Old Dogs, New Tricks
One thing I noticed last week while attending the TRADOC Sr. Leader Conference last week was that TRADOC is working hard to embrace the higher level of technical knowledge that today’s young soldiers bring to the table. Back when I came in and for several years after I came in, the soldiers that came into the Army knew a lot about cars, BMXing, sports, etc. Today soldiers know about setting up wireless networks, Bluetooth technology and first person shooter tactics. The leaders of the Training and Doctrine Command recognize this and realize they need to build upon this higher level of technical knowledge.
Guys like GEN Dempsey, LTG Valcourt and many of the other leaders of TRADOC are old dogs, but they are coming up with new tricks. One of those tricks is looking at creating a private “app store” that would be hosted within the AKO (Army Knowledge Online) portal. Even though they are borrowing the name from the iPhone App Store, they are not looking at just creating apps for iPhones. They are looking at Google-based devices, and other web-based PDA/Phones that are popular on the market today.
TRADOC is also not only evaluating the possibility of opening this up to 3rd party companies or even private individuals to make apps for the Army, but also using soldiers with the skills to build applications for mobile devices. This is where TRADOC recognizes they have a new base of soldiers that bring skills and talents with them when they walk into basic training or officer training. Their talk was not of making soldiers build apps, but motivating them to do so. Creating competitions, even paying some private people and soldiers to build apps.
This is why this posting is called “Old Dogs, New Tricks” because the old dogs get it. They are adapting to today’s time and they know they need to embrace the talents that the young 18-something soldier bring to the table. Personally that speaks volumes as many older soldiers just look at younger soldiers and think the younger soldier hasn’t really earned their way or have had it easy.
Like any major change in the Army, it doesn’t come fast or perfect the first time, but it gets there. There are many attitudes that need to be changes and some culture changes too, but I would guess that before this year is over we will see an “App Store” on AKO or Army Command websites for soldiers to download apps from.
Grumpy
March 16th, 2010 at 5:13 amI say this with some \tongue in cheek\ but also it is true. My Dad was no fool, had an IQ in the top 1%. He would say, \This General is sneaky, I mean using stealth strategies. It is not whether you are using high technology or low technology, but rather he is using appropriate technology. Actually, he is using something obsolete, common sense.\ My Dad lived his whole life before computers became household appliances. Old Dogs with New Tricks equal a bad thing for our adversaries. \Old Dogs\, like this General bring some really great strengths to this \New Tricks\ table. The greatest of these is *context*, you can’t write it into an \After Action Report, he doesn’t even actively think about it. But, it is actively just there. General, *Thank you!*