field Artillery Journal

Part two completes the operational deep attack framework, detailing execution sequencing, coordination requirements, and lessons from exercise and rotational training.

🎙️ LogStat: Modernizing the Army Food Program with CSDV

Host: CPT Garett Pyle; Guest: COL Adam Seibel

Digs into the Consolidated Standard Dining Vessel initiative and what it means for how the Army feeds Soldiers in garrison and field environments — a logistics modernization story with direct quality-of-life implications.

🎙️ On the Impossible Mission: The Office of Security Cooperation and U.S. Forces

Host: Stephanie Crider; Guests: LTG (ret.) Robert L. Caslen and Katelyn K. Tietzen-Wisdom — SSI Podcast

A candid assessment of Security Cooperation offices — what they’re being asked to do, whether the mission is resourced for success, and what reform might look like.

🔒 Revamping U.S. Military Assistance

Peter W. Aubrey — Small Wars Journal

A systematic critique of U.S. military assistance programs and a reform agenda for making security cooperation more effective, accountable, and strategically coherent.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

📚 Want a Lethal, War-Winning Army? Read Ulysses S. Grant’s Memoirs

Rudy Weisz — MWI

A compelling argument that Grant’s Personal Memoirs remain one of the most underutilized leadership and strategy texts available to the Army — drawing direct lines from Grant’s experience to the challenges of large-scale combat today.

🔭 What Is Strategic Rivalry? Why Should We Care?

Antulio J. Echevarria II — SSI

A foundational conceptual piece that defines strategic rivalry with precision and explains why the term’s imprecise use is causing strategic confusion in policy and planning circles.

🌐 Strategic Hubris

Marshall McGurk — War Room

Examines how strategic overconfidence has repeatedly driven powerful states into avoidable failures — a cautionary analysis with direct relevance to current U.S. competition with China and Russia.

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

🪖 Enhancing Individual Physical Training

CSM John P. Rivera Jr. — NCO Journal

A senior NCO perspective on building physical training cultures that develop Soldiers beyond the ACFT — emphasizing resilience, sustainability, and the link between physical readiness and mission performance.

🪖 Transforming the Sergeants Major Course

SGM Lisa Walker and SGM Jennifer Fulkerson — NCO Journal

An inside view of how the Army’s capstone NCO course is being redesigned to develop senior enlisted leaders for the complexity and pace of 21st-century conflict.

🏍️ Rethinking the Army’s Motorcycle Program

SGM Rene O. Aleman — NCO Journal

A frank assessment of the Army motorcycle safety program’s current state and a practical reform agenda focused on actually reducing rider risk rather than checking compliance boxes.

🎖️ A Staff Officer’s Guide to the Galaxy

Hunter Whitney — Center for Junior Officers

An honest, practical guide for junior officers entering the staff world — demystifying the processes, relationships, and rhythms that determine whether a staff officer thrives or just survives.

👁️ Leadership Presence and the Perception You Carry

Jakob Hutter — Center for Junior Officers

Explores how junior leaders develop and manage their professional presence — the often-unspoken signal that shapes how Soldiers, peers, and seniors read their competence and character.

🎙️ Mops & Moes: Is Walking Exercise?

Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond; Guest: John — Mops & Moes

A deeper-than-expected conversation on the science and profession of physical fitness — whether walking counts, what it counts for, and how leaders should think about movement as part of a holistic readiness approach.

📖 Resources & Calls

· CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

· Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

· Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

· Army FAO Association Podcasts – Foreign Area Officer perspectives on the global operating environment.

🧰 TL;DR

· Quick Read: Want a Lethal, War-Winning Army? Read Ulysses S. Grant’s Memoirs

· Deep Dive: Aerial Drones Change How Wars Are Fought — Unmanned Ground Vehicles Will Decide Who Wins Them

· Listen: LogStat: Modernizing the Army Food Program with CSDV

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 10 April 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

A strong issue this week — and one worth pausing on for a moment.

Military Review’s March-April edition is out, and it’s a serious collection. The range of contributors alone tells you something: a 1LT writing on barracks quality of life sits alongside a COL on river crossings, a chaplain on moral development, and a two-author team on parental leave policy. That’s a cross-section of the profession — junior to senior, tactical to strategic — all contributing to the conversation about what the Army is and what it should be.

I want to specifically call your attention to 1LT Tyler O’Quinn’s piece in Military Review. O’Quinn is a company-grade officer writing at the institutional level about a problem that affects soldiers every day — barracks conditions and the task forces assembled to address them. He’s doing what this project exists to encourage: seeing a problem, thinking hard about it, and putting it on paper. That matters. So does the fact that Military Review published it.

Chris

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⚔️ Warfighting

💥 The Campaign Ends at the Breach: Lessons from Ukraine on Why Armies Fail

Michael Carvelli — War on the Rocks

Examines the tactical and operational failures at breach points in Ukraine — and the deeper institutional and training deficiencies they expose for armies attempting deliberate combined arms operations under fire.

🛡️ Closing the Air and Missile Defense Gap in the Indo-Pacific

Christopher J. Watterson and Peter J. Dean — War on the Rocks

Identifies the growing AMD shortfall in the Indo-Pacific theater and proposes multilateral and architectural solutions before the window of opportunity closes.

🔭 Iran’s Anti-Access and Area-Denial Strategy Is Cruder Than China’s — But Still Dangerous

Brigadier Anil Raman — War on the Rocks

Compares Iranian and Chinese A2/AD approaches, arguing that Iran’s less-sophisticated but adaptive strategy still poses a serious threat to U.S. force projection in the region.

🕰️ The Age of Unlearning: How Democracies Lost Their Grip on Strategic Time

Beniamino Irdi — War on the Rocks

Argues that democratic societies have systematically eroded the strategic patience and institutional memory needed to compete over long time horizons — and what it would take to recover it.

🤖 Poland Bought Reapers. The Battlefield Has Moved On.

Samuel Nahins — MWI

Challenges the logic behind Poland’s Reaper acquisition, arguing that the modern drone-dense battlefield has already made large, expensive UAS platforms more liability than asset.

⚙️ The Changing Character and Enduring Nature of Command

Philip Swintek, Charlie Phelps, Rudy Weisz, and Matt Linarelli — MWI

Examines how the demands of command are evolving under the pressures of transparency, speed, and distributed operations — while arguing that its essential human nature remains constant.

🎧 Five Questions for a General: LTG Curtis Buzzard and MG Volodymyr Horbatiuk

Host: Cadet Zach Olson; Guests: LTG Curtis Buzzard and MG Volodymyr Horbatiuk (Ukraine) — MWI

A candid dialogue between a U.S. Army corps commander and a senior Ukrainian general on coalition operations, hard lessons from active combat, and what each army can learn from the other.

🎧 The Spear: The Ranger Regiment’s Fighting Platoon Sergeant

Host: Charlie Faint; Guest: CSM (Ret) Curt Donaldson — The Spear, MWI

A deep conversation on what it takes to be an elite platoon sergeant in the Ranger Regiment — the tactical instincts, leadership presence, and standards that separate good from exceptional.

🌍 Commercial Pathways to Proxy Forces

Branko Ruzic — Irregular Warfare Initiative

Explores how state and non-state actors are leveraging commercial contracting networks to build and sustain proxy forces — with implications for how the U.S. should think about competition short of war.

🎧 Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare

Host: Ben Jebb; Guests: Secretary Jack Lew, Daleep Singh, Edward Fishman — IWI Podcast

Former senior officials who shaped U.S. economic statecraft discuss how sanctions, financial coercion, and chokepoint strategy have become central tools of national power — and what that means for the military.

🏛️ Securing Europe, Shaping the Pacific

SGT Julian Patricio — AUSA Landpower Essay

An enlisted soldier’s strategic-level analysis of how U.S. commitments in Europe interact with the requirements of Indo-Pacific competition — a rare and welcome perspective from the formation.

📡 Intelligence Officer Training for Network-Centered Warfare in Ukraine and the United States

MAJ Anton Maksymov (Ukraine) — MIPB

A Ukrainian intelligence officer examines how his army adapted intelligence training and tradecraft for the networked, transparent battlefield — with direct lessons for U.S. Army MI development.

🌊 Tactical River Crossings

COL Paul Munch — Military Review

A detailed examination of the doctrinal and practical requirements for successful river crossing operations — a capability the Army must relearn for large-scale combat.

🌍 Forward Presence

LTC Ryan C. Van Wie — Military Review

Argues for a reassessment of how and where the Army maintains forward presence, connecting force posture decisions directly to deterrence effectiveness and escalation risk.

🏛️ XIV Corps

MAJ Evan L. Horner — Military Review

A historical study of XIV Corps operations that surfaces enduring lessons about corps-level command, combined arms integration, and the management of large formations in sustained combat.

⚡ A Swift Answer to the Unknown

LTC Michael B. Kim — Military Review

Examines how commanders can build decision frameworks that allow faster, more confident action in ambiguous situations — balancing speed against the risk of acting on incomplete information.

🔫 Training in Poland

MAJ Christopher Nisa, with contributions from CPT Chloe Garrison, CPT Sarah McCann, CPT Cody Mclaughlin, 1LT Bijan Shokrgozar, and 1LT Zachary Webb — Field Artillery Journal

Documents lessons learned from field artillery training in Poland — operational environment realities, interoperability challenges, and the readiness insights that come from training on the actual terrain of potential conflict.

🏛️ Artillery Insights from the American Civil War

Dr. John Grenier — Field Artillery Journal

Draws on Civil War artillery operations to surface principles that remain relevant to today’s fires community — a reminder that history is a professional development tool, not just an academic exercise.

🔍 The History Behind Warfighting Terms

CW2 Kristopher Carroll — Special Warfare Journal

Traces the etymology and operational origins of common warfighting terms — revealing how language shapes doctrine and how losing that history can lead to shallow understanding of the concepts themselves.

🎧 The Kremlin’s Intelligence Strategy

Host: Tom Spahr; Guest: Sean Wiswesser — War Room, Army War College

An in-depth conversation on how Russian intelligence services operate, adapt, and project power — essential context for leaders who will face Russian-influenced adversaries in any theater.

💥 Information Lethality Revisited

Bill Rivera — Small Wars Journal

Revisits the concept of information lethality in the modern operational environment, examining how information effects can be weaponized at speed and scale to shape both battlefield and narrative.

🎯 Welcome to the Party, Pa

Siamak Naficy and Ryan Bilyeu — Small Wars Journal

Assesses the operational consequences of Iran’s regional network being disrupted — and what it means for adversary reconstitution, proxy adaptation, and U.S. strategic options in the aftermath.

🌍 Destabilizing Iran: Regional Fallout

Kiyya Baloch — Small Wars Journal

Maps the regional second-order effects of Iranian destabilization across the Middle East and Central Asia — a necessary frame for understanding the strategic environment beyond the immediate conflict.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

📊 LogStat: Adopting a Data Culture

Host: CPT Garett Pyle; Guest: CPT Chris Sherrill — LogStat Podcast

Breaks down what it actually means to build a data culture at the unit level — moving beyond dashboards to genuine data literacy that improves maintenance, supply, and readiness decision-making.

🚢 Revitalizing U.S. Naval Shipbuilding

1LT Jared Simonelli — Small Wars Journal

A junior Army officer turns his analytical attention to the naval shipbuilding industrial base — arguing that Army and joint force readiness are downstream of a healthy defense industrial capacity that is currently at risk.

📡 4th CAB

CW2 Cody T. Fields — Army Communicator

Documents signals and communications lessons from the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade — integrating comms capability into complex aviation operations with implications for network-dependent formations across the force.

🧠 The Knowledge Paradox

CPT Raymond M. Ferris and CMDR Stephen P. Ferris — Military Review

Examines the tension between information abundance and decision quality — arguing that more data without better frameworks for sense-making can actually degrade rather than improve command decisions.

🌏 Strengthening Deterrence in the East

CPT James Bath — Army Sustainment

Analyzes the sustainment requirements for credible deterrence in Eastern Europe — and the logistics gaps that must be closed before forward-stationed forces can serve their deterrence function effectively.

🔐 Strengthening Information

CW4 William Bryant — Warrant Officer Journal

Examines how warrant officers can lead information security and network defense efforts at the unit level — connecting technical expertise to operational readiness outcomes.

🎧 MOPs & MOEs: The Coolest Fitness Test You’ve Never Heard Of

Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond; Guests: Andrew Herrington and Greg Grieco — MOPs & MOEs

Explores an emerging physical performance assessment framework that goes beyond traditional Army fitness metrics — with implications for how units think about readiness, injury prevention, and combat performance.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

🔮 Advanced Foresight

Carl Van Dyke — Military Review

Proposes frameworks for institutional foresight — the disciplined practice of anticipating future operational environments before they arrive, rather than retrofitting doctrine after the fact.

🔄 Restructuring by Assembly

LTC Brad Hardy — Military Review

Argues for a modular approach to force restructuring — building capability by assembling adaptive components rather than wholesale redesign — with lessons from recent transformation efforts.

🌐 Breaking Babel

Luke Herrington — Military Review

Examines how language barriers and cultural distance degrade coalition effectiveness — and what structural and educational investments could help the Army communicate more effectively with partners and allies.

🤝 Military Advising Missions

LTC Jahara ’Franky’ Matisek, Alexander Noyes, and Robert Schafer — Military Review

Provides a rigorous assessment of what makes military advising missions succeed or fail — drawing on case studies to identify the institutional behaviors and individual skills that produce effective advisors.

📖 Transforming NCO Professional Military Education

Tammy Everette, Sean McCracken, and Janina Simmons — Small Wars Journal

Makes the case for a fundamental rethinking of how the Army educates its NCO corps — arguing that the current PME architecture is not producing the adaptive, critically-thinking leaders the force needs.

⚖️ Lawyers and Planning

COL Andrew Morgado and MAJ Curtis Cranston — Military Review

Examines how legal advisors can and should be integrated into the operations planning process — moving JAG from a compliance function to a genuine planning asset at every echelon.

🌍 Army Foreign Area Officer Association Podcasts

Army FAO Association

The FAO Association’s podcast library covers regional expertise, partner nation relationships, and the unique demands of the foreign area officer career field — a resource for leaders who need regional context.

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

⭐ Barracks Task Force

1LT Tyler O’Quinn — Military Review

Examines how the Army’s barracks task force approach addresses substandard housing conditions — and what the recurring need for such interventions reveals about institutional priorities, resource allocation, and the gap between stated commitment to soldier welfare and physical reality.

✝️ Moral Development

CH (LTC) Jared L. Vineyard — Military Review

Argues that the Army must treat moral development as a deliberate, structured professional responsibility — not a byproduct of training — and outlines what that looks like from initial entry through senior leadership.

🎖️ Truth, Lies, and Mission First

SGM (Ret) Robert Nelson and WO1 Gavin Paton — NCO Journal

Confronts the ethical tension at the heart of ’mission first’ culture — when does a bias toward mission accomplishment slide into a tolerance for dishonesty, and what does that cost the profession over time?

👨‍👩‍👧 Military Parental Leave

MAJ Caitlin M. Withenbury and MAJ Alexander T. Withenbury — Military Review

A practitioner’s assessment of military parental leave policy — how it works, where it falls short, and the retention and readiness implications of getting it right or wrong.

📖 Review Essay

Daniel Burland — Military Review

A substantive engagement with recent professional literature — the kind of critical, analytical book review that models the intellectual habits the profession needs more of.

🎖️ Leading from the Front

CSM Dennis A. Doyle — NCO Journal

The command sergeant major of a major formation on what leading from the front actually looks like in garrison and at home station — and why presence and example remain the foundation of NCO leadership.

🧠 Cognitive Warfare

Dr. Robert Nelson and SGM Benjamin Pingel — NCO Journal

Examines cognitive warfare as a domain NCO leaders must understand — and how to develop the mental resilience and critical thinking skills to counter adversary influence at the tactical level.

📖 Are You Chasing Daisies?

Joe Byerly — From the Green Notebook

A reflection on leadership distraction — the tendency to chase interesting problems and shiny opportunities at the expense of doing the hard, necessary work of developing people and building unit cohesion.

🎧 Bend But Do Not Break: Rethinking the Future of the All-Volunteer Force

Host: Joe Byerly; Guest: Jaron Wharton — From the Green Notebook

A frank conversation on the stresses facing the all-volunteer force — recruiting shortfalls, retention pressure, and what must change to keep the model viable for the next generation of service.

🚓 Guardians of the Community

1SG Michael G. Spearman — Military Police Journal

An MP first sergeant on what it means to protect and serve the military community — and the professional identity, standards, and moral weight that come with the law enforcement mission within the Army.

📜 The Life of MG Squier

Ivan Zasimczuk — Army Communicator

A biographical study of MG George Owen Squier, the Army’s first aviation officer and a pioneer of military communications technology — a story about the long arc between vision and institutional change.

📖 Leadership Initiative

Josh Bowen — 3x5 Leadership

Explores the concept of leadership initiative — the disposition to act, decide, and lead before being told to — and how to develop it in yourself and your soldiers.

📖 Resources & Calls

• CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

• Call for Papers – Army Civilian Journal – Invitation to contribute.

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

• Army Foreign Area Officer Association Podcasts – FAO professional development listening.

🧰 TL;DR

· Quick Read: The Campaign Ends at the Breach: Lessons from Ukraine on Why Armies Fail

· Deep Dive: The Changing Character and Enduring Nature of Command

· Listen: MOPs & MOEs: The Coolest Fitness Test You’ve Never Heard Of

· For the Formation: Barracks Task Force — 1LT Tyler O’Quinn, Military Review

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

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The speaker said, “when given an open-ended task, do your bosses’ job and redefine it for them.

A. Pick a known issue

B. Scope it first to a specific problem and then scope it again to a current priority.

C. Then leverage history and repurpose what we’ve done successfully to address the current issue, problem, and priority you’ve chosen.”

With that in mind, first we define the current situation:

Communist China represents an existential threat to the United States and the world order that has guaranteed the global economic success of the past 80 years.

China’s aggressive and coercive actions in the Western Pacific and threats to forcibly reunify the democratically elected government of Taiwan with the Chinese mainland represent the greatest threat to peace, stability, and American leadership.

The President has said that China will not successfully invade Taiwan during his tenure. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has the military mission to deter, and if necessary, defeat an invasion of Taiwan. Commander USINDOPACOM has stated his intent to “turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities.”

Then we broadly define the problem:

The U.S. Government has not maintained sufficient stocks of critical munitions, and has not built a system capable of identifying, prototyping, and fielding classified unmanned capabilities at scale, speed, and quality.

Next, we scope the problem.

First, the military’s munitions requirements process (MRP) is a bureaucratic two-year cycle that does not respond to rapidly changing conditions.

Second, the National Defense Authorization Act directs USINDOPACOM to report to Congress a list of critical munitions and systems that support the Pacific Deterrence Initiative. (Section 1313).

Third, history provides two examples of the U.S. government rapidly developing needed capabilities during a crisis.

· First the Defense Production Act (DPA) of 1950 (extended through 2026) empowers the President to influence domestic industry, ensuring the supply of materials needed for national defense and emergencies.

· Second Operation Warp Speed (OWS) created a public-private partnership to accelerate the development, testing, and fielding of COVID-19 vaccines.

Reviewing our three-step approach, we have focused on the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s war fighting requirements. Our input will first use DPA to develop and field critical munitions. Then second use OWS to field unmanned systems (UxS) at speed, quality, and scale. Third, we will recommend aligning what we say (strategic guidance) with what we do (operations, activities, investments, and what we sell to our allies and trusted partners)

Input:

Our nation needs to fill gaps in critical munitions and rapidly field classified unmanned capabilities at scale in the Taiwan Straits.

To address shortages In critical munitions, the President should implement a Deterrence through Strength approach to deter, and if necessary defeat an invasion of Taiwan.

• Appoint an Assistant Secretary of War with the role, responsibility, and authority to centralize acquisition, procurement, and reprogramming authority over section 1313 critical munitions.

• Assign a Joint Staff J-8 Joint Requirement Office to assist.

• Implement a Defense Production Act to close gaps in those critical munitions in the section 1313 report.

• Utilize multi-year procurement to purchase full production rates and any surge capacity.

• Expand the Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience (PIPIR), a multilateral initiative launched to enhance defense industrial resilience in the Indo-Pacific region, and work with partner nations to close gaps in critical munitions in the section 1313 report.

• Work with the White House and Congress to modify and waive policies and regulations.

• Require a validated supply chain for each munition. Which traces each part from raw materials through manufacturing, final assembly, testing, and delivery.

To address the shortage in classified unmanned systems (UxS) the President should implement an Operation Warp Speed for New Weapons to deter, and if necessary, defeat an invasion of Taiwan.

• Appoint a White House-led tiger team with a clear, measurable product goal of fielding unmanned systems (UxS) in the Taiwan Straight at speed, quality, and scale.

• Utilize advanced market commitments, purchase guarantees, milestone payments, and innovation prizes.

• Implement a whole of government strategy to speed decision making and streamline regulations.

• Work with industry and take a portfolio approach to rapidly identify:

  • What does industry have?

  • What can we modify?

  • What can we scale with speed and quality?

  • What is the concept of operations?

Next, the President should direct the alignment between our strategic documents and our military actions in order to grow and preserve our military readiness for the existential challenge of China and the Defense of the Homeland.

• Our overseas military Posture as defined by the Global Defense Posture and Global Posture Review and subordinate processes.

• Our rotational military presence, operations, and exercises as defined by the Global Force Management, Request for Forces, Secretary of Defense Operations Book, and subordinate processes.

• Our strategic planning and procurement as defined by the Defense Planning and Programming Guidance, Contingency Planning Guidance, Joint Strategic Planning Guidance, and subordinate processes.

• Our Foreign Military Sales and Foreign Military Funding, to include the Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience (PIPIR), to build Defense through Strength with our allies and trusted partners.

• Identify which capabilities can and should be shared in an export version with our allies and trusted partners.

• Utilize all levers of national power to negotiate the FMS/FMF agreements and the access and basing agreements to field those capabilities overseas.

• Specify and fund the specific operations, activities, and investments needed to ensure the interoperability of those capabilities with our allies and trusted partners.”

Sending your input to the printer, you grab another cup of coffee. Then read your input aloud, make corrections, and iterate until you have a concise, spell-checked, and grammar-checked input. Pasting the text into an email, you hit send, log off your computer, and head for the Metro ride home.

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 27 March 2026 - 03 April 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

Two weeks, one Formation. Last week’s issue didn’t drop — so this one carries both weeks of reading.

The content spans a lot of ground: the Iran conflict and its strategic aftermath, LSCO fundamentals from the branch journals, the continuing evolution of AI and data at the tactical level, and a strong slate from CJO and the NCO Journal on what it actually takes to develop people. Pace yourself. Bookmark liberally. Read what’s most relevant to your current assignment first.

A few personal highlights worth calling out: the MWI piece on cognitive fratricide is one of the sharper things written about the transparent battlefield in a while. The MCOE “Winning the First Fight” piece is mandatory reading for anyone in armor or combined arms. And Senator Gallego’s War on the Rocks essay is worth sitting with regardless of where you stand politically — it asks hard questions about planning and accountability that the profession should engage with.

Plenty here. Get after it.

Chris

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⚔️ Warfighting

🦖 The Infantry Division Transformed: Four Fighting Principles

James “Jay” Bartholomees and Greg Scheffler — MWI

Argues the contemporary infantry division must embrace four enduring fighting principles to remain effective — and that recent force design has drifted from them.

🤔 Cognitive Fratricide: How the Transparent Battlefield Creates Decision Paralysis

Jerae Perez — MWI

Examines how information overload on the transparent battlefield degrades decision speed and quality, creating a new form of self-inflicted friction.

🔫 How to Kill a Multidomain Task Force

Ben Blane, Ryan DeBooy, and Dale Hunter — MWI

A red-team analysis of the MDTF’s vulnerabilities — written to help the force understand what adversaries will exploit and how to harden against it.

🏘️ Want Combat-Ready Units? Don’t Let the Connected World Fracture Unit Cohesion

John Spencer — MWI

Argues that smartphones, social media, and constant connectivity are quietly eroding the cohesion that makes units fight and survive.

📊 The Industrial Window of War: How to Measure Russia’s Munitions Throughput and How to Disrupt It

Cosimo Meneguzzo and Fabrizio Minniti — MWI

Offers a framework for assessing Russian artillery production rates and identifies leverage points for disrupting the Kremlin’s industrial war machine.

🦖 From Proficiency to Lethality

SFC Chas D. Ward and SFC Kenneth L. Shelton — Armor Journal

Outlines a progressive leader development model for armor and cavalry NCOs, bridging the gap between technical qualification and tactical lethality.

🦖 A Rapidly Changing Operational Environment

SSG Matthew Watson — Armor Journal

An NCO’s ground-level assessment of how rapidly the operational environment is shifting — and what armor leaders must internalize to keep pace.

🏛️ Historical Vignette: June 7th, 1944

CPT Peter Neil — Air Defense Artillery Journal

A historical vignette examining ADA operations on D+1 at Normandy — and the enduring lessons for air defenders operating in complex, high-threat environments.

🚁 Targeted and Exposed: Why Command Requires Rethinking Aviation Survivability

SFC Samuel Karoki — Aviation Digest

Challenges aviation leaders to reckon with how near-peer adversaries now target command nodes, and what that means for mission planning and survivability.

🏙️ Building Trust in the Urban Environment

CPT Anthony J. DiNallo — Aviation Digest

Explores how aviation forces can build the trust and interoperability needed for effective operations in complex urban terrain.

🔫 A New Era for Mortarmen

SFC Jessie E. Lauritzen and SSG Charles W. Pferrer — Infantry Journal

Argues that the mortar platoon is entering a new era of relevance — and that the Army must invest in training and doctrine to realize its full potential.

🚦 Five Wargames Every Force Design Process Needs

Nathaniel Ambler, Maegen Nix, and Travis Reese — War on the Rocks

Proposes a taxonomy of wargames that should be embedded in every major force design effort to stress-test concepts before they are locked into structure.

💥 The Arsenal as the Battlefield: The War on Iran and the Return of Counter-Industrial Targeting

Tyler Hacker, Greg Malandrino, and Evan Braden Montgomery — War on the Rocks

Argues that targeting Iran’s defense-industrial base — not just its fielded forces — may be the decisive lever in any future conflict with Tehran.

🔭 The Folly of Seizing Kharg Island

Bilal Y. Saab — War on the Rocks

Makes the strategic case against seizing Iran’s main oil export terminal, arguing the costs and second-order effects would far outweigh any tactical gain.

🔭 Warden and Iran

Jacob Stoil — War Room

Applies Col. John Warden’s Five Rings model to Iran’s strategic architecture, identifying the centers of gravity most vulnerable to strategic pressure.

🎖️ Perspectives: The Weight of War and Reclaiming Combat Agility

CW2 Aaron McClendon — SWCS Special Warfare Journal

A personal account of the psychological and physical burden of sustained special operations, and what the force must do differently to sustain its people.

🎧 Urban Warfare Project Podcast: Drones and Urban Warfare in Ukraine

Host: John Spencer; Guest: Dr. Anthony Tingle — Urban Warfare Project, MWI

Analyzes how drone proliferation has fundamentally changed the tactics, tempo, and survivability calculus of urban combat in Ukraine.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

🤖 Can Biometric Data Make Units More Combat Ready? Yes — and This Brigade Gunnery Exercise Showed How

Jon Bate, Stephanie Hightower, and Rebecca Rough — MWI

A Stryker brigade used wearable technology to link sleep and recovery data to crew lethality — finding that measuring human readiness can meaningfully improve qualification results.

📈 Maximizing Combat Readiness: Leveraging SABIR

MAJ Ian Morris and CPT Brooks Seeger — Army Sustainment

Explains how the Standard Army Battle Rhythm and SABIR system can be used to drive predictive readiness and reduce equipment deadlining across the formation.

🚚 Steel Meets Sustainment

CPT Ben Kusinski — Armor Journal

Explores the integration challenges between armor maneuver and sustainment elements during large-scale combat operations.

🚁 Optimizing the Ammunition Process

CW2 Dennis Puccini Jr. and SSG Devante J. Mckenzie — Aviation Digest

Bridges the gap between ammunition planning and execution in aviation operations, with practical process improvements for aviation units.

🚁 Cartridge Actuated Device and Propellant Actuated Device

1LT Letherio R. Jones Jr. — Aviation Digest

A technical primer on CAD/PAD safety and handling for aviation crews — knowledge that directly impacts survivability and mission success.

💰 Financial Light in the Darkness

MAJ Wesleigh J. Cochrane — The Army Lawyer

Explains the legal and financial resources available to soldiers and families in crisis — and why JAG officers must proactively connect them to those resources.

🎖️ Joint Readiness Is Not Optional

CW3 Emmanuel Tello — Warrant Officer Journal

Makes the case that warrant officers must understand and operate effectively in joint environments — and that technical expertise alone is no longer sufficient.

🎧 LogStat: JPMRC Trends at BDE & Below

Host: CPT Garett Pyle; Guest: LTC Keith Twichell

Continues the series with readiness and logistics trends from JPMRC rotations — pattern analysis that every sustainment leader should track.

🎧 MOPs & MOEs: Offset PT and Performance

Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond; Guests: COL Christopher Brawley, CSM Jeremiah Waggoner, and Dr. Ellie Van Luit — MOPs & MOEs

A data-driven conversation on how offset PT — physical training decoupled from unit formation — actually improves individual performance and unit readiness outcomes.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

🌍 The Sisyphean Struggle for Influence Campaigning in Competition

Jeremy S. Mushtare — MWI

Argues that influence operations in the competition phase are structurally resistant to decisive outcomes — and proposes a more realistic framework for what success looks like.

💻 NotPetya Cost Russia

Tom Johansmeyer — IWI

Reassesses the blowback from Russia’s NotPetya cyberattack, arguing the unintended economic damage to Russian interests exceeded Western losses.

🕵️ Terrorist Attribution: Patterns of Claimed and Unclaimed Attacks

Mahmut Cengiz — IWI

Identifies patterns in when and why terrorist organizations choose to claim — or deliberately withhold credit for — attacks, with implications for intelligence analysis.

🌍 Preventing ISIS’s Rising Resurgence After Syria’s Power Shift

Cudi Zerey — SWJ

Assesses the conditions enabling an ISIS resurgence in post-Assad Syria and proposes a framework for disrupting its reconstitution.

🧊 Greenland and Strategic North American Defense in the 21st Century

Troy Bouffard, Cameron Carlson, and Dr. Lilliam Hussong — SWJ

Makes the strategic case for Greenland’s growing importance to Arctic defense, NORAD modernization, and great-power competition in the High North.

🕵️ Engineering Conspiracy Theories: Information Warfare

Douglas Wilbur — SWJ

Analyzes how state and non-state actors deliberately engineer and amplify conspiracy theories as instruments of information warfare.

🌏 Japan First in the Indo-Pacific: Takaichi’s Shift from Pacifist Constraint to Allied Mobilization

Christopher Lee and Ben Blane — SWJ

Examines the strategic implications of Japan’s shifting defense posture — and what it means for U.S. alliance management and Indo-Pacific deterrence.

🌍 Is the United States Drifting Toward Rogue State Status?

Michael Greif — SWJ

A provocative assessment of whether recent U.S. foreign policy behavior is eroding the rules-based international order from within.

🌍 Trump, Iran, Water Desalination, and War Crimes

George Headley — SWJ

Examines the legal and strategic dimensions of targeting water infrastructure in the Iran conflict, and where the line between military necessity and war crime falls.

🌍 Germany’s Military Reawakening

Tahir Azad — SWJ

Traces Germany’s rapid shift from strategic restraint to rearmament — and assesses whether the Bundeswehr can actually deliver on its new commitments.

🛡️ Proxy Pressure on Iran: The Promise and Pitfalls of Arming the Kurds

Jonathan Schroden and Zack Gold — War on the Rocks

Evaluates the strategic logic and practical risks of using Kurdish proxy forces as a lever against Iranian influence in the Middle East.

🔭 The Most Important Deterrent That NATO Needs Is Creativity

Ethan Eagle and Jeroen Franssen — War on the Rocks

Makes the case that NATO’s deterrence posture is increasingly defined by structural inertia — and that strategic creativity may matter more than hardware.

🌍 CJIATF-PR: Lessons from Coalition Operations

Michael Margolius and Travis Pantaleo — War Room

Draws operational and organizational lessons from the Combined Joint Interagency Task Force — a model for integrating partners in complex, multi-domain operations.

🎧 SSI Live #123: Obama and the Bomb

Host: MAJ Brennan Deveraux and Dr. Frank Jones — SSI

Examines the Obama administration’s nuclear posture and decision-making — and what it reveals about the enduring tensions between deterrence, disarmament, and modernization.

🕵️ Redefining Open Source Intelligence

Dr. Jeffrey A. Mader — MIPB

Argues that the explosion of open-source data demands a fundamental rethinking of how OSINT is collected, analyzed, and integrated into intelligence products.

🤖 Efficient Workforce: Building for Tomorrow

Douglas R. Bush — Army AL&T

The Army’s top acquisition official makes the case for workforce efficiency as a strategic imperative — not just a management concern.

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

🪖 Engaged Leaders

SSG Melinda B. Jones — NCO Journal

Makes the case that genuine leader engagement — not presence alone — is what separates high-performing units from merely compliant ones.

🪖 Through the Lens of the Singapore Army

First Warrant Officer (1WO) Kok Leong Ho, Singapore Army — NCO Journal

Offers an outside perspective on U.S. Army NCO development — and the habits of excellence that a partner nation’s senior NCO corps considers foundational.

📖 Train as You Write

MSG Nathan P. Feinberg — NCO Journal

Argues that writing quality reflects thinking quality — and that NCOs who train their soldiers to write clearly are building the same mental discipline they need under fire.

🧠 Cognitive Warfare

Dr. Robert Nelson and SGM Benjamin Pingel — NCO Journal

Examines cognitive warfare as a domain NCO leaders must understand — and how to develop the mental resilience and critical thinking skills to counter it.

📖 Talent Management at Echelon: People Are the Platform

David A. Beaumont — Center for Junior Officers

Argues that talent management is not an HR function — it is a core leadership responsibility at every echelon, and the platform everything else is built on.

📹 FM 1: The Army — A Primer to Our Profession of Arms

CADD — Center for Junior Officers

A video primer on FM 1 and what it means to serve in a profession of arms — useful for introducing new soldiers and officers to the foundations of the Army.

📖 Yes, Clausewitz Still Matters for Today’s Lieutenants

Noah Jager — Center for Junior Officers

Pushes back against the tendency to dismiss Clausewitz as obsolete — arguing his core insights on war, politics, and friction are more relevant than ever.

📖 Working the Marketplace, Not Hoping for It

Robert Beyer — Center for Junior Officers

Practical guidance for junior officers on how to actively manage their careers in the Army’s talent marketplace — rather than waiting for assignments to happen to them.

🤝 Why Mentoring Matters

Michael Hackney — Military Mentors

Makes the case for structured mentoring as a force multiplier — and explains why informal relationships alone are not enough to develop the Army’s next generation.

📖 Leadership Initiative

Josh Bowen — 3x5 Leadership

Explores the concept of leadership initiative — the disposition to act, decide, and lead before being told to — and how to develop it in yourself and your soldiers.

🎖️ Forging the Expert Infantryman

CPT Patrick M. Elsenbast and 1SG Ryan D. Shaw — Infantry Journal

Examines what it takes to develop expert infantrymen — and how leaders at every level can build a culture of genuine mastery rather than checkbox competence.

🎧 Bend But Do Not Break: Rethinking the Future of the All-Volunteer Force

Host: Joe Byerly; Guest: Jaron Wharton — From the Green Notebook

A frank conversation on the stresses facing the all-volunteer force — recruiting shortfalls, retention pressure, and what must change to keep the model viable.

📖 Resources & Calls

• CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

• Call for Papers – Army Civilian Journal – Invitation to contribute.

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

• Army Foreign Area Officer Association Podcasts – FAO professional development listening.

🧰 TL;DR

· Quick Read: Cognitive Fratricide: How the Transparent Battlefield Creates Decision Paralysis

· Deep Dive: Discovery Before Disaster: The Louisiana Maneuvers and the Untested Warfighting Concepts of Today’s Army

· Listen: MOPs & MOEs: COL Adisa King on Leadership and Culture

· For the Formation: Winning the First Fight — MCOE

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

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The man who had posed the question, Dr. Sherman Kent—Yale historian, wartime intelligence officer, and arguably the most rigorous analytical mind in the room—was alarmed by this discrepancy. He believed that analytical judgment was only as sound as the reasoning behind it, and that reasoning was only as good as the language used to express it. The revelation that the greatest national and military intelligence minds in the country couldn’t agree on what a simple estimative word meant wasn’t just alarming to Dr. Kent. It was unacceptable. So, he did what any good academic would do in that situation: he wrote a paper about it.

The paper, published in 1964 in the CIA journal Studies in Intelligence, had exactly the kind of title you would expect from a Yale historian working for a government agency: “Words of Estimative Probability.”¹ The solution it proposed, however, was elegantly simple: to eliminate linguistic ambiguity, standard estimative language must have agreed-upon numerical probability ranges. “Certain” should indicate a 100 percent certainty; “almost certain” should be a probability of 93 plus or minus 6 percent; “probably” should be 75 plus or minus 12percent; and so on, all the way down to “almost certainly not” with a probability of 7 plus or minus 5 percent (see figure below). Intelligence professionals would, at last, be working from a shared vocabulary, eliminating the dangerous guesswork that happened when producers and consumers of intelligence read the same word and arrived at entirely different numbers.

Figure. Sherman Kent’s proposed probability ranges

Of course, there was pushback. Some analysts resisted what they saw as an attempt to impose false precision on an inherently uncertain craft. Others acknowledged the need for linguistic uniformity and enthusiastically embraced Dr. Kent’s suggestions. To some extent, this linguistic skirmish has continued to the present day. However, Kent’s core insight—that vague language in analytical writing isn’t just lazy; it’s downright irresponsible—has subtly shaped analytic tradecraft standards from America’s military intelligence enterprise to the broader NATO intelligence community ever since.

Thumbing through back issues of the Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin with Dr. Kent’s paper on wordcrafting in mind is enlightening. A careful hedge here, a precisely chosen qualifier there, the deliberate distinction between “indicate” and “suggest”—none of these is the result of random chance. They are the thoughtful descendants of a historian’s argument 60 years ago that the words analysts choose are as vital to quality analysis as the analysis itself. Dr. Kent served in wartime, but he didn’t carry a weapon. Instead, he carried a metaphorical red pen, using it to shed light on the rigor authors owe their readers.

“Throwback Thursday” isn’t just about looking back. It’s also an opportunity to recognize which lessons from the past continue to influence modern military practice. In professional military writing, whether you’re drafting a report, presenting the results of months of research, or writing for one of our journals, say what you mean and mean what you say. Your readers will thank you for it—probably.

Endnotes

1. Sherman Kent, “Words of Estimative Probability,” Studies in Intelligence 8, no.4 (1964), https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP93T01132R000100020036-3.pdf. Declassified May 4, 2012.

Ms. Lorilynn Iversen is an editor for the Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, the professional journal of the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corps.

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 20 March 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

March closes with a full slate — drones, algorithms, the Arctic, the Middle East, and the enduring questions of what it means to lead.

This week’s Formation covers the proliferation of unmanned systems across every domain, the strategic stakes of algorithmic advantage, and the human dimension that no technology can replace — resilience, courage, and the willingness to start something new.

Read widely. Think critically. Close the month strong.

Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

Ep. 174 – The Courage to Start Something New (with Andy Yakulis)

Host: Joe Byerly; Guest: Andy Yakulis — From the Green Notebook

A conversation about the mindset and courage required to step into the unknown — whether that’s a new assignment, a new organization, or a new chapter of life after service.

You Can’t Stockpile AI: Military Advantage in the Age of Algorithmic Diffusion

Kyle Dotterrer — Modern War Institute

Challenges the assumption that AI creates durable military advantage, arguing that algorithmic diffusion means advantage is fleeting — and that how the Army adapts its processes matters more than any single capability.

Inside Recruiting Company Command: Leadership Beyond the Numbers

Tanner Cook — Center for Junior Officers

A ground-level look at what company command in a recruiting context actually demands — and what it teaches about leading people through ambiguity and mission pressure.

⚔️ Warfighting

🪖 Who Owns the Drones? Why Modernization of Army Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Should Be a Maneuver Responsibility John Dudas — MWI

Makes the doctrinal and organizational case for placing small UAS modernization and employment authority within maneuver formations — a timely argument with major implications for how the Army equips and trains.

🪖 India-Pakistan Drone Warfare Tahir Mahmood Azad — IWI

Examines the emerging drone competition between India and Pakistan and what it signals about the proliferation of UAS in regional conflict.

🇹🇼 Taiwan’s T-Dome and Drone Warfare Ben Biedrzycki — SWJ

Assesses Taiwan’s T-Dome counter-drone system and its implications for the air defense calculus in a Taiwan Strait contingency.

🪖 Kurdish Resistance Drones and Iran Zak Kallenborn — IWI

Traces how Kurdish resistance groups are leveraging drone technology against Iranian forces and what it means for non-state UAS employment.

🚫 Don’t Count Launches: Misreading Iran’s Drone Capacity Kelly A. Grieco — War on the Rocks

A methodological critique of how analysts are counting Iranian drone launches and why raw numbers badly misrepresent operational capacity and strategic intent.

🪖 The Menace of Misunderstanding: Learning the Wrong Lessons from Ukraine’s Drone-Saturated Battlefields Charles S. Oliviero and Phil Halton — MWI

Challenges prevailing narratives about drone warfare in Ukraine, arguing that misreading its lessons risks catastrophic tactical and doctrinal miscalculation.

🎙️ Interview: Ami Ayalon on Iran, Gaza, and the Israeli Navy Interviewers: Christopher Booth & Walker Mills; Interviewee: Ami Ayalon — IWI

A frank conversation with the former head of Shin Bet and Israeli Navy commander on the strategic logic of the Iran conflict and what it demands of leadership.

🛡️ The Value of Euro-SOF Ned Marsh — SWJ

Makes the strategic case for European Special Operations Forces as a distinct and undervalued asset in the transatlantic security architecture.

🎙️ Non-State Special Operations Darrell Driver and Craig Whiteside — War Room

Examines the rise of non-state actors capable of sophisticated special operations and what that means for doctrine, partnerships, and competition.

🇺🇦 Bailing Out Russia for Peace Is a Losing Proposition Emma Isabella Sage and Savannah Taylor — War on the Rocks

A sharp critique of the logic behind offering Russia economic relief as a peace incentive, arguing it rewards aggression without changing Russian strategic calculus.

🇲🇪 Drinking from the Bitter Chalice in the Middle East Again Steven Simon — War on the Rocks

A historically grounded assessment of U.S. strategic entanglement in the Middle East and the recurring costs of misread exits.

🇨🇳 How Does the Iran War Affect China’s Energy Security? Yun Sun — War on the Rocks

Links the Iran conflict to Chinese strategic calculations, tracing how energy dependency shapes Beijing’s posture and risk tolerance.

⚔️ Double-Edged Swords: How Military Purges Shape Authoritarian Appetite for War Jun Sudduth — War on the Rocks

Examines the counterintuitive relationship between leadership purges in autocratic militaries and the resulting shift in risk appetite toward conflict.

🌍 Reckoning: America’s Middle East Strategy Irina Tsukerman — SWJ

A broad strategic reckoning with U.S. policy in the Middle East and the compounding consequences of strategic drift.

📋 Fact-Checking the Commander in Chief Tom Ordeman Jr. — SWJ

A careful examination of executive claims about military operations and what civil-military accountability requires in response.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

🚛 Automated Vessel Selection and Combat Sustainment MAJ William Kirschenman, Dr. Brandon McConnell, and Dr. Russel King — Army Sustainment

Examines how automated vessel selection algorithms can improve distribution efficiency and reduce friction in theater sustainment operations.

🛡️ The Chokepoint We Missed: Sulfur, Hormuz, and the Threats to Military Readiness Morgan Bazilian, Macdonald Amoah, and Jahara Matisek — MWI

Draws attention to sulfur as an overlooked strategic vulnerability: disruption at Hormuz threatens the chemical supply chains that military readiness depends on.

🧠 Shared Understanding at Machine Speed: Preserving Coherence in AI-Enabled Joint Operations Richard L. Farnell — MWI

Addresses the command and control challenge of maintaining shared understanding across a joint force when AI systems are operating faster than human cognition.

🛡️ Field Artillery Strategy 2030 Field Artillery Journal

The Field Artillery branch’s strategic vision for 2030 — how fires must modernize to remain the decisive shaping and suppression force on the future battlefield.

⚗️ Commander’s Gamble CPT Kassi Gulliford — Army Chemical Review

Examines the calculated risks commanders must take when operating in CBRN-contested environments and how doctrine must adapt to keep pace with the threat.

🎙️ LogStat: JRTC Trends at the BDE & Below Host: CPT Garett Pyle; Guest: LTC Dan Cole

Draws out sustainment and logistics observations from JRTC rotations — actionable lessons for brigade-level leaders preparing for their own rotations.

🎙️ Mops & Moes: Fitness Philosophy, Part 2 Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond; Guest: Michael Blevins

Continues the conversation on building a durable physical training philosophy — what separates Soldiers who sustain performance from those who plateau or break down.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

🧠 You Can’t Stockpile AI: Military Advantage in the Age of Algorithmic Diffusion Kyle Dotterrer — MWI

Challenges the assumption that AI creates durable military advantage, arguing that how the Army adapts its processes matters more than any single capability.

🌊 Retreat at the Bottom of the World: U.S. Polar Policy’s Arctic Surge and Antarctic Drawdown DeLaine Mayer — MWI

Examines the strategic tension in U.S. polar policy — surging in the Arctic while drawing down in Antarctica — and what it signals about prioritization and risk.

🇨🇳 The New Reserve Personnel ID Card: How the PLA Is Streamlining Mobilization Joshua Arostegui — SSI

A detailed look at PLA reserve mobilization reform and what the new personnel ID card system reveals about China’s intent to field a more responsive reserve force.

🔭 Narrative as a Weapon John Wirges — SWJ

Examines narrative as a distinct instrument of warfare and how adversaries are weaponizing story to shape perception, will, and behavior at scale.

🔭 Beyond the Menu of Options: A Taxonomy for Information Security Strategies Nazar Syvak — SWJ

Proposes a structured taxonomy for information security strategies that moves beyond ad hoc responses toward a coherent framework for protecting the information environment.

🧠 Insomnia, Trauma, and Substances Jonathan Kenigson — War Room

A clinically grounded examination of the interconnected challenges of sleep disorders, trauma, and substance use in the military population — and what leadership must understand about their intersection.

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

📋 Team Cohesion Josh Bowen — 3x5 Leadership

A practical exploration of what builds genuine team cohesion and how leaders can cultivate it deliberately rather than hoping it emerges on its own.

🪖 The Drone Battlefield CSM Jermaine Baldwin — NCO Journal

An NCO leader’s perspective on what drone proliferation demands of small-unit leaders at the tactical edge.

🇧🇷 Brazilian Leadership Lessons SGM Mauricio da Silva Souza — NCO Journal

Leadership principles from a Brazilian Army perspective — a cross-cultural look at what makes NCOs effective across different military cultures and contexts.

💪 Resiliency CSM Richard C. Ryles Jr. — NCO Journal (Muddy Boots)

A hard-earned NCO perspective on building personal and organizational resilience — what it actually looks like at the ground level and how leaders model it under pressure.

📖 Resources & Calls

• CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

• Call for Papers – Army Civilian Journal – Invitation to contribute.

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

• Army Foreign Area Officer Association Podcasts – FAO professional development listening.

🧰 TL;DR

Quick Read: You Can’t Stockpile AI: Military Advantage in the Age of Algorithmic Diffusion

Deep Dive: Who Owns the Drones? Why Modernization of Army Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Should Be a Maneuver Responsibility

Listen: Ep. 174 – The Courage to Start Something New (with Andy Yakulis)

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

In 1921, still grappling with lessons from World War I as it continued to settle into its new home at Camp Benning, Ga., the U.S. Army’s Infantry School launched a new educational initiative to continue forging a unified and professional corps of Infantry leaders. Simply known as the “Mailing List” after its method of distribution, the endeavor aimed to provide Infantry Soldiers around the Army with the latest in tactics, doctrine, and military thought from the Army’s premier infantry institution.

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In its first edition, “Tactical Problems,” Maj. R. H. Kelley, an instructor in the school’s Department of Military Art, explained the reasoning for the inaugural installment. During the Great War, he explained, the Army had to rapidly produce Soldiers who were highly proficient with individual weapons like machine guns or grenades but often “failed to appreciate the part each weapon or organization played in the great Infantry team.”

An emphasis on the study of tactics was seen as an essential remedy. “Infantry tactics employ certain basic principles designed to destroy the fighting strength of an enemy with the fewest casualties to the friendly forces…” Kelley stated. “The mission of an Infantry commander in action requires the highest degree of technical and tactical training, including a thorough appreciation of the powers, characteristics and limitations of all forces and weapons utilized.”

Based on instruction provided at the Infantry School, the 74-page pamphlet included 10 map problems or exercises – along with associated graphics, approved solutions and comments – for readers to explore. By distributing these materials, the school intended to extend its educational reach far beyond its classrooms in Georgia, ensuring that officers everywhere could build their professional training on a common and solid foundation while also fostering a unified understanding of the Infantry’s complex role on the battlefield.

Over the next few years, the school continued to regularly disseminate additional pamphlets consisting of these tactical problems along with lectures and other instructional material on topics ranging from assault and defense to the care of horses. While the intent was valid, the execution left subscribers wanting. In 1930, under then-Assistant Commandant Lt. Col. George C. Marshall, Maj. Edwin F. Harding (yes, as in the Harding Project) took on the task of revitalizing the publication. The foreword of the 1930-31 Mailing List succinctly notes, “The only reason for its existence is the dissemination of military instruction and the stimulation of thought on military subjects. If those who subscribe to it do not take the trouble to read it, it fails utterly in its sole purpose of being.”

Beginning with that issue, Harding and his staff chose timely, relevant content in a variety of formats to break up the monotony and keep readers more engaged. For example, a discussion on infantry reorganization was framed as a personal letter between two officers, and an article on groundbreaking defensive tactics was presented as a candid dialogue between a skeptical visiting colonel and a knowledgeable school instructor. This shift in presentation made the material more digestible, transforming what would have been very dry content into memorable lessons.

That edition also included its first offerings based on firsthand accounts: “Experiences in the First Days of War,” a lecture delivered by a German Army captain to Infantry School students, and “The Operations of Company ‘K’, 38^th Infantry, 3^rd Division in the Second Phase of the Meuse-Argonne,” a monograph written by the company’s commander at the time, CPT Robert G. Moss, who received the first of his two Silver Stars for his actions on that patrol. CPT Moss closed his account with a list of lessons learned, which included practical tips like the value of carrying wire cutters to cut barbed wire to more abstract recommendations involving morale and the psychology of combat.

The publication continued to offer tactical decision exercises, complete with maps and solutions; however, the foreword to this section emphasized their purpose: “The problems are not intended to lay down rules; they are meant to stimulate thought.” This underscored a fundamental shift in philosophy at the time – teaching officers how to think versus what to think.

These changes marked a significant step in the publication’s evolution from a purely instructional tool to more of a forum for professional discourse. Over the years, as the Infantry School grew, so did its journal. In addition to adding more thought-provoking – even controversial – material, the publication changed formatting and names several times, morphing from the Mailing List into the Infantry School Quarterly in 1947 before finally settling as Infantry in 1957 – a legacy we proudly continue today.

Michelle Rowan currently serves as the civilian editor of Infantry, the professional bulletin of the U.S. Army’s Infantry Branch.

Army civilians make up nearly 25% of the Total Force, providing the steady hand and deep expertise that keeps the mission moving. While the Chief of Staff has highlighted professional writing as the heartbeat of a healthy Army, our community has often been the “quiet professionals” in the background. We spend our careers solving the Army’s toughest puzzles—from complex logistics to advanced engineering—yet we rarely share those solutions beyond our own office walls. It’s time we strengthen our profession through open, honest dialogue.

With that goal in mind, the Army Civilian Professional Journal was created as a space built by the workforce, for the workforce. Drawing inspiration from the Army’s long tradition of branch journals—dating back to the 19th-century cavalry and artillery papers—this new forum is specifically designed for the unique challenges we face as civilians. It’s a modern platform where a GS-7’s fresh perspective is just as valuable as a SES’s strategic oversight. This isn’t just another task; it’s our chance to mentor one another at scale.

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We’re inviting you to pull up a chair and join the conversation. Read the journal to see what your peers across the globe are tackling; share it with your team to spark a better way of doing business; and, most importantly, write. Your “lesson learned” today could be the breakthrough a colleague needs tomorrow. Send your drafts, questions, or even a rough outline to usarmy.leavenworth.cac.mbx.armyu-amsc-civilian-journal@army.mil.

Allyson McNitt, PhD is an editor for the Army Civilian Professional Journal at Fort Leavenworth.

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 13 (spooky) March 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

March presses forward with urgency on every front — tactical, institutional, and strategic.

This week’s Formation brings a heavy slate: drone warfare lessons from Ukraine, the strategic dimension of the Iran conflict, ATAP strategy for officers and their units, a new Parameters issue, and a Clausewitzian moment for the profession.

The profession doesn’t wait for you to catch up. Get after it.

Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

From Participation to Domination: How Units Can Win the Officer Army Talent Alignment Process (ATAP)

Edward Prueitt — From the Green Notebook

A practical playbook for units to move from passive ATAP participation to deliberate talent strategy — essential reading for any commander or leader with skin in the talent management game.

Budget Certainty Is Crucial to Maintaining Readiness

GEN Chris LaNeve — AUSA

The Army’s top officer makes the case for why fiscal predictability is a readiness issue, not just a budget issue.

⚔️ Warfighting

🤖 The Menace of Misunderstanding: Learning the Wrong Lessons from Ukraine’s Drone-Saturated Battlefields Charles S. Oliviero and Phil Halton — MWI

Challenges prevailing narratives about drone warfare, arguing that misreading Ukraine’s lessons risks catastrophic tactical and doctrinal miscalculation.

🎙️ MWI Podcast: The Weapons Defining the Iran Conflict Host: John Amble; Guest: Tom Karako — MWI

Breaks down the missiles, drones, and air defense systems shaping the current Iran conflict and their implications for the joint force.

🚢 Sea Denial Deep Inside Russia: The Role of Special Operations Forces in Countering Warships on Inland Waters Helge Adrians — MWI

Examines how SOF can conduct sea denial against Russian naval assets on inland waterways — a capability with significant implications for future operations.

🤖 Networked for War: Lessons from Ukraine’s Ground Robots Jorge Rivero — MWI

Draws operational lessons from Ukraine’s use of ground-based robotic systems and the network requirements that make them effective.

🎙️ MWI Podcast: The Iran Conflict’s Strategic Dimension Host: John Amble; Guests: Jonathan Panikoff, Sydney Laite, and Rory Miller — MWI

Situates the Iran conflict within the broader strategic competition and examines what outcomes are actually achievable.

🛡️ A Worst-Case Scenario for the War with Iran Kerry Boyd Anderson — War on the Rocks

A sober assessment of how the Iran conflict could spiral beyond current assumptions and planning horizons.

🎙️ The Spear: Ranger Missions in Iraq and Afghanistan Host: Charles Faint; Guest: Marty Skovlund — MWI

A ground-level account of Ranger operations across two decades of war and what those missions demand of leaders and Soldiers.

🇮🇷 Iran’s Proxy Network Strategy Dr. Joe Funderburke — IWI

Maps Iran’s proxy architecture and the strategic logic behind building and sustaining distributed armed networks.

🇵🇸 Human in the Loop Khyati Singh — SWJ

Interrogates the doctrine of human oversight in autonomous weapons and where it risks becoming a hollow safeguard.

🇬🇦 Gaza and the Logic of High-Intensity Urban Warfare Danny Orbach, Jonathan Boxman, Yagil Henkin, and Jonathan Braverman — War on the Rocks

Analyzes the operational logic and constraints of high-intensity urban combat through the lens of Gaza.

🔭 Schrodinger’s Security Partner: The Paradox of Measuring Security Force Assistance Jahara Matisek — SWJ

Exposes the fundamental measurement problem in Security Force Assistance and what it means for program design and assessment.

🛡️ To What End: When Technology and Media Seduce Politicians Matthew Ford — SWJ

Examines how technological spectacle and media dynamics distort political decision-making in conflict.

🌍 From Hormuz to Harvest: The Strategic Clock of Modern Agriculture Alicia Ellis — SWJ

Links food security, maritime chokepoints, and strategic competition in a framework that reframes agriculture as a national security issue.

🎙️ Intelligence, Innovation, and Integration Andrew Evans and Tom Spahr — War Room

Explores how intelligence functions must evolve to integrate with emerging technologies and support faster decision cycles.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

📊 Army Builds Agile, More Responsive HR Enterprise AUSA with BG Greg Johnson

Details the Army’s effort to modernize human resources into a faster, more data-driven enterprise capable of supporting a dynamic force.

📊 Warrant Officers Foster Army Transformation CW5 Matt McDougall — AUSA

Makes the case for the warrant officer corps as a distinct and indispensable engine of Army modernization and technical mastery.

🎙️ Forging Ahead: AUSA Podcast on Industry Partnerships Hosts: LTG (Ret.) Leslie Smith and SMA (Ret.) Dan Dailey; Guests: Elizabeth O’Brien and Josh Fugate

Examines how Army-industry partnerships are accelerating capability delivery and what it takes to make them work.

🚛 Precision Sustainment: The Wrong Approach for Tactical Units MAJ Brian Mathews — Army Sustainment

A contrarian take arguing that precision sustainment models optimized for efficiency can fail tactical units in the friction of combat.

⚡ Data-Informed Decisions Enable Operational Energy CW2 James A. Frye — Army Sustainment

Shows how data-informed energy management can extend operational reach and reduce logistical vulnerability.

💻 All According to Plan: Digital Planning Tools and Tomorrow’s Battlefield Michael ‘Reggie’ Hammond, Earl Dean, and Ryan Delts — Army AL&T

Examines how digital planning tools being fielded today are shaping readiness for future high-end conflict.

💻 A Digital Dive Rachel Berry — Army AL&T

Explores the Army’s digital modernization journey and the acquisition challenges that come with it.

🚁 Innovate or Die: Our Fight to Stay Relevant MAJ Zachary D. Daker and MAJ Patrick J. Shaver Jr. — Aviation Digest

A call to action for Army aviation to adapt or cede relevance on the modern battlefield.

🩺 Clinical and Strategic Lessons from Syria: Evolving the Role of the Battalion Aid Station MAJ Cheryl L. Miller, CPT Thomas W. Graham III, and 1LT Aimee M. Feary — Pulse of Army Medicine

Draws clinical and doctrinal lessons from Syria to rethink how Battalion Aid Stations must evolve for LSCO.

🩺 Subterranean Role: Medical Operations Underground 1LT Leoniel O. Rodriguez Rosas, CPT Ryan C. Brown, and 1SG Sakeena Lites — Pulse of Army Medicine

Addresses the unique medical challenges of subterranean operations and how medical units must adapt their TTPs.

🎙️ LogStat: NTC Trends at the BDE & Below Host: CPT Garett Pyle; Guest: LTC Eric Shockley

Breaks down sustainment and logistics observations from NTC rotations, with actionable lessons for brigade-level leaders.

🎙️ Mops & Moes: Fitness Philosophy, Part 1 Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond; Guest: Michael Blevins

Lays the philosophical foundation for how Soldiers should approach physical training — purpose-driven, not just program-driven.

🏋️ Train Like You Park Leg Tuck Nation — Mops & Moes

A sharp, memorable framework for approaching physical training with the same discipline and intentionality applied to occupation of terrain.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

🧠 Intelligence Risk: Prediction Markets Peter Burns — IWI

Explores prediction markets as a tool to improve intelligence risk assessment and reduce the systemic biases of traditional analytic methods.

📊 Shall I Play a Game? Wargaming in PME Keith Burkepile — War Room

Argues for integrating wargaming more deliberately into professional military education to build adaptive, creative leaders.

🔭 Text Without Context Is Pretext Dawn Hersey and Wendy MacKenzie Pease — SWJ

Examines how information divorced from context becomes a tool of manipulation — and what leaders must do to counter it.

🇰🇷 Katchi Kapshida C.B. Duncan — SWJ

An on-the-ground account of advisory operations and the hard cultural and institutional realities of building partner capacity.

🤐 We Were Right About Havana Syndrome Marc Polymeropoulos — War on the Rocks

A firsthand account of the Havana Syndrome fight and what it reveals about how institutions treat their people when confronting inconvenient truths.

🇷🇺 Ukraine’s Not-So-Whole-of-Society at War: Force Generation in Modern Developed Societies Host: Stephanie Crider; Guests: Antulio J. Echevarria II and Jan Willem Honig — SSI Podcast

Challenges the whole-of-society narrative for Ukraine and examines the real mechanics of force generation in modern states.

🚢 Russian Arctic Land Forces and Defense Trends Redefined by NATO and Ukraine Host: Stephanie Crider; Guests: Lester W. Grau and Troy J. Bouffard — SSI Podcast

Examines how Russia’s Arctic land forces have evolved in response to NATO expansion and lessons absorbed from Ukraine.

🛡️ Successful Large-Scale Combat Operations Require Artificially Intelligent Breaching Munitions Michael P. Carvelli — Parameters

Makes the technical and doctrinal case for AI-enabled breaching munitions as a prerequisite for success in LSCO.

🇪🇺 Imitating US Doctrine Cost Europe Its Heavy Combat Power Bence Nemeth — Parameters

A sobering analysis of how European armies that adopted U.S. doctrinal models shed the heavy combat power they now urgently need.

🇹🇼 Risk Decision Making and Intertemporal Choice: Lessons from the Taiwan Strait Rachel Downing — Parameters

Applies behavioral economics and decision science to the Taiwan Strait scenario to illuminate how risk and time horizons shape strategic choice.

🖏 Spezialpropaganda: The East German Military’s Covert Information-Warfare Program Joe Cheravitch — Parameters

Uncovers the East German military’s covert influence operations and draws parallels to modern information warfare.

🎯 Strategic Rivalries: How Are They Won? Antulio J. Echevarria II — Parameters

A strategic theory examination of what it actually takes to prevail in great power competition.

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

📋 Approaching the Military as a Profession Through the Clausewitzian Trinity Adam T. Biggs — Parameters

Uses Clausewitz’s trinity as a lens to examine what it truly means to treat military service as a profession and not merely an occupation.

📋 Strategic Theory and Clausewitz’s Trinitarian Test Lukas Milevski — Parameters

Tests strategic theory against the Clausewitzian trinity and examines where contemporary thinking holds up and where it falls short.

📋 Legacies Worth Considering: (Re)examining the Assumptions Behind Denial Strategies Samuel Zilincik — Parameters

Revisits foundational assumptions behind denial strategies in light of contemporary strategic realities.

🛡️ Where Vision Meets Velocity: Rules for Field-Grade Officers MAJ Kevin R. Brensinger — Field Artillery Journal

Practical leadership rules for field-grade officers operating at the intersection of institutional vision and tactical execution.

🛡️ Forging Lethality: Integrating Fires and Maneuver for Decisive Operations MAJ Jay Logan & SFC Stuart David — Field Artillery Journal

Key fires integration observations from JMRC rotations with direct applicability for brigade combat teams.

🛡️ I Found What You’re Looking For: Why Company Grade Officers Should Fight to Come Teach at the Field Artillery School MAJ Destry ‘Sam’ Balch — Field Artillery Journal

A persuasive case for why talent should flow toward the schoolhouse — and what officers gain from teaching that they can’t get anywhere else.

🤖 On Deep Convolutional Neural Networks and Building Latent Violence in the Indo-Pacific MAJ Joseph Schmid — Field Artillery Journal

An intellectually ambitious piece connecting AI-enabled targeting to the broader strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific.

🪖 The Drone Battlefield CSM Jermaine Baldwin — NCO Journal

An NCO leader’s perspective on drone warfare and what it demands of small-unit leaders at the tip of the spear.

🪖 Judgment Day MSG Raymond T. Fain — NCO Journal

Examines the weight of judgment calls that NCOs face and the professional grounding required to make them well.

📚 Eyes Up MAJ Christopher Zaczyk — Military Review

Elevating situational awareness as a deliberate leadership discipline, not a passive habit.

📖 Resources & Calls

• CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

• Call for Papers – Army Civilian Journal - Invitation to contribute.

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

🧰 TL;DR

· Quick Read: From Participation to Domination: How Units Can Win ATAP

· Deep Dive: The Menace of Misunderstanding: Learning the Wrong Lessons from Ukraine’s Drone-Saturated Battlefields

· Listen: MWI Podcast: The Iran Conflict’s Strategic Dimension

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

Author’s Note: The professional journals of the U.S. Army are not just magazines; they are a written record of our tribe’s continuous conversation with itself about the character and nature of war. In these archives, we find our predecessors wrestling with the same fundamental problems we face today. As we digitize these archives, we are unearthing an incredible intellectual inheritance. Sometimes, what we find is not just historical curiosity, but a direct and startlingly relevant message from the past.

A review of the digitized archives of Engineer magazine from the early 1990s reveals a startlingly prescient article. The year was 1991. The U.S. Army was triumphant after a decisive victory in Desert Storm, yet it was also a time of profound uncertainty. Its primary adversary for over forty years, the Soviet Union, was in a state of terminal decline with its final dissolution just months away. The Army was an institution built to fight a giant that was now ceasing to exist, forcing it to look past long-held assumptions and justify its structure against an unwritten future. It was in this environment that a generation of officers began to look past the horizon. Among them was Major Joseph M. Seerley.

His article, “Force Structure and AirLand Battle-Future“ is a powerful example of this forward-thinking analysis. In it, he argued that the Army could not rest on its laurels and that the existing force design was already insufficient for the future of conflict. While the entire piece is a well-reasoned examination of doctrine and organization, it is a small, unassuming section that stands out for its remarkable foresight.

Below is a direct capture of that section, titled “U.S. Trends” Reading it today is like finding a blueprint for our modern military landscape.

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Foresight from 1991: A Blueprint for Modern Warfare

Major Seerley’s conclusions were not just vague premonitions; they were specific, analytical predictions that describe the reality of large-scale combat today.

• “The battlefield will become non-linear.”

This concept is now the bedrock of modern military thought, but in 1991 it was a radical departure from the established model of a clear frontline. Major Seerley went further, defining the immense scale of this future battlespace: “This area of operation, much larger than those in current doctrine, may be up to 300 kilometers (km) wide. It will have a depth of 100 km from the back edge of the detection zone to the front edge of the tactical support area.“

With these two sentences, he erased the entire concept of a safe “rear area.” He was describing a battlefield where command posts, supply depots, and field hospitals would be as much in the fight as the frontline troops, a precise vision of the immense challenges of keeping a modern army supplied and functioning under constant threat.

• “Most of the time, we will have the capability to know where the enemy is located.”

This prediction foretold the dawn of the “transparent battlefield.” Major Seerley projected the surveillance capabilities of his time forward to its logical conclusion: a state of near-persistent watchfulness from satellites, drones, and other sensors. This insight implied a fundamental shift in tactics. If the primary challenge is no longer finding the enemy, then the new keys to survival become hiding in plain sight, using deception, and, most critically, acting with greater speed than your opponent.

• “We will have the capability to engage the enemy at longer ranges with very accurate and lethal weapons.”

Paired with universal detection, this capability creates the modern kill chain. He understood that when you can see everything, and you can strike anything you see, the old rules of warfare change. He was foretelling the lethal, long-range duels that now define peer conflict, where the ability to strike deep into an enemy’s territory to disrupt their systems is a prerequisite for success.

• “In addition, non-linear warfare is considered a condition—not a choice.”

This is perhaps his most profound insight. He recognized that these technological trends were not creating a new menu of tactical options for a commander to choose from. Instead, they were forcing an inescapable condition upon all armies. The proliferation of sensors and long-range, precision weapons would make traditional warfare obsolete. The only choice left was to adapt or to be destroyed by it.

Why Write?

The discovery of this article begs a critical question: why does this 35-year-old text still hold such power? The answer is simple. Major Seerley wrote it down. He took the time to articulate his analysis, refine his argument, and submit it to the professional discourse of his day. He treated the branch journal not just as a source of information, but as a forum for debate.

This creates a professional obligation. The challenges of our current era are no less significant than those Major Seerley faced. By contributing to the professional conversation, one does not simply publish an article. One plants a seed for the future, creating a data point for the leaders of 2050 who will look back, just as we are doing now, to understand how the Army of our time grappled with its own moment of transformation.

Remarkably, this article was not an anomaly. A survey of the professional journals from that era, including Engineer, Army Chemical Review, and Military Police, reveals that a whole generation of officers was thinking deeply about these problems. They were laying the intellectual groundwork for the Army we are now trying to build.

This discovery serves as a powerful reminder that our most pressing “modern” challenges are not new. We are standing on the shoulders of the thinkers who came before us. Their wisdom is still here for us to access, and our professional archives are not a graveyard of old ideas, but a living library of hard-won knowledge. The only way to tap into this wealth of experience is to read the journals and discover it.

*AI assisted with editing for style and clarity. All ideas and analysis are original to the author.

CPT Michael McCallister is the inaugural Harding Fellow for Protection at the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence. He is Editor in Chief for the Protection, Army Chemical Review, Engineer, and Military Police professional bulletins. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois.

The 1984 National Basketball Draft Class is generally regarded as one of the greatest of all time, producing several Hall of Famers including Michael Jordan. But, did you know Jordan, a prolific college star, was passed over twice before the Chicago Bulls selected him as their third pick in the draft? How could two teams miss this generational talent—a player who continues to define the sport for future generations? And more importantly, is there a lesson to be learned for Army leaders in how we evaluate and select talent for critical positions?

The 1984 NBA Draft…What the heck happened?

At the risk of oversimplification, the teams with the first two draft picks, Houston and Portland, had gaps at the Center position. The center in basketball is usually the “biggest/tallest” person performing as the team’s most powerful force, scoring at will while patrolling under the rim to prevent any easy baskets. With the first pick, Houston drafted Hakeem Olajuwon. Olajuwon had a stellar career, leading Houston to multiple NBA championships and earning a spot in the conversation as the greatest center of all time.

Portland, with the second pick, selected Sam Bowie to be their future center with the hopes that he could lead them to victory on the court. At 7’1’’ and 235 lbs., he had all the physical attributes to be successful. Bowie had a great college career, though he suffered injuries that would come back to haunt him in his NBA Career.

Portland must have considered drafting Jordan, the consensus 1984 player of the year and National Championship winner, over Bowie. Portland’s team already had a solid player, Clyde Drexler, at Jordan’s position so they assessed the center position gap as having a greater impact and thus passed on Jordan.

The rest is history. Jordan would go on to be the greatest of all time and Bowie would have a career marred by injuries and obscurity and is regarded as one of the biggest draft busts. How did Portland miss this once in a generation talent? While Jordan certainly had tangible indicators of future greatness, listening to fellow players and coaches talk about him, they consistently reference his drive characterized by an indomitable will to win. That less tangible trait did not show up on any stat sheet but is widely acknowledged as what truly made Jordan great as both an individual player and teammate.

What can we take away from the 1984 Draft?

Non-Commissioned Officers are always in the talent management business. Every day, regardless of if you are doing routine training, conducting an interview, providing a recommendation to an officer on NCO talent, writing an evaluation report, or serving on a promotion board or selection panel, NCOs are always concerned with talent.

When Military Leaders are evaluating talent for leadership opportunities we tend to be overly reliant on “tangibles.” Portland liked Sam Bowie because he filled a perceived gap for them at center, so they drafted the best center available; he presented a natural fit to fill their gap. But perhaps they asked themselves the wrong question; “do we want the best center…or do we want the best player?”

In my nearly 30 years in the Army, it occurs to me that Army leaders are susceptible to an overreliance on tangible talent indicators because frankly, we like “tangible”, things we can see and measure: fitness scores, schools and degrees, career management fields, experience, previous positions, etc. These tangible accomplishments are indicators of success and help measure character traits that a Service finds important. How many times have we seen the #1 graduate, who excelled in an academic environment, struggle when dynamic variables associated with human interaction are introduced? High aptitude does not always indicate potential for success.

I’m not suggesting a physical fitness score or important qualifications should be disregarded. But, we need to dig a little deeper into “intangibles,” the things that are a little harder to measure, if we want to recognize and advance true talent. Below are some ideas that assist in a selection process to identify key intangibles in an individual that could have an outsized impact on unit success. Apply these to ensure you don’t draft the next Sam Bowie.

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1. Define what “intangibles” are most relevant to your organization and how could you observe or measure them?

I consider intangible qualities to be an innate mastery of certain skills that are difficult to measure. Some intangible talent indicators that I value include critical thinking, adaptability, problem solving, resilience, and perspective taking. I consider elements of personality as part of this discussion and think personality is an important consideration both in terms of the duties of the job, as well as how the person would “fit” within the larger organization.

Each position has its own nuances and particular intangible qualities that would be most useful; there’s no “right answer.”

So how do we figure out who has these traits? It’s not as easy as applying a filter in a database to see who has a particular qualification.

This is where your experience comes in. Think about the attribute in the context of the job. If we zero in on problem solving as a desirable attribute, what types of problems would these leaders have to solve? If we visualize the situation our prospective leaders would be in, perhaps we could define a range of performance using a rubric. What does superior problem-solving look like? Let’s describe it. And, let’s think through what an under-qualified answer might sound like. The rubric helps us to see the intangibles.

2. How to Zero in on the “Intangibles.”

An interview is one of the best ways to discuss these intangible qualities. Sadly, many interviewers waste questions on information contained in a Soldier Talent Profile. These questions don’t reveal anything insightful regarding intangible qualities. As an interviewer, try asking questions that might tell you something that you can’t see on paper, something that will reveal this personality trait.

A great way to ensure you are zeroed in on intangibles is to ask behavioral based questions. A great indicator of how someone will operate in the future is by considering what they have done in the past. These questions usually start with “describe a time where you” …it is not hypothetical or situational. You should want to hear about how they solved a problem or adapted. Don’t let them off the hook with a situational or hypothetical answer. Insist they describe their actions from real situations they experienced and led through. Perhaps they did not make the best decision at the time – why not and what did they learn?

A good technique for asking behavioral based questions is the STAR method: situation, task, action, result. If you phrase your question and ask the candidate to describe the STAR, you will likely receive a complete answer.

If they can’t answer your question, as in they are unable to provide any answer at all, even a bad one, that is an indicator. An inability to articulate the situation and relate their leadership to an action or result should raise questions about their experience.

Using your rubric, you can evaluate their answer and score it. Below is a generic rubric that could be adapted to any intangible, for example adaptability.

Question: Describe a situation where you were faced with an unexpected situation. What steps did you take to adapt and what was the result?

Since every behavioral-based question requires an example from the past, the question is how to think about time in relation to the job. An answer from many years ago is not necessarily a bad thing. Along our leadership journeys, much of core leadership philosophy becomes crystallized early in our careers, as we are in a formative stage where impressions can really shape how we think about leadership. An answer that references this may not be bad.

However, if you are considering a position of responsibility for a larger echelon and your candidate relates an example from their squad leader time, determine if the scope and scale of the situation is useful.

3. Let’s stop asking people their weaknesses

To me, this is a perfect example of a wasted question. Perhaps the interviewer isn’t sure what to ask, so we throw the old weakness question at ’em.

This is a wasted question because invariably, you will get some form of the “Michael Scott” answer: “I work too hard and care too much”, therefore my weakness is a strength. Or you will get some generic answer about work-life balance (sneak attack of the Michael Scott answer) or something about needing strategic leadership. Rarely will you get an honest answer that indicates a true weakness that could inform a hiring decision.

If you must ask about weaknesses, use the behavioral based approach – ask them to describe a situation where a personal weakness impacted a mission or organization. What was the result? Or better yet, call their references and ask them about weaknesses.

4. Be on guard for your biases

Everyone is subject to biases. These can be a bias towards our own career field, a particular school or qualification, or position, as well as all the many documented biases known to exist. Counter hiring-decision bias by employing a selection panel with varied backgrounds and experiences to avoid over focus in one area.

Avoid getting too wrapped up in what someone looks like on paper. Many things that you see on a resume or biography will lead you down the road of scores, past assignments, schools, etc. None of this will give you any insight into how this person leads or builds relationships or solves complex problems.

For example, I worked with a Soldier who, on paper, didn’t look like a stellar performer. His order of merit list for promotion was relatively low and, frankly, he was behind his peers in terms of leadership experience and other qualifications. He worked for a different section in our headquarters. He impressed me on some projects that we collaborated on, so we brought him over to our team.

I found that this Soldier was a natural born problem solver. He never ceased to amaze us with the results he obtained – far better than I would have expected, even by those who out ranked him or had more experience. He had that special ingredient that made our entire team click and made our lives easier, but I must admit, if I was looking at his Soldier Talent Profile alone, I probably would have passed on him because there was nothing in there that spoke to me. My bias would have steered me away.

True talent management must be holistic and if we form concrete impressions based on what someone’s resume looks like, we can miss intangible attributes that make them a great fit for our team.

5. Be careful about arbitrarily ruling out a population because of an inherent bias

Some Army jobs are coded for a certain career management field (CMF). But many are immaterial. As you picture the right leader for a job, the first thing that might enter your thought process might be a CMF. CMF is useful in informing us of the types of training and experience a person may possess. Training and experience are important and shouldn’t be disregarded as a talent management indicator. –However, an over reliance on CMF may rule out your most talented leader. So, think that one through carefully and go back to the Portland Trailblazers…do you want the best leader from a certain CMF or do what the best leader - period? A willingness to consider other CMFs and backgrounds, especially ones that are different from you own, could help you discover talent that you never even knew existed.

Finding your “Jordan”

Tangible talent management indicators are important. Michael Jordan could have all the intangible qualities in the world, but if he was 5’2” instead of 6’6”, we probably wouldn’t know his name. What was it that made Jordan the best? Unquestionable talent combined with immeasurable drive. Portland missed this opportunity in search of a specific attribute or talent.

The lesson for NCOs and Army leaders is to think holistically about both tangible and intangible talent management indicators, and to recognize that we must work a little bit harder to see intangible qualities. If we know what intangibles we are looking for, and we know what “right” looks like, we have a much better chance of drafting Jordan over Bowie.

SGM Brian Disque is a career Infantryman and dedicated 76’ers fan. He is the current director of the Nominative SGM Program.

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 06 March 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

March opens with momentum and complexity — technological, institutional, and strategic.

This week’s readings continue GEN (Ret.) Mingus’s final essays on Army transformation, alongside fresh thinking on autonomy, sustainment, information warfare, and small-unit leadership.

The profession doesn’t stand still. Neither should we.

Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

In his last few months as our 39th VCSA, GEN(R) Jim Mingus wrote a series of articles on eight topics in which he was personally invested regarding Army transformation and modernization. These run the gamut from the Army’s network, to how to think about autonomy on the battlefield, to how the Army runs, and of course Holistic Health and Fitness. Over the next four weeks, MWI will publish two articles a week on these topics.

⚡ Building the No-Neck Army: The Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness Program

GEN (Ret.) James Mingus & Graham White — Modern War Institute

Examines H2F as a strategic readiness enabler and the institutional case for investing in Soldier physical and cognitive performance.

🔄 From Hedgerows to Kill Webs: The Soldier Leads Army Transformation

GEN (Ret.) James Mingus & LTC Dwayne Steppe — Modern War Institute

Argues that transformation must be Soldier-led and ground-up, using tactical friction as the laboratory for institutional learning and adaptation.

⚔️ Warfighting

Earning a Spot on the Team: Autonomy, Trust, and the Future of Warfare Heidi Segars and Ericka Rovira — MWI

Examines how autonomous systems must earn battlefield trust through demonstrated performance and human-machine teaming.

Trench Warfare in the Next War Warrant Officer Class One Brandon Carey — The COVE

This article explores the adaptation of trench warfare for modern conflict. The author, a Warrant Officer Class One in the Australian Army, holds a rank equivalent to a Sergeant Major in the U.S. Army.

The Velocity Gap Between Pakistan and India Brigadier (Ret.) Anil Raman — War on the Rocks

Analyzes operational tempo disparities and strategic implications on the subcontinent.

Foundry, Fleet, and Fight: Hedging the U.S. Navy Emma Salisbury — War on the Rocks

Assesses U.S. naval industrial readiness and strategic hedging options.

Tell Me How This Ends: Six Questions That Will Shape the Outcome of U.S.-Israeli Operations Against Iran Sydney Laite, Haleigh Bartos, and Buckley Dejardin — MWI

Frames six critical strategic variables determining campaign outcomes.

Al-Qaeda’s Third Phase Sara Harmouch — MWI

Traces AQ’s evolution and the strategic risk of a resurgent third phase.

Why the Karachi Siege Shatters the Pakistan-Iran Bargain Albert Wolf — SWJ

Examines how the Karachi siege destabilizes a fragile regional security arrangement.

Mali Counterterrorism Intelligence Lessons David Heiner and Max Blumenfeld — SWJ

Lessons from Mali for intelligence-driven CT operations in complex environments.

Seeing First, Winning Later: The Rise of Space in U.S. Warfare Benjamin Moseman — War Room

Argues space-enabled ISR is now the decisive precursor to operational success.

Fighting for Intelligence in Large-Scale Combat Operations MG Richard Appelhans, Michael Liesmann, B. Clay Jackson, and Mikael Heikkinen — SSI

Addresses the intelligence function under the demands of LSCO.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

Forging Ahead: Army Pairs with Industry to Serve Soldiers LTG Chris Mohan — AUSA

Details the Army’s industry partnership model to accelerate acquisition and equipping.

Intelligence at the Point of Arrival LTC Joe Henderson — MIPB

Advocates pushing intelligence support forward to maximize tactical decision-making.

STAMP: Advanced Power Distribution as a Sustainment Enabler CW3 Sean McClenachan, Samuel Gwinn, and Joseph McFillin — Army Sustainment

Examines advanced power distribution as a critical sustainment capability.

Electric Vehicles and the Army’s Logistics Future 2LT Ahdam A. Wilson — Army Communicator

Explores EV integration and implications for Army motor pool and logistical planning.

Finance in the Fight: Operationalizing LTG Paul A. Chamberlain — Army Sustainment

Argues finance operations must be integrated into operational planning at all levels.

Reflections of a Battery Operations Officer 1LT Michael Potts — Field Artillery Journal

Ground-level lessons on fires integration and battery-level operations.

Is There Still a Path for an International Security Force in Gaza? Dr. Jacob Stoil — SSI

Evaluates feasibility and design options for a stabilizing international force in Gaza.

Mops & Moes – Dr. Jocelyn Wittstein – Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond. Guest: Dr. Jocelyn Wittstein.

Explores human performance research and its application to Soldier readiness and resilience

🔄 Continuous Transformation

Nordic Lessons for Romania’s Information Defense Ciprian Clipa — SWJ

Applies Nordic resilience models to Romania’s information environment challenges.

Low-Signature SOCOM Communications Logan Birchfield — SWJ

Addresses operational security in SOCOM communication architecture.

Reforming Acquisition Amanda Love, Daniel Harris, and Bob Bradford — War Room

Examines how acquisition reform can accelerate the Army’s ability to field capability.

Transforming Command Team Education Duane Mosier and Audrey Ayers — SWJ

Proposes reforms to how the Army prepares command teams for complex environments.

The Western Balkans Denial Nysret Buzhala — SWJ

Explores strategic risks of Western disengagement from the Balkans.

The Burden That Should Not Be Theirs: How Congress Turned the Military into the Last Check on Illegal War Rachel E. Vanlandingham — War on the Rocks

Critiques Congress’s abdication of war powers and its implications for the military.

The Deluge, the Paper Cup, and Washington’s Lack of Urgency on Guam Michael W. Cruz — War on the Rocks

Highlights the strategic gap between Guam’s importance and Washington’s investment.

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

LogStat: Good Leaders Ask Better Questions – Host: CPT Garett Pyle; Guests: LTC Ryan Cornell-d’Echert and CSM Lamar Smith.

Examines how asking better questions drives more effective leadership and unit performance

The Major’s Burden: Building Teams, Systems, and Leaders Kyle F. McCarter — Center for Junior Officers

This article discusses how field grade officers can build effective teams by focusing on systems and leadership development.

UNC Status: On Experience, Meaning, and Mentorship Brian C. Gerardi — From the Green Notebook

Reflections on the value of mentorship and how leaders transmit meaning across the force.

Leadership vs. Management Josh Bowen — 3x5 Leadership

Draws the essential distinction between managing systems and leading people.

More Than a Uniform 1LT Su M. Nandar — Army Communicator

Explores identity, service, and what it means to wear the uniform with purpose.

Military Standards Dropped MSG Stephen Tackett — Army Communicator

Challenges the force to protect professional standards against institutional drift.

Foundations of Excellence SGM Noel DeJesus — Army Communicator

Articulates the foundational habits and disciplines that define NCO excellence.

Leadership in LSCO Maj. Callum Knight, British Army — Military Review

British Army perspective on command climate and leadership demands under LSCO conditions.

Moral-Spiritual Injury LTG (Ret.) James M. Dubik — Military Review

Examines the moral and spiritual dimensions of combat injury and leader responsibility.

A Choice to Lead LTC Peyton Hurley — Military Review

Reflects on the deliberate choice that leadership requires at every level.

Leading by Letting Go MAJ Ben Garlick — Military Review

Argues for decentralized execution and the power of trusting subordinates.

Making the Right Decision Chaplain (LTC) Jared L. Vineyard — Military Review

Examines moral decision-making in complex environments.

Eyes Up MAJ Christopher Zaczyk — Military Review

Elevating situational awareness as a leadership discipline.

Enhancing Medical NCO Expertise CSM Victor J. Laragione — NCO Journal

Advocates for deeper technical proficiency within the medical NCO corps.

Sustaining Readiness Through Recovery SGM William H. Powers and SGM Zachary D. Wriston — NCO Journal

Addresses recovery operations as a readiness multiplier for NCO leaders.

The Ledger: Accounting for Failure David Kilcullen and Greg Mills — Army History

Historical reckoning with institutional failure and the lessons it demands.

Perspectives: 21st Century Hedgerow Problems CW2 Jonathan Scharnhorst — Special Warfare

Examines small-unit tactical challenges in dense terrain.

📖 Resources & Calls

• CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

• Call for Papers – Army Civilian Journal - Invitation to contribute.

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

🧰 TL;DR

· Quick Read: Leadership vs. Management

· Deep Dive: From Hedgerows to Kill Webs: The Soldier Leads Army Transformation

· Listen: Ep. 173 – How to Tell a Good War Story (with Randy Surles)

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 27 February 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

February closes with no shortage of friction — technological, institutional, and strategic.

This week’s readings ask hard questions:

Are we modernizing fast enough?
Are we reforming the right processes?
Are we thinking clearly about machines, mobility, and the cognitive fight?

Momentum is not accidental. It is engineered through disciplined change, intellectual rigor, and leaders willing to challenge comfortable systems.

Read deliberately. Think critically. Close February strong.

Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

In his last few months as our 39^th VCSA, GEN(R) Jim Mingus wrote a series of articles on eight topics in which he was personally invested regarding Army transformation and modernization. These run the gamut from the Army’s network, to how to think about autonomy on the battlefield, to how the Army runs, and of course Holistic Health and Fitness. Over the next four weeks, MWI will publish two articles a week on these topics.

⚔️ War Without Soldiers: The Evolution of Warfare in the Age of Machines

GEN (Ret.) James Mingus & Maggie Harris — Modern War Institute
Explores how automation and autonomy are reshaping combat power and redefining the human role in warfare.

🚛 Mobility: The Combat Power Multiplier

GEN (Ret.) James Mingus, Sam Kriegler, R.J. Burton — MWI
Argues that mobility — operational, digital, and logistical — remains the decisive enabler of tempo and lethality.

🔄 How the Army Should Run: Reforming Army Processes for Continuous Transformation

GEN (Ret.) James Mingus & COL Christina Bembenek — MWI
Calls for structural reform and streamlined processes to sustain transformation beyond rhetoric.

⚔️ Warfighting

• The Battle of Kyiv and Russia’s Dashed Hopes for a Short War
  Liam Collins & John Spencer — MWI
  Lessons in resistance, urban defense, and strategic miscalculation.

• When the Fiction Ends: Lessons from Maneuver Under a Lying Sky
  James Torrence — MWI
  Reflects on deception, tempo, and modern maneuver warfare realities.

• Shattering the Software Stovepipes
  Ryan McLean — MWI
  Examines integration gaps in defense software modernization.

• C-UAS Operations: A Single Pane of Glass
  Bill Edwards — SWJ
  Advocates unified command visibility for counter-UAS operations.

• Perspectives: 21st Century Hedgerow Problems
  CW2 Jonathan Scharnhorst — Special Warfare
  Examines small-unit tactical challenges in dense terrain.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

• The Battle of Kyiv and Russia’s Dashed Hopes for a Short War
  Liam Collins & John Spencer — MWI
  Lessons in resistance, urban defense, and strategic miscalculation.

• When the Fiction Ends: Lessons from Maneuver Under a Lying Sky
  James Torrence — MWI
  Reflects on deception, tempo, and modern maneuver warfare realities.

• Shattering the Software Stovepipes
  Ryan McLean — MWI
  Examines integration gaps in defense software modernization.

• C-UAS Operations: A Single Pane of Glass
  Bill Edwards — SWJ
  Advocates unified command visibility for counter-UAS operations.

• Perspectives: 21st Century Hedgerow Problems
  CW2 Jonathan Scharnhorst — Special Warfare
  Examines small-unit tactical challenges in dense terrain.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

• Cognitive Warfare Costs and Economic Asymmetry
  Sara Russo — IWI
  Assesses cognitive warfare as a low-cost, high-impact domain.

• America Needs Cognitive Civil Defense
  David Maxwell — SWJ
  Calls for societal resilience against influence operations.

• Creating Conspiracy Theories
  Douglas Wilbur — SWJ
  Explores narrative manipulation and information warfare dynamics.

• The Transatlantic Defense Business Politics Can’t Break
  Wendy R. Anderson & Julianne Smith — War on the Rocks
  Examines industrial interdependence across NATO.

• The Danger in the Middle
  Joel Wuthnow — WOTR
  Analyzes strategic instability in China’s military leadership.

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

• This Is an Every-Service Problem: Space Power and the Risk of Fundamental Surprise
  Catherine R. Cline — FTGN
  Highlights cross-service blind spots in space readiness.

• Five Questions for a General: LTG (Ret.) James Dubik
  Host: Cadet Nicholas Finke | Guest: LTG (Ret.) James Dubik
  Strategic leadership reflections on reform and adaptation.

• Making the Right Decision
  Chaplain (LTC) Jared L. Vineyard — Military Review
  Examines moral decision-making in complex environments.

• Objective Apollo
  SSG Morgan G. Moscoso — NCO Journal
  Reflections on mission clarity and execution.

📖 Resources & Calls

• CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

• Call for Papers – Army Civilian Journal - Invitation to contribute.

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

🧰 TL;DR

· Quick Read: The Guidon We Only Respect When It Is Ours

· Deep Dive: War Without Soldiers: The Evolution of Warfare in the Age of Machines

· Listen: Five Questions for a General: LTG (Ret.) James Dubik

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

The U.S. Army was scattered across the American frontier. Cavalry formations rode vast distances, scouting hostile territory, and screening friendly forces. Horses were not just modes of transportation. They were combat power that gave commanders speed, reach, and initiative. As emerging technologies began to challenge the horse’s role in warfare, officers needed a forum to debate the future of mounted combat. The Journal of the United States Cavalry Association became that essential space for sharing tactics, lessons learned and shaping strategy.

In his 2013 ARMOR article, “The Horse Cavalry in the United States”, retired Lieutenant Colonel Allan B. Bluestone argues that this moment was not the end of an era, but a beginning. He traces how cavalry, like the journal itself, faced disruption, uncertainty, and renewal.

At the time, few could have imagined that cavalry’s greatest strength was not the horse, but its ability to evolve beyond it.

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One of the most revealing moments came in 1916 during the Punitive Expedition into Mexico. Cavalry units pursued Pancho Villa across harsh terrain, performing the same reconnaissance and security missions cavalry had executed for generations. But something new appeared alongside them: motor vehicles. Steel and engines moved beside flesh and blood. The future had arrived. The Cavalry Journal, once written exclusively for horsemen, became a place where leaders confronted an uncomfortable reality. The mission remained essential, but the platform was changing.

That transition unfolded over decades, culminating in World War II. The 26th Cavalry Regiment, Philippine Scouts, conducted the last mounted cavalry charge in U.S. Army history in 1942. Facing overwhelming Japanese forces, they fought mounted and dismounted, delaying the enemy long enough to support the larger defense of Bataan. It was a final stable call. Not a failure, but a handoff. Cavalry was not dying. It was transforming.

The journal evolved alongside it.

In 1947, the publication became The Armored Cavalry Journal, reflecting a branch caught between tradition and transformation. Cavalry identity endured, but armored vehicles now carried its mission forward. Just three years later, the journal became simply ARMOR. The new name reflected more than modernization. It symbolized the union of cavalry tradition and armored warfare into one profession.

Bluestone makes clear that cavalry was never defined by the horse. It was defined by its functions: reconnaissance, mobility, and decisive advantage. Tanks, like horses before them, became the means to preserve those functions. Armored cavalry formations screened advancing forces in Europe, provided early warning along the Cold War frontier, and led maneuver across Iraq during Desert Storm. Today, cavalry formations integrate drones, sensors, and digital networks to extend the commander’s reach even further.

The tools have changed. The mission has not.

Reading Bluestone’s article reminded me that the evolution of cavalry and the evolution of ARMOR magazine are inseparable. The journal did not merely document change. It enabled it. It gave Soldiers a place to debate the future, share lessons, and shape the profession. Just as cavalry adapted to remain relevant, ARMOR adapted to remain the voice of the branch.

The question was never whether cavalry would survive.

The question was whether cavalry would adapt.

History answered clearly.

The horse gave way to horsepower. Steel replaced saddle. Sensors now extend beyond line of sight. Cavalry endures because its purpose endures. Today’s cavalrymen inherit not just new technology, but the responsibility to continue its evolution.

As long as warfare demands leaders who can see first, understand first, and act first, cavalry and ARMOR will carry its voice forward and remain at the forefront of the fight.

CPT Nate Green is an Armor Officer and the current Harding Fellow operating as the military EIC for ARMOR.

The feedback was intriguing enough that I decided to try it. Sure enough, the service provider quickly matched a competitor’s offer, and they were happy to do so. The bottom line is that it feels good to be valued and appreciated for being a longtime customer, and it’s even better to have that loyalty incentivized.

This experience makes it concerning to watch experienced senior talent depart the Army without any attempt to incentivize them to stay. While the Army has a robust talent management and retention system, it focuses almost exclusively on junior enlisted Soldiers.

The “next man up” philosophy is baked into our culture. There is quintessential scene of this from “We Were Soldiers” that shows LTC Hal Moore (played by Mel Gibson) ‘killing’ a platoon leader and a platoon sergeant to stress the point that you learn the job of the person above you and teach your job to the person below you. But contrast the ease of replacing a platoon leader or platoon sergeant with that of a battalion commander or a command sergeant major. The pyramid gets tight at the top, and it’s not as easy to say, “next man up.”

Therefore, it seems counterintuitive that there is no organized structure beyond informal mentorship to retain senior top talent. When a Command Sergeant Major or Sergeant Major is on the fence about retiring, or a Master Sergeant is trying to decide if they want to go to the Sergeants Major Academy, it is a missed opportunity to have no tools to encourage retention. And while there is always someone who can be the “next man up,” should we be satisfied with equating the #1 person on the Order of Merit List with the #100 person?

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A potential solution need not be excessive. If we as an institution are willing to spend $10,000 on a retention bonus for a highly skilled private, we ought to be at least as willing to spend $10,000 to ensure the most highly-rated E-8s and E-9s to remain in service. Love of country and service is powerful, but the incentives to leave are often significant. We cannot assume that a sense of duty will always supersede all financial, family, and aspirational opportunities on the outside.

I was satisfied with my cell phone provider, but a free phone from a competitor was tempting. Now I have a free phone, and I didn’t have to change a thing. Maybe the Army can take a lesson from my cell phone provider.

In the spirit of discourse, I have added voting buttons to this piece. Let us know what you think!

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 13 February 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

This week’s readings converge on a central theme: resilience — intellectual, industrial, institutional, and human.

From adversaries testing NATO’s seams to questions about sustainment in the Indo-Pacific, from stress management to intelligence modernization, the throughline is clear: modern conflict is contested long before contact.

Preparation is not a single action. It is a culture.

Read deliberately. Think deeply. Strengthen the formation.

Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essay

In his last few months as our 39^th VCSA, GEN(R) Jim Mingus wrote a series of articles on eight topics in which he was personally invested regarding Army transformation and modernization. These run the gamut from the Army’s network, to how to think about autonomy on the battlefield, to how the Army runs, and of course Holistic Health and Fitness. Over the next four weeks, MWI will publish two articles a week on these topics.

The Modern King of Battle: Creating the Army’s Integrated Fires Complex
GEN (Ret.) James Mingus, John Weissenborn, Peter Sulzona — MWI
Argues for integrated fires dominance in large-scale combat operations.

Our Network Can’t Be the First Obstacle in the Fight
GEN (Ret.) James Mingus, Berline Marcelin, Zak Dakar — MWI
Explores command-and-control modernization and network resilience.

⚔️ Warfighting

Maneuver Under a Lying Sky James J. Torrence — Modern War Institute
Examines Russia’s probing actions on NATO’s northern flank and the implications for deterrence credibility.

Regular or Unleaded: Differentiating Irregular WarfareChad Machiela & Seth Gray — Small Wars Journal
Clarifies distinctions between conventional and irregular conflict frameworks.

AI-Intelligentized Naval Mines and U.S. Subsea AccessCatherine Marie Abbott — SWJ
Assesses maritime denial risks in the South China Sea.

Gaza and the Conduct of Urban War Andy Milburn — War on the Rocks
Examines civilian harm mitigation in dense urban combat.

Five Questions for a General: BG Shane Reeves Host: Cadet Emily Wilczek — Guest: BG Shane Reeves

Leadership reflections on ethics, law, and modern warfare.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

Sustainment Through Science and Leadership SSG Tyler Lowery — AUSA Land Warfare Paper
Highlights scientific integration in sustainment modernization.

Transformation in Contact 1LT Nathania Nuño — Army Sustainment
Examines sustainment adaptation in LSCO.

Beyond the Convoy MAJ Herman “TJ” Tisdale — Army Sustainment
Discusses decentralized logistics in contested theaters.

LOGSTAT: Reps & Sets – Sustaining Joint Forcible Entry Host: CPT Garett Pyle | Guests: LTC Jason Day, CSM Luis Colon, CPT Zachary Stefanski
Operational sustainment lessons for forcible entry operations.

Army Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Tyler Fleming — SWJ
Examines HUMINT evolution in contemporary conflict.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

China’s Digital Yuan in Southeast Asia Hugh Harsono — IWI
Explores financial statecraft and digital currency expansion.

Gone But Not Forgotten: Retaining Advising CapabilitiesJacob Myers — MWI
Advocates preserving advisory expertise amid force reductions.

Wargaming Still Matters Wes Daugherty — War Room
Reinforces the enduring relevance of war gaming.

Intelligence Support to Information Advantage COL Jonathan Steinback et al. — MIPB
Connects intelligence modernization to decision advantage

Russia’s Coming Failure in Africa John J. Chin, Haleigh Bartos, Aleksaundra Handrinos — IWI
Assesses Moscow’s fragile influence networks across Africa.

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

EP 172: How Work Stress Hijacks Your Life Host: Joe Byerly | Guest: Dr. Guy Winch
Explores leadership resilience and mental readiness.

Audacious Habits Josh Bowen — 3×5 Leadership
Examines disciplined habit formation in leadership development.

Winning the Talent War MAJ Chris Slininger — Military Review
Analyzes culture, mentorship, and retention as strategic advantages.

Sponsorship, Integration, Counseling, Mentorship SFC Michael Holguin — NCO Journal
Addresses leader development frameworks at the tactical level.

Teaching, Coaching, Mentorship Framework LTC (Ret.) Jason Ballard — Military Mentors
Clarifies distinctions between teaching, coaching, and mentorship.

📖 Resources & Calls

• CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

• Call for Papers – Army Civilian Journal - Invitation to contribute.

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

🧰 TL;DR

Quick Read: Audacious Habits

Deep Dive: The Modern King of Battle

Listen: EP 172: How Work Stress Hijacks Your Life

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

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What’s more, Soldiers will know when they are reading a blurb from AI versus something penned by the Commander. If, as a staffer, you’re inclined to use an LLM to capture the Commander’s voice, the author suggests feeding the chatbot real emails or speeches from whomever you are trying to emulate. In closing, I’ll share this excerpt:

War remains a human endeavor. Trust still underpins command. Words still shape culture, morale, and belief. If leaders allow their communications to collapse into AI-generated uniformity, they should not be surprised when people stop listening.

Don’t be lazy, folks. And, more importantly, don’t give up your voice!

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 13 February 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

Presidents’ Day reminds us that leadership is never just positional — it is moral, intellectual, and deeply human.

Washington surrendered power. Lincoln held a fractured nation together. Eisenhower balanced war and restraint. The lesson across centuries is constant: the office does not create character — character sustains the office.

This week’s formation reflects that truth. From cognitive hierarchy and disciplined autonomy to industrial resilience and medical survivability, the readings below ask the same question great leaders have always faced:

Will we rise to the responsibility entrusted to us?

Read deliberately. Lead with gravity.

Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essay

In his last few months as our 39^th VCSA, GEN(R) Jim Mingus wrote a series of articles on eight topics in which he was personally invested regarding Army transformation and modernization. These run the gamut from the Army’s network, to how to think about autonomy on the battlefield, to how the Army runs, and of course Holistic Health and Fitness. Over the next four weeks, MWI will publish two articles a week on these topics.

📉 Ascend the Cognitive Hierarchy: Don’t Waste Time in the Data Layer

GEN James Mingus & Zak Daker — Modern War Institute

Senior leaders must move beyond data consumption and deliberately cultivate judgment, synthesis, and decision advantage in an era of overwhelming information.

⚔️ Warfighting

• Best Battalion in the Army George Kalergis — Modern War Institute

A reflection on standards, cohesion, and what truly defines elite units.

• Single Point of Failure: Rethinking Medical Sterilization on Tomorrow’s Battlefield Yu-Sheng Chen — Modern War Institute

Examines battlefield medical vulnerabilities in contested environments.

• Logistics Left of Boom Macdonald Amoah, Morgan Bazilian, Jahara Matisek — MWI

Explores threats to the defense industrial base before conflict begins.

• Disciplined Autonomy Bill Edwards — Small Wars Journal

Argues for initiative bounded by commander’s intent in modern conflict.

• The Role of Foreign Fighters Jeremiah “Lumpy” Lumbaca — SWJ

Assesses the operational and political impact of foreign volunteers.

• Artificial Intelligence: The New Force Multiplier in Training Exercises MAJ Joshua Corson & MAJ Paul Kuemmerlein — Special Warfare Journal

Explores AI-enabled realism in training environments.

• Five Questions for a General: ADM Harry B. Harris Jr. (Ret.) Host: Cadet Nathan Unks | Guest: ADM Harry B. Harris Jr. (Ret.)

Strategic reflections on deterrence and Indo-Pacific competition.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

• Resilience in the Cloud: Fighting Doesn’t Stop When Networks Go Dark Brandon Stackpole — AUSA

Examines resilience and continuity in degraded network environments.

• Forging America COL Eric A. McCoy — Army Sustainment

Connects industrial capacity to warfighting credibility.

• Sustainment Professionals LTG Heidi J. Hoyle — Army Sustainment

Highlights the strategic importance of sustainment talent.

• Parachute and Jumper Recovery SFC Nathan Berry — Special Warfare

Tactical lessons in airborne risk mitigation.

• LOGSTAT: FM 4-1 Modernizing Human Resources Support Host: CPT Garett Pyle | Guest: MSG David Minder

Discusses HR modernization in LSCO environments.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

• NATO Irregular Warfare: Finland and Sweden Opportunities Rick Chersicla — IWI

Assesses Nordic accession and irregular capability development.

• Competitive Intervention, Proxy War, and Military Assistance Host: Kyle Atwell | Guests: GEN (Ret.) Wayne Eyre, Dr. Noel Anderson, LTC Matthew Kuhlman

Explores proxy conflict and intervention dynamics.

• Deterrence Won’t Fail in the Taiwan Strait — It Will Be Bypassed J. William Demarco — War on the Rocks

Argues deterrence may be circumvented rather than confronted.

• Pauses Without Peace Gopi Krishna Bhamidipati — WOTR

Analyzes the fragility of modern ceasefires.

• German Tank Maintenance in World War II Paul Nation — The Cove

Historical sustainment lessons for modern armored forces.

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

• Winning the War on Talent Chris Slininger – Military Review

To address JO burnout and declining trust, the Army must implement dynamic mentorship.

• Conflict Management Josh Bowen — 3×5 Leadership

Practical approaches to managing friction within formations.

• EP 171: Bring Your Own Pencil — The Leadership Lesson of Coach Bill Walsh Host: Joe Byerly | Guests: Griffin Brand & Dan Casey

A conversation on preparation, culture, and leadership standards.

• If I Had Known Then CPT Mason J. Aldridge — MIPB

Reflects on lessons learned in intelligence development.

• The Fight for Intelligence MAJ Phillip G. Johnson Jr. et al. — MIPB

Explores integration challenges in intelligence operations.

• Nothing Else to Consider SFC Justin Malzac — NCO Journal

Leadership clarity in decisive moments.

• Blind Spot Catherine Cline — War Room

Highlights overlooked strategic assumptions.

📖 Resources & Calls

• CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

• Call for Papers – Army Civilian Journal - Invitation to contribute.

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

🧰 TL;DR

Short reflection: Conflict Management Josh Bowen
Deep read: Ascend the Cognitive Hierarchy: Don’t Waste Time in the Data Layer GEN James Mingus & Zak Daker
Listen while commuting: EP 171: Bring Your Own Pencil — The Leadership Lesson of Coach Bill Walsh

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

Recently, while going through the archives of the Special Warfare Journal, I noticed something interesting. In the journal’s very first 1988 issue, concealed among several “letters to the editor,” is a note from the “father of modern day Special Forces,” Col. (ret.) Aaron Bank. In it, he offers support for the branch journal and highlights its necessity as a mechanism of professional development. As a Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Special Warfare Journal, this was akin to reaching back in time and touching history.

As you continue to scroll through this legacy issue, you get a good idea of what the original mandate of the Journal was, something that we are getting back to with our most recent publications. Towards the end, in another reference to Col (ret.) Aaron Bank, I noticed a review for a book which is prominently displayed in my office, but which I have never read, From OSS to Green Berets, Col. (ret.) Bank’s memoir of his time in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and in Special Forces. Inspired by my tangible encounter with the ghosts of the past, I decided to finally read it. What I found was astonishing, the relevance of Bank’s experience conducting unconventional warfare in World War 2, and his experiences developing Special Forces, resonate strongly for special operations forces today. I was reminded of how quickly we forget our history when we refuse to look to the past for applicable lessons. Thus, I endeavored to write a review of the book, to highlight its lessons for members of the special operations community and wider Army.

From OSS to Green Berets: A Modern Review

Col. (ret.) Aaron Bank is known as the father of Special Forces. He was the first Director of Special Forces, and was the first commander of 10^th Special Forces Group when it was activated in 1952. Before standing up Special Forces as the Army’s premier unconventional warfare capability, Col. Bank served in the OSS as a Jedburgh during WWII. In writing the book, Col. Bank wanted to tell the story of the OSS’s operational groups conducting unconventional warfare in WWII, and of the subsequent development of the Green Berets. His purpose in telling this story was to emphasize that the OSS and its legacy are intrinsically tied to that of the Green Berets, as the “operational predecessor” of US Army Special Forces.

There is no grandiose introduction in this book. Instead, Col. Aaron Bank lets his experiences speak for themselves. From the first sentence he dives right into the fascinating story of how he applied for a position with the OSS to get out of a boring position as a training officer for a tactical railroad battalion in Camp Polk, Louisiana. He wanted to liven up his career and exercise his foreign language capabilities, which the unit required. Needless to say, he had little idea of what lay in store for him. The memoir covers his training in clandestine activity, weapons and explosives, tradecraft, sabotage, and small unit tactics which became the backbone of the Jedburgh’s skills. From there he recounts his operational successes aiding resistance groups and guerilla networks in operations against the Nazis behind enemy lines in France.

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After France’s liberation, Bank recalls an attempt to commence an unconventional warfare campaign in Germany, including a vague directive to capture Hitler from “Wild Bill” Donovan, the head of the OSS. However, the OSS canceled the mission just before it began. Equally fascinating are Bank’s vignettes from postwar Indochina. He details the complexities of a changing world order, his relationship with Ho Chi Minh, and their discussions about Vietnam’s future. He also describes run-ins with the French and British, highlighting uncertain alliances and shifting policies after the war.

Bank’s detailed account of the force development process for Special Forces provides valuable context into the creation of the Army’s unconventional warfare capability. These sections of the book are as close to the horse’s mouth as you can get, offering valuable insight into what Bank and his contemporaries were thinking. Interestingly, Bank went to great lengths to differentiate Special Forces from the Rangers, which senior leaders at the time consistently conflated. He painstakingly explained at every opportunity that while Rangers offered a limited, direct-raid capability into enemy lines, Special Forces operated in the deep, behind enemy lines for extended periods to develop, train, and fight alongside guerilla forces.

Additionally, Bank faced a myriad of challenges from senior leaders using doctrinal terms interchangeably, which obscured his vision for the branch. He lamented the fact that “the terms unconventional warfare, clandestine operations, unorthodox warfare, and special operations were being used interchangeably” (Bank 1986, 151). The incorrect use of doctrinal terms and definitions still plagues special operations today and will be a problem for CF-SOF I3 in LSCO without sufficient SOF integration into plans and operations before crisis.

From OSS to Green Berets is both entertaining and informative. The book’s first section, detailing Bank’s operations during and after WWII, reads like a military adventure novel. The portion on Special Forces’ development is drier but packed with relevant insights for the regiment and the broader special operations community. One disappointing aspect is the lack of mention of the First Special Service Force, from which Special Forces claims official Army lineage. This may have been intentional, as the 1st SSF had little in common operationally with the OSS, whom Bank emphasized as the model for the SF Groups.

Anyone interested in expanding their knowledge of UW and special operations history should read this book. For newly minted Green Berets, I would consider this required reading. One must know an organization’s past to effectively chart its future. For the modern SF regiment, I believe this will be an enlightening addition to one’s own professional library.

Note: Currently, this book is out of print. Copies are available online, but they are somewhat expensive. I recommend searching for copies of the book at local or professional libraries. It is also a worthy collector’s item if you have funds available.

Book Details:
Title: From OSS to Green Berets: The Birth of Special Forces
Author: Col. (ret.) Aaron Bank
Number of Pages: 216
Publisher: Presidio Press
Date: 1986

Special Warfare Journal Archives

Perusing the Special Warfare Journal Archives is a constant source of inspiration. Nowhere has it been made more apparent to me that “history doesn’t repeat, it rhymes.” At the Special Warfare Journal, we want our readers to have the ability to become inspired by our history in the same way. Thus, we have worked extensively over the last few months to update our physical and digital archives. Currently, our digital archives are completely up to date on DVIDs. Additionally, we have updated physical archives at the Special Warfare Journal Office and at the USASOC History Office. Finally, we have restarted our quarterly print publications (PB-80), which archive all online articles published in a given quarter. This allows us to continue our archiving of new content while continuing weekly publications on the SWCS website.

Whether you are a senior leader, or at the team level, we hope you will read these articles and harness takeaways to improve our formations. Special Warfare Journal, as the professional bulletin for ARSOF since 1988, is only as good as its community of authors/ readers. Let’s continue to make this a forum to drive innovation and change, share best practices, and hone our warfighting knowledge and skills!

Major John Byrnes is a pseudonym for a Regular Army Soldier and Civil Affairs Officer with a background in Infantry and Special Operations. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy and the National Defense University, and he currently serves as a Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Special Warfare Journal.