Latest news with #ArmyTimes
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Army releases new primer on organization, purpose for leaders
The Army has released a primer for leaders to better understand the Army, how it's organized and their purpose within the ranks. Field Manual 1, 'The Army: A Primer to Our Profession of Arms,' was released in mid-May and is available for download from the Army's website. The slim volume — 10 chapters in 74 pages — was written in plain language and avoids jargon to better communicate the Army's message. 'Focus is on junior leaders — lieutenants and sergeants — with the intent of explaining in clear language what the Army expects of them and what they can expect of the Army,' Rich Creed Jr., director of the Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate, recently told Army Times. 'It does so with historical vignettes pertaining to leadership during the types of operations junior leaders should be prepared to experience, and an uncomplicated explanation of what makes up the Army and how it is organized.' Beyond those ranks, the book is expected to be a touchstone for leaders as they progress through the ranks. As individuals rise into leadership positions, they can refer to the book to see how it reflects their responsibilities at every level. 'At higher levels of professional military education, you may have a block of time to discuss the material from different perspectives. Rather than learning the material in the book, you might think through, 'How am I taking the material in FM 1 and making it real in my unit?' Or 'How is FM 1 serving as the foundation for how I coach, counsel and mentor?'' Creed said. The primer is a companion piece to Army Doctrine Publication 1, 'The Army,' a denser description of the service written for more experienced individuals. The directorate is shipping print copies of the primer to Cadet Command, Basic Officer Leader Courses and Officer Candidate Schools for the graduating classes of 2025 and 2026, Creed said. But anyone can download an electronic copy from the Army Publication Directorate website. The 10 chapters are divided into three main sections. The first section discusses the importance of a warrior mindset and preparing all soldiers for battle. 'We are all part of a team and need to have certain basic skills and attitudes, regardless of where we happen to serve,' Creed said. 'We do so as a member of the profession of arms, which is different than the ancient idea of warriors fighting as individuals for themselves and personal glory.' The section ends with a discussion on leadership and understanding the responsibilities of being a leader and a good follower. The second section lays out what the Army is for, what the Army does and what it's composed of in terms of organizations and people. The final section discusses soldiers' obligations as members of the joint force and when they operate with allies and partners. It ends with what the Army owes its civilian leadership and fellow American citizens, Creed said.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Army issues policy to discharge, disqualify transgender troops
The Army has issued its policy on the separation of transgender soldiers through an initial stage of voluntary separation followed by involuntary separation. 'The Army has developed a phased approach for gender dysphoria disqualification and separation from service,' an Army spokesman told Army Times. 'The first phase is for individuals who want to self-identify.' Phase I ends on June 6, the policy states, while Phase II begins on June 7. The policy, posted to the service's Human Resources Command webpage on May 22, gives commands 30 days from identification to initiate the separation process for individuals who have a 'current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria and/or have a history of cross-sex hormone therapy or a history of sex reassignment or genital reconstruction surgery.' The Defense Department defines gender dysphoria as referring to a 'marked incongruence between an individual's experienced or expressed gender and their assigned gender, lasting at least six months, as manifested by conditions causing clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.' 'We encourage anyone subject to this policy to contact their chain of command or appropriate point of contact as soon as possible,' the official said. Soldiers who fall into those categories are considered immediately non-deployable. If deployed, those soldiers will be redeployed within 30 days of notification or as soon as is feasible, according to the posting. Individuals will be placed in administrative absence status, outlined in Army Regulation 600-8-10, with full pay and benefits until separation is complete. 'The Army recognizes the selfless service of all who have volunteered to serve,' the official said. 'These individuals will be treated dignity and respect throughout this process.' As part of the new policy, transgender recruits will not ship to initial entry training and will be disqualified at the Military Entrance Processing Station. Applicants currently in the Delayed Entry Program are disqualified from service. Offers of admission to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point will also be rescinded. Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets may participate in classes until separated or disenrolled. Academy and ROTC cadets will not be required to repay educational benefits and will not be subject to completion of military service obligations. Green-to-Gold soldiers will be released from the program and separated in accordance with enlisted policies. Discharge statuses for individuals impacted by the new guidelines will be listed as honorable, according to the policy. Waivers will be considered on a case-by-case basis for individuals who have demonstrated 36 consecutive months of stability in their biological sex without clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas. These individuals must have demonstrated they have never attempted to transition to a sex other than their biological sex and are willing and able to adhere to all applicable standards, including those associated with their biological sex. The guidance also includes information on intimate spaces policies. Access to intimate spaces will be determined by the individual's biological sex. Commanders are instructed to apply all standards that reflect consideration of an individual's biological sex, such as uniform and grooming standards, body composition assessment, medical, physical and body fat standards, drug testing and bathroom and shower facility use. Commanders are also expected to ensure all such shared intimate spaces will be clearly designated for either male, female or family use. House Democrats, meanwhile, have planned legislation to roll back the Pentagon's efforts to force transgender troops out of the service, which may require a public vote in the coming weeks, Army Times previously reported. Six service members filed a lawsuit in January challenging President Donald Trump's transgender ban in the military.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This Army division will change how armor brigades and divisions fight
As soldiers with the 1st Cavalry Division continue to offload their equipment from their recent Europe rotation, they're blazing a path and planning for a new kind of armored unit they will be at the heart of creating. Soldiers with the division will help the Army determine how to reorganize an Armored Brigade Combat Team to fight with new equipment, farther-reaching sensors and increased firepower — with the division at its back. Maj. Gen. Thomas Feltey spoke with Army Times recently about his division's work under the Army's 'Transformation in Contact' initiative. The move seeks to modernize and evolve formations as they prepare for real-world deployments. The effort was announced in 2023 and began with three infantry brigades: the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division; 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division; and the 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division. Over the course of the next year, the three brigades added sensors, drones and a host of other enabling technologies, while also reconfiguring the makeup of various brigade elements to streamline communications and ramp up the infantry brigades' capabilities. The Army has since entered the TIC 2.0 phase, which will focus on heavy units such as the 1st Cavalry and its ABCTs. Feltey told Army Times that the division oversaw training for the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain, while the infantry unit was in Germany. That helped give them a start on what was required for such transformative work. 'No one's ever starting from zero, we're continuing to move forward and not standing in place,' Feltey said. This exercise is shaping the long-term future of Army infantry brigades Through the course of the transition, the infantry units built new versions of units, dubbing them Light Infantry Brigade and Mobile Infantry Brigades, respectively. Those concepts had been developed in certain Army planning circles and were adjusted through the training and experimentation by the infantry units. But the armor units are drawing up their own plans for what a new type of armor brigade might look like. 'An ABCT has a lot of different moving pieces,' Feltey said. 'Our battlespace is much larger and things move faster.' While ubiquitous drone coverage helped infantry units, various kinds of drones will be needed for the longer-reaching, longer-ranging armored units, for example. The division's artillery, air cavalry squadron and electronic warfare units have all been designated as part of the transformation. Feltey is convening a host of senior armor leaders to assist in feedback on how to reconfigure the units and their assets to take advantage of new tech and novel approaches to fighting fast with armor. These sessions are called 'Iron Horse sprints,' he said. The timelines are a little longer for the 1st Cavalry Division. The culminating event for their TIC work will happen at a National Training Center rotation in Fort Irwin, California, in 2027. That's in part because the division is also modernizing its main equipment, with the A4 variant of the Bradley and the A7 variant of the Paladin artillery system. It's also on track as the next unit to receive the new Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle, Feltey said. The two-star expects to see communications upgrades, much like the infantry units did with systems such as the Integrated Tactical Network, Star Shield satellite communications and the Mobile User Objective System, an improved UHF satellite communications system. While the armored units will receive more drones for better reconnaissance, they will need more striking capabilities from those drones, he said. 'We don't have the ability to suppress everything while we're moving now, so that's one of the problems we're trying to solve,' Feltey said. A key part of the process will be hooking the division assets into what the brigade needs when it needs it. The division expects to have units training at the company level with new assets and formations by early 2026 and battalion-level training to commence in the summer of 2026, ahead of the 2027 event.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Army to recode 20,000 parachutist jobs in major airborne restructuring
The Army will recode nearly 20,000 paid parachutist positions in a major restructuring of its airborne forces aimed at improving readiness, service officials said. The recoding means the positions will remain airborne billets, but soldiers will no longer be required to maintain jump status or receive jump pay. Over a five-month period beginning last September, two dozen Army organizations met to examine the service's requirements for airborne operations and training, Lt. Gen. Gregory Anderson, head of the 18th Airborne Corps, told Army Times. 18th Airborne at the center of major Pacific exercise for the first time Since 2006, the Army has kept 56,756 paid parachutist positions on its rolls, Anderson said. For reference, the entire force of Army parachutists that jumped into Normandy during World War II was 13,000 troops. In recent years, limited aircraft availability, especially C-17s and C-130s, has contributed to an overall 'decline in collective airborne proficiency,' Anderson said. As a result, assets used to maintain the jump status of the more than 56,000 positions has come at the expense of keeping the assault force — the combat troops in immediate response missions — at a high level of readiness, the three-star said. 'We started to assume risk with the high-end forces that have to be ready to go tonight,' Anderson said. 'This is not about saving money; it's about getting readiness to where we need it.' Below are the parachutist position recodings by command; these figures are estimates by the U.S. Army and are not yet finalized: 9,000 – Army Special Operations Command 3,600 – Army National Guard 3,500 – Army Forces Command 1,900 – Army Reserve 1,000 – Army Pacific 850 – Army Europe and Africa Currently, to maintain jump status, a parachutist must jump four times each year. 'What ends up happening we take fewer aircraft, same jump requirements and units doing everything they can to achieve basic airborne currency,' Anderson said. 'In many cases, they were not meeting even currency.' The Pentagon requires the Army to produce 15,000 parachutists at the ready at any time. As the organizations analyzed this requirement, training needs and the demands of maintaining the force from riggers to jumpmasters, they had to ask tough questions, Anderson said. 'Are support battalions going to jump into a combat situation with the assault echelon?' Anderson said. 'Or would they come in later some other way?' Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George told Army Times in an email statement that the adjustments will prioritize training and resources where they are needed most. 'Too many positions were allocated outside the direct combat force. This was a drain on resources and we're fixing it.' Soldiers in the affected billets will still be airborne trained and if they transfer into an assault position, they will be retrained with a refresher course and put on paid jump status, Anderson said. 'These decisions help make our paratroopers more proficient by concentrating on those who could be jumping into combat,' George said.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Army reduces transition job-training time, prioritizing junior troops
The Army recently updated rules for soldier participation in training and apprenticeship programs in their final six months of service, cutting down time windows for some in order to prioritize junior service members and maintain unit readiness. The changes, released in a military personnel message on Thursday, splits ranks into three categories with an associated number of days left on contract before they can use the Army Career Skills Program, Department of Defense SkillBridge and other internship programs. For category I, or ranks E1 to E5, soldiers may spend up to 120 days in the training before they end their service with the approval of a field grade commander. Category II, or ranks E6-E7, WO1-CW3 and O1-O3, may participate in up to 90 days of training before the end of their contract with the approval of the first O6 commander in their chain of command. Marines cut time for career transition program, citing readiness Category III includes ranks E8 and above, CW4 and above and O4 and above. Those in category III may use 60 days with the approval of the first general officer in their chain of command. The goal, Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Orlandon Howard told Army Times in an emailed statement, is to prioritize junior enlisted needs for the program and continue to support all soldiers seeking out such programs while limiting the impact on unit readiness that end-of-contract training may create. 'The Army recognizes the value of the Career Skills Program, SkillBridge, and individual internship programs for Soldiers transitioning from the military to civilian life,' Howard said. 'These changes concentrate the programs' benefits where they're needed most while limiting the impact on readiness.' Previously, the Army allowed any rank to be eligible for such training for 120 days and required only the approval of the first field grade commander. Last year, the Marine Corps cut time in the program for exiting jarheads. The new standard allows Marines up to the rank of E5 to begin the program at the 120-day mark, while all ranks above sergeant may spend up to 90 days in the program, Marine Corps Times reported. In 2023, Army Times reported that two key senators said the military was 'falling short' in preparing troops for their transition to civilian work. Military transition classes are 'falling short,' lawmakers warn The comments by Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Kevin Craimer, R-N.D., echoed concerns in a Government Accountability Office report. The report noted much of the transition assistance program was too superficial and that 70% of transitioning troops did not begin the Transition Assistance Program until they were under a year left in their contract, despite the program requiring such TAP training be completed prior to the last year of service. An estimated 200,000 troops leave U.S. military service annually, Army Times previously reported. Research has shown that veterans face their highest risk of mental health problems and suicide within the first year of separation.
