Military Review English Edition November December 2016 | Page 115

PACIFIC PATHWAYS

persistent engagement and presence in this massive
area of responsibility is undoubtedly one of the main
reasons we continue to avoid open and escalating
conflict in the region. At the same time, the Pathways
operations are building readiness and creating a generation of soldiers and leaders who are agile, adaptive, and
prepared for whatever circumstances the future holds.
In fact, one of the most important benefits from
these deployments is the incredible professional growth
that our soldiers get from combining forces and leaders
from different formations (e.g., USARPAC, I Corps,
25th ID, 7th ID, 593rd Sustainment Brigade, 10th
Regional Support Group, National Guard and Reserve
Component units, Special Operations Command
Pacific, and units from the U.S. Marine Corps and
Air Force). Their shared forward-deployed Pathways
experiences help them form relationships built on trust
that will last for the rest of their Army careers. Finally,
this deployment experience of empowered soldiers
may provide the most crucial long-term outcome for
the Army by exemplifying desired leadership traits
and values for our partners and allies to witness and to
replicate in their own armies.

WE RECOMMEND

Notes
1. CNN Philippines Staff, “18 Soldiers Dead, 5 Abu Sayyaf
Bandits Killed in Basilan Encounter,” CNN Philippines website, 10
April 2016, accessed 26 September 2016, http://cnnphilippines.
com/news/2016/04/10/basilan-encounter-araw-ng-kagitingan-abu-sayyaf.html.
2. Joint Publication 5-0, Joint Operation Planning (Washington,
DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 11 August 2011), xxiii–xxiv.
This publication identifies six phases of a campaign or operation:
shape, deter, seize the initiative, dominate, stability, and enable
civil authority.
3. Seth Robson, “Army’s Pacific Pathways 2016 Kicks Off with
Cobra Gold Exercise,” Military.com website, 13 February 2016,
accessed 26 September 2016, http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/02/13/army-pacific-pathways-2016-kicks-off-withcobra-gold-exercise.html.
4. Mark A. Milley, “39th Chief of Staff of the Army Initial
Message to the Army,” Army.mil website, accessed 26 September
2016, https://www.army.mil/e2/rv5_downloads/leaders/csa/Initial_Message_39th_CSA.pdf.
5. Ibid.

A

mong the most challenging and puzzling issues
the U.S. Army has faced among combat veterans
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 has
been the unusually high number of suicides as compared to the number of such incidents associated
with previous wars. In “Suicides in the U.S. Military:
Birth Cohort Vulnerability and the All-Volunteer
Force,” originally published in Armed Forces & Society
in 2015, authors James Griffith and Craig J. Bryan
provide original research from which they develop
unique and persuasive explanations for the underlying causes of the unusually high number of suicides
occurring among veterans of the U.S. Army. In conjunction, they recommend mitigating solutions aimed
at lowering the number of suicides. Their paper can
be found at the below noted address:
http://afs.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/11/16/0095327X15614552.full.pdf+html

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