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Service and Sacrifice

The Military Leader — Sun, 24 Apr 2022 18:37:08 +0000

No matter the service branch, specialty, or duty location, one question is common to every servicemember: “When should I leave the military?” This question pops up during deployments, following the release of promotion lists, and on nearly every date night. Pursuing an answer often devolves into a winding conversational journey of assessing the present, voicing […]

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The opportunity before you

The Military Leader — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 12:00:38 +0000

The military is full of opportunities, plenty of places you wish you could serve, jobs you wish you had, people you wish you could work with. Given the military’s sequential, time and experience-based professional development model, most of that opportunity is out of reach or untimely. One way to overcome this facet is to perform […]

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“Rank Ordering Your Future” – A Look at CSL Preferences

The Military Leader — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 16:53:00 +0000

Every few years throughout your Army career, your HRC Assignment Officer will contact you to gather input about your next assignment. “Rank the following duty stations from 1 to 35.” Although you get a vote, sometimes it feels like that vote doesn’t count for much. That’s because the routine assignment process can be very subjective, […]

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Providing Clarity with an Evaluations Philosophy

The Military Leader — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 22:15:09 +0000

One fact has remained consistent during my three decades in the military – I am not a mind reader, nor are those who worked with me. Therefore, prior to assuming battalion command, I decided to write an evaluations philosophy. The purpose was three-fold: to reinforce my command philosophy and the performance principles I considered important; to […]

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Traits, Obituaries, and Life’s Purpose

The Military Leader — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 02:51:30 +0000

Suddenly I am of sufficient age and experience that young people occasionally contact me in search of mentorship. Based upon my military, intelligence community, and interagency experience, they often think I can provide them a road map to the career of their dreams. These young people ask, “How do I get a job at Department W?” “How do […]

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“Two Matts and a Pat” – Recognizing the Value of Mentorship

The Military Leader — Sat, 10 Sep 2016 09:49:37 +0000

Earlier this week, I was perusing the recently released O6 promotion list and an analogy came to mind about our shrinking Army. I envisioned a WWI scene in which ranks of hopeful O5’s clambered out of the trenches only to be cut down by raking machine gun fire…the next wave of O5’s ready to take […]

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An Open Letter to Company Command Teams

The Military Leader — Wed, 11 May 2016 16:26:51 +0000

In An Open Letter to Cadets, Drew Steadman urges current Cadets to use their college time wisely to develop into the kind of leaders we need in today’s Army. To develop those future leaders, we need good Company Commanders and First Sergeants to serve as Assistant Professors of Military Science (APMS) and Senior Military Instructors […]

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