The Association of the U.S. Army Notes
1. Respected Pick
Christine Wormuth, a former undersecretary of defense during the Obama administration, is President Joe Biden’s pick to be the 25th secretary of the Army. She has worked for the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies and currently leads Rand Corp.’s International Security and Defense Policy Center. She is a “respected, known commodity in policy circles,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, resident fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
If confirmed, Wormuth would be the first woman to serve as Army secretary. “She’ll hit the ground running on the first day,” Eaglen predicted.
2. Historic Nomination
Lt. Gen. Laura Richardson has been nominated for a fourth star and reassignment from U.S. Army North to lead the U.S. Southern Command. The nomination was sent to the Senate on March 5, and she appeared at the White House on March 8 at a ceremony marking International Women’s Day, standing beside Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, who is nominated to head the U.S. Transportation Command. President Joe Biden said both “helped push open the doors of opportunity to women in our military.”
If confirmed by the Senate, Richardson will be the first Army woman to head a combatant command and only the second woman in history to serve as an Army four-star general. The first was Gen. Ann Dunwoody, who retired in 2012.
3. Secret Sauce
Unit cohesion is the “secret sauce” of the Army, Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said. “That’s what brings units together in combat,” he added, as he reinforced the service’s efforts to eradicate behaviors such as sexual assault and harassment, racism and extremism from the ranks.
These “harmful behaviors … breaks the trust in our Army, it hurts our soldiers,” McConville said. “We can’t have those types of things in our Army. We don’t see a lot of that in our Army, but at the same time, one is too many when it comes to these harmful behaviors, so we’re making sure we don’t have them.”
4. Lighter Loads
Soldiers are expected to carry far too much into battle, said Maj. Gen. Anthony Potts, Program Executive Officer Soldier. “We keep hanging things on a soldier like ornaments on a Christmas tree,” he said during an AUSA Global Force Next forum about modernizing equipment for soldiers and squads.
Potts suggests taking a “system approach,” rather than adding one item at a time until soldiers are overburdened. Troops will still get the best equipment but in a more thoughtful way that considers the total package they are being asked to carry.
5. Mule Training
The Army is moving ever closer to providing robotic eight-wheeled, all-terrain vehicles to move supplies to ground forces. The small multipurpose equipment transport vehicles being delivered this month can carry up to 1,000 pounds.
Final testing will begin soon. If successful, low-rate production is planned so that the first units will receive the vehicles by the end of the year.