The ALx Bulletin - December 2025 - Modernizing Professional Military Education
Modernizing Professional Military Education
“How you change an Army and how you transform an Army does occur at our schools and centers. So, the training and leader development component of that cannot be eclipsed by just the materiel solutions we are pursuing. In fact, training and leader development is really our decisive advantage on the modern battlefield.”
Don’t miss the ALx Mentor Minutes featuring MG Trevor J. Bredenkamp, Commandant of the U.S. Army War College,
sharing some thoughts on modernizing PME and creating a culture of innovation. Check our Instagram, Face Book,
and Linked In accounts each Monday for a new reel.
Execute Today – Content You Can Use Immediately
USMAP is continuously adding new and updated trades for apprenticeships. For leaders, it’s a tool that can benefit recruiting, retention, and unit readiness. Soldiers have the opportunity to gain career ready skills with potential academic credit, prove motivation to commanders, and prepare for post military success. Learn more here.
Integrate leader development into daily operations. Access the LPD kit from the Center for Army Leadership to ensure you are proactively developing your unit, building team cohesion, readiness, and the next generation of Army leaders.<.p>
Access lists of current Army Doctrine Publications, Field Manuals, and Army Technique Publications listed by their proponent plus one-page synopses of currently approved ATPs and FMS in the Doctrine Smart Book found here.
Prepare For Tomorrow – Content to Improve Your Organization
The Command & General Staff College (CGSC) is modernizing professional military education to achieve T2COM-directed transformation. Learn how in a series of articles to be published over the remainder of this academic year in Small Wars Journal. The first article written by Col. Ethan Diven, CGSC Commandant, outlines the generational renewal taking place that will ensure that military education remains the foundation of warfighting excellence for America’s primary land power institution.
**CSA Recommended Article** “The Army must embrace a holistic approach where every leader, at every level, takes ownership of developing the next generation. This requires actively leveraging both the foundational knowledge provided by the institutional domain and the practical experience gained in the operational domain.” -Command Sgt. Maj. Alexander Kupratty
PME is important but great Soldiers and leaders must continuously learn and grow. Read how to foster a culture of self-development in this article.
“The ability to recognize exceptional information, whether in the context of a tactical exercise or a real-world crisis, to analyze it and to act on it timely and effectively is an essential tool for decision making to address the uncertainty of war.” – Lt. Col. Felipe Galvao Franco Honorato, Brazilian Army & Lt. Col. (R) Richard McConnell
Learn about it in part 1 and part 2 of “Timely & Effective Decisions in Complex Environments: the Impact of Exceptional Information.”
AI and autonomous systems are revolutionizing modern warfare, presenting both opportunities and challenges for the military. This article highlights the essential role of humans—critical thinking, adaptability, and moral judgment—amidst technological advancements. Read here to learn how NCOs can lead the Army in embracing innovation while maintaining core military values, ensuring readiness for a tech-driven battlefield where the human spirit defines success.
Learn Always – Content to Help You Think
Recent innovations by the CGSC Quality Assurance Office are ensuring the institution continues to provide America’s Warfighters with the most rigorous and relevant PME possible. Learn more here.
The Army War College is developing a wargame designed to enhance student education through practical experience in crisis and conflict scenarios. This article delves into the challenges of traditional pedagogical wargames and how the USAWC aims to strike a balance between structured learning and realistic engagement, ensuring that both students and instructors can fully capitalize on valuable learning opportunities.
Army forces can expect threats to increasingly pursue irregular warfare to negate our advantages and exploit our disadvantages. This essential handbook offers updated definitions and recent vignettes that illuminate current IW operations conducted by the U.S. and its allies against emerging threats.
“The increase in urbanization trends combined with current conflicts like Ukraine along with
Gaza indicate an increasing need for units, specifically ABCTs, to think about the implications of operating in an urban environment.” -Cpt. Logan Yates
While ATP 3-06.11 provides brigade combat teams, subordinate commanders and staffs with information and techniques, the author of this article highlights a knowledge and training gap and the need for collaborative approaches across all combat arms.
This episode of MOPS & MOES originated when Command Sergeant Major Shaun Curry, 3rd Infantry Brigade, 25th ID asked about the strenuousness of PT during PME during the AUSA Sergeant Major of the Army's Professional Development Forum. Listen to him discuss his perspective on this, H2F, nutrition, TiC, and warfighting readiness here.
Narrative storytelling is a crucial skill for field-grade leaders, providing a coherent framework to effectively communicate complex military strategies and synchronize actions across various warfighting functions. This article outlines narrative storytelling as a tool that can guide operational logic and express it clearly so commanders can visualize and execute operations with clarity and purpose.
“We are going after technology, applying it in an innovative way, but our dominating capability that makes us successful as a nation has, and always will be, the intellect of American Leaders.” – Col. Ethan Diven The featured discussion in this episode of A Confused Heap of Facts includes the Commandant’s take on the importance of history in the CGSC curriculum, how students should approach military history, and advice to students entering the course and graduates returning to the force. Find it here or wherever you get your podcasts.
This special episode of Cohort W spotlights the voices of newly appointed Warrant Officers from across the Army as they share candid insights, lessons learned, and recommendations for the future of Professional Military Education. From first impressions to post-graduation reflections, the WOBC Project captures a pivotal moment in the evolution of Warrant Officer training.
Find it here or wherever you get your podcasts.
War breaks victory’s old rules. . .Genius creates the new.” -Carl von Clausewitz
Angus Fletcher was awarded the U.S. Army’s Public Service Commendation Medal in 2023 for training special ops personnel in leadership and decision-making skills. His field guide on creativity for adaptability in fast-changing, life-and-death environments gives techniques, games, and exercises to start building your brain’s deep creative centers. Why? To help Soldiers overcome emergent challenges and leverage emergent opportunities. For examples, look no further than the war in Ukraine.
Now, he has published Primal Intelligence: You Are Smarter Than You Know, which shares more of this revolutionary training. Research showed that it boosts foresight, resilience, and decision-making in volatile, uncertain, and complex environments. Watch here to learn more.
Get Involved – Opportunities to Drive Change
Write to make a difference. Write to win. Army HRC’s board guidance explicitly states that publishing professional writing in Army journals is a recognized indicator of excellence, and “Most Qualified” criteria. If you want to write but don’t know where to start, read this article.
Army Civilian Professional Leaders: We need YOU to write for the new ACP Journal! The publication seeks to advance the professional knowledge, capabilities, and leadership of the Army Civilian Corps through innovative ideas, lessons learned, and scholarly research on topics relevant to Army civilians. Learn more here.
Congratulations to the 2025 William E. DePuy Writing Contest winners!
1st Place “Fighting for the Day After: Preserving Chinese Maritime Infrastructure in a Conventional War” Capt. Micah Neidorfler, Wisconsin Army National Guard
2nd Place “The Escalating Stakes of Proxy Wars”
Maj. Juan J. Quiroz Jr., U.S. Army
3rd Place “Steppes of Resistance: Mongolian Nationalism as a Strategic Resistance to Chinese Revanchism in the Indo-Pacific” Sgt. 1st Class Travis Lee Mann, U.S. Army
Honorable Mentions
“Causing Dysfunction: Dilemma Engineering as a Strategic Deterrence Framework for China”
Maj. Thomas Haydock, Washington Army National Guard
“The U.S. Army in an Increasingly Borderless World: Challenge of Planning for Security in a Competition with China in Africa”
Lt. Col. Felipe Galvão Franco Honorato, Brazilian Army
“Feeding the Pacific Fight: Class I Logistics, Thai Neutrality, and U.S. Vulnerability Amid China’s Rise in a Borderless Indo-Pacific”
Spc. Watcharin Joemsittiprasert, U.S. Army Reserve
Learn more here.
DISCLAIMER: This is an authorized publication for members of the DoD. Contents of are not necessarily the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. government, the U.S. Army, the Combined Arms Center, or Army University.