Cultivating Army Leaders: - US Army Combined Arms Center

279 Pages·2011·1.61 MB·English

Cultivating Army Leaders:
Historical Perspectives
The Proceedings of the Combat Studies Institute
2010 Military History Symposium
Kendall D. Gott
General Editor
Combat Studies Institute Press
US Army Combined Arms Center
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
Cover Photo is a composite of the following images left to right: “General John J. Persh-
ing. General Headquarters, Chaumont, France,” DA photo, 19 October 1918, NARA, ARC Id
#530766, CGSC copyright registration #11-670 C. “Lt. Gen George S. Patton, U.S. Third Army
Commander, 10/13/1946,” DA photo, October 13,1946, LOC (LC-USZ62-25122), CGSC copy-
right registration #11-667 C. 4) “General Dwight D. Eisenhower, talks with Lt. General Lucus B.
Clay at Gatow airport in Berlin, Germany during the Potsdam Conference. Gen. Omar Bradley is
in the background,” DA photo, July 20, 1945, NARA, ARC Id#198840, CGSC copyright registra-
tion #11-672 C. “General William C. Westmoreland, Commanding General, MACV, watches the
ceremonies on the arrival of the Royal Thai Volunteer Regiment in Vietnam,” DA photo, ca. 1974,
NARA, ARC Id #530616, CGSC copyright registration #11-669 C. “General Winfield Scott,”
War Department photo, ca 1860-1865, NARA., ARC Id # 528333, CGSC copyright registration
#11-671 C. “Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant standing by a tree in front of a tent, Cold Harbor, Va,”
War Department photo, ca. June 1864, NARA, ARC Id #524455, CGSC copyright registration
#11-668 C.
Cultivating Army Leaders:
Historical Perspectives
The Proceedings of the Combat Studies Institute
2010 Military History Symposium
Kendall D. Gott
General Editor
Combat Studies Institute Press
US Army Combined Arms Center
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Combat Studies Institute Military History Symposium (8th : 2010 : Fort Leavenworth,
Kan.)
Cultivating Army leaders : historical perspectives : the proceedings of the Combat
Studies Institute 2010 Military History Symposium / Kendall D. Gott, general editor.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-9837226-2-5 (alk. paper)
1. Leadership--United States--Congresses. 2. Command of troops--United States--
Congresses. 3. Military education--United States--History--Congresses. I. Gott, Kendall
D. II. Title.
UB210.C645 2011
355.3’3041--dc23
2011033055
First printing, August 2011.
CSI Press publications cover a variety of military history topics. The views
expressed in this CSI Press publication are those of the author(s) and not
necessarily those of the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense.
A full list of CSI Press publications, many of them available for downloading,
can be found at http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/csi/csipubs.asp.
The seal of the Combat Studies Institute authenticates this document as an official publication of
the CSI. It is prohibited to use CSI’s official seal on any republication of this material without the
expressed written permission of the Director of CSI.
Foreword
These Proceedings are the eighth volume to be published in a series generated by the
annual Military History Symposium hosted by the Combat Studies Institute. Each year,
these conferences bring together both military and civilian historians, as well as formal and
informal students of military history, literally from around the world. They gather for the
purpose of presenting ideas and points of view on current military issues from a historical
perspective. The 2010 symposium was sponsored by the US Army Combined Arms Center
(CAC) and was held 21-23 September 2010 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
This symposium will explore the development of leaders within the US Army in order
to attain national goals and objectives in peace and war within a historical context. The
symposium also included the discussion of current issues and trends, as well as sister
services and international topics. This year we were extremely fortunate to have three
distinguished featured speakers who all have exceptional experience in leader development
and US Army officer education. Our panelists were also experts in their fields, and we were
delighted that thay made the time and effort to present their work.
This eighth volume of proceedings contains the papers or the presentation transcripts
of the participating speakers and panelists. It includes transcriptions of the question and
answer periods following the presentations as well. These materials can also be found on-
line at the CSI Web site at http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/csi/csipubs.asp.
These annual symposiums continue to be an important event for those within the Army
who believe that insights from the past are relevant to current military challenges. The
attendees have uniformly found them to be of great benefit. We hope that the readers of
this and past volumes will find the experience equally useful. CSI—The Past is Prologue.
Roderick M. Cox
Colonel, US Army
Director, Combat Studies Institute
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
iii

Contents
page
Foreword ...........................................................................................................................iii
Day 1: Keynote Presentation .............................................................................................1
Cultivating Army Leadership: A Historical Overview by
Brigadier General (R) John S. Brown .....................................................................1
Questions and Answers ...............................................................................................19
Day 1, Panel 1: Antebellum Officer Education, 1800-1865 ..........................................23
Looking Beyond West Point: Life in the Old Army as Education for
War by Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh, Ph.D. ................................................................23
The Development of Successful Non-professional Officers in the
Army of the Tennessee, 1861-1863 by Steven E. Woodworth, Ph.D. ..................35
Questions and Answers ...............................................................................................43
Day 1, Panel 2: Emergence of a Modern Officer Corps, 1866-1905 ............................51
The 1891 Infantry Tactics by Perry D. Jamieson, Ph.D. .............................................51
The 1891 Infantry Tactics by Todd Brereton, Ph.D. ...................................................57
Questions and Answers ..............................................................................................63
Day 1, Panel 3: Changing Leadership for a Changing World Role, 1906-1939 .........75
The Leavenworth Schools, Professional Military Education, and
Reform in the Old Army, 1900-1917 by Tim Nenniger, Ph.D. .............................75
So Rigorously Trained and Educated: Leader Development in the US
Army, 1919 to 1939 by Peter J. Schifferle, Ph.D. .................................................89
Questions & Answers ................................................................................................107
Day 2: Featured Speaker:..............................................................................................113
History Strengthens by General (R) Gordon Sullivan ...............................................113
Questions and Answers ............................................................................................125
Day 2, Panel 4: Conventional and Unconventional Challenges of the Cold War, 1945-
1975 ....................................................................................................................131
Soldiering as an Affair of the Heart by Lewis Sorley, Ph.D. .....................................131
Soldiering as an Affair of the Heart Leadership: DePuy, Slim, and
You by Henry Gole, Ph.D. ..................................................................................143
Questions and Answers .............................................................................................149
Day 2, Panel 5: Rebirth of the US Army, 1976-2001 ...................................................155
v
page
Thoughts in Spring on Professional Identity by Richard Swain, Ph.D. ....................155
Presentation by James Carafano, Ph.D. .....................................................................165
Questions and Answers .............................................................................................173
Day 2, Panel 6: Educating Leaders for a New Era, 2002 to Present .........................183
Mission Command: An Old Idea for the 21st Century by
COL (R) Gregory Fontenot .................................................................................183
A New “Melody Report” Educating Officers for the 21st Century by
Kevin Benson, Ph.D. ...........................................................................................191
Questions and Answers .............................................................................................195
Day 3, Panel 7: Sister Services Perspectives ................................................................197
Historical and Cultural Foundations of Navy Officer Development by
Gene R. Andersen, Ph.D. ....................................................................................197
“It was More Than Just Doctrine!” Reflections on the Preparation
of the US Marine Corps and Its Officers for World War II by
Donald F. Bittner, Ph.D. ......................................................................................205
Questions and Answers .............................................................................................219
Day 3: Featured Speaker ...............................................................................................223
US Army Leader Development: Past, Present, and Future by
Brigadire General Sean B. MacFarland ..............................................................223
Questions & Answers ................................................................................................231
Day 3, Panel 8: Foreign Perspectives ...........................................................................235
Making Australian Military Leaders: A Historical Reflection Based
on the Changing Face of Wars and the Australians That are
Selected to Fight Them by Lieutenant Colonel Craig Burn ...............................235
Finding the Balance Between Timeless Fundamentals and Temporal
Adjustments by Colonel Jean-Claude Brejot ......................................................239
A British Perspective by Colonel Graham Norton ....................................................243
Questions and Answers .............................................................................................247
Appendix A Conference Program .................................................................................255
Appendix B Biographies ................................................................................................261
vi
Day 1: Keynote Presentation
Cultivating Army Leadership: A Historical Overview by
Brigadier General (R) John S. Brown
(Transcript of Presentation)
Dr. Wright:
It is my distinct pleasure and honor to welcome Brigadier General Retired John S.
Brown, who gave more than 34 years of service to the United States Army, and now
teaches as an adjunct professor and serves as a historical consultant. His most recent duty
assignment was Chief of Military History for the United States Army.
Previously, General Brown served as Chief of Programs and Requirements for Supreme
Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, Executive Officer to the Army Deputy Chief of Staff
Operations, Commander of the 2d Brigade for his Cavalry Division in Texas and Kuwait,
G3 Operations through our III Corps, G3 of the 24th Infantry Division, and Commander of
2-66th Armored Battalion in Germany. He has commanded Army units at every level from
Platoon through Brigade, and has served on staffs at every level from Battalion through
Theater.
General Brown has published, edited, and lectured at home and overseas. Notable
publications include, Draftee Division, a case study of divisional mobilization in World
War II, and the forthcoming Kevlar Legions, a history of Army transformation, 1989-2005.
The author has a monthly column, Historically Speaking, in Army Magazine, and has
written numerous articles and chapters. And that’s an understatement on General Brown’s
part—he has written many, many things.
His education is outstanding—the United States Military Academy, Indiana University,
United States Army Command General Staff College, United States Naval War College,
and earned his PhD at Indiana University. Ladies and gentlemen, General John S. Brown.
BG Brown:
Thank you for that kind introduction. Hopefully, everybody can hear me. Well, it’s
good to see everybody here, and good to see so many old friends and faces, and meet and
see some new folks. Can I have my first slide? Subject is Cultivating Army Leadership:
Historical Perspectives. I was asked to give a speech that would kind of speak to the whole
program, recognizing that we’re going to parse it down into greater detail as we move
long. And of course, as historians—or as folks interested in history—you know, we’ve got
a certain responsibility towards the smaller details of who, what, when, where, why, when
we’re talking about cultivating Army leadership.
One theory holds that there’s kind of timeless principles of leadership, and so that if
you could just figure them out, distill them, grasp them, that you would be able to have
a feel for what all leaders need—forever, whenever. I do believe that there are certain
timeless principles, with respect to leadership.
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Keynote Presentation
But I think the story beyond that is a lot more complex, and a lot more given to an
understanding of culture, of history, of timeframes, of circumstances. And that’s where
I think we, as historians, can be particularly useful. Because we can work the detail, and
flesh out a contribution that goes to both the timeless and the time-sensitive.
Let me go with my next slide. Hopefully you’re looking at the definition of leadership.
It comes from Army Regulations 600-100, FM 6-22. They’re in synch; they both have
the same definition. Those are two surprisingly good pieces of work. If you were to read
through them, you’ll find that they don’t take as long as you might think to get through.
They’re very interesting, a lot of detail. That’s the defection they proposed for leadership,
and I think that’s the one that I want to go ahead and use today, just as a starting point.
I would say it’s not a universally-agreed definition—there are other definitions. The
standard college dictionary, Harcourt Brace, speaks to, “The office, position, or capacity of
a leader,” as leadership. Of course, then you have to go and define what a leader is. And
you find the leader, basically, is someone who makes things happen. Another definition
is, “Authoritarian control or guidance.” But I think that this finer notion of a process of
influencing people, and having responsibilities both to the mission and the organizing—I
think that’s something we want to carry forward in our definition.
Some time ago, General Reimer and a number of his four-star colleagues sat together
in a room, and they tried to articulate the Army values that they believed were timeless,
and they thought you would believe were. The things they thought were timeless, and they
came up Army values—we ended up with a card, I don’t know how many of you still have
the card in your wallet, but you were reminded of the things that the Army considered to be
its timeless, essential values that all soldiers should carry forward with them.
Now you’ll notice, if you lay out the letters, you get an acronym. And the acronym,
very curiously, matches up, “leadership.” Now, was that an accident? You know, was it
divine intervention? No. It was a conscious effort by General Reimer and his colleagues to
make a connection between the timeless values that they believed represented leadership,
and the timeless values of soldiers as a whole. And so, there was a linkage. You know, and
to be a leader, who had to represent these timeless values. Now, these do appear in FM and
AR 600-100, and they appear in FM 6-22. They’re very thoughtfully contrived.
But there’s a lot else that appears in the lines. These are also attributes of leadership
that are taught and sought in our current doctrine that, in my view, are valid, but represent
items that are time-sensitive and culture-sensitive. And should times and circumstances
change, the validity of these values will change. For example, solve complex problems.
At great danger, I’ll paraphrase Frederick the Great, who was the leading soldier of
his day. And he led an army in a time in which the formula for success was to march
forward resolutely, and the musketry to deliver a greater volume of musketry of his own.
And with respect to leadership he said, you know, if you give me something, somebody,
a young officer—he was talking about the young aristocracy, the Junkers, if you give me
one of these young men who’s energetic and stupid, it’s OK. He’ll make a fine infantry line
officer. If you give me someone who’s lazy but smart, that’s great. He’ll do a great job on
the staff. If you give me somebody who’s lazy and stupid, I can use him too. We’ll figure
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