The Friday Formation
10 April 2026
🪖 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
⚔️ 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.