CGSC Art of War Scholars Program

This day was inevitable, but man am I going to miss 3rd Infantry DIV. From planning in the G5, to joining Raider BDE in Germany, and being the ACE Chief in Poland, my time with this team was more than I could have asked for. Thank you to the CGSC Art of War Scholars Program and U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) for preparing me far better than I thought possible. Thank you to all those senior leaders who invested in me, all my immensely talented peers who made our success possible, and all those Soldiers, NCOs, Warrants, and Junior officers who placed their trust in me. Now for some much needed Post-Deployment/KD leave with the family and our transition to the Joint Multinational Readiness Center. See you next spring Raider BDE! Charlie Costanza Christopher Norrie Terry Ferrell Joe Hilbert Jean-Pierre Fagué Ryan McCormack Alexis P. William D.

As a welcome to CGSC 2025 applicants, below are some achievements by the graduating 2024 Art of War scholars. Publications are already hitting the shelves by Nic Barber (Australian Government "Cove"), Hannah Smith (Military Review), and Jeff Nielsen (Center for Army Lessons Learned) with multiple others to follow. Look out for SAMS students Joseph Brundidge, Jeff Nielsen, and Nic Barber during orientation week for Art of War outreach. Nic Barber - Eisenhower Leadership Award, Grierson Distinguished Master Strategist, Master Sustainer Finalist, Birrer-Brookes Best Thesis 3rd Place. Alex Gordon - Arter-Darby History Writing Award. Hannah Smith - McCanna Harris Leadership Award, Birrer-Brookes Best Thesis 2nd Place, SECDEF Essay Competition Nominee. Collin Hayward - Simons Center Interagency Writing Award. Pat O'Keefe - Don Starry Writing Contest Award. Joshua Storm - Master Strategist. Joshua Moore - Birrer-Brookes Nominee. Jeff Nielsen - SECDEF Essay Competition Nominee. Olly Akanni - Thesis on a unified Army data model. Joseph Brundidge - Wargame Thesis modeling Kinetic/Non-Kinetic kill webs. Ty Dawson - Thesis on Mission Command in Aviation Units during OIR. Mathew Rigdon - Thesis on creating a NATO Arctic Command.

Learn division, corps, and field army operations by studying the Battle of the Bulge! The Art of War Scholars completed a 7-day staff ride in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany while each roleplaying one corps or army commander of the battle. On December 16th, 1945 three enemy field armies surprised the Allies by attacking across a broad front in the Ardennes. Elements of V and VIII Corps were overwhelmed, but the Allies were able to defend the Northern and Southern shoulders of the bulge to buy time for a counter-attack. VII and XVIII Corps led a counter-attack from the Northwest while XII Corps and 3rd Army counter-attacked from the South. Reducing the bulge took another two weeks of difficult offensives and is now remembered as one of the great Allied victories of the Second World War. Some operational lessons learned: 1. Mirror-imaging is a strategic pitfall. Eisenhower correctly read through enemy intentions on December 16th and mobilized theater reserves a full two weeks before the enemy thought the Allies could. 2. The enemy decides when they're defeated. The Allies incorrectly assumed that the enemy was too defeated to mount a counter-attack in December 1945. The enemy was equally incorrect in thinking that a push to the Meuse would get the Allies to quit the war. 3. Large echelon staffs are essential. Some divisions and corps vastly outperformed others based on their ability to anticipate change, transition faces, adjust formations, and synchronize combat arms. 4. Military genius includes relationship genius. Eisenhower was essential in managing the Allies from both operational and strategic perspectives. 5. Terrain matters at every echelon. There is no big hand - small map above division. Corps and field armies must still examine terrain two or even three levels down. They should pay special attention to highways, railheads, wet gaps, and logistics staging areas. Keep your eyes out for future Art of War publications based on this three-phase staff ride.

Dr. James Willbanks provided an excellent 3-day seminar on Vietnam. Some key notes: - The conflict was definitely a hybrid threat with simultaneous insurgency and conventional components. An army should be ready to win both! - Theater options were constrained by Cold War Strategic considerations, possibly too much to allow better operational frameworks than were emplaced. - Vietnamization, while a well executed, started too late to allow The Republic of Vietnam to seize essential opportunities in 1968 and 1972.

https://lnkd.in/gJj_ZX6f 2023 Art of War Scholar Major Brennan Deveraux writes about rumors and the various benefits of professional military publication: "Publishing has an inherent risk; write enough, and someone will get angry. However, the dangers of professional writing are severely exaggerated and outweighed by the countless benefits. Conduct pre-publication reviews, bounce ideas off your boss or mentor, challenge ideas instead of people, and ignore reprisal rumors. Careers do not end over well-crafted arguments and good intentions, even if you have heard it happened to someone your friend’s friend used to work with."

"Illuminating the U.S. Army's Recruiting Crisis: Modern Applications of Clausewitz." 2024 Art of War Scholar Major Hannah Smith presents her thesis and findings at the Chicago MPSA conference. Civil-military relations are a critical component of igniting Clausewitz's "passions of the people."

A successful staff ride includes 3 phases: 1. Pre-Study. 2. Field Study. 3. Integration. Student character briefs set the stage for field study and contextualize unit organization, doctrine, and decisions.

https://lnkd.in/gi5wv9eh How do you train? AY24 scholar CPT Ty Dawson gives you a succinct answer in his article featured on this month's CSA Recommended Articles list. "I wrote this article to help commanders and other leaders assess whether their organizations actually focus on mastering the fundamentals by providing information and ideas regarding the following: 1. Identifying the fundamentals units must strive to master 2. Providing a simple, multi-echelon training strategy 3. Linking aviation training to mastering the fundamentals 4. Fighting for white space."

Deterring Russian Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons. MAJ Cliff Parsons (Art of War Scholar AY23) writes in Parameters examining Able Archer 83 through an original framework. https://lnkd.in/ecKCaNuJ