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Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.
-James B. Conant1
In 1997 the US Army commissioned a leadership and professionalism assessment survey among selected officers and noncommissioned officers (NCOs).2 One year later the Army Times, quoting the unreleased survey, stated that it "revealed a deep malaise among officers and NCOs [and that the] Army's current culture forces some officers to behave in ways that are contrary to the Army's stated values."3
In June 2000, representatives from all of the Army's major commands (MACOMs) rewrote US Army Regulation (AR) 220-1, Unit Status Report.4 The writing conference was sponsored by Headquarters, Department of the Army (DA) Force Readiness Division. The conference would have been a golden opportunity for senior Army leaders to stimulate the change in culture for which they had been searching. Sadly, the opportunity slipped away.
Army Regulation 220-1's importance cannot be overestimated. Soldiers' safety and the nation's defense depend on unit status reports' (USRs') accuracy. Unit readiness reports are the tools senior leaders use to determine how ready units are for the next war. If ever there is a place where honesty and integrity should count, reporting on how ready units are in the event of war is that place.
During former Chief of Staff Gordon Sullivan's address to the 1991 US Army Command and General Staff (CGSC) class, he issued this challenge: "No more Task Force Smiths!" Task Force Smith remains a catch phrase for what happens when the Army is unprepared for war. In June 1950 Task Force Smith was slapped together, thrown into combat, and because of unreadiness, decimated by the North Korean Army.
The Army recently revised its values, articulating them in the August 1999 version of Field Manual (FM) 22-100, Army Leadership.5 Loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage are the values US soldiers must embrace. They are the profession's cement. Sadly, the Army seems embarrassed to talk about them beyond directing soldiers to carry a values card in their billfolds.
Abrams a Worthy Model
While attending the writing conference, I read Lewis Sorley's book Thunderbolt: General Creighton Abrams and the Army of His Times.6 Abrams, a man of unquestioned integrity and professionalism, represents the Army's best. He combined a...