I read the Marines going back to being Marines thread the other day and have observed it, living only a few miles from Camp Lejeune. Today I received my email copy of Army Echos, the US Army retiree quarterly newsletter. It normally begins with a column by the Chief of Staff, I copied and pasted the second half of his column below. Evidently the entire DOD is transitioning back away from light desert warfare to becoming more concerned with our peer competitors (Russia and China). Odessa
Your Army is modernizing to ready itself for a return to great power competition and the
threat of large-scale ground combat. Those of you who served in the 1970s and 1980s might
remember the days of transitioning to AirLand Battle and developing “The Big 5.” Now we’re
adopting the concept of multi-domain operations and developing our six modernization
priorities: long-range precision fires, a next generation combat vehicle, future vertical lift,
the Army network, air and missile defense, and Soldier lethality. This spring we’re executing
Defender 2020 in Europe, the largest Army exercise in 25 years. Ten countries will host
37,000 participants, including Soldiers from five divisions, National Guard Soldiers from
eleven states, and seven Army Reserve units. Our current Soldiers and potential recruits can’t
visualize an exercise of that scale or something so foreign to the post-9/11 environment they
know. Many of you can though, especially those from our REFORGER era. I encourage you to
tell those stories.
The Army must be ready for a 21st century environment that has much in common with the
20th century environment of its past. And you are our best historians. Please help me to keep
your Army the world’s premier fighting force.
People First! Winning Matters! Army Strong!
Gen. James C. McConville
40th Chief of Staff of the Army
