Military Review English Edition September-October 2014 | Page 2

MR

Col. Anna R. Friederich-Maggard

G

reetings, as the summer
winds down and fall draws
near, many are in the
midst of moving, busy with backto-school activities, or preparing
for the cold months ahead. Military
Review understands the challenges
of finding spare time for activities such as reading, but
we guarantee this edition is worth the read. Whether
you peruse it online, read the journal found in your
mailbox, or flip through a copy from one of the offices
or stands across post, it is sure to pique your interest.
Despite work force and budget reductions, our
Army is still focused on training and education at
all levels. This is very evident in the submissions we
received supporting our theme for this issue, soldier and
noncommissioned officer development and leadership. We
sent out requests across the Army for articles focused
on the soldiers and NCOs, the backbone of the best
Army in the world, and we were not disappointed.
In this edition, you will read Command Sgt. Maj.
Dennis Eger’s insights on the NCO’s role in mission
command and why it is important that NCOs at all
levels understand and support this doctrinal concept.
You will also find an article on how NCO self-paced
learning can cut costs and enhance the quality of NCO
educational experiences. In another, two fitness experts
provide some recommendations on ways to improve
physical training programs to better prepare soldiers
for combat and reduce the number of injuries across
the force.
One of the highlights of this issue is the announcement of the winners of the Gen. William E.
DePuy writing competition. Thank you to all the
brave authors who submitted their essays and to our

judges; the competition was pretty stiff this year.
Congratulations to the winners! You will find the
announcement on page 43.
Military Review appreciates the tremendous
support of our readers and authors. Although we
receive many articles on a daily basis, we still encourage soldiers, NCOs, officers, and civilians—across
the Army and all services—simply to write. The
heightened operating tempo of the past 13 years
took a toll on almost every facet of our military to
include professional writing. Finding time to provide
commentary on experiences and lessons learned was
sometimes impossible.
With the drawdown of troop deployments and a
return to a more stable and predictable operating tempo, now is an ideal time for leaders to reflect upon their
experiences and revive their enthusiasm for writing for
professional publications like Military Review to ensure
we maintain a historic perspective and pass along our
best practices.
As a courtesy to all our perspective authors, we
now try to place article submissions in other Army,
Department of Defense, or Center of Excellence
publications if we cannot support them in ours due
to space limitations or content. We also provide recommendations for manuscript revisions (if needed)
before forwarding them to other publications to
increase their potential for publication. In this way,
we hope to encourage all those potential authors out
there who might need assistance, and rekindle the
love of writing in all our readers.
Military Review continues to move forward. Find
us at http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/militaryreview/
index.asp, or on Facebook and Twitter —follow the
evolution!

Pfc. Justin Jones gets
into position as an
opposing force sniper,
13 March 2014, Fort
Carson, Colorado.
(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt.
Grady Jones, 3rd ABCT Public
Affairs, 4th Inf. Div.)