GEN Dempsey talking about the impact of New Media from You Served Radio & Blog on Vimeo.
This video is from a private session that a few media reps had with TRADOC Commander, GEN Dempsey. This one focuses on a question from Mark Seavey from American Legion to the General about a the the impact and use of New Media.
There was a story in this last week’s Army Times about “Basic Training getting softer”. However that headline was just to grab attention, because if you read the actual story they talk about changing some tasks in Basic Training, part of it building on the technical knowledge that today’s soldiers come in with. Part of the changes are also in recognition that the men and women joining the Army today are not in as good of physical conditioning as in the past so they can’t push them too hard and injure the potential soldiers.
LTG Hiertling who is the Deputy Commander for Initial Military Training was at the TRADOC Conference last week, but accept for small talk at the bar or at breakfast, I never really had a chance to talk with him. However I heard he was not happy about the article, and I can understand why. It wasn’t so much about the article as it was the headline that Army Times used to grab attention.
Once a person reads the story, you can see that they are cutting some of the crew-served weapons training, but they are dedicating more time to individual weapons training, which is the weapon that soldiers are going to spend more time with than anything else. In fact they are even going to dedicate more time to Drill and Ceremony (which I think should not have been cut back when it was a few years ago). Are they taking the physical training at a more controlled rate? Yes they are, but if young recruits are not in as good of shape as normal, pushing them too hard, too fast will just cause them to be injured or even a wash-out.
Its just sad that the Army Times has to resort to spin in order to try and sell a few more papers.
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.
GEN Dempsey talking about the changes in Warrior Tasks Training from Nathan Long on Vimeo.
This video is from a private session that a few media reps had with TRADOC Commander, GEN Dempsey. This one focuses on a question from Troy at YouServed.com to the General about the recently announced change to Warrior Task Training.
GEN Dempsey talking about Force Design from Nathan Long on Vimeo.
About the video: This video is from a private session that a few media reps had with TRADOC Commander, GEN Dempsey. This one focuses on a question to the General about a white paper that is being drafted on future Army Force Design.
The TRADOC Senior Leaders Conference really kicked off with a great speaker this morning. It was Mr. John Rendon from The Rendon Group. The Rendon Group is a consulting firm that works with government and military clients to provide Strategic Communications. Last year they were in the news when it came out they were profiling bloggers and embedded journalists to rate them and see if they were considered favorable or not to the military.
The Rendon Group has been around for a long time and John Rendon is a very smart guy who knows what he is talking about and can and did provide very thoughtful comments to military leaders in order to make them think. Last night at the icebreaker social, GEN Dempsey explained how much he values John’s input an perspective.
On of the first things that John did was show the video titles Do You Know 4.0. I have seen this video in the past and it does a great job at highlighting what a technology-connected society we have become. Some may question the relevance at this conference, but I can see that as these leaders in the Training and Doctrine Command meet and talk about the future’s training. The video also shows not only how much technology has changed the world, but more so how much the new media and Web 2.0 has developed and matured.
John then went around the world talking about different counties and how their actions and culture effect what we do in our country both in the areas of technology but also in military practice. He talked about some of the obvious like Russia, India and China but also others like Brazil. In fact he emphasized Brazil and how much we need to pay attention to Brazil and what they are learning from us, compared to what we are not learning from them.
John Rendon had some great quotes that I want to highlight in this blog. Some of them were:
1. “nobody in this room is going to win this war” By that he meant that this war we are fighting today against Terrorism will outlast the careers of many of the leaders in the room. He was demonstrating that it will be the replacements of these leaders or even later replacements that will be in the job when this war ends.
2. “we should reward risk and not punish failure” The point of this quote was to highlight the downfall of the risk adverse culture that has been over-emphasized in the Army today. He was trying to point out that taking risks is a good thing and that those leaders whom do should be recognized and rewarded for doing that.
3. “the adversary is defining our intentions, goals, and outcomes and we are not” When I heard John say this, it reminded me of the old military saying of “the enemy always has a vote”. In other words, too many times we are reactive and respond to the enemy versus being proactive and having us shape the battlefield and what happens on it.
This week Troy is at the TRADOC Sr. Leaders Conference and is producing several blog posts as a result and conducting interviews also. You Served is one of only three blogs that was invited to the Conference. In addition to the blogs that will be written, live tweeting is happening from the Conference via the www.twitter.com/youserved twitter account.
Below are a few samples of the tweets that are being produced.
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Well it seems that finally out allies in the coalition that are trying to stabilize Afghanistan are finally putting some more skin in the game. I don’t know what our Administration or military leadership has promised them, but I hope their presence in Afghanistan will be more than just supporting from inside the FOB.
Germany’s Cabinet has formally approved plans to increase the country’s troop contingent in Afghanistan by up to 850 troops.
Government spokesman Christoph Steegmans said Tuesday that the mandate under which German soldiers serve in Afghanistan will be raised to allow a maximum 5,350 to serve there – up from the current 4,500.
Under the plan, announced last month, Berlin will send 500 extra troops to Afghanistan and focus more strongly on training local forces. The new mandate will allow for another 350 soldiers to be deployed as a “flexible reserve,” for example helping secure elections.
Parliamentary approval is still required for the mandate, as for all German deployments abroad. Steegmans said it will run through Feb. 28 next year.
I love shooting and over the years I’ve heard a lot of good advice. “Tracers work both ways.” But, here are a few more of the funny ones:
“The most important rule in a gunfight is: Always win and cheat if necessary.”
“Don’t forget, incoming fire has the right of way..”
“Make your attacker advance through a wall of bullets. You may get killed with your own gun, but he’ll have to beat you to death with it, cause it’s going to be empty.”
“If you’re not shootin’, you should be loadin’. If you’re not loadin’, you should be movin’, if you’re not movin’, someone’s gonna cut your head off and put it on a stick.”
“When you reload in low light encounters, don’t put your flashlight in your back pocket.. If you light yourself up, you’ll look like an angel or the tooth fairy… and you’re gonna be one of ‘em pretty soon.”
“Do something. It may be wrong, but do something.”
“Shoot what’s available, as long as it’s available, until something else becomes available.”
“If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. That’s ridiculous. If you have a gun, what in the hell do you have to be paranoid for.”
“Don’t shoot fast, unless you also shoot good..”
“You can say ’stop’ or ‘alto’ or use any other word you think will work, but I’ve found that a large bore muzzle pointed at someone’s head is pretty much the universal language.”
“You have the rest of your life to solve your problems.. How long you live depends on how well you do it.”
“You cannot save the planet but you may be able to save yourself and your family.”
“Thunder Ranch will be here as long as you’ll have us or until someone makes us go away, and either way, it will be exciting.”
And who doesn’t like some good advice. Surely, some of our politicians can use it in light of the recent SOTU speech. The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense. You don’t “end” a war. You either win or lose it. If you don’t win it, the only other option is losing. The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either. The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.
1. Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.
2. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.
3. I carry a gun cause a cop is too heavy.
4. When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.
5. A reporter did a human-interest piece on the Texas Rangers. The reporter recognized the Colt Model 1911 the Ranger was carrying and asked him ‘Why do you carry a 45?’ The Ranger responded, ‘Because they don’t make a 46.’
6. An armed man will kill an unarmed man with monotonous regularity.
7. The old sheriff was attending an awards dinner when a lady commented on his wearing his sidearm. ‘Sheriff, I see you have your pistol. Are you expecting trouble?’ ‘No ma’am. If I were expecting trouble, I would have brought my rifle.’
8. Beware of the man who only has one gun, because he probably knows how to use it very well.
‘The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.’ - G. K. Chesterton
A people that values its privileges above its principles will soon lose both.
“Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not..” – Thomas Jefferson
With the recent release of a preliminary report casting blame for the Fort Hood shooting, many Israelis want to know: why didn’t the soldiers attacked by a U.S. Army major-turned-terrorist return fire?
When a Muslim goes, well, Muslim in Israel he is typically shot to death by someone–say, a reserve soldier–within seconds of screaming “Allah Akbar.”
In contrast with the Israeli experience, it took 10 minutes before civilian police officer at Fort Hood was able to shoot and stop Muslim fanatic Nidal Malik Hasan.
How could that happen? How could so many people trained in the strategies and tactics of modern warfare be so defenseless?
The answer–and this may astonish many Americans–is that the victims were unarmed. U.S. soldiers are not allowed to carry guns for personal protection, even on a 340-acre base quartering more than 50,000 troops.
So it goes in brain-dead, liberal America .
Fort Hood is a “gun free” zone, thanks to regulations adopted in one of the very first acts signed into law by anti-gun President Bill Clinton in March, 1993. Click here for the file.
Contrary to President Obama’s crocodile tears, his administration is bent on further disarming the U.S. military, and all Americans. Obama and his people will not rest until every American is a sitting duck…
POST Script: Israeli teachers, from kindergarten on up, are also armed; so, a Virginia Tech-type slaughter is highly unlikely at an Israeli university.
Israelis, who have had to combat terrorism all their lives, are not afraid of guns. They are an armed people, ready, willing, and able to defend themselves and their country. Unlike indoctrinated Americans, paralyzed by fear and political correctness, Israelis understand that people, not guns, kill people.
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