Commandant’s Corner

By Colonel Kevin E. McHugh, Commandant, USAWOCC

Article published on: October 1st 2024, in the October-December 2024 Edition of Strength in Knowledge: The Warrant Officer Journal

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Colonel Kevin E. McHugh, Commandant, USAWOCC

“...that one thing.”

Our Army stands ready for any contingency while it continues its essential transformation. The central idea of this transformation was captured in 2022 by then Commander of the Combined Arms Center, LTG Theodore Martin, in his video titled “The Army of 2030.” Almost three years later, the Army continues on its path toward a modernized force capable of winning in any environment through large-scale and multidomain operations. Still, under a new moniker, the “Army of the Future.” Regardless of the name or current status of modernization, there is one thing in our Army that will always ensure its continued success, and that one thing is you. If you are reading this introduction to another compilation of works by stewards of our profession, then I would say you, as many of us do, share a personal desire and drive for lifelong learning and continuous professional improvement. Whether Officer, Noncommissioned Officer, or Enlisted, your unsolicited drive for professional relevance and expertise through the knowledge gained by reading the works of others can only make you better. For the Warrant Officer Cohort, these readings, your contributions, and the professional discourse waged will make you better integrators, communicators, operators, leaders, and advisors for your commanders. As we aspire to be better in all we do, including the Army Profession, I would remind us of GEN Randy George’s (the current and 41st Chief of State of the Army) four focus areas, specifically his first, Warfighting. This transformation requires us to think differently about how we fight and win our Nation’s wars due to many factors, the most significant being the influence and speed of advancing technology. On today’s battlefield, we must be able to integrate our systems faster and execute our processes with more precision to enable more effective decision-making. Ultimately, this translates to our combat formations seizing the advantage and winning against any potential adversary. Professional Military Education (PME) is a critical part of this transformation, and it is also changing to assist us in understanding how we can think differently. New PME topics are being launched across all cohorts under the control of TRADOC, the Combined Arms Center, and Army University, and these topics include Data Literacy, Chemical Nuclear Integration, and Information Advantage, to name a few, all designed to shape our professional thoughts, discussions, and outcomes to influence and improve how we fight. Army Senior Leaders are actively influencing this change, as seen in GEN Gary M. Brito’s recent article titled, Data Literacy, How We Prepare for the Future, (January 2025), which describes how and why we must embrace data and information through a multidomain lens to decrease information clutter so Soldiers and leaders can use relevant information to make better decisions faster on a contested and often congested multidomain battlefield. It is an exciting time to be a part of this great Army and this profession. This brings me to the introduction of the following compilation of professional contributions assembled within Issue #4 of Volume 2 of the Warrant Officer Journal, Strength in Knowledge. Thanks to all the readers of this and other professional journals for being that one thing!