May 2025 Articles

“The future fight will have many junior officers who may find themselves operating in small groups apart from their higher headquarters. I will be the first to admit that it can be unsettling to be so far from your leadership, but the experiences I had leading my platoon in the Pacific allowed me to develop critical leadership skills that I will carry on throughout the rest of my career.”

“Given this reality, one could rightly ask, “Why don’t we just buy more ships and aircraft if they are better suited to the environment?” This is a fair question, and this article does not suggest that our naval and air forces don’t need additional funding to support this threat. What it does suggest is that all services have inherent limitations, and Army fires present the adversary with a unique dilemma that forces them to consider the land domain and how to pry U.S. forces from key terrain.”

“As we captured our lessons learned it became clear these were the same things battalions learned during key periods of World War II—like the seizure of Luzon in 1945—and even farther back during the Spanish-American War. The experience reinforced the value of this training, not only in the strategic and operational imperatives it achieves, but in the way that it reacquaints our ground troops with the timeless challenges of land war in Asia.”

“The future of the Army lies in leaders who possess charisma, vision, strategic acumen, and organizational prowess. By recognizing the importance of developing managerial attributes alongside leadership qualities, the Army can cultivate leaders capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st-century battlefield.”