Historic Times

Dear subscribers,

I can only speak for the Army, but I imagine that the sentiment is mirrored across all services right now. Combat missions have waned, and with them the opportunity for warfighters to go out and support missions having a kinetic impact abroad.

Unsurprisingly this has led to frustration among the ranks of our military. Service members are less inclined to feel they have purpose when the only mission available to them is to train.

For those of us serving as their leaders this provides a unique challenge. How do you motivate troops when they know that their training will simply lead to more training? How do you motivate troops that are unlikely to deploy and do their job in a combat environment?

What I have communicated to both my peers and subordinates that share this sentiment is this; the military must remain ready to fight and win the nations wars at all times. This fact remains true regardless of whether we are at war or not.

In addition, we must be prepared to fight against any adversary, who’s capabilities we may not fully understand, on terrain we are unfamiliar with. Such is the lot of the expeditionary military. We ensure we are ready to fight by training, mastering the basics, because we know that someone will eventually step up and oppose us.

I have found that communicating these facts at a minimum helps to alleviate the frustration that many of our service members feel in response to the times we live in.

“Lead with empathy and to the standard, and you will never lead wrong.”

As a thank you for being a member of this newsletter please use code “MFD93” at checkout when purchasing anything from MandatoryFunDay (themandatoryfunday.com)

Please follow me on my other platforms. It is the easiest way to support me as a creator.