Category: Military

The Future of the Military Health System

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What will the Military Health System look like in the future? The operational forces will be more military, and the CONUS facilities will be more civilian. 

In the book Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-1945, Max Hastings described how ships’ crews took on the characteristics of their commanders. One captain was not well liked but was respected because “he had a mind like a slide rule.” Most good commanders took care of their sailors.

One characteristic of all effective commanders was that they communicated all that they knew about the strategic situation to their crews. In December 1944 the US Navy had 1100 warships and 5000 support ships. Most sailors never saw the big battles and instead spent the war shipping cargo between ports. For example, it is 5100 nautical miles from Honolulu, Hawaii to Darwin, Australia. Cargo ships took 21 days each way to make the trip. Temperatures in these all-metal ships reached 110 degrees, the odor of fuel and sweat was ubiquitous, and the noise was deafening. Men swabbed, repaired, ate, slept and repeated the process endlessly. They saw nothing but the sea, the sky, their ship, and each other. Few knew how their part, no matter how small, fit into the overall plan for victory.

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Jonathan Potts – American Revolutionary Physician

~ MD Harris Institute ~ 2 Comments

Military physicians, just like all soldiers and military officers, should read military history. We will be better if we do.

By Mark D. Harris

Napoleon suggested “Read over and over again the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne, Eugene and Frederic. … This is the only way to become a great general and master the secrets of the art of war. …” As true as this maxim is for line officers, it is also true for leaders in the Army medical department. By studying the struggles, victories and defeats of our forebears we can better surmount the obstacles we face today.

Dr. Jonathan Potts is a medical officer worth studying. He was born in Popodickon, Pennsylvania in 1747 and, with Dr. Benjamin Rush, attended the famous medical school in Edinburgh, Scotland. He returned to the colonies on learning of the illness of his fiancé, Miss Grace Richardson. Potts married her in May 1767 and completed his Doctor of Medicine at the College of Philadelphia, the first institution to grant medical degrees in America, in 1771. He began a private practice in Reading, PA, but responded to the call of independence, seeking assignment with the Continental Hospital Department, comprised of Northern, Middle and Eastern Departments.

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Briefing Senior Leaders

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How to brief (make a presentation to) your boss

By Mark D. Harris

One of the most daunting tasks faced by junior officers in the military, and subordinates in any organization, is how to formally communicate with their boss and other senior leaders. Some senior leaders are easy to communicate with; they welcome open discussion and make those briefing them comfortable. Others are hard to communicate with, and as people progress up the ranks they find that senior leaders become harder and harder to brief.

This is not because senior leaders are bad people morally, they are certainly not worse than others on average. It is not because they are stupid or lazy; senior leaders have to be relatively intelligent and ambitious or they wouldn’t make it to senior levels. Rather it is because they are very busy people who don’t have time for the unprepared, the uninterested, the verbose, and the comic. They expect their subordinates to bring them trustworthy information, problems and solutions. Such leaders don’t have the time or the ability to double the information they are given, and they can’t fix everything, regardless of their position.

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In Praise of the Battle Rhythm

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A battle rhythm is an organizational schedule, but it is more. The battle rhythm is made for each subunit and nested into the rhythm of the whole organization. 

A few weeks ago a small group of leaders in my directorate approached me asking to change the meeting schedule. Some of their employees had been concerned about the amount of time that they spend in meetings, a concern of us all, and had devised a way to improve the situation. I heard them out and then approved the change on a trial basis. Word went out to all of our employees. The new schedule didn’t last long, however, because our Commanding General (CG) needed to make a change at his level which invalidated ours. Now we needed to reverse course and let everyone know. Confusion abounded; even my executive assistant wasn’t sure what she should do and when.

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Are US Military Members Today Weaker Than in the Past?

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The US military is the strongest in the world, and the strongest in history. However, it is a fighting force, not a bed for social engineering and experimentation. In this business of life and death, religious faith is a source of strength. It should be encouraged, not penalized. 

On a recent speaking trip I was asked if cultural changes in the US military had emasculated it compared to the past. This is a daunting question, but like all questions, the first step in answering it is to define one’s terms. Aside from the anatomic definition, a reasonable definition of emasculation is “to deprive of strength or vigor, to weaken.”

In 2009 the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest ranking member of the US military, called experts in various fields together to try to identify all of the components of fitness, collectively termed Total Force Fitness (TFF). His goal was to improve all aspects of fitness in US military members. After long deliberation and study, the group identified the following areas:

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Chaplains and Doctors in the US Military

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Soldiers are in the business of war, and health, physical and spiritual, is required. Chaplains and doctors work together to optimize both. 

Chaplains and doctors in the military are both special staff officers to the unit commander. Chaplains are de facto and de jure non-combatants under the Geneva Convention, while doctors can be combatants but their primary responsibilities are to heal, not to kill. As such, chaplains and doctors in the military should work closely together, and often do. Medicine involves all aspects of man, body, soul and spirit, and the religious work of the chaplain does the same. In Iraq I worked very closely with our Task Force chaplain, LTC Alvin Sykes. We shared a tent, along with LTC Alfonso Franqui, our Task Force chemical officer.

The US Army has had chaplains since 29 July 1775 and today there are over 3,000 chaplains in uniform representing over 140 different religious organizations. The role of chaplains in the US military is to meet the spiritual, and the some extent the behavioral health needs, of their soldiers. In a typical Army battalion there are 500-700 soldiers, one chaplain and one chaplain’s assistant. Those two people, called the Unit Ministry Team (UMT), are responsible for religious services, counseling, funerals, and a host of other duties. In Iraq and Afghanistan chaplains worked with local religious leaders to seek common ground to promote peace and prosperity.

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