Editor’s note: This article is the final article in an eight-part series led by retired General James Mingus, the thirty-ninth vice chief of staff of the Army, on transforming the Army to meet the challenges of tomorrow’s battlefield. You can read other articles in the series here.
In the summer of 1944, the Allied advance in Normandy had stalled. Centuries-old hedgerows, dense earthen walls topped with impenetrable brush, turned every field into a fortified ambush site. Tanks bogged down, infantry took murderous fire, and breakout seemed impossible. Then, Sergeant Curtis G. Culin III, a young tanker from Chicago, welded scrap metal from discarded German beach obstacles onto the front of a Sherman tank. The tanks equipped with his improvisation, dubbed “Rhino tanks,” were able to rip through the hedgerows like paper. Within weeks, thousands of tanks were retrofitted, Allied troops poured through the breach, and the road to Paris was opened.
One sergeant’s battlefield solution, born of necessity and executed with his cutting torch, changed the course of the campaign. That same spirit of frontline initiative remains the most powerful force in today’s Army. The individual soldier and the squad are the true engines of Army transformation. You, not headquarters or acquisition bureaucracies, drive technological innovation, tactical adaptation, and the cultural change required to win future wars.
Today, soldiers and leaders at the squad level influence the enterprise more than most realize. Feedback submitted through transformation in contact pilots, unit surveys, direct outreach, and combat training center observations shapes everything from doctrine to equipment fielding. Your feedback is driving action. We are enhancing the way every soldier fights, protects, and sustains, and forging leaders who can ready their soldiers for the crucible of combat.
There are several examples of this from just the last year. Squad feedback on the weapon’s length in urban combat drove the transition from the M7 rifle to the more compact M7 carbine. Consistent reporting of excessive soldier load gave way to the Load-bearing Soldier Armor Protection Initiative, which weighs just two pounds per plate, replacing the eight-pound Small Arms Protective Inserts.
To reduce the excessive hours mechanics spent in motor pools fixing outdated and over-engineered vehicles, we introduced the Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV). The ISV’s reliance on commercial, off-the-shelf parts significantly reduces the time soldiers spend turning wrenches and waiting for repairs. More importantly, this lightweight, all-terrain troop carrier increases the speed and mobility of squads, making them more lethal and effective on the battlefield.
Underpinning all this innovation is our investment in Holistic Health and Fitness. This program provides soldiers and leaders the expertise to increase fitness, dial in nutrition, and better understand the recovery process required to ensure they are prepared for the final hundred yards of hard-fought combat. These are not isolated successes. They are proof that bottom-up refinement is no longer optional—it is the primary mechanism of relevant change.
Innovation, however, is not an end in itself. Advanced sensors, unmanned systems, and networked fires extend reach and lethality, but they remain enablers, not substitutes, for the disciplined soldier. Finishing the final yards of any close fight is still a human endeavor decided by training, leadership, and will. Technology fails, networks degrade, and batteries die. The squad that has mastered the fundamentals—shoot, move, communicate, protect, sustain, and treat casualties under stress—will still close with and destroy the enemy. Mastery in the basics remains the nonnegotiable foundation.
Ultimately, capability and technology are bound together by culture. When soldiers at every echelon believe they own the future of the Army, transformation accelerates. Standards, values, and expectations replicate from squad bay to squad bay. Leaders who treat every range, every new piece of equipment, and every after-action review as an opportunity to improve set the tone for the entire formation. Training to standard in a culture of excellence is our greatest leader development platform. Talent flourishes when it is identified and focused. Whether that talent is a private who can code, a specialist who rebuilds engines in his garage, or a team leader who sees tactics differently than her peers, people rise to challenges they perceive as their own.
Sergeant Culin did not wait for a program of record or a general officer’s approval. He saw a problem, built a solution, and played a role in the Army victory. Eighty years later, the problems are different, but the principle endures: the squad that refuses to accept the status quo will write the next chapter of Army success.
Young soldiers and leaders, the institution is listening. Your observations, your ideas, and your daily commitment to excellence are the spark. Keep pushing. Keep breaking things in training so they do not break you in combat. The Army’s future is not decided in the Pentagon—it is decided in your squad bay, on your range, and in the last hundred yards.
The future belongs to you. Seize it!
Retired General James Mingus served as the thirty-ninth vice chief of staff of the Army.
Lieutenant Colonel Dwayne Steppe is an infantry officer and was the aide-de-camp for the thirty-ninth vice chief of staff of the Army.
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of the Army, or Department of Defense.
Image credit: 1st Lt. Aylin Hernandez, US Army
