Breaching Knowledge Gaps

A Forgotten Article’s Role in Ukraine

I never expected an article I wrote years ago to make a difference on the battlefield—but it did.

In 2018, as a young major on the 1st Infantry Division staff, I was tasked to lead a professional development session on division-level combined arms breaching with a fellow staff officer. My colleague and I scoured the Army’s resources but found little to work with. The most relevant material we could find were senior service college monographs written by our predecessors from the 1st Infantry Division who had breached Saddam’s defenses during Operation Desert Storm (Recollections of a Desert Storm Armor Task Force Commander; The 9th Engineer Battalion in Operation Desert Storm).

We realized there was a glaring gap in the Army’s collective knowledge on large-scale breaching operations. So, we researched, consolidated our findings, and published “The Division’s Role in Breaching Operations” in Armor. We were proud of our piece. But after seeing it through to publication, we moved on. Another article into the internet abyss.

Fast forward to 2022. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a colleague reached out to me unexpectedly. His battalion was training Ukrainian forces for offensive operations, and he had stumbled upon our article during a Google search. Army doctrine still hadn’t addressed division-level breaching in large-scale combat, but our article provided a foundation. It became a critical resource for his team, helping them train their Ukrainian counterparts and adapt the concept to modern technology and local conditions. Confirmation of impact!

That message was a revelation. We hadn’t just filled a gap in doctrine; we had helped a partner prepare for combat. The article we’d almost forgotten proved its worth in ways we could never have predicted.

This experience taught me a vital lesson: professional writing matters, even if you never see the results firsthand. Writing for professional journals ensures that ideas are shared, archived, and accessible—far beyond the reach of a white paper or inbox memo. You won’t always receive personal recognition, but these articles become starting points for doctrine, foundations for training programs, and sparks for innovation.

Now it’s up to that battalion to pick up the pen and write the next chapter on large-scale breaching. Together, we strengthen the Army by sharing what we’ve learned to prepare the force for challenges yet to come.